Install Arch Linux on MacBook

Fanbo He <hefanbo@gmail.com> (CC BY 4.0)

2017/12/23

Insall Arch Linux along with Mac OS on MacBook Pro.

Info

Hardware: MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
Software: Arch Linux (201711)

References

Make Free Disk Space

In MacOS, run Disk Utility.app (located in /Applications/Utilities)
Select the drive to be partitioned in the left-hand column (not the partitions!). Click on the Partition button.
Add a new partition by pressing the + button and choose how much space you want to leave for MacOS (in this article, 32GB), and how much for the new partition. Keep in mind the new partition will be formatted in Arch Linux, so you can choose any partition type you want.

Prepare Installation Media

Download Arch Linux image from https://www.archlinux.org/download/
Make a bootable USB stick with LiLi USB Creator

Install

Boot from installation media

Plug the USB stick in
Press power key. Hold ALT key until boot menu shows. Select EFI boot.

Connect to WiFi (WPA2, Hidden SSID)

Use the following command to find the network interface name, e.g., wlp3s0

# iw dev

Bring up the interface

# ip link set wlp3s0 up

Configure SSID and password:

# wpa_passphrase MYSSID > wpa.conf

Type password and press enter. Edit wpa.conf, add following lines

ctrl_interface=/run/wpa_supplicant
update_config=1
network={
    ...
    scan_ssid=1
    ...
}

Connect and obtain IP

# wpa_supplicant -B -i wlp3s0 -c wpa.conf
# dhcpcd wlp3s0

In case something goes wrong, use wpa_cli to find some clues

# wpa_cli -i wlp3s0

Follow the Arch installation guide

# ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
# timedatectl set-ntp true

Check partition info to get device names, e.g., /dev/sda*

# fdisk -l

Modify partitions with cgdisk:

# cgdisk /dev/sda

Delete the partition which is reserved for disk space. Add partition, type +128M for start, and -128M for end. Write and exit.

Format partition and mount, assuming that /dev/sda1 is the EFI partition, and /dev/sda3 is the partition for Linux.

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
# mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

Find PARTUUID for /dev/sda3, e.g., XXXX-YYYY-ZZZZ

# ls -l /dev/disk/by-partuuid

In /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist, delete unwanted mirror entries. Install base:

# pacstrap /mnt base
# genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# arch-chroot /mnt
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Shanghai /etc/localtime
# hwclock --systohc

Uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 in /etc/locale.gen

# locale-gen

Edit /etc/locale.conf, add

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Add hostname to /etc/hostname

Add entry to /etc/hosts

127.0.1.1	myhostname.localdomain	myhostname

Change root password

# passwd

Install Intel micro code

# pacman -S intel-ucode

Install and configure systemd-boot

# bootctl --path=/boot install

Edit /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

title Arch Linux
linux  /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /intel-ucode.img
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=PARTUUID=XXXX-YYYY-ZZZZ rw

Edit /boot/loader/loader.conf

default arch

Post-Installation

Create new user

# useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash your_user_name
# passwd your_user_name

Install some basic software

# pacman -S sudo vim wpa_supplicant

Edit /etc/environment, add

EDITOR=vim

Add wheel group to sudoers

# visudo

Uncomment the line

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

To enable auto-completion for sudo, add this line to .bashrc in the home directory

if [ "$PS1" ]; then
    complete -cf sudo
fi

Press Ctrl-D to exit chroot, unmount /mnt/boot and /mnt, reboot.

Boot

Press power key, and system will boot to Arch Linux by default.
Press power key, hold ALT until boot menu shows, and select Macintosh HD to boot to MacOS

More Post-Installation

Log in as normal user, and connect to WiFi.

Number of TTYs

Edit /etc/systemd/logind.conf, set NAutoVTs and ReserveVT values.

AUR helper

$ sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel
$ echo keyring /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/pubring.gpg >> ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf
$ mkdir -p ~/software/aur
$ cd ~/software/aur
$ curl -O -J https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/cower.tar.gz
$ tar xzf cower.tar.gz
$ cd cower
$ makepkg -si
$ cd ..
$ cower -d pacaur
$ cd pacaur
$ vim PKGBUILD

Remove lines related to zsh because we don't use it, and run

$ makepkg -si

LXQt

$ sudo pacman -S x86-video-intel xorg-server lxqt sddm
$ sudo pacman -S xorg-xrandr
$ sudo pacman -S libpulse libstatgrab libsysstat lm_sensors
$ sudo systemctl enable sddm

/usr/bin/xdg-open expects the file manager to be pcmanfm while it is pcmanfm-qt actually in LXQt. To fix this, either edit xdg-open or make a soft link to pcmanfm-qt.

