Omarchy on Macbook Intel (T2 chips)

[nunix]

The last generation of Intel based MacBooks with T2 chips are still quite nice, and while macOS doesn't (?) support it anymore, they have become great Linux hosts.

The challenge however is that the T2 chips need specific kernel drivers, and that's where the t2linux.org community are making priceless contributions.
And while there's an Archlinux T2 iso available, the installation doesn't work with archinstall and we need to go through the "old way".

The good news, and which this manual will show, is that we can go from the base Archlinux ISO, follow the Omarchy installation and add all the drivers after the install.

[IMPORTANT]
The need for an external keyboard (at least) is mandatory. It can be wired or with a dongle. No bluetooth.
During the install, there's no WiFi, so the need for a multiport adapter with an RJ-45 port is also required.
[/IMPORTANT]

Let's jump into the content.

Prerequisites

For each prerequisite below, I'll mention what was used for this manual, so you can have a base for comparison.

Hardware:

• MacBook Intel T2
  • MacBook 13" Intel T2, 2020
• USB-C Multiport Adapter with RJ-45 port
  • Satechi ST-UCMBAM
• External Keyboard
  • Logitech K400 Plus
• USB stick
  • Kingston 64Go

Software:

• Archlinux ISO
  • archlinux-2025.08.01-x86_64.iso
• Fedora Media Writer
  • Version 5.2.8

Installation

With all the prerequisites ready, boot your MacBook while pressing the option key (⌥) until you see the EFI boot screen.

Follow the instructions below:

• Select EFI Boot with the yellow disk icon
• Select `Arch Linux install medium (x86_64, UEFI) menu entry

Tip: It could happen that the TTY "display size" is bigger than the screen and will display lines outside the screen size. To fix this issue, you can check the TTY size with stty size, which will give ROWS COLS sizes.
You can run stty rows xx cols to change it. For example, I changed mine to stty rows 50 cols 160.

• Run archinstall
• Follow the Omarchy Getting Started manual
• Additionally, you can already add the Arch T2 repo:
  • Select Mirrors and repositories
  • Select Add custom repository
  • Set the name to arch-mact2
  • Set the server to https://mirror.funami.tech/arch-mact2/os/x86_64
  • Select Never for the signature check
  • Select TrustAll for the packages trusted

Once the install is finished, select chroot into installation for post-installation configurations. Let's add some T2 configurations so upon first reboot, the MacBook can be used as intended.

Post-installation configurations

Once entered in the chroot session, run the following commands:

• pacman -Syu
  • This should display the T2 repo being up-to-date
• pacman -S linux-t2 apple-t2-audio-config apple-bcm-firmware linux-firmware t2fanrd tiny-dfr
  • These packages install the T2 Linux kernel, input devices drivers, fan management and the touchbar
  • tiny-dfr is therefore optional if you don't have a MacBook with the touchbar as I do
• wget https://mirror.funami.tech/arch-mact2/os/x86_64/apple-bcm-firmware-14.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst && sudo pacman -U apple-bcm-firmware-14.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst
  • This package installs WiFi and Bluetooth

Will all the packages installed, we can configure the EFI bootloader with the following commands:

• sed -i 's/-linux/-linux-t2/g' /boot/loader/entries/*.conf
  • The package linux-t2 installed the needed kernel files in /boot and we update the default and fallback entries to use them
• sed -i '/^options/{s/$/ intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat/}' /boot/loader/entries/*.conf
  • Add Intel-specific options to the kernel parameters

Exit the chroot session and reboot.

Omarchy install

From here, the MacBook keyboard should be working just fine and you can install Omarchy with the install script wget -qO- https://omarchy.org/install | bash

Once the install is done and the host reboots: welcome to Omarchy on the MacBook Intel T2 🎆

Conclusion

This whole write-up happened after a quick exchange with @dhh on X when I showed some screenshots of this setup.
Hopefully this will help other MacBook Intel T2 owners to try out Omarchy.

And if anyone wants to automate the whole process, please feel free to pick anything that can help from this post. It's all open for use and share.

The Corsair 🏴‍☠️

Bonus: optional configurations

Here's few different configurations that I apply for a "better" (relative to me) user experience with the MacBook and Omarchy:

# MacBook related settings
## Enable to swipe workspace with the trackpad
nvim ~/.local/share/omarchy/default/hypr/input.conf
gestures {
    workspace_swipe = true
    workspace_swipe_fingers = 3
}

## Enable natural scrolling, same as macOS default
nvim ~/.config/hypr/input.conf
touchpad {
    natural_scroll = true
}

## Change the scale for the applications, if like me you think is "too big"
nvim ~/.config/hypr/monitors.conf
env = GDK_SCALE,1
monitor=,preferred,auto,auto


# Omarchy
## Somehow, the close binding is missing from stock Hyprland, so I add it back
nvim ~/.config/hypr/bindings.conf
bindd = SUPER, Q, CloseWindow, killactive, #kill active window

[yuters]

Thank you for this guide! I was able to install it without errors.

