Well I decided to dual boot my new Core2Duo MacBook Pro with Linux and OSX. For the most part I followed the excellent OnMac.net wiki article, however I did add a few extra steps as well as run into a few problems.
The first problem I ran into was partitioning. Every article I read online suggests using the diskutil resizeVolume command in OSX or Apple Boot Camp. I could not get either to work, so I decided to back everything up and start from scratch.
- Backup Data
- Load OSX Installer Disk
- Select Utilities -> Disk Util
- Select the Partition Tab
- Choose the Main Partition and press the Split button
- Setup the partitions. I chose to setup my OSX partion as a 120GB partition with a journaled Mac OS filesystem. For linux I just left the remaning 20GB as free space.
- Close the Disk Util and install OSX on the partition you created.
Once the install is done you can either update your entire system or wait until after you install linux to update. I chose to update first. Once that is done you need to install rEFIt. Doing this now allows you to boot linux when the installer needs to reboot.
I decided to install Fedora Core 6 becuase that is what we use at work. Load up the installer and check if your keyboard works. If your keyboard does not work when you boot the installer, reboot until it does. I am not sure why this happens, however I found that plugging in a usb keyboard or a single reboot gets it working. Once you have a keyboard that works, start the install by typing linux vga=791.
You can install linux like normal, except for partitioning the disk and installing the bootloader. For partitioning, make sure you select to “Use Free Disk Space” and default partition setup. Using the default fedora partition setup works great as long as you are not going to triple boot Windows. For the bootloader, install grub to /dev/sda3 (hd0,2) and not the master boot record. I read that you should use lilo or elilo instead of grub, however the grub version that FC6 installs works without a problem.
Once the install was finished I booted linux and installed a a 2.6.20.1 kernel with the mactel patches.
- Open a terminal window and login as root.
$> cd /usr/src
$> wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.20.1.tar.bz2
$> tar -xvjf linux-2.6.20.1.tar.bz2
$> ln -s linux-2.6.20.1 /usr/src/linux
$> mkdir mactel && cd mactel
$> svn co https://mactel-linux.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mactel-linux/trunk/kernel/mactel-patches-2.6.20
$> ./apply /usr/src/linux
$> cd /usr/src/linux
$> cp /boot/config-`uname -r` ./.config
$> make menuconfig
- Go to “Load an Alternate Configuration File” and choose .config
- Select the following drivers:
Processor type and features -> Processor family -> Core2/Newer Xeon
Drivers -> Macintosh Device drivers -> Support mouse 2+3 emulation
Drivers -> Hardware Monitoring Support -> Intel Core (2) Duo/Solo Temp. Sensor
Drivers -> Hardware Monitoring Support -> Apple SMC
Drivers -> Graphics -> Intel-based Macintosh Framebuffer Support
Save the configuration
- Compile the kernel with
make rpm
When it is done compiling you will have a rpm kernel in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386. Install the rpm and make the initrd image with mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.20.1-mactel.img 2.6.20.1-mactel. Edit /etc/grub.conf so it has the following:
title Fedore Core (2.6.20.1-mactel)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.20.1-mactel ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 quiet vga=791
initrd /initrd-2.6.20-mactel.img
Reboot and boot your new kernel.
Now we want to get the correct screen resolution and 3d-acceleration working. To do this we need to install the ATI fglrx driver. We built our own kernel, so we need to use the installer off of Ati’s website. Login to a shell as root again.
wget https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.34.8-x86.x86_64.run
chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8.34.8-x86.x86_64.run
./ati-driver-installer-8.34.8-x86.x86_64.run
Follow the instructions to install the driver. Now there is a problem, the ati driver does not support kernel 2.6.20 yet and the driver needs a patch to load correctly. Here is how to patch it.
$> cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod
$> patch -p5 -i /path/to/ati.patch
$> ./make.sh
$> ../make_install.sh
$> depmod -a
$> modprobe fglrx
Now you need to configure Xorg to use the new fglrx driver. We will use the gui program system-config-display. Select the Hardware tab, and click the Monitor type configure button. Select Generic LCD -> LCD Panel 1440×900. Click ok, then click the Video card configure button. Select fglrx from the list of drivers and click ok. Save your settings and close the program. Now restart Xorg by clicking CTRL+ALT+DEL. When Xorg starts again you should have the correct resolution and a much nicer looking desktop.
I have not setup sleep, synaptics touchpad suuport, or the keyboard to handle the sound, brightness, and eject keys. Once I do, I will update this post with information on that. I hope this helps anyone looking to install Fedora Core 6 on their new C2D MacBook Pro.
Files:
http://www.mattweber.org/files/ati-2.6.20.patch
Links:
Triple Boot Via Boot Camp
Debian on a MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro with Fedora Core 6
Gentoo Macbook Hardware
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