Macbook Pro

stardotstar · Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 12:13 pm Post subject:

multifinger taps do work using synaptics, though I havn't worked out a really good set of parameters yet, have a patch that changes the geomerty of the 17" touchpad vs the imac but can't url it right now (about to have a baby believe it or not!!!)

. You can see two and three finger taps show up fine with synclient; I configured two finger tap to be right mouse.

single tap on pad would be a preferable right click - left click on button, two finer middle button - three fingers is a very hard combo to manage the pointer with

Will
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stardotstar · Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:38 pm Post subject:

I am doing another Gentoo2006 build after my LFS work and wonder if there is another source for the mactel-linux sf patches (specifically for 2.6.17.11) since although the pages load I get an error whenever I try to download and have to try and try again viewing or downloading from the SVN:

I can always get all the way in to:

http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/mactel-linux/trunk/kernel/mactel-patches-2.6.17/acpi-blacklist-fix.patch?view=log

but when I download I get most times:

stardotstar · Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 3:11 am Post subject:

I have made a portage overlay ebuild of Grub 0.97-r2 with the gateA20 patch included in the ebuild.

It is available here:

http://www.sourcepoint.com.au/macintoo/forum/viewtopic.php?p=38#38

I am sure it is not perfect but it is working for me on my MBP17 and I thought I'd share it.

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Fenster · Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 12:45 am Post subject:

Is it possible to get wireless networking running under the live CD? I need it as there's a severe paucity of free wired network ports in my home, I spent about half an hour experimenting with no results.

stardotstar · Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:43 am Post subject:

I only managed to get the atheros wireless going after emerging madwifi-ng and wpa_supplicant. I was bound to the wired lan till after initial install.

I suspect others may have had success though it is not a problematic card. The kernel sees it as ath0 once you modprobe ath_pci...
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Fenster · Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 9:11 am Post subject:

Well feck, I'll keep at it then in that case. As it stands, I have to unplug every other computer in the house to get at an ethernet port.

smitdane · Retired Dev Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 16

In case anyone else is bothered by the heat...
The mactel config sets the default cpufrequency governor to performance. This means the processor never leaves 2.0Ghz. If you want to save some battery life or just do not like the fact that you could cook an egg on your laptop add :

echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor;
echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor;

to your /etc/conf.d/local.start file.

If your on battery, I have found conservative to be better than ondemand. I wrote a little script to run when Im on battery that looks just like the above with conservative where ondemand is.

Hope this helps someone.
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Dane 'c1pher' Smith
Developer -- QA / crypto / sunrise / x86

"I reject your reality and substitute my own"
Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

stardotstar · Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:16 am Post subject:

Yes, that is great advice, I have been toying with the governors and noticed that on-demand was not enabled on the config I had downloaded. The heat reduction and general performance on conservative on battery made me investigate why performance was always on in ac mode and also that in gnome setting the governor only effected CPU0 - not sure why but in laptop-mode I get scaling on both processors just fine and the heat is quite acceptable.

Your method is a good one - not sure if it would be better to write some rules for cpufreqd though I am not yet familiar with it to do so.
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smitdane · Retired Dev Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 16

Another thing. Thanks to Dmvianna for the inspiration.
In your .xmodmap file, set the keycodes for your function keys when you dont have the Fn key down to things like F14 - F22 then you can use xbindkeys to make them do what theyre meant to do like control the backlight, keyboard lights, volume, etc. without actually using the F* interrupt. You can use xev to find the keycodes. Ill list them to save people time though.

this is without the function key depressed...
Key -- key code -- My remap
F1 -- 101 -- F13
F2 -- 212 -- F14
F3 -- 160 -- F15
F4 -- 174 -- F16
F5 -- 176 -- F17
F6 -- Dont use. Its for num-lock
F7 -- 214 -- F18
F8 -- 215 -- F19
F9 -- 216 --F20
F10 -- 217 -- F21
F11 and F12 are normal. Fn doent have to be depressed to use them.
eject -- 204 -- F22

this assumes you have the backlight control program and the keyboard backlight control program. The link for those is here.
I renamed them backlight and keys.

#~/.xbindkeysrc
"backlight -10"
F13

"backlight +10"
F14

"eject"
F22

"keys 0"
F19

"keys 100"
F20

"keys 250"
F21

#mute sound
"amixer set PCM 0"
F15

#decrease volume by 10%
"amixer set PCM 10-"
F16

#increase volume by 10%
"amixer set PCM10+"
F17

Hope people find this useful. Xbindkeys is in portage.
_________________
Dane 'c1pher' Smith
Developer -- QA / crypto / sunrise / x86

"I reject your reality and substitute my own"
Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

stardotstar · Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:04 am Post subject:

that is a very good source - the ubuntu thread. We need a script that correctly handles keyboard backlight up/down rather than 0 or 255.

Definite praise to the most worthy Nicolas Boichat for the macbooktools.

BTW I am getting very distorted sound - sounds scratchy as though the levels are completely screwed... Any ideas?

DVD is working at last but I am having lots of trouble with VCDs on mplayer, gxine and totem -(probably usual multimedia problems).