Two useful tips:

1. If you've watched DHH's video for archinstall instead of reading the Getting Started guide, this guide is for the systemd-boot bootloader. Different steps would be needed for Grub.

2. Your keyboard needs to be available on early boot for the drive decrypt login screen. If your keyboard doesn't work when you have to enter your password, you'd need to edit the /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file and add apple-bce to the loaded modules. Ex.: MODULES=(btrfs apple-bce) and then run sudo mkinitcpio -P

Aside from that, if anyone knows how to fix the screen staying black when opening back the lid, or how to make sure the computer doesn't run ridiculously hot when idling, please let me know. I've tried everything on the t2linux.org wiki at this point. I'm on a Late 2019 Intel MacBook Pro 16.

[nunix]

Thanks a lot for the feedback and tips.

As I erased the whole disk, I could follow the initial getting started and pick systemd-boot without any problems. But definitely, if there's an update or a link to the video, please paste it here, and I'll update the initial post.

For the keyboard, I didn't face that issue so far, let me see the config file, but I'm sure you're correct about it, just I didn't change it.

The black screen might be related to the power profile. Can you switch the power profile to performance and test the behavior. When I have the black screen, I tend to press the space bar and the screen comes up again.

Finally, cannot really help with the temperature except for asking if you installed t2fanrd and tweaking the fan profile depending on the temperature.

Next phase is, as @dhh suggested, to create a script that would do the extra T2 steps is running on a MacBook. And, of course, the ISO solution will be the best as no more extra keyboard or network dongle would be needed. But that is for a further future 😅

[neosepulveda]

Hi there,

First, a huge thank you for this excellent guide. After a full day of tinkering, your instructions were exactly what I needed to get Arch and Omarchy running successfully.

System Details:

Model: MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)

Result: The installation was successful following your guide.

Minor Issue Encountered:
I ran into a small problem when trying to chroot for the post-installation steps. At that specific point, my machine completely froze, forcing me to perform a hard reboot.

Workaround:
This wasn't a major obstacle. I simply booted into the newly installed Arch system and ran all the commands from the "Post-installation configurations" section directly. Everything worked perfectly after that.

Additional Context for Others:
For anyone else attempting this, I used my Android phone's USB tethering for network access and an external USB keyboard before the native Wi-Fi and keyboard drivers were configured.

Thanks again for the fantastic work!

[qapquiz]

Just want to know more about the performance. I have this exact model. How is it? Does it get hot (like when we used to run macOS these days haha)?

[neosepulveda]

The performance is good. Feels snappier than in OSX but that is also part of the whole Hyprland magic vs the slow OSX animations.
It does get a bit hot but I am in a very hot climate right now so it is hard to say

[MountVesuvius]

Hi, sorry if this is a old thread but I've been having issues with suspend on the A1989 13-inch, 2018 MacBook Pro. I saw on the Omarchy docs that this can be an issue, and from what digging I've done it seems to be related to the JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 USB Controller crashing on suspend.

Have you had any luck with a work around/did following this guide solve that issue for you?

Thanks

[bholdman]

Getting an error that the file or directory doesn't exist when running sed -i 's/-linux/-linux-t2/g' /boot/loader/entries/*.conf
It looks like I have a /boot/EFI/limine folder with a conf file in it though.

[KhalidAdan]

Yeah, seems like the bootloader has changed since @nunix (thanks btw!) wrote this guide. I'm currently running into corrupt packages/installer issues with Omarchy so I can't confirm my solution.

For the adventurous:

timeout: 5

/Arch Linux (linux)
protocol: linux
path: boot():/vmlinuz-linux-t2
cmdline: root=PARTUUID=UUID zswap.enabled=0 rootflags=subvol=@ rw rootfstype=btrfs intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat
module_path: boot():/initramfs-linux-t2.img

/Arch Linux (linux-fallback)
protocol: linux
path: boot():/vmlinuz-linux-t2
cmdline: root=PARTUUID=UUID zswap.enabled=0 rootflags=subvol=@ rw rootfstype=btrfs intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat
module_path: boot():/initramfs-linux-t2-fallback.img

[m0rsecode]

I ran into issues with config. Changed /boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf and worked for me.

timeout: 5

/Arch Linux (linux)
protocol: linux
path: boot():/vmlinuz-linux-t2
cmdline: cryptdevice=PARTUUID={{UUID}}:root zswap.enabled=0 rootflags=subvol=@ rw rootfstype=btrfs intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat
module_path: boot():/initramfs-linux-t2.img

/Arch Linux (linux-fallback)
protocol: linux
path: boot():/vmlinuz-linux-t2
cmdline: cryptdevice=PARTUUID={{UUID}}:root zswap.enabled=0 rootflags=subvol=@ rw rootfstype=btrfs intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat
module_path: boot():/initramfs-linux-t2-fallback.img

[bholdman]

thanks @KhalidAdan and @m0rsecode, I should be able to try again later this afternoon and confirm.

