Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Quick Search: in
MacBook Air - MacBookAir2,1 Get the most out of you mac
View unanswered posts
View posts from last 24 hours

Goto page 1, 2  Next  
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Kernel & Hardware
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
jenkler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Sweden - Stockholm

PostPosted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:54 pm    Post subject: MacBook Air - MacBookAir2,1 Get the most out of you mac Reply with quote

PLEASE KEEP this thread to ONLY MacBook2,1 Air stuff only - If you dont have this new macbook there are a lot of info out there but i have never seen a get the shit to work only macbook air thread before and thats why i write this

Version: MacBookAir2,1 (mid 2009)


Hi all gentoo users!

NOTE! i dont want to overclock, i need to underclock to fix the fan noice some kind of way

I have a little question about my macbook air. At the moment i have installed a linux only (gentoo) macbook. But i have some trouble with fan noice and a hot computer :-(

What i know and want to share:

* nvclock does not work in lowlevel mode, but if you run it in x when option "coolbits" "1" is enabled it works like a sharm
* Cpu frequenzy scaler also work when enabled in the kernel

Even that this works and i can see a big difference in temp the fans still is to loud.

GPU is now 59 C and system 56 in idle mode

Question:
* Is there a fan controll utility for linux just like smcfancontroll for mac OS x?
* Can i change the memclock speed?
* Or is there something else i can try?

EDIT Added later (good t know stuff)

--| Reduce boot time of linux on a macbook

If you decide to replace your OS X installation with a linux variant you'll
notice that bootup pauses for 30 seconds while EFI looks for a HFS partition
to boot. You can fix this by blessing the disk/partition that contains lilo.

Boot from your OS X dvd, open terminal and enter the following:

bless -device /dev/disk0 -setBoot -legacy

and if lilo is installed on a partition

bless -device /dev/disk0s1 -setBoot -legacy

where /dev/disk0 is the partition/disk where lilo is installed (do -diskutil
list to find out correct partition), '-verbose' is optional.

This makes Macbook EFI firmware boot your Linux installation in legacy mode
without the long delay.

--| Reset EFI / open firmware password

- On a macbook air you need to go to a mac service center because the ram is on the motherbord
- But on a standard macbook 13" this is possible
After removing / adding more RAM than before, Turn on the computer and immediately reset PRAM by holding the Command-Option-P-R key combination. Press the keys until you've heard two successive startup sounds.
Open Firmware / EFI password protection should be now disabled. Shut down the computer and return it to its original RAM configuration.

--| Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)

The System Management Controller is an integrated circuit (computer chip) that
is on the logic board of the computer. As the name implies, it is responsible
for power management of the computer. It controls backlighting, hard disk spin
down, sleep and wake, some charging aspects, trackpad control, and some
input/output as it relates to the computer sleeping.

1. If the computer is on, turn it off
2. Connect the power adapter to a working power source
3. On the built-in keyboard, press (left) Shift-Control-Option along with the power button once.
4. Wait 5 seconds and press the power button to start the computer.

You should only perform an SMC reset when the MacBook Air or
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009) has been properly shutdown. This
prevents issues from occurring to the file system.

Url: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411


--| Resetting NVRAM and PRAM

Reset the parameter random access memory (PRAM) and nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM)

1. Shut down the computer and find Command, Option, P, and R,
You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
2. Turn on the computer
3. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this
key combination before the gray screen appears.
4. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear
the startup sound for the second time.
5. Release the keys.

Contents of PRAM

Some Macintosh computers may not have all the settings described below

* Status of AppleTalk
* Serial Port Configuration and Port definition
* Alarm clock setting
* Application font
* Serial printer location
* Autokey rate
* Autokey delay
* Speaker volume
* Attention (beep) sound
* Double-click time
* Caret blink time (insertion point rate)
* Mouse scaling (mouse speed)
* Startup disk
* Menu blink count
* Monitor depth
* 32-bit addressing
* Virtual memory
* RAM disk
* Disk cache

Url: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
_________________
Hello from me: Jenkler IT AB (swedish) (use google translate). Check out my Linux manpages for web in english.


