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Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex Experience on a Macbook 2,1

lijamez — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:04:44 +0000

Fresh out of the oven, I test the latest offering from Canonical, Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, on my Macbook 2,1. Currently, I dedicate 32GB of my hard drive to Windows with Boot Camp. Because Wubi for some reason does not work in boot camp, and Disk Utility was being rather wonky, I will sacrifice my whole hard drive to test this release.

Macbook2,1 Specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz
1GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz (2x 512MB)
120 GB Hitachi Hard Drive
HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N (LG DVD Drive)
Intel GMA 950 Graphics
Atheros Wi-Fi
Intel HD Audio
Apple Bluetooth

Additional Hardware:

Samsung SyncMaster 225BW External Monitor

This experiment aims to determine the level of hardware compatibility of Ubuntu on the 2nd generation Macbook and not necessarily provide a general review. I will also make comparisons of this release with my Hardy Heron experience post.

LiveCD Impressions

: Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex Desktop

Intrepid Ibex sports a shinier interface than Hardy Heron. Some noticeable differences include the slightly tweaked interface in the menus and a new progress bar.

The LiveCD detected my 1280 x 800 resolution properly when the laptop was not connected to an external monitor. When Ubuntu booted with the external monitor, it used 1024 x 768 mirrored on both screens.

Installation

Pre-Install Note: If you have OSX and plan to single boot Ubuntu, then change the startup chime to something acceptable by changing the volume inside OSX before you wipe it. It will be impossible to change the chime volume without OSX.

For some reason, Ubuntu 8.10 sometimes does not boot after an install with complete wipe of the hard drive. Upon boot, I have seen the dreaded flashing question mark folder numerous times. After many failed attempts, I think I figured out a way to a proper install. (This procedure is for a single boot Ubuntu.)

Install Ubuntu by inserting the disc and holding the C key as the Macbook boots.
Do a regular install, wiping the hard drive along with OSX.
At this point if after the reboot Ubuntu runs, then good for you. Otherwise, insert your Mac OSX disc and reboot your computer holding down the C key again.
Once you are inside the OSX install, click Utilities and then choose Terminal.
Type “diskutil list” to list the partitions that you have on your hard drive. Look for your Ubuntu partition which may look something like disk0s1. (Diskutil may report this partition with the name, “Microsoft” something)
We will “bless” the Ubuntu partition so that it boots by invoking the command “bless –device /dev/disk0s1 –setBoot –legacy –verbose” where disk0s1 is your Ubuntu partition.
Restart your computer without the OSX disc. Ubuntu should start up. (Let me know if this doesn’t work!)

Strangely, I noticed that during the install process the map for the time zone sometimes behaves rather erradically in this release and I had a little bit of difficulty choosing my city on the map. Other than that, installation goes as swimmingly as before except now we are greeted with shiny partition bars. Yum.

Also, I noticed that the “Migrate documents and settings” features actually recognizes my Windows XP for once!

Wireless

Thanks to the included Atheros driver, the Macbook’s wireless chipset is now automatically recognized and functioning. This removes one of the biggest annoyances of setting up Ubuntu on this computer. Mad props to Canonical and Atheros.

Trackpad

Two finger scrolling does not work by default although the right hand side of the tackpad serves as the scrolling area. Because there is no default two finger tap support and there is no secondary button on the trackpad, you will have to tap the bottom right corner to right click. (This setting is a little finicky. Keep trying until you manage to right click.)

This page has the solution. Put the code inside a file called anything you like with the extension fdi (e.g. appletouch.fdi) and place it inside /etc/hal/fdi/policy. You’ll need to do a full reboot for these settings to take effect.



  
    
      
        synaptics
        true
        false
        false
        true
        true
        false
        false
        false
        false
        1
        3
        2
        1
        1
        3
        2

The setting still produces common accidental clicks as you move the cursor. To work around this, keep reading.

You should also notice that the trackpad requires a little more pressure from the finger to move the cursor. This may be fixed by installing gSynaptics (or “Touchpad” from Add/Remove).

sudo apt-get install gsynaptics

Once that is installed, go to System > Preferences > Touchpad. Set the sensitivity to whatever you wish. (Mine is at almost max.) While you are here, you should also probably change the tapping time under the “Tapping” tab to something very low so that you don’t accidentally click while moving the mouse.

If anyone has a more OSX-like setting such as one including drag-lock, please share. I know they’re out there.

