MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

litemotiv · 2013-01-23 18:12:08

@patrick:

ERROR: Device '' not found

is the problem, you should check the boot parameters. Have you created a stanza in refind.conf or did you make a refind_linux.conf file with boot parameters?

frigaut · 2013-01-23 21:06:16

as you saw, it's not finding your root disk. What's the boot line (kernel command line)? mine is:
vmlinuz-linux.efi root=/dev/sda4 init=/bin/systemd add_efi_memmap initrd=EFI\arch\initramfs-linux.img
in refind_linux.conf, it's actually listed as this:

"default"       "root=/dev/sda4 init=/bin/systemd add_efi_memmap"

@litemotiv: sorry, didn't see your post :-P

Last edited by frigaut (2013-01-23 21:07:31)

Elvar · 2013-01-25 14:42:40

Hey guys.

I'm currently sitting on my RMBP and my wet dream would be to run Arch Linux on it, in the nearest feature, but frankly this thread have scared me a bit. I tried to run Arch Linux from a bootable usb key, but the screen was all messed up, i could't see much, there was text tho, in funny colors.

I will take a picture soon , guess what i am asking, is the Retina issues worth installing Linux on? Or should i just get a regular pc? .

spo11 · 2013-01-26 18:21:58

Elvar wrote:

Hey guys.
I'm currently sitting on my RMBP and my wet dream would be to run Arch Linux on it, in the nearest feature, but frankly this thread have scared me a bit. I tried to run Arch Linux from a bootable usb key, but the screen was all messed up, i could't see much, there was text tho, in funny colors.
I will take a picture soon , guess what i am asking, is the Retina issues worth installing Linux on? Or should i just get a regular pc? .

It's certainly doable; it does take quite a bit of effort to get things working the way you might prefer. It depends on how much work you can or are willing to put into it. It can be a time-consuming process.

Once graphics and other hardware issues are sorted out, you might find the GUI elements on the rMBP to be much too small. At least, I find them teeny tiny .

I've read that the Macbook Air actually works pretty well with Linux distros; if you're not too concerned with not having a discrete graphics card and are still interested in having that nice Apple hardware, that might be something to look into.

longint · 2013-02-05 00:03:58

Hey guys, need some 1st time support. My 15" rMBP booting grub from EFI is running fine but I', not able to start up X. I just get a black screen. In the X Log I find something like "nvidia failed to tear down EVO channel". I do not see the vgaswitchero stuff, is there something I need to install/enable before?

Other question: Have never used Apple Hardware before and have serious issues with the key mapping and keyboard. What is the correct combination for switching Terminals in non-X mode?

TiA

frigaut · 2013-02-05 00:21:09

Have you tried forcing the intel card from the osx side using gfxcardstatus (see more instructions earlier in that thread)? or may be you *want* to use the nvidia?
About the vgaswictheroo: what's your boot command/parameters ?

Switching terminals in non-X mode is done by pressing fn-control-alt-number simultaneously.

longint · 2013-02-05 00:42:39

No, I did not try to switch to the intel card and I'm not that keen to boot OSX (nearly deleted it already but decided to keep it for some additional days, you never know, never used OSX nor Apple before, just got attracted by the Retina display). I do not have any concerns using the nvidia card, know it from other units before.

And there is no other boot parameter than set by default while installing grub. Is there a need to set something?

Thx

longint · 2013-02-05 00:56:50

I just booted OSX but have not been able to find this gfxcardstatus thing!? Where to look for? Also not able to run it from the command line!?

BTW: I did not find any preference to disable this annoying "boot sound" when the unit is just powered on, any hint for this as well?

Thx a lot!

frigaut · 2013-02-05 02:52:54

gfxcardstatus is not an apple app. You get to look for it on the web and download it. Don't get the last version, it's been buggy for me, instead, take 2.21.

Just turn the sound down completely when you are booted within osx and the boot chime should go away.

longint · 2013-02-05 08:38:12

OK, will look for.
Is there something different with kernel 3.7 and newest (propreatary) nvidia drivers?
IMHO there is no need to specify noapic anymore for booting the kernel, but I also tested with noapic set and did not see any difference. What is your recommended kernel boot param?

Oh, forgot: Disabling this bound chime by muting the sound did work, thx a lot. Have been puzzled a lot to find tons of threads by Mac users not able to disable this. Using the often refered nvram hack did not work in my case...

Last edited by longint (2013-02-05 08:40:45)

longint · 2013-02-05 17:04:26

Hey guys, anyone running kernel 3.7.x!? I've been able to boot a Fedora-17 image using 3.6-10 working fine out of the box but Fedora-18 using 3.7.x also does not seem to work...

frigaut · 2013-02-05 23:08:16

I'm still using 3.6 (3.6.7 patched to get the microphone working), as I had some stability issues with 3.7 (but did not investigate much).
I haven't been using the nvidia for a while, and never used it with the nouveau drivers. Instead, I am using the integrated intel graphics, which is more than enough for my non-gamer use. The trick in forcing these, as I said before, is to force it from the osx side using gfxcardstatus. I believe selecting it from the linux side has not been solved yet (but I might be wrong).
One of the limitation in using the integrated is that the external output is actually not connected to it. So if you want to use the external output, you have to switch to the nvidia :-(

longint · 2013-02-06 17:39:49

Sorry guys, I'm sttill stuck and tried alternatives. And giess what: I tried an other Fedora18 live Image and (after installing) everything (!) is working right out of the box. Everythung means keyboard backlight, screen brightness, camera, ... I even did not have to struggle with this UEFI crap.

