How do I install Arch/MATE?

How do I grab a copy of Arch and put it on my USB drive?

This requires you to go to the official Arch Linux website, scroll down until you see your country listed and select either server. You'll be directed to a white page with a few things to click on. Right click on one of the results that has a .ISO extension at the end of the file name and click "Copy link address".

After that, download a copy of Balena Etcher and execute it. Using the copied link address, click on "Flash from URL", a menu pops up. At this point, paste in the URL you just copied to the text box and click on "OK". Click on "Select target" and select the USB drive listed, after that, click "Flash!"

What happens next?

Some things in ArchInstall are important to follow here as you will have to choose your kernel and how you'd be partitioning your disk drive.

It is also recommended to make a backup of your data right now before you restart.

A screen with many options will appear, the ones you want to change are:

Archinstall language

Keyboard layout

Mirror region

Locale language

Timezone

Hostname (optional)

Root password (use a strong one)

After this, you have to choose these options carefully:

Drive(s) -> Your disk drive where you're willing to install Arch onto

Disk layout -> Wipe all selected drives and use a best-effort default partition layout -> BTRFS -> Yes (default) -> Yes (default)

User account -> (your username, lower case) -> (password) -> Yes (only if ArchInstall thinks the password is too weak) -> (password again) -> Yes -> Confirm and exit

Profile -> Desktop -> MATE -> All open-source

Audio -> Pipewire

Kernels -> Linux-LTS (deselect "Linux" with spacebar, then select "Linux-LTS" with the spacebar and hit ENTER to save changes)

Network configuration -> Use NetworkManager

Options to avoid

Additional packages

Optional repositories

After choosing the settings, move down with arrow keys and select Install, then press ENTER to allow wiping of your hard drive.

When it asks if you want to access your installation, select no and type "reboot" without quotes, it'll restart to your new installation of Arch/MATE.