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

[ChinaSailor]

Hi all, having some issues installing on my 4,2 MBA.

I've followed the instructions to the T, however my installation always hangs on the step in installation after a WiFi network is selected, where partitions are setup. If I run in Live mode first, then install, I get a bug report saying that GParted has failed. If I try and run GParted from Live, it immediately hangs indefinitely with a similar error.

I originally guessed this had something to do with my prior installation of Windows 7 via bootcamp possibly messing with my partitions, however after completely re-partitioning (into 3, I'm attempting a triple boot with 7, starting with Ubuntu) the problem persists.

After some searching online, it seems in some older installations of Ubuntu (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1518764), GParted crashes when USB devices, SD cards, etc. are connected to the PC. However, as I'm installing from my USB drive, I'm not sure how to remedy the situation if that's the case, and why it doesn't seem to be a problem for others.


Any ideas aside from completely wiping the SSD of OS X and all?

I have an MBA 4.2, currently running the 11.10 (without unity)
I am not exactly sure why it's using gparted... I don't remember gparted being run, unless that's the default format tool, but I thought it used fdisk, I may be wrong.

I am not exactly sure the instructions you followed, but basically, use the Mac Disk Utility in Mac to create your partition (you can select vfat, it doesn't matter what type, it will be changed).

I highly recommend using he "Alternate Install CD" (I didn't follow the usd directions, you can use ANY cd rom that will connect via usb for the CD install) The USB (via USB memory stick) install is a bit involved, unless you like spending a lot of time, use the CD.

Boot the Alternate CD (holding 'C' will cause mac to boot cd)
Select F6 -> Nomodeset
Standard Install
When the format tool (I believe this is just a graphical wrapper for fdisk) opens,
select the partition that you created in Mac (Not the Mac partition)
then click on the partition, partition type = ext3 or 4 and "mount point /" and 'Y' the Format Flag
(It might just toggle an 'F' can't remember, self explanatory)
(don't touch 'Bootable' Flag, just leave the default)
(before you select "Finish" you can optionally create a swap partition) But probably not needed.

Continue on with standard install.
It's not that difficult, but use Alternate CD.

Hope this helps.

[berryman77]

I'm having problems resuming too. I typically get a screen with just the background image and no menus. Sometimes if I go to a VT and restart lightdm (sudo restart lightdm), it helps and sometimes I just have to shut down.

As a follow up on this message, I consistently see this same problem. After resuming from suspend (with nothing connected to the laptop), I plug into an external monitor via HDMI and see nothing but the background color. In the kernel logs, I see:

[drm:drm_mode_getfb] *ERROR* invalid framebuffer id

which coincides with the external monitor activation.

[berryman77]

After applying Other Power Saving Tips (thanks Poliva), I can get the power usage just under 8 watts in ideal circumstances. This is still nearly 3 watts above OS X. I've tried different approaches to reduce power usage further including monitoring/satisfying powertop, killing every unnecessary process and unloading kernel modules. Still I can't get close to the 4.8 watts OS X achieves. I'm wondering if BIOS emulation could be the culprit. How likely is it that BIOS emulation could be chewing 2-3 watts?

[shivamurti]

# (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/bc...1.1.91_all.deb

403 Forbidden

[pr0ximity]

...
The USB (via USB memory stick) install is a bit involved, unless you like spending a lot of time, use the CD.
...
Hope this helps.

Not to be rude, but unfortunately, no.

I'm looking to install via a USB drive, as I don't own a USB CD drive, and would rather not buy one just to install Ubuntu.

[leeyc0]

Not to be rude, but unfortunately, no.

I'm looking to install via a USB drive, as I don't own a USB CD drive, and would rather not buy one just to install Ubuntu.

You may find the steps at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookAir4-2

[Wolfador]

I can't get my touchpad to work when using xf86-input-mtrack. It seems to work okay when I re-ran the script and selected touchegg. Is there anything I am missing by not using mtrack?

[mediamind]

Hey Everyone,

I'm running 3.0.0-14 on a Macbook Air 4,2 with mtrack. I've played around with the mtrack configuration settings but can't figure out how to activate the Unity Grab handles via the touchpad.

Any suggestions?

[uBeer]

Not to be rude, but unfortunately, no.

I'm looking to install via a USB drive, as I don't own a USB CD drive, and would rather not buy one just to install Ubuntu.

I found a page with a working solution: http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~cei...ikel.php?id=92

Has anybody tested Precise on the MBA already?

[Wolfador]

Not to be rude, but unfortunately, no.

I'm looking to install via a USB drive, as I don't own a USB CD drive, and would rather not buy one just to install Ubuntu.

I used UNetBootin to create my USB key. Just pointed it to the iso.

To prep for the install, I used disk utility to shrink my OSX parititon and left the new space as free.