Dieuwe's Dotfiles

Repeatable system setup for Arch Linux (CachyOS).

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • Initial Setup
  • ZFS with Native Encryption
  • Bootloader (rEFInd + ZFSBootMenu)
  • Dotfiles
• Legacy Setup

Installation

Initial Setup

1. Boot into CachyOS live USB (UEFI mode)
2. Use the GUI installer:
   • Create FAT32 EFI partition (1024MB, mount at /boot/efi)
   • Create ZFS root partition with encryption enabled
   • Select KDE Plasma as desktop environment
3. If installer crashes, try: rm -r ~/.cache and sudo calamares

ZFS with Native Encryption

After initial install, configure ZFSBootMenu properties:

sudo zfs get encryption
sudo zfs set org.zfsbootmenu:bootfs="zpcachyos/ROOT/cos/root" zpcachyos
sudo zfs set org.zfsbootmenu:rootprefix="root=ZFS=" zpcachyos
sudo zfs set org.zfsbootmenu:commandline="rw quiet splash" zpcachyos

sudo zfs get mountpoint
sudo zfs mount zpcachyos/ROOT/cos/root

Bootloader (rEFInd + ZFSBootMenu)

sudo arch-chroot /tmp/calamares-root-XXX
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /boot/efi
refind-install
pacman -S zfsbootmenu
generate-zbm --enable
generate-zbm
exit
sudo zpool export zpcachyos
reboot

In ZFSBootMenu, press Ctrl+D to set pool as default.

ZFS Maintenance

Pool feature upgrades: after OpenZFS updates, zpool status will suggest zpool upgrade. The ZFSBootMenu EFI image embeds its own ZFS module, which must understand the pool's enabled features — so always regenerate the boot image before upgrading the pool, never the reverse:

sudo generate-zbm
sudo zpool upgrade zpcachyos

Feature flags can't be removed once enabled, and old ZBM images (and older live media) may refuse to import the pool afterwards. Keep a recent CachyOS live USB as the fallback boot path.

Snapshots: two independent mechanisms:

• sanoid.timer snapshots zpcachyos/ROOT/cos/home (autosnap_*, retention in misc/sanoid.conf). Data-only, not bootable.
• The pacman hook (misc/zfs-snapshot.hook) recursively snapshots zpcachyos/ROOT/cos before every transaction (pre-update-*, keeps 3 per dataset). The root snapshots are bootable recovery points: boot them read-only from the ZFSBootMenu menu; clone + promote to make a rollback permanent.

First Boot Setup

1. Enable CachyOS updater from greeter and install the gaming packages.
2. Create user accounts for family members.
3. Run the setup script:

git clone git@github.com:dieuwedeboer/dotfiles.git
cd dotfiles
./scripts/install.sh

The install script will:

• Install chezmoi if not present
• Link dotfiles via chezmoi
• Link emacs config
• Install packages and configure system
• Optionally configure rEFInd with a custom theme (glow) if no custom theme is present

Double Password Solution

Avoid typing the ZFS password twice at boot:

sudo nano /etc/zfs/zroot.key
# Enter password (plain text, no newline at end!)
sudo chmod 600 /etc/zfs/zroot.key
sudo zfs change-key -o keylocation=file:///etc/zfs/zroot.key -o keyformat=passphrase zpcachyos
echo 'FILES+=(/etc/zfs/zroot.key)' | sudo tee -a /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
sudo mkinitcpio -P

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Legacy Setup

The legacy-ubuntu branch contains the old Ubuntu setup using Ansible.

It is no longer maintained.