Getting started

It's really no different from installing any version of Linux on a Macbook. I just installed on a macbook pro. Warning: I know very little about Macbooks or macos or Apple...

• Do a full software update. This includes latest firmware, it seems, which may be important
• Burn a DVD. I used the 64-bit DVD
• Install rEFIT – the installation instructions suggest the .dmg, which just worked
• Run Applications / Utilities / Boot Camp Assistent
• Resize the filesystem (at least 8GB, preferably more, for "windows" – which will become Linux)
• Insert that DVD!
• Reboot. Really reboot. Don't just "restart", because that won't get you into rEFIt.
• Arrow left to Linux CD (penguin logo) and press return
• Choose Manual partitioning
  • Delete the large vfat partition (probably sda3)
  • Do not delete the small vfat partition (that's the EFI partition)
  • I created / and swap partitions as primary partitions
• I selected EXTLINUX
• Install normally
• Reboot
• Now, rEFIt doesn't know exactly what's on the drive, so it calls Linux a "legacy OS" instead of Linux
• X is in vesa mode and ugly. For this system, we needed to change to the "nv" driver. I understand others have Intel graphics and should have "intel" instead.

This leaves you with only one mouse button. Some of the instructions below might be useful, I haven't tried them yet.

Old Content Follows

The rest of this page is older documentation written for Foresight Linux 1. Some it may still apply; this page needs to be cleaned up a bit.

Install

The Intel Macbooks aren't like any other PC. They boot of EFI instead of BIOS, which makes things a bit more.. Interesting. I've successfully installed Foresight on my Macbook, and this page documents how to do it. It should work on any Intel-based Mac, but I won't make any promises.

To install Foresight on a Macbook, first download the installation CD:s or the installation DVD, burn them, and put the first one into your CD drive. Hold the "c" key when you hear the chime, and it should boot from the CD/DVD.

To make it boot properly, you cannot only press enter att the promt at the begining of the install. You need to type

linux irqpoll

If you don't type this, every time you press a key, it will send a keypress signal twice.. 

 Post install configuration

When booting, you should note that you never see grub - first it's all black, and then you get corruption on the screen. The fix is to edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst. Put a bracket (#) at the begining of the line that starts with splashimage, save the file, and the next time you reboot, you should see the bootloader. 

You'll probably note that you can't use the fn key, and that the resolution is all wrong. You may also want to do cool stuff to your touchpad (tap, scroll etc). To fix that, you need to add my private repository. Again, a warning: I have used foresight for less than 48 hours, and I thus can't possibly have learned the Right Way to create packages. My packages will therefore likely break and do other bad stuff. They are not tested.

My repository is found on ozamosi.rpath.org@rpl:devel. You can add that to the begining of the list of repositories on the installLabelPath line in /etc/conaryrc. You need to type the following commands as root to install what you need:

conary update pm-utils=ozamosi.rpath.org@rpl:devel

conary update 915resolution=ozamosi.rpath.org@rpl:devel

conary update kernel=ozamosi.rpath.org@rpl:devel

conary update madwifi[madwifi.smp]=ozamosi.rpath.org@rpl:devel

The second one is an application that gives you the correct resolution in X. The first one is like the pm-utils package you already have, but it contains an updated version of vbetool that gives 915resolution the ability to automatically configure your resolution. You could skip my pm-utils, but then you need to configure 915resolution yourself. The kernel contains the patches from http://mactel-linux.org. Madwifi is wireless support.

Make sure X use the correct driver by open /etc/X11/xorg.conf and look for the Device-section. In that section, the Driver-line should say Driver "i810". 

Enable cool touchpad features

To get cool features on your touchpad, create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-appletouch.rules, and this single line to it:

SUBSYSTEM=="input",KERNEL=="event*",SYSFS\{name}=="appletouch",SYMLINK+="input/appletouchpad"

Then, open /etc/X11/xorg.conf again, an add this code to it:

 Section "InputDevice"

       Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"

       Driver          "synaptics"

       Option          "AlwaysCore"

       Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/appletouchpad"

       Option          "Protocol"              "event"

       Option  "LeftEdge"      "100"

       Option  "RightEdge"     "1120"

       Option  "TopEdge"       "50"

       Option  "BottomEdge"    "310"

       Option  "FingerLow"     "25"

       Option  "FingerHigh"    "30"

       Option  "MaxTapTime"    "180"

       Option  "MaxTapMove"    "220"

       Option  "MaxDoubleTapTime"      "180"

       Option  "VertScrollDelta"       "20"

       Option  "HorizScrollDelta"      "50"

       Option  "MinSpeed"      "0.79"

       Option  "MaxSpeed"      "0.88"

       Option  "AccelFactor"   "0.0015"

       Option  "SHMConfig"     "on"

EndSection

Now, go to the section ServerLayout (at the top) and add the line

  InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"

 

After reboot, you should be able to scroll horizontally and vertically, tap, tap with two fingers to middle click, and tap with three fingers to rightclick.

Make keyboard keys act as mouse buttons

Some people don't like tap. If you'd rather use a few keys on your keyboard as mouse buttons (in this example, the two keys to the right of space), you need to install the application xkbset from my repository, save this to a file (say, mousebuttons.sh) directly in your home directory:

#!/bin/sh

xmodmap -e 'keycode 116 = Pointer_Button2'

xmodmap -e 'keycode 108 = Pointer_Button3'

xkbset m

Then open up a terminal and type

chmod +x mousebuttons.sh

Now, open System -> Settings -> Sessions, go to Start Programs (something like that - I don't use english Gnome), and add ~/mousebuttons.sh

Fan controll, accelerometer

This is easy. You need to load the module applesmc. Execute

modprobe applesmc

as root, and you'll find all required info in /sys/devices/platform/applesmc/ While you're at it, install and start neverball, and you'll be able to controll the ball by tilting the laptop.

So what doesn't work?

Suspend/hibernate doesn't work. Well, it does work, but unsuspend/unhibernate is broken. I usually blank my screen instead 

Hotkeys. I've been trying to build a pommed package, but I haven't been able to build all it's dependencies yet - there are "ugly" ways to make them work in the gentoo wiki (link below). 

The priority of the 915resolution init script is wrong. It starts after gdm, but it's usually (but not always) started before gdm, and then everything works. If it doesn't, press ctrl+alt+backspace, and you'll get the correct resolution.

Sometimes the computer just won't boot. I believe that is because the hardware is buggy, since it occurs in all linux distributions I've tried. Reboots also sometimes fails (the screen goes black, and you need to press the power button for a few seconds), and that's happened to me before as well. In other words: I will Not fix this, but maybe someone else will

Read More

These documents explains how to get things working in different distributions, but they can still be quite useful:

• http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Apple_MacBook 
• http://desrt.mcmaster.ca/macbook.xhtml 

If there's any problems with this text or my packages, contact me at ozamosi [at] flukkost.nu

Additions:

• the system the anonymouse user below suggest is rEFIT (maybe put this inside this pages somewhere) - qute: rEFIt is a boot menu and maintenance toolkit for EFI-based machines like the Intel Macs. You can use it to boot multiple operating systems easily, including triple-boot setups with Boot Camp. It also provides an easy way to enter and explore the EFI pre-boot environment.