MX-15 on Apple

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Jerry3904
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Re: MX-15 on Apple

#11 Post by Jerry3904 »

Great, thanks!
Production: 5.10, MX-23 Xfce, AMD FX-4130 Quad-Core, GeForce GT 630/PCIe/SSE2, 16 GB, SSD 120 GB, Data 1TB
Personal: Lenovo X1 Carbon with MX-23 Fluxbox and Windows 10
Other: Raspberry Pi 5 with MX-23 Xfce Raspberry Pi Respin

catsarekacamp
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Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2017 7:45 pm

#12 Post by catsarekacamp »

MacBook Pro 9,2. 2012 non-Retina. Used a program on Mac OS called Etcher to install the iso to usb stick. With the USB stick in, I rebooted and held alt/option to bring up the boot menu to select the USB stick. No fiddling or installing drivers was necessary after I got to the desktop. Wireless, trackpad, everything worked automagically. Followed the instructions in the installer. I did not install refind, because I gave it my whole drive. I just liked MX that much after geeking around with it in the USB mode. But I've used it before looking at other distros. Simply download the .deb from the Refind site, dpkg -i to install it, follow the instructions, it works flawlessly. Let me know if there is any info I can supply to help.

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Hierax_ca
Posts: 64
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Re: MX-17.1 on Apple 13in MacBook Air (6,2) 2016

#13 Post by Hierax_ca »

Did a successful full hardware install of MX-17.1 Linux on a 13" Early 2014 MacBook Air for a friend who had given up on it and was willing to risk it:

Code: Select all

$ inxi -Fxxx

System:    
           Host: ... Kernel: 4.15.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 6.3.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 
           tk: Gtk 2.24.31 info: xfce4-panel wm: Xfwm4 dm: lightdm 1.18.3 
           Distro: MX-17.1_x64 Horizon March 14, 2018 

Machine:   
           Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBookAir6,2 v: 1.0 serial: N/A Chassis: type: 10 
           v: Mac-7DF21CB3ED6977E5 serial: N/A 
           Mobo: Apple model: Mac-7DF21CB3ED6977E5 v: MacBookAir6,2 serial: N/A UEFI: Apple 
           v: MBA61.88Z.0099.B20.1509081314 date: 09/08/2015 

Battery:
           ID-1: BAT0 charge: 50.5 Wh condition: 50.5/54.3 Wh (93%) volts: 8.5/7.6 model: SMP bq20z451 
           type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: Full cycles: 27 

CPU:       
           Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-4260U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell rev: 1 
           L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 16000 
           Speed: 900 MHz min/max: 800/2700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 844 2: 802 3: 800 4: 802 

Graphics:  
           Card-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           chip ID: 8086:0a26 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1440x900~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Mobile v: 3.3 Mesa 13.0.6 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 

Audio:     
           Card-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0 
           chip ID: 8086:0a0c 
           Card-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:9c20 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-1-amd64 

Network:   
           Card-1: Broadcom Limited BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter driver: wl v: kernel 
           bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:43a0 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: ...

Drives:    
           HDD Total Size: 113.00 GiB used: 8.90 GiB (7.9%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: APPLE_SSD_SD0128 size: 113.00 GiB serial: 143238400674 rev: 821 scheme: GPT 

Partition: 
           ID-1: / size: 106.30 GiB used: 8.77 GiB (8.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.00 GiB used: 127.5 MiB (3.1%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3 

Sensors:   
           System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 

Info:      
           Processes: 200 Uptime: 33m Memory: 3.80 GiB used: 692.3 MiB (17.8%) Init: SysVinit v: 2.88 
           runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 6.3.0 alt: 6 Shell: bash v: 4.4.12 running in: xfce4-terminal 
           inxi: 3.0.06 
Was having internet problems under MacOS shutting the computer down when running FireFox. Initially I tried Ubuntu Mate 18.04 for the Apple-cloned Panel look-feel Layout (seemed like it would be the easiest transition for them with less work of customizing a dock etc.), install went seemingly well but had even more wireless intermittent connections problems making it utterly unreliable for internet; since it has a Broadcom card (BCM4360) MX-Linux seemed like a good idea and, sure enough, after a reboot after installing MX-17.1 it's now getting 175.5 download and 16.1 upload over wireless which is about what I'm getting on my own older computers here with wired Gigabit Ethernet (nice card when it's working)! Hopefully it stay working...

MX-Linux on Mac hardware even beyond a live test is very do-able even with the scary UEFI stuff!

Heck, it's working so well here I might try it as a full hardware install on one my aforementioned old 2008 MacBooks, about time to retire good old Snow Leopard.

Thanks again MX team rack up another success story!
MX-17.1: Thinkpad x60t, x61t, x200t, x220t.
MX-18 (32-bit) Thinkpads: 600x*, A31p, T43p, T60p;
MX-18 (64-bit): MacBook13(5,1), Thinkpad x61s, T61pW, T601pF, x200, x301*, T500, W500, W700, W700ds, W701, W701ds*, x220, W520.

