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  26 <h1>Arch GNU/Linux on MacBook Air 2013</h1>
  27 <p>Published on November  1, 2016<br/>
  28 Last updated on March 27, 2020</p>
  29 </header>
  30
  31 <p>This post summarizes how I install and dual-boot Arch GNU/Linux
  32 with Full-Disk Encryption alongside macOS.  It is not meant to be a
  33 replacement for the
  34 <a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation%5Fguide">Installation
  35 Guide</a> or the former
  36 <a href="//csdietz.github.io/arch-beginner-guide/">Beginner's
  37 Guide</a>.  Rather, it mostly serves as a small summary with a few
  38 useful notes about the gotchas.</p>
  39
  40 <p>So, make sure you understand what you type into your terminal.  If
  41 you don't, checking out the Arch wiki should probably be your first
  42 step.</p>
  43
  44 <p><em>Note:</em> you will need internet access throughout the
  45 installation and the MacBook Air's WiFi doesn't work out of the box on
  46 Arch.  I recommend using an Ethernet-USB adapter or your phone's USB
  47 Tethering feature (if it does support it).</p>
  48
  49 <h2>Shrinking the macOS partition</h2>
  50 <p>The first step I take is resizing the HFS+ macOS partition to make
  51 room for the new GNU/Linux installation.  There are plenty of
  52 tutorials on how to do this using macOS's Disk Utility, so do that and
  53 then come back!</p>
  54
  55 <h2>Creating a bootable Arch Installer USB</h2>
  56 <p>There are different ways of creating a bootable Arch USB, all
  57 documented on the
  58 <a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB%5Fflash%5Finstallation%5Fmedia">USB
  59 flash installation media</a> page on the Arch wiki, but the simplest
  60 one is using <code>dd</code> if you already have access to another
  61 UNIX system.</p>
  62
  63 <p><strong class="warn">Warning:</strong> make sure you backup the
  64 data on your flash drive, as <code>dd</code> will irrevocably destroy
  65 all data on it.</p>
  66
  67 <p>Use <code>lsblk</code> to find the name (block device) of your USB drive, then
  68 run <code>dd</code> (as root) as shown below:</p>
  69
  70 <pre>
  71 dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx status=progress && sync
  72 </pre>
  73
  74 <p>Replace <code>/path/to/archlinux.iso</code> with the path to the
  75 Arch image you have downloaded, and <code>/dev/sdx</code> with your
  76 drive.</p>
  77
  78 <h2>Booting up from the USB</h2>
  79 <p>After creating the install USB, reboot your laptop and hold the alt
  80 key and boot from the USB.</p>
  81
  82 <p>When booting is complete and you're presented with the prompt, it's
  83 a good time to make sure you're connected to the internet (see the
  84 <em>note</em> at the top of this post).</p>
  85
  86 <p>Use <code>ping</code> to verify that you have established a
  87 connection:</p>
  88
  89 <pre>
  90 ping archlinux.org
  91 </pre>
  92
  93 <h2>Updating the system clock</h2>
  94 <p>Once you're connected to the internet, make sure the system clock
  95 is accurate:</p>
  96
  97 <pre>
  98 timedatectl set-ntp true  # start and enable systemd-timesyncd
  99 </pre>
 100
 101 <p>You can check the service status using <code>timedatectl
 102 status</code>.</p>
 103
 104 <h2>Partitioning</h2>
 105 <p>I won't dive into partitioning and instead, I will refer you to the
 106 <a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning">Partitioning</a>
 107 page of Arch wiki.  Of the available partitioning tools, I personally
 108 prefer <code>cfdisk</code>.</p>
 109
 110 <h2>Setting up LVM &amp; LUKS</h2>
 111 <p>I use an
 112 <a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting%5Fan%5Fentire%5Fsystem#LVM%5Fon%5FLUKS">LVM
 113 on LUKS</a> setup, where I set up LVM on top of the encrypted
 114 partition.</p>
