Trouble with Slacko64 on my MacBook5,2

[easyaspi314]

Hi, I'm new here and to Puppy Linux. However, I am pretty familiar with Linux, and the Linux shell as I have used it for about 5-6 years.

I have searched for guides to setting this thing up and haven't found anything useful. Just a bunch of bits and pieces that don't make a whole.

Specific information about your computer

What is it? A computer. Ohhh, you wanted specifics. OK. A laptop.

Computer common name: MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009) - Note the complete lack of "Air" or "Pro". Yep, entry level blues.
Model: MacBook5,2
Native OS: Mac OS X 10.11.6 "El Capitan" (apple y u no sierra? )
Processor: 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 4 GB DDR2 RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400m 512 MB - I use nouveau drivers. Maybe I should try proprietary, but those have had a history with me on my old Dell.
Display: The ugliest MacBook display you'll ever see: 13.3" 1280x800 TFT.
USB drive: 8GB Lexar JumpDrive v20 (the older solid colored ones)

What Puppy version?

Slacko64 6.3.2 (UEFI).

How Puppy is installed?

Frugal on flash drive.
1GB FAT32 (I know, I could use FAT) partition has both Slacko32 and Slacko64 (I made a clever grub.cfg to automagically choose between the two because my Mac can't use Xorg on Slacko32, and my desktop prefers 32-bit). Slacko64 and Slacko32 have savefiles on their own ~3GB ext2 partitions. IDK why I didn't just folder it.

Describe your question or problem with the idea that you are our eyes. We only know what you tell us.

Okay, so I think it is safe to say that my MacBook officially hates me.

Three quarters of the time, I boot to GRUB, press Enter to start and it hangs for like 5-10 minutes on a blank screen until it boots.
3/16 of the time it starts to boot normally, but appears to freeze on loading kernel modules.
1/16 of the time, it boots like a good Mac.

So, as soon as I have it running, I get a bunch of issues.

• It has already been very picky even booting in the first place. I have eventually figured out on my own that it needs the contents of efi.img on the root of the flash drive (so there is an EFI folder there).
• Built-in WiFi doesn't work (I have an Edimax Nano USB dongle so it isn't that huge of an issue, but I'd like to be able to use USB and WiFi at the same time.) Apparently, it is cursed with the ever-so-picky Broadcom
• Trackpad is stupid. It has no idea what it is, despite appletouch being loaded. It acts like a standard mouse with the addition of annoying tap-to-click. Synaptics doesn't recognize it at all.
• Because the trackpad is stupid, it is impossible to right click without a USB mouse.
• According to Ubuntu's guide for Maverick, I have edited the xorg.conf and it leads me with no way of inputting anything. Just a mouse on the middle of the screen that does nothing. Even when I attach a USB mouse or keyboard or press Ctrl+Alt+F2 or whatever. Power button works, though.
• I can't find a straight xorg.conf. (I could potentially make a live USB of Ubuntu and try its automatically generated xorg.conf, but I'd rather not.
• It has no idea it has a battery. /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0 (or whatever) exists and works normally, but nothing detects it. If I manually force it to load the "battery" module, BAT0 appears in /proc/acpi but it is empty.

The xorg.conf that refuses to work is attached.I have tried a few things.

Aside from the above issues, it works fine,

If you want anything from me, please tell me.

A side note: The BBCode here sucks.

If I sound like an idiot, sorry.

[cthisbear]

Mate welcome to Puppy.

We've been a bit slack with your Slacko problems.

Although I hate Macs with a passion I thought I would do some research.

:::::::

" (so there is an EFI folder there) "

That seems to be what you need????

Probably better off to try another version off USB.

I hope some Maccy person here will assist you.
Hang in there.

Chris.

::::::::

http://www.canbike.org/information-tech ... -2008.html

https://www.techonia.com/960/install-linuxmint-macbook


""""""""""

Use Mac Linux USB Loader

https://www.howtogeek.com/213396/how-to ... -your-mac/

::::::::::

Can I boot Linux (any distro?) from USB on a MacBook Air that has no hard drive?

