Installing Arch on MacBook Air - EFI issues

Question

Hi, all.
I have a mid-2012 13" Air and I want to install Arch on it as the only OS.
Now, I've tried following guides on the wiki and in the forum, and I tried to install it with grub2-efi loader, but after numerous attempts I either got nothing, or got a system that had a big delay with the bootloader. There are two or three articles on the topic: GRUB2, MacBook guide and EFI guide, but no straightforward guide, just these three pages that crossreference each other in all the wrong places What is the best way to install Arch on a Mac?
I understand that installing rEFIt can simplify things, but I want to find a way around it, since I'll only be using one OS, and I really dislike the Qt3 looks of rEFIt.
Some articles say that LILO is simpler to setup that grub on an EFI machine - is that true?
Furthermore, some discussions here mention that I should use archboot rather than the default installation image.
So, could anyone please give me a simple list of steps?
Last edited by ilembitov (2012-11-04 00:45:48)

Answer 1

Hi,
I'm using also Arch on a MacBook, but with rEFIt. Never tried to to remove OS X complete, because I want to have the chance to upgrade EFI and Firmware itself via Mac OS X Update.
But for a clean grub_efi installation you have to create and mount an "efi partition" and install some boot files here. Check for detailed information those 2 wiki pages:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI_Bootloaders
Afterwards you can start with the grub installation.
Simple Steps:
create partitions on disk
mount partitions
Install arch system ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide )
prepare chroot environment
jump into crhoot environment
configure system
configure grub2_efi (default files /etc/default/grub)
prepare efi partition (dir and files)
install grub2_efi
That should it be...
As I already said, never tried it without rEFIt, but its not simple, because Apple is not using a standard UEFI, so some futures won't work or will work differently. If I have some free time and money, I will try it on a second harddisk. That will be my next private project :-)