[adrianjean]

For those in this boat here are the updated commands I used to update ‌/boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf:

Backup the limine.conf file

cp ‌/boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf ‌/boot/EFI/limine/limine.bak

Append “-t2” to all mentions of “-linux” in the config file:

sudo sed -i 's/-linux/-linux-t2/g' /boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf

Append needed kernel options to each cmdline: in the config file:

sudo sed -i '/^[[:space:]]*cmdline:/ s/$/ intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat/' /boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf

[adamshand]

Does anyone know, can I use the new ISO installer for this? Or do I need to use the old one?

[KhalidAdan]

I tried with the ISO and ran into issues before landing here. I think just following the guide and doing a fresh archinstall will make it doable for you. Got mine up and running last night!

[tdouilletgrellier]

Hi ! Is there a variant to this guide for non-T2 Intel Macs ? I have a MacBook Pro 14,3 and I am having trouble setting up the touchbar for example. Thank you in advance !

[adamshand]

Have you tried installing tiny-dfr as per the instructions?

pacman -S linux-t2 apple-t2-audio-config apple-bcm-firmware linux-firmware t2fanrd tiny-dfr
These packages install the T2 Linux kernel, input devices drivers, fan management and the touchbar
tiny-dfr is therefore optional if you don't have a MacBook with the touchbar as I do

[tdouilletgrellier]

i tried but tiny-dfr is for T2 macs, macbook 14,3 are T1 macs so it does not work.

i tried : https://github.com/pedroresende/macbook12-spi-driver
the module compiled, and it is loaded but still no touch bar ... it stays off

[adamshand]

Sorry, I don't have a touchbar mac, not sure!

[iamobservable]

@tdouilletgrellier

Following along in this thread and wondering if you've had any further progress on your T1 mac setup? I have a macbookpro13,2 (2016) device that has a touchbar with esc and function keys.

I'm currently testing a dual boot scenario to see if I can keep the T1/usb bridge our of recovery mode so linux can access the device.

I am thinking of creating a separate gist to account for the information I've found during my research. There seem to be many other references, but they are a bit old and sometimes with broken references. Any interest in contributing to it?

[tdouilletgrellier]

Hey !

Thank you for reaching out but after multiple attempts that did not work, I kinda lost interest in Omarchy and went back to good'ol Mac OS. This damned Touch Bar made it unusable on Arch for me without an external keyboard.

I still have the dual boot with omarchy installed so I can test stuff if needed.

Here are some references I've found during my attempts you may have them already. Here are my notes as is :

"
Full guide : https://gist.github.com/roadrunner2/1289542a748d9a104e7baec6a92f9cd7

Full guide : https://gist.github.com/almas/5f75adb61bccf604b6572f763ce63e3e?permalink_comment_id=5106386

• AMD drivers ( probably useless)
  sudo pacman -S mesa lib32-mesa vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon libva-mesa-driver libva-utils

• chromium issue
  —disable-gpu

Maybe this could solve it : intel-media-driver

• Wi-Fi stuff
  https://github.com/Cliffback/POP_OS_22.04-mbp-2016

Replace Mac adress

cp brcmfmac43602-pcie.txt /lib/firmware/brcm
rmmod brcmfmac && modprobe brcmfmac reset=1

This is the key :
iw dev wlan0 set txpower fixed 31

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=193121

• Touch Bar

https://www.collegesidekick.com/study-docs/13850638
"

[adamshand]

I didn't have wget available from the command line. For anyone else that runs into that, you can replace wget with curl, eg.

curl -LO https://mirror.funami.tech/arch-mact2/os/x86_64/apple-bcm-firmware-14.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst \
  && sudo pacman -U apple-bcm-firmware-14.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

curl https://omarchy.org/install | bash

[bannerblack]

For posterity, make sure you add wget and your editor of choice in the "Additional Packages" section when configuring archinstall, otherwise you could be left with zero tools to troubleshoot with! I think this discrepancy is coming from changes to the Omarchy docs that happened between when OP wrote this and now.

[leonnardo]

Thanks for the guide!

So far everything worked perfectly, but with changes from systemd-boot to limine, for some reason, even after installing t2 kernel, it is still loading the kernel without the apple drivers and keyboard and touchpad aren't working

I've tried to make t2 kernel load changing limine confs, but with no success at all

Any thoughts?

[bannerblack]

Can you share your limine.conf?

[leonnardo]

sure!

