Arch Linux

bolyki

Member

Registered: 2014-02-26

Posts: 1

Install on MacBook Pro 8,3

Hey guys,

I got a MacBook Pro 17', late 2011, comes with i7 and a 750GB drive+ DVD.

I throwed the DVD out, placed in an SSD.

So my setup is:
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *250.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh SSD           183.9 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data Windows SSD             65.3 GB    disk0s4
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Data HD                 500.0 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s6
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data arch                    64.3 GB    disk1s7
   5:                  Apple_HFS Time Machine            184.9 GB  disk1s4

disk0 is the SSD, which I dont want arch to touch , at ALL.
disk1 is the 750GB HDD, where I would like to install arch.

disk0 cotains a hybrid MBR with OSX and Windows 8 installed, and should not be touched ANY WAY.
disk1 has no OS installed, only an EFI partition which can be removed if needed. There is also a Data HD called partition which should NOT be touched, but I have got a backup of that.

So mainly, I am kinda like arch, used linux before, know how to handle syslinux but not very familiar with grub.

An MBR can be installed on that drive IF needed, however I would like to stick to EFI boot or something else to avoid MBR.

Also, the EFI partition is bootable, I can choose it from my boot menu (apple's bootloader), I think if I install the correct loader there, it would work.

My main questions are:

Will this work? What problems could I face? What about the drivers for mac?

What is imporatnt, is I would like to use BTRFS ( i know it's experimental, thats why!) which only accepts grub.

My skills just at like, where I can install the whole system on a normal PC with DEs and make it work without any help.( im not very much professional in linux)
Currently, im running arch in VMWARE. It •would• be nice to be able to transfer all my stuff from there? If it's possible? I mean, if i would install everything, then transfer all my stuff it would work right?

Thanks for the answer guys!

Rexilion

Member

Registered: 2013-12-23

Posts: 784

Re: Install on MacBook Pro 8,3

I don't think you can mix efi with legacy bios. So you have to use efi for Arch as well. This should be supported.

BTRFS is supported by grub, that should not be a problem.

About the drivers for mac, I don't know. As far as I know, Linux has issue's handling 2 video cards if your Macbook uses those.

It is possible to transfer the contents of the vmware image to your actual disk. I think you could boot a Linux livecd in vmware and use a virtual network to transfer the partition data from the guest to the host directly into disk1. You could do this with one command using a temporary ssh server. Something like:

ssh $vmware_guest 'cd /archroot && tar -cf - *' | tar -xf -

You can perform this command while the CWD is in the root of disk1 of course (be careful!).

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fs/super.c : "Self-destruct in 5 seconds.  Have a nice day...\n",