Arch Linux

c0re

Member

Registered: 2011-12-17

Posts: 7

Problem installing on Macbook with rEFIT from USB

Hello,

I am rather new to Arch - but I have been playing with it a couple of VMs and really like it. Now that I want to install it on my 2007 Macbook next to the existing OSX install, I am stuck.

As the CD drive doesn't work anymore, I am forced to install from an USB-Stick. The existing linux install (LMDE) was installed using some special grub thingy (named grub2efi iirc) so I am sure that it should somehow be possible. Using the usual and well documented ways to install Arch from USB fail for me. Here is what i am trying:

On the USB stick I have a folder named EFI. In there, I have grub and grub.cfg, both from my last install.
I put the other installiso stuff on stick and point to kernel and initrd in grub.cfg. I already played around with several boot options (archisolabel etc). Every boot fails when boot device is being searched for. I have doublechecked that I set the label correctly, and I can see that it is beeing searched for in /dev/device-by...[correctlabel], but no success. This happens regardless of using loop method or a folder structure on the stick.

I somehow get the impression that usb is simply switched off when the udev magic kicks in during boot as the stick's led stops lighting up. Keyboard is also useless once I am dropped to the ramfs prompt, tho it works fine in grub menu before.

I also tried a 2010 iso (no difference) and archboot. archboot does not work either, it seems the grub(2efi?) version provided in there is not supported.

Please advice and help a n00bie out.

Spider.007

Member

Registered: 2004-06-20

Posts: 1,175

Re: Problem installing on Macbook with rEFIT from USB

Alternative: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … ting_Linux

I never had any problems booting the arch-installer on USB from rEFIt, did you try that instead of your existing grub install? Also, I never needed any special magic on the usb drive, just put the image on there and it works fine. I installed archlinux on a ~ 2007 iMac and a 2011 MBA without any boot problems!

c0re

Member

Registered: 2011-12-17

Posts: 7

Re: Problem installing on Macbook with rEFIT from USB

Sorry for the late reply, this was quite a battle, but I am making progress. Turns out it is especially tricky to install on a Macbook 2.1.

I managed to install from USB, making use of the Fedora-specific information here: http://fedora64.org/Members/jmontleon/i … -grub2-efi
I just reused the grub image from my previous mint install stick and crawled on from there. It's worth pointing out that without adding "fakebios" in grub.cfg or on grub-shell one can neither use keyboard nor access the USB-stick. Installing from within an existing Linux was not really an option since I am using LVM over Luks and prefer to have a clean state to start from. Thanks for the hint anyway, Spider.007!

It's also worth noting that I skipped bootloader install but instead copied the necessary files to my EFI partition. I am still fighting with grub.cfg but have no problems booting manually via grub shell.