Install BlackArch from scratch on fresh Arch with Gnome GUI

(Using release: 2019.05.02 on Virtualbox 6.0)

Download Arch (or use a mirror)

BlackArch is a great pentest tool, comparable to Kali Linux, but with a steeper learning curve. The biggest issue for most new users is the lack of out-of-the-box gnome support.

I put together a combo of guides to get this working to make a comparable look and feel to Kali, but with Arch.

Specs

8GB RAM
128MB VGA
100GB thin provisioned HD
Network: bridged

Load the ISO and boot the machine. Once it comes up, verify network connectivity.

Disk creation

Type fdisk -l and you should see the 100GB drive.

The first partition we will create is the boot partition.

fdisk /dev/sda

p for the primary partition.

n for new 

1 for the first partition (sda1)

2048 (or enter for the default)

+500M for the space

Now we will create a swap partition.

n for create a new partition

p for primary

2 for the 2nd partition (sda2)

enter for the default sector

+8G for the swap file size

t to select the type

2 for the second, swap, partition

82 to make it a swap partition

Creating the 3rd partition

n to create the final partition using the rest of the space

p for primary

3 for the 3rd partition

enter to select the default drive sector start position

enter to select the last sector

w to write the changes

Finalize the filesystem

mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1

mkswap /dev/sda2

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

Mount the filesystem

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

swapon /dev/sda2

Install the Base and Base-Devel repositories

pacstrap /mnt/ base base-devel

Generate the fstab and mount it to the temporary filesystem

genfstab /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Remount root to the mount

arch-chroot /mnt

Set System Language

echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8"  > /etc/locale.conf

sed -i 's/#en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/g' /etc/locale.gen

Or use text editor of choice and remove the comment from your language of choice.

vi /etc/locale.gen

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

then run

locale-gen

Set the timezone

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Central /etc/localtime

hwclock --systohc --utc

Create unique hostname

echo "systemname.host.local" > /etc/hostname

Change Root Password

passwd

Set up GRUB Bootloader

pacman -S grub

grub-install /dev/sda

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Update repositories

pacman -Syu

Enable dhcpcd service

systemctl enable dhcpcd

Create superuser account

useradd -m -G wheel yourname

passwd yourname

Enable sudo for the “wheel” group

sed -i 's/# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL/%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL/g' /etc/sudoers

Or edit the file manually

vi /etc/sudoers

uncomment out the following line

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Eject the ISO and reboot

Once the system comes back up, now would be a good time to shut down the system and create a snapshot.

Adding Gnome and lxdm

Using your superuser account,

update the system

sudo pacman -Syu

Install the pre-requisites

sudo pacman -S xorg

Install Gnome and extras

sudo pacman -S gnome gnome-extra

Once that's complete, you need to install a display manager.

pacman -S lxdm

Enable the service to start on boot

systemctl enable lxdm.service

Once you restart, lxdm will allow you to choose to log in with Gnome.

Once you've verified everything works, turn the system off, remove the snapshot and create a new one.

Adding BlackArch software

curl -O https://blackarch.org/strap.sh

chmod +x strap.sh

sudo ./strap.sh

Download the master package list and synchronize

sudo pacman -Syyu

To install all of the tools (very large download), run

pacman -S blackarch

To see the blackarch categories, run

pacman -Sg | grep blackarch

You should now have Black Arch Linux apps installed on a fresh install of Arch using Gnome.

Sources:

https://blackarch.org/blackarch-guide-en.pdf

https://itsfoss.com/things-to-do-after-installing-arch-linux/

https://medium.com/@gevorggalstyan/how-to-install-arch-linux-on-virtualbox-93bc83ded692

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation_guide#Chroot

https://blackarch.org/guide.html