Arch Linux Dual Boot Installation

Overview

This is the install flow I used to dual boot Arch Linux with Windows 11 on a Lenovo Legion laptop.

The goal was simple: keep Windows intact, install Arch into free space created from Windows Disk Management, and use GRUB to choose between Arch and Windows during boot.

This post covers:

• Preparing free disk space from Windows
• Booting the Arch ISO from USB
• Connecting to Wi-Fi in the live installer
• Creating EFI, root, and swap partitions
• Installing the base Arch system
• Setting up users, locale, timezone, and GRUB
• Enabling Windows detection in GRUB
• Installing KDE Plasma
• Fixing NVIDIA brightness issues on a hybrid AMD/NVIDIA laptop

Before touching partitions

A normal Windows 11 UEFI install already has a few partitions.

The important rule is to leave the existing Windows partitions alone. The Arch install should use only the unallocated space created for Linux.

For this setup, I used a separate EFI partition for Arch instead of reusing the Windows EFI partition. That keeps the Arch boot files separate from Windows, but you still need to confirm the partition names before formatting anything.

What Arch needs

For this install, Arch uses three new partitions:

Swap size depends on how you use the machine. If you plan to hibernate, swap should usually be at least as large as your RAM. My laptop has 16 GB of RAM, so I used around 20 GB for swap.

Requirements

You need:

• A Windows 11 laptop or desktop
• A USB flash drive
• The Arch Linux ISO from archlinux.org/download
• Rufus or Balena Etcher
• Backups of important files
• Time to read partition names carefully

Prepare Windows

Create the free space for Arch from Windows first.

1. Download the Arch ISO.
2. Flash it to a USB drive using Rufus or Balena Etcher.
3. Open Windows Disk Management.
4. Right-click the main C: partition.
5. Choose Shrink Volume.
6. Enter the amount of space to give Arch.

For a basic Arch install, 40 GB is workable. I allocated around 400 GB because I planned to use it as a daily Linux environment.

Before rebooting, create a Windows restore point. It does not replace a real backup, but it gives you one more recovery option if something goes wrong.

Boot the Arch USB

Restart into BIOS/UEFI.

On my Lenovo Legion, I can enter BIOS by pressing F2 during boot.

In BIOS:

1. Enable USB boot.
2. Move the USB drive higher in the boot order.
3. Disable Secure Boot for the basic Arch install.
4. Save and reboot.

After rebooting, the machine should load into the Arch live installer as root@archiso.

Connect to Wi-Fi

Check network connectivity first:

ping google.com
ip addr show

If Wi-Fi is not connected, use iwctl:

iwctl

Inside the iwctl prompt:

device list
adapter phy0 set-property Powered on
device wlan0 set-property Powered on
station wlan0 scan
station wlan0 get-networks
station wlan0 connect <wifi-ssid>

Enter the Wi-Fi password when prompted.

Exit iwctl, then test again:

ping google.com

Optional SSH access

Typing long commands in the live installer gets old fast. If you want to SSH into the installer from another machine, start SSH and set a temporary root password:

systemctl start sshd
passwd

Then connect from another machine using the IP shown by:

ip addr show

Create the Arch partitions

List the disks:

lsblk

In my case:

Open the internal drive with cfdisk:

cfdisk /dev/nvme0n1

Use only the free space created earlier from Windows.

Create:

After creating the partitions, choose Write, confirm, then quit.

Run lsblk again and confirm the new partition names. In my case they looked like this:

Your numbers may be different. Replace the examples below with your actual partition names.

Format and mount

Format the new Arch partitions:

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p5
mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p6
mkswap /dev/nvme0n1p7

Mount them:

mount /dev/nvme0n1p6 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/efi
mount /dev/nvme0n1p5 /mnt/efi
swapon /dev/nvme0n1p7

Check the layout:

lsblk

Install the base system

Sync package databases:

pacman -Sy

Install the base system and a few useful packages:

pacstrap -i /mnt \
  base \
  base-devel \
  linux \
  linux-firmware \
  linux-headers \
  networkmanager \
  bluez \
  bluez-utils \
  vim \
  fastfetch \
  amd-ucode \
  openssh \
  htop \
  git

If you use an Intel CPU, replace amd-ucode with:

intel-ucode

Generate fstab:

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

Enter the installed system:

arch-chroot /mnt

Configure users and sudo

Set the root password:

passwd

Create a normal user:

useradd -m -g users -G wheel <user-name>
passwd <user-name>

Enable sudo for the wheel group:

EDITOR=vim visudo

Uncomment this line if you want passwordless sudo:

%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

For a stricter setup, use the normal password-based sudo line instead:

%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Configure time, locale, and hostname

Enable network time:

timedatectl set-ntp true

Set the timezone:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Manila /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

