CachyOS · MacBook Air 2020

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Running the Installer ​

CachyOS Hello / Calamares ​

Boot from the USB, open the CachyOS Hello app, and click Install System. This launches the Calamares graphical installer.

Work through the steps:

  1. Location — timezone and locale
  2. Keyboard — layout (the MacBook keyboard is detected automatically via apple_bce)
  3. Partitions — see below
  4. Users — create your user account; keep the username lowercase with no spaces
  5. Summary — review and click Install

Partitions Screen ​

Choose Manual partitioning if you want dual-boot with macOS. Select your existing EFI partition (nvme0n1p1) and set:

  • Mount point: /boot
  • Do not format — this preserves macOS boot files

Create or select the remaining space for the root partition with BTRFS.

Do not format the EFI partition

The EFI partition contains macOS bootloader files. Formatting it will prevent macOS from booting. Set the mount point only, not the format flag.

Kernel Selection ​

During the CachyOS install, select the linux-cachyos kernel (BORE scheduler). This is the kernel all scripts and this guide are tested against.

First Boot ​

After install, the system boots into Limine. Select CachyOS from the boot menu.

The first thing to do after logging in:

bash
# Update the system
sudo pacman -Syu

# Clone the scripts repo
git clone https://github.com/sebastienrousseau/cachyos-macbook-intel-2020.git
cd cachyos-macbook-intel-2020

# Fix thermals immediately — your CPU may already be running hot
paru -S mbpfan
sudo bash scripts/01-thermal-setup.sh