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#51 2012-07-25 18:23:00

dreamvalley
Member
Registered: 2012-07-25
Posts: 3

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

@saver Yes, I used gdm as the display manager by adding it to the list of daemons in /etc/rc.conf, but I still couldn't boot into a graphical interface. With or without i915.die, I booted into text mode (the LCD shows nothing without i915.die and I had to use an external monitor). In both cases, after the login prompt in text mode ("(none) login: "), I see a few lines of "gdm-binary[473]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.0xxxxx seconds". Then I see "gdm-binary[473]: WARNING: GdmLocalDisplayFactory: maximum number of X display failures reached: check X server log for errors". I can log in successfully into text mode. But I still don't know how to get the graphics working. I don't know what else I can try now.

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#52 2012-07-25 18:45:20

dreamvalley
Member
Registered: 2012-07-25
Posts: 3

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

@saver I also tried using i915.modeset=0 in the kernel line, but the LCD got messed up very soon after boot. I could see the flashing prompt waiting for me to log in, but I couldn't distinguish any letter on the screen. It's simply messed up.

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#53 2012-07-26 12:49:03

savar
Member
Registered: 2012-07-23
Posts: 9

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

In order to get X running you have to boot with out i915.modeset oder i915.die
But I've no Idea why its not working for you. Maybe you could try other display modes like 1024x768 in the gdm configs.
Or maybe try to patch the kernel like in this file: http://www.almostsure.com/mba42/fix-i915.sh its for the 2011 airs but as you already said its the same display.

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#54 2012-08-04 16:33:16

0x530302
Member
Registered: 2012-06-26
Posts: 15

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

Sorry for my long absence in this thread.
Just to clarify what's the real problem:

The intel drm driver has a ivy bridge and embedded display port related bug.
(for further information look at https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44001)

My current fix is the xrandr-off-on dance in the xinitrc. I use xdm as display manager, so I just have to login blind.

Another "Workaround" is very easy: Just don't use the intel driver, boot with a kernel parameter like i915.die (or anything like that).
To start x you need the xf86-video-fbdev package installed, but be careful with this solution (you then have no video acceleration.)

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#55 2012-08-07 22:41:21

adrianbs
Member
From: Uruguay
Registered: 2009-08-13
Posts: 31

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

So, reading all the posts I've seen there are problems with the display. But do any workarounds worked? Is Arch installable and usable? There were other problems aside from display for you?

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#56 2012-08-07 23:01:10

tinte
Member
Registered: 2012-07-20
Posts: 15

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

@adrianbs: only some users are affected by this issue.  For example, I had no problems with the display.  The workaround is to login blindly and then:

xrandr --output eDP1 --off
xrandr --output eDP1 --auto

Here's a quick summary (for me):

* Boot with noapic.  Otherwise there is a kernel panic.
* Install using latest archboot with grub2-efi as boot loader.
* The applesmc driver does not work unless you patch it.  This patch is included in linux-3.6-rc1.  The system still works without the driver.

After this, Arch is installable and usable.  I have had issues with wireless that others haven't.  It might be related to my router.

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#57 2012-08-08 00:35:19

adrianbs
Member
From: Uruguay
Registered: 2009-08-13
Posts: 31

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

@tinte: Thank you!

I'll have an Air in a month or so. I'll post my result when I test it.

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#58 2012-08-31 15:27:36

0x530302
Member
Registered: 2012-06-26
Posts: 15

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

xrandr dance is not necessary anymore. After a full system update yesterday it works!
I think one of the following packages contained the fix.

[2012-08-31 14:03] upgraded libdrm (2.4.38-1 -> 2.4.39-1)
[2012-08-31 14:03] upgraded intel-dri (8.0.4-2 -> 8.0.4-3)
[2012-08-31 14:04] upgraded linux (3.4.7-1 -> 3.5.3-1)
[2012-08-31 14:04] upgraded mesa (8.0.4-2 -> 8.0.4-3)

I am going to read the full changelogs to figure out what solved the problem.

So for me the only thing that does now not work out of the box is the applesmc kernel module.
But the fix for that will be included in 3.6 kernel.

Last edited by 0x530302 (2012-08-31 15:28:08)

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#59 2012-09-01 16:36:35

Janhouse
Member
Registered: 2010-10-02
Posts: 29

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

I updated to latest kernel version today. Eveyrtyhing is still working.
But you still have to patch the applesmc driver to control keyboard backlight and fan.
(And optionally enable b43 driver.)


