Specs#

Looks ridiculous, right? 4GB RAM is one thing, but that CPU at 1500Mhz…

Anyway, a job is a job. But how do you install Arch on a machine that takes 5 minutes to boot?

The Unconventional Way#

First, we need an already installed Arch system. I used the drive from my main workstation. P.S. Make sure fstab uses UUIDs!

You probably guessed it: rsync to the rescue!

• Partitioning

1
cfdisk /dev/sda
2
# 512M for boot, 4G for swap, rest for root.
3
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/
4
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/
5
swapon /dev/sda2

• Syncing

1
rsync -avx --exclude=/dev/* --exclude=/proc/* \
2
--exclude=/sys/* --exclude=/tmp/* \
3
--exclude=/run/* --exclude=/mnt/* \
4
--exclude=/home/Projects/* \
5
--exclude=/home/Games/* \
6
--exclude=/lost+found / /mnt/

• Configuration

1
genfstab -U /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
2
arch-chroot /mnt
3
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --removable
4
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

It’s an Art Form!#

Summary#

The vintage laptop is now running Arch. It’s not exactly ‘smooth’, but the experience was worth it. Tinkering is fun!