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[~bandali/bndl.org] / posts / arch-macbook-air.md
1 title: Arch GNU/Linux on MacBook Air 2013
2 date: 2016-11-01 00:00
3 slug: arch-macbook-air
4 tags: arch, macbook
5 ---
6
7 This post summarizes how I install and dual-boot Arch GNU/Linux with
8 Full-Disk Encryption alongside macOS. It is not meant to be a
9 replacement for the [Installation
10 Guide](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation%5Fguide) or
11 the former [Beginner's
12 Guide](https://csdietz.github.io/arch-beginner-guide/). Rather, it
13 mostly serves as a small summary with a few useful notes about the
14 gotchas.
15
16 So, make sure you understand what you type into your terminal. If you
17 don't, checking out the Arch wiki should probably be your first step.
18
19 _Note:_ you will need internet access throughout the installation and
20 the MacBook Air's WiFi doesn't work out of the box on Arch. I
21 recommend using your phone's USB Tethering (if it does support it), or
22 using an Ethernet-USB adapter.
23
24 ## Shrinking the macOS partition
25
26 The first step I take is resizing the HFS+ macOS partition to make
27 room for the new GNU/Linux installation. There are plenty of
28 tutorials on how to do this using macOS's Disk Utility, so do that and
29 then come back!
30
31 ## Creating a bootable Arch Installer USB
32
33 There are different ways of creating a bootable Arch USB, all
34 documented on the [USB flash installation
35 media](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB%5Fflash%5Finstallation%5Fmedia)
36 page on the Arch wiki, but the simplest one is using `dd` if you
37 already have access to another UNIX system.
38
39 **Warning:** make sure you backup the data on your flash drive, as
40 `dd` will irrevocably destroy all data on it.
41
42 Use `lsblk` to find the name (block device) of your USB drive, then
43 run `dd` (as root) as shown below:
44
45 ```bash
46 dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx status=progress && sync
47 ```
48
49 Replace `/path/to/archlinux.iso` with the path to the Arch image you
50 have downloaded, and `/dev/sdx` with your drive.
51
52 ## Booting up from the USB
53
54 After creating the install USB, reboot your laptop and hold the alt
55 key and boot into the USB.
56
57 When booting is complete and you're presented with the prompt, it's a
58 good time to make sure you're connected to the internet (see the
59 _note_ at the top of this post).
60
61 Use `ping` to verify that you've established a connection:
62
63 ```bash
64 ping archlinux.org
65 ```
66
67 ## Updating the system clock
68
69 Once you're connected to the internet, make sure the system clock is
70 accurate:
71
72 ```bash
73 timedatectl set-ntp true # start and enable systemd-timesyncd
74 ```
75
76 You can check the service status using `timedatectl status`.
77
78 ## Partitioning
79
80 I won't dive into partitioning and instead, I'll refer you to the
81 [Partitioning](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning) page
82 of Arch wiki. Of the available partitioning tools, I personally prefer
83 `cfdisk`.
84
85 ## Setting up LVM & LUKS
86
87 I use a [LVM on
88 LUKS](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting%5Fan%5Fentire%5Fsystem#LVM%5Fon%5FLUKS)
89 setup, where I set up LVM on top of the encrypted partition.
90
91 First, let's set up the underlying encrypted partition:
92
93 ```bash
94 cryptsetup -v --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --hash sha512 \
95 --iter-time 5000 --use-urandom -y luksFormat /dev/sdaX
96 ```
97
98 where `/dev/sdaX` is the partition you created in the last step
99 (e.g. `/dev/sda4`). For more information about the `cryptsetup`
100 options, see the [LUKS encryption
101 options](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device%5Fencryption#Encryption%5Foptions%5Ffor%5FLUKS%5Fmode).
102
103 Then we open the container:
104
105 ```bash
106 cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/sdaX lvm
107 ```
108
109 Now it's time to use lvm and prepare the logical volume(s):
110
111 ```bash
112 pvcreate /dev/mapper/lvm
113 vgcreate vg /dev/mapper/lvm
114 lvcreate --extents +100%FREE -n root vg
115 ```
116
117 This will create a physical volume on the mapping we just opened,
118 create a volume group named `vg` on the physical volume, and create a
119 logical volume named `root` that spans the entire volume group. More
120 complex setups are possible thanks to the great flexibility of lvm.
121
122 We now format the logical volume with `ext4`:
123
124 ```bash
125 mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-root
126 ```
127
128 ## Installing the base system
129
130 Let's mount the logical volume, make a directory for the mount point
131 of the boot partition, and mount the boot partition (`/dev/sda1`):
132
133 ```bash
134 mount /dev/mapper/vg-root /mnt
135 mkdir /mnt/boot
136 mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
137 ```
138
139 Finally, let's install the base system (and optionally `base-devel`):
140
141 ```bash
142 pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
143 ```
144
145 ## Configuring the system
146
147 Let's generate the fstab:
148
149 ```bash
150 genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
151 ```
152
153 Use your favorite terminal-based editor, edit the fstab file and add
154 the `discard` option for the root partition to enable TRIM on the SSD.