Also, Lightum didn't work for me, so I wrote a script to control the keyboard backlight.

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use warnings;use strict;
sub trim {my $string = shift;$string =~ s/^\s+//;$string =~ s/\s+$//;return $string;}
my $Step=25;
my $MaxBright=trim(`cat '/sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/max_brightness'`);
my $CurBright=trim(`cat '/sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness'`);
my $NewBright;
if(exists $ARGV[0]){
    if($ARGV[0] eq 'up'){$NewBright=$CurBright+$Step;$NewBright=$MaxBright if $NewBright>$MaxBright;}
    elsif($ARGV[0] eq 'down'){$NewBright=$CurBright-$Step;$NewBright=0 if $NewBright<0;}
    elsif($ARGV[0] eq 'off'){$NewBright=0;}
    else{print "Incorrect parameters. Usage: keyboard.pl (up|down|off)\n";exit;}
}else{print "Usage: keyboard.pl (up|down|off)\n";exit;}
print "Setting brightness to $NewBright. Old brghtness: $CurBright; Max value: $MaxBright.\n";
system "echo $NewBright > '/sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness'";
1;

Owned it by root and then made it executable by my user, by adding a line to /etc/sudoers

janhouse    ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /home/janhouse/Documents/scripts/perl/apple/keyboard.pl

Then I used xbindkeys to bind it to the keyboard buttons.

"sudo /home/janhouse/Documents/scripts/perl/apple/keyboard.pl down"
    m:0x0 + c:237
    XF86KbdBrightnessDown

"sudo /home/janhouse/Documents/scripts/perl/apple/keyboard.pl up"
    m:0x0 + c:238
    XF86KbdBrightnessUp

Last edited by Janhouse (2012-09-01 16:43:08)

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#60 2012-09-02 08:05:47

angelfalls
Member
Registered: 2012-03-26
Posts: 139

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

i have a stupid question: how can i add noapic to kernel line?
thanks in advance. i stucks with booting step.

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#61 2012-09-02 20:44:13

japdoll
Member
Registered: 2012-09-02
Posts: 1

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

angelfalls wrote:

i have a stupid question: how can i add noapic to kernel line?
thanks in advance. i stucks with booting step.

When you see Arch boot menu - choose "Boot Arch Linux (x86_64)" using arrow keys, but don't enter - press <Tab>, in a promt add " noapic" to the end of the line.

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#62 2012-09-03 02:49:10

angelfalls
Member
Registered: 2012-03-26
Posts: 139

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

japdoll wrote:
angelfalls wrote:

i have a stupid question: how can i add noapic to kernel line?
thanks in advance. i stucks with booting step.

When you see Arch boot menu - choose "Boot Arch Linux (x86_64)" using arrow keys, but don't enter - press <Tab>, in a promt add " noapic" to the end of the line.

thanks so much, i wasted the whole day to found out this answers. thanks again.

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#63 2012-09-17 18:20:08

adrianbs
Member
From: Uruguay
Registered: 2009-08-13
Posts: 31

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

I'm about to install Arch but in Mac the the app store says there is a firmware update (SMC Firmware Update 1.5).

Do you think is safe to update the firmware before or after install Linux?

Any of you did the update?

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#64 2012-09-17 18:48:44

tinte
Member
Registered: 2012-07-20
Posts: 15

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

@adrianbs I installed Arch in July.  I installed all the firmware updates before that.  I also installed a firmware update earlier today (so probably the same one), and I haven't had any problems.  No idea whether before or after is safer.  Good luck!

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#65 2012-09-17 23:43:56

Janhouse
Member
Registered: 2010-10-02
Posts: 29

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

@adrianbs, I installed Arch in June, did the firmware updates in August. Nothing broke and I think that those firmware updates don't do much.

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#66 2012-09-30 17:15:57

adrianbs
Member
From: Uruguay
Registered: 2009-08-13
Posts: 31

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

I've succesfully installed Arch. Using refind and grub2-efi. Didn't use archboot but latest arch install medium. Everything looks right. I have to boot with noapic as kernel parameter.

I will try kernel 3.6 from aur so I hope applesmc works. No need the xrand thing as you recently mentioned.

