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Thread: Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

  1. #1
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    Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

    I'm considering a mac for my next purchase, and of course I'd put Linux on it...

    But, I'd like to get one of the latest-and-greatest MacBook pro's - The new thinner unibody MacBook Pro... I understand that the hardware is (somewhat) bleeding edge, however, so my question is could I run ubuntu on it?

    I'm comfortable with hacking around in Ubuntu to get it running, as long as it's stable once I'm done.

    So, can it be done/has it been done?
    My Linux Blog: http://slick-linux.blogspot.com/ ... Readers and comments welcome!

  2. #2
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    Re: Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

    ohhh thats right ubuntu doesnt have the powerpc edition like some of the other distros... im sure it can be done tho!

    ill be able to let you know in a few weeks becuase im getting the new MBP anywho and will try to get ubuntu on it!

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    Re: Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

    Quote Originally Posted by surj08 View Post
    ohhh thats right ubuntu doesnt have the powerpc edition like some of the other distros... im sure it can be done tho!

    ill be able to let you know in a few weeks becuase im getting the new MBP anywho and will try to get ubuntu on it!
    AFAIK the new MBP is intel, not ppc...
    My Linux Blog: http://slick-linux.blogspot.com/ ... Readers and comments welcome!

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    Re: Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

    enigma,

    it will definitely work eventually, but it is difficult to know before trying, exactly what the difficulties will be. Whomever gets the new machine first would be making the community a big favor by reporting as many problems here as quickly as possible. Here are some diagnostic tools to try out:

    Code:
    sudo dmidecode | grep 'Product Name:'
    We will need to know the exact product names of these beauties.

    Code:
    lsusb
    An overview of the USB devices

    Code:
    sudo scan-smc.sh
    Script to map out the SMC keys, available in this post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...3&postcount=11

    Code:
    sudo lsusb -vv -d 05ac:<trackpad device id>
    All details of the trackpad device, which presumably is similar to the Macbook Air, but most likely has a new device id (which can be found by the output of lsusb).

    Furthermore, the nvidia chips might pose problems, but others will be better suited to deal with those questions.

  5. #5
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    Re: Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

    Well, I'll probably have the money for a new one by May... so hopefully most of the kinks will be worked out by then...

    AFAIK Mac OSX operates the nVidia chips by running dynamically in SLI mode for games, running the 9600 chip for higher performance apps, and the 9400 chip for typical desktop usage. I would think that the binary nVidia driver should do/handle all of this?
    My Linux Blog: http://slick-linux.blogspot.com/ ... Readers and comments welcome!

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    Re: Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

    Quote Originally Posted by enigma_0Z View Post
    AFAIK Mac OSX operates the nVidia chips by running dynamically in SLI mode for games, running the 9600 chip for higher performance apps, and the 9400 chip for typical desktop usage. I would think that the binary nVidia driver should do/handle all of this?
    That could be a bad assumption. First, since I think this the first time this hardware has made an appearance, there is likely not (full) support for it in the proprietary or open drivers. We have had trouble on new nvidia hardware in Macs before... then again, it could "just work" and surprise us all.

    We were discussing some of this in this thread too:
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=947947

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    Re: Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

    I'm getting mine today!!! I'll keep you posted with whatever I figure out. I'm super pumped for my first intel mac and this is one of the big reasons.

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    Re: Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

    I was under the impression that the new MBP setup did not include a full SLI. I could be wrong, but I heard that the user decided on boot which GPU to use. Parallel processing, therefore, would not be possible in a sense.

    In that case, I think only the driver for one or the other card would be necessary, but how which driver is used I have no idea, perhaps the default 9400? But I don't know. Can anyone verify this?

  9. #9
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    Re: Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

    One has to choose the GPU in the preferences, then log out (not reboot) to switch. It is unclear whether future versions of OSX might allow the switch without logging out, but in any case the driver is not doing anything automatically.

    It was also said that running under Windows, it will always use the faster discrete card, so I assume that it would be the same under Linux by default.

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    Re: Ubuntu on new (unibody) Macbook Pro?

    Quote Originally Posted by Spark* View Post
    One has to choose the GPU in the preferences, then log out (not reboot) to switch. It is unclear whether future versions of OSX might allow the switch without logging out, but in any case the driver is not doing anything automatically.

    It was also said that running under Windows, it will always use the faster discrete card, so I assume that it would be the same under Linux by default.
    Good to know. However, I'd imagine that the two cards have different PCI ID's and would thus be switchable in Linux, after a restart of the X server (accomplishes basically what a logout/in does on the Mac)
    My Linux Blog: http://slick-linux.blogspot.com/ ... Readers and comments welcome!

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