BlueDragon

TL;DR

This is my custom Arch Linux installation. This setup is for my personal use, so it may not be suitable for everyone. However, you can use it as a reference to create your own custom Arch Linux installation. This has been tested on a Lenovo ThinkPad T490, so it is a UEFI system.

The installation uses the latest software and tools to create a modern Arch Linux setup with a focus on cybersecurity and CTFs. It could be a great alternative to the standard Kali installation. The installation is based on the Arch Linux Installation Guide and the Arch Wiki.

The stack is: BTRFS, LUKS, systemd-boot, Wayland, and Hyprland.

Improvements to-do

• Add periodic BTRFS snapshots
• Find a way to pipewire audio change automatically the output device to HDMI when connected (for now- I have to change the session clicking on the audio icon)

Pre-installation

Prerequisites

• A bootable Arch Linux USB drive
• A working internet connection (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, etc.)
• SSH access (optional, but recommended)

SSH Access

If you want to access the installation remotely to copy and paste the commands easily, you can enable SSH by running the following command:

systemctl start sshd

And set a password for the root user:

passwd

Look for the IP address of the machine:

ip a

And connect to it using SSH from a second PC:

ssh root@<IP_ADDRESS>

Update the system clock:

timedatectl set-ntp true

Now list the available disks:

lsblk

We will use the nvme0n1 as the only disk for this installation.

Drive preparation for encryption (optional)

Fill the disk with random data to make it harder to recover deleted files:

cryptsetup open --type plain -d /dev/urandom /dev/nvme0n1 to_be_wiped
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mapper/to_be_wiped status=progress
cryptsetup close to_be_wiped

Partitioning

Check if the system is booted in UEFI mode:

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

If the directory does not exist, reboot the system in UEFI mode. Then partition the disk using a GPT partition table:

gdisk /dev/nvme0n1

Create a new partition table:

o

Create a new EFI system partition:

n
<Enter>
<Enter>
+512M
EF00

Create a new Linux filesystem partition with the rest of the disk (root partition, 8300 is the code for Linux filesystem):

n
<Enter>
<Enter>
<Enter>
8300

Write the changes to the disk:

w

Encryption

Create an encrypted container on the root partition (you must enter a passphrase):

cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p2

Open the encrypted container:

cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p2 cryptroot

Filesystem

Format the EFI system partition, and add the esp flag (EFI System Partition):

mkfs.fat -F32 -n esp /dev/nvme0n1p1

Create a BTRFS filesystem on the encrypted container for the root partition:

mkfs.btrfs -L root /dev/mapper/cryptroot

For both commands above labels are optional, but they are useful for identifying the partitions.

BTRFS subvolumes

Mount the BTRFS filesystem:

mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt

Create the BTRFS subvolumes:

btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@swap
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@home
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@var
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@snapshots

Unmount the BTRFS filesystem:

umount /mnt

Mount the BTRFS subvolumes:

mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@ /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt
mkdir /mnt/{boot,home,var,.snapshots}
mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@home /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/home
mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@var /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/var
mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@snapshots /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/.snapshots

Mount the EFI system partition:

mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot

Swap

Create the swap file:

btrfs filesystem mkswapfile --size 8G /mnt/swapfile
swapon swapfile

Now you can check the swap file:

swapon --show

Installation

Base system

Install the base system:

pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware btrfs-progs intel-ucode cryptsetup networkmanager neovim man-db sudo zsh openssh git

Generate the fstab file:

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Change the root into the new system:

arch-chroot /mnt

Configure the system

Set the timezone:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Madrid /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

Set the locale:

sed -i 's/#es_ES.UTF-8 UTF-8/es_ES.UTF-8 UTF-8/g' /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo -e "LANG=es_ES.UTF-8\nLC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf

Set the keyboard layout:

echo "KEYMAP=es" > /etc/vconsole.conf

Set the hostname:

echo "blue-dragon" > /etc/hostname

Set the hosts file:

nvim /etc/hosts

Add the following lines:

# Static table lookup for hostnames.
# See hosts(5) for details.
127.0.0.1   localhost
::1         localhost
127.0.1.1   blue-dragon.localdomain blue-dragon

