MacBookAir4,1 & MacBookAir4,2 (MBA 2011) support

[dfacto]

We can monitor the progress of the intel driver here and track our bug here (same link as provided by Sarvatt--just trying to consolidate information). Then once the fix gets committed it should make its way to xorg-edgers.

[DrMeers]

I created http://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookAir4-2 to log my experience before stumbling upon this thread; glad to see there are others out there working on this also!

Edit: moved content from wiki to here:

I believe this is the correct name for the 13-inch 2011 MacBook Air?

I bought one with the 1.8GHz i7 option intending to run Ubuntu on it full-time given the positive compatibility reports for the 2010 models. In some regards it appears more compatible, however the main problem is the Intel HD 3000 graphics card, which it appears is not yet compatible with Xorg. The device remains "UNCLAIMED" according to lshw -C video, and I was unable to figure out how to get Ubuntu to use anything higher than 1024x768 resolution (which is obviously also the wrong aspect ratio).

The wireless and touchpad worked out of the box.

Geekbench gave a score of 6340 in Ubuntu, higher than the 5800 from within Lion.

Had all sorts of fun with the GPT/MBR partitioning, and rEFIt kept selecting the wrong ext4 partition for booting when I tried to create a separate data partition. Deleting it seemed to work. At one point the partition table got corrupted so that even "parted" would segfault trying to print it. Installing "gdisk" on OS X repaired this by deleting the troublesome partition. Though in the process I also managed to lose my Lion Recovery partition. It seems the only way to get this back is to Command-R boot, wait 30-60 minutes for the recovery utility to download from the network and then reinstall Lion. Though if you've mucked about with Ubuntu partitions, chances are Disk Utility will refuse to edit your partitions anymore anyway, so fix them up using Ubuntu (or the Recovery mode on the alternate installer CD). -- or, it may be possible to use DiskUtility to "convert" the 1.39GB recovery image to a saved image on the HDD, and reinstate it as a partition?

I had to use the "alternate" installer with "nomodeset" to get Natty in. Oneiric alpha2/daily-july-28 installers halted with an error at 71% of installing the core system. I tried all sorts of combinations, but superdrive with alternate i86 Natty installer was the only way that worked for me; I almost got syslinux'd USB to work, but it halted with an error.

I added the touchpad drivers to the SUSPEND list, but Ubuntu still refused to wake from suspend.

After messing about for a couple of days I've decided that I'll try to use Mac OS until the Intel HD 3000 drivers are released; even if I can get it to use the correct resolution somehow, without the drivers I don't think we'll get brightness control, correct suspend behaviour, etc. So; bring on the Intel HD 3000 drivers!

Has anyone tried these: http://phoronix.com/forums/showthrea...aphics-Drivers / http://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/graphics-drivers/ ?

[dfacto]

@DrMeers Thanks for taking the time to start a wiki. However, I am concerned that your bad luck may dissuade people from putting Ubuntu on their new MBA. Many of us had no issues at all and are simply waiting for an intel driver bugfix (which btw is done and waiting on someone to give it a try).

Perhaps you would consider moving your log to the forums here and either you or someone else can replace it with the information in this thread (USB disk, step-by-step install, etc)? I certainly do think its important that people know the risks but I would hate for this to turn people away particularly since I am quite pleased with the progress we have made and am optimistic that we will have an intel driver in the coming week if not weekend. (Leaving only multitouch and suspend to be supported.)

Oh yes, and to set-up xorg-edgers, FIRST go read this disclaimer.

Next install aptitude if haven't done so already (why its better: 1 and 2).

sudo apt-get install aptitude

Then,

sudo aptitude install ppa-purge
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
# Make sure to do safe-upgrade; do NOT pick and choose packages.

Or, to install only the bleeding-edge drivers (and not bleeding-edge xserver)

# no need to do this AND xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo aptitude install ppa-purge
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/drivers-only
sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

To actually test the new intel driver make sure to remove nomodeset from your kernel boot line in grub.

If you have some kind of a problem (I didn't) then:

sudo ppa-purge ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
# or if installed it:
#sudo ppa-purge ppa:xorg-edgers/drivers-only

Note: I have not tried drivers only--I have installed (and upgraded to) the xorg-edgers ppa.

