Arch Linux

Socks

Member

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 13

Xorg doesn't start on Macbook Pro 4,1

I've just installed Arch on my Macbook Pro 4,1 (Early 2008).

The machine has this graphics card:

VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G84M [GeForce 8600 GT] (rev a1)

I've installed "nvidia" package driver, launched "nvidia-xconfig" but when I try to launch:

X -config /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Xorg gives me some errors and doesn't starts X.

http://i.imgur.com/AtzHf77l.jpg

Ideas?

-- mod edit: read the Forum Etiquette and only post thumbnails http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … s_and_Code [jwr] --

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: Xorg doesn't start on Macbook Pro 4,1

I cannot help you with nvidia issues, as I try to avoid nvidia like the plague.  But since you now have you system up and running, instead of taking and posting a picture of your screen, post the log to a pastebin.  You obviously have internet connectivity to have been able to install and start the process of setting up Xorg, so look into a pastebin client.  The ones I know of are wgetpaste, ix, curl-paste, nopaste, fb-client, and pastebinit.  These can all be used from the TTY/console.

Socks

Member

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 13

Re: Xorg doesn't start on Macbook Pro 4,1

Xorg log: http://pastie.org/private/dprkzakvtnijos76dhvew
dmesg log: http://codepad.org/jUw6xU4d

@WonderWoofy: I've already tried to avoid 'nvidia' package and the use instead of 'xf86-video-nouveau' but the system freezes at boot, just after ~1 sec when the login is displayed.

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: Xorg doesn't start on Macbook Pro 4,1

Yeah, like I said, I have basically zero experience with nvidia.  My most recent laptop purchase was my first in a while that was not an apple,  The last Mac I had was a Macbook 2,1 which features integrated Intel graphics.  I specifically tried to find a machine with as much Intel as possible so that I could ensure good Linux compatibility, so the Macbook Pros were not a contender.

I see you have the "no screens found" error in your Xorg.0.log.  Hvae you googled that in realtion to your hardware/drivers?  Are there dual GPUs in this machine (integrated and discrete)?

Socks

Member

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 13

Re: Xorg doesn't start on Macbook Pro 4,1

Unfortunately it seems that anyone on the web with a MBP 4,1 have no luck installing linux regardless of distro used.
The problem seems to be the damn EFI and nvidia graphics card.

What a pity, I wanted to use Arch

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: Xorg doesn't start on Macbook Pro 4,1

Ah, I do remember reading about this to some degree.  If that is the case, the simply use the bios compatibility mode.  Macs have this functionality for the "bootcamp" crap.  But in order to activate it, there needs to be the presence of an ms-dos partition table that is more than just the single protective partition.  There still needs to be a protective partition, but only one and it has to start at either block 1 or 0, I can't rememeber.  So unless you either fully partition with ms-dos or you have a hyrbid MBR (a GPT partition table with a hacky ms-dos partition table as well), then the bios compatibility mode won't work.

In my experience with my macbook, I only had to create a single ms-dos/MBR partition in addition to the protective one.  I would always just either do the /boot or if /boot was part of the rootfs, I would do that.  I don't know that i needed to do it that way, as Linux is GPT aware, but that is what I always did.

The macbook 2,1 was one of the versions with the 32bit efi.  So I tried using efi at first, but efi is not like a bios bootloader where a 64bit OS can be launched from a 32bit bootloader.  You must have a 64bit bootloader in order to launch a 64bit OS.  Since I wanted to have a 64bit OS (to make the installation portable to a new computer), I had to use bios compatibility mode.  That is why I know this crap.

Socks

Member

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 13

Re: Xorg doesn't start on Macbook Pro 4,1

What a mess man!

I don't understood very well actually. I would have both OS X (already installed) and Arch Linux: can I achieve this with bios compatibility mode?
How can I disable EFI and use the Mac with that mode? I hope that once I'll start Mac in that mode Arch will not have problem with the graphics driver and all works fine.

Thanks.

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: Xorg doesn't start on Macbook Pro 4,1

Yeah it is quite a mess... but thats what you get when you try to use hardware that picks and chooses the bits of the UEFI standard it wants to include.

So like most UEFI systems, Mac(book)s are able to boot their own system with it's EFI setup.  It *can* also be used to boot other systems, but setting it up is unique to Macs.  So for the purpose of "bootcamp", Apple introduced a bios compatibility mode.  When it was introduced, there was no real windows UEFI prevalence (existence?) at that point.  So that is how they made this possible.

But the compatibility mode is not turned on by default.  OSX uses GPT (according to the standard and everything in this case), but when it makes a "bootcamp" partition it adds to the GPT a MBR partition table (ms-dos) with partitions.  According to the GPT spec, there is the actual GPT partition table, but there is also the inclusion of a MBR with a single partition spanning the whole disk.  This is to protect the disk from being overwritten by non-GPT aware tools (like fdisk was until recently).  So a hybrid MBR simply adds partitions to the ms-dos partition table that (hoepfully) line up with at lease the first few partitions of the GPT.  When this is present, the machine will enable the bios compatibility mode.

Booting the Mac with EFI will have no bearing on the Arch Linux installation that is installed in bios compatibility mode.  It will use its own bootloader and everything.  So there should be no issue.  It is probably good to use something like rEFInd in order to give yourself a nice interface with which to select between the two though.  The other boot loaders and/or boot managers don't have the ability to recognize both EFI and bios bootloaders.

Socks

Member

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 13

Re: Xorg doesn't start on Macbook Pro 4,1

Thanks for the explanation.
Regarding rEFInd I've already use it. When I power-on the Mac it appears rEFInd that let me choose between Mac and other OS it will found in something like EFI/arch_grub/. If I choose Arch after a few seconds will appear GRUB that let me load linux. But I don't know if, currently, Arch is loaded in EFI or BIOS compatibility mode.

Is there a way to give a check?

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: Xorg doesn't start on Macbook Pro 4,1

If you are booting grub from the \EFI\arch_grub selection, then you are booting with UEFI.  That is because the bios based bootloader (if present) would live in the MBR or the first 440 bytes of the drive.  There is no possible way in which the bios bootloader would show up as residing in the ESP.  And if you boot a UEFI bootloader, then you are definitely booting in UEFI.

If you can kind of get your system going.  Then you can install grub or whatever to the MBR.  It does not conflict with the UEFI stuff and is perfectly happy living along side it.  But if you install grub-bios, then you have to have that silly bios boot partition (1-2MB with no filesystem and partition type ef02 in gdisk).  You can use syslinux though and it should work perfectly fine.