Arch Linux

bivan

Member

Registered: 2026-02-03

Posts: 18

Install Arch Linux on a .img file?

Is it possible to install Arch Linux on a .img file, without the target PC? Or the target PC with its peripherals is needed, or at least a virtual machine https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Virtua … as_a_guest ?
The .img created, then just

sudo dd if=/a_path/.img of=/a_path/target_PC_drive

?

But from the beginning

$ sudo fdisk /run/media/a/1637320b-b0c7-4f87-8b85-b635dee9595d/.img

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.41.3).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

fdisk: cannot open /run/media/a/1637320b-b0c7-4f87-8b85-b635dee9595d/.img: Invalid argument

...

Last edited by bivan (2026-03-15 12:45:09)

mpan

Member

Registered: 2012-08-01

Posts: 1,591

Website

Re: Install Arch Linux on a .img file?

Yes, you can install it to any mounted block device. Including an image file. Then you can just copy the image file to the destination device using cp:

 $ sudo cp /path/to/image/file.img /dev/device

The error you’re encountering is rather caused by the path simply not existing. Fdisk has no issues working with image files:

 $ truncate -s 4G image
 $ fdisk image

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.41.3).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Device does not contain a recognized partition table.
Created a new DOS (MBR) disklabel with disk identifier 0xda21a31c.

Command (m for help): n
Partition type
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): 

Using default response p.
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 
First sector (2048-8388607, default 2048): 
Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-8388607, default 8388607): 

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 4 GiB.

Command (m for help): w

The partition table has been altered.

The latter steps also do not care if the block device is an actual disk or a loop-mounted file.

While deploying the image to the actual computer mind two things:

• The target device must be big enough and extra space is lost too unless you grow the partition and the filesystem later.

• It’s a byte-to-byte copy, which also copies UUIDs. You can’t deploy it this way twice on a single computer. This includes loop-mounting the image while it’s also written on the actual disk.

---

Paperclips in avatars? | Sometimes I seem a bit harsh — don’t get offended too easily!

bivan

Member

Registered: 2026-02-03

Posts: 18

Re: Install Arch Linux on a .img file?

Nice! But how to format the partitions?

$ truncate -s 10GiB /run/media/a/e093bb97-7206-4076-9946-4a3e0fb78230/.img
fdisk /run/media/a/e093bb97-7206-4076-9946-4a3e0fb78230/.img<<<'g
n


133119
n



w'
mkfs.fat /run/media/a/e093bb97-7206-4076-9946-4a3e0fb78230/.img1
mkfs.ext4 /run/media/a/e093bb97-7206-4076-9946-4a3e0fb78230/.img2

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.41.3).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Device does not contain a recognized partition table.
Created a new DOS (MBR) disklabel with disk identifier 0x90a5cefb.

Command (m for help): Created a new GPT disklabel (GUID: 633EA8F3-22E7-44C0-837E-2BBE51E737CB).

Command (m for help): Partition number (1-128, default 1): First sector (2048-20971486, default 2048): Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-20971486, default 20969471): 
Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 64 MiB.

Command (m for help): Partition number (2-128, default 2): First sector (133120-20971486, default 133120): Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (133120-20971486, default 20969471): 
Created a new partition 2 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 9.9 GiB.

Command (m for help): The partition table has been altered.

mkfs.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31)
mkfs.fat: unable to open /run/media/a/e093bb97-7206-4076-9946-4a3e0fb78230/.img1: No such file or directory
mke2fs 1.47.4 (6-Mar-2025)
The file /run/media/a/e093bb97-7206-4076-9946-4a3e0fb78230/.img2 does not exist and no size was specified.

indeed:

$ fdisk -l /run/media/a/e093bb97-7206-4076-9946-4a3e0fb78230/.img
Disk /run/media/a/e093bb97-7206-4076-9946-4a3e0fb78230/.img: 10 GiB, 10737418240 bytes, 20971520 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 633EA8F3-22E7-44C0-837E-2BBE51E737CB

Device                                                   Start      End  Sectors  Size Type
/run/media/a/e093bb97-7206-4076-9946-4a3e0fb78230/.img1   2048   133119   131072   64M Linux filesystem
/run/media/a/e093bb97-7206-4076-9946-4a3e0fb78230/.img2 133120 20969471 20836352  9.9G Linux filesystem

mpan

Member

Registered: 2012-08-01

Posts: 1,591

Website

Re: Install Arch Linux on a .img file?

