Arch Linux

lbolla

Member

Registered: 2011-06-18

Posts: 3

Archlinun on MacPro

Has anyone ever tried to install Archlinux on a MacPro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Pro)?
I'm about to try it, but I'd like to hear your experiences before trying!

Thanks for your help,
Lorenzo

chrisbuchholz

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2010-12-21

Posts: 25

Website

Re: Archlinun on MacPro

I am on such a beast right now!

You have to set a few things to get full support of the hardware, but when that has been done, it's rock'n'roll, baby!

lbolla

Member

Registered: 2011-06-18

Posts: 3

Re: Archlinun on MacPro

I am on such a beast right now!

You have to set a few things to get full support of the hardware, but when that has been done, it's rock'n'roll, baby!

Did you encounter any problems when installing?
Did you wipe out OS X completely or do you dual boot?

Just wondering... as I'm going to do it on my box at work and I might not have *days* to spend... ;-)

Thanks a lot!
Lorenzo

chrisbuchholz

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2010-12-21

Posts: 25

Website

Re: Archlinun on MacPro

I am on such a beast right now!

You have to set a few things to get full support of the hardware, but when that has been done, it's rock'n'roll, baby!

Did you encounter any problems when installing?
Did you wipe out OS X completely or do you dual boot?

Just wondering... as I'm going to do it on my box at work and I might not have *days* to spend... ;-)

Thanks a lot!
Lorenzo

Well, for this particular setup (Arch - it can vary between distros) I simply made my OS X partition about 50gb of size, so I had 200gb left. Then I installed rEFIt on OS X (it's a EFI boot extension that makes it easy to boot linux partitions, sync your GPT table and such things). Then I booted into the Arch cd, and started installation. When I came to the partition stuff, I just created the partition(s) needed (leaving the OS X partition as is so I can dualboot with OS X for firmware updates and such), and continued the installation. I remember when I had to boot arch the first time after (this particular) installation, it failed - something about a "missing bootable disc" or something. So I restarted and when I came to rEFIt boot screen, I chose the partition-tool and synced the GPT table, and then tried booting Arch again, and this time it worked.

About installing rEFIt - I chose the enable-always.sh script instead of the enable.sh script. This way, you always boot into rEFIt and can easily choose the Arch partition. Otherwise you gotta press OPTION/Alt key to choose to boot to rEFIt. It's also possible to make (if you use the enable-always.sh script) rEFIt boot into Arch as default. Pretty neat.

Other than that, I didn't really do anything.

There's a few AUR packages I use for full operation: broadcom-wl, nvidia-bl and macfanctld-bzr. (I suppose your dont need nvidia-bl if you use nouveau driver instead of nvidia proprietary driver).

lbolla

Member

Registered: 2011-06-18

Posts: 3

Re: Archlinun on MacPro

Thanks a lot for your suggestions.
At the end, I decided to wipe MacOS off completely and install ArchLinux from scratch.
Never decision was wiser: it works like a charm!
Lorenzo

keenster

Member

Registered: 2011-09-25

Posts: 15

Re: Archlinun on MacPro

Running Arch on my beast Mac Pro also. Dual quad core Xeons and a GeForce 8800 GT. Running fine with the native Nvidia drivers. I'm slightly worried about fan control as the package posted earlier on in the thread seems to be designed for Macbooks. Not the Mac Pro.

Last edited by keenster (2011-09-27 16:23:42)