MacBook Pro 8,2: howto for dual boot Ubuntu/MacOS EFI

[tcstone]

Hello! Thanks for your very helpful post, whatsamac! I also have a Macbook Pro 8,2 and your post helped me use the Intel HD3000 graphics instead of the discrete card which is better for me.

My installation is Mint 17 (in RC status at the moment) instead of Ubuntu and I found that 10_Linux would get overwritten and remove my edits! My solution was to create a new file I called 09_Macbook to hold the outb instructions.

So, in /etc/grub.d/ I created my file 09_Macbook as follows:

#! /bin/sh
set -e

echo "Turning off MBP Discrete Graphics"
cat << EOF
outb 0x728 1
outb 0x710 2
outb 0x740 2
outb 0x750 0
EOF

The file must be made executable, sudo chmod +x 09_Macbook.

This seems to have worked and MAY have the advantage of surviving updates better.

[dm-np01]

Installing Ubuntu 14.04 I found that I could get the display to work by simply changing the "quiet splash" line to:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=“quiet splash nomodeset"

And this removed the need for all the outb lines and the i915 options

Neither way results in my external monitor being detected though...

[whatsamac]

By doing "nomodeset" you disable kernel modesetting. If I am not mistaken, the Radeon GPU requires kernel modesetting to work, so you basically turn off the radeon GPU. The intel integrated GPU is not capable of addressing the displayport, so that is likely why your external monitor does not work. If you however follow my tutorial, you'll be able to boot Linux from via EFIStub, not Grub, which works with both GPUs (intel integrated and radeon) activated, and if you add "radeon.dpm=1" to the end of the boot line (F2 to edit) (NOT in Grub!), then the dynamic power management for the radeon GPU is activated so it only gets hot when actually used.

[whatsamac]

I have now migrated my MacBook to Arch Linux, which went surprisingly well with the current kernel. I therefore won't be able to monitor this thread anymore. Future versions of Ubuntu should, due to newer kernels that support AMD GPU and intel integrated chipset, pretty much work out of the box anyway! Good luck and have fun!

[radoslaw-ejsmont]

Hi,

Have you (or anyone else) managed to get fglrx drivers to work? I am missing some eyecandy in games when using radeon driver.


Thanks in advance!

[Liknus]

By doing "nomodeset" you disable kernel modesetting. If I am not mistaken, the Radeon GPU requires kernel modesetting to work, so you basically turn off the radeon GPU. The intel integrated GPU is not capable of addressing the displayport, so that is likely why your external monitor does not work. If you however follow my tutorial, you'll be able to boot Linux from via EFIStub, not Grub, which works with both GPUs (intel integrated and radeon) activated, and if you add "radeon.dpm=1" to the end of the boot line (F2 to edit) (NOT in Grub!), then the dynamic power management for the radeon GPU is activated so it only gets hot when actually used.

Hi!
May I ask you if, by using those GRUB option modifications you pointed out in the first post, it will be possible to install Ubuntu in a clean new SSD, without install neither OSX nor Refind?
So that the boot process would be: Apple Firmware -> EFIStub -> Ubuntu?

Thanks for this awesome forum, and to the moderators that allowed me to post here
Bye
L.