Macbook Air 2013

frank604 · 2014-02-04 21:04:22

joshtau wrote:

Has anyone noticed that when typing that they sometimes press the power button instead of delete?

My fingers are short so they never reach the power key unless I shift away from the JKL: row. :D

hobarrera · 2014-02-11 14:25:39

joshtau wrote:

Has anyone noticed that when typing that they sometimes press the power button instead of delete?
Is it possible to remap the power button to be something like FN+Powerbutton or ALT+Powerbutton?
edit:
Got it to work, I added "HandlePowerKey=ignore" to /etc/systemd/logind.conf and added a hotkey into xfce4 to bind alt+poweroff to run xfce4-session-logout --halt

Funny. I find that I ocasionally hit the power key, but nothing happened. I just lightly spammed it, and again, nothing. I've to press my power key all the way down (harder than one normally types) for it to work. Did I get a (fortunately) faulty one? Or are there different batches were they changed that?

matsjoyce · 2014-02-11 14:26:47

Mine is similar, but it logs out if I press it lightly.

Last edited by matsjoyce (2014-02-11 14:27:05)

hobarrera · 2014-02-11 15:34:57

matsjoyce wrote:

Mine is similar, but it logs out if I press it lightly.

It does something different according to preasure? Are you sure you don't mean if you press it more/less time?

matsjoyce · 2014-02-11 17:25:57

Sorry, I meant time not pressure. Actually, now it does nothing, same as yours. Probably an update. It may be that when running OSX, a short press counts as sleep or lock or something else, while a long press means bring up the dialog. I'll test it next time I boot up OSX.

joshtau · 2014-02-14 10:13:08

hobarrera wrote:

joshtau wrote:
Has anyone noticed that when typing that they sometimes press the power button instead of delete?
Is it possible to remap the power button to be something like FN+Powerbutton or ALT+Powerbutton?
edit:
Got it to work, I added "HandlePowerKey=ignore" to /etc/systemd/logind.conf and added a hotkey into xfce4 to bind alt+poweroff to run xfce4-session-logout --halt
Funny. I find that I ocasionally hit the power key, but nothing happened. I just lightly spammed it, and again, nothing. I've to press my power key all the way down (harder than one normally types) for it to work. Did I get a (fortunately) faulty one? Or are there different batches were they changed that?

Heh, I saw a lot of complaints over the internet about it in Mac, maybe it's an update or something to the BIOS or something?

https://www.google.com/search?q=macbook … ton+delete

manutdnsubi · 2014-02-28 02:52:35

Hey everyone,
I've been tying to install Arch on my 2013 Macbook air for the past 2 days now. I have followed the instructions on https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ma … Linux_only for the Macbook Air to the letter. I've tried a couple of times and always get 2 errors when trying to setup grub.

First, when I try to mount efivarfs, I get an error that its already mounted. I assumed that was fine so I went on with the rest of the instructions.

Second, when I try to copy grubx64.efi to /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi. I get an error that "cp cannot create regular file /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi: No such file or directory".

After I complete all of this, I exit/unmount/reboot. When I reboot, all I get is the white screen with the apple folder with a question mark.

I've searched for other ways to do this but most require that I still have osx installed (which I don't).

Any idea what I am doing wrong? Or suggestions on another way to install Arch without having OSX installed?

frank604 · 2014-02-28 03:43:02

manutdnsubi wrote:

Hey everyone,
I've been tying to install Arch on my 2013 Macbook air for the past 2 days now. I have followed the instructions on https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ma … Linux_only for the Macbook Air to the letter.

That segment of the macbook wiki is in general. We have an arch-only install section in our macbook air 6,2 area here

manutdnsubi wrote:

I've tried a couple of times and always get 2 errors when trying to setup grub.
First, when I try to mount efivarfs, I get an error that its already mounted. I assumed that was fine so I went on with the rest of the instructions.

That is ok. It is already mounted which you were trying to do. Just ignore the error on that.

manutdnsubi wrote:

Second, when I try to copy grubx64.efi to /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi. I get an error that "cp cannot create regular file /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi: No such file or directory".
After I complete all of this, I exit/unmount/reboot. When I reboot, all I get is the white screen with the apple folder with a question mark.