Keyboard

The keys with lights (num lock, caps lock) no longer light on, but still functions. I still haven’t figured out a way to type with the numpad.

Pressing the function keys will change brightness, volume, etc. Fn + Function key will invoke the actual F1, F2, F3… keys with the exception of F11 and F12 keys. F12 invokes a right click and F11 types out previously existing text (don’t ask!). (Thanks, Tomas for pointing this out.) It looks like some keyboard problems, including the eject key, can be solved by installing pommed. (Thanks, Cybik.)

sudo apt-get install pommed

To get the LED lights working, simply uninstall mouseemu.

sudo apt-get remove mouseemu

Once mouseemu is removed, you’ll notice that the LEDs work, but none of your other keys are responding. A restart is all that’s needed at this point. (Thanks, AlesFlowers.)

Graphics/Display

The Intel GMA 950 works fine out of the box.

Monitor positioning in the “Screen Resolution” app actually works now and so do dual monitors!

External monitor still doesn’t work properly by itself with the laptop screen turned off as evidenced here.

When the display changes brightness (such as when the computer is left idle), the screen should turn down the brightness. In 8.04, this worked wonderfully with a smooth transition. In 8.10, it appears jerky.

iSight

Does not work out of the box. Refer to the community documentation.

Sound and Microphone

Speakers seemed very quiet even when at max volume but after some random tweaking, I found that you should unmute only and adjust the Surround volume to what sounds the most natural. My Surround setting is at maximum.

The built in microphone does not seem to work out of the box.

Other

Bluetooth

Bluetooth appears to work out of the box.

Battery

It still feels like the battery is being drained faster than OSX.

Hard Drive

The load and unload cycles for my hard drive is quite high. If you would like to check yours, follow these instructions (taken from here).

sudo aptitude install smartmontools
sudo smartctl -H /dev/sda
sudo smartctl  -a /dev/sda | grep Load_Cycle_Count

In the reported line, take a look at the last number. Check how much it increases in some length of time and calculate, given that rate, how many cycles will occur in one day or one hour. The ideal rate is 90 or less cycles per day. I get about 21 cycles per 10 minutes (or 126 per hour or 3024 in a day)!

Because the hard drive is a very mechanical component, parking and unparking can deteriorate it. A hard drive is meant to last about a certain number of total cycles. Here is the bug report.

On that blog post, there is more information about the load/unload cycles bug and an “ugly fix” which lets you sacrifice battery life and hard drive protection from sudden movements for a longer hard drive life.

(Thanks, AlesFlowers for the heads up on this issue.)

There is a fix which can reduce the number of cycles. Simply open up /etc/default/acpi-support

sudo gedit /etc/default/acpi-support

Change the value of ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE to true. (Thanks, Mikkel.)

Etc.

Suspend now works perfectly.

Hibernate sort of worked. When hibernating it doesn’t actually shut the computer down so I had to use the power button. It restored from hibernation properly though.

There is a bug with the Screenshot Utility when Compiz is running and there exists a window close effect. The utility takes the screenshot immediately as it closes so it will capture its own window as it is fading out. Workaround: Set the delay to at least one second.

Finally, flash installs inside Firefox properly!

The Macbook generates quite a bit of extra heat in Ubuntu. I’ll see if there is a solution to this.

Conclusion

Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex has slightly improved 2nd generation Macbook support with the inclusion of Atheros Wifi drivers, and proper dual monitor support. Things that still dont work properly out of the box include better trackpad support, dedicated external monitor support, and volume controls. It feels more polished than Hardy Heron, but it for some reason introduces a numerous new bugs (e.g. no LED on caps/num lock keys, numpad no longer works, eject key no longer works, flickering display brightness) which is disappointing. Thankfully, many of these problems can be remedied. Slight hardware and configuration issues aside, after using it for a few days it really does feel more polished than before.

If you would like to tinker some more so that Ubuntu feels more like a Mac then consider taking a look at this article.

References: “How to single boot Linux without delay on Macbook” post, Community Ubuntu Macbook Documentation, Ubuntu Demon’s Blog

Linux Mint 5 Elyssia Experience on a Macbook2,1

lijamez — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:02:39 +0000

I have already tried Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron on my Macbook. To find out the differences between Ubuntu and Linux Mint on the laptop, I decided to try Linux Mint 5, which is heavily based upon Ubuntu 8.04.