Set the root password:

passwd

Initramfs

Edit the mkinitcpio.conf file:

nvim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Add btrfs and encrypt to the HOOKS array:

HOOKS=(base keyboard udev autodetect modconf block keymap consolefont encrypt btrfs filesystems resume)

Generate the initramfs image:

mkinitcpio -p linux

Bootloader

Install the systemd-boot bootloader:

bootctl install --path=/boot

Edit the loader.conf file:

nvim /boot/loader/loader.conf

Add the following lines to set the default timeout (seconds that loader selection) and the default configuration file:

default arch.conf
timeout 3
console-mode max
editor no

Create the arch.conf file:

nvim /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

Add the following lines:

title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /intel-ucode.img
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options cryptdevice=UUID=e806a4cb-590f-4e55-9490-e3b355a4b2ce:cryptroot:allow-discards root=/dev/mapper/cryptroot rootflags=subvol=@ rd.luks.options=discard rw resume=/dev/mapper/cryptroot resume_offset=533760

Replace <UUID> with the UUID of the root partition:

blkid /dev/nvme0n1p2

Network

Enable the NetworkManager service:

systemctl enable NetworkManager

User

Create a new user:

useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/zsh puchy
passwd puchy

Edit the sudoers file:

EDITOR=nvim visudo

Uncomment the following line:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Reboot

Exit the chroot environment:

exit

Unmount the partitions:

umount -R /mnt

Reboot the system:

reboot

Post-installation

Start the sshd service, to can copy and paste the commands easily:

systemctl start sshd

Probably you will need permit the root user to connect via SSH adding the following line to the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file:

PermitRootLogin yes

System configuration

Custom pacman configuration

Edit the pacman.conf file:

nvim /etc/pacman.conf

Add the following options:

[options]
ParallelDownloads = 5
Color
CheckSpace
ILoveCandy

Custom repositories

Install paru (AUR helper):

su puchy # And press q to exit zsh configuration
cd /tmp
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git
cd paru
makepkg -si
exit

Activate the multilib repository:

nvim /etc/pacman.conf

Uncomment the following lines:

[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Adding BlackArch repositories:

mkdir /tmp/blackarch
cd /tmp/blackarch
curl -O https://blackarch.org/strap.sh
chmod +x strap.sh
./strap.sh
cd $HOME
pacman -Syy

Automatic mirrorlist

Install reflector:

pacman -S reflector

Create a new mirrorlist:

reflector --country "Spain,France,Germany" --age 12 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Add your country to the reflector configuration file:

nvim /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf

In my case, I added the following line:

--country Spain,France,Germany

Enable the reflector service to update the mirrorlist on boot:

systemctl --now enable reflector.service

Common packages

List of common packages:

• Core Utilities:
  • tar (archive tool)
  • unzip (archive tool)
  • zip (archive tool)
  • unrar (archive tool)
  • p7zip (archive tool)
  • xarchiver (archive tool)
  • findutils (find tool)
  • plocate (locate tool)
  • wget (download tool)
  • fastfetch (system information tool)
  • stow (symlink farm manager)
  • iptables-nft (Linux kernel packet control tool (using nft interface))
  • dnsmasq (lightweight, easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP server)
  • ufw (uncomplicated firewall)
  • brightnessctl (control bright of screen)
  • rye (multi tool for managing python)
  • jre-openjdk (latest Java for applications)
  • chrony (NTP client and server)
  • bluez (Bluetooth protocol stack)
  • bluez-utils (Bluetooth protocol stack utilities)
  • blueman (Bluetooth manager)
  • Modern UNIX CLI tools:
    • lsd (ls tool alternative)
    • zoxide (cd tool alternative)
    • bat (cat tool alternative)
    • fzf (fuzzy finder)
    • broot (tree tool alternative)
    • htop (system monitor)
    • thefuck (command correction tool)
    • jq (JSON command-line processor)
• Audio:
  • pipewire (audio server)
  • pipewire-audio (pipewire audio server)
  • pipewire-alsa (pipewire alsa compatibility)
  • wireplumber (pipewire session manager)
  • pipewire-pulse (pipewire pulseaudio compatibility)
  • easyeffects (pipewire audio effects)
• Media:
  • parole (media player)
  • libsixel (image converter to DEC SIXEL graphics, integrations with foot terminal)
• Browser:
  • chromium (browser)
• File Managers:
  • thunar (graphical file manager)
  • gvfs (virtual filesystem (Thunar plugins))
  • thunar-volman (Thunar volume manager)
  • thunar-archive-plugin (Thunar archive plugin)
• Text Editors:
  • obsidian (note-taking app)
• Virtualization:
  • qemu-desktop (virtualization, only x86_64)
  • libvirt (virtualization API)
  • virt-manager (virtualization manager)
  • dnsmasq (DNS and DHCP server)
  • openbsd-netcat (networking tool)
  • vde2 (virtual distributed ethernet)
  • bridge-utils (network bridge)
  • podman (container manager)
  • buildah (container builder)
  • fuse-overlayfs (overlayfs for podman)
  • netavark (network manager for podman)
  • aardvark-dns (DNS manager for podman)
  • podman-compose (compose for podman)
  • passt (default rootless network backend)
  • slirp4netns (networking tool for rootless containers)
• Other Utilities:
  • grim (screenshot tool)
  • hyprpicker (color picker tool)
  • okular (document viewer)
  • gimp (image editor)
  • networkmanager-openvpn (OpenVPN plugin)
  • fprintd (fingerprint manager)
  • nwg-look (GTK theme manager)
  • gnumeric (spreadsheet editor)
  • github-cli (GitHub CLI)

