Installing PAI CLI on Arch Linux

The pai command-line tool is available from the Arch User Repository (AUR). It provides pai flash, pai try, and pai verify commands for downloading, flashing, and verifying PAI ISOs.

Install with an AUR helper

Using yay:

yay -S pai-cli

Or paru:

paru -S pai-cli

Install manually

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/pai-cli.git
cd pai-cli
makepkg -si

Bleeding-edge (git) version

For the latest development version tracking main:

yay -S pai-cli-git

Warning

pai-cli-git tracks the tip of the main branch and may contain untested changes. Use pai-cli (stable) for production use.

pai-cli-git conflicts with pai-cli — only one can be installed at a time.

Upgrade

yay -Syu pai-cli

Or for the git package:

yay -Syu pai-cli-git

Remove

yay -R pai-cli
# or
yay -R pai-cli-git

Usage

After installation, the pai command is available system-wide:

pai help          # Show available commands
pai flash         # Download and flash the latest PAI ISO to USB
pai try           # Launch PAI in a QEMU virtual machine
pai verify        # Verify ISO integrity

Optional dependencies

The PKGBUILD declares these as optional:

• qemu-full — required for pai try (launches PAI in a VM)
• ovmf — UEFI firmware for QEMU
• util-linux — provides lsblk, used by pai flash to list drives

Install them with:

sudo pacman -S qemu-full ovmf util-linux