Last December I started dual-booting T2 Linux on my 2019 Mac. It’s been 10 weeks since I finished the tutorial on how to do it so I felt it was a good time to check in on what I like and what I don’t like about T2 Linux. Scroll to the very bottom of this page for the TL;DR.

Since the 2014 MBP I was using to run Invisible Arch Linux finally died I’ve felt crippled in my ability to develop quality software effectively. And although running GNU/Linux in a virtual machine or via SSH to Termux on Android have their appeal, nothing beats bare metal. Nothing. So it’s time to revisit dual-booting Arch Linux on a MacBook Pro once again.

Last time I looked to run Arch on my T2 MBP the drivers for the keyboard and trackpad were still under active development and so I got basically nowhere. As of December 2021, however, not only are the drivers working, there’s an entire Wiki set-up around getting Linux on the T2 machines.

The following is a overview of the Arch installation process I used.

:: Docker / Bash5 / Stow / Homebrew / p10k / VS Code

Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.

Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

After upgrading my Invisible Arch box to use the new Deepin Desktop V20 beta I ran into a hiccup trying to start Ungoogled Chromium:

% chromium
/usr/lib/chromium/chromium: error while loading shared libraries: libre2.so.6:
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

What the shit is libre2.so.6? Initial web searches were fruitless so I fell back to GNU IceCat for a minute while I explored Deepin 20’s buttery new interface. Later I found a debugging trick on bugs.archlinux.org to find the problem:

It was around 2004 when TBP was infiltrated by the Feds. For at least a day or two the homepage of the website showed nothing other than an emblazoned FBI logo. I’m sure I still have a screenshot somewhere but I trust you know how to verify claims people make on the Internet.

Back then I was an avid IRC user and knew how to set up a sophisticated FTP server replete with eggdrop reporting real-time connection activity to a hidden channel on EFNet. Those were the days when anything felt possible online. Then, all of a sudden, the walls came crashing down.