Triple Boot Mac OS X, Ubuntu and Windows XP on MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo (Part 3)

Posted by Mr. IT Guy | Filed under Featured, Hardware, Linux, Mac OSX, Microsoft, Networking Product, Operating System, Review

Out of the three parts, this is the part where I stumble upon the most “unexpected” issues. First of all, Live CD does not work on my 2nd-gen Macbook Pro (MBP). There seems to be some problem with the ATI drivers on the Live CD that prevents X from starting up. I have to use the Alternate CD with the text-based-installer. Also, GRUB will not install. Fortunately LILO will be offered and it installs just fine. Finally X will not work after the reboot and you need to install some drivers before it will work.

As a start, put in the CD, choose the CD installer from rEFIt then follow the instructions below:

Proceed with the installation regularly until the HDD partitioning portion
Choose to install on /dev/sda3 and format as “reiserfs” with mount point “/”
After disk is formated, go to shell by pressing “Ctrl+Alt+F2″

Run the following commands:

mkdir /mnt/ubuntu
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/ubuntu
dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/ubuntu/swap bs=1024 count=2097152
swapon /mnt/ubuntu/swap

When asked for screen resolution, only press spacebar on 1440×900 or lower
Continue until GRUB installation fails. Ignore the failure and install LILO when prompted.
Installation should complete and you should be able to boot into Ubuntu, without X Windows.

sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r) linux-kernel-headers
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

NOTE: If you don’t know your kernel version number, run the command

echo $(uname -r)

Reboot then run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo depmod -a
sudo aticonfig --initial
sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv
/etc/init.d/gdm restart

If you don’t hear a login sound, it means your speaker might not be enabled

Troubleshooting

Some warning popup because there is no swap partition / swapon doesn’t work
Ignore it and it will work just fine
There are no sound coming from speaker, but sound is coming from the headphone jack
run the command
```
alsamixer
```
from the terminal and un-mute the speaker. This is done by using the arrow keys to reach the Speakers and press M.
If rEFIt suddenly becomes disabled and not working, boot into OS X and reinstalls it

Extra Step to Enhance Linux-Macbook Pro

This section will discuss issues like GLX on MBP, Wireless drivers, etc, to make Linux on MBP experience seems more natural.

Installing Wifi Driver

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install module-assistant
m-a prepare
sudo apt-get install subversion
svn checkout http://svn.madwifi.org/trunk madwifi
cd madwifi
make clean
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe ath_pci

Enabling Fn F-Key Combo

Run from terminal:
```
sudo apt-get install pommed
```
To enforce using hardware key only with Fn key combination, modify /etc/pommed.conf from fnmode = 1 to fnmode = 2
Restart pommed by running the command:
```
/etc/init.d/pommed restart
```

Fix Suspend Issue

Open /etc/default/acpi-support using text editor then set: POST_VIDEO=false

Fix iSight Issue

sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo
sudo mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/ubuntu/media/usbvideo/uvcvideo.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/ubuntu/media/usbvideo/uvcvideo.ko.original
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libusb-0.1-4 libusb-dev linux-headers-$(uname -r)
wget http://files.i-nz.net/projects/linux-kernel/isight/uvcvideo-isight.tar.gz
tar -xzvf uvcvideo-isight.tar.gz
cd against-revision-100
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe uvcvideo

Enable XGL

```
sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl
```

sudo echo 'Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv:pbuffer -accel glx:pbuffer &amp;
DISPLAY=:1
cookie="$(xauth -i nextract - :0 | cut -d ' ' -f 9)"
xauth -i add :1 . "$cookie"
exec dbus-launch --exit-with-session gnome-session' &gt; /usr/bin/startxgl

```
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/startxgl
```

sudo echo '[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Xgl
Comment=Start an Xgl Session
Exec=/usr/bin/startxgl
Icon=
Type=Application' &gt; /usr/share/xsessions/xgl.desktop

Two Finger Scroll Touchpad and More
This is my current xorg.conf setting for my touchpad. Sensitivity is set to medium and two finger scroll is working. Right click is emulated by using three-fingers-tap

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver          "synaptics"
Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
Option          "Device"        "/dev/psaux"
Option          "Protocol"      "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "150"
Option "RightEdge" "1070"
Option "TopEdge" "100"
Option "BottomEdge" "310"
Option "FingerLow" "17"
Option "FingerHigh" "22"
Option "MaxTapTime" "120"
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "MaxDoubleTapTime" "180"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "0"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Option "TapButton3" "3"
Option "LockedDrags" "off"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
Option "MinSpeed" "1.10"
Option "MaxSpeed" "1.30"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.08"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

Installing Compiz-Fusion

Add the following repositories:

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy-amd64
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy-amd64

Add the following key:

sudo wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb/DD800CD9.gpg  -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Run the following at terminal:

sudo apt-get install compiz compiz-gnome compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-extra libcompizconfig-backend-gconf beryl-manager

Run the command:
```
beryl-manager
```
Right click the “diamond” icon on the system tray and set “Rendering Path” to “Copy”
Test Compiz-Fusion by running the following command:
```
compiz --replace&
```
If everything is good, you can remove beryl-manager by issuing the command
```
sudo apt-get --purge remove beryl-manager
```
And once everything is perfect, you can add the following entries to System -> Preferences -> Sessions
Name: Compiz Fusion Command: compiz --replace -c emerald
and
Name: Emerald Command: emerald --replace