Ubuntu on MacBook Air 3,2

[derEremit]

Wireless should work. It's worked with every version of the kernel since I installed 11.10 onward to the current 12.04 beta. Your wireless problem has to do with your particular configuration.

WLAN with 3.3
Got it working but have not posted since then.

Fix was first answer in this ask-ubuntu post
http://askubuntu.com/questions/38327...reless-working

seems jockey installed bcm-kernel-source and added the blacklist for the driver provided by firmware-b43-installer, and the driver installed by jockey was working on 3.2 but bcm-kernel-source can't compile on 3.3 mainline.

So, almost everything working.
Sometimes the MBA does not wake up from hibernate...

[razorj7]

Hello Everyone,

So I am new to getting Ubuntu on a Mac (not Ubuntu in general) and I have been having a difficult time getting it to work. Here is what I have done so far:

Created 2 partitions on my drive:

1. Mac partitions
2. Ubuntu FAT32 (8G)
3. Swap FAT32 (2G)

Used Unetbootin to create a bootable USB with the 12.04 beta 2 64+mac

Used "dd" to place the USB stuff to the Ubuntu partition.

rebooted a few times

booted into the Ubuntu partition (I have refit) and was able to get started.

Here is my issue:

I have the infamous graphics issue which I have read is fixed using the "nomodeset." Where is this option so I can activate it? I have read you must press F6 at the SPLASH screen, however I have pressed F6 during the entire start up and can not get to this option. I get to the Unetbootin boot menu, then select "Try Ubuntu without installing" then the Ubuntu SPLASH screen comes on with the dots in the middle and that's it. Pressing F6 the entire time (holding it, or pressing several times) gets me nothing. Please help!

My second issue:

When attempting to Install Ubuntu onto the partition, I get an error that it cannot install on the partition I created. I have read that Ubuntu has an issue with installing onto the same partition as the installation CD image, how do I fix this?

Thank you for reading and please help!

Jesse

[C S]

I have the infamous graphics issue which I have read is fixed using the "nomodeset." Where is this option so I can activate it? I have read you must press F6 at the SPLASH screen, however I have pressed F6 during the entire start up and can not get to this option. I get to the Unetbootin boot menu, then select "Try Ubuntu without installing" then the Ubuntu SPLASH screen comes on with the dots in the middle and that's it. Pressing F6 the entire time (holding it, or pressing several times) gets me nothing. Please help!

Well, might as well eliminate the obvious first. When you press F6, are you really pressing F6? I mean, remember you have to hold down 'fn' first otherwise the MBA thinks you're pushing the "previous track" button.

When attempting to Install Ubuntu onto the partition, I get an error that it cannot install on the partition I created. I have read that Ubuntu has an issue with installing onto the same partition as the installation CD image, how do I fix this?

I don't know where you got your instructions about 'dd'-ing to a partition and booting off it, but those instructions *should* (but maybe didn't) have said to create an extra partition for this very purpose. In other words, partition your drive for Ubuntu installation, but make a extra, tiny partition big enough to hold the CD image (and maybe a bit bigger if you're going to use it as a LiveCD). Then you install onto a regular partition (say you made one for root & home, and a second for swap, then you would install onto the first root & home partition). After successful installation, you would then get rid of the extra one.

Let me mention a couple things here. 1) Did you download the Mac iso? It should have "mac" in the name. 2) Are you using Lion? I think there are extra problems installing Ubuntu alongside Lion since Lion boots differently and has a recovery partition too.

[razorj7]

I don't know where you got your instructions about 'dd'-ing to a partition and booting off it, but those instructions *should* (but maybe didn't) have said to create an extra partition for this very purpose. In other words, partition your drive for Ubuntu installation, but make a extra, tiny partition big enough to hold the CD image (and maybe a bit bigger if you're going to use it as a LiveCD). Then you install onto a regular partition (say you made one for root & home, and a second for swap, then you would install onto the first root & home partition). After successful installation, you would then get rid of the extra one.

Thank you for your help! I finally was able to boot and install the Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 2 (the +mac one) onto my Air 3,2. However, I am now experiencing more issues within Ubuntu itself. Here is what's going on:

First off, I have no idea to actually fix the nomodeset graphics issue, please help? I used the infamous post-install script for the Air 4,2 that has been going around, but that was probably a terrible idea. Now when I boot into Ubuntu my mouse doesn't work and it won't detect my nVidia card even after I search for the restricted driver. So since I may have messed things up with the post-install script should I just do a fresh reinstall? Btw, it was the 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot post-install script for the Air 4,2. I have the Air 3,2 with 12.04 beta 2 mac version, and I have Lion on my Air.

Please Help!

Thank you everyone!

Jesse

[Myon87]

Hi!

Running Ubuntu 12.04 on my MBA 3.2. Installation was a breeze and almost everything is mint! I want to thank everyone who makes ubuntu work so well on macs!

I have one annoying problem though. After a fresh boot, I can adjust brightness with the function keys and in the settings. After the lid is closed, however, I can not. Also the brightness is set at max, which burns my eyes

I have been looking through ask ubuntu and in the wiki. The only lead I got was that it might have something to do with /etc/acpi/lid.sh not working. But it is beyond my programing skills to figure out what might cause the problem.

Edit: Forgot to ask for help with this problem. Please help Does anyone else have the same problem as me, btw?

[Dreamsorcerer]

I have one annoying problem though. After a fresh boot, I can adjust brightness with the function keys and in the settings. After the lid is closed, however, I can not. Also the brightness is set at max, which burns my eyes

It's not the lid, it happens when you suspend. I have mine set to just switch off the backlight when the lid is closed, and it's fine then. It only has that problem when resuming from suspend. I think this is probably a bug in the Nouveau driver, I think they are still working on getting suspend to work perfectly with it.

You could try using the proprietary driver, but in my experience you can't change the brightness at all out-of-the-box. You can install it with

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current -y

and remove it again with

sudo apt-get remove nvidia-current

The only other problem I've seen with this release is that 3-finger click doesn't work for middle click.

[Ptitphilou]

Hi everyone,

I've installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my macbook air (model middle-2011), and I have my first issue. Yes, it is my first time on Linux, and everything is a little bit difficult... It concerns the keyboard : I've set it to "french (macintosh)", and I've got almost every touch working, but some not, including the at sign, the exclamation mark and some others... it's very incomfortable, does anyone knows a solution? I'm even ready to map it myself, but I've no idea how to do it.

My config :
MBA middle-2011
running Ubuntu 12.04 on VMWare Fusion 4

Thanks to anyone who could help