/boot/limine.conf

### Read more at config document: https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine/blob/trunk/CONFIG.md
#timeout: 3
default_entry: 1
interface_branding: Omarchy Bootloader
interface_branding_color: 2
hash_mismatch_panic: no

term_background: 1a1b26
backdrop: 1a1b26

# Terminal colors (Tokyo Night palette)
term_palette: 15161e;f7768e;9ece6a;e0af68;7aa2f7;bb9af7;7dcfff;a9b1d6
term_palette_bright: 414868;f7768e;9ece6a;e0af68;7aa2f7;bb9af7;7dcfff;c0caf5

# Text colors
term_foreground: c0caf5
term_foreground_bright: c0caf5
term_background_bright: 24283b

/+Omarchy
comment: Omarchy
comment: machine-id=5f92610d7e754444ba7b49cac2d73fcb order-priority=50
  //linux-t2
  comment: 6.16.1-arch1-Watanare-T2-1-t2
  protocol: efi_chainload
  image_path: boot():/EFI/Linux/5f92610d7e754444ba7b49cac2d73fcb_linux-t2.efi#60b3ea5e80795ad00ed5c3906937247535d7e063649f92c7233640113878af53cdaed67be1597d6f58e596acd93db2f7d00e201940b19c5693a33bc8ca759563
  kernel_cmdline: quiet splash cryptdevice=PARTUUID=a80498b8-9e84-4a28-82e7-c513e1205241:root root=/dev/mapper/root zswap.enabled=0 rootflags=subvol=@ rw rootfstype=btrfs intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat

  //linux
  comment: 6.16.3-arch1-1
  protocol: efi_chainload
  image_path: boot():/EFI/Linux/5f92610d7e754444ba7b49cac2d73fcb_linux.efi#c02d3646436fd50aeb74117866eedfc923436d5a6836deef6d7c035b5267677de7d1c14b7bfa7a3d979853f0dd968ebd6ff18ccb6413fbdcb1080b7ea1b04e6d
  kernel_cmdline: quiet splash cryptdevice=PARTUUID=a80498b8-9e84-4a28-82e7-c513e1205241:root root=/dev/mapper/root zswap.enabled=0 rootflags=subvol=@ rw rootfstype=btrfs intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat

/Limine
comment: Limine
comment: order-priority=20
protocol: efi_chainload
image_path: boot():/EFI/limine/limine_x64.efi


/EFI fallback
comment: Default EFI loader
comment: order-priority=10
protocol: efi_chainload
image_path: boot():/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI

/boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf

timeout: 5

/Arch Linux (linux)
    protocol: linux
    path: boot():/vmlinuz-linux-t2
    cmdline: cryptdevice=PARTUUID=a80498b8-9e84-4a28-82e7-c513e1205241:root zswap.enabled=0 rootflags=subvol=@ rw rootfstype=btrfs intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat
    module_path: boot():/initramfs-linux-t2.img

/Arch Linux (linux-fallback)
    protocol: linux
    path: boot():/vmlinuz-linux-t2
    cmdline: cryptdevice=PARTUUID=a80498b8-9e84-4a28-82e7-c513e1205241:root zswap.enabled=0 rootflags=subvol=@ rw rootfstype=btrfs intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat
    module_path: boot():/initramfs-linux-t2-fallback.img

[adamshand]

Is anyone else having problems with wifi after suspend? Works perfectly on boot, driver doesn't seem to resume after suspend. Trying to figure out if this is a known problem or a me problem?

[csk-grit42]

This is lovely. Thank you @nunix.

I actually succeeded in running "archinstall" from a T2.iso (you wrote it doesn't work? I had to add a couple of packages to the live arch but then I could run archinstall).
After then installing Arch I ran the Omarchy install and that works as well.

But I still have the issues that I cannot type the disc encrypt pw with the laptop keyboard. But see that @yuters has a fix for that.

And my WIFI still does not work. As far as I can see your suggestion for that matches what I have tried without success. Will try again after I fix the keyboard and if it still does not work I may start from scratch with your guide and a standard arch iso

[KhalidAdan]

I've been using claude to solve most of my issues (linux noob) but in my case wlan0 was not initialized.

From my chats:

Wi-FI

Needed to run sudo ip link set wlan0 up to force the interface to come up

Troubleshooting Steps:

1. Verify T2 packages installed: pacman -Q | grep -E "(linux-t2|apple-bcm-firmware|t2fanrd)"
2. Check RF kill status: rfkill list (should show no blocks)
3. Bring interface up manually: sudo ip link set wlan0 up
4. Scan for networks: iwctl station wlan0 scan && iwctl station wlan0 get-networks

Note: After fresh install, may need to manually bring up wlan0 interface.

Connecting

To connect run iwctl station wlan0 "ENTER_NETWORK_NAME_HERE" and use your password to connect.

[iamobservable]

For anyone who has typed in a wifi password many times in error (me) and this may help:

there is a flag you can use with iwctl that is --passphrase "pass"

[nunix]

for everyone running/testing Omarchy on T2 MacBooks, here a quick request to test the V2.0 iso (building for the time being):

git clone https://github.com/nunix/omarchy-iso
cd omarchy-iso
OMARCHY_INSTALLER_REPO=nunix/omarchy ./bin/omarchy-iso-make
# output: release/omarchy-[date]-master.iso

Let me know how it worked for you. There's few next steps I would like to do after receiving initial feedback.