Do those directories and files exist? Can you CD into them and look?

manutdnsubi wrote:

I've searched for other ways to do this but most require that I still have osx installed (which I don't).
Any idea what I am doing wrong? Or suggestions on another way to install Arch without having OSX installed?

I blogged about the arch-only installation guide to record my findings here. I also gathered all the setup information I could find to another post in my blog here. Please note, most of this information was provided in this very thread and the archwiki under our MBA 6,2 area. Hope this helps.

Last edited by frank604 (2014-02-28 03:45:01)

hobarrera · 2014-02-28 10:10:46

manutdnsubi wrote:

Hey everyone,
I've been tying to install Arch on my 2013 Macbook air for the past 2 days now. I have followed the instructions on https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ma … Linux_only for the Macbook Air to the letter. I've tried a couple of times and always get 2 errors when trying to setup grub.
First, when I try to mount efivarfs, I get an error that its already mounted. I assumed that was fine so I went on with the rest of the instructions.
Second, when I try to copy grubx64.efi to /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi. I get an error that "cp cannot create regular file /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi: No such file or directory".
After I complete all of this, I exit/unmount/reboot. When I reboot, all I get is the white screen with the apple folder with a question mark.
I've searched for other ways to do this but most require that I still have osx installed (which I don't).
Any idea what I am doing wrong? Or suggestions on another way to install Arch without having OSX installed?

An arch-only install would be fine with refind. It's easier to install/maintain than grub2.

matsjoyce · 2014-02-28 11:50:03

I did refind which boots to OSX or grub which boots arch.
About the power button, in OSX a short press counts as sleep, while a long press brings up the exit dialog. Linux also seems to count it as at least two buttons:

Feb 28 11:44:37 systemd-logind[238]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event3 (Power Button)
Feb 28 11:44:37 systemd-logind[238]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event1 (Power Button)
Feb 28 11:44:37 systemd-logind[238]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event0 (Lid Switch)
Feb 28 11:44:37 systemd-logind[238]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event2 (Sleep Button)

Sleep button could be the short press, while power button is the long press?

PS. Has anyone got "n" wifi speeds on the wl driver, as the NetworkManager widget always reports "b/g" even though OSX reports "n"?

Last edited by matsjoyce (2014-02-28 11:51:32)

manutdnsubi · 2014-02-28 20:11:15

Frank, you were right on the money. I actually was using your blogs. Great help by the way! thanks for posting it. The problem was the /boot dir in /boot/efi/EFI/ wasn't created. Once I created it, I was able to copy the file. Can't believe I didn't think of that!. Thanks so much. Got arch up and running now.

frank604 · 2014-02-28 20:50:00

manutdnsubi wrote:

Frank, you were right on the money. I actually was using your blogs. Great help by the way! thanks for posting it. The problem was the /boot dir in /boot/efi/EFI/ wasn't created. Once I created it, I was able to copy the file. Can't believe I didn't think of that!. Thanks so much. Got arch up and running now.

No problem. That is why it is written. Hope you enjoy your MBA~! \o/

hobarrera · 2014-03-01 09:21:19

matsjoyce wrote:

I did refind which boots to OSX or grub which boots arch.
About the power button, in OSX a short press counts as sleep, while a long press brings up the exit dialog. Linux also seems to count it as at least two buttons:
Feb 28 11:44:37 systemd-logind[238]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event3 (Power Button)
Feb 28 11:44:37 systemd-logind[238]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event1 (Power Button)
Feb 28 11:44:37 systemd-logind[238]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event0 (Lid Switch)
Feb 28 11:44:37 systemd-logind[238]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event2 (Sleep Button)
Sleep button could be the short press, while power button is the long press?
PS. Has anyone got "n" wifi speeds on the wl driver, as the NetworkManager widget always reports "b/g" even though OSX reports "n"?

I have separate networks for b/g and n (the former at 2.4Ghz, the latter at 5Ghz). I can usually connect to the latter, but ocasionally, it won't get detected and I'm forced to used the slower one.

matsjoyce · 2014-03-01 10:30:56

Does it actually connect as "n", or does it just use "b/g" with the "n" router? The fastest I've got on a "n" router is 7.4 Mbits/s (or MB? What does nm show?), and that was to a location in the LAN. The maximum for one channel in "n" speed is about 130 - 150 Mbits/s. The network manager does show "b/g" and 2.4 GHz, so maybe wl is just a/b/g/n on certain chips?

