ArchLinux on MacBook Pro Retina 13" (Model A1502)

Resources

Much of this has been adapted from https://gist.github.com/terlar/6143325. Other parts are mostly from countless Google searches and manic arch wiki scouring.

Pre-install on Mac

This needs revisiting. I already had a partition available from a previous install after the Yosemite update. If all else fails diskutil corestorage revert UUID will remove Apple's logical volume update and allow diskutil to resize a partition normally.

diskutil corestorage list # Need the bottom-most logical volume UUID
diskutil corestorage resizeStack <UUID> <size>

# If that doesn't work, some tinkering may be required similar to this:
diskutil corestorage resizeStack UUID <size>

# Once you've got a free partition, you need to
# format an JHFS+ partition for booting via rEFInd
diskutil list # Need free space partition
diskutil partionDisk 2 /dev/diskXsY JHFS+ 'rEFInd' 100M HSF+ 'doesntmatter' R

rEFInd

First, download rEFInd

<rEFInd>/install /Volumes/rEFInd --ownhfs /dev/diskXsY # 'rEFInd' parition

• Edit /Volumes/rEFInd/System/Library/CoreServices/refind.conf
  • scan_delay 1
  • dont_scan_volumes "Recovery HD"
  • timeout 5
• Theme rEFInd (currently https://github.com/EvanPurkhiser/rEFInd-minimal)

Installing Arch

If tethering from a phone:

ip link # get device name for USB tether
dhclient

Bootstrapping

gdisk /dev/sda

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdaY
# and any other partitions
mkswap /dev/sdaZ

mount /dev/sdaY /mnt
# if using a seperate home partition
mkdir /mnt/home && mount /dev/sdaY /mnt/home

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel wpa_actiond wpa_supplicant dialog linux-headers sudo
genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# SSD optimize /etc/fstab
# 'defaults,noatime,discard,data=writeback' are generally alright options

# if using the pre-built wireless driver method
cp ~/broadcom-wl-6.30.223.248-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz /mnt/root

arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
echo name > /etc/hostname
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime

echo "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" >> /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

vi /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
# Add resume _after_ block and lvm2, but _before_ filesystems
mkinitcpio -p linux

# rEFInd
echo '"Arch Linux" "root=/dev/sdXY resume=/dev/sdXZ rw splash loglevel=3 rootflags=data=writeback libata.force=noncq acpi_osi=Linux acpi=force acpi_enforce_resources=lax i915.modeset=1 i915.enable_rc6=1 i915.enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 initrd=boot/initramfs-linux.img"' > /boot/refind_linux.conf
# NOTE: For intel microcode updates, you'll need to install the intel-ucode package
# The initrd option must also be placed early in the boot process
# NB: I'm not sure about all the ACPI options, but we'll see how they turn out

useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/bash username

# Setup passwords
passwd
passwd username

Before rebooting, install dhclient and the wireless driver. dhclient is for tethering in case something goes wrong with wireless setup.

Wi-Fi Setup

yay -S broadcom-wl-dkms

sudo wifi-menu -o wlp3s0
sudo systemctl enable netctl-auto@wlp3s0.service

Basic Tools

sudo pacman -S alsa-utils powertop dnsutils net-tools acpi openssh unzip unrar cronie git ack
sudo systemctl enable sshd cronie

Drivers

yay -S acpid xf86-video-intel broadcom-wl-dkms xf86-input-mtrack-git macfanctld-git
sudo cp /this/repo/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
sudo systemctl enable acpid macfanctld

Disable that annoying red headphone jack light

amixer -c 0 sset IEC958 off

If that didn't work (it probably won't)

yay -S hda-verb
# As root
crontab -l | { cat; echo "@reboot /usr/bin/hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC1D0 0x0e SET_POWER_STATE 0x03"; } | crontab -

Make sure to have a cron daemon running.

To get sound working, add this to /etc/asound.conf:

defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.ctl.card 1
defaults.ctl.device 0

Tools

yay -S kbdlight xorg-xbacklight
yay -S zsh zsh-completions zsh-syntax-highlighting

User

chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh
usermod -a -G audio,video,network,power,disk,storage,optical,lp,systemd-journal username

GUI

Xorg

sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xrdb libnotify xbindkeys xorg-xmodmap xclip xvkbd
sudo cp /this/repo/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

To get notifications working from cron jobs, you might need to add to the top of your crontab or pass it your DBUS_SESSIONS_BUS_ADDRESS.

DISPLAY=:0.0
XAUTHORITY=/home/user/.Xauthority

Login Manager

yay -S slim slim-theme-arch-triforce
sudo systemctl enable slim.service

• Edit /etc/slim.conf, change theme to slim-theme-arch-triforce

Openbox

yay -S openbox tint2-svn compton-git
sudo cp /this/repo/compton/compton_openbox /usr/local/bin/

Awesome WM

yay -S awesome obvious-git compton-git

Terminal Emulator

yay -S rxvt-unicode urxvt-tabbedex-git urxvt-perls-git

Apps

yay -S scrot feh firefox conky-lua
yay -S ds-digital-fonts lm_sensors # for conky

Media

yay -S mplayer google-talkplugin

Development

yay -S postgresql mongodb redis heroku-client
\curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable

Performance

Power

sudo pacman -S laptop-mode-tools cpupower pm-utils upower profile-sync-daemon anything-sync-daemon
sudo systemctl enable laptop-mode cpupower psd psd-resync asd asd-resync

laptop-mode

• Edit /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf with value LM_BATT_MAX_LOST_WORK_SECONDS=15
• Edit /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/runtime-pm.conf with value AUTOSUSPEND_TIMEOUT=1
• Edit /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/intel-hda-powersave.conf with value INTEL_HDA_DEVICE_TIMEOUT=1

cpupower

• Edit /etc/defaults/cpupower with value governer='powersave'