Installation process follows that outlined in Arch Installation Guide, with the following additions/exceptions.
Boot Arch install ISO CD by holding ALT key on poweron. Select EFI boot (other choice is Windows which gives MBR boot). Be prepared to wait for a few minutes until Arch starts.
Using the mac-uk keyboard map i.e. loadkeys mac-uk kills the
keyboard. No character prints what is inscribed on the key. This has been
reported a couple of times, but there seems to be no reaction/fix
available. I suspect this keymap is not for the Macbook Pro.
Best option for UK/International Macbook Pro keyboard seems to be to use the US keyboard layout.
The only keys not mapped correctly are (1) the section (§) key, which produces the grave character (`), (2) the grave key, which generates < and >, and (3) the £ key (shift 3), which generates a #.
I suggest a fix for this later.
Contents of /etc/vconsole.conf:
# Closest match for Macbook Pro keyboard in console mode KEYMAP=us
Decided to use btrfs (for a change).
Originally had /usr as a separate partition. This caused grub to fail to find /sbin/init on reboot. There is a way of supporting a /usr partition by configuration in mkinitcpio (see /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, HOOKS), but I decided to go with the flow and just have a bigger root partition, forgetting /usr.
| Device | Mount Point | Size |
|---|---|---|
| /dev/sda1 | EFI System | 256MB |
| /dev/sda2 | Swap | 8GB |
| /dev/sda3 | Root | 30GB |
| /dev/sda4 | var | 10GB |
| /dev/sda5 | tmp | 2GB |
| /dev/sda6 | home | 172GB (the rest) |
When using pacstrap, add the following packages, in addition to base, linux and linux-firmware:
grub efibootmgr mg btrfs-progs man-db man-pages texinfo iwd binutils fakeroot b43-fwcutter wget iwd
NB b42-fwcutter, binutils and fakeroot are required to build the Wifi Broadcom firmware. See below.
After using arch-chroot to the /mnt
directory, and following the install guide, the next step can be
performed.
First, install grub on the boot partition:
# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB
Then create the grub configuration file:
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
You can reboot now, or carry on with the next steps and then reboot.
The firmware for the Macbook Broadcom adapter can be downloaded from here. Use the "Download snapshot" on the left-hand menu.
This will download b43-firmware.tar.gz. Untar and cd
into the resulting directory. Then issue the command:
makepkg
If that works (it will download the firmware), the generated package can then be installed with:
pacman -U b43-firmware-6.30.163.46-1-any.pkg.tar.zst
By the way, there's more Arch Linux Mac stuff
First, enable the daemons:
systemctl enable systemd-networkd systemctl enable systemd-resolved
Then, create the configuration files.
/etc/systemd/network/20-wired.network
[Match] Name=enp0s10 [Network] DHCP=yes [DHCP] RouteMetric=10 UseDomains=yes
/etc/systemd/network/25-wireless.network
[Match] Name=wlan0 [Network] DHCP=yes [DHCP] RouteMetric=20 UseDomains=yes
Now the configuration files exist, start the daemons.
systemctl start systemd-networkd systemctl start systemd-resolved
This setup causes a DHCP IP address to be assigned to each network adapter. See below for a different way of handling the two adapters with bonding.
systemctl enable iwd systemctl start iwd
Control / set-up wireless with iwctl.
# iwctl [iwd]# station wlan0 connect <station_id>
You'll be prompted for the password. NB: If this doesn't work, scan for networks first:
[iwd]# station wlan0 scan
Note, scanning will not work if wlan0 is part of a bond (see below).