Might be this is Gnome3 thing as fluxbox in F18 seems not have that good support...

But however, I also have not managed to switch to propreitary nvidia drivers, same as in arch - nothing but black screen. Could it be that there is some difference in newer MBPr as mine is brand new?

frigaut · 2013-02-06 22:26:18

Good for you and kudos to Fedora.

As far as the hardware, here is my lspci:

509:~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:01.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:01.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM77 Express Chipset LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0fd5 (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0e1b (rev a1)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Device 16a3 (rev 10)
03:00.1 SD Host controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57765 Memory Card Reader (rev 10)
04:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 02)

longint · 2013-02-06 22:41:08

Thx for posting, I did a diff to mine and did not found a single difference.

So I'm going to live with this. Next thing is to remove the OSX partitions completely (just shrinked so far)...

longint · 2013-02-07 22:40:17

Hey guys, has anyone of you been able to use the proprietary nvidia graphics driver? I'm really stuck with this....

eternalsword · 2013-02-10 17:10:39

longint, I'm just getting set up on funtoo. I believe you need a few options in your xorg.conf. Under the Device section, you should have the following

Option         "ProbeAllGpus" "False"
Option         "UseDPLib" "off"

longint · 2013-02-10 18:21:36

funtoo - gentoo based - back to the roots? Why not. Is it running out of the box!?

eternalsword · 2013-02-10 19:13:49

I'm currently on vanilla kernel 3.6.11 since that is the latest available to me that will work with nvidia's proprietary driver, so I'm missing some of the support that has been added to 3.7.x that has already been detailed on this thread. Looking for a patch I can use that I can backport, but I don't really need that stuff at the moment, so I haven't been looking too hard.

I'm currently using KDE Plasma in which many of the scaling issues are good. There are some quirks (menus in fullscreen don't always work via mouse). As far as I know, there's no way to scale the gtk+ icons inside kde, but kde has some good scaling for its own icons. I think there should be a way, maybe via gtkrc to tell it what icon size to use. Text is fine due to dpi settings (at 220) except inside browsers. You will need to set a default zoom level for websites. I couldn't find one in Konquerer and Chrome has hard-coded tab sizes, so I'm using Firefox with a Default Zoom addon set to 200%. If you make sure it remembers specific zoom settings for local files, you can zoom back out on things like the add-ons interface since those correctly use the dpi settings. Images will look a little blurry, but it's better than using xrandr to scale the full desktop as at least the text is crisp and only images inside the browser is affected. There may be some issues with flash controls as well, but I haven't even installed flash yet.

For the trackpad, you will want to use mtrack which I believe is xf86-input-mtrack-git for arch. For some reason ClickFinger2 isn't being registered for me, so I'm using taps instead, though I do have ClickFinger1 set to button one as it makes dragging easier.

I was able to make a script to control brightness.

#!/bin/bash

if [[ $EUID -ne 0 ]]; then
   echo "This script must be run as root" 1>&2
   exit 1
fi

current=`cat /sys/devices/platform/applesmc.768/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness`
if [ "x$1" == "xup" ]; then
        if [ ! "x$current" == "x100" ]; then
                echo $(( $current + 10 )) > /sys/devices/platform/applesmc.768/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness
                exit 0
        fi
fi
if [ "x$1" == "xdown" ]; then
        if [ ! "x$current" == "x0" ]; then
                echo $(( $current - 10 )) > /sys/devices/platform/applesmc.768/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness
                exit 0
        fi
fi

Then I made two scripts, one for up and one for down. I do this because as you can see, the script requires root, so for example, the up script will call

sudo /path/to/script up

and I have /path/to/script as a NOPASSWD entry in the sudoers file.

Then I assigned global hotkeys to run the up and down scripts respectively and it works like a charm.

I haven't tried resolving screen brightness (I like the default fine, so I'm not trying all that hard at this point).

Thunderbolt ethernet worked out of the box, but it must be plugged in prior to booting. I believe the networking may go down when the machine goes to sleep and doesn't come back up, but I haven't played around with that too much. I have linux installed on an external drive and don't really plan on needing that functionality. I have it set to turn the monitor off when I press the power button (kde power setting) and that suits my needs. I also don't need wifi, and if I did, I'd use a dongle as I've always had problems with broadcom wifi chips in linux.

I haven't used hdmi output at all. The speakers and headphone jack work fine out of the box. Haven't tried line-in. In KDE, you can additionally set hotkeys to replicate spaces and expose (assuming you have compositing and effects turned on).