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Jerry3904
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Re: MX-15 on Apple

#14 Post by Jerry3904 »

Any particulars about the installation/configuration you would add? We still don't have a good guide in this area (nothing useful in the Users Manual <cough>), so any help would be appreciated.
Production: 5.10, MX-23 Xfce, AMD FX-4130 Quad-Core, GeForce GT 630/PCIe/SSE2, 16 GB, SSD 120 GB, Data 1TB
Personal: Lenovo X1 Carbon with MX-23 Fluxbox and Windows 10
Other: Raspberry Pi 5 with MX-23 Xfce Raspberry Pi Respin

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kingocounty
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Re: MX-15 on Apple

#15 Post by kingocounty »

Running like a top on a Macbook Air A1370 here. The installation for me was bog-standard; the non-free Broadcom firmware loaded up automagically and all the hotkeys work out of the box. Plus, XFCE looks very slick on a tiny screen. :biggrin:

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Hierax_ca
Posts: 64
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2015 6:46 pm

Re: MX-15 on Apple

#16 Post by Hierax_ca »

No, I just did a regular install from USB (only issue is knowing to hold down Option key when booting the Mac to be able to boot from something other than the HDD, or holding C if from CD/DVD but Air doesn't have an optical drive).

I was expecting it to be complicated and have problems to solve but it worked out shockingly smoothly.

I did do a gparted to make a Swap partition (since the previous Ubuntu Mate 18.04 install I did used a swap file instead and so didn't have one). The Ubuntu Mate install I also just did on default erasing the whole disk (maybe it did a good job preserving or creating the EFI in a Mac-Friendly manner). I think the MX live USB booted right to EFI option and I just clicked the defaults.

FWIW, the wifi worked when running live and when rebooted after install, then stopped working after updating/upgrading, but then worked again after rebooting after the update/upgrade and upon a couple of subsequent reboots to double/triple-check before and after adding packages.

When I get around to doing the next Mac hardware install I'll pay more attention document it...
MX-17.1: Thinkpad x60t, x61t, x200t, x220t.
MX-18 (32-bit) Thinkpads: 600x*, A31p, T43p, T60p;
MX-18 (64-bit): MacBook13(5,1), Thinkpad x61s, T61pW, T601pF, x200, x301*, T500, W500, W700, W700ds, W701, W701ds*, x220, W520.

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Jerry3904
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Re: MX-15 on Apple

#17 Post by Jerry3904 »

That would be great.
Production: 5.10, MX-23 Xfce, AMD FX-4130 Quad-Core, GeForce GT 630/PCIe/SSE2, 16 GB, SSD 120 GB, Data 1TB
Personal: Lenovo X1 Carbon with MX-23 Fluxbox and Windows 10
Other: Raspberry Pi 5 with MX-23 Xfce Raspberry Pi Respin

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Hierax_ca
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Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2015 6:46 pm

MX-17.1 on Apple MacBook 5,1

#18 Post by Hierax_ca »

OK, I did a successful hardware install on a MacBook 13" (5,1 Late 2008) using the MX 17.1 May Snapshot:

tldr; install worked using defaults on new hard drive using mbr instead of efi.
  • replaced old HDD with a fresh new harddrive (2.5" Seagate Firecuda 2TB Hybrid SSD-HDD):
  • Put USB of MX 17.1 May 18th Snapshot 64-bit iso made with Live MX-usb maker
  • Booted holding down Option/Alt key
  • Chose EFI Boot option
  • chose the default "Custom x64 (18 May 2018) entry
  • booted into MX just fine
  • started GParted
  • device - partition table - ms-dos
  • partition new: size: 200MB, file system:fat32, label:EFI (tried the same as EFI on my MacBook13b using same hard drive model with OS X Mavericks installed on it, for lack of any better idea of how to do EFI size and format)
  • partition new: size: 8,192MB free following, file system: ext4, label: mxlinuxos
  • partition new: size: 8,192MB, file system: linux-swap, label:mxlinuxswap
  • apply all option (checkmark button)
  • click on installer on desktop, next
  • 1c: custom install of existing partitions (yes, I could have done gparted from here, but already did it earlier)
  • 2a: choose partitions: root = sda2 mxlinuxos, swap = sda3 mxlinuxswap, home = root
  • 2b: preferences: change default/root partition label rootmx17, yes, ok to format
  • 4: install Grub: MBR sda (ESP was greyed out), ok, yes
  • 5: name computer MacBook13a (I have 2 of these other one has Mavericks on it, this one had Snow Leopard)
  • 6: next, 7: user info, finish, yes reboot, pull out usb
After reboot came up with a grey screen which lasted for ~40 seconds then booted into MX Linux normally!

Now, I think I didn't do the EFI thing right/correctly but this is somehow working.