Edit locale settings:

vim /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment:

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Generate the locale and write the locale config:

locale-gen
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf

Set the hostname:

HOSTNAME=arch
echo "$HOSTNAME" > /etc/hostname

Create /etc/hosts:

cat <<EOF > /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1   localhost
::1         localhost
127.0.1.1   ${HOSTNAME}.localdomain ${HOSTNAME}
EOF

Install GRUB

Install GRUB and EFI tools:

pacman -S grub efibootmgr

Install GRUB to the Arch EFI partition:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB

Generate the GRUB config:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Enable networking and Bluetooth for the installed system:

systemctl enable bluetooth NetworkManager

Exit, unmount, and shut down:

exit
umount -R /mnt
shutdown now

Remove the USB drive, then boot the machine again.

First boot into Arch

After rebooting, GRUB should appear and let you boot into Arch.

Connect to Wi-Fi using NetworkManager:

nmcli dev status
nmcli radio wifi on
nmcli dev wifi list
sudo nmcli dev wifi connect <wifi-name> password "<password>"

Update package databases:

sudo pacman -Sy

Install yay for AUR packages:

sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si

Add Windows to GRUB

At this point, Arch boots, but Windows may not appear in the GRUB menu yet.

Install os-prober:

sudo pacman -S os-prober

Open the GRUB defaults file:

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

Add or uncomment:

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Regenerate GRUB:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

The output should mention Windows Boot Manager. After rebooting, GRUB should include both Arch Linux and Windows.

Install KDE Plasma

Install Xorg:

sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-apps

Install KDE Plasma and common fonts:

sudo pacman -S \
  plasma-meta \
  plasma-workspace \
  kde-applications \
  noto-fonts \
  ttf-dejavu \
  ttf-font-awesome

Install and enable SDDM:

sudo pacman -S sddm
sudo systemctl enable sddm

Reboot:

reboot

Install NVIDIA drivers

On my Lenovo Legion 5, the laptop screen brightness was extremely low after booting into the desktop. Installing the NVIDIA driver fixed it.

For the current Arch driver:

sudo pacman -S nvidia-dkms nvidia-utils nvidia-settings

If you need a specific NVIDIA version, search the available AUR packages and install the matching driver:

yay -Ss nvidia
yay -S nvidia-<driver-version>-dkms nvidia-<driver-version>-utils

Reboot and test:

nvidia-smi

Enable multilib

Steam and some desktop apps need 32-bit libraries. Enable the Arch multilib repository:

sudo vim /etc/pacman.conf

Uncomment:

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

Then update:

sudo pacman -Syu

Install a few extra packages:

sudo pacman -S flatpak steam
yay -S kdotool
flatpak install app.zen_browser.zen

Fix low brightness or black screen on NVIDIA

If the desktop boots to a black screen, or the laptop display is visible but extremely dim, edit GRUB:

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

Set the kernel command line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nvidia-drm.modeset=1 nvidia_drm.fbdev=1 acpi_backlight=native nvidia.NVreg_RegistryDwords=EnableBrightnessControl=1"

Apply the changes:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
sudo mkinitcpio -P

For KDE Plasma on Wayland with NVIDIA, add these environment values:

sudo vim /etc/environment

GBM_BACKEND=nvidia-drm
__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia

Reboot after changing these files:

reboot

Add a KDE terminal toggle shortcut

I also added a custom KDE shortcut for toggling a terminal with Ctrl + |.

Download the script:

wget -nc https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alphiree/dotfiles/main/toggle-terminal.sh -P ~/.local/share/applications
chmod +x ~/.local/share/applications/toggle-terminal.sh

Create a desktop entry:

cat <<EOF > ~/.local/share/applications/toggle-terminal.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Exec=/home/alphire/.local/share/applications/toggle-terminal.sh
Name=toggle-terminal
NoDisplay=true
StartupNotify=false
Type=Application
X-KDE-GlobalAccel-CommandShortcut=true
EOF

Add the shortcut:

echo "[services][toggle-terminal.desktop]\n_launch=Ctrl+|" >> ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc

Reboot or restart the KDE session after updating shortcuts.

Troubleshooting notes

Final setup state

After this setup, the machine boots into GRUB with both Arch Linux and Windows available.

The Arch side has:

• Base Arch system
• NetworkManager Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• GRUB UEFI boot
• Windows Boot Manager detection
• KDE Plasma with SDDM
• NVIDIA driver support
• yay for AUR packages
• Flatpak and Steam support

The next thing I would clean up is Secure Boot. For this install, I disabled it to keep the first Arch setup simple. Re-enabling Secure Boot properly means signing the bootloader and kernel pieces instead of just toggling it back on in BIOS.