MacBook Pro 5,3 and Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx)

This page aims to describe the steps needed, to fully enable all features of the 15.4 inch 5-th Generation MacBookPro Aluminium (Unibody) (release date: June 2009) when using Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx.

You can find out, what model you have by typing at the terminal:

sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name

• If you have a different model, please go here and find the right wiki.

Overview

Anything not mentioned here probably already works out of the box. If not, please refer to the Ubuntu Apple Users forum.

• Feature	Support status
  Sensors (temps & fans)
  Suspend & Hibernate	(not yet documented)
  Reboot
  Video & Effects (Compiz)
  HFS+ (only read)
  CD/DVD Writing
  Bluetooth
  Keyboard functions (Brightness,volume,...)
  Touchpad (bcm5974)
  Wireless(AirPort)
  iSight
  Sound
  Microphone
  External Monitor	(not yet documented)
  Apple Remote Control
  Firewire

(works out-of-the-box)
(works, with remarks)
(needs manual install)
(won't work)
(not yet documented)

Basic Installation Instructions

Common things about installing and maintaining Ubuntu on Intel-based Macs: Intel CPU-based Macintosh Generic Installation Instructions

Package Support for Intel Macs

You need some modules from the MactelSupportTeam/PPA: :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mactel-support && apt-get update

Sensors (temps & fans)

Edit /etc/modules:

gksudo gedit /etc/modules

And add to the end:

coretemp

To enable temperature sensors.

Reboot

Rebooting and Shutdown seems to work fine.

CD/DVD Writing

Both writing and reading work fine.

Video & Effects (Compiz)

You should use the restricted driver, install from: System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers. Select the NVidia graphics driver that says recommended and Activate. Reboot to apply the change.

Bluetooth

Confirmed working out of the box:

• Detection of devices
• Sending files to devices (OBEX push)
• Bluetooth Mouse
• Bluetooth Keyboard

Wireless (AirPort)

The Broadcom driver was not installed by default on Lucid. You'll need the STA one, goto "System->Administration->Hardware Drivers" and enable it. If you prefer the command line, execute on the Terminal:

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

Then reboot the system and you're OK.

HFS+ (only read)

Confirmed working out of the box.

iSight

Sound

Sound hardware is functional out of the box, but you need to make some adjustments. It's easiest to use gnome-alsamixer for these. Install the package:

  sudo apt-get install gnome-alsamixer

Start the mixer from menu Applications -> Sound and Video -> Gnome ALSA Mixer. Uncheck the "Mute" box next to the front speaker settings and also move their slider to maximum. If you want to enable the optical output you need to check the IEC958 option; you'll see a red light coming from your headphone jack.

(You can also use alsamixer in a Terminal instead of gnome-alsamixer. It is installed by default).

Touchpad (appletouch)

You can enable two-finger scrolling from the preference->mouse->touchpad applet.

The shipped driver does not allow click-and-drag which I find frustrating. The next lines will install an experimental version that adds such feature:

sudo apt-get install dkms
wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/24871974/bcm5974-dkms_1.1.4_all_test.deb
sudo dpkg -i bcm5974-dkms_1.1.4_all_test.deb
sudo modprobe -r bcm5974
sudo modprobe bcm5974

External Monitor

Function Keys

Microphone

Apple Remote Control

It Works with Remarks. Volume control works. Forward and back works (even on Mozilla Firefox). Menu has no action. Pause/Play not tested.

You have to install gnome-lirc-properties:

sudo apt-get install gnome-lirc-properties

gnome-lirc-properties will give you an entry "Infrared Remote Control" in menu System > Administration. After launching this it will guide you through the configuration.

Firewire

Works out of the box.

CategoryMac