Arch Linux

yooouuri

Member

Registered: 2017-01-14

Posts: 5

Install Arch linux on MBP and remove Mac OS

Hi all,

Finally i am on the forums (the register questions was cracking my brain ha-ha).

I want to remove Mac OS and install only Arch Linux. But i want to keep my Mac OS recovery partition for when i want to go back to Mac OS.

My partitions:

MacBook-Pro-van-Youri:~ youri$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            190.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:                        EFI NO NAME                 134.2 MB   disk0s4
   5: 4F68BCE3-E8CD-4DB1-96E7-FBCAF984B709               16.1 GB    disk0s5
   6: 933AC7E1-2EB4-4F13-B844-0E14E2AEF915               43.9 GB    disk0s6

Please don't mind the last 3 partitions, i was trying to do a dual boot, so these 3 partitions also will be removed. (disk0s4, disk0s5 and disk0s6)

Which partitions do i need to remove? Looks to me the "Macintosh HD" partition and the EFI partition, because you install a new Linux EFI partition?

I have a MacBookPro11,4

Last edited by yooouuri (2017-01-14 12:04:19)

Docbroke

Member

From: India

Registered: 2015-06-13

Posts: 1,433

Re: Install Arch linux on MBP and remove Mac OS

AFAIK you can use only one EFI partition at the beginning of disk. There is no need to delete EFI partition, just add your arch entry there. I guess your dual boot didn't work as you tried to install arch with separate EFI partition.

---

Arch is home!
https://github.com/Docbroke

yooouuri

Member

Registered: 2017-01-14

Posts: 5

Re: Install Arch linux on MBP and remove Mac OS

Is there a tutorial for adding the arch entry? Because i dont know where i should add it.

So a root and home partition is enough? Do i need to mount the (Mac OS) EFI partition (disk0s1) to /boot?

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,531

Website

Re: Install Arch linux on MBP and remove Mac OS

Is there a tutorial for adding the arch entry?

yes, and it is linked from the installation guide that you should be following.

As to keeping the mac recovery partition - I don't know much (anything really) about macs, but this doesn't make much sense to me.  The recovery partition might be able to recover the boot configuration/efi, but it does not store a backup mac OS.  You need a recovery disk (cd/usb) to actually reinstall OS X - and if you have that disk, of what use is that other partition?

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

yooouuri

Member

Registered: 2017-01-14

Posts: 5

Re: Install Arch linux on MBP and remove Mac OS

Followed the installation guide but does not helped me.

I am going to try it, thanks!

Docbroke

Member

From: India

Registered: 2015-06-13

Posts: 1,433

Re: Install Arch linux on MBP and remove Mac OS

Followed the installation guide but does not helped me.

Where? No one can help with non-specific questions.

---

Arch is home!
https://github.com/Docbroke

yooouuri

Member

Registered: 2017-01-14

Posts: 5

Re: Install Arch linux on MBP and remove Mac OS

Like you already said, i was trying to use 2 boot partitions so that why it wont worked..

So i should mount the Mac OS EFI partition to /boot? And then add a new entry?

salafrance

Member

From: Aelfang's Barrow

Registered: 2013-04-17

Posts: 43

Re: Install Arch linux on MBP and remove Mac OS

Just a quickie - I've done this myself, although the process was complicated by virtue of the fact that the 2007 Intel Mac Mini I used would only boot a 32-bit EFI (it nevertheless had a 64-bit chipset and CPU), and I wanted to install a 64-bit Linux.

In the throes of this, I experimented quite a bit with rEFInd, and I now use it as the Windows/Linux boot selector on my desktop system.

How to install and dual-boot linux on a Mac, using rEFInd.

To be clear, you don't need it, but I found it easy to use, cosmetically pleasing, and easy to fix.

Last edited by salafrance (2017-01-14 14:17:21)

salafrance

Member

From: Aelfang's Barrow

Registered: 2013-04-17

Posts: 43

Re: Install Arch linux on MBP and remove Mac OS

This might offer some useful background, regardless of how you choose to boot your system.

yooouuri

Member

Registered: 2017-01-14

Posts: 5

Re: Install Arch linux on MBP and remove Mac OS

It is booting, thanks for the help.

Mounted the Mac OS efi partition to /boot
Generated fstab
Added an entry in /boot/loader/entries/