155
156 Now we change root into our newly installed system and will configure
157 it. Adjust these according to your own setup.
158
159 ```bash
160 arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
161 passwd # set the root password
162 echo myhostname > /etc/hostname # set the hostname
163 ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Eastern /etc/localtime # time zone
164 hwclock --systohc --utc # write system clock to hardware clock (UTC)
165 useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash myuser # create myuser
166 passwd myuser # set the password for myuser
167 echo "myuser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" >> /etc/sudoers.d/myuser
168 # uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed locales in /etc/locale.gen
169 locale-gen
170 echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
171 export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
172 ```
173
174 Then adjust the initramfs hooks in `/etc/mkinitcpio.conf` and enable
175 the `encrypt` and `lvm2` hooks, and make sure `keyboard` is available
176 before `encrypt` so you can actually type in the LUKS password when
177 booting. Your `HOOKS` line should look similar to this:
178
179 ```nil
180 HOOKS=(base udev autodetect keyboard keymap consolefont modconf block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)
181 ```
182
183 After adjusting the hooks, build the initramfs:
184
185 ```bash
186 mkinitcpio -p linux
187 ```
188
189 Create the `/boot/loader/loader.conf` with the following content
190 (adjust the timeout to your liking):
191
192 ```nil
193 default arch
194 timeout 3
195 ```
196
197 Then create the entry for Arch:
198
199 ```bash
200 mkdir -p /boot/loader/entries
201 touch /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
202 ```
203
204 Now edit `/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf` to specify the Arch entry:
205
206 ```nil
207 title Arch GNU/Linux
208 linux /vmlinuz-linux
209 initrd /intel-ucode.img
210 initrd /initramfs-linux.img
211 options cryptdevice=/dev/sdaX:vg:allow-discards root=/dev/mapper/vg-root rw
212 ```
213
214 Again, `/dev/sdaX` is the partition you created in the partitioning
215 step earlier as the underlying encrypted partition.
216
217 Finally, install the bootloader, exit the chroot, umount and reboot!
218
219 ```bash
220 bootctl install
221 exit
222 umount -R /mnt
223 reboot
224 ```
225
226 ## Post-installation recommendations
227
228 Congratulations! You now have a minimal Arch installation.
229
230 At this point, I usually install my favorite AUR helper,
231 [pacaur](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pacaur/), then I install
232 the
233 [mba6x\_bl-dkms](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/mba6x%5Fbl-dkms/)
234 backlight driver to fix the post suspend/resume issue where there's no
235 brightness after waking up from suspend, and the only available
236 brightness would be 100%.
237
238 ```bash
239 pacaur -S linux-headers dkms # linux-headers is required for dkms
240 pacaur -S broadcom-wl-dkms
241 pacaur -S mba6x_bl-dkms
242 ```
243
244 Then, I'd like to install
245
246 - input, graphics, and sound drivers,
247 - a desktop environment (I prefer Xfce or LXQt),
248 - a display manager for login screen (lightdm or sddm), and
249 - a network manager (NetworkManager or ConnMan).
250
251 Check out the [General
252 recommendations](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/General%5Frecommendations)
253 for more details.
254
255 ## References
256
257 Here are some resources I've come across each with lots of useful bits
258 and pieces, about installing Arch on a MacBook:
259
260 - [pandeiro/arch-on-air](https://github.com/pandeiro/arch-on-air)
261 - [Arch Linux on MacBook Pro Retina 2014 with DM-Crypt, LVM and suspend to disk](https://loicpefferkorn.net/2015/01/arch-linux-on-macbook-pro-retina-2014-with-dm-crypt-lvm-and-suspend-to-disk/)
262 - [Installing Archlinux on Macbook Air 2013](http://frankshin.com/installing-archlinux-on-macbook-air-2013/)
263 - [Arch Linux Installation with OS X on Macbook Air (Dual Boot)](http://panks.me/posts/2013/06/arch-linux-installation-with-os-x-on-macbook-air-dual-boot/)
264 - [Installing (encrypted) Arch Linux on an Apple MacBook Pro](https://visual-assault.org/2016/03/05/install-encrypted-arch-linux-on-apple-macbook-pro/)
265 - [Installing Arch Linux on a MacBook Air 2013](http://alexeyzabelin.com/arch-on-mac)
266 - [Arch Linux running on my MacBook](https://medium.com/phils-thought-bubble-of-recent-stuff/arch-linux-running-on-my-macbook-2ea525ebefe3)
267 - [Dual boot Arch Linux on MacBook Pro Installation](http://codylittlewood.com/arch-linux-on-macbook-pro-installation/)