New 12.04 install on Macbook Air 4,1: question about partitions & post-install script

[ts3]

Just installed 12.04 from the daily build on an 11'' MBA (aka the 4,1 model). Still reading through the mega-thread for the MBA, it's almost at 80 pages so it's taking a while but in the meantime I have a couple of questions.

First, I must have ended with a hybrid MBR (using rEFIt) with the first three partitions taken up up by apple stuff: EFI, the OS X and the OS X recovery partition. I put the main ubuntu partition on sda4 and a 4GB swap on sda5. The first time I tried to install I put the partitions the other way around and since the system couldn't see beyond sda4 and couldn't boot off a swap partition I ended up with a black screen). Posts by dfacto and srs5694 on the MBA mega-thread, especially between posts #170 and #190, were very useful to understand what's going on with the partitions, many thanks for that. At least now I see why I couldn't create an extended partition and put ubuntu and swap inside.

My question is what's happening with the swap partition on sda5? Is it even being seen/used by ubuntu? I wonder whether I even need to have a swap partition. I understand that one can use a swap file instead: has anyone tried it on a mac?

Also, besides the manual install, which is what I did, ubuntu offers to install alongside OS X or to replace it. Would either option work given the idiosyncratic nature of the hardware? I am considering waiting for Mountain Lion to come out in the summer, downloading and creating a recovery USB and then switching to single-boot ubuntu. It seems that Apple is going the route of HP (which by default takes up all four primary partitions and thus makes linux installs more difficult/intimidating especially for new users) and I want to have the ability to ditch OS X entirely. Any suggestions and links will be welcome.

I'm still working through the minor post-install quirks and glitches. For example trackpad freezes after suspend, the workaround seems to be here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1952532 and on the related bug on launchpad though I haven't tried that yet. The screen resolution work out of the box, no need to change to nomodeset but the screen and keyboard brightness keys are not working. I am looking at the post-install script but will appreciate any suggestions how to adapt it to 12.04. Again, I am reading through the mega-thread but it's taking a while and some things are different for 12.04 so I thought I'd ask in a separate thread.

Thanks and cheers

[ts3]

Posting to myself here

Any advice on how to test whether the swap partition actually works? I am not sure whether ubuntu can use it but it's showing in /etc/fstab.

Per post #786 on the MBA mega-thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...810275&page=79 I haven't installed any of the post-install scripts, sitting tight and waiting for wiser heads to come up with fixes.

Touchpad still doesn't work if I suspend by closing the lid; the bug is here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...cs/+bug/968845 and there is a proposed fix but I haven't been able to install it. Will try again; in the meantime am suspending via the panel applet and reading through the mega-thread.

[jonny]

Posting to myself here

Any advice on how to test whether the swap partition actually works? I am not sure whether ubuntu can use it but it's showing in /etc/fstab.

Open System Monitor (I think it's installed by default; if not, install it) and look at the Memory and Swap History section of the Resources tab.

[Kallun]

Hi ts3

I'm running the dev builds of 12.04 (I know it's just been released today, I'm just waiting for the elementary team to release Luna)

As I'm sure you've seen from my thread you mentioned, about the touchpad after suspend, I am using the MacBook Air 4,1 also.

Everything is working for me.

I have a single boot setup on my system and have installed OS X onto an external USB drive should I ever need it (doubtful, however it's always nice to have just in case!)

So, I have rEFIt installed onto a 200MB HFS+ partition - as you can read in the rEFIt documentation you don't actually have to have an OS X install to use it, you can put it on a separate partition.

As for my Ubuntu install, I installed using the manual partition setup and simply put it into one partition, no swap partition at all, it's somewhat unnecessary in my opinion, plus I'm using zram on my system

I did run the post install script and do believe it helped, however touchegg doesn't work on 12.04 yet and I also had to mess a bit with my Xmod's config.

When elementary Luna is released, I'll be going over the install again, I'm going to install onto a Btrfs partition, so I might document it, perhaps that will help any others who are looking for a similar setup.

Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to help out!

[ts3]

Open System Monitor (I think it's installed by default; if not, install it) and look at the Memory and Swap History section of the Resources tab.

Thanks, just checked System Monitor (you're right, it's there by default) and it does show swap (0% use of 4.1GB). The File Systems tab however shows just /dev/sda4 with Free 76.2 GB and Available 72.1GB (the 4.1GB difference accounts neatly for the swap which is on sda5). As I mentioned earlier fstab has an entry for swap (it got added there automatically during the install).

