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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
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]]