MBA 11" 2012 with 12.04

[eee.c]

Got the newest Macbook Air 11" with 8gb memory and wanted to report my results.

tl;dr It is possible to install, though there are at least a few things not working.

The biggest hurdle that I encountered was the install CD halting with:

kernel panic not syncing timer doesn't work through interrupt-remapped io-apic

I was able to work around by adding "nointremap" to the boot options. From what I've read about that option, it is not a good thing to use, but it allowed the install CD to work (manually edited the boot options) and it allows the OS to boot once installed.

That is, instead of:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 resume=/dev/sda5"

I am using:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nointremap i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 resume=/dev/sda5"

I have a superdrive, so I cannot speak to USB install, but I would guess that it still works.

I ran through the post-install script manually and most of it worked. In particular, the updated wl network drivers still work for quick connectivity.

What is not working:

• applesmc. Modprobe-ing that results in an input-output error. I'm not sure how big a deal that is.
• Keyboard lights. I prefer them off so I have not investigated.
• Fn key to dim the screen (the brightness applet works). Oddly the fn key to brighten the screen does work.

What is working: suspend (mouse was messed up, but that could just be me), reboot, most keyboard functions, touchpad (with synaptics), wireless, camera, sounds.

Haven't tested yet: OSX partition access, microphone, fan control, extra power saving, external monitor (I don't use one).

All-in-all, I think this is going to be an excellent Ubuntu machine

[zaphod777]

How is battery life on it?

[poliva]

regarding the applesmc error, can you check if the dmi_system_id on your system matches the DMI_BOARD_VENDOR and DMI_PRODUCT_NAME set on the applesmc module? source is on linux/drivers/hwmon/applesmc.c

If unsure, please paste the output of this command:

 sudo dmidecode |egrep -i "(Product|Vendor)"

[eee.c]

$ sudo dmidecode |egrep -i "(Product|Vendor)"
	Vendor: Apple Inc.
	Product Name: MacBookAir5,1
	Product Name: Mac-66F35F19FE2A0D05

[poliva]

should be ok, it's a different problem then. Can you post the output when modprobing the module? I'd suggest adding printk's in the module and re-compile it to see how far it reaches, and where/why it fails.

[aviromanoff]

Hah, I was just Googling around and found this after commenting on a bug report for MBA not being supported with Lightum.

So I'll link to my comment there, which has the (fail) output from applesmc. https://github.com/poliva/lightum/is...omment-6445369

I don't know much about kernel hacking, but it seems to me like the API to interface with the SMC needs some updating for the new MBAs (I've got a 13'' 5,2 model).

[minsf]

i have the new (2012) MBA 13" with 4GB ram.
i'm dual booting Lion with 12.04.

@eee.c
* i have no superdrive, and i can confirm that booting from a usb works. (i used the amd+mac iso, converted it to img with hdiutil and used dd to copy it to the usb stick, all from the OSX Lion partition).
* initially, i got the same kernel panic as you did(for IO-APIC)
* the nointremap parameter worked as you described. i also tried the noapic parameter (independently) and it worked too. i have not notice a difference between the two boots yet (one with nointremap and one with noapic).
* unlike you, i have no problem with dimming the screen brightness from the fn keys. but i did notice that if i include the kernel parameter nomodeset (as suggested by some tutorials), then i cannot control the brightness of the screen anymore. i think nomodeset is trying to fight something with the nvidia drivers, so it is irrelevant to us (since we have no nvidia card). anyways, i wonder if your dimming issue is also related to some redundant kernel parameter that you added.
* you are not alone- i have the same issue with the mouse freezing after suspend.
* same as you regarding the keyboard lights not working.
* same as you regarding wireless & sound working out of the box.

i'll report more later.

[fhucho]

@minsf What is the power consumption (sudo powertop)?

[minsf]

@minsf What is the power consumption (sudo powertop)?

http://paste.ubuntu.com/1070561/

[eee.c]

The brightness key issue eventually went away for me. I was able to resolve (mostly) the mouse-after-suspend issue. I added the following to /etc/pm/sleep.d/00_usercustom:

    modprobe -r bcm5974 
    modprobe bcm5974

The whole contents of that came from one of the postinstall scripts in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookAir4-2