Installing Arch Linux on a Mac with the T2 Chip¶
You will need:
- USB drive with at least 1GB
- A way to plug it into your Mac (USB-C isn't USB-A)
-
Making a partition for Linux.
- Open the Bootcamp installer and follow it until it asks for a Windows ISO, this will clear space for a Linux partition (by removing APFS snapshots).
- In macOS Disk Utility, make a partition, format doesn't matter, but pick the amount of space that you want for Linux. You won't be able to resize your APFS partitions from the installer, so you must make space now.
-
Creating bootable media
-
Disabling secure boot
- Follow this article's instructions.
- Once in startup security utility, turn secure boot to no security and enable external boot.
-
Booting the live environment.
- Plug the USB in to your computer.
- Boot while holding the option key, this will put you in macOS Startup Manager.
- Select the orange EFI option with arrow keys and press return/enter on it.
-
Follow the Arch Wiki guide from here up to "Format the partitions".
- You will need to reformat your partitions, except for the EFI partition. The other partitions will need to reformatted as described in the Arch Wiki Installation guide. For the EFI system partition (mentioned in a note on the Arch Wiki), there will be one at
/dev/nvme0n1p1
and you can use this if you don't intend to install Windows or already have it installed. If you do intend to triple boot, refer to this guide. - Mount the EFI partition that you intend to use for your bootloader on
/mnt/boot/efi
, and your other partitions on/mnt
, etc.
- You will need to reformat your partitions, except for the EFI partition. The other partitions will need to reformatted as described in the Arch Wiki Installation guide. For the EFI system partition (mentioned in a note on the Arch Wiki), there will be one at
-
Continue following the Arch Wiki's guide until "Install essential packages".
-
Install the required packages into your new system with:
pacstrap /mnt base linux-t2 apple-bcm-wifi-firmware linux-firmware iwd grub efibootmgr
(omit thegrub efibootmgr
packages from this if you intend to use systemd-boot as your bootloader). -
Continue following the Arch Wiki's guide until you get to installing a bootloader.
-
Now in your
chroot
, follow the Audio Config Guide. -
Add
apple-bce
to theMODULES
list in/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
, and then runmkinitcpio -P
-
Add Redecorating's repository to
/etc/pacman.conf
, by adding this:[Redecorating-t2] Server = https://github.com/Redecorating/archlinux-t2-packages/releases/download/packages
-
Install a bootloader, GRUB is easier, but you can also use systemd-boot. Don't do both.
-
Installing Grub:
- Edit
/etc/default/grub
, you'll need to install a text editor (i.e.vim
ornano
) withpacman -S PACKAGE_NAME
for this step. - On the line with
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet splash"
, add the following kernel parameters:intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat
- Run
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB --removable
. grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
- Edit
-
Installing systemd-boot:
- Follow the Arch wiki's instructions. You will want
--path=/boot/efi
as an argument tobootctl
if you mounted your EFI partition there. Also make sure you configure it to boot thelinux-t2
kernel. - Install a text editor (i.e.
pacman -S vim
orpacman -S nano
), and make the following edit for.conf
files in/boot/efi/loader/entries/
. - Add
intel_iommu=on iommu=pt pcie_ports=compat
to theoptions
line to add those kernel parameters.
- Follow the Arch wiki's instructions. You will want
-
-
Exit the
chroot
and reboot. You now will be able to select your Arch install in the macOS Startup Manager by holding option at boot.