Last edited by matsjoyce (2014-03-01 15:41:23)

hrod · 2014-03-03 11:17:05

hey, we have the same wifi issue over in the macbook retina thread, i believe the wifi chips are the same family BCM4360 (just slightly different models in terms of 2 streams vs 3 streams)

broadcom-wl shows the device as abg, however i know that my it is using n as i have set my router to only send out on n and it still works

i can not connect or even detect my home 5ghz network (even when i make it a separate ssid to the 2.4ghz), however in certain places like at work it will detect and connect successfully to 5ghz networks

performance wise on 2.4ghz i can get 95Mb/s (12MB/s) in actual transfers, in windows on 2.4Ghz i can get up to 248Mb/s (31MB/s) in actual transfers (so there still is a decent performance decrease under linux)

havn't had any dropout problems

Last edited by hrod (2014-03-03 11:20:54)

hobarrera · 2014-03-03 12:02:54

matsjoyce wrote:

Does it actually connect as "n", or does it just use "b/g" with the "n" router? The fastest I've got on a "n" router is 7.4 Mbits/s (or MB? What does nm show?), and that was to a location in the LAN. The maximum for one channel in "n" speed is about 130 - 150 Mbits/s. The network manager does show "b/g" and 2.4 GHz, so maybe wl is just a/b/g/n on certain chips?

My "n" network runs on 5.0Ghz, and is not backwads compatible, so yes, my MBA connects in "n" mode and works, thouhg, again, sometimes the n networks don't appear and Ihave to fall back to bg.

frank604 · 2014-03-10 06:33:37

Speaking of wifi. I recently setup a mikrotik rb2011 router and I noticed dropped connection when I set encryption to wpa/wpa2 with AES only. This was later resolved by adding in the fallback tkip. Now the connection is rock solid. Not sure if I am connecting at 'n' either as I only see a/b/g.

On a side note, I just remembered to load the ICC from macos. By default, the arch install on our MBA makes the white REALLY white. Anywhos, here's a link below in case anyone forgot to back it up. I left some directions in a readme as well. Use xcalib from aur to load.
http://www.frankshin.com/files/macos/profile.tar

bepebe · 2014-03-16 22:44:43

I picked up a MBA 2013 at the weekend and while I'm impressed with some features of Mac OS, I cannot live without the bleeding edge of Arch.

My only minor annoyance is the lack of support for the new camera. Is this something that is likely to be fixed in the near or even distant future?

Last edited by bepebe (2014-03-16 22:44:58)

hobarrera · 2014-03-17 00:19:40

bepebe wrote:

I picked up a MBA 2013 at the weekend and while I'm impressed with some features of Mac OS, I cannot live without the bleeding edge of Arch.
My only minor annoyance is the lack of support for the new camera. Is this something that is likely to be fixed in the near or even distant future?

This has been mentioned in the thread a few times. To sum it up once more; more: no. It's a PCI-E webcam, and the single of it's kind, so it's unlikely it'll get the time it need to make it work.

bepebe · 2014-03-17 01:56:04

hobarrera wrote:

bepebe wrote:
I picked up a MBA 2013 at the weekend and while I'm impressed with some features of Mac OS, I cannot live without the bleeding edge of Arch.
My only minor annoyance is the lack of support for the new camera. Is this something that is likely to be fixed in the near or even distant future?
This has been mentioned in the thread a few times. To sum it up once more; more: no. It's a PCI-E webcam, and the single of it's kind, so it's unlikely it'll get the time it need to make it work.

I see that it has been mentioned a couple of times before, but this was a few months back. I was just enquiring to see if there was an update. Thanks.

mba116pwn · 2014-03-17 11:32:12

I enjoy my mba11.6 2013 with Linux for a few weeks now and it is great. fyi, i am not using Arch but Xubuntu. there are a few issues which do not bother me much but I want to repair them.

1. wireless module is not very stable. i see every now and then kernel errors with stacktrace in dmesg. this affects network quality.

