git.shemshak.org - ~bandali/bndl.org/blob - source/2016/11/arch-macbook-air.org

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