Fedora Linux 8 on a Macbook Pro
About this page
This page should help you install Fedora 8 on your Macbook Pro. On the web I could not find much info about Fedora installs. The procedure below works for my MBP. If it turns your MBP into a 2000$ brick please let me know, but don’t blame me. Use it at your own risk. Copying this page is allowed. Afcourse, a reference to my work would be nice, but that’s up to you.
Other Linux Macbook Pro sites
My MacBook Pro
Model Name:MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier:MacBookPro2,2
Processor Name:Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:2.16 GHz
Memory:2 GB
Graphics: ATI,RadeonX1600/128MB
Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme
Resizing OS X
Resizing with bootcamp
Shrink your OS X partition with bootcamp to make room (i.e. 50G) for Fedora. Thereafter install rEFIt in Mac OS X via the installer package and reboot via a shutdown. This gives an Apple sign in the rEFIt boot menu, but more interesting a feature to boot Fedora via the boot-menu. While in Mac OS X slide in your DVD and reboot via shutdown. At the bootmenu press Tux. After a while, Linux will boot and blue menu appears. Choose the “Rescue installed system” option. Press enter twice for your <language> and <keyboard> and choose NO for <network>. Next press SKIP to go to a shell. Now start the GNU parted tool to remove the bootcamp partition:
sh-3.2# usr/sbin/parted
You only need four commands: >help, >print, >rm, >quit. The rest of the “scary stuff” can be done later during actual Fedora install. After reading the docs you should do something like this:
(parted) help
(parted) print
Write down the partition numbers. You should have three partitions on your disk. Number 1 EFI which is FAT32, number 2 Mac OS X which is HFS+ and number 3 the Bootcamp partition which is also FAT32. Don’t touch number 1 and 2 if you want to keep your OS X system. Remove number 3 after reading my warning:
WARNING!!!!! : Be sure about the number, parted does not ask for a conformation.
(parted) rm 3
Oops now it’s gone. I hope you did the right thing.
(parted) print
(parted) quit
Reboot via a shutdown:
sh-3.2# /bin/poweroff
Press the partioning tool in the rEFIt menu. This tool will sync your partition tables. If it looks good, say YES when asked. You should now have something like this:
Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 209862695 Mac OS X HFS+
Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
2 409640 209862695 af Mac OS X HFS+
After a shutdown boot in OS X to see if it’s still there. You are now ready for the actual install.
Resizing with GNU-Parted
Check out this page.
Installing Fedora 8
Slide in your Fedora DVD and reboot via shutdown. Select Tux in the rEFIt bootmenu and work your way through the options with the keyboard, until you arrive at the partition tool. The touchpad works, but it's very to sensitive with tapping. You can fix it after the install. When you use the touchpad be very careful not to delete your OS X partition while arriving at the partition tool. At the partition tool select: “Use free space on selected drives and create default layout” and “Review and modify partitioning layout”. Pressing <NEXT> should give you something like this:
/dev/sda1 vfat
/dev/sda2 hfs+
/dev/sda3 /boot ext3
/dev/sda4 VolGroup00 LVM PV VolGroup00
VolGroup00
LogVol00 / ext3
LogVol01 swap
Press <NEXT> again and select “The GRUB boot loader will be installed on /dev/sda3”. With <NEXT> the scary stuff is finished. The rest is easy.
Setup your network, your time stuff and your root password and select the software you want to install. After this you can drink coffee because the actual install will start. After your coffee reboot and check if the rEFIt partition-tool wants to update your tables. After a shutdown you can start Fedora 8.
Configuring Fedora 8
Work your way through the configuration options (Welcome, Licenses, Firewall, SELinux, Date and Time, Hardware profile and User creation). After that login to fix your touchpad.
Fix the touchpad
Select: Application/Add/Remove/Software. Click the Search Tab and search for “gsynaptics”. Select the gsynaptics package followed by APPLY, CONTINUE and IMPORT KEY and OK.
Now add as root (for example via su and Vi in a terminal) the green lines to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
# Xorg configuration created by pyxf86config
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Touchpad" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "yes"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us+inet"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "LeftEdge" "0"
Option "RightEdge" "1100"
Option "TopEdge" "0"
Option "BottomEdge" "350"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.6"
Option "MaxSpeed" "1.1"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.4"
Option "FingerLow" "55"
Option "FingerHigh" "60"
Option "MaxTapMove" "20"
Option "MaxTapTime" "100"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "5"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Restart X-server with logout. You should now have a better touchpad. If you want to tweak it further use synclient.With this tool you can play with the settings while playing with the pointer.
For example type in a terminal:
synclient MaxTapTime=0
Which switches off the tapping.
synclient MinSpeed=0.8
Changes minimum speed.
If you want to make your changes permanent you have to put them in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
Installing Fedora updates
By now Fedora should have warned you that updates are available. While you do this drink coffee again, because it takes a while.
Installing ATI-drivers
You can follow the instructions at The Unofficial Fedora Faq. It worked great for me. There are other options available. Check out this wiki for more information. Hopefully this will be the future.
Soundcard
Just works, you only have to do:
System/Administration/SoundcardDetection.Press play and adjust your volume. Followed by APPLY and OK. Volume adjustment works via F3,F4 and F5.
Keyboard
Backlight works with F8 and F10. To turn it off use F8. To increase F10. At the moment F9 does nothing.
The keyboard in general is a work in progress for me. You can select a Macbook Pro(Intl) keyboard but I am not sure what it does. I am playing with xev. It displays X11 events, like keycodes. With xmodmap you can update your keyboard map, but only for the session. Check out the man pages for more info. As I said a work in progress for me.
Screen
Brightness control works with F1 and F2, but after a few minutes it returns to a certain setting. You can fix this in System/Preferences/System/Powermanagement.
Suspend
Doesn’t work. It should be possible, but I think it needs recompile of the kernel.
To prevent a crash while closing the laptop lid, do:
System/Preferences/System/Powermanagement and set “blank screen” while closing the laptop lid on the AC power and Battery tab.
Built in I-sight
Not working for me yet . Work in progress.
Wifi
Not working for me yet with Madwifi, but I am getting close. Still a work in progress.
With Ndiswrapper the Atheros 5418 works fine (thank you Robbie Plankenhorn!!). Check out this page, if you want to use Ndiswrapper on your Fedora Linux Macbook Pro.
Blue-tooth
Haven’t played with it yet. Don’t know.
Conclusion
A lot of work to be done. I am open to suggestions. Please send me an email if you have any.
I hope my work was useful for you.
