Macbook issues

mrblister · 2006-07-05 15:13:02

So I've finally gotten my Macbook and I'm sitting here trying to figure out why, for the life of me, I cannot seem to get Arch to play nicely.

It seems that there is some sort of issue with the keyboard on booting the install cd. Every keystroke registers twice.

Anyone have an idea on how to resolve such an issue?

akrito · 2006-09-29 16:22:07

The solution is to boot the installation kernel like so:

arch noapic acpi=force irqpoll

That fixed it for me.

akrito · 2006-10-03 07:41:29

BTW, I have a dual-boot OS X and Arch setup, and can verify that everything (sound, special keys, cpufreq, xorg, touchpad, wireless) works perfectly on a Macbook. The only things I haven't tried to set up yet are X acceleration, suspend and the IR remote.

It took a lot of tweaking and a kernel recompile (for the "fn" key!), but it works. I'll post instructions in the wiki in the next few days.

damjan · 2006-10-03 20:24:02

So, how much battery life do you get on the Macbook using Arch?

Say, a normal surfing via WiFi session.

I'm thinking of getting a Macbook (it's my only option for the price, with that size and features) and I'll be running Linux almost exclusivelly.

akrito · 2006-10-04 14:14:41

So, how much battery life do you get on the Macbook using Arch?

If I turn the backlight down some, a little over three hours. Less than OS X, but usable.

uwolfer · 2006-10-22 18:39:42

Arch runs great on my macbook. The only problem is the touchpad. I can't get it running with the synaptics driver. In the log file Xorg.0.log is a message that it can't find a synaptics compatible device.

I try to do it this way:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Apple_M … pad_in_X11
There is no mousedev module on my system.
I'm running Arch with testing.

Can anybody please tell me how to get it working?

akrito · 2006-10-29 11:25:24

Here's how I got my Macbook's touchpad working:
In rc.conf, blacklist appletouch and usbhid:

MOD_BLACKLIST=(appletouch usbhid)

In rc.local, load the modules manually (specifing the load order in MODULES didn't work for me):

stat_busy "Loading appletouch drivers"
rmmod appletouch usbhid >/dev/null 2>&1
/sbin/modprobe appletouch
sleep 2
/sbin/modprobe usbhid
stat_done

In xorg.conf, set up your touch pad like:

Section "InputDevice"
       Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
       Driver          "synaptics"
       Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
       Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
       Option           "SendCoreEvents"    "true"
       ...

That did it for me.

uwolfer · 2006-10-29 23:23:14

Thanks a lot akrito! Your way works for me!

webloch · 2007-03-08 10:40:48

Hey guys, any idea why I can't use my onboard keyboard once the CD has booted to a setup prompt and what I can do about it ?

fk · 2007-03-08 11:33:30

which version do you use?

webloch · 2007-03-08 14:22:44

Well I've tried the 0.7.1 and 0.7.2 releases, I assumed these were the most common and would be the ones used.

tom5760 · 2007-03-08 15:13:43

You should try the 0.8 install, found here -> ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/other/0.8/i686

fatius · 2007-03-09 01:53:29

webloch wrote:

Hey guys, any idea why I can't use my onboard keyboard once the CD has booted to a setup prompt and what I can do about it ?

I had this too. At the "boot: " prompt type this:

"arch irqpoll noapic acpi=force"

That should do it.

Xilon · 2007-03-10 05:00:33

There shouldn't really be many problems with this since kernel26-ARCH now comes with the mactel patch set, and even without it (2.6.19) my Macbook was working fairly well (I was amazed).

The battery life is actually quite lower, I'm not sure why since I use the conservative/powersave governors and turn my second core off when an the battery, the LCD gets dimmed, but that's about as far as I got in terms of optimizing. I get ~2:30 hours from that, while on OSX I got 3-4 hours with the same usage.

I have got everything working but suspend (which is a real bummer)

tom5760 · 2007-03-12 02:32:56

I actually just got a MacBook recently. Can anyone else comment on what their battery life is in linux?

webloch · 2007-03-12 09:45:00

Thanks for your comment fatius, but the problem is that the keyboard is non-functional BEFORE I get to type anything in, and thus, I cannot enter anything at the boot prompt!

iphitus · 2007-03-12 09:59:15

Have a look at laptop-mode-tools, it can make some quite perceptible changes in battery life.