Last edited by jenkler on Tue Apr 13, 2010 10:13 am; edited 6 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rexilion
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 17 Mar 2009
Posts: 1044

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 8:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi there,

Look at laptop_mode and friends in your kernel configuration. What it basically does is that it saves changes into memory and writes them all in a burst instead of continuously doing small writes. This allows you to powerdown your disk when idle (hdparm -S)

Plus, you might be able to use hdparm to set the disk in Advanced Power Management mode. You can use hdparm for a lot more things.

Furthermore, if your computer is a SMP system (more than one CPU core) install irqbalance. It balances the load so that whenever the laptop is idle, it will put all cpu's but one in a lower power mode.

About the fancontrol, the hwmon chip in your computer might allow you to set that yourself.

Install powertop and look which programs/drivers uses a lot of power. That way you might be able see what causes the fans to spin up.

About the GPU, did you check the nvidia manual for this? It might contain more options to decrease the load :) .
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenkler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Sweden - Stockholm

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 1:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the reply Rexilion :-) I checked the things you wrote

* laptop_mode - This macbook has a SSD disk so in this case this laptop_mode stuff is useless, but for people with standard disk here is the link http://samwel.tk/laptop_mode/

* irqbalance - This is cool stuff but this tool/daemon is mostly for dual sockets not single sockets with multi cores, and again here is the link http://irqbalance.org/index.php

* fancontrol - Yes hwmon for smc is supported and i have enabled it in the kernel but the problem is that i cant find any good tools to make nice stuff like smcfancontroll in mac
Here i relly need some tips, if someone knows :D

* powertop - this i need to look more into ;-)

There must be someone out there that have bought a macbook air 2,1 (the new version with 128 GB SSD and upgraded cpu ) and using the best dist (gentoo) on it.
As i understand its relly hard or impossible to change mem clock due to that the graphic card is build in

Now some nice sharing:
* if you have issues that the macbook will reboot a couple of times when trying to load the kernel (mostly its works on the second try)
- Append noapic, i use lilo so in my case append="noapic", this works great

I welcome any good info on how to make the best of the newest macbook air. This FAN stuff is driving me cracy ;-|
_________________
Hello from me: Jenkler IT AB (swedish) (use google translate). Check out my Linux manpages for web in english.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rexilion
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 17 Mar 2009
Posts: 1044

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You are right about the others, however I think that laptop_mode might *indeed* be usefull to you:

http://samwel.tk/laptop_mode/
Quote:
I have a solid-state disk (SSD) in my machine. Should I enable any of the disk-related parts of laptop-mode-tools, or are they irrelevant?

They may be relevant, because (a) laptop mode will reduce the number of writes, which improves the lifetime of an SSD, and (b) laptop mode makes writes bursty, which enables power saving mechanisms like ALPM to kick in. However, your mileage may vary depending on the specific hardware involved. For some hardware you will get no gain at all, for some the gain may be substantial.


Furthermore, I cannot help you but suggest to use the alternative nouveau driver. It does not have any power management at all, but might just use less power by itself...

Good luck!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
xavier10
Guru
Guru


Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Posts: 485
Location: Paris, France

PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello,

I am trying to install the same computer as you, and I am running into the same kind of issues (I also have other issues standing, including in particular: 1. random failures of boot, at very early stages, despite noapic command; 2. xorg configuration).

Right now, idle temperature is 53C, and the fan never seems to stop...

Have you met some success at cooling down the machine ? If yes, how so ?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenkler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Sweden - Stockholm

PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

xavier10 wrote:
Hello,

I am trying to install the same computer as you, and I am running into the same kind of issues (I also have other issues standing, including in particular: 1. random failures of boot, at very early stages, despite noapic command; 2. xorg configuration).

Right now, idle temperature is 53C, and the fan never seems to stop...

Have you met some success at cooling down the machine ? If yes, how so ?


Hi, thanks for keeping the thread alive. Sorry at the moment i had a lot todo so i have not tested anymore
the first thing i want to test is the laptop_mode thing

As i wrote GPU is now 59 C and system 56 in idle mode so you have a better system heat then me, what is your GPU heat? Check it with nvclock -i (post the output)

* Strange i only got the "random failures" when trying to load the kernel and not having the noapic was the issue.
I have not tried this but read about it acpi=noirq and pnpacpi=off, that maybe will help but maybe the acpi stuff will fail if you have this. Try and post result here :D
* the xorg config is easy use nvidia-xconfig the rest will xorg detect :D You only need the device section nothing else (Don't forget to add the coolbits option)

When i get some more free time i will look into this issue :-D please post here if you find something useful
_________________
Hello from me: Jenkler IT AB (swedish) (use google translate). Check out my Linux manpages for web in english.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
xavier10
Guru
Guru


Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Posts: 485
Location: Paris, France

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 8:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi,

Sorry for the delay to reply; I am actually very busy too these days, and this is not going to improve.

