git.shemshak.org - ~bandali/bndl.org/blob - 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 Now, install the `intel-ucode` package. We'll configure the bootloader
 190 to enable intel microcode updates.
 191
 192 ```bash
 193 pacman -S intel-ucode
 194 ```
 195
 196 Create the `/boot/loader/loader.conf` with the following content
 197 (adjust the timeout to your liking):
 198
 199 ```nil
 200 default arch
 201 timeout 3
 202 ```
 203
 204 Then create the entry for Arch:
 205
 206 ```bash
 207 mkdir -p /boot/loader/entries
 208 touch /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
 209 ```
 210
 211 Now edit `/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf` to specify the Arch entry:
 212
 213 ```nil
 214 title    Arch GNU/Linux
 215 linux    /vmlinuz-linux
 216 initrd   /intel-ucode.img
 217 initrd   /initramfs-linux.img
 218 options  cryptdevice=/dev/sdaX:vg:allow-discards root=/dev/mapper/vg-root rw
 219 ```
 220
 221 Again, `/dev/sdaX` is the partition you created in the partitioning
 222 step earlier as the underlying encrypted partition.
 223
 224 Finally, install the bootloader, exit the chroot, umount and reboot!
 225
 226 ```bash
 227 bootctl install
 228 exit
 229 umount -R /mnt
 230 reboot
 231 ```
 232
 233 ## Post-installation recommendations
 234
 235 Congratulations! You now have a minimal Arch installation.
 236
 237 At this point, I usually install my favorite AUR helper,
 238 [pacaur](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pacaur/), then I install
 239 the
 240 [broadcom-wl-dkms](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/broadcom-wl-dkms/)
 241 wireless driver and
 242 [mba6x\_bl-dkms](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/mba6x%5Fbl-dkms/)
 243 backlight driver to fix the post suspend/resume issue where three's no
 244 brightness after waking up from suspend, and the only available
 245 brightness would be 100%.
 246
 247 ```bash
 248 pacaur -S linux-headers dkms  # linux-headers is required for dkms
 249 pacaur -S broadcom-wl-dkms
 250 pacaur -S mba6x_bl-dkms
 251 ```
 252
 253 Then, 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
 260 Check out the [General
 261 recommendations](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/General%5Frecommendations)
 262 for more details.
 263
 264 ## References
 265
 266 Here are some resources I've come across each with lots of useful bits
 267 and 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/)