[url]https://apple.stackexchange.com/qu ... hard-drive[/url]

::::::::

Success on Macbook 5,2 Karmic

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1327758

"""""""""

https://askubuntu.com/questions/71189/h ... acbook-pro

[bigpup]

Thanks for giving us some useful information to work with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

have savefiles on their own ~3GB ext2 partitions. IDK why I didn't just folder it.

Save files can be placed on any format.
Save folders will only work on a Linux format.

(I made a clever grub.cfg

This could be causing your boot issues. I have no idea what you modified or how.

Puppy comes with Grub4dos boot loader.
This boot loader is modified for how Puppy works.

menu->System->Grub4dos Bootloader config
First screen choose where to install it.
Choose the USB flash drive.
Select search within only this device.
Leave all other options unchecked.
Hit Ok.
Hit OK.
Hit OK.
done.
This will install Grub4dos bootloader to the USB flash drive.

The config always makes an entry to boot Windows.
At the end of running the config it gives option to edit the menu.lst.
The menu.lst file is where all the Grub4dos entries are.

This Grub4dos config also makes a advanced boot menu.
This gives option to boot Puppy not using the save.
Good option to have if something goes wrong with the save.

[bigpup]

Touchpad problems.

Have you tried to configure it?
menu->setup->Mouse keyboard wizard->Touchpad

This may help you.
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=102202

If this is a Mac from around 2009.
I do not think it needs anything to do with UEFI to boot.
I may be wrong. I have no Mac computers.

There are other Puppies that may support your hardware better.
Tahrpup 6.0.5
Slacko 5.7
Precise 5.7.1

Built-in WiFi doesn't work (I have an Edimax Nano USB dongle so it isn't that huge of an issue, but I'd like to be able to use USB and WiFi at the same time.) Apparently, it is cursed with the ever-so-picky Broadcom

Broadcom support is a constant moving target.

To specifically understand what it is doing.

menu->Setup->Internet Connection Wizard->Wired or wireless LAN->Network Wizard

Network Wizard wireless connection steps.

1. Select Network Wizard
2. Select wlan0 (your network card may have a different description)
3. Select Wireless in the Configure wireless network box.
4. Select Scan and your ESSID should come up.
5. Select your ESSID and OK
6. Give a name to your profile
7. Most people use WPA/TKIP - select it or WPA2.
8. A box will open for you to write the WPA password. It is called a Shared Key. Enter the password.
9. Leave the other boxes as they are. Rarely do these need adjustment.
9. Select Save
10. Select Use This Profile
11. A box will appear showing Puppy trying to connect
12. A box will come up “REPORT ON TEST 0f wlan0CONNECTION

[bigpup]

Mac support in general by Linux.

Seems to be getting better with newer Macs.

Macs, like other computer manufactures, have to give Linux a bone and provide the needed info, so Linux knows how the hardware is setup.

Puppy has several programs for battery monitoring in laptops.
The Puppy version developer tries to pick one that works for most hardware.

You can search on the forum for other battery monitoring programs to try.
Here is a good search to use:
http://puppylinux.us/psearch.html

Xorg.conf, in Puppy, is very much setup for how Puppy works.
Have to be careful what you modify.

[easyaspi314]

Sorry, I didn't seem to get any notifications, so I didn't hear the replies until now.

Thank you for your replies, and sorry I took so long

So, here are some updates. (speaking of updates: I think this forum's phpBB hasn't been updated in a long time. That is…incredibly disturbing…)

