[Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

ego.abyssi · 2011-07-27 10:44:23

Greetings.

I cannot seem to figure out how to get Arch installed on my shiney new Macbook Air.

The most recent official Arch installation image do not contain the brcm80211 module. Attempts as using b43 or b43-legacy failed since the firmware I have to copy over is 32-bit. Attempts at thumbing over the broadcom-wl pkg and building it on the Mac in the installation environment also failed do to missing make and patch.

The most recent unofficial Archboot image contains the brcm80211 module, and I can get wireless running in this environment in no time.

However, everything else in this enviroment seems quirky at best, or my inexperience precedes me. Using strictly the menus--except to set up wireless in another virtual terminal--seems to work, all the way through installation of grub2. Booting does not work, however, and following the instructions on the Grub2 Arch Wiki (Launch GRUB2 EFI as default in the Firmware Boot Manager) are also problematic. The Archboot image does not have the efivars module. :S

I'm debating on whether I should get a USB Ethernet Dongle, use the official Arch installation media, sync everything, and then upgrade the kernel which should have the brcm80211 module?

Or, should I chroot into the installation I do finally have on the hard drive, sync everything, reinstall Grub2 and efibootmgr, and try again?

Finally, a nit. Much as I love 1/4-inch letters, I much prefer a little more breathing room at the console.

Modesetting, discouraged throughout the Arch wiki for the older, nVidia model Macbooks, seems to work with the newer, Intel HD Graphics 3000 Macbook Airs. However, all is not well. The i915.modeset=1 option seems to leave a 1-inch margin of garbled pixels along the right edge of the screen. Also, the terminal appears to output 2 or 3 more lines past the bottom of the screen, rendering anything I type invisible after the screen has filled and must scroll. Various renditions of video:1366x768 or video=inteldrmfb:1366x768 (also at different resolutions and bit depths), acpi_backlight=vendor, and disablehooks=arch_fb fail to fix it. Some combinations produce a blank screen. Others leave whatever the same resolution it is that is loading.

I appreciate any pointers anyone's willing to offer at this point. I have been R-ing the FM all F-ing day and getting no where.

Last edited by ego.abyssi (2012-01-24 13:02:53)

litemotiv · 2011-07-27 11:30:32

I think it would be worth trying to install Grub2 in bios-mode first instead of EFI, it's simpler and has less chance to pose unforeseen problems.

mips1 · 2011-07-27 12:16:40

There's also the releng iso images which are the current development versions, http://releng.archlinux.org/isos/

ego.abyssi · 2011-07-27 14:02:41

I dd'ed the rEFIt iso to a thumb drive, and sure enough, I am able to boot grub.efi--or core.efi--which plops me into my GRUB2 boot menu. From there, everything runs well all the way until the kernel tries to mount the SSD to /newroot. This fails, and the device does not appear under /dev at all.

I'm not sure if I goofed something with btrfs or not. I don't think so, and I can't see how that would cause udevd to fail to find the SSD--let alone partitions or subvolumes, the latter of which I have none.

Damn if it kills me, I'm going to figure out a way to do this UEFI-pure, if for no other reason than because this is just pissing me off now.

Interestingly enough, having forgotton to add any modeset switches to my grub.cfg, kms sets inteldrmfb to native resolution with perfect display. Don't know why this is different than what behavior exhibits when the Arch or Archboot installation disks boot. Not complaining, but it is irksome not to know, and I'm sure this will bug other people before long.

More to follow.

skodabenz · 2011-07-27 16:38:30

efivars will not work for Apple systems. It works only in UEFI 2.x systems (Apple uses screwed up EFI 1.x, not spec compliant UEFI 2.x) . For Apple systems use 'bless' command from inside Mac OS X.

tjim · 2011-07-27 18:18:05

If you have one of the just-release Sandy Bridge Macbook Airs, I've seen reports of problems with the similar Minis, see http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a … pple&num=1.

