Arch Linux Setup with VFIO GPU Passthrough

My notes and reference for using AMD iGPU for Host + NVIDIA RTX 4090 for VM (VFIO) on Arch Linux.

System Specs

• Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 GAMING X AX (rev. 1.3)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (32 Threads)
• GPU 1 (Host): AMD iGPU (Raphael, RDNA2)
• GPU 2 (Passthrough/Optional Host): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
• Memory: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 64GB (2×32GB) 5600 MHz CL40 (XMP, CMK64GX5M2B5600C40)
• OS: Arch Linux (Hyprland) + Windows 11 Pro (separate disk)

BIOS Configuration

Before installing Arch, reboot into BIOS and configure:

• Enable: IOMMU (sometimes called SVM or AMD-Vi)
• Enable: ErP (to reduce power when off)
• Disable: Secure Boot
• Disable: XMP (if facing instability)
• Set iGPU as primary display output

Prepare Arch Installation

Boot from Arch ISO

Check your disks:

lsblk
ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/

Optional: Chris Titus Arch Install

curl -fssl christitus.com/linux | sh

Choose:

• System Setup -> Arch Linux -> Arch Server Setup
• Follow partitioning and installation prompts

Step by Step with archinstall

1. Disk Layout

• Manual partitioning if Windows 11 is already installed.
• Example Arch disk:
  • EFI: 512 MB, FAT32 → /boot
  • Root: rest (ext4 for stability or btrfs for snapshots)
  • Swap: optional (or use zram).

2. Bootloader

• Choose systemd-boot.

3. Kernel

• Install linux-zen (main) + linux as fallback.

4. Networking

• Select NetworkManager.

5. Audio

• Use PipeWire.

6. User Accounts

• Set root password.
• Create your main user and add to wheel.

7. Profile

• Choose Minimal Environment.

8. Additional Packages

base-devel git curl wget nano htop openssh pipewire pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse pipewire-jack wireplumber

9. Optional Repositories

• Enable multilib.

First Boot Tasks

Example setup with Hyprland + ML4W dotfiles:

sudo pacman -S hyprland vim nvim kitty flatpak timeshift firefox

Managing systemd-boot

List all boot entries:

bootctl list

Create a Windows entry:

# /boot/loader/entries/windows.conf
title Windows 11
efi /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

Increase boot menu timeout (default is often too fast):

# /boot/loader/loader.conf
default arch-zen.conf
timeout 10

Remove an old/duplicate entry:

sudo bootctl remove <entry-id>

Installing ML4W Dotfiles with Flatpak

As part of my Hyprland setup, I used the ML4W Dotfiles Installer to quickly bring in a pre-configured environment.
Below are the commands and the steps I followed.

flatpak install com.ml4w.dotfilesinstaller

Installation Steps

1. Open Firefox and visit:
   https://mylinuxforwork.github.io/dotfiles

2. Run the Flatpak installer:

   flatpak run com.ml4w.dotfilesinstaller
   

3. From the website, copy the script for either the Stable or Rolling release.

4. Paste the script into a terminal and execute it.

5. Once the script finishes, return to the installer and click Next.

6. Adjust your display resolution.

   In my case, I use 2K QHD (2560×1440).

7. Complete the process by selecting Install and Activate.

8. Close the installer and reboot your system.

Remove NVIDIA Host Drivers

Check installed NVIDIA packages:

pacman -Q | grep -i nvidia

Remove them if present (adjust to your system):

sudo pacman -Rns nvidia-utils nvidia-lts linux-firmware-nvidia

VFIO Setup

Identify GPU IDs

lspci -nnk | grep -A3 NVIDIA

Blacklist NVIDIA

# /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia.conf
blacklist nouveau
blacklist nvidia
blacklist nvidia_drm
blacklist nvidia_modeset

Bind to VFIO

# /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf
options vfio-pci ids=10de:2684,10de:22ba

Update initramfs and bootloader:

sudo mkinitcpio -P
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Debugging Commands

lsmod | grep amdgpu
ls -l /dev/dri/
lspci -nnk | grep -A3 NVIDIA

Desktop Setup

Install Hyprland (JaKooLit fork):

sh <(curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JaKooLit/Arch-Hyprland/main/auto-install.sh)

Or ML4W dotfiles:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mylinuxforwork/dotfiles/main/hyprland-dotfiles-stable.dotinst | sh

Conclusion

With this setup:

• Host uses the AMD iGPU (stable, efficient).
• NVIDIA RTX 4090 is isolated for passthrough into a VM.
• Dual boot with Windows is cleanly integrated via systemd-boot.