Problems I've had with an A1181 macbook and how to fix them.

[shy]

The a1181 is a very common, low cost macbook with a core2duo. When booting a live usb using any boot options one of a few things will occur;
The computer will get to the point where x should start then reboot when using the default boot option. X will just not start if you go through the 'config boot' option, and various mixtures of either x not starting or freezing / reboot when using the 2 advanced boot options.
I don't know why this happens exactly but I think it is something to do with the i915 driver. To fix the issue I remove the "nomodeset" option from the failsafe boot options OR add the "failsafe" option to the default boot setting. Conky seems to crash after boot but besides that x loads and the os works fine.

problem #2: WIFI does not work.
This is a problem with the broadcom driver and happens on other distros when using this computer. The bluetooth and wifi both use the same driver, bluetooth will load but wifi will not. The quick fix for this is to disable bluetooth, then open the MX network assistant. Unload the b43 driver then load the b43legacy driver (you might be able to just reload the b43 driver on its own). Wifi should work now.

I am posting this because I couldn't google "mxlinux x will not load" and get a real answer so maybe this will help someone.

UPDATE: When loading with persistence x will also refuse to start (blinking cursor) This is because it is creating a new xorg config at every boot and the driver parameter is incorrect. Change "vesa" or whatever it auto generated to "fbdev" then startx and it will work.

[fehlix]

Would you mind posting "Quick System Info" found in the menu.
Thanks

[shy]

Would you mind posting "Quick System Info" found in the menu.
Thanks

No problem!

Code: Select all

System:    Host: mx1 Kernel: 4.19.0-5-686-pae i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 6.3.0 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 Distro: MX-18.3_386 Continuum May 26  2019 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 
Machine:   Type: Unknown System: Apple product: MacBook4,1 v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Apple model: Mac-F22788A9 v: PVT serial: <filter> UEFI: Apple 
           v: MB41.88Z.00C1.B00.0802091535 date: 02/09/08 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 0% condition: 23.2/54.7 Wh (42%) model: SMP ASMB016 status: Full 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo T8300 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn 
           rev: 6 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 9575 
           Speed: 1197 MHz min/max: 800/2400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1197 2: 1189 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics vendor: Apple driver: N/A 
           bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: fbdev unloaded: modesetting,vesa 
           resolution: 1280x800~76Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 7.0 128 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 18.2.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 82801H HD Audio vendor: Apple driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1b.0 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-5-686-pae 
Network:   Device-1: Broadcom Limited BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n vendor: Apple AirPort Extreme 
           driver: b43-pci-bridge v: N/A port: efa0 bus ID: 02:00.0 
           Device-2: Marvell 88E8058 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet driver: sky2 v: 1.30 port: 5000 
           bus ID: 03:00.0 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 253.38 GiB used: 1.45 GiB (0.6%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: SDSSDA240G size: 223.57 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Lexar model: USB Flash Drive size: 29.81 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 3.00 GiB used: 39.4 MiB (1.3%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 
           1: deb http://iso.mxrepo.com/antix/stretch stretch main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ stretch main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 211 Uptime: 9m Memory: 3.79 GiB used: 588.7 MiB (15.2%) Init: SysVinit 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 6.3.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.12 inxi: 3.0.33