Hi, everyone.
I’ll be moving to China for work for a few years, and I need to buy a new laptop. I’ve been using Arch Linux for about six years, but I’m concerned that the Arch repositories or certain packages might not work properly in China.
For both work and personal use, would it be better to get a MacBook instead of a regular laptop and install Arch on it? Has anyone experienced any issues using Arch Linux in China? Are there common problems with VPNs or specific packages there?
Thanks in advance for your advice!
pacman will be no problem since there are a lot of mirrors in China.
As for the aur, since there are a lot of aur packages that need github or something which do not act properly sometimes, the update of these packages will encounter problems. To solve this, you can use a VPN or some other methods.
https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist/all/
There seem to be several mirrors located in china. So it should be fine even without a VPN.
As far as I know there’s no way to install vanilla arch on newer m series macs. Only asahi Linux. For older Intel based ones there might be compatibility issues. The wiki should have articles specifically for installing on apple hardware. My guess is that you’ll have an easier time with a regular laptop
I’m a Chinese, been using Arch for a year now. You will need a reliable VPN. And you will need reflector to refresh your mirrorlist based on China + 3,4 other VPN counties that you used frequently
MacBook with M chip is just Linux with extra steps, if you have Intel MacBook it is virtually identical with any other laptops so
When in China, do as as the Chinese do. Use a VPN.
I’m an Arch Linux user in China. I use mirrors from USTC, SJTU, and sometimes also Tsinghua across Arch, Debian/RaspberryPi, Ubuntu, Apline, for system updates, pip, zsh, GitLab, HomeBrew (on macOS) and maybe something else I just forgot. AUR might be an issue because it usually uses github. Check out these links for more info, manuals might be written in Chinese, but shouldn’t be a problem with Google Translate:
One of the most important arch maintainers is Chinese so…
I think buying an arm macbook to run Linux on it is 5 years too soon.
New M-Series MacBooks are AMAZING but you’re only going to get full functionality if you use MacOS so if you want to only use Linux then you’re out of luck.
Now, I run Arch ARM (It’s an unofficial fork) through Parallels and do most my web browsing and similar through that. Now, you won’t be able to play most games, install a lot of software or use a good chunk of AUR packages due to them lacking ARM support (something I’ve noticed is relatively common in most distros).
So, if you’re happy to spread your workload between MacOS (which can run like 99% of software with Crossover and Whiskey) and neutered Arch (I’ve heard some people have gotten Steam and other software working but I haven’t on ArchARM or Fedora) then you’ll be okay with an M-series MacBook (which I believe is THE gold standard for laptops nowadays). Now, If you only want to use Linux then don’t get a MacBook, stick to something with a x86 architecture, I’ve heard nice things from the Framework laptops.
(Imb4 someone comes over trashing on MacOS, yes, it’s infinitely worse than Arch but it still runs Adobe and Office flawlessly, once that changes, It’s gonna be the year of the Linux Desktop)
no problem as long as you got the vpn working. i’ve never really met any issue with network.
but some apps might need to turn off the vpn while downloading the source as they ban ip from the foreign lands.
I would go with a Dell XPS or Framework laptop if you want Linux compatibility.
I lived and worked in Shanghai for nearly 8 years a few years back and had zero issues. There is also a great Chinese repo that compiles AUR packages so they are in bin form ready for installation.
archlinuxcn.org
Arch pacman should work fine as long as you change to Chinese mirror sites. However as a general security precaution it’s better to bring a “clean” laptop/phone instead of personal device to China.
There are many Arch users in China, me 2. pacman is fine in China cuz you can find many mirrors there. For AUR and all other blocked services like Google, Github(not entirely blocked but rather slow) in China, all you need is a good proxy / VPN service, better with good smart rule based feature. You can find many decent providers on the internet but most of them are in Chinese, could be a problem if you don’t read Chinese. I’m sure you will get one very soon after you started work in China cuz you will notice what your Chinese friends are using. Mostly you need a client like Clash or other tools supporting popular penetrating protocols like shadowsocks, vmess, trojan etc (Beacuse VPN protocols like PPTP, L2TP, wireguard are censored by GFW and barely usable). You need to buy a service from a provider and get a config file which you can use in different clients. For example, client like clash verge is well supported in Linux (never tried tho). Or if you wanna DIY your own service, then you need to dig into a bit of setting up services of different protocols on a VPS (outside of China of course) and writing the config file for client yourself. I won’t recommend this if you don’t have much time. You may find the speed would be slow depending on VPS provider you choose cuz international network traffic is QoSed by ISP and usually you need to pay more for higher international bandwidth. Anyways, as long as you figure out the network, you use Arch just like at any other place in the free world. Hope you enjoy your expat life in China 
I recommend a Dell XPS, amazingly reliable and will be perfect for Linux. It’s what I’ve been using for years for work and personal. No issues.
I’m in Hong Kong from a couple of months now. No problem at all. You need VPN just for some websites like chatgpt. So, nothing related to Arch
lots of mirrors are located on China and Russia. so you wont have problems with repos or pkgs.
Your best bet is having someone trusted selfhost hysteria2 (proxy that bypasses the great Chinese firewall. I can say that it works reliably.
Add repo:
[archlinuxcn]
Server = https://repo.archlinuxcn.org/$arch
to your /etc/pacman.conf .
I’d wait and buy a new laptop in China - much better options there. For example, I noticed some Lenovo ThinkBooks in China have larger batteries, higher refresh rate panels, and they’re cheaper.
