Macbook Pro 8,1 + Maverick

[tilarids]

I just wanted to say thank you for everyone on the thread who spend their time to make my life easier. Special thanks to Sloth(your howto and igd.c was very useful) and angri(for mentioning lvds_use_ssc=0 option that helped me to deal with green screen issue). It took me some time but now I have a mbp 8,2 with radeon graphics switched off and suspend/resume working like a charm.

For those who can edit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro8-1/Natty , please add a direct links to the http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=259 (Sloth's howto), http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=261 (igd.c for suspend/resume) and http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=593 (green issue). It will save a lot of time for anyone who wants to put linux on their mbp.

[dentifrice]

Hi there,

Just got a MacBookPro 8,2 (15", with hires screen option) late 2011 (the ones that were issued in October). Most of the hardware seems identical to the previous early 2011 models, but you never know with Apple, so : has anyone installed GNU/Linux on these late 2011 models?

This thread has a lot of very interesting stuff in it, but I'm wondering how much of it is still valid. I'm trying to run a Linux 3.1 kernel. Is patching still needed (the LVDS patch was submitted in April, was it ever included)?

I installed Debian through debootstrap using Oneiric's alternate installer, and generated a grub.efi to EFI boot right away, but I either get a black screen (with the outb commands to power off the discrete graphics) or a totally garbled output with, say, 'nomodeset'. It allows me to type my passphrase and login though. I can reboot the machine this way.

I also installed grub-pc and a BIOS boot partition as a fallback, but it won't even load grub, saying "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key". It's a bit of a pain for I can't boot in BIOS emulation mode to capture my vbios.bin & int10.bin.

So, would anyone with the exact same model would be so kind as to share those files with me (and well, tell which steps were necessary to make it boot, either EFI or BIOSemu)?

Thanks in advance (sorry, lots of questions)

[dentifrice]

This thread has a lot of very interesting stuff in it, but I'm wondering how much of it is still valid. I'm trying to run a Linux 3.1 kernel. Is patching still needed (the LVDS patch was submitted in April, was it ever included)?

It appears the LVDS patch was never included. It does not apply cleanly against Linux 3.1.1 but I applied it by hand, but unfortunately, this brought no change whatsoever: I still get a totally messed up and unreadable output but the machine boots.

Any suggestion as to what to look for specifically when ssh'ing into the box?

[fooblahblah]

It appears the LVDS patch was never included. It does not apply cleanly against Linux 3.1.1 but I applied it by hand, but unfortunately, this brought no change whatsoever: I still get a totally messed up and unreadable output but the machine boots.

Any suggestion as to what to look for specifically when ssh'ing into the box?

I've been applying the patch through 3.1-mainline. Here is an Arch AUR package which might have a patch that'll work for you. I'm not sure if I updated it last time I tweaked the patch. I'll check tomorrow when I get to work (left the machine there over the weekend).

https://github.com/fooblahblah/linux-mainline-efi-lvds

I should have a patch that works in 3.2 also, but I'm currently booting in BIOS emulation because I like using an external monitor to code. BTW, I noticed in 3.2 the BIOS emulation boots way faster than previous kernels.

[dentifrice]

I've been applying the patch through 3.1-mainline. Here is an Arch AUR package which might have a patch that'll work for you. I'm not sure if I updated it last time I tweaked the patch. I'll check tomorrow when I get to work (left the machine there over the weekend).

https://github.com/fooblahblah/linux-mainline-efi-lvds

I should have a patch that works in 3.2 also, but I'm currently booting in BIOS emulation because I like using an external monitor to code. BTW, I noticed in 3.2 the BIOS emulation boots way faster than previous kernels.

Thanks for your answer! So it seems that external monitor doesn't work in EFI? Are there any hints on how to find a workaround? Is it the only missing feature in EFI mode, or are some other things not working either?

I did apply the LVDS patch to kernel 3.1.1 though, with no results. Edit: I spoke too fast, after compiling the igd C code that's floating around this thread and making it run whenever the i915 module's loaded, I do get to the console, and I can even start Xorg with the 'intel' driver! yay!

Did you get a garbled screen output before applying the patch in EFI mode? Edit: the garbled screen is most likely related to the radeon KMS which fails to read the vbios.bin that grub passes. I've applied the radeon_fix patch which I also found in the thread but haven't compiled the kernel yet.