Use losetup to setup a loop device, with `--partscan` option to make it scan for partitions.

---

Paperclips in avatars? | Sometimes I seem a bit harsh — don’t get offended too easily!

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,026

Re: Install Arch Linux on a .img file?

just calling it ".img" on what seems to be some external drive mounted by udisks2 you may should give at least some name - otherwise the leading dot marks it as hidden

bivan

Member

Registered: 2026-02-03

Posts: 18

Re: Install Arch Linux on a .img file?

No worry cryptearth, less is more.

Thanks, I did it!

sudo -i

{
truncate -s 5GiB /run/media/a/8688e754-c2e4-40d1-a9c8-c205211ca8d9/.img
losetup -fP /run/media/a/8688e754-c2e4-40d1-a9c8-c205211ca8d9/.img
fdisk /dev/loop0<<<'g
n


133119
n


10485726
w'
mkfs.fat /dev/loop0p1
mkfs.f2fs /dev/loop0p2
mount /dev/loop0p2 /mnt
chmod 777 /mnt
mount --mkdir /dev/loop0p1 /mnt/efi
chmod 777 /mnt/efi
mkdir /mnt/efi/efi
mkdir /mnt/efi/efi/boot
mkdir /mnt/etc
mkdir /mnt/etc/mkinitcpio.d
echo -en ALL_kver='$(ls /usr/lib/modules)\'nPRESETS='\'n_uki=/efi/efi/boot/bootx64.efi>/mnt/etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset
mkdir /mnt/etc/kernel
echo -n root=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-JetFlash_Transcend_32GB_01JDP4E3DVWKHULY-0:0-part2 rw>/mnt/etc/kernel/cmdline
pacstrap -icMK /mnt base linux linux-firmware-amdgpu linux-firmware-atheros dosfstools f2fs-tools man-db nano sudo plasma-meta<<<'


2

'
rm -r /tmp/!
arch-chroot /mnt bash -c "pacman -Qqd|pacman -Rsun --noconfirm -
systemctl enable NetworkManager plasmalogin
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC /etc/localtime
hwclock -w
echo -en /dev/disk/by-id/usb-JetFlash_Transcend_32GB_01JDP4E3DVWKHULY-0:0-part1 /efi auto>/etc/fstab
sed -i 15,17d /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/var.conf
rm /var/log/wtmp /var/log/btmp /var/log/lastlog
useradd -m a
sed -i '1s/x//
\$s/x//' /etc/passwd
sed -i '/t A/s/^/# /
/L A/s/^..//' /etc/sudoers
sed -i /W/,/^$/{//!s/.//} /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
sed -i '/Ca/cCacheDir=/tmp/!
/b]/,+1s/.//' /etc/pacman.conf
echo -n unset HISTFILE>>/etc/bash.bashrc"
}|tee /run/media/a/8688e754-c2e4-40d1-a9c8-c205211ca8d9/.txt
umount /mnt/efi
umount /mnt

reboot (because the only error: umount: /mnt: target is busy. , why?)

cp /run/media/a/8688e754-c2e4-40d1-a9c8-c205211ca8d9/.img /dev/disk/by-id/usb-JetFlash_Transcend_32GB_01JDP4E3DVWKHULY-0:0

boot the USB drive.

I noticed a difference between install by archlinux-x86_64.iso & here: bootx64.efi 59M or 28M, why?