 115
 116 <p>First, let's set up the underlying encrypted partition:</p>
 117
 118 <pre>
 119 cryptsetup -v --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --hash sha512 \
 120            --iter-time 5000 --use-urandom -y luksFormat /dev/sdaX
 121 </pre>
 122
 123 <p>where <code>/dev/sdaX</code> is the partition you created in the
 124 last step (e.g. <code>/dev/sda4</code>).  For more information about
 125 the <code>cryptsetup</code> options, see the
 126 <a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device%5Fencryption#Encryption%5Foptions%5Ffor%5FLUKS%5Fmode">LUKS
 127 encryption options</a>.</p>
 128
 129 <p>Then we open the container:</p>
 130
 131 <pre>
 132 cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/sdaX lvm
 133 </pre>
 134
 135 <p>Now it's time to use lvm and prepare the logical volume(s):</p>
 136
 137 <pre>
 138 pvcreate /dev/mapper/lvm vgcreate vg /dev/mapper/lvm
 139 lvcreate --extents +100%FREE -n root vg
 140 </pre>
 141
 142 <p>This will create a physical volume on the mapping we just opened,
 143 create a volume group named <code>vg</code> on the physical volume,
 144 and create a logical volume named <code>root</code> that spans the
 145 entire volume group.  More complex setups are possible thanks to the
 146 great flexibility of lvm.</p>
 147
 148 <p>We now format the logical volume with <code>ext4</code>:</p>
 149
 150 <pre>
 151 mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-root
 152 </pre>
 153
 154 <h2>Installing the base system</h2>
 155 <p>Let's mount the logical volume, make a directory for the mount
 156 point of the boot partition, and mount the boot partition
 157 (<code>/dev/sda1</code>):</p>
 158
 159 <pre>
 160 mount /dev/mapper/vg-root /mnt
 161 mkdir /mnt/boot
 162 mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
 163 </pre>
 164
 165 <p>Finally, let's install the base system (and optionally
 166 <code>base-devel</code>):</p>
 167
 168 <pre>
 169 pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
 170 </pre>
 171
 172 <h2>Configuring the system</h2>
 173 <p>Let's generate the fstab:</p>
 174
 175 <pre>
 176 genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
 177 </pre>
 178
 179 <p>Use your favorite terminal-based editor, edit the fstab file and
 180 add the <code>discard</code> option for the root partition to enable
 181 TRIM on the SSD.</p>
 182
 183 <p>Now we change root into our newly installed system and will
 184 configure it.  Adjust these according to your own setup.</p>
 185
 186 <pre>
 187 arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
 188 passwd # set the root password
 189 echo myhostname > /etc/hostname # set the hostname
 190 ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Eastern /etc/localtime # time zone
 191 hwclock --systohc --utc # write system clock to hardware clock (UTC)
 192 useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash myuser # create myuser
 193 passwd myuser # set the password for myuser
 194 echo "myuser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" >> /etc/sudoers.d/myuser
 195 # uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed locales in /etc/locale.gen
 196 locale-gen
 197 echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
 198 export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 199 </pre>
 200
 201 <p>Then adjust the initramfs hooks in
 202 <code>/etc/mkinitcpio.conf</code> and enable the
 203 <code>encrypt</code> and <code>lvm2</code> hooks, and make sure
 204 <code>keyboard</code> is available before <code>encrypt</code> so you
 205 can actually type in the LUKS password when booting.  Your
 206 <code>HOOKS</code> line should look similar to this:</p>
 207
 208 <pre>
 209 HOOKS=(base udev autodetect keyboard keymap consolefont modconf block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)
