--- /dev/null
+dnl -*- html -*-
+define(__pub, 2016-11-01T12:00:00Z)dnl
+define(__upd, 2020-03-27T12:00:00Z)dnl
+define(__title, `Arch GNU/Linux on MacBook Air 2013')dnl
+define(__slug, `computing')dnl
+define(__id, 1)dnl
+include(header.html)
+<p>This post summarizes how I install and dual-boot Arch GNU/Linux
+with Full-Disk Encryption alongside macOS. It is not meant to be a
+replacement for the
+<a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation%5Fguide">Installation
+Guide</a> or the former
+<a href="//csdietz.github.io/arch-beginner-guide/">Beginner's
+Guide</a>. Rather, it mostly serves as a small summary with a few
+useful notes about the gotchas.</p>
+
+<p>So, make sure you understand what you type into your terminal. If
+you don't, checking out the Arch wiki should probably be your first
+step.</p>
+
+<p><em>Note:</em> you will need internet access throughout the
+installation and the MacBook Air's WiFi doesn't work out of the box on
+Arch. I recommend using an Ethernet-USB adapter or your phone's USB
+Tethering feature (if it does support it).</p>
+
+<h2>Shrinking the macOS partition</h2>
+<p>The first step I take is resizing the HFS+ macOS partition to make
+room for the new GNU/Linux installation. There are plenty of
+tutorials on how to do this using macOS's Disk Utility, so do that and
+then come back!</p>
+
+<h2>Creating a bootable Arch Installer USB</h2>
+<p>There are different ways of creating a bootable Arch USB, all
+documented on the
+<a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB%5Fflash%5Finstallation%5Fmedia">USB
+flash installation media</a> page on the Arch wiki, but the simplest
+one is using <code>dd</code> if you already have access to another
+UNIX system.</p>
+
+<p><strong class="warn">Warning:</strong> make sure you backup the
+data on your flash drive, as <code>dd</code> will irrevocably destroy
+all data on it.</p>
+
+<p>Use <code>lsblk</code> to find the name (block device) of your USB drive, then
+run <code>dd</code> (as root) as shown below:</p>
+
+<pre>
+dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx status=progress && sync
+</pre>
+
+<p>Replace <code>/path/to/archlinux.iso</code> with the path to the
+Arch image you have downloaded, and <code>/dev/sdx</code> with your
+drive.</p>
+
+<h2>Booting up from the USB</h2>
+<p>After creating the install USB, reboot your laptop and hold the alt
+key and boot from the USB.</p>
+
+<p>When booting is complete and you're presented with the prompt, it's
+a good time to make sure you're connected to the internet (see the
+<em>note</em> at the top of this post).</p>
+
+<p>Use <code>ping</code> to verify that you have established a
+connection:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ping archlinux.org
+</pre>
+
+<h2>Updating the system clock</h2>
+<p>Once you're connected to the internet, make sure the system clock
+is accurate:</p>
+
+<pre>
+timedatectl set-ntp true # start and enable systemd-timesyncd
+</pre>
+
+<p>You can check the service status using <code>timedatectl
+status</code>.</p>
+
+<h2>Partitioning</h2>
+<p>I won't dive into partitioning and instead, I will refer you to the
+<a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning">Partitioning</a>
+page of Arch wiki. Of the available partitioning tools, I personally
+prefer <code>cfdisk</code>.</p>
+
+<h2>Setting up LVM & LUKS</h2>
+<p>I use an
+<a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting%5Fan%5Fentire%5Fsystem#LVM%5Fon%5FLUKS">LVM
+on LUKS</a> setup, where I set up LVM on top of the encrypted
+partition.</p>
+
+<p>First, let's set up the underlying encrypted partition:</p>
+
+<pre>
+cryptsetup -v --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --hash sha512 \
+ --iter-time 5000 --use-urandom -y luksFormat /dev/sdaX
+</pre>
+
+<p>where <code>/dev/sdaX</code> is the partition you created in the
+last step (e.g. <code>/dev/sda4</code>). For more information about
+the <code>cryptsetup</code> options, see the
+<a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device%5Fencryption#Encryption%5Foptions%5Ffor%5FLUKS%5Fmode">LUKS
+encryption options</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Then we open the container:</p>
+
+<pre>
+cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/sdaX lvm
+</pre>
+
+<p>Now it's time to use lvm and prepare the logical volume(s):</p>
+
+<pre>
+pvcreate /dev/mapper/lvm vgcreate vg /dev/mapper/lvm
+lvcreate --extents +100%FREE -n root vg
+</pre>
+
+<p>This will create a physical volume on the mapping we just opened,
+create a volume group named <code>vg</code> on the physical volume,
+and create a logical volume named <code>root</code> that spans the
+entire volume group. More complex setups are possible thanks to the
+great flexibility of lvm.</p>
+
+<p>We now format the logical volume with <code>ext4</code>:</p>
+
+<pre>
+mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-root
+</pre>
+
+<h2>Installing the base system</h2>
+<p>Let's mount the logical volume, make a directory for the mount
+point of the boot partition, and mount the boot partition
+(<code>/dev/sda1</code>):</p>
+
+<pre>
+mount /dev/mapper/vg-root /mnt
