
Arch Linux on MacBook Pro Retina 2014 - loicp
http://loicpefferkorn.net/2015/01/arch-linux-on-macbook-pro-retina-2014-with-dm-crypt-lvm-and-suspend-to-disk/
======
darren0
After running Linux on MacBooks for the past 5 years I would strongly
recommend against it. The basics usually work fine but you are constantly
dealing with issues. Each MacBook revision introduces some new issue. For
example the webcam recently switched from being usb attached to being attached
to the PCI bus and Linux doesn't have drivers yet. Other things like GPU
switching, multi monitor, display brightness, all have quirks.

Just recently I gave up getting MacBooks to work with Linux and went back to
ThinkPads and I couldn't be more happy. Granted you can still buy ThinkPads
that have similar issues as the MacBooks. The difference is that you can find
a ThinkPad (or some other brand) that works practically flawlessly. With the
current line of MacBooks, not a single one doesn't have huge issues (like the
webcam).

~~~
progman
Which ThinkPad models work flawlessly for you?

~~~
saosebastiao
I recently bought a T420 for $300. After upgrading my ram to 8G and the stock
hard drive to a samsung SSD, the laptop is easily a better overall laptop than
my wife's MacBook Pro.

I'm running Ubuntu, although I may switch to Arch soon, but I haven't had any
problems with drivers in Ubuntu and would imagine the same would go for Arch.
So far, the only relative downsides compared to the MBP have been:

1) Battery life, although mostly fixed with TLP[a]

2) Keyboard quality...sometimes feels like some keys have more resistance than
others

3) Screen contrast. My wife's MBP isn't a retina, but it still has much better
resolution and contrast.

[a] [http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-
man...](http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-
management.html)

~~~
japhyr
I have a t420s, and replacing the DVD with a bay battery was a very worthwhile
trade.

~~~
saosebastiao
Do you have any links to these batteries? I'm very interested.

~~~
lorenzhs
IIRC they only work with the T420s, not the T420. I might be wrong though, but
Lenovo definitely removed the connectors that are required for that in some
models of the T series at some point in time...

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bithush
Maybe I am just getting old but in 2015 it shouldn't be this much work to get
an OS installed on a computer. Getting pretty much any Linux or Windows
installed on my ThinkPad is a piece of cake. As pretty as a Bacbook Pro is I
just don't have the time for this kind of thing anymore.

#GetOffMyLawn ;)

~~~
jmspring
I moved over to Mac/oSX years ago from Linux and FreeBSD because I was done
dealing with tinkering with things I didn't care about tinkering with --
getting things to work -- wireless, multiple monitor support, etc. I've been
more productive since.

I still use both for vms for projects, but minimized my system administration
headaches.

~~~
alvaromuir
Agreed. I'm too old to worry about drivers and compiling kernels. it's
exciting when you are a young hacker/tinkerer. Now I just need to get work
done. OS X basically 99% perfect for me. Most unix stuff compile no problem,
and the OS is free.

~~~
grubles
Free*

*If you purchase a computer that supports OSX, which just so happens to only be overpriced Apple computers.

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Nexxxeh
The author asks for language corrections on his documentation.

>English is not my native language, corrections and fixes will be greatly
appreciated.

There's nothing really bad that I could see. No potentially ambiguous
instructions at least.

Two typos ("Thunderbold" and "actuel"), a missing "to" ("on a second USB") and
a spurious "s" ("informations"). What's the best way to provide the feedback?

Edit: Looks like submitter is author, so this may be a solved problem.

~~~
loicp
Fixed, thank you for taking the time to report the typos !

~~~
RexRollman
Also, you have the work "partitionning". I believe that should be
"partitioning".

~~~
philtar
Also, you have the word "work". I believe that should be "word".

~~~
RexRollman
Ahhhh

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robbles
Totally unrelated to the subject matter, sorry:

what is the service that generates the author's picture on the top left? I've
been seeing them a lot lately and I don't really understand why people use
them in place of a real photo.

~~~
robbles
Looks like it's www.faceyourmanga.com.

~~~
loicp
I confirm.

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dsqrt
I have the same machine as the author of this post and I have been wondering
about installing Linux on it for quite some time. I was wondering: wouldn't it
be simpler to use virtualization (no problems with the hardware, ease in
sharing data between Linux/OS-X no need to partition the disk and so on)? What
am I missing?

~~~
loicp
Why not, but which virtualization software to use? I can see the advantages,
but what about the drawbacks? Does someone using a virtualized Arch Linux
system under Mac OS X is willing to share?

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insaneirish
As an academic exercise, bravo. As a practical matter, articles like this
boggle my mind.

I really struggle to find a single reason how Linux makes sense on a laptop in
2015 as a primary OS when OS X is an option.

If you feel that strongly about running a Linux desktop, just do it in a VM.