• I have just tried the Nvidia Restricted drivers. It shows the demo with xorgwizard, but after pressing anything, the screen goes black. But when entering nvidia-xconfig, it says that the data is incomplete in xorg.conf, and at least one Device section is required.
• Additionally, nouveau still loads.
• Screw you, Nvidia!
• Mouse keyboard Wizard > flSynclient (and the cli version) say "Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?". Low and behold, lsmod | grep synaptics is blank. But I don't know what to do about it. Maybe something with 50-synaptics.conf or whatever?
• Mac Linux USB Loader kicks me to a fallback shell.
• Wifi only shows ethernet and my Edimax WiFi adapter. My WiFi works fine with my Edimax, but the internal AirPort Broadcomm WiFi doesn't appear to exist, but b43 is loaded in lsmod (might be manually loaded by me though). So, unless you want to ask me about my perfectly functioning yet annoying USB WiFi adapter, can't help ya with that.
• Grub4dos — I don't think that is my issue. I am pretty sure grub4dos is for…dos with bios. Mac seems to use uEFI Grub, using grub.cfg (which and /efi/boot/bootx64.efi (which I believe is grub.efi renamed. My grub.cfg main boot option is:
  menuentry "Start Slacko64" {
  linux /slacko64/vmlinuz
  initrd /slacko64/initrd.gz
  }
• rEFIt, which was mentioned a few times in the links — I can already boot from EFI, but I could try it.
• I have the EFI folder. Otherwise, nothing shows in the option-boot menu. With that folder (or burned to a CD, which isn't viable because my SuperDrive's busted), it boots to Grub.
• It seems that my Mac reliably starts up, but the blank screen takes like 10 minutes to go away until it boots.
• My Mac doesn't go to sleep. It keeps the screen on. The little white light on the front edge and the Apple light on the lid stay solid white instead of slowly flashing and being off, respectively.
• I can try a few other pups, as well as Ubuntu. It'll take me a bit, though.

More info:

I don't know if it makes a difference, but before the blank screen pause, the flash drive blinks for a second like it is reading something but then stops.

I get a similar issue on CD boot.

I am trying to get tahr64 working. I am attempting tahr64-6.0.6-uefi.iso.

So far, it looks like an epic failure:

=== tahrpup64 6.0.6 - Linux 3.14.79 [x86_64] ===
Waiting for USB storage....
done
Finding puppy main sfs file. failed
Dumping last lines of /tmp/bootinit.log...
3: PSUBDIR= P_BP_EN= P_DEF_EN=puppy_tahr64_6.0.6.sfs
HAVE_PARTS=''
TRY_PARTS=''
6: ONE_PART= ONE_TRY_FN= PDRV=
Dumping last lines of kernel log...
ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
ata2: COMRESET failed (errno=-32)
ata2: reset failed, giving up
Freeing unused kernel memory: 820K (ffffffff81878000 - ffffffff8194500)
*** /puppy_tahr64_6.0.6.sfs not found
(I think ahead is what it said, it went blank before I could type it)
*** Error too critical, dumping to main shell
Type "debugflash" to write debug log to flash memory
#/

Something similar to this message happened when I tried to fake BIOS boot tahr64-6.0.5.iso (my Mac can emulate BIOS on a CD/DVD only, but it only supports EFI on USB).

Of course, I can't type anything. Story of my life.

I did burn this with my desktop, where I burned the other disks with my Mac, and I will also try booting it from my PC.

I use a Memorex MRX-650LE USB DVD Writer 8x.

I burned it on some Maxell CD-RMusic 700MB CDs (because they are old and never, ever, EVER get used). The others worked fine, but they were made on my Mac like I said. I can only burn them in the USB DVD drive, the SuperDrive built into my Mac is busted, and the DVD writer in the front of my PC doesn't write to those disks for some reason.

I will test around and also look up that code.

[Mike Walsh]

...(speaking of updates: I think this forum's phpBB hasn't been updated in a long time. That is…incredibly disturbing…)

^^^

How so?

As I understand it, the original phpBB software, which John Murga (our host) uses, has been very heavily modified. Back in the early days, John was rather more active on the Forum himself. These days, he has a whole lot of other stuff going on, and he doesn't really have the time to go through all that modification again with a newer release.

As it is, we've all got used to the Forum's little foibles, and have learnt to live with it... The 'notifications' business has been provoking grumpy responses for quite some time. TBH, those of us who are 'regulars' here are well aware of the fact that John hosts the Forum, and pays for the necessary support stuff, entirely out of his own pocket. We're very grateful..!

(Can't help with the Mac, or with EFI stuff.....but I thought I could give you a brief pointer as to why the Forum - sometimes - behaves the way it does!)


Mike.

[easyaspi314]

...(speaking of updates: I think this forum's phpBB hasn't been updated in a long time. That is…incredibly disturbing…)

^^^

How so?

As I understand it, the original phpBB software, which John Murga (our host) uses, has been very heavily modified. Back in the early days, John was rather more active on the Forum himself. These days, he has a whole lot of other stuff going on, and he doesn't really have the time to go through all that modification again with a newer release.