Install the packages:

pacman -S tar unzip zip unrar p7zip xarchiver findutils plocate bat zoxide lsd broot fzf htop wget tree fastfetch stow thefuck iptables-nft dnsmasq ufw brightnessctl jq rye jre-openjdk chrony bluez bluez-utils
pacman -S pipewire pipewire-audio pipewire-alsa wireplumber pipewire-pulse easyeffects
pacman -S parole libsixel
pacman -S chromium
pacman -S thunar gvfs thunar-volman thunar-archive-plugin
pacman -S obsidian
pacman -S qemu-desktop libvirt virt-manager dnsmasq openbsd-netcat vde2 bridge-utils podman buildah fuse-overlayfs netavark aardvark-dns podman-compose passt slirp4netns
pacman -S grim hyprpicker okular gimp networkmanager-openvpn fprintd nwg-look gnumeric github-cli

If want to install in the same command:

pacman -S tar unzip zip unrar p7zip xarchiver findutils plocate bat zoxide lsd broot fzf htop wget tree fastfetch stow thefuck iptables-nft dnsmasq ufw brightnessctl jq rye jre-openjdk chrony bluez bluez-utils pipewire pipewire-audio pipewire-alsa wireplumber pipewire-pulse easyeffects libsixel chromium thunar gvfs thunar-volman thunar-archive-plugin obsidian qemu-desktop libvirt virt-manager dnsmasq openbsd-netcat vde2 bridge-utils podman buildah fuse-overlayfs netavark aardvark-dns podman-compose passt slirp4netns grim hyprpicker okular gimp networkmanager-openvpn fprintd nwg-look gnumeric github-cli

Install the AUR packages:

• vscodium-bin (Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of VSCode)
• hyprshot (screenshot wrapper for Hyprland)
• librewolf-bin (browser)
• notion-app-electron (note-taking app)
• webcord-git (Discord client)
• oh-my-posh-bin (promt engine for shell)

su puchy    # paru cannot be executed by root
paru -S vscodium-bin hyprshot librewolf-bin notion-app-electron webcord-git oh-my-posh-bin

Additional configuration

Nerd Fonts

Install the Nerd Fonts, please note that the following command will download the Mononoki font. For other fonts, you can check the Nerd Fonts website.

wget https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/v3.2.1/Mononoki.zip -P /tmp
unzip /tmp/Mononoki.zip -d /tmp
mkdir -p /usr/share/fonts/mononoki
cp /tmp/*.ttf /usr/share/fonts/mononoki

Virtualization

Configure QEMY/KVM

Enable the libvirt service:

systemctl --now enable libvirtd

Enable the virtlogd service:

systemctl --now enable virtlogd

Add the user to the libvirt group:

usermod -aG libvirt puchy

In file /etc/libvirt/network.conf set firewall_backend="nftables" to use nftables as the firewall backend.

