ubuntu on new retina macbook : any experience ?

**ksatta1** · January 17th, 2013

Originally Posted by raccoonone

Where you able to use the external monitor connectors? I never did manage to get those working right.

I think you have to use the nvidia adapter and install nvidia's proprietary drivers. (Haven't tried it myself yet, though). I think I read somewhere that works atleast. I'll probably connect an external monitor at some point and try to get it to work with intel adapter. But like I said, haven't tested at all yet.

Originally Posted by Garlandg

Just for clarity, the guide linked by nsicad was written by me. I haven't tried the alternate method mentioned by ksatta1, but most of the time the Wifi works perfectly for me. (The internet where I am is unreliable, so I can't be sure which is the culprit.) I almost always use the wifi, although here the internet has been dropping on Mac OSX some too (at home it's fine), so I have a wired connection too.

Strange. I'll probably figure out what's going on with the WiFi some day. I haven't tried 13.04 daily since christmas, so that might work.

Also I don't know what's going on with my Macbook.. I've recently experienced the "flashes" that other users have reported too when using the intel display adapter. Today I tilted the Macbook and the display started flashing (it's like it writes to the wrong mem address, titlebars flash lower than they should be etc..), and I tested atleast 5 times, each time I tilted the Macbook it started flashing, when I leveled it the flashing stopped. No problems so far in Windows or OS X, but I'm on Linux maybe 95% of the time. And right now no flashing

I have noticed that the microphone for say an iphone headset (I'm using an adapter for the audio jack) doesn't work in Linux (or WIndows for that matter), but the headphones do. A solution for that would be really helpful, if anyone has one. My internal mic works well though.

Alsamixer shows the "Mic" channel in the capture section, but that's probably the Macbook's own mic. It seemed to be set to level "0" by default. Also can you choose the external mic as an input device from "pavucontrol" when it's connected? Just an idea.

**freeaks** · January 18th, 2013

Originally Posted by ksatta1

nsicad:
freeaks and others with intel/nvidia problems, there's more on the subject in the other thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2098304. (freeaks situation still unsolved as of now).

thanks for the reply

is there a place i could look at to get info about the state of the problem, so i could know when it gets fixed?
how did you know this is still unsolved?
i've read here and the on the various distros forums that some could successfully use their intel integrated chip. i wonder if they all had to recompile their kernel.

**ksatta1** · January 18th, 2013

Originally Posted by freeaks

thanks for the reply

is there a place i could look at to get info about the state of the problem, so i could know when it gets fixed?
how did you know this is still unsolved?
i've read here and the on the various distros forums that some could successfully use their intel integrated chip. i wonder if they all had to recompile their kernel.

I think I used about 1 week on it total

Right now I'm running 12.10 with kernel 3.8 rc3 (right now I'm using debs downloaded from ubuntu mainline site http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ . The raring-xx debs (they work on 12.10 too))

I marked it solved because it works for me, freeaks situation is special atleast so that he doesn't have refit, just straight grub boot. EDIT: just realized you're freeaks, LOL

Anyway the thing that got it working for me in the end was using the older gfxCardStatus in OS X. I have to boot to OS X, select Integrated Only, then reboot and ubuntu. Sometimes I have to do it a couple of times (ubuntu freezes at boot), but once it boots, no problems with it except the occasional flashes that others have reported too. I had some of those yesterday and this morning, but after that it's been fine.

Anyway now I have Xubuntu running, 2880x1800 res, battery life around 7 hrs etc.. Very happy with it except the WiFi, which seems to work very randomly.. no problems today so far, reason unknown.

EDIT2: I also posted a reply in the other thread yesterday (to try switching to integrated more than once), that's how I knew it's unsolved. Anyway if you can't get it to work, I can mark it unsolved.

**Garlandg** · January 20th, 2013

I can confirm that the HDMI out works, though I am running the nvidia drivers. I don't have a mini-DVI cable on me, so I can't test that.

pavucontrol doesn't seem to see my mic either.

I've updated the instructions with better outlining, hopefully a better explanation for the beginning parts, and more direct instructions.

I was having issues with Ubuntu and the time of the last mount of hard drives causing it to fail to boot.

