[arch-general] EFI-Support (Arch on a MacBook Pro)

Arvid Warnecke

13 Apr 2012 13 Apr '12

8:51 p.m.

Hello, I am planning to install Arch on my Late-2008 MacBook Pro in the near future, because I like the Arch Way and the BSD-style better. (I used to run FreeBSD for many years before I had to use Mac OS X. Hence the MacBook.) To get back to use Linux I installed Linux Mint 12, because it seemed simple. I now have one Partition with OS X, one for Linux and one small Swap. I installed rEFIt from OS X and then installed Linux Mint. What I have been wondering about now is, if it will be possible to install Arch without rEFIt and the Mac OS X at all? I read a lot in the wiki pages, but all I found was that if I install Arch only with EFI support I will have to install GRUB2. And on the page about GRUB2 I read, that I will have to bless GRUB2 from OS X... If that is necessary I might keep rEFIt and OS X as it is and only replace the Mint installation with Arch. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance, Arvid

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Scott Lawrence

13 Apr 13 Apr

8:54 p.m.

On Fri, 13 Apr 2012, Arvid Warnecke wrote:

...

Hello,

I am planning to install Arch on my Late-2008 MacBook Pro in the near future, because I like the Arch Way and the BSD-style better. (I used to run FreeBSD for many years before I had to use Mac OS X. Hence the MacBook.)

To get back to use Linux I installed Linux Mint 12, because it seemed simple. I now have one Partition with OS X, one for Linux and one small Swap. I installed rEFIt from OS X and then installed Linux Mint.

What I have been wondering about now is, if it will be possible to install Arch without rEFIt and the Mac OS X at all? I read a lot in the wiki pages, but all I found was that if I install Arch only with EFI support I will have to install GRUB2. And on the page about GRUB2 I read, that I will have to bless GRUB2 from OS X...

If that is necessary I might keep rEFIt and OS X as it is and only replace the Mint installation with Arch.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Arvid

It's my understanding that with linux 3.3, it's possible to get EFI to boot straight to linux. I don't know the specifics - I mean to give it a stab early this weekend. If I still have a working computer afterwords, I'll let you know what happens (provided nobody else interjects with something more useful). -- Scott Lawrence Linux jagadai 3.3.1-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Apr 3 06:46:17 UTC 2012 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8700 @ 2.53GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Arvid Warnecke

14 Apr 14 Apr

8:20 p.m.

Hi Scott, On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 02:54:28PM -0400, Scott Lawrence wrote:

...

...
What I have been wondering about now is, if it will be possible to install Arch without rEFIt and the Mac OS X at all? I read a lot in the wiki pages, but all I found was that if I install Arch only with EFI support I will have to install GRUB2. And on the page about GRUB2 I read, that I will have to bless GRUB2 from OS X...

If that is necessary I might keep rEFIt and OS X as it is and only replace the Mint installation with Arch.

It's my understanding that with linux 3.3, it's possible to get EFI to boot straight to linux. I don't know the specifics - I mean to give it a stab early this weekend. If I still have a working computer afterwords, I'll let you know what happens (provided nobody else interjects with something more useful).

Thanks, looking forward to it. Best regards, Arvid

Keshav P R

8:49 p.m.

On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 23:50, Arvid Warnecke wrote:

...

Hi Scott,

On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 02:54:28PM -0400, Scott Lawrence wrote:

...
...
What I have been wondering about now is, if it will be possible to install Arch without rEFIt and the Mac OS X at all? I read a lot in the wiki pages, but all I found was that if I install Arch only with EFI support I will have to install GRUB2. And on the page about GRUB2 I read, that I will have to bless GRUB2 from OS X...

If that is necessary I might keep rEFIt and OS X as it is and only replace the Mint installation with Arch.

It's my understanding that with linux 3.3, it's possible to get EFI to boot straight to linux. I don't know the specifics - I mean to give it a stab early this weekend. If I still have a working computer afterwords, I'll let you know what happens (provided nobody else interjects with something more useful).

Thanks, looking forward to it.

Best regards, Arvid

Just FYI https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=136833 http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/efistub.html https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/3/16/194 rEFInd Boot Manager - better than rEFIt - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=57632 . Related info at http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/linux.html . Experimental "bless" utility for linux - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=54847 (needs more testing) Regards. Keshav

Scott Lawrence

10:19 p.m.

My cd writer is apparently dead (gets to 60-80% and dies), so I'll be contributing no useful information. Sorry However, it seems that using an archboot[1] livecd[2] is the way to go - a simple install should give you grub2 properly set up, and from there it's just a matter of configuration. [1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archboot [2] http://cosmos.cites.illinois.edu/pub/archlinux/iso/archboot/2012.01/ By the way, if you intend to go the dwm/xmonad route, I've created a version of pommed (the hotkeys handler) with unnecessary dbus/wmaker/gnome/ambient-light-sensor support torn out, along with the bugs it had. pommed-light in AUR. The main version of pommed tends to sit at 2% CPU usage because it's constantly polling the ambient light sensor, and it can't tolerate dbus not being running. Good luck. On Sun, 15 Apr 2012, Keshav P R wrote:

...

On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 23:50, Arvid Warnecke wrote:

...
Hi Scott,

On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 02:54:28PM -0400, Scott Lawrence wrote:

...
...
What I have been wondering about now is, if it will be possible to install Arch without rEFIt and the Mac OS X at all? I read a lot in the wiki pages, but all I found was that if I install Arch only with EFI support I will have to install GRUB2. And on the page about GRUB2 I read, that I will have to bless GRUB2 from OS X...

If that is necessary I might keep rEFIt and OS X as it is and only replace the Mint installation with Arch.

