Arch Linux

persiankid400

Member

Registered: 2011-12-19

Posts: 10

Install and Boot Arch from a USB on Mac

Ok, so I have a Macbook Pro (5,5) running lion, and i want to have a version of Arch installed on my usb drive. I dont want to remove my bootcamp windows, and im not comfortable triple booting. I've tried everything, including using GPT/LVM, and grub2 with refit, but in refit, when i ask it to boot from the usb, it just boots the windows partition. The steps i took were to format it as a GPT disk, create 2 partitions, one a BIOS partition (i was following a video, www.youtube.com/watch?v=69X9ZYA41xU), and the rest went the other partition, which housed the Arch partitions. I then did the normal arch install, not installing the boot loader. After that i chrooted into the usb, and this is were i got confused. I was following the grub2 wiki for uefi systems, but i think i did it right. Does anyone know a guide to do this on mac? All the ones ive seen dont work with mac, or dont have persistence.

adamrehard

Member

From: NY, USA

Registered: 2011-11-03

Posts: 154

Re: Install and Boot Arch from a USB on Mac

Did you read the wiki? https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBook
The wiki article seems to only cover triple booting, but I would imagine that it shouldn't be too hard to adapt it to what you are trying to do.
I can't help on this particular issue, as it's been years since I touched a Mac, but I will tell you that you have to provide more information if you want help.

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"The box said requires Vista or better, so I installed Arch"
Windows != Linux

persiankid400

Member

Registered: 2011-12-19

Posts: 10

Re: Install and Boot Arch from a USB on Mac

I guess i dont really have a problem, but im looking for a guide to install and boot to a usb for mac. Thanks for the reply.

Relish

Member

Registered: 2012-01-16

Posts: 13

Re: Install and Boot Arch from a USB on Mac

The BIOS implementation for macs is awful, so what you need to do is get a copy of EFI GRUB and use that to boot arch.

persiankid400

Member

Registered: 2011-12-19

Posts: 10

Re: Install and Boot Arch from a USB on Mac

Yes, i read somewhere that I cant boot off a USB if I have a not-default MBR. So if i have a bootcamp partition, it wont work, and that was the main reason for USB, so i wouldn't have to triple boot or delete bootcamp.