Also try running 'iwconfig wlanX power on" where wlanX is your wireless card, to enable power management (this is not supported on all wireless drivers)

James

mildred · 2007-03-31 10:00:49

Hi,

I have two problems with the keyboard:
- first, the keyboard is locked in the cdrom prompt / lilo prompt. No choice but let it timeout and get the default boot options. This is a bug in the firmware (See http://refit.sourceforge.net/doc/c4s3_keyboard.html)
- then, each time I type something whan I boot the ArchLinux install CD, it appears twice. One solution, reboot.

Actually, I managed to boot using knoppix and manually install ArchLinux. I made a document to explain that (unfortunately in french). Maybe you can puck up some commands from it: http://wiki.archlinux.fr/howto:installation:chroot

edit: for the firmware keyboard problem, I found a workaround. I pluged in an USB keyboard durint the prompt, and then the integrated keyboard as the new keyboard both respond.

Now I have others problems, with the ramdisk that can't run init. I think there is some devices problem here.

Last edited by mildred (2007-03-31 10:41:01)

cry0x · 2007-07-06 02:35:16

tom5760 wrote:

I actually just got a MacBook recently. Can anyone else comment on what their battery life is in linux?

Three and a half hours of realistic usage... meaning backlight at about half brightness, music playing at a reasonable volume, and wireless on.
The longest I've gotten was four hours and 15 minutes, which was with wireless off, no music, reading an ebook.

Under OSX I got very similar times, 3-4 hours, so I'm extremely satisfied with my battery life under Linux. 1.83 Core2Duo model.

Xilon · 2007-07-09 07:05:04

iphitus wrote:

Have a look at laptop-mode-tools, it can make some quite perceptible changes in battery life.
Also try running 'iwconfig wlanX power on" where wlanX is your wireless card, to enable power management (this is not supported on all wireless drivers)
James

I'm using laptop-mode now, and my battery life has gone to about 3 hours (hard to tell, since acpid is reporting it wrong). Still not as good as OS X.

Unfortunately the network card of the Macbook 2.0ghz (first gen) doesn't support that feature

ricardoduarte · 2008-09-17 01:37:53

My macbook it's working fine i can get around 3h15m of the macbook if i dont use amarok, and i just browse the internet, with the governors on powersave. what's bugging me it's that i can't seem to use the macbook-backlight package it' keeps giving me wrong video card, did anyone manage to use it? and alsa with ubuntu i got it working with quite a good quality but now i can't find the surround mixer on the alsamixer and the sound quality it's quite low.
regards

Arch Linux

#1 2006-07-05 15:13:02

Macbook issues

#2 2006-09-29 16:22:07

Re: Macbook issues

#3 2006-10-03 07:41:29

Re: Macbook issues

#4 2006-10-03 20:24:02

Re: Macbook issues

#5 2006-10-04 14:14:41

Re: Macbook issues

#6 2006-10-22 18:39:42

Re: Macbook issues

#7 2006-10-29 11:25:24

Re: Macbook issues

#8 2006-10-29 23:23:14

Re: Macbook issues

#9 2007-03-08 10:40:48

Re: Macbook issues

#10 2007-03-08 11:33:30

Re: Macbook issues

#11 2007-03-08 14:22:44

Re: Macbook issues

#12 2007-03-08 15:13:43

Re: Macbook issues

#13 2007-03-09 01:53:29

Re: Macbook issues

#14 2007-03-10 05:00:33

Re: Macbook issues

#15 2007-03-12 02:32:56

Re: Macbook issues

#16 2007-03-12 09:45:00

Re: Macbook issues

#17 2007-03-12 09:59:15

Re: Macbook issues

#18 2007-03-31 10:00:49

Re: Macbook issues

#19 2007-07-06 02:35:16

Re: Macbook issues

#20 2007-07-09 07:05:04

Re: Macbook issues

#21 2008-09-17 01:37:53

Re: Macbook issues

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