Still a bit mystified as to how the partitions and the MBR set-up I stumbled into by accident actually work

[ts3]

As I'm sure you've seen from my thread you mentioned, about the touchpad after suspend, I am using the MacBook Air 4,1 also.

Everything is working for me.

I have a single boot setup on my system and have installed OS X onto an external USB drive should I ever need it (doubtful, however it's always nice to have just in case!)

Thanks! For now I am following the touchpad thread and the mega-thread and still trying to figure out how to install a touchpad driver to get multi-touch and to fix the suspend.

Actually I have a question: how does one find out which driver is currently loaded for the touchpad? It should be something like evdev but I'd actually like to see it in a terminal. I've been looking through the output of lspci and dmidecode but can't find it. I've googled too without result; what usually comes up refers to bcm5974 which I don't have yet. Without the module I can't even re-load it manually when I forget and close the lid.

A bit later I'll probably be asking about single-boot as well, because OS X is mostly just sitting there and taking space

[Kallun]

Thanks! For now I am following the touchpad thread and the mega-thread and still trying to figure out how to install a touchpad driver to get multi-touch and to fix the suspend.

Actually I have a question: how does one find out which driver is currently loaded for the touchpad? It should be something like evdev but I'd actually like to see it in a terminal. I've been looking through the output of lspci and dmidecode but can't find it. I've googled too without result; what usually comes up refers to bcm5974 which I don't have yet. Without the module I can't even re-load it manually when I forget and close the lid.

A bit later I'll probably be asking about single-boot as well, because OS X is mostly just sitting there and taking space

You can use lsmod to see which modules are loaded, you could then pipe it into grep to better define what you're looking for

[ts3]

You can use lsmod

Thanks. Feeling really silly for asking because that's probably the most obvious thing to try for modules but I never thought of it. Off to sort out the touchpad.

EDITED TO ADD: OK, touchpad all sorted. I did some reading on drivers: bcm5974 seems to come with the default xserver-xorg-input-synaptics. It has scrolling, tap to click, double-tap to drag and four-finger tap for dash (I discovered this by accident ).

The suspend freeze is fixed by un-commenting/editing a line in /usr/lib/pm-utils/defaults to read SUSPEND_MODULES="bcm5974"

The defaults file has a big warning not to edit and instead to add files to /etc/pm/config.d. I tried that and it didn't work so I ended up going back and editing the defaults file regardless.

The other popular trackpad solution, the xf86-input-mtrack, seems to be called xserver-xorg-input-mtrack in the Software Centre. Tried to install it but it didn't seem to be doing anything. I'll give it another try in a few days. From reading the developer's website on github it seems that the driver is called mtrack but that's a bit of a conjecture

A couple of other useful snippets (apart from lsmod): lsusb -t and cat /proc/bus/input/devices

I am going to mark this thread as solved as I don't have any real issues apart from the mystery of having five primary partitions and how that works exactly.

[edgargdl]

Hi All,

I am really struggling with my ubuntu on my imac, there is no linux icon appearing but instead is a windows icon, even if i clicked is not opening linux..

here is the info of my partitions, am i doing something wrong?


*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 487956615 Mac OS X HFS+
3 487956616 489226151 Mac OS X Boot
4 489226152 889204667 Basic Data
5 889204668 929105058 Linux Swap

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
2 * 409640 487956615 af Mac OS X HFS+
3 487956616 489226151 ab Mac OS X Boot
4 489226152 889204667 83 Linux

MBR contents:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable

Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af Mac OS X HFS+, active

Partition at LBA 487956616:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Mac OS X Boot
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type ab Mac OS X Boot

Partition at LBA 489226152:
Boot Code: None
File System: ext4
Listed in GPT as partition 4, type Basic Data
Listed in MBR as partition 4, type 83 Linux

Partition at LBA 889204668:
Boot Code: None
File System: Unknown
Listed in GPT as partition 5, type Linux Swap


** i am using refit by the way**

[ts3]

Hi All, I am really struggling with my ubuntu on my imac, there is no linux icon appearing but instead is a windows icon, even if i clicked is not opening linux..
** i am using refit by the way**

Hi, I wouldn't worry about the windows icon on the refit screen, it's standard (it looks like the windows logo with washed out colours). I think the refit webpage mentions that as well. I had the same thing then later it became a penguin logo, probably after I installed ubuntu.

As to the ubuntu install were you able to boot into a live CD/USB first? Since you mention you have an imac it's probably a good idea to check the instructions for your specific model on the ubuntu wiki. Macs seem to be fairly temperamental and there are differences between different models. If you run into problems you can start a new thread with the model of the imac in the thread title so that other people with the same model can help