Well I finally got around to doing some testing on my Macbook Pro circa 2008.
I built the installer image just today with
guix system disk-image --file-system-type=iso9660 \
gnu/system/install.scm
joshua@dobby ~$ guix describe
Generation 45 Mar 03 2020 23:16:24 (current)
jmacs 54f8408
repository URL: https://notabug.org/jbranso/guix-packages.git
branch: master
commit: 54f84080d7459e74cd33cf434c1077c082ce6508
guix 4b759d3
repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git
branch: master
commit: 4b759d3c548270eba348521669bae15c9e5b72bc
In the past, I had to run open the grub command promt and run "configfile
(hd0,msdos)/boot/grub/grub.cfg". Guix's installer does now allow me to see the
"EFI boot" option when I hold down the "option" key on start up. That is an
improvent.
I had to test the manual installation method. The graphical installer does not
work on my macbook. It just flickers on and then off. Shortly after grub
boots into the installer, I briefly see a blue screen, then black, then blue,
then black, etc. I can switch to a virtual console and proceed with the
installation that way. Perhaps, we should try to start the graphical installer
only 5 times. If it fails, then just produce an error message and suggest the
user switch to another virtual console and try the manual install.
Manual install worked. I had a weird issue when I made the btrfs filesystems.
"mkfs.btrfs -L my-root /dev/sd3" gave me an error like "failed to execute
/gnu/store/eudev/santsnthsnthau32psu/lib/udev ID_BTRFS_READY=0", and it
repeated on every boot. The error message on each bot looked like:
udevd failed to execute /gnu/store/eudev/santsnthsnthau32psu/lib/udev
ID_BTRFS_READY=0
I configured EFI boot with 1 btrfs partition. I enabled gnome, mate, xfce, and
enlightenment services. The install took about an hour. In the past, I
configured a minimal install with no desktop services or window manager
services. I have found that trying to install a desktop service fails halfway
through. However, this time, the install worked just fine.
GDM started just fine. It even recognized my dvorak layout. It did not in the
past. Progress.
I first tested Gnome. Gnome took a long time to fully load. I had a mouse
that could move around for 5+ minutes with no background image before the
"Welcome to Gnome" screen popped up. I navigated through the default gnome
setup easily. No issues. Gnome appeared to be working just fine.
Next I tried testing Enlightenment, which started just fine. The Enlightenment
welcome dialog started first. I clicked through a few screen, but it appeared
to get stuck picking default mouse bindings. The dialog box said,
"Enlightenment sets default mouse bindings for objects". It hanged on that
screen after I clicked "Alt" for 10+ minutes. I did a hard reboot, which is
what really screwed me. I should have switched to a virtual console and tried
to shut off that way.
Anyway, after hard rebooting, grub attempted to load my OS. The grub screen
went away, and the boot process showed a cursor, but no text. I waited for 5
minutes before hard rebooting. I got the same issue. So my Macbook Pro
currently has no OS on it. :( But my ThinkPad T400 works just fine!
Thanks,
Joshua
P.S. If anyone has any suggestions of where I can look for errors, please let
me know. I would be happy to try installing again.