Hope you like it

[nunix]

thanks for the feedback and I'm still fine-tuning/stabilizing it, I'll let you know when it's stable for you to have another test (if you want of course).

[mazaleyrat]

thank you for you work and sure for another test : my macbook is waiting for it second life ;)

[nunix]

@mazaleyrat please have another go 😉
I'll be continuing applying smaller tweaks, but the build shouldn't be impacted.

[adrianjean]

Just compiled and ran it. Here's my experience:

• Boots great.
• Omarchy Install starts.
• Mac Keyboard not functional, but USBC attached keyboard works.
• Installer prompts for all the right questions
• [Bug]: Installer runs, but looks like the tty display size" is bigger than the screen, but the installer proceeds
• Failed:
  • "Connection failure: Connection refused" pa_context_connect() failedL: Connection refused ===> ERROR: No presets found in /etc/mkinitcpio.d.
  • After install update: This doesn't seem to have had any negative imact.
• Failed:
  • "This command halted with exit code 0" : sudo plymouth-set-default-theme -R omarchy
  • I have seen this error in past installs as well, proceeding to re-run the install gets past it, but this could be the reason everything boots fine but goes to a black screen because a default theme is not getting installed.
  • Proceeding to re-run the install when prompted, allows the install to complete without error.
  • After install update: This doesn't seem to have had any negative imact.
• Install completed!
• Reboot
• Omarchy disk password... No native mac keyboard, had to use USBC
• Omarchy progress bar...!!
• I'm IN OMARCHY!!! ON MY MAC!!!

Keyboard troubleshooting:

• Using the Omarchy terminal and a USB attached keyboard, I am going to run the following commands from my install steps posted below) to see if I can get native keyboard running:

pacman -S linux-t2 apple-t2-audio-config apple-bcm-firmware linux-firmware t2fanrd tiny-dfr wget curl nano

cd ~ wget https://mirror.funami.tech/arch-mact2/os/x86_64/apple-bcm-firmware-14.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

sudo pacman -U apple-bcm-firmware-14.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

sudo cp ‌/boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf ‌/boot/EFI/limine/limine.bak

sudo sed -i 's/-linux/-linux-t2/g' /boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf

sudo sed -i '/^[[:space:]]*cmdline:/ s/$/ intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat/' /boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf

sudo nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Adding to the MODULES=() line

MODULES=(btrfs usbhid hid_apple apple_bce hid_generic xhci_pci xhci_hcd)

Rebuild initramfs

sudo mkinitcpio -P

reboot

NATIVE MAC KEYBOARD WORKS!!

[adrianjean]

[adrianjean]

I created an updated process doc — based on your original @nunix

Tested on a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports, T2 chip) However, while it works to install and I can get Omarchy booted, disk encryption password, and progress bar, the window manager never loads and it's stuck on a black screen forever.

@nunix I am building and about to test your new V2.0 iso as I type this tho.

============================================

Initial Setup & Boot:

1. Have an Ethernet adapter plugged into a USBC port. This is required as wifi will not work until you are fully finished the installation.
2. Get the t2linux Arch ISO and burn to a USB.
3. Boot the Mac, holding the “Option” key.
4. Select the farthest-right EFI Book Disk (yellow disk icon)
5. Select `Arch Linux install medium (x86_64, UEFI) menu entry (should be the first one)

Tip: If the TTY "display size" is bigger than the screen, You can run stty rows xx cols to change it. For example, stty rows 50 cols 160.

Core Installation

1. The version of archinstall on the t2linux ISO needs to be updated.

pacman -Sy archinstall

2. Once updated, run archinstall
3. Follow the Omarchy Manual Installation settings for archinstall.
4. Now make the following additional settings:

• Add the Arch T2 repo:

  • Select Mirrors and repositories
  • Select Add custom repository
  • Set the name to arch-mact2
  • Set the server to https://mirror.funami.tech/arch-mact2/os/x86_64
  • Select Never for the signature check
  • Select TrustAll for the packages trusted

• Partitioning:

  • Select: Best Effort (This will wipe your Mac’s disk and use it all for Omarchy)
  • Format: btrfs
  • YES: BTRFS subvolumes
  • Use Compression

• Disk Encryption: IMPORTANT: Once you have enabled disk encryption and entered your password, make sure to APPLY the disk encryption to the disk you are using. Select Partition, press space bar to select your disk.

5. Start the install.

6. Once the install is finished, select chroot into installation for post-installation configurations. This will drop you into a chroot on your machine.