I do not have the machine in front of me right now, but I tried nvclock a moment ago, and it did not work: it failed with a message saying the video card was not supported by nvclock. Even when I added the "-f" option, I did not get the temp (though, it reported some accurate info like amount of shared memory, but not interesting wathsoever).

I got xorg working, using hal and a very minimal xorg.conf.
The solution I followed was explained in the bottom of the first page of the thread below, which is devoted to a recent Macbook Pro unibody:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-750017-highlight-macbook+pro.html
(this link is not about the MBA per se, but I think it is relevant, there are common points between the MBP and the MBA, such as the 9400M ---by the way, I may get a MBP unibody soon, so I will be experimenting on both the MBA and the MBP, and I hope to understand things better that way).

I am actually quite impressed by the temperature on the CPU: down to 50C, according to /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/[...]/temperature. The battery life seems to be awful though: I unplugged it and checked the data in /proc/acpi/battery, and it seems to give a battery life just shy of two hours. Not decent at all.

In the other hand, I have not made much progress regarding to reliability. I have the noapic option, but none of those you mention; I will experiment next time I get a chance to work on it. I will also experiment with a vanilla kernel (I started with tuxonice, since I am planning to install the hibernate scripts soon).

I have not looked yet at the network support, and I think this should be one of the next things on my list, with reliability.

I hope I will have more to report soon (though I may not get a chance to make real progress by the end of april).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenkler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Sweden - Stockholm

PostPosted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

xavier10 wrote:
Hi,

Sorry for the delay to reply; I am actually very busy too these days, and this is not going to improve.

I do not have the machine in front of me right now, but I tried nvclock a moment ago, and it did not work: it failed with a message saying the video card was not supported by nvclock. Even when I added the "-f" option, I did not get the temp (though, it reported some accurate info like amount of shared memory, but not interesting wathsoever).

I got xorg working, using hal and a very minimal xorg.conf.
The solution I followed was explained in the bottom of the first page of the thread below, which is devoted to a recent Macbook Pro unibody:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-750017-highlight-macbook+pro.html
(this link is not about the MBA per se, but I think it is relevant, there are common points between the MBP and the MBA, such as the 9400M ---by the way, I may get a MBP unibody soon, so I will be experimenting on both the MBA and the MBP, and I hope to understand things better that way).

I am actually quite impressed by the temperature on the CPU: down to 50C, according to /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/[...]/temperature. The battery life seems to be awful though: I unplugged it and checked the data in /proc/acpi/battery, and it seems to give a battery life just shy of two hours. Not decent at all.

In the other hand, I have not made much progress regarding to reliability. I have the noapic option, but none of those you mention; I will experiment next time I get a chance to work on it. I will also experiment with a vanilla kernel (I started with tuxonice, since I am planning to install the hibernate scripts soon).

I have not looked yet at the network support, and I think this should be one of the next things on my list, with reliability.

I hope I will have more to report soon (though I may not get a chance to make real progress by the end of april).


Yeah the lack of time is a big issue :-(, as for nvclock -i. It only works when you run it in a X terminal and have the coolbits option set and i use the latest version (CVS) in portage (forgot to mention that)
Maybe i have some time this weekend. All progress is good anyway :S

Do you use msdos partitions or efi model? with elilo? as i understand it i need a efi boot partition. Question is if its that easy to just boot a gentoo live minimal cd and use parted to fix the table and then just use elilo (Need EFI support in kernel) It is crappy that we need a fat for the efi boot part. maybe its cleaner in mbr mode

btw i use the latest stable vanilla kernel in portage
_________________
Hello from me: Jenkler IT AB (swedish) (use google translate). Check out my Linux manpages for web in english.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pilla
Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva


Joined: 07 Aug 2002
Posts: 7729
Location: Underworld

PostPosted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 2:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Kernel & Hardware.
_________________
"I'm just very selective about the reality I choose to accept." -- Calvin
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
xavier10
Guru
Guru


Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Posts: 485
Location: Paris, France

PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 8:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok I am back to this.

