Boot Arch linux in Qemu after archinstall

Q: How can I make my qemu VM boot after using archinstall?

Install grub and configure it. Run the archinstall process as normal, but at the end, when asked if you want to chroot in, answer yes. Then you can install grub:

pacman -S grub

…and then configure it:

grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/vd1
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

See the Arch wiki page for grub to read more about it.

Now you should be able to reboot and you’ll have a booting system.

More details

I think archinstall expects UEFI, as it should these days, but it seems qemu won’t boot UEFI out of the box (don’t quote me, I’m a bit of n00b).

If you want to book with UEFI, I found some instructions that talk about using ovmf to achieve that: https://www.ubuntubuzz.com/2021/04/how-to-boot-uefi-on-qemu.html.

I also saw in the virt-manager UI that it has the ability to direct boot a kernel, which seems like a viable option too. It’s not one I researched though.

I’ve used Manjaro for quite a while and really like it. As the meme goes, I guess I was too scared to install Arch so I thought I should give it a go after readying about the financial concerns with Manjaro:

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#linux #arch #qemu