Post-installation configurations

1. Once entered in the chroot session, run the following commands:

pacman -Syu

• This should display the T2 repo being up-to-date

2. Install critical packages and utilities

pacman -S linux-t2 apple-t2-audio-config apple-bcm-firmware linux-firmware t2fanrd tiny-dfr wget networkmanager curl iwd nano gum

• These packages install the T2 Linux kernel, input devices drivers, fan management, touchbar, and some helpful utilities.
• tiny-dfr is optional if you don't have a touchbar

3. Download and install the bluetooth and wifi firmware

wget https://mirror.funami.tech/arch-mact2/os/x86_64/apple-bcm-firmware-14.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

sudo pacman -U apple-bcm-firmware-14.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

4. Will all the packages installed, we can configure the Limine EFI bootloader config file located at ‌/boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf with the following commands:

Backup the limine.conf file

cp ‌/boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf ‌/boot/EFI/limine/limine.bak

Append “-t2” to all mentions of “-linux” in the config file:

sudo sed -i 's/-linux/-linux-t2/g' /boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf

Append needed kernel options to each cmdline in the config file:

sudo sed -i '/^[[:space:]]*cmdline:/ s/$/ intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat/' /boot/EFI/limine/limine.conf

If all looks good delete the backup:

rm ‌‌/boot/EFI/limine/limine.bak

5. To enable the Mac Keyboard on boot so you can enter your disk encryption password, edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and in the MODULES=() line, ADD them. (Keep any existing entries like i915 or btrfs if you already had them.)

MODULES=(usbhid hid_apple apple_bce hid_generic xhci_pci xhci_hcd)

Rebuild initramfs — This rebuilds the initramfs for all installed kernels.

sudo mkinitcpio -P

6. Exit the chroot session by typing exit and then type reboot to reboot your mac, remember to remove the install USB stick!!

Install Omarchy

curl -fsSL https://omarchy.org/install | bash

• Follow the onscreen prompts

Troubleshooting

Mac Boots, and I enter my disk password, but then the screen goes black and doesn’t go from there.

• @todo: Unsure why this happens. Need a solution

[adamshand]

Does WiFI work for you have a suspend/resume cycle?

[DoppioJP]

Thank you @nunix for all the work you put into the adaptation of Omarchy for those T2 Apple laptops. 👏

I went through this adventurous process last night on MacBookPro15,3 T2 - 15-inch 2018 i9 32GB 1TB. I loved the adventure. More like a sports activity. The only goal for myself was to see if it can be done. It is good though that it is not my laptop, because those pesky issues it has are probably outweighing the benefits. Emphasis on "probably". For some people it might be a great compromise, having macOS and Omarchy on the same laptop. I will personally still pursue having Omarchy on M1 Pro alongside macOS.

Cons:

• closing the lid crashes Omarchy, if left like that the laptop reboots shortly
• fans spin up very often at points where I wouldn't expect
• it heats up and would not be usable as a "laptop"
• probably some things are still not working, or I did not apply all the fixes yet

Mind you, that machine being hot is something I experienced using it with macOS anyway. So maybe it is the hardware, maybe thermal paste needs refreshing.

Pros:

• I would definitely want to utilise it as the Omarchy ISO building machine. It can build Omarchy Online ISO in 7 minutes, while M4 Max needs 18+ minutes for the same task (I know, all because different processor architecture and M4 needs to translate). That means that any i9 laptop will very likely be as fast for this task.
• That is still Apple quality exterior build, the screen is amazing.
• Re-using an oldish laptop for productive programming is a win, even with all the quirks, so anyone having such machine ageing badly on macOS can have a refresh experience on Omarchy.

After all the "sporting events", I will gladly give away or sell, for a small fee, all the Apple laptops with Omarchy on them. Or use them for a computer club. But at the end, very likely, I will reach out for the Framework laptop(s) and go back to writing software on Rails.

[DoppioJP]

Here is my "dual boot" recipe I noted while installing Omarchy on MacBookPro15,3 T2 - 15-inch 2018 i9 32GB 1TB.

Vital info from the 14th Sep 2025
The below recipe will become not needed very soon, seeing that @ryanrhughes has already done the

No manual intervention needed. Just boot and go! [...] first successful end-to-end T2 install

👏 Coming soon in Omarchy 3.0

Preparation in macOS

I wanted to keep macOS. I left 250GB for macOS and created a separate partition from the rest (~750GB)

Preparation of Omarchy ISO for T2

     git clone -b t2 https://github.com/nunix/omarchy-iso
     cd omarchy-iso
     OMARCHY_INSTALLER_REPO=nunix/omarchy ./bin/omarchy-iso-make
     # output: release/omarchy-[date]-x86_64.iso

Note that the above command uses 3 repositories from https://github.com/nunix, all tailored for T2 chipset:

• https://github.com/nunix/omarchy-iso
• https://github.com/nunix/archiso-t2
• https://github.com/nunix/omarchy

Comparing the above forks with the original Omarchy repos will give you the clues what really is the difference there.