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#67 2012-09-30 17:43:54

Janhouse
Member
Registered: 2010-10-02
Posts: 29

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

What I like about Archboot is that it installs the correct grub2 efi stuff out of the box, so you don't have to worry about any refit, refind or any other additional tools to boot.
And to automatically boot to grub, bless it.

On OSX:

sudo su
mkdir /Volumes/efi/
mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/efi/
bless --folder=/Volumes/efi/ --file=/Volumes/efi/EFI/arch_grub/grubx64.efi --setBoot --verbose
bless --mount=/Volumes/efi/ --file=/Volumes/efi/EFI/arch_grub/grubx64.efi --setBoot --verbose

Also Archboot grub2 efi install makes that grub load the grub config from your /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Just pointing this out because there are a lot of weird setup guides for Archlinux out there and this one makes more sense and leaves less duplicate files (and useless partitions) around the system.

Well, maybe the default Archlinux install iso now also does the same thing, no clue.

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#68 2012-10-01 21:10:29

adrianbs
Member
From: Uruguay
Registered: 2009-08-13
Posts: 31

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

Thank you @Janhouse, I just used refind (or refit) becouse is my first experience with Apple hardware and I was afraid to mess something up. Almost all websites and blogs explains how to do it this way but only a few talks about using grub2 alone.

I am trying to use pommed to adjust the keyboard brightess with no success. Has any of you succeed? Does Lightum do the same task or they are for different purposes?

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#69 2012-10-01 21:39:03

Janhouse
Member
Registered: 2010-10-02
Posts: 29

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

adrianbs wrote:

Thank you @Janhouse, I just used refind (or refit) becouse is my first experience with Apple hardware and I was afraid to mess something up. Almost all websites and blogs explains how to do it this way but only a few talks about using grub2 alone.

I am trying to use pommed to adjust the keyboard brightess with no success. Has any of you succeed? Does Lightum do the same task or they are for different purposes?


Read what I posted before about the keyboard backlight: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 7#p1154877

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#70 2012-10-02 07:50:16

litemotiv
Forum Fellow
Registered: 2008-08-01
Posts: 5,026

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

adrianbs wrote:

Thank you @Janhouse, I just used refind (or refit) becouse is my first experience with Apple hardware and I was afraid to mess something up. Almost all websites and blogs explains how to do it this way but only a few talks about using grub2 alone.

If you're single booting Arch then you shouldn't need any bootloader/menu really, since the kernel acts as an EFI-loader itself.

For multiboot rEFInd or gummiboot are arguably simpler and easier to setup and use than grub2. The fact that Archboot auto-installs grub2 is not a good argument, because when something breaks users will then generally be in extra trouble since they hadn't done the initial installation themselves.


ᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ

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#71 2012-10-02 17:25:44

Janhouse
Member
Registered: 2010-10-02
Posts: 29

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

What did you mean?
Installing grub2-efi is optional. You can always choose. smile
And what breaking and trouble are you talking about?

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#72 2012-10-04 22:03:10

ChristianB
Member
Registered: 2012-10-04
Posts: 1

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

After fighting on/off with the Archboot 2012.06 install image for the past week I finally got my european MBA 13" (Version 5,2) to run a fully updated Arch system. The biggest problem was upgrading the stock archboot and getting a newere kernel because of the large changes to Arch since june 2012. I couldn't find much infomation on this upgrade so I added my solution wiki

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ma … 2.06_image

Don't know if anyone else has had this kind of trouble but thought it might help someone reading this thread smile

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#73 2012-10-09 23:58:12

adrianbs
Member
From: Uruguay
Registered: 2009-08-13
Posts: 31

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

Thanks @Janhouse, I'm using your script and works like a charm.

Any of you are using laptop-mode-tools to improve battery life? Any special configuration?

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#74 2012-12-17 02:38:22

Janhouse
Member
Registered: 2010-10-02
Posts: 29

Re: problems booting archlinux on a MacBook Air Mid 2012

I wrote a Perl script that automatically controls keyboard and screen brightness based on the data coming from the built in light sensor.

I guess it still needs some fine tuning but you can get it from https://github.com/Janhouse/lighter

I welcome any ideas and changes to improve it. (In the form of forks and commits on Github).

I also made a better acpi handler.sh config and improved scripts for manual keyboard and screen backlight control. Those scripts still need some fine tuning and I'll probably upload them to the same git repo once I merge them in one script properly.

Any comments?

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