This computer is behaving really funny. From time to time, when I boot Linux, it will freeze very soon in the boot sequence (right after the sequence of kernel messages at the begining of the boot, before the messages about the partitions mounting, daemons starting, etc) with a black screen, and emits lound "bip bip bip" sounds.
Tonight, i did play a little bit with kernel options, and while rebooting many times to see what would fix it, I discovered that the bip bip bip crash occurs whenever I boot Linux right after a MacOSX session. Then I shut down the computer again, and the next boot is fine (unless I boot OSX in between of course). Not sure what causes this. No kernel option (noapic, acpi=off) seems to get this to go away. I am using lilo btw.

Regarding to network, did you get the wireless or the usb dongle to work ? I see there is a USB over ethernet submenu in the Linux kernel, which should do it as far as Ethernet goes, but I am not sure which one to try out (I cannot do the test, since I do not have an Ethernet connection right now, only wifi).

Anyway, I look forward to making more progress on this now...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
xavier10
Guru
Guru


Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Posts: 485
Location: Paris, France

PostPosted: Fri May 07, 2010 2:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I found on pages devoted to Ubuntu install that we should use the asix module to get ethernet over usb to work, but no success so far (modules loaded: usbnet and asix). Will try again later.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenkler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Sweden - Stockholm

PostPosted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 4:13 pm    Post subject: A Little update Reply with quote

I have it working with net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.38. i used the ethernet dongle to install the system so that works.

Use append = "acpi=noirq pnpacpi=off" in lilo, this seams to be the best way so far. more hints?

I have some strange hangups with the mac. whole system just dies. dont know what it is :-( no logs or anything
Need some input on this please :D can it be "acpi=noirq pnpacpi=off" option?

This is the kernel I am using linux-2.6.36-tuxonice-r3 somebody else that reconice this?
_________________
Hello from me: Jenkler IT AB (swedish) (use google translate). Check out my Linux manpages for web in english.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenkler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Sweden - Stockholm

PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 4:14 pm    Post subject: No new findings? Reply with quote

Does nobody have the same issue as i have?

relly?
_________________
Hello from me: Jenkler IT AB (swedish) (use google translate). Check out my Linux manpages for web in english.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rexilion
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 17 Mar 2009
Posts: 1044

PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see that you are using the broadcom sta driver, these days there is a N-PHY implementation inside the 'native' b43 driver. Perhaps if you use the newest available firmware combined with this driver, the lookup's might 'go away'.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenkler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Sweden - Stockholm

PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 5:23 pm    Post subject: thanks Reply with quote

Rexilion why do you think its the sta drivers that makes the hangups?


I have the 03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 05)

and i dont think its supported yet by b43 driver but i will test it :D

EDIT: I can now verify that the B43 driver does not work for BCM4328
_________________
Hello from me: Jenkler IT AB (swedish) (use google translate). Check out my Linux manpages for web in english.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenkler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Sweden - Stockholm

PostPosted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 5:25 pm    Post subject: A notice to all out there :D Reply with quote

It seams that

acpi=noirq and pnpacpi=off

is fu*ing up the computer :-( I removed it and now the battery status works again in kde and no hang this far.

Do not use it. I use the workaround boot -> OSX login screen -> reboot -> Gentoo
This works most of the times

Someone out there that have a better solution please reply

is tuxonice the best sources? 2.6.36

Over and out

EDIT: Still no hang. So its safe to say that "acpi=noirq and pnpacpi=off" is not a good way to go :-(
_________________
Hello from me: Jenkler IT AB (swedish) (use google translate). Check out my Linux manpages for web in english.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenkler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Sweden - Stockholm

PostPosted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:58 am    Post subject: Hi all Reply with quote

Is there a way to get direct boot to work without the reboot issue? I still use the "boot into macos first" workaround
_________________
Hello from me: Jenkler IT AB (swedish) (use google translate). Check out my Linux manpages for web in english.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
wers
n00b
n00b


Joined: 14 May 2007
Posts: 40

PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Guys, im interesting in buying latest macbook air, then use gentoo. I got a question: will it work and could i use all the hardware?
Alex.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
dmitryilyin
n00b
n00b


Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 27
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why on Earth would you install Linux on Mac hardware?!

