What the Install Does
archinstall lays down the base system, then sobarch's own steps run against the still-mounted result before you reboot.
After you confirm on the Install step (or an unattended run starts), the installer first checks that the network is reachable (the install stops with a message if it is not), then does the following, in order, and shows the output live in the same pane.
archinstallpartitions the disk, installs the base packages, the Limine bootloader, NetworkManager, and the other services from the generated configuration. Its credentials file is deleted as soon as it exits, whether or not it succeeded.- Base packages are built and installed inside the new system:
sobarch-skel,sobarch-scripts,sobarch-limine-snapshots, and the AUR packages the base system requires. This uses the same sync mechanism described under Packages. Nothing is cached, on the prebuilt ISO or otherwise: everything is built during the install. - The NVIDIA legacy driver is built here too, only on Maxwell/Pascal/Volta hardware; see Hardware Detection. It takes a while. On a T2 Mac, the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth firmware the live ISO extracted from macOS is copied into the new system.
- Your choices are recorded for first boot: the selected profile packages, the SSH flag, and the git identity.
- First-boot units are installed and enabled. See First Boot.
- Setup scripts run inside the new system, in this order: the T2 Mac configuration (T2 Macs only), NVIDIA configuration (when it applies), Snapper retention and the first snapshot, the Limine boot menu theme, the Plymouth boot splash theme, formatting the rescue media partitions (when enabled), the
lylogin screen theme, and, on laptops, power management (enabling TLP and maskingsystemd-rfkill). The rescue ISO itself is downloaded after first boot, not here. - The target is unmounted and you are offered Reboot now or Quit.
These steps run after archinstall finishes rather than through its own custom_commands hook, because that hook runs before /etc/fstab exists and has no error handling.
When something fails
A failing step stops the install and names the step. The complete log is install.log in the output directory, /root/sobarch-install/ by default, alongside the generated base.json. Each phase's wall-clock time is recorded in it, and a timing summary is printed when the install ends. Fix the cause (usually the network) and run the installer again; it regenerates its configuration every time.