tweak date format, add .gitignore and Makefile
[~bandali/bndl.org] / posts / arch-macbook-air.md
... / ...
CommitLineData
1title: Arch GNU/Linux on MacBook Air 2013
2date: 2016-11-01 00:00
3slug: arch-macbook-air
4tags: arch, macbook
5---
6
7This post summarizes how I install and dual-boot Arch GNU/Linux with
8Full-Disk Encryption alongside macOS. It is not meant to be a
9replacement for the [Installation
10Guide](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation%5Fguide) or
11the former [Beginner's
12Guide](https://csdietz.github.io/arch-beginner-guide/). Rather, it
13mostly serves as a small summary with a few useful notes about the
14gotchas.
15
16So, make sure you understand what you type into your terminal. If you
17don't, checking out the Arch wiki should probably be your first step.
18
19_Note:_ you will need internet access throughout the installation and
20the MacBook Air's WiFi doesn't work out of the box on Arch. I
21recommend using your phone's USB Tethering (if it does support it), or
22using an Ethernet-USB adapter.
23
24## Shrinking the macOS partition
25
26The first step I take is resizing the HFS+ macOS partition to make
27room for the new GNU/Linux installation. There are plenty of
28tutorials on how to do this using macOS's Disk Utility, so do that and
29then come back!
30
31## Creating a bootable Arch Installer USB
32
33There are different ways of creating a bootable Arch USB, all
34documented on the [USB flash installation
35media](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB%5Fflash%5Finstallation%5Fmedia)
36page on the Arch wiki, but the simplest one is using `dd` if you
37already 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
42Use `lsblk` to find the name (block device) of your USB drive, then
43run `dd` (as root) as shown below:
44
45```bash
46dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx status=progress && sync
47```
48
49Replace `/path/to/archlinux.iso` with the path to the Arch image you
50have downloaded, and `/dev/sdx` with your drive.
51
52## Booting up from the USB
53
54After creating the install USB, reboot your laptop and hold the alt
55key and boot into the USB.
56
57When booting is complete and you're presented with the prompt, it's a
58good time to make sure you're connected to the internet (see the
59_note_ at the top of this post).
60
61Use `ping` to verify that you've established a connection:
62
63```bash
64ping archlinux.org
65```
66
67## Updating the system clock
68
69Once you're connected to the internet, make sure the system clock is
70accurate:
71
72```bash
73timedatectl set-ntp true # start and enable systemd-timesyncd
74```
75
76You can check the service status using `timedatectl status`.
77
78## Partitioning
79
80I won't dive into partitioning and instead, I'll refer you to the
81[Partitioning](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning) page
82of Arch wiki. Of the available partitioning tools, I personally prefer
83`cfdisk`.
84
85## Setting up LVM & LUKS
86
87I use a [LVM on
88LUKS](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting%5Fan%5Fentire%5Fsystem#LVM%5Fon%5FLUKS)
89setup, where I set up LVM on top of the encrypted partition.
90
91First, let's set up the underlying encrypted partition:
92
93```bash
94cryptsetup -v --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --hash sha512 \
95 --iter-time 5000 --use-urandom -y luksFormat /dev/sdaX
96```
97
98where `/dev/sdaX` is the partition you created in the last step
99(e.g. `/dev/sda4`). For more information about the `cryptsetup`
100options, see the [LUKS encryption
101options](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device%5Fencryption#Encryption%5Foptions%5Ffor%5FLUKS%5Fmode).
102
103Then we open the container:
104
105```bash
106cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/sdaX lvm
107```
108
109Now it's time to use lvm and prepare the logical volume(s):
110
111```bash
112pvcreate /dev/mapper/lvm
113vgcreate vg /dev/mapper/lvm
114lvcreate --extents +100%FREE -n root vg
115```
116
117This will create a physical volume on the mapping we just opened,
118create a volume group named `vg` on the physical volume, and create a
119logical volume named `root` that spans the entire volume group. More
120complex setups are possible thanks to the great flexibility of lvm.
121
122We now format the logical volume with `ext4`:
123
124```bash
125mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-root
126```
127
128## Installing the base system
129
130Let's mount the logical volume, make a directory for the mount point
131of the boot partition, and mount the boot partition (`/dev/sda1`):
132
133```bash
134mount /dev/mapper/vg-root /mnt
135mkdir /mnt/boot
136mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
137```
138
139Finally, let's install the base system (and optionally `base-devel`):
140
141```bash
142pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
143```
144
145## Configuring the system
146
147Let's generate the fstab:
148
149```bash
150genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
151```
152
153Use your favorite terminal-based editor, edit the fstab file and add
154the `discard` option for the root partition to enable TRIM on the SSD.
