Updates

1. VMWare Fusion Tech Preview 2023 is out.
2. Will henceforth be adding the latest ISO I can find on the Internet that works with these scripts in a Release. Please keep an eye out for that.

What it is

A semi-automated way of setting up ArchLinux in VMware Fusion for Apple Silicon

Steps

1. Acquire an ArchLinux ISO for aarch64. This can be done in a variety of ways. This repo maintains one in it's release page.

2. Setup a new "Custom Virtual Machine" in VMware.

   1. Choose "Other Linux 6.x kernel 64-bit Arm"
   2. Create a disk with at least 16 GiB of space because my script defaults of 8GiB of swap and 512 MiB for ESP. Both of these are configurable if you so choose.
   3. Setup the processor count and RAM size - I personally set it to 4cores and 8GiB respectively.
   4. Make sure to check Use full resolution for Retina display in Display
   5. Also select Accelerate 3D Graphcis and select the recommended amount in Shared Graphics Memory
   6. The default Hard Disk Bus type is assumed to be NVME.
   7. In CD/DVD (SATA) make sure to check Connect CD/DVD Drive and from the drop down menu below select the ISO Image you acquired in Step 1.
   8. I personally remove all Sound Card and Camera devices - but this is optional.
   9. Donot remove the USB & Bluetooth device. Peripherals are attached via USB inside the VM - so your keyboard for one will stop functioning.

3. Start the VM

4. Set a root password in the VM:

   echo -e "root\nroot" | passwd

This will, of course, set the password to root.

5. Get the ip address of the VM:

ip addr

6. Now open a terminal window in your Mac host and clone this repo
7. cd into the repo directory
8. Run:

ADDR="<ip address from step 5>" \
ARCHUSER="preferred username (default:daimaou92)" \
ARCHHOSTNAME="preferred machine name (default:archmachine)" \
ARCHTZ="preferred timezone (default:Asia/Kolkata)" \
make vm/install

All configurable options are right on top of the Makefile. Configure as needed.

If you are using SATA as the Bus type for Hard Disk make sure to add

ABLOCKDEVICE="sda" PARTITIONPREFIX=""

to the above command.

9. This will install Archlinux and create provided user with password = root. The VM will be restarted and you should be able to login with your user. The default shell for the user will be set to zsh. I typically take a VM Snapshot at this stage.

10. ArchLinuxARM packages doesn't have open-vm-tools yet so we'll have to build it ourselves.

11. From the newly started VM fetch your current ip ip addr

12. From the terminal in you Mac Host - and inside this repo directory run:

ADDR="<ip address from step 11>" \
ARCHUSER="preferred username (default:daimaou92)" \
make vm/openvmtools

This step downloads the latest commit from the default branch of open-vm-tools, builds for aarch64 and installs it. So shared clipboard directories should start working as soon as you install your DE or setup your WM. Your system will be restarted at the end of this.

13. After logging in verify the service status of the following:

sudo systemctl status vmtoolsd.service
sudo systemctl status vmware-vmblock-fuse.service

Check /mnt/hgfs to see if the directory you've shared exists.

ls -la /mnt/hgfs

There should be no errors.

Check if the file /etc/xdg/autostart/vmware-user.desktop exists:

ls /etc/xdg/autostart/vmware-user.desktop

This needs to be autostarted at login and is required for clipboard sharing.

14. Change the user password:

passwd

and the root password:

sudo passwd

15. If everything has gone as per documentation so far - you can stop reading further and set up your home environment the way you prefer.

Quick setup with i3, Alacritty, Xorg and NTP (optional):

sudo pacman -Sy xorg xorg-xinit i3-gaps i3status i3lock dmenu alacritty dex xss-lock ntp

You'll need to start the x server at login followed by i3 and handle DPI. We'll do it with ~/.Xresources, ~/.xinitrc and ~/.zprofile.

And lastly we have to enable ntpd.service so that it can keep our time in sync.

I don't install and enable this service as part of the OS Install script since VMWare synchronizes time with the VM and I have faced issues with booting the VM on enabling this during OS install.

You can disable this by going to your VM Settings and clicking on Advanced - the very last option. In there just uncheck the Synchronize Time option.

echo 'Xft.dpi: 220' | tee -a ~/.Xresources > /dev/null
echo 'xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources' | tee -a ~/.xinitrc > /dev/null
echo 'exec i3' | tee -a ~/.xinitrc > /dev/null
echo 'startx' | tee -a ~/.zprofile > /dev/null
sudo systemctl enable ntpd.service

Now reboot

sudo reboot

On logging in for the first time after installing i3 you'll be asked if the ~/.config/i3/config file should be created. Press Enter for Yes. Another screen pops up asking your choice of modifier key (called $mod henceforth). Choose Cmd or Alt per preference using arrow keys and hit Enter.

The time may not look quite right with your configured timezone after this first boot. Don't panic - verify the ntpd.service status with

sudo systemctl status ntpd

If the status is active(running) just let the system run for a bit. ntp takes some time to correct any skew it discovers.

Hit $mod+Enter. This should open up Alacritty.

Done. Enjoy