Arch Linux

mus

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 1

Installing on a MacBook

I have read the wonderful wiki about installing arch on a macbook and I plan to follow it. However, it recommends that I reinstall OSX lest bad things happen. The warning is pretty vague, so I'm curious why this is purportedly necessary, as I'd rather not install OSX.

Spider.007

Member

Registered: 2004-06-20

Posts: 1,175

Re: Installing on a MacBook

Where did you read that? Also, don't you have osx installed already? I keep osx around for possible firmware updates; so just shrink that partition to minimum size and install Arch

Gcool

Member

Registered: 2011-08-16

Posts: 1,456

Re: Installing on a MacBook

I guess you're referring to the warning indicated here. I'm guessing that's simply referring to the fac that you don't want to try it on a system where you've been fiddling with partition layouts extensively.

I personally run a dual-boot OS X - Arch on my Macbook Pro without any issues and installed Arch from an existing OS X install so to speak.

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Burninate!

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,330

Website

Re: Installing on a MacBook

I installed arch as the sole OS on a macbook.  I hadn't read the macbook wiki and just followed the normal beginners guide to the letter.  I didn't bother with refit or any EFI boot options and installed grub.  Everything works great, except for a long delay at boot on the grey screen before grub loads.  Apparently there are solutions for this too, but i haven't bothered yet - I don't use that computer much anymore.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

MadTux

Member

Registered: 2009-09-20

Posts: 553

Re: Installing on a MacBook

As the others already said, there is no need to install OSX in order to run Arch on a MacBook. I followed the Beginners' Guide and it was pretty easy to install. My only problem was that my MacBook seems to refuse to boot from usb, so I burned a CD.

litemotiv

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2008-08-01

Posts: 5,026

Re: Installing on a MacBook

As the others already said, there is no need to install OSX in order to run Arch on a MacBook. I followed the Beginners' Guide and it was pretty easy to install. My only problem was that my MacBook seems to refuse to boot from usb, so I burned a CD.

Sounds like fun on a Macbook Air.

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ᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ

MadTux

Member

Registered: 2009-09-20

Posts: 553

Re: Installing on a MacBook

As the others already said, there is no need to install OSX in order to run Arch on a MacBook. I followed the Beginners' Guide and it was pretty easy to install. My only problem was that my MacBook seems to refuse to boot from usb, so I burned a CD.

Sounds like fun on a Macbook Air.

This is certainly not a problem in general, since I read a lot of posts on the web where people did not experience that problem. And MacBook (no Air) has a built-in DVD drive.