Ubuntu on a Penryn MacBookPro

If you are searching for installation instructions, check the [http://wiki.ubuntu.com/MacBookPro main MacBookPro wiki article].

If you have a Santa Rosa-based MacBook Pro, check the [http://wiki.ubuntu.com/MacBookPro/santaRosa Santa Rosa MacBookPro wiki article].

Preface

This Wiki article has been written to help those with 4th generation "Penryn" MacBookPro laptops (originally released February 2008.) There are a number of significant differences between the hardware configurations of these and the older versions.

Hardware Changes

There are 3 main differences between the Penryn MacBookPro and its older siblings.

• The Laptop has an updated version of the Broadcom Wireless Card. To get it working, a Windows XP driver is required from the MacBookPro installation disk, as well as ndiswrapper to get the driver working under Linux. The original HowTo detailing the installation process was written by amonsul and is available in [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=735846 this Ubuntu Forum thread].

• The Trackpad on the newer laptops now offers multi-touch support. As yet Ubuntu does not support the new Trackpads very well. However, there is a project underway, called touchd, to implement multi-touch functionality. More information is available from the [http://touchd.sourceforge.net/ touchd Sourceforge page].

• Finally, the Fn key does not work upon installation of Hardy. This has yet to be fixed in the Ubuntu kernel but a solid workaround has been developed by _alex_, as outlined in [http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4984452&postcount=18 this Ubuntu Forums thread].

Installing the Broadcom Wireless Driver

1. Install ndiswrapper with Synaptic Package Manager

2. Find the file, broadcomxpinstaller.exe, on the Mac installation CD, and copy it to a folder on your computer.

3. Unzip the Broadcom drivers

4. Install the wireless driver:

sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
sudo ndiswrapper -l
sudo ndiswrapper -m
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

5. Open Boot-time modules file

sudo gedit /etc/modules

6. Add ndiswrapper to the bottom of the file so it loads on boot

If you are running Ubuntu version 8.04 (Hardy Heron), please also perform the following 4 steps.

7. Create file /etc/init.d/ndiswrapper

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/ndiswrapper

8. Add the following text to the file

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: ndiswrapper
# Required-Start:
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start: S
# Default-Stop:
# Short-Description: enable to load ndiswrapper
# Description: enable to load ndiswrapper
### END INIT INFO
rmmod ohci_hcd
rmmod ssb
rmmod ndiswrapper
modprobe ndiswrapper
modprobe ssb
modprobe ohci_hcd

9. Set file access permissions

sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/ndiswrapper

10. Create a symbolic link from /etc/init.d/ndiswrapper to /etc/rc2.d/S99ndiswrapper

sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/ndiswrapper /etc/rc2.d/S99ndiswrapper

Reboot your computer and your wireless should now be working.

Fixing the Fn Key

1. Open the modprobe.d options file for editing

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

2. Add the following line to the bottom of the file

options usbhid quirks=0x05ac:0x0230:0x00000800,0x05ac:0x0231:0x00004800,0x05ac:0x0232:0x00000800

3. Reboot your computer and try using the Fn+Backspace keys to delete something.

4. Pommed should now work when properly installed via Synaptic Package Manager.