Unattended Install
Same install pipeline as the interactive wizard, driven by a file instead of a keyboard.
The installer can run with no prompts at all, driven by a JSON answer file instead of the interactive TUI screens. This is the same archinstall-driven pipeline either way: an unattended run generates and applies the exact same config an interactive run would, it just skips asking a human for it.
Running it
python3 installer/tui/__main__.py --answer-file answer.jsonAdd --dry-run to only generate and save the config (same as "Save configuration" in the interactive wizard) without touching a disk, and --output-dir to change where it's written. Since bootstrap.sh forwards its own arguments through to the TUI, this also works straight from the one-line install command:
curl -fsSL http://installsobarch.antoinepoulin.com | bash -s -- --answer-file /path/to/answer.jsonThe answer file itself has to already be on the machine (e.g. staged onto a USB stick, or fetched by hand with curl before running the above) — there's no network fetch of it built in yet. That arrives with PXE support, planned once sobarch has its own installer ISO to netboot.
Answer file
See installer/unattended-answer.example.json for a complete example. Every field below is optional except disk, hostname, username, and password.
| Field | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
disk | (required) | "largest", or an exact device path (e.g. /dev/nvme0n1). |
hostname | (required) | Same validation as the interactive Account screen. |
username | (required) | Same validation as the interactive Account screen. |
password | (required) | Plaintext; hashed the same way the interactive wizard hashes it, before it ever reaches archinstall's own config. |
kb_layout | "us" | |
sys_lang | "en_US.UTF-8" | |
timezone | "UTC" | |
mirror_region | "" (automatic) | A country name from archinstall's own mirror-status data. |
rescue_media | true | |
ssh_enabled | false | |
git_name / git_email | "" | Both or neither. |
install_everything | false | |
profiles | [] | A list of profile slugs (developer, gaming, creative, maker, virtualization, office, browsers-chat, system-tuning, input-method). Each selected profile installs in full. |
What's deliberately not supported yet
- Dual-boot / free-space installs. Only whole-disk installs are supported;
diskalways wipes the target. Reusing an existing EFI System Partition or a detected free-space gap (see Dual-Boot) involves judgment calls the interactive review screen exists for. - Per-package profile selection.
profilesselects whole profiles only, not individual packages within one. - Fetching the answer file over the network, or PXE. Both are planned once sobarch has its own installer ISO to netboot.