Macbook 1,1 Installation

Macbook 1,1 Installation

[kristofer]

Hello!

I have working installation of GuixSD on my Macbook!
I mostly followed 
https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/System-Installation.html

Here's my process:

Requirements:
GuixSD USB disk
OS X - Required initially. Dual boot is possible (not advised ;)
rEFInd bootloader - http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/


1. Boot into OS X, download rEFInd
   - unpack the zip
   - execute refind-install in the terminal
   - in order to dual boot use the Disk Utility and adjust the partition 
table

2. Plug in your GuixSD USB disk and reboot
   - select the USB Disk from the rEFInd menu

3. Set up the partition table - Many ways to do this
   - I use cfdisk because of the curses based gui
   # cfdisk /dev/sda

   - DO NOT DELETE PARTITION sda1 as it is the EFI partition
   - Delete OS X partition (unless dual-booting)
   - Create a partition for the filesystem and the swap space

   - format the filesystem and give it a label
   # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdaX -L root

4. Connect to the network
   - it's probably easiest to use ethernet
   - for wireless secured with WPA use wpa_supplicant
   # wpa_supplicant -i wls1 -B -c < wpa_password ESSID key
   # dhclient wls1

5. Install GuixSD
   - mount root filesystem
   # mount /dev/sdaX /mnt

   - copy on write
   # deco start cow-store /mnt

   - get the latest and greatest guix
   # guix pull

   - copy the desktop configuration template to the filesystem
   # mkdir /mnt/etc
   # cp /etc/configurations/desktop.scm /mnt/etc/

   - modify the configuration accordingly
   - (grub-configuration (device "/dev/sda"))
   - (file-systems ... (device "root"))

   - system init --no-grub because we're using rEFInd
   # guix system init /mnt/etc/desktop.scm /mnt --no-grub

   - let it simmer, this could take awhile

6. Configure the bootloader
   - first locate the grub configuration generated by guix system init
   * there is likely a better way to do this *
   # ls /mnt/gnu/store | grep grub | grep cfg

   - look at the file from the `ls` command
   - in particular we want the lines that begin with "linux" and "initrd"
   - we'll need to know the path to bzImage and initrd

   - mount the EFI partition
   # mkdir ~/efi
   # mount /dev/sda1 ~/efi

   - edit the rEFInd configuration
   # nano ~/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf

   - append the following code to the configuration adjusted to your 
environment

     menuentry GuixSD {
         icon /EFI/refind/icons/os_linux.png
         volume root
         loader /gnu/store/hashNumbersHere-linux-libre-x.x.x/bzImage
         initrd /gnu/store/diffHashGoesHere-system/initrd
         options "--root=root --system=/gnu/store/initRDHash-system 
--load=/gnu/store/initRDHash-system/boot

     }

7. Reboot!

Thanks to #guix for all the support!
I hope this helps out some future explorers!

Kristofer Buffington

Re: Macbook 1,1 Installation

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

kristofer@openmailbox.org skribis:

> I have working installation of GuixSD on my Macbook!

Nice, thanks for your feedback!

> Requirements:
> GuixSD USB disk
> OS X - Required initially. Dual boot is possible (not advised ;)
> rEFInd bootloader - http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/

Is it impossible to boot directly from the USB image on this machine?

> 6. Configure the bootloader
>   - first locate the grub configuration generated by guix system init
>   * there is likely a better way to do this *
>   # ls /mnt/gnu/store | grep grub | grep cfg
>
>   - look at the file from the `ls` command
>   - in particular we want the lines that begin with "linux" and "initrd"
>   - we'll need to know the path to bzImage and initrd
>
>   - mount the EFI partition
>   # mkdir ~/efi
>   # mount /dev/sda1 ~/efi
>
>   - edit the rEFInd configuration
>   # nano ~/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf
>
>   - append the following code to the configuration adjusted to your
> environment
>
>     menuentry GuixSD {
>         icon /EFI/refind/icons/os_linux.png
>         volume root
>         loader /gnu/store/hashNumbersHere-linux-libre-x.x.x/bzImage
>         initrd /gnu/store/diffHashGoesHere-system/initrd
>         options "--root=root --system=/gnu/store/initRDHash-system
> --load=/gnu/store/initRDHash-system/boot
>
>     }

I’m not familiar with GRUB’s EFI support.  Why do we need the ‘loader’
and ‘options’ lines instead of just one ‘linux’ line?

Should be provide a field in ‘grub-configuration’ that would allow one
to choose an EFI installation?  This sounds similar to special-case for
Libreboot that was recently proposed.

Thanks,
Ludo’.