I spent some time trying to get a pure UEFI-booting arch up on the previous macbookair3,1 (11-inch). I was able to get to a console install just fine, but could not get nouveau or nvidia working. I am able to use nvidia by booting via refit and bios-compatibility, so that's what I'm doing now. If you get UEFI working with nvidia I'd like to hear about it.

I wrote a script to convert the previous archboot image into a UEFI-bootable image, here: http://pastebin.com/CS1qzuJU. This thread might be useful: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=121338. Also, one day it may be possible to have a single image suitable for CD, MBR, and EFI boot, see http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/4957.html.

My current kernel options from grub.cfg are:

linux (${root})//vmlinuz26 root=/dev/mapper/vg0-root cryptdevice=/dev/sda5:vg0 rootfstype=ext4 ro nomodeset add_efi_memmap noefi reboot=pci resume=/dev/mapper/vg0-swap elevator=noop quiet

I'm using an encrypted LVM partition, ignore that if you don't need it.

In /etc/rc.conf I have

MODULES=(acpi_cpufreq)

and

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng acpid dbus !network wicd avahi-daemon netfs crond alsa pommed sensors @cpufreq)

The main issues I've seen with my current setup are:

* Occasional crashes probably due to brcm in situations with weak wireless signal
* Microphone does not work
* Beep (console speaker) does not work

Most other things work fine (suspend/resume, webcam, ethernet dongle, video out, power management).

Good luck!

-T

ego.abyssi · 2011-07-27 19:56:44

skodabenz,

Thanks for the input. I will keep this in mind if it proves ineffective once I get it installed in a chroot. I'm hoping that, perhaps, with this new Sandy Bridge Macbook Air, things will be different. Perhaps not.

If not, then I set myself for an unexpected purchase, because I deleted that partition, and this shiney new laptop came without a shiney new OS/X disc. :S

* * *

tjim,

Fortunately, I do have one of the new Sandy Bridge Macbook Airs, so I don't have the nVidia issues that came with the previous models. And, the issue I was having with the Archboot environment appears not to have carried over into the installation. Again, perplexing, and perhaps I'll investigate it later, but for now, I'll take it. Also, the new Archboot image appears to boot fine...

Is there something I'm missing about UEFI booting?

Thanks for pasting the grub.cfg line. elevator=noop looks like it will speed things up. One of those Duh! options for SSD.

tjim · 2011-07-27 21:10:21

ego.abyssi wrote:

Also, the new Archboot image appears to boot fine...

If I recall, the archboot image will boot in bios-compatibility mode instead of pure UEFI as you say you want.

I wanted to boot without using bios compatibility and without rEFIt. I was able to do it by creating a new gpt image with my script.

I'm now relying on rEFIt, so it's hard for me to test whether this is still working.

At any rate it sounds like you have a working install.

-T

tjim · 2011-07-27 21:14:04

ego.abyssi wrote:

this shiney new laptop came without a shiney new OS/X disc. :S

At least my older macbookair came with a USB restore stick. (Takes about 25 minutes reinstall OS X.)

I guess Apple is moving to an appstore/network install, but I'm surprised if they eliminated USB restore.

ego.abyssi · 2011-07-28 20:25:17

Well, I finally got Arch installed and working on the Macbook Air, including recognizing the SSD.

Went through a couple bouts of installation where I had the EFI partition formatted as hfsplus, root on btrfs subvolumes, etc. Just because. Why not make things harder than they need to be on the bleeding edge, you know?

I finall went with EFI on FAT, boot on ex2, and root on btrfs without subvolumes.

Rebooted into it--using rEFIt on a flash drive for the moment--got the network running without a hitch, ran pacman -Syyu... Everything seemed to work great.

Rebooted again, and now I get a blank screen after booting either the primary or fallback image. F___!

Various options of noacpi, acpi=off, maxcpus=1, etc--from other threads on here--don't seem to help.

Arch and "Sandy Bridge" Macbook Airs are a match made in hell, apparently.

