Macbook Pro

Donpasquale · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 150 Location: Munich

Hi there,

I am pretty impressed that im the first in here asking about the new macbook pro apple laptop with the dualcore intel inside. I want to order one because im a gentoo and osx fan. I am one of the few persons which make the best of apples decissions and would like to run linux / gentoo on the new apple beast.

Has anyone gotten in otuch with this brandnew thing and / or perhaps knows about the hardware design and if it will be possible to also run linux on the intel based applebook.

Thanks in advance for your answers,

Passi

krigav · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 10 Nov 2005 Posts: 121

It seems to me that it should be possible to use linux with this new mobile Mac, because Apple is using a lot of standard components. Of course It's possible that some new hardware is used, where no linux driver are available (yet).
Also I think that because of the binary compat it should be easier to use some x86 binary only software than. I would suggest to use MacOS X for while and wait a little bit how the whole situation for linux will evolve. BTW: This is really a damn nice piece of hardware

Nice work Apple.

More infos can be found here: http://www.apple.com/de/macbookpro/whatsinside.html

Just my two cents...
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RyecoAaron · n00b Joined: 11 Oct 2004 Posts: 16

This should make installation a little different...

linky

edit by nixnut: wrapped url in tags

digitalb0y · n00b Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 55 Location: Fburg, USA

Well Gentoo was the first linux on a mac mini, http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20050124-newsletter.xml So letts make it the first linux on the new Macbook Pro.
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Donpasquale · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 150 Location: Munich

I just ordered that baby. It will take three to four weeks to ship the laptop. I will report when it finally arrives here and i will try to install linux on it. I think we should be able to find some way to get it to install although it got the firmware interface.

quadbox · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:33 am Post subject:

Whoa nelly,

the new intel macs use EFI's not legacy bios's, dont they? does linux even support EFI yet? I know windows xp and 2003 dont, though Vista beta does

EDIT - Oops, that'll teach me for not following links, it's already been mentioned :p

Lejban · n00b Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 53 Location: Sweden

Hi there.

I will get my hand on one soon (through work), and would really like to run gentoo on it. so...

..count me in!
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xavier10 · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:36 am Post subject:

I have no plan on getting this thing soon :cry:

but am definetely supporting the effort of supporting it under gentoo. I like the ergonomics and design of my current albook G4 1.25 and enjoy it under gentoo 90% of the time (10 other %: photo editing under osX), but am not so pleased with its performances, so if at some point I can get an iBook intel... or a macbook pro at my work, I will need a gentoo support badly...

kullervo · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:03 am Post subject:

Is EFI really a big problem? If there is a Linux boot loader for EFI on IA-32 (x86) there should be support for EFI in the kernel, am I right? Check out ELIO (http://sourceforge.net/projects/elilo/).

I didn't know what EFI was before this thread. Some basics why it was developed:
http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT6664588064.html

nixnut · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:16 pm Post subject:

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Gentoo Chat.
Not a gentoo installation support question.
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R!tman · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:33 pm Post subject:

Great it has been released!

When I heard of the switch from ppc to x86 I thought this would result in a much better linux support of apple hardware. Well, I still hope it does...

On the other hand, if linux can run easily on the new macbook pro with x86 stuff, maybe windows will too. And somehow I'd hate to see windows on it!

tallest · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:29 pm Post subject:

I don't think I can wait a month!
I'm not going to make it.
Where is my MacBook Pro?!
:cry:

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gnomeza · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 31 Dec 2003 Posts: 97

A few things to note about the new MacBook Pro (Ranked, as I see it, in order of importance):

No cardbus slot
No FW800
No modem

And why it doesn't matter:

If Apple have used the same Broadcom chipset for the Airport Extreme, we're safe. (The linux drivers have appeared just in time.) Otherwise it's back to USB wifi dongles for 54mbps wireless. :(
Owners of the FW800 HDDs will lose out, as will a few camcorder owners. But Gigabit Eth and USB2 cover the vast majority of FW use cases anyway.
It was never supported under linux anyway. (the I2C one on the Powerbooks). The external Apple modem is cute, and (fingers crossed) CDC ACM compatible.

The day the 2nd production run units are available, I'll be trading up from my beloved 1.25GHz Albook.

R!tman · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:52 pm Post subject:

There is a modem available. You can customize the macbook in the shop section, for normal setup it is not installed.

FW 800 has definitely been dropped.

Cardbus, well, most people like me, very seldomly used it. I believe USB(2) has taken care of this one. PCMCIA and the likes will sooner or later disappear completely, at least that's what I believe. It sure was a step worth discussing, but it was a step into the future, like efi.

Donpasquale · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 150 Location: Munich

I also even cant wait to get my hands on that new pice of beauty.

R!tman · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:31 pm Post subject:

Donpasquale · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 150 Location: Munich

coule be that windows vista will run on there since vista supports efi.

I just want osx and linux running with the speed of this nice new piece of hardware.

And: sure i got a cam. i will send pics as soon as it will arrive here. From what the apple guy told me im one of the very first customers getting one. I ordered about half an hour after the presentation.

Hopefully we will get it to run fast then. cant wait to see my new macbook outperforming the g5 next to it.

89c51 · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:51 pm Post subject:

i believe will see it runing all OS (period)

at least the three-four most commonly used (win macos linux freebsd)

what i dont like is that ppc hardware is getting harder to find and i believe that this will stall linux ppc development

i hope that another company wil start producing ppc hardware (laptops,desktops etc)

HighOnBonsai · Apprentice Joined: 05 Jan 2004 Posts: 260

I WANT TOO!! I am planning to purchase a MacBook this year. I am currently using a Powerbook and I use Gentoo solely. I hope that, due the x86-architecture, the binary compatibility will be better (especially with the drivers) than with my current Powerbook (waited to long for DRI with my Radeon 9600). I love this Apple products... ;-)

I am confident that someone will do some progress soon with Linux (Gentoo :-)

) on the MacBook!

Christopher

Edit: removed a typo
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R!tman · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:22 pm Post subject:

Correction to my statement above:

Modem HAS dropped out. The modem available in the shop is EXTERNAL!

Donpasquale · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 150 Location: Munich

who really used that modem anyways in the powerbook models? I just hope that the ati drivers will work under linux which they should. Also hopefully the wirelesslan chipset will be a supported one this time. with some luck they used one of the ipw2xxx chipsets which are supported really well.

89c51 · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:18 am Post subject:

also someone must put elilo 3.6 x86 in portage

R!tman · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:28 am Post subject:

Donpasquale · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 150 Location: Munich

I am travelling a really lot because of my job. But normally no matter where you go, asia, europe or america, it is no problem to find a place where you can surf the web. Wireless lan or Lan is available on lots of places in the world and when you need to surf really portable you can use your mobile to dial in with bluetooth.

What card is used in the ibook ppc as airport? I thought its not a broadcom.

Longfield · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 1:31 pm Post subject:

I'm a bit surprised too that no more people are talking about this Macbook with Linux on it. With the x86 processors in them, the first thing I thought about those was "Eh, better hardware and software compatibility with Linux on those !"

I personally never have owned Apple hardware, but I must admit that with many friends having one of their laptops, I've now fallen in love with them.

I'm going to look how Linux and especially Gentoo is behaving on these new Macbooks and if the hardware support is good, I think my next laptop will be one of them ! (should be in the second half of 2006)
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