Install Essential Packages

This section is 2.1-2.2 of the Arch Linux Installation Guide.

Update mirrorlist

Run the following

reflector --protocol https --latest 20 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Install essential packages

WARNING

We are using pacstrap to install packages onto the target system, not the live environment.

Details

Package	Description
base	This is the most important meta package that includes a minimal set of things you need, like glibc, bash and pacman (the package manager)
reflector	Utility for updating mirrorlist for pacman
base-devel	Meta package for building packages from source. Includes things like make and gcc.
linux and linux-lts	The kernel and the Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel
linux-firmware	Firmware stuff I don't understand that you should probably get
linux-headers and linux-lts-headers	Headers for the kernel and the LTS kernel. In case you have stuff to link with the kernel
dkms	Dynamic Kernel Module Support. In case you have kernel modules that need to be recompiled when the kernel is updated
amd-ucode or intel-ucode	Microcode for AMD or Intel CPUs. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Microcode for more info
git	Version control system. You probably need this
neovim	For editing files in the install process
openssh	SSH server
sudo	You probably need this
networkmanager	Network manager. The device needs to connect to internet
curl	In case anything needs to be downloaded during the install
man-db, man-pages and texinfo	Manual pages

TIP

There's no shell because bash is included in base. If you prefer another shell like zsh, include it

For AMD CPU:

pacstrap -K /mnt base reflector base-devel linux linux-lts linux-firmware linux-headers linux-lts-headers dkms amd-ucode git neovim openssh sudo networkmanager curl man-db man-pages texinfo

For Intel CPU:

pacstrap -K /mnt base reflector base-devel linux linux-lts linux-firmware linux-headers linux-lts-headers dkms intel-ucode git neovim openssh sudo networkmanager curl man-db man-pages texinfo