Arch Linux

womp

Member

Registered: 2015-08-02

Posts: 11

[SOLVED]Installing on MacBook Pro 8,1 on external drive.

Hello.

I have found my new hobby! I have Arch installed and working on 3 computers at home. Now I am trying to install on my computer for work, a MacBook Pro 8,1.
I have all my music files and music software on the fusion-drive and do not want and can not afford to break that. Therefore I am installing on an external usb-drive (500G).
I haven´t runt into any problems yet but I need advice. I wonder if it is possible to set up the computer so that I could boot into Arch by holding the option key during boot and then be able to choose to boot Arch? How to do that?
I haven´t installed grub or done any boot configs yet. I have done some normal system configs but no X yet.
The other concern is wifi. I have read a lot about wifi but the pages about my computer is from 2011 and things have probably changed since then. How is the best way to set up wifi for bcm4331 (rev2) aug. 2015?

Very thankful for answers and support!

Last edited by womp (2015-08-23 19:01:10)

womp

Member

Registered: 2015-08-02

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED]Installing on MacBook Pro 8,1 on external drive.

Hello again.
Sorry to bother! I had no idea that I could solve these kind of problems! In my desperation I reinstalled arch from scratch including repartitining the external drive. I installed rEFInd on "both sides" and as a piece of advice from the old beginner to anyone who wants to try this at home, you will need an extra usb-memory and a usb-hub (mbp has only 2usb ports and they are busy during install).
I will try not to waste too much space here in the future!

womp

Member

Registered: 2015-08-02

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED]Installing on MacBook Pro 8,1 on external drive.

YES!!
I managed to get BCM4331 rev2 working.
The thing is to be able to choose the right info, many guides are out of date.
One more thing is that one has to have all the right software and commands installed before configure.
I have had doubts wether coming this far was possible for me!

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,564

Website

Re: [SOLVED]Installing on MacBook Pro 8,1 on external drive.

Please use the edit button rather than 'power posting'.

Also, can you clarify if you actually have any questions here, or would this be better on your blog?

Have you bothered searching the wiki?  Your wireless card is mentioned in the links from the broadcom page - it should be supported by b43.

As for the random guides you claim are outdated, don't use random guides - use the archlinux wiki.

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

womp

Member

Registered: 2015-08-02

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED]Installing on MacBook Pro 8,1 on external drive.

I am sorry for wasting space. It will not happen again!