Macbook2,1 Specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz
1GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz (2x 512MB)
120 GB Hitachi Hard Drive
HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N (LG DVD Drive)
Intel GMA 950 Graphics
Atheros Wi-Fi
Intel HD Audio
Apple Bluetooth

You may download and try out Linux Mint here if you wish. YMMV.

Installation

As usual, I wipe my entire hard drive and start from scratch. Installation is almost identical to and just as good as Ubuntu 8.04. Easy and flawless.

Wireless

Still no MadWifi drivers mean no out of the box wireless. However, Mint does pre-install both Ndiswrapper and unrar. That way, I had to just pop in my Boot Camp disc, find the Atheros XP drivers (atherosxpinstaller.exe) and using the terminal, unrar the file. Then, I go to the Control Centre, click Windows Wireless Drivers, and choose the net5416.inf file.

It’s unfortunate that the user still needs to take steps to get their wireless working, but Mint helps by pre-installing some required software.

Trackpad

The trackpad feels essentially unchanged from a regular Ubuntu install which is to say, disappointingly bad. A better configuration is provided in the Ubuntu Documentation and my previous Ubuntu experience post.

Keyboard

The keyboard functionality is identical to Ubuntu 8.04 except the brightness indicator looks different from the volume indicator.

Graphics

Desktop effects works out of the box as expected, but Mint includes the Advanced Desktop Effects application (also called CompizConfig Settings Manager) which lets you use a plethora of other, flashier, desktop effects. Nice.

The external monitor issue that I have described in my Ubuntu post is still present.

Sound and Microphone

Quietness and non-logarithmic volume controls are still present. Microphone fix available in Ubuntu Documentation.

Bluetooth

Working, as expected.

Battery

I’ve used Mint for about half an hour now and the battery has already dropped to 79%. The battery life seems to be no different from Hardy.

Conclusion

Linux Mint is a souped up Ubuntu (and that’s a good thing). I sometimes prefer Mint over Ubuntu because it does a lot of things that Ubuntu should be doing or would be convenient. This distro is more featured than Ubuntu out of the box with Ndiswrapper, CompizConfig, unrar, and more that I haven’t come across. Unfortunately, that is all. Mint does not bring better compatibility to the table (at least, for the 2nd gen Macbook) than Ubuntu does. The things that worked still do, and those that didn’t still don’t.

For more information, refer to my Ubuntu Hardy experience.

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Experience on a Macbook 2,1

lijamez — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0000

This post is not a review of Ubuntu 8.04 per-se but it will describe the compatibility and performance of the operating system with my 2nd generation Macbook.

Macbook2,1 Specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz
1GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz (2x 512MB)
120 GB Hitachi Hard Drive
HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N (LG DVD Drive)
Intel GMA 950 Graphics
Atheros Wi-Fi
Intel HD Audio
Apple Bluetooth

Note that this is my personal experience with Ubuntu 8.04 on my Macbook. YMMV.

Installation

I wiped the entire hard drive clean using Ubuntu’s installer to avoid partitioning issues described in a bug. Other than that, installation is extremely straightforward and flawless.

Wireless

The lack of MadWifi drivers in Hardy continue the annoyance of tethering your laptop to an RJ-45 cable to manually download and compile the drivers to get online. My preferred method is to install the Windows Atheros drivers with Ndiswrapper. The instructions for doing so are in the Ubuntu documentation.

The wireless gear that are on my network are configured to have a static IP address for organizational purposes. Once the Atheros drivers are installed, I couldn’t get static IPs to work even with the correct desired IP address, subnet mask, DNS Server, and router address from my working Windows and OSX. I tried both Ndiswrapper and MadWifi drivers and neither of them can get the Internet on a static IP. Maybe I’m just doing it wrong (?).

Trackpad

To be honest the default trackpad settings in a fresh installation is terrible. In OSX, a light brush of the trackpad is enough to move the cursor. However, in Ubuntu more pressure must be applied to the trackpad to increase the surface area that is in contact. This raises an issue with moist fingers that do not slide smoothly. In addition, sometimes a quick brush may register as a click, which will often cause undesired actions such as unfocusing a window, or accidentally clicking on a link. The scroll bar is on the right side of the trackpad, which is not really a problem once you realize it’s there. Because the Apple trackpad has only one button, right clicking is impossible with the default settings.

Fortunately, a much better configuration exists and replacing it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf with this little gem from the Ubuntu documentation is a relief.