ip addr # shows interfaces with address ip link # shows network adapters ip link set 'device' [up | down]
Setting this up requires adding new configuraton files in
/etc/systemd/network. The first two setup the virtual
bond device, to which the physical network devices will be slaved:
[mark@albino:/etc/systemd/network]$ cat 10-bond0.netdev [NetDev] Name=bond0 Kind=bond [Bond] Mode=active-backup PrimaryReselectPolicy=always MIIMonitorSec=1s FailOverMACPolicy=active [mark@albino:/etc/systemd/network]$ cat 10-bond0.network [Match] Name=bond0 [Network] DHCP=yes [DHCP] UseDomains=yes
The physical device configuration files must be modified as follows:
[mark@albino:/etc/systemd/network]$ cat 20-wired.network [Match] Name=enp0s10 [Network] RouteMetric=10 Bond=bond0 PrimarySlave=true [mark@albino:/etc/systemd/network]$ cat 25-wirelss.network [Match] Name=wlan0 [Network] RouteMetric=20 Bond=bond0
This configuration sets up the wired network as the master and
preferred route. Restart systemd-networkd to pick up
the configuration changes.
The state of the bond can be viewed as follows:
[mark@albino:/etc/systemd/network]$ networkctl
IDX LINK TYPE OPERATIONAL SETUP
1 lo loopback carrier unmanaged
2 bond0 bond routable configured
3 enp0s10 ether enslaved configured
5 wlan0 wlan enslaved configured
4 links listed.
[mark@albino:/etc/systemd/network]$ cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0
Ethernet Channel Bonding Driver: v6.7.4-arch1-1
Bonding Mode: fault-tolerance (active-backup) (fail_over_mac active)
Primary Slave: enp0s10 (primary_reselect always)
Currently Active Slave: enp0s10
MII Status: up
MII Polling Interval (ms): 1000
Up Delay (ms): 0
Down Delay (ms): 0
Peer Notification Delay (ms): 0
Slave Interface: enp0s10
MII Status: up
Speed: 1000 Mbps
Duplex: full
Link Failure Count: 1
Permanent HW addr: 60:fb:42:f0:70:36
Slave queue ID: 0
Slave Interface: wlan0
MII Status: up
Speed: Unknown
Duplex: Unknown
Link Failure Count: 0
Permanent HW addr: 00:26:bb:15:3c:67
Slave queue ID: 0
NB: systemd-networkd conflicts with
NetworkManager and the
NetworkManager-wait-online services, which must be
disabled if active.
Thanks to this link.
# pacman -S lxde xorg xorg-xinit # Allow non-root users to run startx # chmod 4755 /usr/bin/startx $ echo "exec startlxde" >~/.xinitrc
pacman -S archlinux-wallpaper
Images are installed in /usr/share/backgrounds/archlinux.
Microsoft fonts have
to be downloaded, the package made with makepkg, and
then installed via pacman:
# pacman -U ttf-ms-fonts-2.0-12-any.pkg.tar.zst
Inconsolata is in the main packages:
# pacman -S ttf-inconsolata
The hard way ...
# echo 100 > >/sys/class/backlight/nv_backlight/brightness # echo 220 > /sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness
I installed acpilight, which replaces
xbacklight. I followed the instructions to add my user
to the video group and then added the following udev rules to
/etc/udev/rules.d:
90-brightness.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="backlight", ACTION=="add", \
RUN+="/bin/chgrp video /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness", \
RUN+="/bin/chmod g+w /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness"
95-led.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="leds", ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="*::kbd_backlight", \
RUN+="/bin/chgrp video /sys/class/leds/%k/brightness", \
RUN+="/bin/chmod g+w /sys/class/leds/%k/brightness"
Then, connect xbacklight to the Macbook media keys by
adding the following lines to the
~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml file:
<!-- Keybindings for Mac media keys -->
<keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessDown">
<action name="Execute">
<command>xbacklight -ctrl nv_backlight -dec 5</command>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessUp">
<action name="Execute">
<command>xbacklight -ctrl nv_backlight -inc 5</command>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="XF86KbdBrightnessDown">
<action name="Execute">
<command>xbacklight -ctrl smc::kbd_backlight -dec 5</command>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="XF86KbdBrightnessUp">
<action name="Execute">
<command>xbacklight -ctrl smc::kbd_backlight -inc 5</command>
</action>
</keybind>
Need to install nfs-utils.
