Making Arch GNU/Linux 2020 Works with GLIM Multiboot USB

Continuing my business shipping computer installation media in Indonesia, recently I shipped Arch 2020 to South Sumatra the southern province in Sumatra Island along with other GNU/Linux operating systems. Apparently, nowadays Arch is a little bit different to earlier versions back in 2019 in which the ISO file contents changed by merely a character. Default GLIM configuration won't work anymore. Thus we need a change in the configurations so new Arch will work with GLIM once again. This tutorial brings you my custom change so Arch boots in multiboot way straight from the flash drive. 

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Download Arch GNU/Linux

Go to the website https://archlinux.org.

ISO Contents

The difference to old Arch iso contents is very subtle that is now it uses dash (-) rather than underscore (_) to name its initrd files. In picture below, pay attention to three files namely vmlinuz-linux, amd-ucode.img, and intel-ucode.img. This article takes example from image file archlinux-2020.09.01-x86_64.iso.

inc-arch.cfg

Create a new file with mentioned name and contents below under boot/grub/ directory. If you are new to GLIM, learn it here.

# Arch
for isofile in $isopath/arch/archlinux-*.iso; do
  if [ ! -e "$isofile" ]; then break; fi
  regexp \
    --set 1:isoname \
    --set 2:version \
    --set 3:arch \
    "^${isopath}/arch/(archlinux-([^-]+)-([^-]+)\.iso)\$" "${isofile}"
  menuentry "Arch Linux ${version} ${arch}" "${isofile}" "${isoname}" --class arch {
    set isofile=$2
    set isoname=$3
    echo "Using ${isoname}..."
    loopback loop $isofile
    linux (loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz-linux img_dev=/dev/disk/by-uuid/${rootuuid} img_loop=${isofile}
    initrd (loop)/arch/boot/intel-ucode.img (loop)/arch/boot/amd-ucode.img (loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/archiso.img
  }
done

grub.cfg

Edit the grub.cfg file existed in the same directory by making sure "Arch Linux" entry looks exactly like below.

for isofile in ${isopath}/arch/archlinux-*.iso; do
  if [ -e "$isofile" ]; then
    menuentry "Arch Linux >" --class arch {
      configfile "${prefix}/inc-arch.cfg"
    }
    break
  fi
done

Icon

Download the logo file archlinux.png and place it in boot/grub/themes/invader/icons/.

Final Setup

Everything should looks like screenshot below showing where to place the codes, the files, and the icon.

Booting

Once successfully made, now your bootable flash drive should run Arch GNU/Linux properly. Arch is a command line oriented LiveCD operating system. So don't get surprised when you see no graphical user interface at all except only a command prompt shell like picture above. See you later on the next distro I will make multibootable. Congratulations!

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This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.