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1title: Arch GNU/Linux on MacBook Air 2013
2date: 2016-11-01 00:00
3slug: arch-macbook-air
4tags: arch, macbook
5copyright: 2016, 2019
6---
7
8This post summarizes how I install and dual-boot Arch GNU/Linux with
9Full-Disk Encryption alongside macOS. It is not meant to be a
10replacement for the [Installation
11Guide](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation%5Fguide) or
12the former [Beginner's
13Guide](https://csdietz.github.io/arch-beginner-guide/). Rather, it
14mostly serves as a small summary with a few useful notes about the
15gotchas.
16
17So, make sure you understand what you type into your terminal. If you
18don't, checking out the Arch wiki should probably be your first step.
19
20_Note:_ you will need internet access throughout the installation and
21the MacBook Air's WiFi doesn't work out of the box on Arch. I
22recommend using your phone's USB Tethering (if it does support it), or
23using an Ethernet-USB adapter.
24
25## Shrinking the macOS partition
26
27The first step I take is resizing the HFS+ macOS partition to make
28room for the new GNU/Linux installation. There are plenty of
29tutorials on how to do this using macOS's Disk Utility, so do that and
30then come back!
31
32## Creating a bootable Arch Installer USB
33
34There are different ways of creating a bootable Arch USB, all
35documented on the [USB flash installation
36media](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB%5Fflash%5Finstallation%5Fmedia)
37page on the Arch wiki, but the simplest one is using `dd` if you
38already have access to another UNIX system.
39
40**Warning:** make sure you backup the data on your flash drive, as
41`dd` will irrevocably destroy all data on it.
42
43Use `lsblk` to find the name (block device) of your USB drive, then
44run `dd` (as root) as shown below:
45
46```bash
47dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx status=progress && sync
48```
49
50Replace `/path/to/archlinux.iso` with the path to the Arch image you
51have downloaded, and `/dev/sdx` with your drive.
52
53## Booting up from the USB
54
55After creating the install USB, reboot your laptop and hold the alt
56key and boot into the USB.
57
58When booting is complete and you're presented with the prompt, it's a
59good time to make sure you're connected to the internet (see the
60_note_ at the top of this post).
61
62Use `ping` to verify that you've established a connection:
63
64```bash
65ping archlinux.org
66```
67
68## Updating the system clock
69
70Once you're connected to the internet, make sure the system clock is
71accurate:
72
73```bash
74timedatectl set-ntp true # start and enable systemd-timesyncd
75```
76
77You can check the service status using `timedatectl status`.
78
79## Partitioning
80
81I won't dive into partitioning and instead, I'll refer you to the
82[Partitioning](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning) page
83of Arch wiki. Of the available partitioning tools, I personally prefer
84`cfdisk`.
85
86## Setting up LVM & LUKS
87
88I use a [LVM on
89LUKS](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting%5Fan%5Fentire%5Fsystem#LVM%5Fon%5FLUKS)
90setup, where I set up LVM on top of the encrypted partition.
91
92First, let's set up the underlying encrypted partition:
93
94```bash
95cryptsetup -v --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --hash sha512 \
96 --iter-time 5000 --use-urandom -y luksFormat /dev/sdaX
97```
98
99where `/dev/sdaX` is the partition you created in the last step
100(e.g. `/dev/sda4`). For more information about the `cryptsetup`
101options, see the [LUKS encryption
102options](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device%5Fencryption#Encryption%5Foptions%5Ffor%5FLUKS%5Fmode).
103
104Then we open the container:
105
106```bash
107cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/sdaX lvm
108```
109
110Now it's time to use lvm and prepare the logical volume(s):
111
112```bash
113pvcreate /dev/mapper/lvm
114vgcreate vg /dev/mapper/lvm
115lvcreate --extents +100%FREE -n root vg
116```
117
118This will create a physical volume on the mapping we just opened,
119create a volume group named `vg` on the physical volume, and create a
120logical volume named `root` that spans the entire volume group. More
121complex setups are possible thanks to the great flexibility of lvm.
122
123We now format the logical volume with `ext4`:
124
125```bash
126mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-root
127```
128
129## Installing the base system
130
131Let's mount the logical volume, make a directory for the mount point
132of the boot partition, and mount the boot partition (`/dev/sda1`):
133
134```bash
135mount /dev/mapper/vg-root /mnt
136mkdir /mnt/boot
137mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
138```
139
140Finally, let's install the base system (and optionally `base-devel`):
141
142```bash
143pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
144```
145
146## Configuring the system
147
148Let's generate the fstab:
149
150```bash
151genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
152```
153
154Use your favorite terminal-based editor, edit the fstab file and add
155the `discard` option for the root partition to enable TRIM on the SSD.
156
157Now we change root into our newly installed system and will configure
158it. Adjust these according to your own setup.
159
160```bash
161arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
162passwd # set the root password
163echo myhostname > /etc/hostname # set the hostname
164ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Eastern /etc/localtime # time zone
165hwclock --systohc --utc # write system clock to hardware clock (UTC)
166useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash myuser # create myuser
167passwd myuser # set the password for myuser
168echo "myuser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" >> /etc/sudoers.d/myuser
169# uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed locales in /etc/locale.gen
170locale-gen
171echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
172export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
173```
174
175Then adjust the initramfs hooks in `/etc/mkinitcpio.conf` and enable
176the `encrypt` and `lvm2` hooks, and make sure `keyboard` is available
177before `encrypt` so you can actually type in the LUKS password when
178booting. Your `HOOKS` line should look similar to this:
179
180```nil
181HOOKS=(base udev autodetect keyboard keymap consolefont modconf block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)
182```
183
184After adjusting the hooks, build the initramfs:
185
186```bash
187mkinitcpio -p linux
188```
189
190Create the `/boot/loader/loader.conf` with the following content
191(adjust the timeout to your liking):
192
193```nil
194default arch
195timeout 3
196```
197
198Then create the entry for Arch:
199
200```bash
201mkdir -p /boot/loader/entries
202touch /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
203```
204
205Now edit `/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf` to specify the Arch entry:
206
207```nil
208title Arch GNU/Linux
209linux /vmlinuz-linux
210initrd /intel-ucode.img
211initrd /initramfs-linux.img
212options cryptdevice=/dev/sdaX:vg:allow-discards root=/dev/mapper/vg-root rw
213```
214
215Again, `/dev/sdaX` is the partition you created in the partitioning
216step earlier as the underlying encrypted partition.
217
218Finally, install the bootloader, exit the chroot, umount and reboot!
219
220```bash
221bootctl install
222exit
223umount -R /mnt
224reboot
225```
226
227## Post-installation recommendations
228
229Congratulations! You now have a minimal Arch installation.
230
231At this point, I usually install my favorite AUR helper,
232[pacaur](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pacaur/), then I install
233the
234[mba6x\_bl-dkms](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/mba6x%5Fbl-dkms/)
235backlight driver to fix the post suspend/resume issue where there's no
236brightness after waking up from suspend, and the only available
237brightness would be 100%.
238
239```bash
240pacaur -S linux-headers dkms # linux-headers is required for dkms
241pacaur -S broadcom-wl-dkms
242pacaur -S mba6x_bl-dkms
243```
244
245Then, 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
252Check out the [General
253recommendations](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/General%5Frecommendations)
254for more details.
255
256## References
257
258Here are some resources I've come across each with lots of useful bits
259and pieces, about installing Arch on a MacBook:
260
261- [pandeiro/arch-on-air](https://github.com/pandeiro/arch-on-air)
262- [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/)
263- [Installing Archlinux on Macbook Air 2013](http://frankshin.com/installing-archlinux-on-macbook-air-2013/)
264- [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/)
265- [Installing (encrypted) Arch Linux on an Apple MacBook Pro](https://visual-assault.org/2016/03/05/install-encrypted-arch-linux-on-apple-macbook-pro/)
266- [Installing Arch Linux on a MacBook Air 2013](http://alexeyzabelin.com/arch-on-mac)
267- [Arch Linux running on my MacBook](https://medium.com/phils-thought-bubble-of-recent-stuff/arch-linux-running-on-my-macbook-2ea525ebefe3)
268- [Dual boot Arch Linux on MacBook Pro Installation](http://codylittlewood.com/arch-linux-on-macbook-pro-installation/)