2. mouse (touchpad) sometimes needs a second before it starts reacting to my touch. It looks like it would sleep and it needs a second to wake up. anyone with this issue and/or idea how to fix it?

3. external display works great but somehow it forces X server to use intel driver instead of the patched mba6x which means that backlight problem is back as long as i use external display. sleep/wakeup without connected external display repairs the problem.

frank604 · 2014-03-17 18:17:03

@bepebe As hobarrera says, it is a new and unique device that only Apple has made. We must wait for a wrapper to install proprietary driver or have someone reverse engie it and create an open driver for it. Either way, it will take some time (in years). Grab a webcam and clip it on in the meantime if you need one. Or dualboot into macosx. I don't mind it at all. It is like the nonexistant hdmi connector or ethernet plug. I just carry extra periphals around.

@mba116pwn, all three of your issues doesn't happen in Arch. Please ask the ubuntu/xubuntu forums as they know your system best. Or, install arch and join our family.

bepebe · 2014-03-17 22:09:24

frank604 wrote:

@bepebe As hobarrera says, it is a new and unique device that only Apple has made. We must wait for a wrapper to install proprietary driver or have someone reverse engie it and create an open driver for it. Either way, it will take some time (in years). Grab a webcam and clip it on in the meantime if you need one. Or dualboot into macosx. I don't mind it at all. It is like the nonexistant hdmi connector or ethernet plug. I just carry extra periphals around.

That is exactly what I am going to do. I've used CCC on my SSD so I can always restore to a pure Mac OS later on. Thanks.

EDIT:

Decided to just bin off Mac OS completely, I just didn't like it. I did create a bootable backup in case I need to go in and do some firmware changes.

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0   113G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   200M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2   8:2    0   256M  0 part /boot
├─sda3   8:3    0     4G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda4   8:4    0 108.6G  0 part /

I must say I am pretty impressed with how well it works. I am using KDE and I only really needed to do a few things:
- 3.13.6-1-ARCH
- Sound wasn't working out of box, was defaulting to HDMI as the master channel and not the PCH.
- WiFi wasn't working out of box, broadcom-wl works a treat.
- Touchpad was intermittent, installed Synaptiks and seems to of resolved it, had a few glitches prior to this. Currently, it is nowhere near as smooth as Mac OS, but this could just be configuration.
- Kept freezing every few seconds, but added the parameters "libata.force=1:noncq" to my kernel as per the Wiki and problem solved.

Hotkeys worked out of the box for KDE at least, which is great!

Last edited by bepebe (2014-03-18 21:30:19)

mba116pwn · 2014-03-21 13:51:24

Did someone test wireless speeds? Does the current driver support 802.11a? And 802.11ac?

matsjoyce · 2014-03-21 14:05:30

The broadcom wl driver is IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n. "a" is the first standard, so is rather old and should definitely work. "ac" probably doesn't work yet, but I can't test that. About wireless speeds, I think the reason for my speed being rather low is the router, not the card. Has anyone else recorded the maximum speed of the wl driver, as mine is not accurate?

EDIT: You can check http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

Last edited by matsjoyce (2014-03-21 14:15:23)

Arch Linux

#126 2014-02-04 21:04:22

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#127 2014-02-11 14:25:39

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#128 2014-02-11 14:26:47

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#129 2014-02-11 15:34:57

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#130 2014-02-11 17:25:57

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#131 2014-02-14 10:13:08

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#132 2014-02-28 02:52:35

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#133 2014-02-28 03:43:02

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#134 2014-02-28 10:10:46

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#135 2014-02-28 11:50:03

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#136 2014-02-28 20:11:15

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#137 2014-02-28 20:50:00

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#138 2014-03-01 09:21:19

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#139 2014-03-01 10:30:56

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#140 2014-03-03 11:17:05

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#141 2014-03-03 12:02:54

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#142 2014-03-10 06:33:37

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#143 2014-03-16 22:44:43

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#144 2014-03-17 00:19:40

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#145 2014-03-17 01:56:04

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#146 2014-03-17 11:32:12

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#147 2014-03-17 18:17:03

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#148 2014-03-17 22:09:24

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#149 2014-03-21 13:51:24

Re: Macbook Air 2013

#150 2014-03-21 14:05:30

Re: Macbook Air 2013

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