Screen scale for HiDPI

Method 1

Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-monitor.conf, add

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "<default monitor>"
    DisplaySize  286 179    # In millimeters
EndSection

Method 2

Edit /etc/environment, add

#QT_AUTSCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1
#QT_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=2
QT_SCALE_FACTOR=2
GDK_DPI_SCALE=2

Console font size for Hi-DPI display

Edit /etc/vconsole.conf, add

FONT=latarcyrheb-sun32

Fonts

$ sudo pacman -S noto-fonts noto-fonts-cjk noto-fonts-emoji noto-fonts-cjk

Icons and cursors

$ sudo pacman -S papirus-icon-theme xcursor-flatbed

Go to Start -> Preferences -> LXQt settings -> Appearance, and select themes for current user. To set cursor size, open .config/lxqt/session.conf, add cursor_size=48 to Mouse section.

To apply the cursor theme globally, edit /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme, set

[Icon Theme]
Inherits=FlagbedCursors-Black

LXQt menu

Right click the application menu, select Configure, and you can choose the menu file.
You can copy the menu file from the default Menu file location to .config/menu, and use it as an example.

SDDM theme

Create /etc/sddm.conf with the following contents

[Theme]
Current=elarun

The theme is defined in /usr/share/sddm/themes/elarun/Main.qml

Touchpad

Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/30-touchpad.conf

Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "TouchPad"
  MatchDriver "libinput"
  MatchProduct "bcm5974"
  Option "AccelSpeed" "1"
  Option "Tapping" "on"
EndSection

Network manager

$ pacaur -S cmst

Go to Start -> Preferences -> Session Settings, and add /usr/bin/cmst -m to autostart.

Brightness adjusting keys

Create /usr/local/bin/scr_light with the following contents

sysfs="/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight"
steps=347

max=`cat ${sysfs}/max_brightness`
level=`cat ${sysfs}/brightness`
step=`expr $max / $steps`
min=20

usage()
{
script=${0##*/}
echo
echo "Invalid usage of ${script}!"
echo "  $1"
echo "----------------"
echo "$script up     : increases brightness"
echo "$script down   : decreases brightness"
echo "$script set #  : sets brightness to # (integer)"
echo "----------------"
echo

exit 1
}

set_brightness()
{
level=$1
if [ $level -lt $min ] ; then
 level=$min
elif [ $level -gt $max ] ; then
 level=$max
fi
echo $level > $sysfs/brightness 
}

case "$1" in
  up)
    let "level+=$step"
    set_brightness $level 
    ;;
  down)
    let "level-=$step"
    set_brightness $level 
    ;;
  set)
    if [[ ! $2 =~ ^[[:digit:]]+$ ]]; then
     usage "second argument must be an integer"
    fi

    set_brightness $2
    ;;
  *)
    usage "invalid argument"
esac

Add user to video group and allow this group to run the script without password

$ sudo usermod -aG video $USER
% sudo visudo

Add this line

%video ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/scr_light

Open Shortcut Keys settings, add sudo scr_light down and sudo scr_light up commands to appropriate keys.

Keyboard backlight adjusting keys

Create /usr/local/bin/kbd_light identical to /usr/local/bin/scr_light with the following exceptions

sysfs="/sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight"
steps=5
min=0

Add user to input group and allow this group to run the script without password

Open Shortcut Keys settings, add sudo scr_light down and sudo scr_light up commands to appropriate keys.

Sound

There is no sound by default because the default sound output is HDMI. To fix this, there are 3 methods:

Method1(recommended): switch the sound card index

Create /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf with the following content

options snd-hda-intel index=1,0

Method2: select correct default sound card

Create /etc/asound.conf with the following content

defaults.pcm.card 1

Method3: disable HDMI sound output

Create /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf with the following content

options snd-hda-intel enable=0,1

Keyboard

Fn key mode

To switch Fn key mode, create /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf

options hid_apple fnmode=2

Disable power key

Edit /etc/systemd/logind.conf, set

HandlePowerKey=Ignore

Key remapping

Use lsusb or udevadm info to check internal keyboard device info.

Use evtest to check key scan code.

