first impression of the macbook air 4,2
Signed-off-by: Nico Schottelius <nico@kr.ethz.ch>
This commit is contained in:
Nico Schottelius
parent
be4e4fb36e
commit
e037c4c085
1 changed files with 142 additions and 0 deletions
142
blog/macbook-air-4,2-archlinux.mdwn
Normal file
142
blog/macbook-air-4,2-archlinux.mdwn
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
|
|||
[[!meta title="Installing Linux on a Macbook Air (4,2)"]]
|
||||
|
||||
These are my first impressions of the Archlinux installation
|
||||
on the MacBook Air (4,2).
|
||||
|
||||
## General impression
|
||||
|
||||
The installation feels pretty rough, very much like the installation
|
||||
to a PPC based iBook some years ago: A lot of stuff is still different
|
||||
from a usual PC, there is no intuitive debugging on bootup, the keyboard
|
||||
and trackpad works differently, etc. etc.
|
||||
|
||||
But in general: ***Linux works on the MacBook Air***, there are just
|
||||
some workarounds needed today, which may vanish tomorrow already.
|
||||
|
||||
## Installation
|
||||
|
||||
I choose to use Archlinux on the MacBook Air, but this is just a minor
|
||||
detail, the hints can be used on any other distribution as well.
|
||||
|
||||
## Shrink MacOS X partiton
|
||||
|
||||
In MacOS X I've shrinked the HFS partiton to 50GB using the disk utility
|
||||
to make up some free space for Linux. Although removing MacOS X completly
|
||||
was in my mind, it may be useful in the end to get Linux working.
|
||||
|
||||
## Install refit
|
||||
|
||||
[Refit](http://refit.sourceforge.net/) is the de-facto standard for
|
||||
multiboot on Macs, in the FOSS world, which allows me to easily
|
||||
select a different OS.
|
||||
|
||||
## Prepare install medium
|
||||
|
||||
I've used **archlinux-2011.08.19-core-dual.iso** and put it to a
|
||||
USB stick:
|
||||
|
||||
dd if=archlinux-2011.08.19-core-dual.iso of=/dev/sdc
|
||||
|
||||
## Bootup
|
||||
|
||||
Without refit, you could hold down the option key on the mac
|
||||
and select the USB drive. With refit, you'll see the usb stick
|
||||
directly and can boot from it.
|
||||
|
||||
## Partitioning
|
||||
|
||||
I've not touched the three partitions from MacOS X
|
||||
(efi, customer, recovery hd), but added two new partitions:
|
||||
|
||||
* /dev/sda4: Used for /boot
|
||||
* /dev/sda5: Used for /, encrypted using Luks
|
||||
|
||||
Using parted or sgdisk (preferred)
|
||||
|
||||
## Bootloader
|
||||
|
||||
My first idea was to use Syslinux on vfat on /dev/sda4, but
|
||||
that does not work: refit sees the partition and allows you to
|
||||
boot from it, but trying to boot it goes into a black screen
|
||||
heading the following line:
|
||||
|
||||
No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key
|
||||
|
||||
After I reformatted /dev/sda4 with ext4 and used extlinux instead with
|
||||
|
||||
extlinux --install /boot
|
||||
|
||||
the boot into syslinux works.
|
||||
|
||||
## Mouse
|
||||
|
||||
I've read some forum entries about loading appletouch before usbhid, but
|
||||
on this device it actually needs to be ***bcm5974***. A temporay workaround
|
||||
to behave like a synaptics touchpad is the following command:
|
||||
|
||||
rmmod usbhid; rmmod bcm5974; modprobe bcm5974; modprobe usbhid
|
||||
|
||||
I'm somehow wondering whether module loading order should be significant
|
||||
(I know it had been at some other situations, but it does not feel right),
|
||||
but for now it definitely is.
|
||||
|
||||
## WLAN
|
||||
|
||||
The **bcma** module is loaded by default, which needs to be blacklisted
|
||||
([arch1](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_wireless#Wi-Fi_card_does_not_work.2Fshow_up_since_kernel_upgrade_.28brcmsmac.29),
|
||||
[arch2](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_modules#Blacklisting)
|
||||
)
|
||||
|
||||
Temporay & Permanent fix:
|
||||
|
||||
# echo 'blacklist bcma' >> /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf
|
||||
# rmmod bcma
|
||||
# rmmod brcmsmac
|
||||
# modprobe brcmsmac
|
||||
# mkinitcpio -p linux
|
||||
|
||||
## Keyboard
|
||||
|
||||
The **fn-key** does currently not work on my installation
|
||||
and thus I cannot access the emulated Page-Down/Page-Up/Home/End
|
||||
keys, you usually get when using fn+cursor keys.
|
||||
|
||||
This also seems to be related to hid_apple, but issuing the following
|
||||
commands stops input from working at all:
|
||||
|
||||
rmmod usbhid; rmmod hid_apple; modprobe hid_apple; modprobe usbhid
|
||||
|
||||
I've opened a
|
||||
[bugreport on the archlinux site](https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/26425).
|
||||
|
||||
## Keyboard Backlight
|
||||
|
||||
The backlight driver (***applesmc***) works pretty well and can be used
|
||||
by simple adding the brightness into a sysfs file.
|
||||
|
||||
I've started the [kbsd](http://git.schottelius.org/?p=kbsd) project
|
||||
to automatically adjust the brightness depending on the environment
|
||||
light, as detected by the light sensor.
|
||||
|
||||
## Display
|
||||
|
||||
The machine boots up into a 1280x800 screen, although the panel
|
||||
natively supports 1440x900.
|
||||
|
||||
Using the intel driver xorg does not start at all,
|
||||
using fbdev instead is a workaround. You can use fbdev by putting
|
||||
the following content into ***/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-fbdev.conf***:
|
||||
|
||||
Section "Device"
|
||||
Driver "fbdev"
|
||||
Identifier "card0"
|
||||
EndSection
|
||||
|
||||
There is also a [bugreport for the display issue](https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/26426).
|
||||
|
||||
Keith Packard is also working on this issue,
|
||||
as can be read [here](http://keithp.com/blogs/MacBook-Air/) and
|
||||
[here](http://keithp.com/blogs/MacBook-Air-2/).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
[[!tag unix]]
|
||||
Loading…
Reference in a new issue