One thing to note about the nvidia proprietary drivers. Once X starts, you will lose the ability to see the ttys.

Last edited by eternalsword (2013-02-10 19:15:00)

eternalsword · 2013-02-10 19:24:45

Here's what firefox looks like.

Link to large screenshot

longint · 2013-02-10 21:15:42

OK Thx! Did you try gnome3 also? As said, gnome3 running in Fedora18 supports the unit very well, every single special key is working. The main issue I have there (regarding the MBPr, not talking about useability) is the nvidia drivers not working (running kernel 3.7.x) and I just recognized the SDCard slot throwing errors not accepting a 32GB SanDisk...

abruptadieu · 2013-02-14 03:49:06

Been having an issue recently where after suspend, any xmodmap settings (e.g. remapping caps lock to ctrl) and trackpad setting (e.g. two finger scrolling) get reset to default. I'm using XFCE, and to test, I installed openbox. These issues only happen in XFCE, but it didn't used to be that way. It started happening about a month ago, but I didn't take the time to isolate it at the time, to see if was a version issue. Any ideas?

dougphy · 2013-02-23 06:35:24

Keyboard not working after starting X.
fixed with:

 # pacman -S xorg-drivers

didn't initially see this in Beginner's Guide

Last edited by dougphy (2013-02-24 06:50:03)

longint · 2013-02-26 16:56:45

Hey guys, how is it going? I'd like to share some current information:

I'm quit with F18 and writing this now from Ubuntu 13.04 running kernel 3.8.0. This version of Ubuntu has supposed to have good support for the unit and there is also a specific download available for Macintosh boxes. Given that, it is not working in many parts which have been fine in standard F18 - the most annoying is suspend is not working and the Unity UI is just crap. On the other hand the graphics performance is much better than F18 and also the battery run time is more than twice of F18 (even running the nvidia card active). I'm even able to mount USB sticks manually again - Fedora restricted the user sooo much, you can't imagine. Also there is no gnome-shell or anything other eating the box up resulting in becoming very hot and fans running like crazy. And for the first time I own the unit I'm now able to run the proprietary nvidia drivers! etracer is showing 30+ fps at 2880x1800 haveing every single option enabled - nice! On the other hand glx-gears still shows very bad values of about 60fps where other users running Linux on the box claim to have 3000+.

I'm now using rEFInd which is really nice. Ignoring the warnings on the rEFInd page I installed it straight from within Ubuntu - no issues so far.
Running "powertop --html" suggests these tunings for powersaving in my box:

echo '0' > '/proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog';
echo '1500' > '/proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs';
echo 'min_power' > '/sys/class/scsi_host/host0/link_power_management_policy';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/usb/devices/2-1.8.2/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/usb/devices/2-1.8.1.3/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:06:06.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:01.2/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:01.1/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:01.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:06:00.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:06:03.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:06:04.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:06:05.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:08:00.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:09:00.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:16.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.3/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1d.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:02.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:14.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:03:00.1/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1c.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1c.1/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:05:00.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1a.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.0/power/control';
echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.2/power/control';
ethtool -s eth1 wol d;

Oh, and very important: Seems there is a new driver for WiFi available - switching from b43 to bcmwl-kernel-source results in much more stable WiFi and even bluetooth is working now (which has not before)!

FYI, Just to let you know. I'm not sure if I'll stay with Ubuntu or try Arch again...

Question: Is there something specific you've done to get suspend (to RAM or even disk) running?
What is glxgears showing on your box?

frigaut · 2013-02-26 22:46:37

518:examples $ vblank_mode=0 glxgears
ATTENTION: default value of option vblank_mode overridden by environment.
ATTENTION: option value of option vblank_mode ignored.
12020 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2403.979 FPS
13259 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2651.636 FPS
13128 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2625.477 FPS
^C

That's using the intel card.

Thanks for the tip about the new wireless driver. Will give it a try.
About suspend: no, nothing special as far as I remember.

Arch Linux

#101 2013-01-23 18:12:08

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#102 2013-01-23 21:06:16

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#103 2013-01-25 14:42:40

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#104 2013-01-26 18:21:58

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#105 2013-02-05 00:03:58

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#106 2013-02-05 00:21:09

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#107 2013-02-05 00:42:39

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#108 2013-02-05 00:56:50

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#109 2013-02-05 02:52:54

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#110 2013-02-05 08:38:12

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#111 2013-02-05 17:04:26

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#112 2013-02-05 23:08:16

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#113 2013-02-06 17:39:49

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#114 2013-02-06 22:26:18

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#115 2013-02-06 22:41:08

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#116 2013-02-07 22:40:17

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#117 2013-02-10 17:10:39

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#118 2013-02-10 18:21:36

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#119 2013-02-10 19:13:49

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#120 2013-02-10 19:24:45

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#121 2013-02-10 21:15:42

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#122 2013-02-14 03:49:06

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#123 2013-02-23 06:35:24

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#124 2013-02-26 16:56:45

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

#125 2013-02-26 22:46:37

Re: MacBook Pro 2012 Retina

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