155
156Now we change root into our newly installed system and will configure
157it. Adjust these according to your own setup.
158
159```bash
160arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
161passwd # set the root password
162echo myhostname > /etc/hostname # set the hostname
163ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Eastern /etc/localtime # time zone
164hwclock --systohc --utc # write system clock to hardware clock (UTC)
165useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash myuser # create myuser
166passwd myuser # set the password for myuser
167echo "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
169locale-gen
170echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
171export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
172```
173
174Then adjust the initramfs hooks in `/etc/mkinitcpio.conf` and enable
175the `encrypt` and `lvm2` hooks, and make sure `keyboard` is available
176before `encrypt` so you can actually type in the LUKS password when
177booting. Your `HOOKS` line should look similar to this:
178
179```nil
180HOOKS=(base udev autodetect keyboard keymap consolefont modconf block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)
181```
182
183After adjusting the hooks, build the initramfs:
184
185```bash
186mkinitcpio -p linux
187```
188
189Now, install the `intel-ucode` package. We'll configure the bootloader
190to enable intel microcode updates.
191
192```bash
193pacman -S intel-ucode
194```
195
196Create the `/boot/loader/loader.conf` with the following content
197(adjust the timeout to your liking):
198
199```nil
200default arch
201timeout 3
202```
203
204Then create the entry for Arch:
205
206```bash
207mkdir -p /boot/loader/entries
208touch /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
209```
210
211Now edit `/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf` to specify the Arch entry:
212
213```nil
214title Arch GNU/Linux
215linux /vmlinuz-linux
216initrd /intel-ucode.img
217initrd /initramfs-linux.img
218options cryptdevice=/dev/sdaX:vg:allow-discards root=/dev/mapper/vg-root rw
219```
220
221Again, `/dev/sdaX` is the partition you created in the partitioning
222step earlier as the underlying encrypted partition.
223
224Finally, install the bootloader, exit the chroot, umount and reboot!
225
226```bash
227bootctl install
228exit
229umount -R /mnt
230reboot
231```
232
233## Post-installation recommendations
234
235Congratulations! You now have a minimal Arch installation.
236
237At this point, I usually install my favorite AUR helper,
238[pacaur](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pacaur/), then I install
239the
240[broadcom-wl-dkms](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/broadcom-wl-dkms/)
241wireless driver and
242[mba6x\_bl-dkms](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/mba6x%5Fbl-dkms/)
243backlight driver to fix the post suspend/resume issue where three's no
244brightness after waking up from suspend, and the only available
245brightness would be 100%.
246
247```bash
248pacaur -S linux-headers dkms # linux-headers is required for dkms
249pacaur -S broadcom-wl-dkms
250pacaur -S mba6x_bl-dkms
251```
252
253Then, I'd like to install
254
255- input, graphics, and sound drivers,
256- a desktop environment (I prefer Xfce or LXQt),
257- a display manager for login screen (lightdm or sddm), and
258- a network manager (NetworkManager or ConnMan).
259
260Check out the [General
261recommendations](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/General%5Frecommendations)
262for more details.
263
264## References
265
266Here are some resources I've come across each with lots of useful bits
267and pieces, about installing Arch on a MacBook:
268
269- [pandeiro/arch-on-air](https://github.com/pandeiro/arch-on-air)
270- [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/)
271- [Installing Archlinux on Macbook Air 2013](http://frankshin.com/installing-archlinux-on-macbook-air-2013/)
272- [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/)
273- [Installing (encrypted) Arch Linux on an Apple MacBook Pro](https://visual-assault.org/2016/03/05/install-encrypted-arch-linux-on-apple-macbook-pro/)
274- [Installing Arch Linux on a MacBook Air 2013](http://alexeyzabelin.com/arch-on-mac)
275- [Arch Linux running on my MacBook](https://medium.com/phils-thought-bubble-of-recent-stuff/arch-linux-running-on-my-macbook-2ea525ebefe3)
276- [Dual boot Arch Linux on MacBook Pro Installation](http://codylittlewood.com/arch-linux-on-macbook-pro-installation/)