Install MacOS X Lion, it's mostly like Linux, but much better.
It you need Linux use VirtualBox.

If you want linux laptop buy Lenovo or Dell, they are cheaper and much easier to use with Linux.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jospalau
n00b
n00b


Joined: 10 May 2011
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 12:20 pm    Post subject: Re: Hi all Reply with quote

jenkler wrote:
Is there a way to get direct boot to work without the reboot issue? I still use the "boot into macos first" workaround

Could you fix the reboot issue? Two years and I haven't found a fix for this problem
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenkler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Sweden - Stockholm

PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:20 am    Post subject: Sorry mates Reply with quote

Nope sorry, the only thing i know is that

acpi=noirq and pnpacpi=off makes the air freeze in the OS after a while. So that is a crappy solution

The only thing that works 100% is boot into mac os x, to the login screen and then reboot into linux
_________________
Hello from me: Jenkler IT AB (swedish) (use google translate). Check out my Linux manpages for web in english.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jospalau
n00b
n00b


Joined: 10 May 2011
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 8:08 am    Post subject: Re: Sorry mates Reply with quote

For what I have been trying, there is no way (at least in my MacBook) of booting linux by using the bootcamp bios emulation. Too many problems, sometimes it hangs other reboot, other beeps and sometimes USB port gets stuck having to reset the SMC.

I have used printk, it hangs in arch/x86/pci/init.c when it calls to pci_arch_init - pci_direct_probe
Here:
outb(0x01, 0xCFB);
I think it has to do with the PCI initialization.

However, it boots pretty well if you boot it from Grub2 compiled as an EFI application:
Code:

$ bzr branch http://bzr.savannah.gnu.org/r/grub/trunk/grub
$ cd grub && ./autogen.sh && ./configure && make
$ ./grub-mkimage -d ./grub-core -o grub.efi -O x86_64-efi -p /efi/grub ata part_gpt part_msdos fat ntfs ntfscomp ext2 iso9660 udf hfsplus fshelp reboot normal chain linux xnu xnu_uuid ls search search_fs_file search_fs_uuid search_label help loopback cat tar boot configfile cpio echo lvm loadbios efi_gop multiboot multiboot2 relocator


It is mandatory to have a grub.cfg file in /efi/grub, for example:

set timeout=5
set default=5
set fallback=0

menuentry "Linux" {
root=(hd0,4)
set debug=fb
insmod efi_uga
fakebios
linux /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.39-gentoo-debug root=/dev/sda4 ro video=efifb reboot=pci splash=verbose,theme:natural_gentoo
initrd /boot/my-initramfs.cpio.gz
}

You have to copy grub.efi and all the modules (grub-core/*.mod) in the Mac OS X partition in /efi/grub. rEFIt will detect grub.efi and it will show it in the menu.

With fakebios boots pretty good emulating the BIOS. One problem is that sometimes it beeps when it shuts down, but passing reboot=pci to the kernel is the solution.

And the other problem is that you won't have DMI information so dmidecode won't work. As pommed uses DMI information it won't either work. It is funny because if you boot with Bootcamp emulation and you boot again with grub.efi you will have DMI information.

The solution is to use a 64 bits kernel, I have crosscompiled using crossdev a 64 bits kernel in my 32 bits instalation. It seems that as the bootloader is a 64 bits bootloader it needs a 64 bits kernel in order to boot EFI in native mode:
http://www.mail-archive.com/grub-devel@gnu.org/msg10707.html

If you boot from grub.efi with a 64 bits kernel, it will boot in EFI native mode regardless of the fakebios parameter working everything. I also tried the nouveau driver using KMS, in this case instead of passing video=efifb to the kernel I pass nouveau.modeset=1 and I have to compile the kernel withouth CONFIG_FB_EFI
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
grant123
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 23 Mar 2005
Posts: 1080

PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My wife would like me to install Gentoo on her Macbook Air but it sounds a lot trickier than a normal laptop install. The trickiness also seems to vary by hardware version. Her Macbook Air is the one without the backlit keyboard which was released right before the latest one which has a backlit keyboard. Is there a version number for that one?