I decided to try an experiment. I installed Mint 14 onto the external hard drive using a different computer (using a similar procedure to my guide), chrooted into the install, and installed the raring 3.7.3 kernel from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa.../v3.7.3-raring /

I had to add the raring restricted packages in the sources.list to get the nvidia drivers to work properly. So far, it has been quite stable and it also made me decide to add a "Boot to shell" option in my guide and for my install.

Now if I could just get Ubuntu Software Center working...

**nsicad** · January 20th, 2013

Originally Posted by Garlandg

I can confirm that the HDMI out works, though I am running the nvidia drivers. I don't have a mini-DVI cable on me, so I can't test that.

pavucontrol doesn't seem to see my mic either.

I've updated the instructions with better outlining, hopefully a better explanation for the beginning parts, and more direct instructions.

I was having issues with Ubuntu and the time of the last mount of hard drives causing it to fail to boot.

I decided to try an experiment. I installed Mint 14 onto the external hard drive using a different computer (using a similar procedure to my guide), chrooted into the install, and installed the raring 3.7.3 kernel from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa.../v3.7.3-raring /

I had to add the raring restricted packages in the sources.list to get the nvidia drivers to work properly. So far, it has been quite stable and it also made me decide to add a "Boot to shell" option in my guide and for my install.

Now if I could just get Ubuntu Software Center working...

Thanks for updating your guide. It is clearer now.

http://linuxmacbookproretina.blogspo...cbook-pro.html

I got one question on the 13.04 daily build iso, what is the default of this iso? Is is 3.8.x or 3.7.x?

I have problem in previous iso's once I update the kernel on the external drive (with installed ubuntu), I could not boot that external drive anymore. I am hoping that 13.04 comes with 3.8.x kernel.

Anybody have custom / remastered 13.04 iso that comes with 3.8.x linux kernel?

**freeaks** · January 20th, 2013

Originally Posted by nsicad

Anybody have custom / remastered 13.04 iso that comes with 3.8.x linux kernel?

daily build have kernel 3.8 since one week already.
grab a new iso burn it to usb stick like this:

Code:

sudo dd if=raring.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=8M

replace "raring.iso" and "/dev/sdb" by respectively, the iso filename (in the same dir you're typing the command) and the device of your usb stick. (when you insert your usb stick, type dmesg, it should show you the device name of the stick)

**thhart** · January 20th, 2013

From my personal experience I still keep using Ubuntu in a Virtual environment (Parallels in my case). The graphic issues still are unresolved and it needs some time of kernel (driver,gmux) to fix it.
For all who still want to test please see this thread for information how to activate the Intel device: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=12449607. An older GfxCardStatus has to be used to get the graphics switched. In my environment I can deactivated the discrete Nvidia device via vgaswitcheroo then and temperature and heat is getting down.

IMHO the Nvidia device is simply not usable in either Linux or OSX when not playing. The beast is getting hot and the fans are running all the time quite loud. I don't like this.
I am curious if somebody has an idea how to disable the Nvidia completely (BIOS/EFI wise). I have made some tests with the Intel device and the 3D numbers are not as bad.

**Garlandg** · January 21st, 2013

The nvidia chip shouldn't be doing that. I've been using it while gaming, and it doesn't reach 80C. What temps are you seeing?

Mine initially were really high, and i was concerned. I did an SMC reset, and that fixed the issue:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

**thhart** · January 27th, 2013

Originally Posted by Garlandg

The nvidia chip shouldn't be doing that. I've been using it while gaming, and it doesn't reach 80C. What temps are you seeing?

Mine initially were really high, and i was concerned. I did an SMC reset, and that fixed the issue:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

It is not getting extremely hot but the fact that the fan is needed with a higher speed when not playing is not acceptable. The NVIDIA temp is showing 40-50 when idle and up to 60 while doing normal Desktop stuff. Even when I use OSX and the discrete is activated it has to be cooled noticeable.
I tried the SMC resetting without changes.
As I stated already, the switching capability is a must for Linux and currently it is not working.
Again if anybody has a reliable solution I am very curious to hear about.