Other major issue for me is the suspend2/resume2 hangs on X but always works in console, I have fglrx and tried all the module unloading/reloading and using vbtools etc.... further ideas appreciated while I google and rack my underclocked brain.
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stardotstar · Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 3:25 am Post subject:

I have been building all sorts of different kernel configurations (sticking to 2.6.17.11 for the mo) and using the mactel-linux patch set;

I have had great success with selecting the Pentium4 class of cpu in the kernel but am wondering if this could be causing problems with cpu frequency scaling (seems to be somewhat unpredictable in different power states - may be configuration but I wanted to make sure that selecting P4 as a cpu and the speedstep is classed for Pentium M):

stardotstar · Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:10 am Post subject:

Pentium M has worked well though I am not sure if it is indeed the best choice - I have read elsewhere (here I think) that the flags that the yonah accepts makes it suitable for Pentium 4...

anywho

the cpufreq probs I was having have been solved by more carefully tuning the configuration.

Will
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xavier10 · Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:02 am Post subject:

I am considering the macbook pro. I have been reading startdotstar forums with great interest, and it seems the support of the machine is not bad.

What about the whinning problems ? Have they been solved ?

stardotstar · Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:08 am Post subject:

I do not get any whine on my Macbook Pro 17 when I run cpu freq scaling - I can detect it in silent rooms on the OS X environment when scaling kicks in and scales the cores down. It is hardly noticable even then.

Heat was the biggest problem and I invested in a laptop cooling tray (three fans that suck) and now that I have cpufreqd properly configured the heat is not a problem.

All in all this still feels like frontier hardware to me (coming from the thinkpad which is totally sorted) but I am loving the challenge and the support is indeed out there.
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kaiRy · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 14

Can someone make a step by step Howto to have a macbook pro fully installed ? With wifi, bluetooth, etc ..
Since the one I found on the web isn't very clear and complete for me.

smitdane · Retired Dev Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 16

Stardotstar, I have been considering putting up a new Macbook Pro wiki. I've started writing it, but it is not yet on the web. When I put up what I have, Ill post, and you can add in what you know.
_________________
Dane 'c1pher' Smith
Developer -- QA / crypto / sunrise / x86

"I reject your reality and substitute my own"
Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

smitdane · Retired Dev Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 16

Stardotstar, are you using pentium-m or pentium4 for your make.conf / kernel config. I have been with pentium-m since I started and am curious.
_________________
Dane 'c1pher' Smith
Developer -- QA / crypto / sunrise / x86

"I reject your reality and substitute my own"
Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

dmvianna · Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:27 am Post subject:

Bluetooth headset working here. Yay!
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Powered by a MacBook Pro

stardotstar · Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 5:13 am Post subject:

I wiki would be great - especially if linked to a reasonably populated forum - perhaps we could cross link and put resources on your wiki and host discussions on the forum I have setup? I would be very happy to contribute what I have gone through.

I am now running Pentuim M having just reconfigured from Pentium 4 which I was using from the start because of the flags that the yonah accepts and the reading I did in this topic and elsewhere (including the gentoo descriptions of processors)

stardotstar · Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 7:55 am Post subject:

Who here has success with either suspend2 or swsus/s2ram - I am going mad trying to get either to work.

I used to rely heavily on suspend2 and have it patched into my 2.6.17.11 kernel and although I can get it to suspend to a filewriter it only works from the console (must be an ati thing)

I have started playing with suspend and s2ram but they fail every which way.

I can get the mac to go to sleep - screen off and the light on the lid-open button pulsing; but I can't wake it up at all - I have tried lots of combinations of:

boot with and without FB Console to init=/bin/bash + mount /sys + mount /proc then:
s2ram -f -a 1 (2 or 3)

all cause the machine to go black and sleep light pulses but no key combo or mouse will wake it up (correct I assume) and closing and opening the lid or touching the Power Button turns it OFF completely. Pressing Power again brings the machine back to a normal boot.

Admitedly I am not familiar with the setup of this version of suspend and spent some time trying to configure the suspend to disk/both without success - not sure the initrd was even properly working.

I would like to discuss approaches and configurations for this feature if possible.

Will
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dmvianna · Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 9:05 am Post subject:

stardotstar · Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:51 am Post subject:

Hi and thanks for that tip, i did see that method somewhere but never tried it until just now after you posted it...

Same kind of result here for me... The machine goes to sleep and the lid button light pulses but there is no waking it.

hitting the power button shuts it off immediately and then it has to be turned on by holding down the power button for several seconds (almost like a forced off press and hold) then it booted through a normal grub and boot sequence but on trying to start my X session the Xserver was refusing requests and I had to reboot again before X would work. It must have had a lock file somewhere that I couldn't see. It simply initialised the root window with the X cursor and sat there doing nothing - back on console 1 I could see repetitive X server not responding or not taking requests messages...

Will
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dmvianna · Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:56 am Post subject:

stardotstar · Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:05 pm Post subject:

Thanks for that = must be something I have stuffed up somewhere :-)

BTW your patch is 404?

I turned my hand to BT just now and got the basics configured and successfully pushed an image from my Nokia to the Mac.
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dmvianna · Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:13 pm Post subject: