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