[gschwind]

Hello,

Do some one try pure EFI boot ?

For the keyboard issue, this is probably due to a new hardware id, so a very simple kernel patch should solve the issue. (same issue was found for MBA 3,1 & 3,2).

thanks for your reports

[dfacto]

Hello,

Do some one try pure EFI boot ?

For the keyboard issue, this is probably due to a new hardware id, so a very simple kernel patch should solve the issue. (same issue was found for MBA 3,1 & 3,2).

thanks for your reports

I have not tried pure EFI--I'm a tad afraid to actually.

Have you already filed a bug for keyboard? Also, do you mean keyboard or touchpad (or both)?

[gschwind]

I did not filled bug for MBA 4,2. I don't own one MBA 4.

[dfacto]

Well I tried to modify the bcm5974 driver source myself but it didn't work and I don't know why. I have attached the patch file I used and my devices list. You can get the bcm5974 source from:

git clone http://bitmath.org/git/bcm5974-dkms.git

[DrMeers]

@DrMeers Thanks for taking the time to start a wiki. However, I am concerned that your bad luck may dissuade people from putting Ubuntu on their new MBA.

Agreed; moved content to my original post, and left a link to this thread.

[dfacto]

So good news! I got the multitouch to work meaning you can scroll with two fingers (among other things).

# (1) Get my patched bcm5974 driver.
# You can find the source in: http://www.almostsure.com/bcm5974
# ref: http://bitmath.org/code/bcm5974-dkms/
wget http://www.almostsure.com/bcm5974/bcm5974-dkms_1.1.91_all.deb

# (2) Install it.
sudo dpkg -i bcm5974-dkms_1.1.91_all.deb

# (3) Edit the boot script.
sudo gedit /etc/rc.local
# add the following three lines before the "exit 0" line:
modprobe -r usbhid
modprobe bcm5974
modprobe usbhid

# (4) Install the xserver driver.
# ref: https://launchpad.net/~mactel-support/+archive/ppa?field.series_filter=natty
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mactel-support/ppa
sudo aptitude update
# ref: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1334696
sudo aptitude install xf86-input-multitouch

# (5) Edit xorg.conf.
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# add the following six lines
Section "InputClass"
    MatchIsTouchpad "true"
    Identifier "Multitouch Touchpad"
    Driver "multitouch"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection

# (6) Reboot.
sudo reboot

[Alternate xserver driver; replaces steps 4 and 5.]

# (4) Install the xserver driver.
# xserver-xorg-input-mtrack - Xorg Multitouch Trackpad Driver
# ref: http://www.dev.fatedmariner.org/packages/xf86-input-mtrack/ubuntu/
# ref: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1730361
wget http://www.dev.fatedmariner.org/packages/xf86-input-mtrack/ubuntu/xserver-xorg-input-mtrack_0.2.0_natty_amd64.deb
# ref: https://github.com/BlueDragonX/xf86-input-mtrack
dpkg -i xserver-xorg-input-mtrack_0.2.0_natty_amd64.deb

# (5) Edit xorg.conf.
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# add the following six lines
Section "InputClass"
   MatchIsTouchpad "on"
   Identifier      "Touchpads"
   Driver          "mtrack"
   MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection

# (6) Reboot.
sudo reboot

After rebooting you can see some simple options in System->Preferences->Mouse->"Third Tab". If the the third tab isn't there open a terminal and type synclient then check again.

The /etc/rc.local thing is a total kludge but I couldn't get blacklisting to work. Suggestions welcome! Also, poke around the forums to see what fancy things you can add to your xorg.conf to make it work even more like mac os x.

Cheers!

[jonny]

dfacto, thanks for your guide on making a bootable USB stick for use on a Macbook. You should consider adding this to the Ubuntu wiki pages - it worked perfectly and saved me from buying an outrageously priced Apple external CD drive. The only caveat that I'd add is that, if you use Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid) to create the bootable USB drive, there's a bug in syslinux which results in an error message when you attempt to boot. It's easily fixed by editing syslinux/syslinux.cfg on the USB stick and removing the 'ui' from the line 'ui gfxboot bootlogo' - see this link