In this guide, we’ll perform an installation of Manjaro Linux. Manjaro is a versatile and user friendly Linux disribution with minimal system requirements. It’s quickly rising in popularity and making a name for itself in the Linux world. Now is a great time to get into it.
You’ll be able to follow along with the steps in this tutorial whether you are installing Manjaro onto a physical system or as a virtual machine. Let’s get started.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to download Manjaro Linux ISO image
- How to create bootable installation media
- How to install Manjaro Linux
Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
---|---|
System | Manjaro Linux |
Software | N/A |
Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
Download Manjaro
The first step is to download a Manjaro ISO image. You can get them from Manjaro’s official download page or check out our full guide on downloading Manjaro.
On Manjaro’s download page, there are a few choices depending on which desktop environment you’d like to run. Among those available are Xfce, KDE, and GNOME. It all depends on user preference, so pick whichever one you’d like.
Create Installation Media
If you are installing Manjaro to a physical machine, you’ll need to create installation media from the ISO file you downloaded. This way, you can boot to the media when your computer starts up and select the option to install Manjaro.
If you are installing Manjaro to a virtual machine, you won’t need to create bootable media, but just point your virtualization software towards the Manjaro ISO file you downloaded.
See our full guide on creating a Manjaro Linux bootable USB stick if you need help creating the installation media.
Boot to Manjaro Installation Media
Your computer may boot to the installation media automatically, or you may need to access the system’s boot menu in order to instruct it to boot to your USB stick or DVD, etc. The boot menu of most computers can be accessed by pressing F11
, F12
, or Esc
. When your computer first boots up, instructions on how to access the boot menu and BIOS/UEFI should briefly pop up.
Begin Manjaro Linux Installation
- After successfully booting into your installation media, you’ll be greeted with the Manjaro welcome screen. Here you can configure system settings before booting into Manjaro, but in the vast majority of cases you won’t need to. You can press
Enter
on your keyboard to begin loading into Manjaro, or the option will be automatically selected for you in about 10 seconds. - Your computer will load into Manjaro’s live system environment, which allows you to give Manjaro a little test run or get straight into installing it. Double click on the “Install Manjaro Linux” icon on your desktop to begin installing the operating system to disk.
- Select your language and click next.
- Select your timezone and click next.
- Select your keyboard layout and click next.
- On this screen, you can select which hard drive to install Manjaro to and configure partitioning. If Manjaro will be the only operating system on your disk, or if you are installing into a virtual machine, you can click on “Erase disk” (pictured below) to let Manjaro format the entire selected disk. Otherwise, configure your partitioning as needed. Click next.
- Next, fill out a new username, password, hostname, and root password for the system. When finished, click next.
- Manjaro will ask you which office suite you’d like to install on the system. This includes a word processor, spreadsheet application, etc. You can choose between LibreOffice or FreeOffice. Or, if you don’t want either of them or you don’t feel like deciding right now, just highlight “No Office Suite.” Once you’ve made your selection, click next.
- This screen gives you a summary of all the changes that are to be made to your system. Give them all a once over to make sure you have everything configured as intended. Pay special attention to the hard disk partitioning, as that may not be so easy to change afterwards, whereas the other settings are. Once you’re sure everything is correct, click on Install.
- Manjaro asks us one last time if we are sure. Click Install Now.
- Manjaro will now be installed on your system. Depending on your hardware, this could take only a few minutes or much longer. Relax, grab a coffee, and be patient.
- When Manjaro finishes up, you’ll be prompted to restart your PC. First, make sure you remove the installation media from the USB port or disc tray (or from your hypervisor if you created a virtual machine). Then, you can check the “Restart now” box and click Done.
That’s all there is to it. When your computer reboots, you’ll load into the freshly installed Manjaro and it will be ready to use.
Conclusion
In this guide, we learned how to download Manjaro Linux, create bootable installation media, and install Manjaro Linux. Manjaro is a lovely distribution with a lot to offer. It’s based on the powerful Arch Linux distro and goes toe to toe with other desktop giants like Ubuntu and Fedora. Have fun with your new Manjaro install!