Arch Linux

Xerict

Member

Registered: 2012-01-29

Posts: 21

pacman and Macbook Pro(2008) dual boot

So I have a couple problems at the moment. I've done some googling, but can't figure this out. 

I'm trying to install arch linux alongside my mac os on my late 2008 macbook pro.  After a few problems, I finally got the installation part down, but from what I understand from the Wiki, i need to install grub2 since it is the only boot loader for linux that can deal the the GPT boot partition that macs use.
So I can successfully complete the install from the live cd, but I can't seem to get pacman to cooperate.  The os doesn't boot on its own yet, so I need to do this from the live cd, but when i do pacman -S grub2-bios as suggested, it says that it doesn't exist.  So I downloaded grub2-bios from the package list at archlinux.org, put it on an external, transfered it to the laptop and unzipped it.  But now I found that gcc, bison, and a few other required packages arn't installed, or arn't on the live cd or something.  But when I try 'pacman -S gcc', that doesn't work either. 
Now I only have a little bit of previous experience with linux, but I know that gcc should be there, especially because I looked it up in the only repository I'm using at the moment. 

In summary:
How do I get pacman to work right on the live cd?
And is there something I'm missing about installation onto a macbook pro?

I feel like I'm missing something very simple and obvious, I just need to be pointed in the right direction.

Thanks

falconindy

Developer

From: New York, USA

Registered: 2009-10-22

Posts: 4,111

Website

Re: pacman and Macbook Pro(2008) dual boot

The live CD doesn't ship with sync DBs, you need to create them.

pacman -Sy

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Xerict

Member

Registered: 2012-01-29

Posts: 21

Re: pacman and Macbook Pro(2008) dual boot

Sorry, I should have noted that I already tried that.

I tried pacman -Syy, pacman -Syu, pacman-db-upgrade, but still I can't find the gcc package or grub2-bios

cfr

Member

From: Cymru

Registered: 2011-11-27

Posts: 7,143

Re: pacman and Macbook Pro(2008) dual boot

Assuming networking is setup correctly, have you tried switching to a different repository? (/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist)

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Xerict

Member

Registered: 2012-01-29

Posts: 21

Re: pacman and Macbook Pro(2008) dual boot

I have used the most recently updated on on http://www.archlinux.org/mirrors/status/ which is http://mirrors.us.kernel.org/archlinux/.  I even checked with my browser on a seperate computer and the files are definatly there, I just can't figure out why pacman says they arn't.

Also, networking seems to be just fine since i can ping google.com and mirrors.us.kernel.org as well.

Edit: just to be clear, I have tried a bunch of the other servers in the mirrorlist and did pacman -Syy after every change in the list, but always the same result.

Last edited by Xerict (2012-01-30 02:43:15)