Omarchy on intel Macbook Pro
Bring old Macbook Pro from 2017 with intel CPU alive and install Omarchy
Omarchy is a super interesting project which is basically streamlining a linux for typical developer
Steps
Prepare bootable USB with Omarchy ISO V3.0.1 Download from iso.omarchy.org
Ventoy - used to create bootable USB with ISO on Windows 11 laptop
Boot Macbook holding key option - select Boot from USB Select the ISO if you have more on USB Select Normal boot
Seems stuck shortly after showing Omarchy logo - no install started
Cancel this and repeat - but select Grub boot
This seem to work, install steps begin.
After completion, reboot and remove USB. Entering the password at disk encryption point now works.
No Wifi network is configured during install, instead you do this as first thing
- tab down to the wanted wifi
- select by pressing space
- enter password
When Wifi is connected you click the update to have latest Omarchy via internet
Shortcuts to begin with
| What | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Terminal | Super + Enter |
| Browser | Super + B |
| Tile jump left or right | Super + Arrow key left or right |
| Tile move left or right | Super + Shift + left or right |
| Tile split horzontal or vertical | Super + J |
| btop | Super + T |
| Close Window | Super + W |
| ChatGPT | Super + A |
| X | Super + X |
| Launcher | Super + Space |
| Omarchy Menu | Super + Alt + Space |
| Jump other Space | |
| Jump other Screen | Super + Shift + Tab |
Macbook keyboard - need to know
Super = Command
ALT = Option
Ctrl = Control
Web Apps
Tried creating a few home made web apps
First my own blog = https://blog.cantaloop.dk
3 step process under Install, Web Apps
- give it name (Toms blog),
- URL
- and URL for icon (PNG) (This you can find at dashboardicons for example)
This worked flawless and then I wanted to do same with Office (https://office.com) including login with my work account.
After this I did create Outlook as well as Web App - using the URL https://outlook.office.com/mail/
I noticed that sound was not working out of the box after Omarchy install. Within the sound setup window under configuration I could only see HDA Intel PCH with off and only unavailable choices
Searching the discussion part of https://github.com/basecamp/omarchy gave me this article = https://github.com/basecamp/omarchy/discussions/714
Following instructions in README.md under https://github.com/davidjo/snd_hda_macbookpro I installed Cyrrus driver
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pacman -S gcc linux-headers make patch wget
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git clone https://github.com/davidjo/snd_hda_macbookpro.git
cd snd_hda_macbookpro/
#run the following command as root or with sudo
./install.cirrus.driver.sh
reboot
After reboot go to sound setup window
Here you now find a list of available choices under HDA Intel PCH
I choose the first - Analog Stereo Duplex - which worked fine with the build in speakers
Build in microphone also work.
Question - how is Apple keys for brigtness and sound working?
After investigating a bit it turns out they actually work, press without holding other key like Fn and there may be slight delay.
If you hold volume down for a bit you will see the info on screen with current % volume.
If you want to dive into adjusting key mapping, for example use proper F7 key, this can be done via Hyprland config file.
Use the linux tool wev to visually figure out what a key produce, for example I could see F7 produce XF86Fn + F7
This will eventually turn into something like this in the Hyprland mapping config:
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binds = s, XF86Fn&F7, exec, <command>
Setup for external monitors with Hyprland
Next up - looking to get external screens to work at office setup. Here we use DisplayLink based docking station, so initially nothing was detected.
You can check connected screens with this command:
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hyprctl monitors all
In order to use docking station we will need to install DisplayLink package and this also requires kernel module evdi to be installed. Both packages is installed via AUR:
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yay -S evdi-dkms
yay -S displaylink
Enable and start service
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sudo systemctl enable displaylink.service
sudo systemctl start displaylink.service
Verify module is loaded and check status:
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lsmod | grep evdi
sudo systemctl status displaylink.service
Now after reboot and connecting usb from docking station I was able to see screens with hyperctl monitors all command
The two screens names was DVI-I-1 and DVI-I-2
For having correct resolution(scale) I added these lines to the .config/hypr/monitors.conf file:
monitor = DVI-I-1, 1920x1080@60, auto, 1
monitor = DVI-I-2, 1920x1080@60, auto, 1
This seems to work - only now I also need to reorganize the order of these two screens
adjusting DP-1 to have auto-left and DP-2 to have auto-right did not just work. monitor = DP-1, 2560x1440@60, auto-left, 1.333333
monitor = DP-2, 2560x1440@60, auto-right, 1
🔍 Updates and progress
I have been upgrading Omarchy with 3.0.2, 3.0.4 and more, at some point I made a few experiments that I wanted to get rid of, so I also reinstalled Omarchy completely via a new ISO using latest version. This worked nicely but it also seems that I need to reinstall the sound drivers as decribed above - will do this when I have time.
I realized that also camera was not working. Some quick talk with Gemini 3.0 gave me below steps to have drivers installed and after that camera worked when using Teams in browser.
Step 1 - Preparation
Ensure system is updated and ready:
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sudo pacman -Syu base-devel linux-headers git
This step actually ended with some error code, but I decided to take chance and proceed.
Step 2: Install the Driver from AUR
We need two packages and omarchy uses yay
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yay -S facetimehd-firmware facetimehd-dkms
Answering A or Y to questions
Step 3: Load the Module
Load module to kernel
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sudo modprobe facetimehd
Step 4: Verify
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ls /dev/video*
If you see /dev/video0, your camera is installed!
Step 5: Load on Boot
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sudo nvim /etc/modules-load.d/facetimehd.conf
Add the following line to the file:
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facetimehd
Save and exit
—– At this point camera was working 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