Can anyone tell me what the end result is after installing Gentoo on one of these? jenkler and others say the system must be booted into OSX and then rebooted into Gentoo, but jospalau seems to have found a way to boot straight into Gentoo? Assuming that works, are there any deficiencies/annoyances/etc involved with Gentoo on a Macbook Air?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
kami22
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 14 Apr 2006
Posts: 116

PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi,

i am trying to boot my Macbook air with refit and the Gentoo with grub. This works fine but i have got 2 problems:

1. My menu.lst from Grub looks like this:

Code:
title Gentoo Linux 2.6.24-r5
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.39.1 root=/dev/sda4 vga=792 consoletty1 xlayout=nvidia reboot=pci
#initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.24-gentoo-r5


And i always get the error: That it can find the video mode. After this the boot crash. If i remove the vga= option everything works fine but the resolution is very bad so how can i add the framebuffer right. I compiled the kernel option nvidia framebuffer?

2. My next problem is the Xorg.conf.

I can't startx and get this error:

Code:


X.Org X Server 1.10.4
Release Date: 2011-08-19
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.39-gentoo-r3vit x86_64 Gentoo
Current Operating System: Linux localhost 2.6.39-gentoo-r3vit #1 SMP Wed Aug 31 16:16:19 CEST 2011 x86_64
Kernel command line: root=/dev/sda4 consoletty1 xlayout=nvidia reboot=pci
Build Date: 13 September 2011  03:28:53PM

Current version of pixman: 0.22.2
        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
        to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Sep 16 11:15:32 2011
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(EE) Failed to load module "dri" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) Failed to load module "dri2" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) NVIDIA: Failed to load module "dri2" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad Unable to query/initialize Synaptics hardware.
(EE) PreInit returned 11 for "Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad"
(EE) Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
(EE) bcm5974 Unable to query/initialize Synaptics hardware.
(EE) PreInit returned 11 for "bcm5974"
/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc: Zeile 63: exec: xterm: Nicht gefunden.
/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc: Zeile 61: xterm: Kommando nicht gefunden.
xinit: connection to X server lost


So how can i fix this. My xorg.conf looks like this:

Code:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 270.41.19  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-07.nvidia.com)  Mon May 16 23:52:12 PDT 2011

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
#    # generated from data in "/etc/conf.d/gpm"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "synaptics-all"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "RTCornerButton" "2"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "true"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
EndSection



Maybe someone can help me.

Thanks a lot.
Cu kami
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jospalau
n00b
n00b


Joined: 10 May 2011
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

grant123 wrote:
Can anyone tell me what the end result is after installing Gentoo on one of these? jenkler and others say the system must be booted into OSX and then rebooted into Gentoo, but jospalau seems to have found a way to boot straight into Gentoo? Assuming that works, are there any deficiencies/annoyances/etc involved with Gentoo on a Macbook Air?


You install Gentoo the same way as you would install it in other box, resize your Mac OS X partition with diskutil in Mac OS X, and create a partition in the free space, then boot into a livecd to install Gentoo and use fdisk in order to change the type of the partition although I think parted supports GPT partitioning.

When you are done of installing stage3 and configuring your system, do not install Grub in /dev/sda cause you will break the GPT partition table, you have two choices:
- Install Grub in the partition in which you installed Gentoo, rEFIt will automatically find Grub installed in the partition and it will show a menu option. rEFIt will boot by using Mac BIOS emulation. In my case too many problems as reboots, freezes and beeps.
- Download and compile Grub2 as an EFI application, you copy grub.efi as a result in the Mac OS X partition in /efi/grub. rEFIt will detect grub.efi and it will also show a menu option. You can set up your configuration in /efi/grub/grub.cfg to launch your linux kernel from there.

So once you boot from grub.efi there is no problem at all, grub has a parametere to fake the BIOS as Mac, you can use it or you can use it EFI native boot but in this case you need to have a 64 bits kernel if your Mac has a 64 bits bootloader (ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | awk -F'"' '/firmware-abi/{print $4}')

So far everything is working as it should


Last edited by jospalau on Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:37 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Kernel & Hardware All times are GMT
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum