iMac 7,1 and Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx)

This page aims to describe the steps needed, to fully enable all features of the iMac 7,1 Aluminium iMac 20" or 24" (release date: mid 2007) when using Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx).

You can find out which model you have by typing in the terminal:

sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name

Not sure? See Apple's technical specifications for this model, or read Determine your model and hardware revision for other ways to find out which model you have.

If you have a different model, please go to here and find the right wiki page, or checkout the Intel iMac general page.

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
  CD/DVD Writing
  Webcam (iSight)
  Wireless (AirPort)
  Sound
  Suspend
  Hibernate
  Desktop Effects (Compiz)
  Bluetooth
  Apple Remote Control
  Firewire

(works out-of-the-box)
(works, but needs manual settings)
(works, with remarks)
(won't work - please post if you have hints)
(not yet documented - please post if you can test)

Basic Installation Instructions

Common things about installing and maintaining Ubuntu on Intel-based Macs: Intel CPU-based Macintosh Generic Installation Instructions. See also the Intel iMac general page.

Sound

Out of the box, sound appears not to work on the built-in speakers, and to be very low on the headphone output. A simple operation can restore headphone output to normal levels, and produce sound on the built-in speakers, although of bad quality.

This can be achieved by adding a line to the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf file:

1. Edit it by running:

   gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

2. Then, add this line to the end of the file:

   options snd-hda-intel model=mbp3

3. Save the file, and reboot.

Some recommend using this line instead:

• options snd-hda-intel model=imac24

  Also, see the sound section for the MacBook5,2 for a possible solution to have good quality sound on the built-in speakers, but no headphone output (I haven't tested this).

Desktop Effects (Compiz)

You probably want to enable the proprietary graphics driver. Go to System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers and choose the ATI/AMD accelerated graphics driver.

Suspend/Hibernate

Suspend works out of the box. Hibernate won't work. If someone has some hints, please post :).

Apple Remote Control

Doesn't work out of the box. You need to install lirc to get it running.

1. Install the lirc package.

2. During installation, select the "Mac Mini" receiver.

After installation, you need to identify your IR receiver device (this is one of /dev/usb/hiddev*) and set it in /etc/lirc/hardware.conf.

First, make sure the receiver is recognized (it's seen as a USB device):

• grep -i "IR Receiver" /var/log/messages

On my machine, this comes up as follows:

• Sep  5 20:09:19 jon-imac kernel: [   38.461885] apple 0003:05AC:8242.0004: hiddev97,hidraw3: USB HID v1.11 Device [Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-1/input0

This is good, but doesn't seem to have any relation to which /dev/usb/hiddev* is used (on my machine it was /dev/usb/hiddev1). You'll probably have to try them all, as follows:

1. List all candidates: ls /dev/usb/hiddev*

2. Edit /etc/lirc/hardware.conf: gksudo gedit /etc/lirc/hardware.conf

3. Set REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/usb/hiddev1"

4. Restart lirc: sudo /etc/init.d/lirc restart

5. Start irw and push some buttons on the remote - you should see them displayed in the output. If not, try another one of /dev/usb/hiddev* and start over from step 2.

   Note: When you're done with irw, just hit CTRL-C to stop it.

At this stage, you can follow any other LIRC configuration guide to get it set up with your favourite applications. LIRC does include a nice feature to just pass remote button presses to the X server, making it directly compatible with most applications, but it is broken in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (see bug 567512).

CategoryMac