 210 </pre>
 211
 212 <p>After adjusting the hooks, build the initramfs:</p>
 213
 214 <pre>
 215 mkinitcpio -p linux
 216 </pre>
 217
 218 <p>Create the <code>/boot/loader/loader.conf</code> with the following
 219 content (adjust the timeout to your liking):</p>
 220
 221 <pre>
 222 default arch timeout 3
 223 </pre>
 224
 225 <p>Then create the entry for Arch:</p>
 226
 227 <pre>
 228 mkdir -p /boot/loader/entries
 229 touch /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
 230 </pre>
 231
 232 <p>Now edit <code>/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf</code> to specify the
 233 Arch entry:</p>
 234
 235 <pre>
 236 title Arch GNU/Linux
 237 linux /vmlinuz-linux
 238 initrd /intel-ucode.img
 239 initrd /initramfs-linux.img
 240 options cryptdevice=/dev/sdaX:vg:allow-discards root=/dev/mapper/vg-root rw
 241 </pre>
 242
 243 <p>Again, <code>/dev/sdaX</code> is the partition you created in the
 244 partitioning step earlier as the underlying encrypted partition.</p>
 245
 246 <p>Finally, install the bootloader, exit the chroot, umount and
 247 reboot!</p>
 248
 249 <pre>
 250 bootctl install
 251 exit
 252 umount -R /mnt
 253 reboot
 254 </pre>
 255
 256 <h2>Post-installation recommendations</h2>
 257 <p>Congratulations!  You now have a minimal Arch installation.</p>
 258
 259 <p>At this point, I usually install my favorite AUR helper,
 260 <a href="//aur.archlinux.org/packages/pacaur/">pacaur</a>, then I
 261 install the
 262 <a href="//aur.archlinux.org/packages/mba6x%5Fbl-dkms/">mba6x_bl-dkms</a>
 263 backlight driver to fix the post suspend/resume issue where there's no
 264 brightness after waking up from suspend, and the only available
 265 brightness would be 100%.</p>
 266
 267 <pre>
 268 pacaur -S linux-headers dkms # linux-headers is required for dkms
 269 pacaur -S broadcom-wl-dkms
 270 pacaur -S mba6x_bl-dkms
 271 </pre>
 272
 273 <p>Then, I'd like to install</p>
 274 <ul>
 275 <li>input, graphics, and sound drivers,</li>
 276 <li>a desktop environment (I prefer Xfce or LXQt),</li>
 277 <li>a display manager for login screen (lightdm or sddm), and</li>
 278 <li>a network manager (NetworkManager or ConnMan).</li>
 279 </ul>
 280
 281 <p>Check out the
 282 <a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/General%5Frecommendations">General
 283 recommendations</a> for more details.</p>
 284
 285 <h2>References</h2>
 286 <p>Here are some resources I've come across each with lots of useful
 287 bits and pieces, about installing Arch on a MacBook:</p>
 288
 289 <ul>
 290 <li><a href="//github.com/pandeiro/arch-on-air">pandeiro/arch-on-air</a></li>
 291 <li><a href="//loicpefferkorn.net/2015/01/arch-linux-on-macbook-pro-retina-2014-with-dm-crypt-lvm-and-suspend-to-disk/">Arch Linux on MacBook Pro Retina 2014 with DM-Crypt, LVM and suspend to disk</a></li>
 292 <li><a href="//www.frankshin.com/2014/installing-archlinux-on-macbook-air-2013/">Installing Archlinux on Macbook Air 2013</a></li>
 293 <li><a href="http://panks.me/posts/2013/06/arch-linux-installation-with-os-x-on-macbook-air-dual-boot/">Arch Linux Installation with OS X on Macbook Air (Dual Boot)</a></li>
 294 <li><a href="//alexeyzabelin.com/arch-on-mac">Installing Arch Linux on a MacBook Air 2013</a></li>
 295 <li><a href="//medium.com/phils-thought-bubble-of-recent-stuff/arch-linux-running-on-my-macbook-2ea525ebefe3">Arch Linux running on my MacBook</a></li>
 296 <li><a href="http://codylittlewood.com/arch-linux-on-macbook-pro-installation/">Dual boot Arch Linux on MacBook Pro Installation</a></li>
 297 </ul>
 298
 299 <p class="muted inbox">Got a question or comment?  You can find my
 300 email address on my <a href="contact">contact</a> page.
 301 <span class="smly">:-)</span></p>
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