Spider.007 · 2011-07-30 16:52:43

I have just installed Archlinux on a new Macbook Air i7 as well, for anyone looking to do that the easy way:

Use Archlinux from releng, or your wireless won't work

* install rEFIt in MacOSX
* use disk-manager to shrink primary partition and add a second one (type doesn't matter, I put mine on FAT)
* insert Arch USB stick and reboot twice, until you see rEFIt on boot, which allows you to boot from stick
* install Arch normally on /dev/sda4 (the new partition), install GRUB on partition, not on entire disk
* reboot, enter rEFIt partition manager, let rEFIt update the MBR
* you can now boot into GRUB via rEFIT; and into your Archlinux installation

I also needed to add i915.modeset=0 to the kernel line in GRUB, or my screen would just turn black.... I'll keep you posted

litemotiv · 2011-07-30 17:41:02

Spider.007 wrote:

I also needed to add i915.modeset=0 to the kernel line in GRUB, or my screen would just turn black.... I'll keep you posted

Didn't Intel require KMS in order to run X these days..?

tjim · 2011-07-30 18:45:53

For those that want to do it the hard way (pure EFI without rEFIt/bios-compatibility) I updated my script for building a gpt boot image from the latest archboot 2011.07-2, here.

I can confirm on my MacBookAir3,1 that it boots to the installer (hold down option while booting and select "EFI Boot").

Since the graphics are different on the Sandy Bridge macs I included a grub entry for that, but I can't test it, YMMV.

skodabenz · 2011-07-30 19:05:02

tjim wrote:

For those that want to do it the hard way (pure EFI without rEFIt/bios-compatibility) I updated my script for building a gpt boot image from the latest archboot 2011.07-2, here.
I can confirm on my MacBookAir3,1 that it boots to the installer (hold down option while booting and select "EFI Boot").
Since the graphics are different on the Sandy Bridge macs I included a grub entry for that, but I can't test it, YMMV.

Minor mistake

none=EFI_ARCH_\${_EFI_ARCH}

should be

none=UEFI_ARCH_\${_UEFI_ARCH}

Apart from that I haven't tested the script since I do not use any Mac. I tested the new Archboot in Virtualbox with x86_64 UEFI 2.1 and it works properly. BTW what is the softlinks issue you see in Archboot. Maybe you should post about the softlink issue at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=123412 .

tjim · 2011-07-30 19:25:27

skodabenz wrote:

BTW what is the softlinks issue you see in Archboot

The previous archboot image that I looked at (2011.06-1) contained soft links, e.g., for pkg/core.db. That's why I used a second, ext4 partition.

The current archboot image (2011.07-2) no longer contains soft links (perhaps they are now in .squashfs files?).

So, it might be possible to do without the ext4 partition now, not sure.

skodabenz · 2011-07-30 20:10:29

tjim wrote:

The previous archboot image that I looked at (2011.06-1) contained soft links, e.g., for pkg/core.db. That's why I used a second, ext4 partition.
The current archboot image (2011.07-2) no longer contains soft links (perhaps they are now in .squashfs files?).
So, it might be possible to do without the ext4 partition now, not sure.

Yes, they are now part of the squashfs images and the symbolic links are intact when the images are mounted within the archboot rootfs. So there is no need for a separate ext4 partition in the USB now.

ego.abyssi · 2011-07-31 06:41:16

The saga continues:

The script tjim provided does produce an image which boots on the Macbook Air (4,2). (What does (4,2) mean, anyway?)

The image boots, the keyboard works until grub loads and runs the initrd. So, pressing enter to get to the shell doesn't do anything, and niether does attaching a separate usb keyboard.

Trying the unadulterated Archboot image again. One thing I didn't do was pass both i915.modeset=0 and nomodeset....

litemotiv · 2011-07-31 10:26:45

ego.abyssi wrote:

What does (4,2) mean, anyway?

Generation 4, type 2.

Spider.007 · 2011-07-31 10:29:18

litemotiv wrote:

Spider.007 wrote:
I also needed to add i915.modeset=0 to the kernel line in GRUB, or my screen would just turn black.... I'll keep you posted
Didn't Intel require KMS in order to run X these days..?

