Install Arch from Windows

[Enki]

Is there a way to install Arch to an SD card from within Windows without NOOBS? I can't seem to find an img of the distro, only tarball. Also, I don't have a Linux system, so that makes all the other guides I've found less than useful (as they all require Linux commands).

I had it working just fine with NOOBS, but I'd rather have the simplest, fastest booting install I can get for this project.

Thanks!

[fruitoftheloom]

Unpack the Arch Download with 7Zip, eventually will have an .IMG file. Use Win32DiskImager to create an SD Card from the image file.

[Enki]

I'm using IZArc. If I open the tar.gz file, the only sub file is a tar file. If I open that, I get a directory structure with the three following files:
.
share
usr

Inside the . directory is the rest of the folder structure, containing directories like boot, dev, home, usr, var, etc. There's no img file anywhere, and the file name is ArchLinuxARM-2014.10-rpi-rootfs.tar.gz which unlike the other links from http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ is neither a zip nor has img in the file name.

As a side note, the downloads from the Arch site do not have a source img file either, only a tarball.

[DougieLawson]

Get the zip file from: http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch_latest
Get 7zip from: http://www.7-zip.org/

Edit: it looks like the Raspberry Pi download site is broken and the stuff that comes from the ZIP link isn't the ZIP file version

[Enki]

Get the zip file from: http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch_latest

It just gives me the same tarball I already have.

Get 7zip from: http://www.7-zip.org/

Even though I know this isn't the issue, I went ahead and got it anyways. Still no img file inside the tarball...

[fruitoftheloom]

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch/images

Maybe download an older release then fully update ??

[DougieLawson]

I tried the torrent download and it's just as broken.

I've sent an email to info@raspberrypi.org (hopefully they can un-break this).

[Enki]

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch/images

Maybe download an older release then fully update ??

This is something I didn't see; I'll try it, thanks! As a side note, how did you dig this link up?

[DougieLawson]

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch/images

Maybe download an older release then fully update ??

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch/i ... pi.img.zip
should work on a B or B+.

[fruitoftheloom]

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch/images

Maybe download an older release then fully update ??

This is something I didn't see; I'll try it, thanks! As a side note, how did you dig this link up?

Just look at the URL the download is linked to it is not rocket science....

[fruitoftheloom]

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch/images

Maybe download an older release then fully update ??

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch/i ... pi.img.zip
should work on a B or B+.

Thank you for taking my link one step further, that was a surprise

[pepedog]

That will probably be the last img supplied by ArchLinuxArm.
It's not that hard to create an image without even sight of a card.
Comments on this best put to http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/

[fruitoftheloom]

That will probably be the last img supplied by ArchLinuxArm.
It's not that hard to create an image without even sight of a card.
Comments on this best put to http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/

Hi why the change ?

Maybe there are other changes coming ?

How are novices going to install Arch ?

[pepedog]

The owner of ArchLinuxArm decided, it might be best to ask on other forum

[fruitoftheloom]

The owner of ArchLinuxArm decided, it might be best to ask on other forum

That is fair enough and thanks for reply Pepedog

Personally as I do not use Windows this page suffices for me if need to create an SD Card http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/raspberry-pi

[Enki]

Arch isn't terribly hard to work with (there's tons of guides out on the web) and I've got all but one thing I need working on it (auto-run raspivid on user logon, which has already been made automatic), but even a quick blurb somewhere about how to create an iso from the tarball would be majorly beneficial.

As it stands, this thread should mostly take care of it for new people that don't want to use NOOBS, but if that archival iso ever goes away then a quick blurb about how to turn a tarball into an iso would be beneficial.

[Joe Schmoe]

a quick blurb somewhere about how to create an iso from the tarball would be majorly beneficial.

Since there's no way to boot a Raspberry Pi from a CD or DVD, it is unlikely that an ISO file would do anyone any good. Why do you think you need one?

[Enki]

a quick blurb somewhere about how to create an iso from the tarball would be majorly beneficial.

Since there's no way to boot a Raspberry Pi from a CD or DVD, it is unlikely that an ISO file would do anyone any good. Why do you think you need one?

Win32 disk imager.

[fruitoftheloom]

a quick blurb somewhere about how to create an iso from the tarball would be majorly beneficial.

Since there's no way to boot a Raspberry Pi from a CD or DVD, it is unlikely that an ISO file would do anyone any good. Why do you think you need one?

Win32 disk imager.

Win32DiskImager
This utility is used to write img files to SD and USB memory devices.
Simply run the utility, point it at your img, and then select the
removable device to write to.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/

Still confused what an ISO has to do with this
http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch/images

..ort this
http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/raspberry-pi

[Enki]

Win32DiskImager
This utility is used to write img files to SD and USB memory devices.
Simply run the utility, point it at your img, and then select the
removable device to write to.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/

Still confused what an ISO has to do with this
http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/arch/images

I meant img. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for someone like you to make that leap.

[fruitoftheloom]

I meant img. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for someone like you to make that leap.

but even a quick blurb somewhere about how to create an iso from the tarball would be majorly beneficial.

There are many people on this forum who could not make the leap that is why firstly DL queeried your quote and as you failed to respond I felt it was appropriete to straighten out any ambiguity, apologies if offended

[Enki]

I don't normally work with either img or iso files, so I wind up making the noob error of using them interchangeably, as I've always thought that isos were just images of cds/dvds.

[fruitoftheloom]

I don't normally work with either img or iso files, so I wind up making the noob error of using them interchangeably, as I've always thought that isos were just images of cds/dvds.

WHATEVER

[pepedog]

As it stands, this thread should mostly take care of it for new people that don't want to use NOOBS, but if that archival iso ever goes away then a quick blurb about how to turn a tarball into an iso would be beneficial.

Here is a script that makes img without a card, I guess 4Gb free space would be needed if using a pi, it creates zip also (you might not want that?)

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

# Packages required
# dosfstools parted 
# Can be run on any Linux system
# loop.max_part=15 must be in kernel cmdline (cmdline.txt for rpi)
# then reboot

echo "creating image to fit on 2Gb card"
dd if=/dev/zero of=arch-rpi.img bs=1M count=1850

echo "Partitioning"
fdisk arch-rpi.img <<EOF
o
n
p
1

+100M

t
c
n
p
2


w
EOF

sleep 5

losetup -f arch-rpi.img
sleep 5

echo "Formatting vfat"
mkfs.vfat /dev/loop0p1
sleep 5
mkdir boot
echo "Mounting boot"
mount /dev/loop0p1 boot
echo "Installing"

echo "Formatting ext4"
mkfs.ext4 /dev/loop0p2
sleep 5
mkdir root
echo "Mounting root"
mount /dev/loop0p2 root

wget http://archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-rpi-latest.tar.gz
echo "Installing"
bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-rpi-latest.tar.gz -C root
sync
mv root/boot/* boot
sync
umount boot root
losetup -d /dev/loop0p1
losetup -d /dev/loop0p1
losetup -d /dev/loop0
echo "All complete, image arch-rpi.img created, compressing...."
zip -9 arch-rpi.img.zip arch-rpi.img

[fruitoftheloom]

See: http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt ... 53&t=89200