Depending on the computer you are building it on, it might take a while:

• M4 Max it took 18+ minutes (due to building on AMD64 docker container while running on ARM)
• MacBookPro15,3 i9 on Omarchy: 7-9 minutes

Use balenaEtcher on Mac/Windows), and boot off the stick (remember to turn off Secure Boot in the BIOS!).

Installation

1. Arch Linux for T2

Starting from the Omarchy ISO for T2 is the key, because it has all required packages for some hardware of the MacBook Pro to actually work:

• internal keyboard ([Esc] might not be available if it is part of the Touch Bar)
• WiFi

You will very likely see many connection errors before even seeing Omarchy configurator. But worry not, this doesn't matter at this stage.

1. Stop the Omarchy configurator - Ctrl+C
2. Connect to WiFi with iwctl (as described in the manual)
3. Start the ./.automated_script.sh again for the core and extra Pacman databases to get synchronised (not sure if that is needed).
4. Select your keyboard if you want and stop the Omarchy configurator again
5. Start archinstall (yes, as shown in the manual).
6. Do the settings as in manual install with partitions - but use 2GB for boot partition for the packages which require more space to be installed in arch-chroot after archinstall finishes.
7. DO NOT install anything for Bluetooth as it failed the installation for me (unless maybe due to additional packages it will work?)
8. Post archinstall you will see 3 options. One of them is "chroot postinstall", which you want to choose. (You can also manually do the arch-chroot, see below.)
9. Install vim: pacman -S vim
10. Add T2 mirrors:

 # possibly external keyboard with real Esc button will be neede
 vim /etc/pacman.conf
 
 # at the end add:
 # for arch-mact2
 [arch-mact2]
 Server = https://mirror.funami.tech/arch-mact2/os/x86_64 
 SigLevel = Never
 
 # get the databases, especially `arch-mact2`
 pacman -Syy
 # ??? For some reason `core` and `extra` DBs are being tried to download from `mirror.omarchy.org` and it fails. 
 # Maybe it was because of the small boot partition 

11. Install T2 packages:

 pacman -S linux-t2 linux-t2-headers apple-t2-audio-config apple-bcm-firmware t2fanrd tiny-dfr linux-firmware

12. Add apple-bce module in vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, in the line with MODULES=

 # i.e.
 MODULES=(btrfs apple-bce)

13. Configure T2 Modules and Services:

 echo "apple-bce" > /etc/modules-load.d/t2.conf  # Load T2 bridge module
 echo "brcmfmac" >> /etc/modules-load.d/t2.conf  # Ensure WiFi module

14. Generate the initramfs:

 sudo mkinitcpio -P

15. Enable services

 systemctl enable t2fanrd # bluetooth NetworkManager - those two could not be found

16. Update Bootloader for T2 Kernel (see archiso-t2/configs/baseline/efiboot/loader/entries/01-archiso-x86_64-linux.conf):

 vim /boot/loader/entries/..._linux.conf

 linux /vmlinuz-linux-t2
 initrd /initramfs-linux-t2.img

17. Uninstall vim (Omarchy will struggle to install lazyvim correctly if vim is installed)

 pacman -R vim

18. Reboot to installed Arch Linux T2

2. Installing Omarchy for T2 from your newly created user

1. Password for LUKS needs to be entered (but internal keyboard works!)

2. Login as your user

3. Install Omarchy (nunix fork: Since the omarchy-iso is using that repo and a lot of interesting work has been done there)

    export OMARCHY_REPO=nunix/omarchy
    curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nunix/omarchy/master/boot.sh | bash 

3. Keyboard backlight keybindings

# depending on what you find in ls /sys/class/leds/
bind = , XF86KbdBrightnessDown, Keyboard darker, exec, brightnessctl -d apple::kbd_backlight set 20-
bind = , XF86KbdBrightnessUp, Keyboard brighter, exec, brightnessctl -d apple::kbd_backlight set +20

Manually accessing arch-chroot

1. Mount for arch-chroot

 # decrypt the main partition
 sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvme0n1p4 cryptroot
 
 sudo mount -o subvol=@  /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt
 sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt/boot
 
 # Mount `home`, `log` & `pkg` volumes (maybe not needed):
 sudo mount -o subvol=@home  /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/home
 sudo mount -o subvol=@log /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/var/log
 sudo mount -o subvol=@pkg /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg

2. arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

[h8d13]

That mirror is dead so there is that ❌

[berkecyln]

Hello I have couple of issues in T2 chips

System details
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 por) Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1038NG7 (8) @ 3.80 GHz
OS: Omarchy 3.2.2

Issues:

System does not wake from suspend properly
After suspending (or closing the lid), the system fails to wake up correctly.
The screen remains black, and occasionally the password screen appears, but the internal keyboard and touchpad do not respond.
The only recovery is a hard reboot.

Built-in webcam not detected
The internal webcam is not recognized by the system.
It does not appear in device listings or work in any application.

These problems are not mentioned as known issues in the manual.