I did all the updates and some quick tests seem to work:
  • Ethernet 174.6 down, 16.1 up
  • Wireless: 16.1/109.8 down, 11/16.2 up (normal/5g)
  • Sound works (tested with uqm)
  • suspend works
  • updated kernel from default 4.15.4 (2018-02-23) to 4.15.17 (2018-04-23) from MX Package Installer upgrade from MX Test Repo to get most up-to-date
  • mouse was waaaay too fast/sensitive so changed it in setting from 2.0 to 1.0
  • mouse two-finger right click works but can't figure out how to do other (3+4) finger guestures
  • optical disk is jammed in this so I can't test burning, audio cd, and video dvd but I'll do that when I install on my MacBook13b
I've got pictures of screenshots of the various steps on the installation but don't have time to post them here today.

FYI/FWIW, Here's some info from the computer:

jason@MacBook13a:

Code: Select all

$ cat /etc/mx-version
MX-17.1_x64 Horizon March 14, 2018

Code: Select all

$ cat /etc/debian_version
9.4

Code: Select all

$ uname -a
Linux MacBook13a 4.15.0-1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.15.17-1~mx17+1 (2018-04-23) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Code: Select all

$ inxi -Fxxx -z

System:    Host: MacBook13a Kernel: 4.15.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 6.3.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 
           tk: Gtk 2.24.31 info: xfce4-panel wm: Xfwm4 dm: lightdm 1.18.3 
           Distro: MX-17.1_x64 Horizon March 14, 2018 

Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBook5,1 v: 1.0 serial: N/A Chassis: type: 10 v: Mac-F42D89C8 
           serial: N/A 
           Mobo: Apple model: Mac-F42D89C8 v: Proto serial: N/A BIOS: Apple v: MB51.88Z.007D.B03.0904271443 
           date: 04/27/09 

Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 25.3 Wh condition: 25.3/44.7 Wh (57%) volts: 12.4/10.9 model: DP bq20z951 
           type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: Full cycles: 763 

CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo P7350 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn rev: 6 
           L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 7959 
           Speed: 1728 MHz min/max: 1596/1995 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1592 2: 1592 

Graphics:  Card-1: NVIDIA C79 [GeForce 9400M] driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10de:0863 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: nouveau unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nv,vesa 
           resolution: 1280x800~61Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NVAC v: 3.3 Mesa 13.0.6 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 

Audio:     Card-1: NVIDIA MCP79 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:08.0 
           chip ID: 10de:0ac0 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-1-amd64 

Network:   Card-1: NVIDIA MCP79 Ethernet driver: forcedeth v: kernel port: 21e0 bus ID: 00:0a.0 
           chip ID: 10de:0ab0 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           
           Card-2: Broadcom Limited BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN driver: wl v: kernel bus ID: 03:00.0 
           chip ID: 14e4:432b 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 

Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1.82 TiB used: 8.66 GiB (0.5%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST2000LX001-1RG174 size: 1.82 TiB serial: <filter> rev: SDM1 
           scheme: MBR 

Partition: ID-1: / size: 1.78 TiB used: 8.66 GiB (0.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3 

Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 66.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 71 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 

Info:      Processes: 192 Uptime: 32m Memory: 7.52 GiB used: 820.7 MiB (10.7%) Init: SysVinit v: 2.88 
           runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 6.3.0 alt: 6 Shell: bash v: 4.4.12 
           running in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.0.08 
Next time I'll see what happens if I have MacOS installed on the HDD with EFI and then install MX and if the ESP option is un-greyed...

P.S. one note of strangeness my MacBookPro 17 late 2011 now no longer boots Linux from USBs (tried several) so maybe some recent update has caused this as it was live booting before, have to look into that after MacBook13b.

Anyone have any other experience with MacBook installs of MX Linux?

Is there anything else I can add here that would be useful/helpful?
MX-17.1: Thinkpad x60t, x61t, x200t, x220t.
MX-18 (32-bit) Thinkpads: 600x*, A31p, T43p, T60p;
MX-18 (64-bit): MacBook13(5,1), Thinkpad x61s, T61pW, T601pF, x200, x301*, T500, W500, W700, W700ds, W701, W701ds*, x220, W520.

antiX-Dave
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Posts: 372
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 4:51 pm

Re: MX-15 on Apple

#19 Post by antiX-Dave »

I could be out to lunch with this... but does efi boot not need gpt partitioning instead of msdos?

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Hierax_ca
Posts: 64
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2015 6:46 pm

Re: MX-15 on Apple

#20 Post by Hierax_ca »

Apparently not, my other MacBook 13 has OS X Mavericks installed on it and when I looked at the partitions there on exactly the same model of hard drive, it was a 200mb ms-dos partition called EFI, that's how I came up with using that. Still doesn't seem right, maybe something else needs to be done to the EFI/ms-dos partition to make it proper EFI. I dunno.
MX-17.1: Thinkpad x60t, x61t, x200t, x220t.
MX-18 (32-bit) Thinkpads: 600x*, A31p, T43p, T60p;
MX-18 (64-bit): MacBook13(5,1), Thinkpad x61s, T61pW, T601pF, x200, x301*, T500, W500, W700, W700ds, W701, W701ds*, x220, W520.

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