Arch-Setup-Script/README.md

Introduction

This is my fork of easy-arch, a script made in order to boostrap a basic Arch Linux environment with snapshots and encryption by using a fully automated process.

This fork comes with various security improvements and fully working rollbacks with snapper. I do submit some of the changes here back to upstream as well.

How does it work?

1. Download an Arch Linux ISO from here
2. Flash the ISO onto an USB Flash Drive.
3. Boot the live environment.
4. Connect to the internet.
5. git clone https://github.com/tommytran732/Arch-Setup-Script/
6. cd Arch-Setup-Script
7. chmod u+x ./install.sh && ./install.sh

Snapper behavior

The partition layout I use rallows us to replicate the behavior found in openSUSE 🦎

1. Snapper rollback works! You will no longer need to manually rollback from a live USB like you would with the @ and @home layout suggested in the Arch Wiki.
2. You can boot into a readonly snapshot! GDM and other services will start normally so you can get in and verify that everything works before rolling back.
3. Automatic snapshots on pacman install/update operations
4. Directories such as /boot, /boot/efi, /var/log, /var/crash, /var/tmp, /var/spool, /var/lib/libvirt/images are excluded from the snapshots as they either should be persistent or are just temporary files. /cryptkey is excluded as we do not want the encryption key to be included in the snapshots, which could be sent to another device as a backup.
5. GRUB will boot into the default BTRFS snapshot set by snapper. Like on SUSE, your running system will always be a read-write snapshot in @/.snapshots/X/snapshot.

Changes to the original project

1. Encrypted /boot
2. SUSE - like partition layout
3. Snapper snapshots & rollback
4. Default umask to 077
5. Firewalld is enabled by default
6. Minimally setup GNOME 40 with pipewire
7. Randomize Mac Address and disable Connectivity Check for privacy
8. Blacklisted Firewire SBP2 (As recommended by https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/end-user-device-security/platform-specific-guidance/ubuntu-18-04-lts)
9. Added some kernel/grub settings from https://github.com/Whonix/security-misc/tree/master/etc/default

Partitions layout

Partition/Subvolume	Label	Mountpoint	Notes
1	ESP	/boot/efi	Unencrypted FAT32
2	@/.snapshots/X/snapshot	/	Encrypted BTRFS
3	@/boot	/boot/	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
4	@/root	/root	Encrypted BTRFS
5	@/home	/home	Encrypted BTRFS
6	@/.snapshots	/.snapshots	Encrypted BTRFS
7	@/srv	/srv	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
8	@/var_log	/var/log	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
9	@/var_crash	/var/crash	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
10	@/var_cache	/var/cache	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
11	@/var_tmp	/var/tmp	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
12	@/var_spool	/var/spool	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
13	@/var_lib_libvirt_images	/var/lib/libvirt/images	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
14	@/var_lib_machines	/var/lib/machines	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
15	@/var_lib_gdm	/var/lib/gdm	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
16	@/var_lib_AccountsService	/var/lib/AccountsService	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)
17	@/cryptkey	/cryptkey	Encrypted BTRFS (nodatacow)

To do

1. Install yay and setup opensnitch
2. Reduce the number of password prompts
3. Automatic secure boot setup with your own keys (no, we are not using shim).
4. Optional Nvidia driver installation
5. Automatic zram setup