Objective
Install EndeavourOS with Xfce onto a USB disk drive that is bootable on almost every PC.
STAGE 1
Get ready:
- Download the latest EndeavourOS ISO
- Burn to a thumb drive using BalenaEtcher
- Boot the thumb drive IN BIOS/LEGACY MODE
STAGE 2
Prepare the target disk:
Boot from the EndeavourOS installation media IN BIOS/LEGACY MODE
Install and run gparted
Select target device
Use Device menu to create new partition table of type GPT.
Create the following partitions:
8MB type unformatted
1000MB type FAT32
xxxxGB type ext4
Right click the 8MB partition, select Manage flags , and select bios_grub.
Right click the 1000MB partition, select Manage flags , and select boot/esp.
STAGE 3
Perform the installation.
Run the EndeavourOS installer but select Manual Partitioning.
Select the ext4 partition created above as the root (mount point for ‘/’).
STAGE 4
Install the UEFI Boot Loader
Reboot installation media but this time IN UEFI MODE.
Execute the following two commands:
sudo su
fdisk -l
Carefully note the identify of the target device (e.g. /dev/sdc).
Execute the following commands, substituting “X” with the appropriate drive letter
umount /dev/sdX3
umount /dev/sdX2
mount /dev/sdX3 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/sdX2 /mnt/boot/efi
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /mnt/sys
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt/run
chroot /mnt
grub-install --efi-directory=/boot/efi --target=x86_64-efi --removable
update-grub
blkid | grep /dev/sdX2 # Note UUID, which is in format XXXX-XXXX.
echo “UUID=XXXX-XXXX /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1” >> /etc/fstab
sync
exit
sync
poweroff
STAGE 5
Now reboot the system from the newly created (target) disk.
At this point the system should be bootable in Legacy BIOS or UEFI
modes and you may wish to verify that.
Then continue…
In this section replace ‘xxxxxx’ with YOUR username.
sudo pacman -S amd-ucode
sudo pacman -S intel-ucode
Grab the mhwd-gpu script from:
Install with execute permissions e.g. in /usr/bin
Create the folder: /etc/X11/mhwd.d/
Create the file: /etc/X11/mhwd.d/amd.conf
Section “Device”
Identifier “AMD”
Driver “amdgpu”
EndSection
Create the file: /etc/X11/mhwd.d/intel.conf
Section “Device”
Identifier “Intel Graphics”
Driver “intel”
EndSection
Create the file: /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf
Section “Device”
Identifier “Device0”
Driver “nouveau”
VendorName “NVIDIA Corporation”
Option “NoLogo” “1”
EndSection
Create the file: /usr/lib/systemd/system/myvideoselect.service
[Unit]
Description=LiveMedia Config Script
Before=systemd-user-sessions.service
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/home/xxxxxx/set-video-driver
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Enable the newly created service:
sudo systemctl enable myvideoselect
Create and 755 the file: /home/xxxxxx/set-video-driver
#!/bin/sh
NOW=$(date +“%F”)
NOWT=$(date +“%T”)
# We can pick up mmmintel/mmmnvidia/mmmamd switches added to the boot
if cat /proc/cmdline | grep -i ‘mmmamd’; then
mhwd-gpu --setxorg /etc/X11/mhwd.d/amd.conf
exit 0
fi
if cat /proc/cmdline | grep -i ‘mmmintel’; then
mhwd-gpu --setxorg /etc/X11/mhwd.d/intel.conf
exit 0
fi
if cat /proc/cmdline | grep -i ‘mmmnvidia’; then
mhwd-gpu --setxorg /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf
exit 0
fi
if lspci -nn | grep -i ‘[0300].*amd’; then
mhwd-gpu --setxorg /etc/X11/mhwd.d/amd.conf
echo “Boot AMD $NOW $NOWT” >> /home/xxxxxx/boot.log
exit 0
fi
if lspci -nn | grep -i ‘[0300].*intel’; then
mhwd-gpu --setxorg /etc/X11/mhwd.d/intel.conf
echo “Boot Intel $NOW $NOWT” >> /home/xxxxxx/boot.log
exit 0
fi
if lspci -nn | grep -i ‘[0300].*nvidia’; then
mhwd-gpu --setxorg /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf
echo “Boot Nvidia $NOW $NOWT” >> /home/xxxxxx/boot.log
exit 0
fi
mhwd-gpu --setxorg /etc/X11/mhwd.d/intel.conf
Optionally you may wish to create a script that will automatically
change the Window Manager Style and display scaling according to
the screen resolution of the target device. The following rather
crude approach works for me.
Create and 755: /home/xxxxxx/set-display
#!/bin/sh
if xrandr | grep * | grep ‘[2-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]x’ ; then
xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Gdk/WindowScalingFactor -s 2
xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Gtk/CursorThemeSize -t int -s 64
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/theme -t string -s “Numix HiDPI”
export QT_SCALE_FACTOR=2
else
xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Gdk/WindowScalingFactor -s 1
xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Gtk/CursorThemeSize -t int -s 32
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/theme -t string -s “Piranha”
export QT_SCALE_FACTOR=1
fi
xfce4-panel -r
And run it at login
STAGE 6
The system should now be bootable on most systems.
You can verify satisfactory operation and then install any other
packages you require and adjust the various system settings
according to personal preferences.
