diff --git a/blog/linux-macbook-air-4,2-status-report.mdwn b/blog/linux-macbook-air-4,2-status-report.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1206771c --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/linux-macbook-air-4,2-status-report.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,93 @@ +[[!meta title="Status of Linux on the MacBook Air 4,2"]] + +## Introduction + +Following up my +[[recent|macbook-air-42-correcting-multimedia-key-mapping-and-status]] +[[posts|macbook-air-42-touchpad-keyboard-correct-screen-resolution]] +[[about the MacBook Air 4,2|macbook-air-42-archlinux]] with Linux, +here's a status report of what works and what is still missing. + +This report is based on ***Linux 3.2.0-rc5***. + +## Screen Resolution and external screens + +Great news, Linus' tree merged patches necessary for full screen resolution +and external screens work as well: + + Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 2340, maximum 8192 x 8192 + eDP1 connected 1440x900+0+1440 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 30mm x 179mm + 1440x900 60.0*+ + VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) + HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) + DP1 disconnected 2560x1440+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm + HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) + HDMI3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) + DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) + DP3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) + 2560x1440 (0xb2) 241.5MHz + h: width 2560 start 2608 end 2640 total 2720 skew 0 clock 88.8KHz + v: height 1440 start 1443 end 1448 total 1481 clock 60.0Hz + +An external monitor was tested via Mini-DP-to-HDMI adapter and Mini-DP-to-DVI +adapter with resolutions from 1920x1080 (24" Samsung) up to 2560x1440 (27" Dell). + + +## Keyboard/Multimedia Keys (FN+F1..F12) + +With the current kernel all multimedia keys match correctly. + + +## Keyboard/Backlight + +Keyboard backlight can be controlled using +[kbsd](http://git.schottelius.org/?p=kbsd;a=summary). This works fine, +but it could be improved to react on the light sensor. +The question simply is, how to map the light sensor values to keyboard +backlight settings. If you've got a good table or function to apply, +drop me a mail, so I can include it. + + +## Touchpad + +The touchpad works almost completly, the only +problem left is that +the mouse pointer does not move when the mouse button is pressed. +This may be a configuration problem of the synaptics touchpad, but +I haven't found a fix for this. + + +## Screen backlight + +The nice utility **xbacklight** still does not work, + + [11:14] brief:~% xbacklight + No outputs have backlight property + +but dimming works manually via echo: + + [21:15] brief:~# echo 2200 > /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0/card0-eDP-1/intel_backlight/brightness + +And the display is not switched off when lid is closed. +ACPI reports the lid event, though. Probably a related problem. + + +## WLAN / brcmsmac / Broadcom BCM43224 + +This used to be fixed in my own patched kernel, but since I've got +a new macbook air 4,2, it does suffers the +[network process hang issue in the **brcmsmac** driver](https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/10/18/145) +again. Iterating over several different kernels did not yet fix this problem. + +Though interestingly after 2 suspend and resume cycles it works, until the 4th of 5th +suspend cycle, at which all network processes hang again, if the connection to the +AP is lost. + +## Current problem summary + + * Clicking and moving the mouse pointer does not work + * xbacklight does not recognise backlight controls + * Display is not switched off on lid close + * Network processes hang when the connection to the AP is lost/cannot be established + +[[!tag net unix]]