Macbook Core 2 Duo & ubuntu Edgy (and Feisty)

(This might have been outdated by now, as I do not have a macbook any more)
General installation

I just followed the guide [1] at wiki.ubuntu.com, most of the stuff works great with the core 2 duo edition, but some stuff can give problems, for example wireless network, this is because apple uses a new chip, and it is currently not supported by hal and madwifi, but it very soon will be, the rumours tells [2].

There are some notes about the use in feisty, I am though using edgy, since i got tired of all the errors and things that didn’t work in feisty.

xmodmap conf

(fn+RIGHT, LEFT, UP and DOWN = home, end, pageUp and pageDown in feisty)

!! Makes reight apple button work as ALT_GR (found in comment #57 at http://bin-false.org/?p=17) keycode 116 = ISO_Level3_Shift NoSymbol Pointer_Button3 keycode 115 = Mode_switch !! Makes left apple button + backspace work as delete. keycode 22 = BackSpace Delete Delete !! Makes left apple button + up/down work as PageUp/PageDown. keycode 98 = Up Up Prior keycode 104 = Down Down Next !! Makes left apple button + left/right work as home/end. keycode 100 = Left Left Home keycode 102 = Right Right End

You will need to run

sudo sed -i~ 's/KP_Enter/Pointer_Button3, Pointer_Button3, Pointer_Button2, Pointer_Button2/' /etc/X11/xkb/symbols/pcgconftool-2 --type bool --set /desktop/gnome/accessibility/keyboard/enable truegconftool-2 --type bool --set /desktop/gnome/accessibility/keyboard/mousekeys_enable truexmodmap [xmodmap-conf-file]

and restart x (ctrl + alt + backslash) to make this take effect.

Wifi with madwifi (no encrypted net)

(Works in both edgy and feisty)

I got my wireless network card working with madwifi’s new “experimental” driver [7] (not fully developed but works), get the svn version
svn co http://svn.madwifi.org/branches/madwifi-hal-0.9.30.10
and do
$ sudo apt-get install g++ $ make $ sudo make install

This will hopefully make it possible for me to use linux at my university (the ndiswrapper way works fine all other places).

To stop using the madwifi driver and start using ndiswrapper do:

sudo modprobe -r ath_pci sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

(the first time you may need to load the ath_pci module, before it works).
Wifi with ndiswrapper

(Currently not working in feisty)
I found a temporary solution on http://madwifi.org/ticket/1001.
This description should be very easy to follow, even for new users, so the more advanced users will have to bare with me.
(You might need libgc-dev if you do not already has it, sudo apt-get install libgc-dev)

$ sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.8

When you have installed it, you need to download the windows driver from from www.dlink.com/products/support.asp?pid=489&sec=0, in the zip file, there is a folder called Driver and in that one there is a file called net5416.inf.
now

$ sudo modpobe ndiswrapper $ sudo ndiswrapper -i [path-to-net5416]$ iwconfig

should show wlan0
If you don’t know how to use ndiswrapper you may be able to use ndisgtk.

You may need to load the ndiswrapper with modprobe to use the driver (put ndiswrapper in /etc/modules to load automatically).

I Have had a lot of problems with the ndiswrapper driver, for example at my university where they use roaming, this resulted in a kernel panic, therefor I have out commented the line in /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper, and made a small aplication to turn it on and off (see picture below).

Download the code here (install instructions in ndisload.cs)

Gnome network manager

I have some problems with the network-manager, it can’t by default show my wireless network, but i found [3] a solution to this.

I just had to comment out everything else than the lines containing “lo” in the /etc/network/interfaces.

Restart network manager with

sudo /etc/init.d/dbus restart

Backlight

(works out of the boks in feisty, push F1 or F2)
To get the backlight function working, download the source code [4] and compiled with this metode

gcc -Wall -DGENERATION_2 macbook-backlight.c -o macbook-backlight -lpci

From [5] and “-lpci” found after general searching

Copy the macbook_backlight file to /user/bin/ and you are able to access it (with sudo) from every directory

CPU temperature monitoring

(both edgy and feisty)

Read how its don here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1868093&highlight=temperature#post1868093

Scrolling

(only tested in fesity)

I found a short introduction to scrolling at [1]

sudo apt-get -y install gsynaptics

add the following to “Input Device – Synaptics Touchpad section” in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Option          "SHMConfig"             "true"

If you cant find the synaptics part of xorg.conf, do:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Found at [8]
High-def video

Add

Option "LinearAlloc" "16384"

to /etc/X11/xorg.conf under device section, to watch high-def videos, found at [10]
VPN in edgy

Read how here [11]
MPlayer in feisty

MPlayer seems to have a bug in feisty, it reeds joystick, which fucks up listening/viewing, add nojoystick=1 to /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf, solution found at [9].

Maple 10 on edgy and feisty (herd 5)

This does not really has anything to do with macbook, but it is a fix for those who want to use maple , the fix can be seen here [6] (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=283473)

References