Configure Podman

Configure registries:

nvim /etc/containers/registries.conf.d/10-unqualified-search-registries.conf

Add the following lines:

unqualified-search-registries = ["docker.io"]

To use rootless containers, it needs to add more ranges to UIDS and GIDS for the create user:

usermod --add-subuids 10000-75535 puchy
usermod --add-subgids 10000-75535 puchy

Graphical environment

DISCLAIMER: Many of this packages could be already installed as dependencies of other previous packages.

Display server

Install the display server:

pacman -S wayland

Install respective GUI libraries:

pacman -S gtk4 gtk3 qt5-wayland qt6-wayland

Window manager

The window manager used is Hyprland.

First install the must-have packages needed as indicated in the Hyprland docs:

• foot (terminal emulator)
• swaync (notification daemon)
• audio server (pipewire)
• polkit-kde-agent (polkit agent)

pacman -S foot swaync polkit-kde-agent

Install the window manager:

pacman -S hyprland

App launcher

The chosen app launcher is wofi.

Install the app launcher:

pacman -S wofi

Status bar

The chosen status bar is waybar.

Install the status bar:

pacman -S waybar

Wallpaper manager

The chosen wallpaper manager is hyprpaper.

Install the wallpaper manager:

pacman -S hyprpaper

Display manager

Install the display manager:

pacman -S sddm

Now change the default SDDM display manager, to do this add the following file with the following content:

nvim /etc/sddm.conf.d/10-wayland.conf

Add the following lines:

[General]
DisplayServer=wayland
GreeterEnvironment=QT_WAYLAND_SHELL_INTEGRATION=layer-shell

Enable the display manager:

systemctl --now enable sddm

Configure the fingerprint reader:

nvim /etc/pam.d/sddm

If you want to use fingerprint to log in follow the next tutorial to configure the fingerprint reader: Fingerprint reader configuration.

Add the following line:

auth 			[success=1 new_authtok_reqd=1 default=ignore]  	pam_unix.so try_first_pass likeauth nullok
auth 			sufficient  	pam_fprintd.so

The last thing that I have configure is to change the default theme because I don't like the default one. To do this, I have installed the sddm-eucalyptus-drop theme, that you can install following his guide: sddm-eucalyptus-drop and adding as background this wallpaper.

ZSH

The regular user is configured to use zsh as the default shell. In order to configure I use as plugin manager zinit, to install it I follow the documentation manual installation adding the snippet provided to my .zshrc. And the theme oh-my-posh (installed previously with paru), to customize the prompt follow the next tutorial: oh-my-posh, in my case I use a modified version of kushal theme.

In relation of the plugins and other configurations, I followed this video from Dreams of Autonomy.

Security

Secrity software and pentesting tools

If you do not want to install the pentesting tools, you can only install ufw and clamav that are the security software needed for a regular user.

The following list of packages are the security software and pentesting tools that I have installed:

• Security Software:
  • ufw (uncomplicated firewall)
  • clamav (antivirus)
• Pentesting Tools:
  • nmap (network scanner)
  • sqlmap (SQL injection scanner)
  • john (password cracker)
  • hashcat (password cracker)
  • wireshark-qt (network protocol analyzer)
  • gobuster (directory and file brute-forcer)
  • exploitdb (exploit database, searchsploit command)
  • zaproxy (web application scanner)

Install the packages:

pacman -S ufw clamav
pacman -S nmap sqlmap john hashcat wireshark-qt gobuster exploitdb zaproxy

Packages from AUR:

• Pentesting Tools:
  • whatweb (web scanner)
  • wordlists (wordlists for password cracking stored in /usr/share/wordlists)
  • burpsuite (security testing of web applications)

paru -S whatweb wordlists burpsuite

Firewall

Enable the UFW service:

systemctl --now enable ufw

For desktop environments, I will use the following rules, only allowing outgoing traffic:

ufw default deny incoming
ufw default allow outgoing

Now enable the firewall (if you are connected via SSH, wait until ending the configuration):

ufw enable

Antivirus

To update the ClamAV database:

freshclam

Enable the ClamAV service:

systemctl --now enable clamav-freshclam
systemctl --now enable clamav-daemon

Locking root account

Now that sudo is configured, it is a good idea to lock the root account:

passwd -l root