Arch Linux

82Emugel

Member

Registered: 2014-11-07

Posts: 11

Another grub install problem (ArchLinux only, on an iMac)

Hi guys,

There is another topic Grub install problem but in order to keep replies separated, probably best to create a new topic.

This computer is a 2008 iMac. Hard drive crashed, so installed a new one.
It will be ArchLinux only (so no other OS on the computer).

After following standard ArchLinux installation guide (with GRUB), the computer won't boot.

I'm not too sure what is wrong, but it might be because I partitioned the disk with fdisk instead of gdisk (this MBR/GPT thing is really difficult for me as when I used to use Linux it was MBR only).

I think I'll start over with a new installation, because honestly I lost track of what I did. But what strategy could you advise for this reinstall?

Thing is even after having spent something like 10+ hours, I still don't even understand if my Mac have a bios, or use EFI, nor what type of partition I should create for /boot (some say ext2, some say fat, vfat…).

And I read that Linux kernels now have their own boot loader, so what is the simplest strategy to have a computer that boots and a boot which is not destroyed on every Kernel update?

Oh and by the way, I was more or less planning on using BtrFS for / and /home and ReiserFS for /var (I know this one is unrecommended by some but figured if I don't try it now I will never have the chance later, as the support is discontinued). Is BtrFS a safe choice or is ext4 better if I want to minimize risk of data loss later?

Last edited by 82Emugel (2014-11-07 13:48:26)

thearcherblog

Member

Registered: 2014-10-30

Posts: 165

Re: Another grub install problem (ArchLinux only, on an iMac)

Hello,

I have no idea about macs but, if you boot with you Archlinux CD and you get a lot of variables running the

efivars -l

that means that you have UEFI bios

In that case use the beginners guide for UEFI (using cgdisk) for partitions, if not, just use the normal MBR installation using fdisk.

I hope it helps.

Regards,

TheArcher

82Emugel

Member

Registered: 2014-11-07

Posts: 11

Re: Another grub install problem (ArchLinux only, on an iMac)

I have no idea about macs but, if you boot with you Archlinux CD and you get a lot of variables running the

efivars -l

that means that you have UEFI bios
In that case use the beginners guide for UEFI (using cgdisk) for partitions, if not, just use the normal MBR installation using fdisk.

Thx, UEFI bios then, got 25 lines. I only get this 'efivar' available when booting the EFI "image" from the CD, not with the main image (which appears,  oddly enough, as "WINDOWS", though it's the ArchLinux main image).

When I'm going to reinstall –probably tomorrow– should I boot with the EFI image or with the other one?
I also didn't understood that (probably the EFI image right?)  

What about the Kernel loader, should I install something like GRUB anyway? I don't remember if the standard guide addressed that.

Last edited by 82Emugel (2014-11-07 14:00:33)

thearcherblog

Member

Registered: 2014-10-30

Posts: 165

Re: Another grub install problem (ArchLinux only, on an iMac)

To be honest, about the bootloader, this is entire up to you. If you want my opinion, grub is more complete and works for both MBR and UEFI (with the proper installation) but in my case I use gummiboot because I think it's faster (UEFI)

Anyway, I only have Arch on my computer

About installing it with UEFI or with BIOS support... I do not know for sure, but if you are going to have dual boot (remember that I do not know about Macs), I think Mac OS works with UEFI so but I recommend you to install Archlinux with UEFI.

I hope it helps

Regards,

TheArcher

Last edited by thearcherblog (2014-11-07 14:08:35)

Kopkins

Member

Registered: 2012-07-01

Posts: 189

Re: Another grub install problem (ArchLinux only, on an iMac)

AFAIK Macs are EFI only. Try reading through some of the Mac pages on the wiki. There's a lot of information about running arch on them.

allonsy

Member

Registered: 2014-04-28

Posts: 26

Re: Another grub install problem (ArchLinux only, on an iMac)

Yep, You are on a EFI mac. I would suggest used gparted or parted to a gpt partition scheme and then add you partitions (I would use ext4 or btrfs). For the EFI setup, you are going to need a small 200 megabyte fat32 (vfat) partition as the first partition for you bootloader. Grub usually works the best with macs. The easiest way is to mount the fat32 partition as /boot during the install and then install grub there. Mac needs you to copy grubx64.efi to /boot/efi/boot/bootx64.efi (its all in the wiki) in order to see it. You can select to boot to grub by holding down the option key and if you want to continuously boot into grub, hold down the option key during boot to see you selections, hit the arrow keys to navigate to the arch install then hold down control while you click enter to tell the mac firmware to default to that device.