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It's still Intel hardware. But besides that, does the Macintosh work without blobs and mainline Linux? Can I install Debian on it and have stuff working? I'm ju

by madez 9y ago

It's still Intel hardware. But besides that, does the Macintosh work without blobs and mainline Linux? Can I install Debian on it and have stuff working? I'm just tired of uncooperative manufactures.

LeoPanthera 9y ago
I've never tried but Debian has a lengthy (if out of date?) wiki page about running it on Macbooks: https://wiki.debian.org/MacBook https://wiki.debian.org/MacBook https://wiki.debian.org/MacBookPro https://wiki.debian.org/MacBookPro
- dm319 9y ago
  The latest macbook pros essentially don't work well with linux. I think wifi isn't a solved issue still, for example.
  - Dunedan 9y ago
    Depends on the model. On the non-TouchBar models WiFi works fine, on the TouchBar models it doesn't. For more details check: https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux
  - cmurf 9y ago
    None of them work well with Linux, despite the Linux folks sometimes bending over backwards to make it work. https://lwn.net/Articles/707616/ https://lwn.net/Articles/707616/ All of the Macs I have require binary firmware blobs for WiFi, for the open source driver to work. And even in that case none of them can do even 802.11n. I have to use the proprietary WiFi driver to get 802.11n or 802.11ac. And yes each model varies in this regard, which makes it something of a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
Dunedan 9y ago
> Can I install Debian on it and have stuff working? Depends on the kind of Mac you buy. I can only comment on their mobile offerings: - Best supported are the current MacBook Airs. Everything except the Webcam should work out-of-the-box. The webcam needs the out-of-tree bcwc_pcie driver (https://github.com/patjak/bcwc_pcie) https://github.com/patjak/bcwc_pcie)). - The Retina MacBooks need some manual work before being usable (e.g. need to compile out-of-tree keyboard & touchpad driver (https://github.com/cb22/macbook12-spi-driver) https://github.com/cb22/macbook12-spi-driver)), but should work fine as well. - The MacBook Pros before October 2016 are also quite good supported, the support for newer ones is still quite incomplete (check out https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux for details), although it's possible to use them as daily driver if you're aware of the limitations.

by madez 9y ago

It's still Intel hardware. But besides that, does the Macintosh work without blobs and mainline Linux? Can I install Debian on it and have stuff working? I'm just tired of uncooperative manufactures.

LeoPanthera 9y ago

I've never tried but Debian has a lengthy (if out of date?) wiki page about running it on Macbooks: https://wiki.debian.org/MacBook https://wiki.debian.org/MacBook https://wiki.debian.org/MacBookPro https://wiki.debian.org/MacBookPro

dm319 9y ago
The latest macbook pros essentially don't work well with linux. I think wifi isn't a solved issue still, for example.
- Dunedan 9y ago
  Depends on the model. On the non-TouchBar models WiFi works fine, on the TouchBar models it doesn't. For more details check: https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux
- cmurf 9y ago
  None of them work well with Linux, despite the Linux folks sometimes bending over backwards to make it work. https://lwn.net/Articles/707616/ https://lwn.net/Articles/707616/ All of the Macs I have require binary firmware blobs for WiFi, for the open source driver to work. And even in that case none of them can do even 802.11n. I have to use the proprietary WiFi driver to get 802.11n or 802.11ac. And yes each model varies in this regard, which makes it something of a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

Dunedan 9y ago

> Can I install Debian on it and have stuff working? Depends on the kind of Mac you buy. I can only comment on their mobile offerings: - Best supported are the current MacBook Airs. Everything except the Webcam should work out-of-the-box. The webcam needs the out-of-tree bcwc_pcie driver (https://github.com/patjak/bcwc_pcie) https://github.com/patjak/bcwc_pcie)). - The Retina MacBooks need some manual work before being usable (e.g. need to compile out-of-tree keyboard & touchpad driver (https://github.com/cb22/macbook12-spi-driver) https://github.com/cb22/macbook12-spi-driver)), but should work fine as well. - The MacBook Pros before October 2016 are also quite good supported, the support for newer ones is still quite incomplete (check out https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux for details), although it's possible to use them as daily driver if you're aware of the limitations.