[solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

OpenBSD · 2011-01-14 15:36:00

Hope this may help somebody.

1. Used bootcamp to make windows partition.
2. Installed rEfit
3. Boot archboot 12-2010
4. rm 3, mkpart 3 (just one partition for Arch)
5. to install grub
mount -o bind /dev /tmp/install && mount -o bind /proc /temp/install/proc && grub-install /dev/sda3 --no-floppy --force
6. change the refit partition thingie as suggested.
7. add "nomodeset" to grub kernel line as suggested below by litemotiv

wifi
stupid broadcom-wl blob

xorg
stupid nvidia blob or nouveau / nv

sound
oss

Thanks to litemotiv - all relevant info is from him.

mod-title-edit by ngoonee to add the Macbook Air revision

Last edited by ngoonee (2011-11-17 02:39:08)

litemotiv · 2011-01-14 15:47:52

I don't have a sda3 with grub_bios here:

 Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1      409639      204819+  ee  GPT
/dev/sda2          409640    98065895    48828128   af  HFS / HFS+
/dev/sda3   *    98066432   117577727     9755648   83  Linux
/dev/sda4       117577728   236978142    59700207+  83  Linux

grub2 manually installed on sda3 (which is /), hope this helps.

OpenBSD · 2011-01-14 17:55:34

Thanks litemotiv.
Seems easy enough.

Last edited by OpenBSD (2011-01-14 17:55:47)

OpenBSD · 2011-01-14 22:27:14

F/u up to my macbook air install (new air).

Installed with archboot 12-2010.
Installed grub manually.

Grub loads.
Boots until "Loading modules", then screen turns black - done.
Same for fallback kernel.

Can't post dmesg, don't get that far.

Any pointers appreciated.

Thanks.

litemotiv · 2011-01-14 22:46:37

Merged your threads, let's keep them together.

You may need to append nomodeset to your kernel line in grub.

OpenBSD · 2011-01-14 23:48:58

nomodeset worked

litemotiv · 2011-01-15 00:44:59

Good to hear, when you feel you have solved your installation issues, please mark your thread topic by prepending it to the title.

OpenBSD · 2011-01-15 03:19:01

Hit a bit of a roadblock.

Looks as if I need the broadcom-wl blob for wifi.
But I can't build it w/o net access, this thing does not have ethernet, just wifi.

Can somebody post the pkg so I can d/l it (x86_64). I don't have another linux box to build it.

Thanks.

Last edited by OpenBSD (2011-01-15 03:19:31)

litemotiv · 2011-01-15 08:53:14

You don't need another computer to build it, you can just copy the needed files over with a usbstick and build it on your Air.

gammel.holte · 2011-01-20 20:45:41

How well does Arch run on the Air (especially battery life & heat-wise)?

I'm shopping for an ultraportable laptop and the Air seems like a very good option. Moreover, I'm willing to use it exclusively with Arch.

Thanks.

litemotiv · 2011-01-20 21:22:48

gammel.holte wrote:

How well does Arch run on the Air (especially battery life & heat-wise)?
I'm shopping for an ultraportable laptop and the Air seems like a very good option. Moreover, I'm willing to use it exclusively with Arch.
Thanks.

Heat is excellent, never gets hotter than lukewarm (very different from Macbook Pro). Battery on linux is o-kay, not as good as OSX, but still around 5-6 hours for me.

Please open a new topic if you have more questions though, this one is [solved].

gammel.holte · 2011-01-22 18:29:43

That sounds great. Thanks for the reply and apologies for the delay in my answer.

I'll post a new topic soon to ask about more details concerning the Air running Arch, as well as possible alternatives like Thinkpads.

Picoli · 2011-11-09 19:15:29

Sorry to interrupt, but i don't think that this thread should be marked as [solved]. I have a mba 2011 late, too but after following the instructions above i still don't get it to work. The problem is the graphics driver (i think). I get an error

*ERROR* mux info call failed

when loading the udev events and the screen turns black.

Adding "nomodeset" to the kernel line does not really fix the problem. I can boot now but i don't get the full resolution out of my display and gnome3 works in fallback mode.

I hoped that the new kernel patched this but it didn't. Any suggestions (besides not try to install linux on apple hardware)?

It's really strange because my friend has an X220 which is also equipped with SandyBridge and Intel HD 3000 and it works just fine.

Edit: Actually this thread can be marked as [solved] since the mba's you were talking about are older, sry. But the new mba's seem to have problems too. I appreciate any help here.

Last edited by Picoli (2011-11-09 20:05:20)

litemotiv · 2011-11-16 19:46:21

Picoli, see this report: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/26426

ngoonee · 2011-11-17 02:39:24

Edited the title to add macbook air revision for clarity.

Trieforce · 2011-11-21 15:39:37

Hello every body.

I was trying to install archboot for 2 day, but with no results.

Can u pls explain which grub are you installing legacy or grub2?

Also my mac has 3 partition so I am actualy installing it to sda4(/boot ext2) and / is in sda5 (xfs), and so far no results...

Picoli · 2011-11-30 09:10:32

litemotiv wrote:

Picoli, see this report: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/26426

Thanks. I'm actually following this report: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39533

But it's been three kernel updates since I posted here and still no improvement.
Does anybody have had success using a patched kernel from here:
http://git.schottelius.org/?p=foreign/l … ;a=summary

litemotiv · 2011-11-30 14:59:54

Picoli wrote:

litemotiv wrote:
Picoli, see this report: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/26426
Thanks. I'm actually following this report: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39533
But it's been three kernel updates since I posted here and still no improvement.
Does anybody have had success using a patched kernel from here:
http://git.schottelius.org/?p=foreign/l … ;a=summary

Schottelius is the user who also started the flyspray report, according to his blog he has a working patched kernel. I asked him on flyspray if he could share that kernel as a package, but he hasn't done that so far.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-01-14 15:36:00

[solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#2 2011-01-14 15:47:52

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#3 2011-01-14 17:55:34

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#4 2011-01-14 22:27:14

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#5 2011-01-14 22:46:37

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#6 2011-01-14 23:48:58

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#7 2011-01-15 00:44:59

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#8 2011-01-15 03:19:01

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#9 2011-01-15 08:53:14

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#10 2011-01-20 20:45:41

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#11 2011-01-20 21:22:48

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#12 2011-01-22 18:29:43

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#13 2011-11-09 19:15:29

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#14 2011-11-16 19:46:21

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#15 2011-11-17 02:39:24

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#16 2011-11-21 15:39:37

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#17 2011-11-30 09:10:32

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

#18 2011-11-30 14:59:54

Re: [solved] Arch Installation on new MacBook Air (3,2)

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