The first mount after boot takes an age (maybe systemd related?):
# mount -t nfs opal:/home/mark /mnt Created symlink /run/systemd/system/remote-fs.target.wants/rpc-statd.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/rpc-statd.service.
Subsequent mounts were fast.
After much investigation, to little effect, the slowdown was caused by:
systectl start rpc-statd
invoked when the mount command is issued. This took about 60
seconds to complete. Starting /usr/sbin/rpc-statd
manually was fast, as was a subsquent mount command. I could not
figure out the real problem, but added an [Install]
section to the
/usr/lib/systemd/system/rpc-statd.service file:
[Install] Wantedby=multi-user.target
and then enabled with
# systemctl daemon-reload
This meant I could start rpc-statd.service at boot
time. Doing this doesn't cause any boot delay, as far as I can tell.
After some more investigation, the rpc-statd hang was actually caused by sm-notify (/usr/lib/systemd/system/rpc-statd-notify.service), which is required by the rpc-statd.service. The sm-notify hang occurs when the wired ethernet is disconnected. If the Match name in 20-wired.network is changed to something that will not match, the hang does not occur. Caused by systemd-networkd trying to get a DHCP address on the wired network?
Running a bonded network (slaves wired and wireless) still has an approx 90s delay in mounting NFS.
If the wired ethernet is connected at boot, no delay in mounting.
The kludge I used above (making rpc-statd run at boot time) didn't help with a BOND.
Found this thread on askubuntu
forum. The answer is to edit
/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service,
remove the existing ExecStart= line and replace it with
the following lines:
ExecStart= ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd-wait-online --ignore enp0s10
where enp0s10 is the wired ethernet interface. This
causes wait-online to succeed, irrespective of the state of the
wired adapter.
Could also try the --any switch (which waits until at
least one interface is online). This works and has the advantage of
not needing the interface name.
The use of a bond is a bit academic. If the laptop is mobile and must connect to other wifi points, then much manual editting is required. Easier just to leave unbonded and use the wireless adapter all the time.
For sound, install alsa-utils, pulseaudio, and pulseaudio-alsa.
Lxmusic doesn't want to play mp3 files (they disappear
as soon as you open them in lxaudio), so installed audacious. That
works fine.
Turns out lxmusic needs pacman -S libmad to play mp3 files.
pacman -Syu: updates package list and upgrades all
packages.
Aka pacman --sync --refresh --sysupgrade.
For a list of installed packages:
pacman -Qett.
Aka packman --query --explicit --unrequired
--unrequired
To overcome the missing/transposed keys, I had to create a new
keyboard map file, based on the us.map file. Files are in this
location: /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty. The
following changes were made:
[mark&albino:~]$ diff -u us.map uk-macbook-pro.map
--- us.map 2021-05-15 14:44:08.311357071 +0100
+++ uk-macbook-pro.map 2021-05-15 14:45:32.094363649 +0100
&& -1,4 +1,4 &&
-# us.map
+# uk-macbook-pro.map
keymaps 0-2,4-6,8-9,12
alt_is_meta
include "qwerty-layout"
&& -10,8 +10,9 &&
keycode 1 = Escape
keycode 2 = one exclam
keycode 3 = two at at nul nul
-keycode 4 = three numbersign
+keycode 4 = three sterling
control keycode 4 = Escape
+ altgr keycode 4 = numbersign
keycode 5 = four dollar dollar Control_backslash
keycode 6 = five percent
control keycode 6 = Control_bracketright
&& -50,5 +51,7 &&
keycode 57 = space
control keycode 57 = nul
keycode 58 = Caps_Lock
-keycode 86 = less greater bar
+keycode 41 = section plusminus
+keycode 86 = grave tilde
keycode 97 = Control
Note the map file has to be gzipped before placing in the keymaps directory.
