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Arch linux on MintBox2

Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 3:47 pm
by hwmartin
If anyone is interested in installing Arch linux on their MintBox2, it is possible and not too difficult!

The main thing to remember is that you need to create an EFI System Partition (if using pure EFI mode, which I recommend). If you don't the system won't boot!

You will also need to use efibootmgr to setup the boot loader. Be sure to specify the correct path to your boot loader as the default is to use

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\EFI\redhat\grub.efi
which is probably incorrect!

When you're finished with efibootmgr you should end up with a boot entry in the list, something like

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Boot000D* Linux
which you can then select as a boot device in the UEFI configuration utility. If you do not have a boot entry added in the EFI boot table you will not be able to select anything from the UEFI configuration utility (F2 on boot).

If you accidentally create additional boot entries while experimenting with the efibootmgr command (such as incorrect path to EFI loader) be very careful when removing entries! I accidentally deleted the entry for the EFI shell and have no idea how to re-add it! If you delete an entry with efibootmgr it disappears from the UEFI configuration utility, so be careful when deleting entries. Double check before you run that command!

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Device           Start          End   Size Type
/dev/sda1         2048       206847   100M EFI System
/dev/sda2       206848    976773134 465.7G Linux LVM
You will also need the x86_64 grub loader to boot, please ensure that you have the following on your EFI system partition:

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EFI/grub/grubx64.efi
Everything works pretty well, the only issue is bluetooth. The module is bt-usb and if you allow the computer to suspend you will need a resume script to disable/re-enable bluetooth (hciconfig hci0 down/up) and to reconnect with any bluetooth devices. I'm not sure if there's a more elegant way to do this, that's just how I've done it.