[Resolved] Arch ISO won't boot on Mac

Question

Hi!
I have Ubuntu, XP and OsX up and running on a MacBook Pro from late 2007 (Intel Core 2 Duo); works with reFit.
Cause on VM my Arch runs like Bolt, i want to replace Ubuntu for Arch!
I've read the UEFI and EFI entrys on the wiki, but don't get them in any way.. (or at least I cant find any clue, what I need to use).
Can I just replace Ubuntu - delete and reinvoke partitions with Arch usb - and then install Grub 2 (this is possible, right?).
Where do I have to invoke the Grub2 (put the install sector on the HDD normally? like /dev/sda?).
And last but not least: after setup, can I resync reFit and how?
I'm quite a noob, but did some work in Terminals and got used to setting up Arch on the VM.
Last edited by sophismo (2012-08-11 08:32:14)

Answer 1

Thanks for this extensive advise - that was totally what I needed!!
But this thing leads to another bunch of things (yes more specific; now, that I know what I need):
First off I want to specify the exact way I want to try: I have an iMac at home for work and so on, so this MacBook Pro 3.1 (late 2007) is kind of playbook for this cause- will be a test for switching in a while, though. So the plan was: as it appears EFI is far more complicated and not worth the extra complexity I want to use the Bios-comp. And yes: Grub 2. I've tried to install Arch 64bit on a VM with gdisk and it went well (needed a 2mb Bios Partition though / gdisk ef02). At the Install Grub step I have to get grub-bios with pacman, make a cfg file and then grub-install, right? The question is, where? grub-install /dev/sdaX with X being the partition 128 ef02, or if I dont need that one the "/" partition? (I just want "/" and swap, so no extra boot, user or anything if not needed!).
If I get you right, I can do the same game on the mac and gptfdisk will "tell" rEFIt where to look for the new stuff? Sounds the most convenient solution to me!
And now for the most problematic thing: I wanted to try the upper method yesterday but with the USB with refit it gave me: "The firmware doesn't allow to boot from..". And I thought about USB incompatibility and burned the ISO to CD: it is 15.07.2012 dual netinstall which worked fine for the emulation with Virtual Box. The thing is, that not even the CD gets it to the arch terminal! To be more specific:
I have 4 options: the least promising ones beeing: "Boot Linux from CD" and "Boot Legacy Os from " (!sic) which both end up in:
1.
2.
Select CD-ROM Boot Type : _
Where the keyboard doesnt react.
This looks like 32 bit or old Grub versions to me, but correct me if I'm wrong: I'm new^^.
The more interesting options in more detail:
"Boot EFI/archiso/vmlinuz.efi from " (!sic)
this ends in a black screen with the following:
[     0.229360] i8042: No controller found
[     0.231257] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
[     0.231207] Pid: 1, comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 3.4.4-3 ARCH #1
[     0.231340] Cakk Trace:
[     0.231362]  [<ffffffff814606cc>] panic+0xba/0x1c6
and another few of these lines with numbers and codes like the last with the text:
mount_block_root+0x25c/0x287
mount_root+0x57/0x5b
prepare_namespace+..
? release_tgcred.isra.5+---
kernel_init+0..
? do_early_param+0..
kernel_thread_helper+0..
? start_kernel+0x..
? gs_change+0x..
and thats it. Black screen, this text and nothing you can do, and nothing happens.
Last bootable sign at rEFIt is:
"Boot EFI/boot/bootx64.efi from "
This one gives a lot of code after a blue sign saying efi booting..
code with yellow at the left: blk9.. :BlockDevice -Alias (null)
Acpi (...)/Pci (..)/Sata(0,0,0)
as a sample line.
after this comes:
Press ESC in .. seconds to skip [in yellow font again] startup.nsh, any other key to continue.
ESC gives me a shell, as expected: Shell> _
and the other option to let it go gives:
Launching Arch linux ISO Kernel fs2:/EFI/archiso/vmlinuz.efi
and then switches screen to:
[     3.176759] i8042: No controller found
:: running early hook [udev]
:: running hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents...
and thats it. At this point its dead end to: no keyboard or mouse reaction, no forgoing.
Edit:
Same with starting up with the "C" button holded. Just results in same behaviour.
Any advise for this? I just want to start Arch from CD/USB to net-install a 64 bit version.
Thanks again!!
Mike
Last edited by sophismo (2012-08-04 18:46:40)