My first attempt (after much research) at getting the keyboard
working properly (i.e. what is printed is the same as the key is
labelled) led to this configuration file
(/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf):
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbVariant" "mac"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:rwin_switch"
EndSection
I believe the lv3:rwin_switch option emits the #hash;
symbol when the AltGR key (right-hand Alt alt key) is pressed with
the 3 key.
Everything seemed to work except the section and grave keys were
switched. I could find no options (e.g. Option XkbOptions
"apple:badmap") which would fix this. Then I found (even
worse) the arrow keys weren't being recognised.
Yet more research ...
Testing combinations keyboard setup is made easier by using
setxkbmap. For example, this is the closest I could
get to matching the keyboard:
setxkbmap -layout gb -variant mac
This xorg configuration is correct, apart from the § and
grave (`) keys being swapped. This can be fixed by modifing
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/gb:
[mark@albino:/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols]$ diff -u gb~ gb
--- gb~ 2021-05-14 19:55:48.024452514 +0100
+++ gb 2021-05-15 14:22:28.911999295 +0100
&& -188,8 +188,8 &&
key <AE02> { [ 2, at, EuroSign ] };
key <AE03> { [ 3, sterling, numbersign ] };
- key <LSGT> { [ section, plusminus ] };
- key <TLDE> { [ grave, asciitilde ] };
+ key <TLDE> { [ section, plusminus ] };
+ key <LSGT> { [ grave, asciitilde ] };
include "level3(ralt_switch)"
include "level3(enter_switch)"
This vital change was found from this article.
Then I could create an X11 keyboard configuration file using
localectl:
doas localectl set-x11-keymap gb "" mac
This produces a /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf
with the following contents:
# Written by systemd-localed(8), read by systemd-localed and Xorg. It's
# probably wise not to edit this file manually. Use localectl(1) to
# instruct systemd-localed to update it.
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "system-keyboard"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
Option "XkbVariant" "mac"
EndSection
This is a manual exercise; create a custom Palette, selecting the
appropriate Dracula colour for each of the standard LXTerminal
colours. Once configured, the setup is in
~/.config/lxde/lxterminal/lx-terminal.conf. This can be
copied into a new configuration, if necessary.
The one remaining problem is that on rsync'ing large datasets, the rsync process stalls after a period of time. Test case is copying around 60GB of mp3 files with both wired and wireless interfaces active.
What's the cause? Could be the ethernet driver, the use of bonding, btrfs ... Hard to say. There are a couple of reports of ssh stalling over a bonded network, but no helpful solutions.
First start: forcedeth. Added these options to
/etc/modprobe.d/forcedeth.conf:
options forcedeth msix=0 msx=0
Didn't help. Disconnecting the wire and reconnecting didn't make the rsync start again. Then tried without the bond, just the wired interface. No stalls. Seems that it is the bond that triggers the issue. Well, this is a rare operation, so I shall not worry about it.
/etc/systemd/network/20-wired.network [Match] Name = enp0s31f6 [Network] DHCP=yes [DHCP] RouteMetric=10
On the Thinkpad T470, the FN-Space combination works to control the led brightness.
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "system-keyboard"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
EndSection
For Thinkpad T470 console keyboard, enter the following into
/etc/vconsole.conf:
KEYMAP=uk
Set via ACPI:
# echo 1515 /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness
Stalls a lot. Placed these options in
/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf:
options iwlwifi power_save=0 options iwlmvm power_scheme=0 options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1 swcrypto=1
These options turn off power saving, use of 11n and software crypto (I think). Stalls stopped..
The danger of blindly following instructions on the internet. In an attempt to figure out why the volume media keys weren't generating the codes I expected, I tried holding down control, alt, R and P keys, while pressing power button. Woe. This stopped the macbook finding the boot disk on restart. A flashing folder with a question mark was all that was displayed.
I suspected the grub boot had been clobbered. To fix, boot from the
Arch installed DVD, mount the filesystems from the SSD (as stated in
the install instructions, and then re-install grub on
/boot/efi. This fixed the boot issue.
The volume keys still don't work as I expect.