I have attached the lsusb output below, which shows the internal keyboard/trackpad is detected on Bus 005, but no webcam is listed.

lsusb output:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 05ac:027e Apple, Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

I would like to use Omarchy on this Mac, as the alternative (Tahoe) is very unstable. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[RayBB]

Have you had any luck figuring out a way to get suspend working?

[berkecyln]

Hi there is no offical solution that I found but I found a workoaround. I changed suspend lines about lid in /etc/systemd/logind.conf to lock which solved the issues. basically when i close the lid, screen goes lock state and every other thing stays same this is not very good for conserving battery however it also solved camera issue so I am happy with that.

Changed lines:

HandleLidSwitch=lock
HandleLidSwitchExternalPower=lock
HandleLidSwitchDocked=lock

Hope they will find a offical solution for this.

[RayBB]

On T2 Ubuntu I actually got this solution working using:
https://wiki.t2linux.org/guides/postinstall/#suspend-workaround
and
t2linux/T2-Debian-and-Ubuntu-Kernel#53 (comment)

Unfortunately, hibernate doesn't seem to work yet.

[kot-behemoth]

Have a look at replies to #1840. There are a couple of people who managed to get suspend working on their T2 Macbooks. I'm yet to find a reliable way.

Also completely disabling iGPU as mentioned in #4069 (comment) seemed to solve issues for some.

[martin-braun]

I want to dual boot macOS and Omarchy on my MacBook 2019, I need Xcode for work and the MacBook is still supported, but this all is still a mess, but maybe my tiny Linux brain isn't quite there yet?

Apples EFI/ESP Partition p1 is only 300 MB, so it's simply too small for using it as /boot partition, so I ended up with four partitions: p1 (EFI/ESP), p2 (APFS/APPLE), p3 (BOOT), p4 (BTRFS/OMARCHY).

I followed the manual installation guide and I'm also familiar with transferring hardware drivers to Linux from macOS using the script, and that's what I did for Linux Mint earlier, so I felt ready to tackle this.

However, a split between EFI and BOOT partition doesn't work for the Omarchy installer script, but first things first:

1. I created two subvols in the p4 (@ = /, @home = /home)
2. BOOT needs to be fat32, I didn't know that
3. I picked limine as the manual guide suggested

Eventually arch started, I had to fiddle with my /etc/fstab to fix the boot partition, after formatting it to fat32, but I got it booted and everything, but the installer will fail.

First it fails, because it cannot find the limine configuration anywhere in /boot/EFI, but even when mounting it, it would fail, because Apple's efi partition has its own EFI folder for this stuff, so mounting it to /boot/efi would result in /boot/efi/EFI/arch-limine/limine.conf, something the installer never checks for, so this fails.

Fiddling with my /etc/fstab to mount p1 as /boot/esp and then bind /boot/esp/EFI to /boot/efi would finally pass it, but then it wants to install a new fallback limine to /boot/EFI/limine/, it also attempts to overwrite /boot/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi, breaking my bootloader.

Oh welp, I don't understand it good enough probably, luckily I made backups of everything. It seems the installer is not really designed for dual booting on T2 macs with EFI and boot being split into two partitions. I don't want to wipe everything to increase the size of p1, but I believe a larger EFI partition would solve this issue. -.-

[fedesapuppo]

I built on top of this guide and automated the extra T2 tweaks into a setup script. Running on a MacBook Air 2018 (MacBookAir8,1). It handles things beyond what Omarchy ships:

• Custom fan curve — fans off below 55°C, linear ramp to 75°C
• FaceTime HD webcam — installs the reverse-engineered driver + firmware
• Auto power profiles — switches to performance on AC, power-saver on battery (with plug/unplug sounds)
• Faster shutdown — reduces timeout from 90s to 5s (T2 drivers sometimes hang)
• Power key disabled — prevents accidental suspend (since suspend is broken on T2)
• WiFi resume hook — reloads brcmfmac after wake
• Keyboard backlight fix — steps by 10% instead of 0.2% per keypress
• Orca + Piper TTS — screen reader with a natural neural voice instead of espeak-ng

The script is interactive (explains each step, lets you skip what you don't need) and idempotent (safe to re-run).

git clone https://github.com/fedesapuppo/t2-mac-customizations.git
cd t2-mac-customizations
bash setup.sh

Repo: https://github.com/fedesapuppo/t2-mac-customizations

[dhh]

Would love to see all this upstreamed into Omarchy directory. Would be great to have one PR per tweak. Let's make the T2 out-of-box experience perfect 👌

[fedesapuppo]

amazing!!! 😄🙌 on it David!! 🚀🧑‍🚀

[jjohnson]

For anyone still following who hasn't seen it — there's a fix for the suspend/resume, webcam, and Wi-Fi issues on T2 Macs. Details in discussion #4695 and PR #5998. Confirmed working on MacBookPro15,4 and MacBookAir8,1.

Still looking for testers on other models, especially 15"/16" MacBook Pros with dGPUs.