CachyOS · MacBook Air 2020

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Troubleshooting ​

CPU Running at 100°C ​

Symptom: sensors shows Package id 0 at or near 100°C, fan spinning at ~2700 RPM.

Cause: thermald cannot find the fan at the expected applesmc path on this kernel.

Fix:

bash
paru -S mbpfan
sudo bash scripts/01-thermal-setup.sh

Emergency fan override while the script installs:

bash
find /sys/devices/LNXSYSTM:00 -name "fan1_output"
# Use the path returned above
echo 1 | sudo tee <path>/fan1_manual
echo 8000 | sudo tee <path>/fan1_output

Wi-Fi Not Working After Reinstall ​

Cause: Broadcom BCM4377b firmware is proprietary and not preserved across reinstalls.

Fix:

bash
sudo bash scripts/02-wifi-firmware.sh install-pkg

Keyboard / Trackpad Frozen After Wake ​

Cause: apple_bce driver doesn't cleanly reinitialise after suspend/resume.

Fix (immediate):

bash
sudo modprobe -r apple_bce && sudo modprobe apple_bce

Fix (permanent): Run 03-optimise.sh which installs macbook-suspend-fix.service to do this automatically on every resume.

Audio Crackling or Pops ​

Cause: Default PipeWire quantum buffer is too small for the apple-bce audio path.

Fix:

bash
bash scripts/03-optimise.sh --audio-only
systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse

If audio device disappears entirely:

bash
sudo modprobe -r snd_hda_intel apple_bce
sudo modprobe apple_bce snd_hda_intel

Script Hangs After Starting ​

Cause: Running scripts from fish shell — glob patterns like applesmc.* cause fish to abort before bash even starts.

Fix: Always invoke scripts with bash explicitly:

bash
sudo bash scripts/01-thermal-setup.sh   # ✅ correct
sudo scripts/01-thermal-setup.sh        # ❌ fish will try to interpret it

modprobe apple-bce Fails ​

Cause: apple_bce is compiled into the CachyOS kernel (CONFIG_APPLE_BCE=y), not as a loadable module. modprobe cannot load what's already built in.

This is not a problem — if your keyboard and trackpad work, apple_bce is active. Verify:

bash
lsmod | grep apple_bce

Cannot Boot After Kernel Update ​

Hold Space at the Limine splash to access the snapshot menu and boot the last known good snapshot. Then:

bash
# Check installed kernel
pacman -Q linux-cachyos

# Downgrade from cache if needed
sudo pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/linux-cachyos-*.pkg.tar.zst

macOS Won't Boot ​

bash
# Check boot order
sudo efibootmgr

# Force macOS on next boot only
sudo efibootmgr -n 0080

Vault Won't Mount ​

bash
# Check if image exists
ls -lh ~/.vault.img

# Check if already open
ls /dev/mapper/code_vault

# Manual open and mount
sudo cryptsetup open ~/.vault.img code_vault
sudo mount /dev/mapper/code_vault ~/Code
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER ~/Code