I saw on the pointer you gave that there was more than one i915 patch though, so I'm wondering: as of Linux 3.1.1 (or 3.2), what patches are required, with which kernel boot options? Edit: so far I've found the following patches which seem to be necessary for correct EFI booting and/or functionality:

• i915_lvds, for intel display
• radeon_fix, for radeon kms
• backlight, for bl adjustement
• applesmc (it was a dirty hack, has there been an update?) for sensor activation
• apple_gmux, for enabling graphic switching
• vga_switcheroo, for using the standard mecanism to switch between igd/discrete

I've only used the first patch and will keep testing as I go, but it'd be nice to know if more of them are required or get get pointers to their most recent incarnations. Edit: after compiling a kernel with all aforementionned patches, I could boot it once by adding fix_video and i915.modeset=1 to the linux options in grub (or was that it? I can't reproduce!) and then had a diversity of kernel panics/black screen/green screen upon reboot. I don't know which patch is the culprit, but I still get scrambled screen until radeon KMS is off the hook (logs say it can't find VBIOS still, in spite of my vbios.bin in grub.cfg). Any clue?

Also, are you using MBP8,2 yourself?

I'll be back with more questions as I spotted a number of weird intel_hda timeout errors in dmesg.

Cheers,

[bendavis78]

Hi, I was reading Sloth's how-to, and had a few questions.

• Can someone explain to me what "EFI" is, and how that differs from a normal install?
• Does EFI support dual-booting OSX?
• Is the "traditional BIOS install" referenced in Sloth's how-to what I did? (see below)

A little background: I'm pretty new to mactel machines. I have a MBP 8,3. I installed Oneiric using the cd, and didn't do anything too different from a traditional PC install other than partition the drive for the Ubuntu OS (and to keep Mac OS). With a few fixes for wireless and mouse, everything seemed to work ok until I started having suspend/resume issues. Also my battery life sucks.

[dentifrice]

Hi, I was reading Sloth's how-to, and had a few questions.

• Can someone explain to me what "EFI" is, and how that differs from a normal install?

It's the native way to boot a Mactel, as opposed to BIOS emulation booting, which involves, well, emulating a BIOS that doesn't exist. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFIBooting for more info.

• Does EFI support dual-booting OSX?

Yes.

• Is the "traditional BIOS install" referenced in Sloth's how-to what I did? (see below)

Probably. If not, you would have had to generate a grub.efi binary and would probably remember doing so. Then again, it may be automatted in Oneiric, I don't know. Check a few posts back, as someone gave a recipe to check whether you were booting EFI or not.

[mj0g]

Hi, I was reading

• Can someone explain to me what "EFI" is, and how that differs from a normal install?

EFI is a modern replacement for the traditional PC BIOS, the software that is responsible for initialising your hardware when it is powered on and subsequently booting your operating system, amongst other things. Mactel computers use EFI, but also support emulating a BIOS to support operating systems like Windows and older Linux distros that do not support being booted via EFI.

If you're doing an EFI boot, you're booting an operating system that is EFI-aware. This typically requires at least support for EFI in the bootloader and kernel. If you are doing a BIOS compatibility boot, you are booting any old PC operating system.

The installation differences between the two are typically, for an EFI boot: a bootloader and kernel that supports EFI are installed, and your hard disk uses the GPT partition layout. If you are doing a BIOS compatibility boot, you likely have a non-EFI aware bootloader and kernel installed, and hard disk with the traditional PC MBR partitioning scheme.

• Does EFI support dual-booting OSX?

Yes.

• Is the "traditional BIOS install" referenced in Sloth's how-to what I did? (see below)

It depends, but if you did a standard, fresh Oneiric install, you are probably doing an EFI boot.

Try running this in an terminal after booting:

grep -ci efi /var/log/kern.log

If it prints a large number (I get 200), you're booting using EFI.

[hanzomon4]

I get back a 0.. so I guess not. I installed using the ubuntu mac iso. How would I go about setting up efi boot?

[dentifrice]

I get back a 0.. so I guess not. I installed using the ubuntu mac iso. How would I go about setting up efi boot?

I would start right here with the first post on this very page we're on: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=731

Beware though, you'll probably find yourself spending lots of hours going back and forth this thread. I'll try to write a detailed walk-through (Debian specific, but most if not all of it applies to Ubuntu as well I guess) once I get there.