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “SendCoreEvents” “true”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
Option “SHMConfig” “true”
Option “LeftEdge” “10″
Option “RightEdge” “1200″
Option “TopEdge” “10″
Option “BottomEdge” “370″
Option “FingerLow” “10″
Option “FingerHigh” “20″
Option “MaxTapTime” “180″
Option “MaxTapMove” “220″
Option “SingleTapTimeout” “100″
Option “MaxDoubleTapTime” “180″
Option “LockedDrags” “off”
Option “MinSpeed” “1.10″
Option “MaxSpeed” “1.30″
Option “AccelFactor” “0.08″
Option “TapButton1″ “1″
Option “TapButton2″ “3″
Option “TapButton3″ “2″
Option “RTCornerButton” “0″
Option “RBCornerButton” “0″
Option “LTCornerButton” “0″
Option “LBCornerButton” “0″
Option “VertScrollDelta” “20″
Option “HorizScrollDelta” “50″
Option “HorizEdgeScroll” “0″
Option “VertEdgeScroll” “0″
Option “VertTwoFingerScroll” “1″
Option “HorizTwoFingerScroll” “1″
EndSection

This configuration will increase the sensitivity, add right clicking via two finger tap, scrolling with two fingers, and middle clicking with three fingers (which is something even OSX doesn’t have)! It would be nice if that configuration comes with a fresh install.

Keyboard

During install, I chose “US – Macintosh” as my keyboard. The function keys work just fine. A press of the F keys will toggle screen and volume settings and fn + F keys will result in the actual F1, F2, F3, etc. (Almost identical to OSX.)

Graphics

Compiz 3D effects worked straight away and ran quite smoothly with extra effects. No additional drivers needed.

At home, I like to use my external monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 225BW) instead of the laptop’s screen. Using Ubuntu with that DVI monitor works, but somewhat strangely. In the Screen Resolution application, I set the external to its native resolution, 1680×1050 and my laptop’s screen to “Off.” Chances are, once I apply the settings my external will display a garbled screen. After much experimenting, I realized that I must move the mouse around the screen as I apply the setting to temporarily prevent it. (Looks like bug#209528)
I posted a video of the problem here. Note: The distorted screen appears only at higher resolutions, including 1280×1024.

iSight

Does not work out of the box but I didn’t try to install the drivers. Instructions are in the Ubuntu documentation. Linux distros seem to lack a high quality web conferencing client anyway.

Sound and Microphone

Worked out of the box, but seems a little quiet even when volume controls are set to maximum. The volume slider is also not very smooth. The first ~0%-50% produced almost no volume difference and ~70%-100% changes the volume significantly which suggests that the slider is not logarithmic. There is a section in the Ubuntu Documentation that may help, but I experienced distortion at high volumes. I had to enable and unmute “Surround” inside volume controls. With enough experimenting to find a satisfactory setting, it may not be a critical issue.

Did not test the microphone, but it seems to be a simple volume issue.

Other

Bluetooth

Seems to be working out of the box.

iPod Touch/iPhone

I was disappointed when I realized my iPod Touch does not work as well as I thought it would after reading some stuff about it. The package ipod-convenience does enable the iPod to be mounted wirelessly but the software constantly crashes and freezes my desktop, turning several processes into zombies. I understand that the iPhone/iPod Touch software is completely different under the hood so there’s nothing to do but wait.

For those who are interested in trying it out, this is the article I used.

Battery

My informal testing felt like Ubuntu and OSX has the same battery life when Ubuntu is running nothing but the bare essentials (such as Ndiswrapper) and OSX is running a bunch of processes in the background during my casual use (including Wifi, CoverSutra, Google Notifier, Time Machine, Dashboard Widgets). Naturally, I assume that running OSX a roughly equal load will offer a longer battery life. The battery life when running Ubuntu is rather disappointing.

Etc.

Also, I also notice that applications very often hang such as Firefox and Synaptic. Importing my collection of mp3s into Banshee (my preferred media player) froze the application after every 400th imported song or so. I had to kill the process to quit Banshee. These rough edges may not be caused by the hardware, but I think they should be noted.

Conclusion

Ubuntu has made great strides from previous versions fixing bit by bit with every version. There are, however, some annoyances that are present such as the garbled external display. In general, Hardy Heron is a good and usable on a 2nd generation Macbook after some post-installation setup, especially if you don’t care about external displays, webcam conferencing, etc. A huge annoyance for me was the external display issue because I use it very often. The two deal breakers for me were unsatisfactory iPod Touch support and battery life. I will switch back to OSX but still continue experimenting with Linux.

References: Ubuntu Community Documentation