+mkdir /mnt/boot
+mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
+</pre>
+
+<p>Finally, let's install the base system (and optionally
+<code>base-devel</code>):</p>
+
+<pre>
+pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
+</pre>
+
+<h2>Configuring the system</h2>
+<p>Let's generate the fstab:</p>
+
+<pre>
+genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
+</pre>
+
+<p>Use your favorite terminal-based editor, edit the fstab file and
+add the <code>discard</code> option for the root partition to enable
+TRIM on the SSD.</p>
+
+<p>Now we change root into our newly installed system and will
+configure it. Adjust these according to your own setup.</p>
+
+<pre>
+arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
+passwd # set the root password
+echo myhostname > /etc/hostname # set the hostname
+ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Eastern /etc/localtime # time zone
+hwclock --systohc --utc # write system clock to hardware clock (UTC)
+useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash myuser # create myuser
+passwd myuser # set the password for myuser
+echo "myuser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" >> /etc/sudoers.d/myuser
+# uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed locales in /etc/locale.gen
+locale-gen
+echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
+export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
+</pre>
+
+<p>Then adjust the initramfs hooks in
+<code>/etc/mkinitcpio.conf</code> and enable the
+<code>encrypt</code> and <code>lvm2</code> hooks, and make sure
+<code>keyboard</code> is available before <code>encrypt</code> so you
+can actually type in the LUKS password when booting. Your
+<code>HOOKS</code> line should look similar to this:</p>
+
+<pre>
+HOOKS=(base udev autodetect keyboard keymap consolefont modconf block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)
+</pre>
+
+<p>After adjusting the hooks, build the initramfs:</p>
+
+<pre>
+mkinitcpio -p linux
+</pre>
+
+<p>Create the <code>/boot/loader/loader.conf</code> with the following
+content (adjust the timeout to your liking):</p>
+
+<pre>
+default arch timeout 3
+</pre>
+
+<p>Then create the entry for Arch:</p>
+
+<pre>
+mkdir -p /boot/loader/entries
+touch /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
+</pre>
+
+<p>Now edit <code>/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf</code> to specify the
+Arch entry:</p>
+
+<pre>
+title Arch GNU/Linux
+linux /vmlinuz-linux
+initrd /intel-ucode.img
+initrd /initramfs-linux.img
+options cryptdevice=/dev/sdaX:vg:allow-discards root=/dev/mapper/vg-root rw
+</pre>
+
+<p>Again, <code>/dev/sdaX</code> is the partition you created in the
+partitioning step earlier as the underlying encrypted partition.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, install the bootloader, exit the chroot, umount and
+reboot!</p>
+
+<pre>
+bootctl install
+exit
+umount -R /mnt
+reboot
+</pre>
+
+<h2>Post-installation recommendations</h2>
+<p>Congratulations! You now have a minimal Arch installation.</p>
+
+<p>At this point, I usually install my favorite AUR helper,
+<a href="//aur.archlinux.org/packages/pacaur/">pacaur</a>, then I
+install the
+<a href="//aur.archlinux.org/packages/mba6x%5Fbl-dkms/">mba6x_bl-dkms</a>
+backlight driver to fix the post suspend/resume issue where there's no
+brightness after waking up from suspend, and the only available
+brightness would be 100%.</p>
+
+<pre>
+pacaur -S linux-headers dkms # linux-headers is required for dkms
+pacaur -S broadcom-wl-dkms
+pacaur -S mba6x_bl-dkms
+</pre>
+
+<p>Then, I'd like to install</p>
+<ul>
+<li>input, graphics, and sound drivers,</li>
+<li>a desktop environment (I prefer Xfce or LXQt),</li>
+<li>a display manager for login screen (lightdm or sddm), and</li>
+<li>a network manager (NetworkManager or ConnMan).</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>Check out the
+<a href="//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/General%5Frecommendations">General
+recommendations</a> for more details.</p>
+
+<h2>References</h2>
+<p>Here are some resources I've come across each with lots of useful
+bits and pieces, about installing Arch on a MacBook:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li><a href="//github.com/pandeiro/arch-on-air">pandeiro/arch-on-air</a></li>
+<li><a href="//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</a></li>
+<li><a href="//www.frankshin.com/2014/installing-archlinux-on-macbook-air-2013/">Installing Archlinux on Macbook Air 2013</a></li>
+<li><a href="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)</a></li>
+<li><a href="//alexeyzabelin.com/arch-on-mac">Installing Arch Linux on a MacBook Air 2013</a></li>
+<li><a href="//medium.com/phils-thought-bubble-of-recent-stuff/arch-linux-running-on-my-macbook-2ea525ebefe3">Arch Linux running on my MacBook</a></li>
+<li><a href="http://codylittlewood.com/arch-linux-on-macbook-pro-installation/">Dual boot Arch Linux on MacBook Pro Installation</a></li>
+</ul>
+define(__copy, `2016, 2019, 2020')dnl
+include(footer.html)
projects / ~bandali / bndl.org / blobdiff