Installing Arch Linux on MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013)

The following is my dual OSX - Arch linux set up:

Configuration PHASES

1. Boot into arch and make the harddisk ready, root with password. 1st reboot

2. Boot into OSX and create boot file structure, copy boot.efi 2nd reboot

3. Boot into arch and login as root and make new user. 3rd reboot

4. Boot into arch,login as user and install your desktop environment.

Create USBs for installation

Make a bootable USB with arch Installallation

Make a bootable USB with GParted (optional))

PHASE 1 "Boot into arch and make the harddisk ready, root has a password. 1st reboot"

Use the latest Arch usb to boot from it

Use the US keyboard otherwise you have to select your keymap manually on “/usr/share /kbd/keymaps” directory

loadkeys <yours>

Create partitions for installation

Use Gparted to format partitions after creating them on OSX optional or use fdisk, cgdisk.

Create a SHARE partition to access from both systems at sda4.

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda5         (Arch bootloader) 128 MiB for Apple HFS+ 
mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda6         (boot linux)256 MiB
mkswap /dev/sda7            (swap)	2 Gig
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda8         (root)	15 Gig
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda9         (home)	23 Gig

Mount partitions

mount /dev/sda8 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot && mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/boot
mkdir /mnt/home && mount /dev/sda9 /mnt/home
swapon /dev/sda7

Network

Plugin ethernet cable via adapter. It usually connects automatically. If necessary run the following:

wifi-menu

To check connection:

ping yahoo.com

Installation

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Optimize parameters for SSD, open your fstab file:

nano /mnt/etc/fstab

Make the following changes for SSD:

/dev/sda6      /boot  ext2  defaults,relatime,stripe=4    0 2
/dev/sda8        /      ext4  defaults,noatime,discard,data=writeback   0 1
/dev/mapper/home /home  ext4  defaults,noatime,discard,data=ordered 0 2
/swapfile none  swap defaults                                0 0

Pacman update

pacman -Sy
nano /etc/pacman.conf

un-comment “multilib” repo:

[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Add Yaourt repository at the bottom:

[archlinuxfr]
siglevel = Never
Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch

Configure your new base system

arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash 

Set up locale

sudo nano /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment desired locals

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 
en_US ISO-8859-1

Generate locales

locale-gen

create a settings file to load default language on boot

echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Keymap for the new installation

Check console fonts at https://alexandre.deverteuil.net/pages/consolefonts/

nano /etc/vconsole.conf

Insert/edit reqyuired keymap:

KEYMAP=us
FONT=lat9w-16

Ensure you've chosen the correct keymap otherwise you might be in trouble when login the first time.

Link the preferred time zone to your localtime link:

rm /etc/localtime
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/localtime

Enable the hardware clock

hwclock --systohc --utc

Name the system

echo ArchZain > /etc/hostname

nano /etc/hosts

Add the new hostname lines

   127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost ArchZain
   ::1 localhost.localdomain localhost ArchZain

Network Manager

pacman -S networkmanager
systemctl enable NetworkManager

Edit mkinitcpio

nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Insert “keyboard” after HOOKS as necessary:

HOOKS="base udev autodetect modconf block keyboard zfs filesystems"

Run mkinitcpio and set root password:

mkinitcpio -p linux
passwd

Bootloader

pacman -S grub-efi-x86_64

Edit Grub

nano /etc/default/grub 

Change it as follows:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet rootflags=data=writeback libata.force=1:noncq"

Also fix submenu

GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y

Generate boot.efi

grub-mkconfig -o boot/grub/grub.cfg

grub-mkstandalone -o boot.efi -d usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi -O x86_64-efi --compress=xz boot/grub/grub.cfg

Copy boot.EFI to USB

Insert USB and list partitions

fdisk -l

Now copy boot.efi to the USB drive

mkdir /mnt/usbdisk && mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usbdisk
cp boot.efi /mnt/usbdisk
umount /dev/sdc1

Unmount your partitions

umount /mnt/boot 
umount /mnt/home 
swapoff /dev/sda7 
umount /mnt

exit chroot:

exit
reboot

PHASE 2 "Boot into OSX and create boot file structure, paste boot.efi 2nd reboot"

Power and press option key to boot in OSX

Open Disk Utility and format (“Erase”) /dev/disk0s5 ([128MB] Apple HFS+ “Boot Loader”)using Mac journaled filesystem

Create boot file structure

Open terminal to set Arch in apple bootloader as default boot option.

cd /Volumes/ARCH\ BOOT
mkdir System mach_kernel
cd System
mkdir Library
cd Library
mkdir CoreServices
cd CoreServices
touch SystemVersion.plist
nano SystemVersion.plist

<xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>ProductBuildVersion</key>
    <string></string>
    <key>ProductName</key>
    <string>Linux</string>
    <key>ProductVersion</key>
    <string>Arch Linux</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Copy boot.efi from your USB stick to the CoreServices directory.

User terminal or finder to copy boot.efi

Make Boot Loader partition bootable

Disable the System Integrity Projection of OS X before proceeding: Restart the computer, while booting hold down Command-R to boot into recovery mode. Navigate to the “Utilities > Terminal” in the top menu bar.

csrutil disable

Restart option key in OSX open terminal and type the following:

sudo bless --device /dev/disk0s5 --setBoot

Reboot option key and select Arch linux to boot.

PHASE 3 "Boot into arch and login as root and make new user, 3rd reboot"

login using root password

Add new user and password

useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash zain
passwd zain

Check internet connection

ping yahoo.com

If not connected do the following otherwise skip this step:

ip link
systemctl enable dhcpcd@ens9
ip link set ens9 up

Sudo rights

pacman -S sudo
EDITOR=nano visudo

Unckeck as follows:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Bash completion

pacman -S bash-completion

Exit root

exit

PHASE 4 "Boot into arch, login with username and install your desktop environment"

Check I3 installation and optimization for MacBook Air.

Source of information without any particular order:

• How to Dual-Boot OS X and Ubuntu by Nailen Matschke
• Arch Linux on a MacBook Pro
• Arch Linux Installation with OS X on Macbook Air dual boot
• pandeiro arch-on-air