git.shemshak.org - ~bandali/bndl.org/blob - posts/arch-macbook-air.md

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