It's my understanding that with linux 3.3, it's possible to get EFI to boot straight to linux. I don't know the specifics - I mean to give it a stab early this weekend. If I still have a working computer afterwords, I'll let you know what happens (provided nobody else interjects with something more useful).

Thanks, looking forward to it.

Best regards, Arvid

Just FYI

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=136833 http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/efistub.html https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/3/16/194

rEFInd Boot Manager - better than rEFIt - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=57632 . Related info at http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/linux.html .

Experimental "bless" utility for linux - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=54847 (needs more testing)

Regards.

Keshav

-- Scott Lawrence Linux jagadai 3.3.1-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Apr 3 06:46:17 UTC 2012 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8700 @ 2.53GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Arvid Warnecke

15 Apr 15 Apr

8:17 p.m.

On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 04:19:13PM -0400, Scott Lawrence wrote:

...

...
...
...
...
What I have been wondering about now is, if it will be possible to install Arch without rEFIt and the Mac OS X at all? I read a lot in the wiki pages, but all I found was that if I install Arch only with EFI support I will have to install GRUB2. And on the page about GRUB2 I read, that I will have to bless GRUB2 from OS X...

It's my understanding that with linux 3.3, it's possible to get EFI to boot straight to linux. I don't know the specifics - I mean to give it a stab early this weekend. If I still have a working computer afterwords, I'll let you know what happens (provided nobody else interjects with something more useful).

Thanks, looking forward to it.

My cd writer is apparently dead (gets to 60-80% and dies), so I'll be contributing no useful information. Sorry

Too bad. Apple drive? Seems that the drives break really that often.

...

However, it seems that using an archboot[1] livecd[2] is the way to go - a simple install should give you grub2 properly set up, and from there it's just a matter of configuration.

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archboot [2] http://cosmos.cites.illinois.edu/pub/archlinux/iso/archboot/2012.01/

I stumbled upon the Archboot disks, but I haven't been sure if it would be an option, because I read somewhere that they are not officially supported.

...

By the way, if you intend to go the dwm/xmonad route, I've created a version of pommed (the hotkeys handler) with unnecessary dbus/wmaker/gnome/ambient-light-sensor support torn out, along with the bugs it had. pommed-light in AUR. The main version of pommed tends to sit at 2% CPU usage because it's constantly polling the ambient light sensor, and it can't tolerate dbus not being running.

I will take a look, sounds good.

...

Good luck.

Thanks!

Scott Lawrence

8:20 p.m.

On Sun, 15 Apr 2012, Arvid Warnecke wrote:

...

On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 04:19:13PM -0400, Scott Lawrence wrote:

...
...
...
...
...
What I have been wondering about now is, if it will be possible to install Arch without rEFIt and the Mac OS X at all? I read a lot in the wiki pages, but all I found was that if I install Arch only with EFI support I will have to install GRUB2. And on the page about GRUB2 I read, that I will have to bless GRUB2 from OS X...

It's my understanding that with linux 3.3, it's possible to get EFI to boot straight to linux. I don't know the specifics - I mean to give it a stab early this weekend. If I still have a working computer afterwords, I'll let you know what happens (provided nobody else interjects with something more useful).

Thanks, looking forward to it.

My cd writer is apparently dead (gets to 60-80% and dies), so I'll be contributing no useful information. Sorry

Too bad. Apple drive? Seems that the drives break really that often.

Yeah. Lasted over two years, which I understand is a good run. (And it still /sorta/ works, but I don't want to risk having an unbootable computer as the end of the semester nears.)

...

...
However, it seems that using an archboot[1] livecd[2] is the way to go - a simple install should give you grub2 properly set up, and from there it's just a matter of configuration.

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archboot [2] http://cosmos.cites.illinois.edu/pub/archlinux/iso/archboot/2012.01/

I stumbled upon the Archboot disks, but I haven't been sure if it would be an option, because I read somewhere that they are not officially supported.

The disks themselves aren't officially supported - but once you've done the installation, it's the same arch. As far as I can tell, they're the best thing available for EFI computers.

...

...
By the way, if you intend to go the dwm/xmonad route, I've created a version of pommed (the hotkeys handler) with unnecessary dbus/wmaker/gnome/ambient-light-sensor support torn out, along with the bugs it had. pommed-light in AUR. The main version of pommed tends to sit at 2% CPU usage because it's constantly polling the ambient light sensor, and it can't tolerate dbus not being running.

I will take a look, sounds good.

...
Good luck.

Thanks!

-- Scott Lawrence Linux jagadai 3.3.1-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Apr 3 06:46:17 UTC 2012 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8700 @ 2.53GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Arvid Warnecke

7:58 p.m.

On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 12:19:15AM +0530, Keshav P R wrote:

...

...
...
...
What I have been wondering about now is, if it will be possible to install Arch without rEFIt and the Mac OS X at all? I read a lot in the wiki pages, but all I found was that if I install Arch only with EFI support I will have to install GRUB2. And on the page about GRUB2 I read, that I will have to bless GRUB2 from OS X...

If that is necessary I might keep rEFIt and OS X as it is and only replace the Mint installation with Arch.

Just FYI

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=136833 http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/efistub.html https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/3/16/194

rEFInd Boot Manager - better than rEFIt - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=57632 . Related info at http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/linux.html .

Experimental "bless" utility for linux - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=54847 (needs more testing)

Thank you for the links. But what I did not understood so far: why do I still need a EFI Boot Manager, when it's called EFI stub..? At the moment I don't see there any difference to my rEFIt installation. Cheers, Arvid

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Arvid Warnecke
Keshav P R
Scott Lawrence