$ sudo pacman -S evtest
$ sudo evtest

Create /etc/udev/hwdb.d/10-kbd-modifiers.hwdb

evdev:input:b0003v05ACp0273* # correspongding to keyboard device info
 KEYBOARD_KEY_700e3=leftmeta # leading space is required
 KEYBOARD_KEY_700e3=leftalt
 KEYBOARD_KEY_700e7=delete
 KEYBOARD_KEY_700e6=rightctrl

Update database and reboot

sudo systemd-hwdb update

Swap

Method1: systemdd-swap (no hibernation support)

$ sudo pacman -S systemd-swap

Set swapfc_enabled=1 in /etc/systemd/swap.conf. And

$ sudo systemctl enable systemd-swap

Method2: swapfile

As systemd-swap cannot be used for hibernation, a swap file must be created.

$ sudo fallocate -l 5G /swapfile
$ sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
$ sudo mkswap /swapfile

Edit /etc/fstab, add

/swapfile none swap defaults 0 0

Create /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf

vm.swappiness=10

Screen saver

$ sudo pacman -S xscreensaver

To customize lock dialog of xscreensaver

$ sudo pacman -S xorg-xrdb

Create .Xresources to enlarge font size, hide New Login button and the date string

xscreensaver.newLoginCommand:
xscreensaver.dateFormat:
xscreensaver.Dialog.headingFont:        -*-noto mono-medium-r-normal-*-*-160-*-*-*-*-*-*
xscreensaver.Dialog.labelFont:          -*-noto mono-medium-r-normal-*-*-240-*-*-*-*-*-*
xscreensaver.Dialog.unameFont:          -*-noto mono-medium-r-normal-*-*-240-*-*-*-*-*-*
xscreensaver.passwd.passwdFont:         -*-noto mono-medium-r-normal-*-*-240-*-*-*-*-*-*
xscreensaver.Dialog.buttonFont:         -*-noto mono-medium-r-normal-*-*-240-*-*-*-*-*-*

Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-fontpath.conf

Section "Files"
    FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/noto"
EndSection

To test fonts, xorg-xfontsel and xorg-xlsfonts are recommended.

Hibernate

$ sudo filefrag -v /swapfile

Remember the physical_offset value in the first row, which is refered as SWAPFILE_OFFSET here after.

Edit /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf, add

optioins resume=PARTUUID=xxxx-yyyy-zzzz resume-offset=SWAPFILE_OFFSET

Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, add resume behind udev in HOOKS.

$ sudo mkinitcpio -p linux

To prevent immediate wake up after suspend/hibernate, create /etc/udev/rules.d/90-wake.conf

# ARPT
SUBSYSTEM=="pci", KERNEL=="0000:03:00.0", ATTR{power/wakeup}="disabled"
# XHC1
SUBSYSTEM=="pci", KERNEL=="0000:00:14.0", ATTR{power/wakeup}="disabled"
# LID0
SUBSYSTEM=="acpi", KERNEL=="PNP0C0D:00", ATTR{power/wakeup}="disabled"

For information, the following commands may be useful

$ evtest
$ lspci
$ lsusb
$ cat /proc/acpi/wakeup
$ udevadm info /dev/inputevent2
$ udevadm info -a /dev/inputevent2

Reboot.

Chinese input method

$ sudo pacman -S fcitx-im fcitx-configtool fcitx-sunpinyin

Edit /etc/environment

GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx
QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx
XMODIFIERS=@im=fcitx

Directory encryption

$ sudo pacaur -S sirikali ecryptfs-simple

Create /etc/modules-load.d/ecryptfs.conf with the following content

ecryptfs

Samba

$ sudo pacman -S samba gvfs-smb

Create /etc/samba/smb.conf based on this file

Disable recently-used.xbel

Edit .config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini

[Settings]
gtk-recent-files-max-age=0
gtk-recent-files-limit=0

Edit .gtkrc-2.0

gtk-recent-files-max-age=0

Camera (Facetime HD)

$ pacaur -S bcwc-pcie-git

KVM

$ sudo pacman -S qemu virt-manager
$ sudo pacman -S ebtables dnsmasq
$ sudo systemctl enable libvirtd
$ sudo systemctl enable libvirt-guests
$ sudo usermod -aG libvirt $USER

Other software

$ pacman -S goldendict mpv

Trouble shooting

Red light coming from headphone jack?

$ sudo pacman -S alsa-utiles
$ alsamixer

Mute S/PDIF

Port 53 is in use?

Disable DNS proxy of connman. Create folder /etc/systemd/system/connman.service.d, and add file disable_dns_proxy.conf

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/bin/connmand -n --nodnsproxy

TODO

Terminal emulator supporting Chinese
Space between icons is too large when Chinese font is selected
Color profile from Mac (tried that, but it seems to have no effect, maybe the default color profile is good enough)
WiFi down after resuming from suspend/hibernate
Turn off screen when lid close without sleeping

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