Yeah, that is probably why xf86-video-intel refuses to run, although it doesn't mention missing KMS explicitly. I guess I'll have to wait for this to be fixed: [HD3000] Hang/blank display on macbook air (mid 2011 model)

Last edited by Spider.007 (2011-07-31 10:29:51)

tjim · 2011-07-31 14:35:16

Here is a new version that uses only one partition... sounds like it won't help for MacBookAir4, though.

If a fix comes through let me know.

ego.abyssi · 2011-07-31 19:05:33

I don't get it... What magic would make the keyboard work from the Archboot image, but not the UEFI purified image?

gnomiik · 2011-08-23 09:55:09

Having video distortion trying to install arch on the new mac air 2011 13 inch model. Been going at it for 2 days. Booted from efi grub2 and legacy syslinux yields same video distortion.

Picture here:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/83 … 11256.jpg/

The resolution does not fill the screen. There is distortion on the right, and on the bottom where the black bar starts which robs the screen of space. Any resolution i change to and there is still the margin on the bottom and right. Any ideas?

lsmod shows i915 loaded. i915.modeset=0 does not fix the problem, it just limits the resolution to 1024x768 when booting in legacy mode.

ego.abyssi · 2011-08-28 16:36:12

That was the video behavior I first encountered in my initial installation attempts. `i915.modeset=0' by itself did not help. If I remember correctly, I also had to pass the `nomodeset' and `quiet' options.

It's a shame these things are so difficult to configure to good working order.

Probably, I'm going to take another crack at getting Arch running on mine after I move. I hate to leave such a gorgeous machine lying around doing nothing.

gnomiik · 2011-08-29 19:50:35

When you did "i915.modeset=0 nomodeset quiet" was the resolution normal in any desktop environment? I guess I can try this when I get home from work today. Its really disappointing that this laptop cant run linux normally.

staticimport · 2011-08-29 23:08:24

gnomiik wrote:

When you did "i915.modeset=0 nomodeset quiet" was the resolution normal in any desktop environment? I guess I can try this when I get home from work today. Its really disappointing that this laptop cant run linux normally.

i915.modeset=0 and nomodeset are redundant, and only serve to disable KMS on startup, which the Intel graphics needs to work. As a result, i915.modeset=0 or nomodeset will get you booted up with your screen working, X will fail when trying to use the intel driver. If you have vesa installed, it'll default to that, but you'll be stuck with 1024x768 resolution. I tried booting 'blindly' (not disabling KMS but trying to log in and startx without seeing the screen)...I believe I was successful, in that I saw the screen flash as if it were starting X, but it still just stayed blank, so no luck.

I'm just a noobie, but this is my understanding from my questioning on #archlinux and trying myself.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-07-27 10:44:23

[Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#2 2011-07-27 11:30:32

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#3 2011-07-27 12:16:40

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#4 2011-07-27 14:02:41

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#5 2011-07-27 16:38:30

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#6 2011-07-27 18:18:05

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#7 2011-07-27 19:56:44

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#8 2011-07-27 21:10:21

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#9 2011-07-27 21:14:04

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#10 2011-07-28 20:25:17

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#11 2011-07-30 16:52:43

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#12 2011-07-30 17:41:02

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#13 2011-07-30 18:45:53

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#14 2011-07-30 19:05:02

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#15 2011-07-30 19:25:27

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#16 2011-07-30 20:10:29

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#17 2011-07-31 06:41:16

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#18 2011-07-31 10:26:45

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#19 2011-07-31 10:29:18

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#20 2011-07-31 14:35:16

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#21 2011-07-31 19:05:33

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#22 2011-08-23 09:55:09

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#23 2011-08-28 16:36:12

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#24 2011-08-29 19:50:35

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

#25 2011-08-29 23:08:24

Re: [Solved] Arch/Archboot Macbook Air (4,2) Installation Woes

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