~~~
po1nter
* OSX is NOT Linux * OSX is not free * OSX is not Open Source

~~~
insaneirish
> * OSX is NOT Linux

Is this sportsball? Glad we're picking teams.

> * OSX is not free

Not really concerned with a Richard Stallman view of the world, nor am I about
the semantics of free vs. free.

> * OSX is not Open Source

Parts of it are. And I fully support the rights of companies to distribute
which parts of their own projects that they deem necessary.

> * OSX > * OSX > * OSX

Actually, it's OS X.

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wampus
Instead backing up the raw disk with dd, you can create a USB installer in OS
X. The trick is to download Yosemite from the App Store and prevent it from
running. There are plenty of articles describing the process. If you also have
data to preserve, connect an external disk and do a Time Machine backup. If
anything goes wrong, you can reinstall OS X from scratch and restore your data
(and even restrict the size of your OS X partition so you don't have to resize
it again).

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shawn-butler
I don't think I would trust for very long any system spitting out those ATA
errors.

The interrupts are also probably the cause of the abnormally high kworker CPU
usage.

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cmurf
Core Storage volumes can be resized with 'diskutil cs resizevolume' even if
they're encrypted. It's not documented in the diskutil man page, and thus
probably not supported. I've done this maybe a dozen times and on one of those
attempts it totally imploded the file system and couldn't be salvaged - so it
works most of the time but a backup is still wise.

------
seyz
Nice job. I'm running on Archlinux on a Mac Book Air 2014.

The only thing that doesn't work is my webcam. Does yours work?

~~~
ter0
The iSight cameras are now PCIe rather than USB, and no drivers exist for them
yet as far as I'm aware. There is some more information on the kernel.org bug
tracker[1], and there's also an ongoing attempt to reverse engineer one on
GitHub[2].

[1][https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71131](https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71131)

[2][https://github.com/patjak/bcwc_pcie](https://github.com/patjak/bcwc_pcie)

~~~
loicp
Thanks for sharing, I will add a section about the webcam.

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floatboth
I'd like to install FreeBSD on my MacBook Air. Unfortunately, Broadcom Wi-Fi.
Still no driver.

~~~
tbrock
I never understood BSD on laptops. It's like oil and water.

The realm of many things BSD is great at does not include power management or
hardware support so you will be guaranteed to be unhappy with it.

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edcastro
Why use powertop instead of tlp? I've been using tlp on my macbook for a few
months and everything works smoothly. Good battery life and suspend works
perfectly using all tlp related programs (tlp, tlp-sleep, tlp-rdw). :)

~~~
edcastro
Also, forgot to mention, the SATA issues is fixed on Linux 3.18. Or you might
want to disable NCQ while you dont upgrade with libata.force=1:noncq

[http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-
ide/msg49716.html](http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-ide/msg49716.html)

~~~
loicp
Thanks, I will add the pointer.

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tuananh
Getting an OS on a laptop shouldn't be this much trouble.

~~~
cmurf
A big part of the complexity is inherent to dual-boot. Dual-booting Macs is a
touch more complex than the usual because the firmware is "Apple EFI" not UEFI
and not legacy BIOS, and no firmware setup. Next Arch has only recently
developed a GUI installer. Several distros have mature GUI installers. So the
trouble is partly about the choices made. Even OS X + Windows dual boot
quickly gets really complicated if you want to do anything that Apple doesn't
directly support in Boot Camp Assistant.

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ratsimihah
Great post!

re "You can leave me a tip for hosting fees, thank you :)":

There are 10000 free alternatives to host your blog. Look into Jekyll+Github
pages for example.

~~~
loicp
To be more precise, I rent a dedicated server for personal hosting. But to be
fair, I have modified this sentence, it's not logical to ask money for
something you can find for free. And I'm already convinced by static site
generator, because I'm using Hugo.

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shpx
lvcreate --extentes 100%FREE -n root vgcrypt

unrecognized option '\--extentes'

I think you meant '\--extents'

~~~
loicp
Fixed, thanks for the report.

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akacase
Dell Latitude E4300 with OpenBSD.

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jkot
Nice list, I liked part about powertop.

BTW I would like to see similar list howto install OSX on Thinkpad.

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ctrlfreak
great lesson. there has to be a buyer for every seller and a seller for every
buyer.

