Ubuntu on MacBook Air 3,2

[User4519]

@Henrique:

It seems it might not be necessary to do any active TRIMming with this SSD, if this article is right:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3991/a...nch-reviewed/4

[User4519]

@myself, regarding fn+f keys, this IS configurable, see:
http://blog.adamsbros.org/2009/06/14...y-mode-fnmode/

[Dreamsorcerer]

2) Battery life. I only hear answers guessing about it in percentages compared to OS X battery life, but that doesn't really tell me anything. Can someone provide HH:MM numbers? For instance, on my ASUS UL30A which was stolen last year, I'd get about 4-5 hrs normal browsing and work time with full screen brightness and wifi+bt on.

With mid screen brightness (which is very viewable in most environments), light-moderate usage, I definitely get over 5 hours. I have noticed that if I run Powertop, Ubuntu is not brilliant at power management, so I think this could be improved with some tweaking somehow.

3) Touchpad functionality. I hear people talking about inconsistencies, having to double or triple click to get a click, but don't hear any rebuttals. In particular:
* Does tapping (not the "press hard and it clicks") work like a "normal" supported touchpad?
* Do two- and three-finger tapping work? (and if so, which is middle and which is right click, and is it configurable?)
* Does vertical two-finger scrolling work?
* Does horizontal two-finger scrolling work?
* Does pinching and rotating work? (provided that any apps actually support this, I haven't ever used it myself )

I became accustomed to the click and got annoyed with it clicking when my hand brushed over the trackpad, so I turned tapping off, but I think it did work (just not sure how well).
Two finger click works for a right-click, and 3 finger click works for a middle click. That's the norm, so I've never looked into configuring it.
Horizontal/vertical scrolling works fine.
Not aware of anything that uses pinching or rotating to be able to test this out.

The only problem I have with it, is the discrepancy at the bottom of the trackpad. If you have a finger in the bottom ~20% of the trackpad, and your fingers are not positioned horizontally, then multi-touch (right-click, scrolling etc.) doesn't work, it acts as if you only had one finger on the trackpad. Doesn't seem that anyone has come up with a fix for this yet.

4) Does the microphone work? I read one write that his didn't, haven't seen otherwise.

Just opened sound recorder, and it's working fine for me. Does seem a tiny bit quiet though.

And, thanks for the Fn key tip, added to the wiki.

[Dreamsorcerer]

-Stupid servers...-

[Dreamsorcerer]

-...posting my message 4 times...-

[Dreamsorcerer]

-...or, maybe I just like editing these messages.-

[User4519]

LOL Thanks for the message(s)

5 hours sounds pretty good, especially considering the nVidia chip.

Also very nice to hear that both double and triple clicking works properly. I never managed to get triple clicking to work properly on my UL30A.

Thanks!

[Dreamsorcerer]

@myself, regarding fn+f keys, this IS configurable, see:
http://blog.adamsbros.org/2009/06/14...y-mode-fnmode/

Just realised this configuration doesn't persist after boot, anybody know how to make it permanent?

[User4519]

Just realised this configuration doesn't persist after boot, anybody know how to make it permanent?

You could always add it to /etc/rc.local (as root). It'll then run at the end of every boot sequence.

[Kevincav]

Hello,

I just received my 13" macbook air today. I'm trying to install Ubuntu per the wiki page, although I'm installing with the USB. It recognizes it and goes through everything normal except for I can't select f6 nor nomodeset. Is there a way to do this still. I'm doing the 32 bit version.