As it is, we've all got used to the Forum's little foibles, and have learnt to live with it... The 'notifications' business has been provoking grumpy responses for quite some time. TBH, those of us who are 'regulars' here are well aware of the fact that John hosts the Forum, and pays for the necessary support stuff, entirely out of his own pocket. We're very grateful..!

(Can't help with the Mac, or with EFI stuff.....but I thought I could give you a brief pointer as to why the Forum - sometimes - behaves the way it does!)


Mike.

LOL. I guess I just need to get used to it. All that time spent with XDA and Pokécommunity have spoiled me, I guess lol.

As long as we aren't wide open to hackers, I think it is okay.

I can test if it is safe from hackers; just tell me your password and I can proceed with the…tests… jk obviously.

Back on topic.

I have some more info about tahr64.

I burned the ISO to another disk on my Mac and it is at least trying to boot. But it, too, is giving me the annoying blank screen. If only I could see a pattern, but I don't.

Honestly, I'd much rather it just booted or it didn't, not hanging on a blank screen for 10 minutes then booting fine most of the time, but other times, it is virtually immediate.

I do notice that after a while, I can press enter and get a blinking cursor, which I can type in, like a BIOS. Doesn't appear to do anything, but I am assuming that that is the boot console loading.

So the entire DVD drive fiasco is even more complex!

I noticed that the built-in EFI bootloaders use Grub 2.00, but the latest is 2.02.

------------------

Wait. Cut myself off here. Reading UEFIBooting on Ubuntu's wiki mentioned the kernel option noefi.

I tried it and it went right to booting.

The $1,000,000 question…is it a coincidence?

Figure out the answer after these messages, or after my Mac decides to finish booting.

Wait. It froze on "Loading kernel modules…" again. Grr.

Hold on, I turned it off, tried the noefi option again, and it did another immediate start…

I think I'm on to something…

(darn it, "Loading kernel modules…" again!)

But, I tested it on my flash drive and it booted immediately!

Aaaaaaaannnnnnndddddd… No X server. No screens found. But that was because I had removed nvidia and forgot to reconfigure Xorg.

But, I configured, rebooted, tried noefi, and blank screen AGAIN. Twice.

But then, I decided to force it off, unplug my flash drive when it was just turning off, then I accidentally for some reason pressed the right arrow key and Option (maybe muscle memory) WITHOUT the noefi and it booted right away.

I don't even know anymore…

-----------------

I got the picky pommed to work.

I had to download the amd64 debs for pommed, libconfuse-dev, libconfuse-common, libconfuse0, and libpci3.

All that to be able to adjust the brightness? Worth it. (and it goes really dark without completely shutting off the backlight, too!)

Still haven't found a real fix to the black screen.

[easyaspi314]

I am almost finished solving this.

I have changed my flash drive to hybrid GPT. IDK if it made a difference, but I am also seeing something of a pattern where if I unplug my flash drive and plug it back in between reboots, especially when it is shutting down (after it saves obviously) it has a higher success rate. I am also trying Grub 1.97.

I finally got the trackpad almost working.

Thank GOD.

For reference, I needed to put this in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf:

Code: Select all

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
    Driver "synaptics"
    Option "SendCoreEvents" "true" 
    Option "Device" "/dev/input/*"
    Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
    Option "TapButton1" "0"
    Option "TapButton2" "0"
    Option "TapButton3" "0"
    Option "LeftEdge" "100"
    Option "RightEdge" "1120"
    Option "TopEdge" "50"
    Option "BottomEdge" "310"
    Option "FingerLow" "5"
    Option "FingerHigh" "20"
    Option "MaxTapTime" "100"
    Option "MaxTapMove" "150"
    Option "MaxDoubleTapTime" "180"
    Option "VertScrollDelta" "-15"
    Option "HorizScrollDelta" "-15"
    Option "MinSpeed" "0.49"
    Option "MaxSpeed" "1.0"
    Option "AccelFactor" "0.001"
    Option "LockedDrags" "false"
    Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "true"
    Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "true"
    Option "FastTaps" "true"
# The dumb MacBook trackpads don't have momentum scrolling. 
    Option "CoastingSpeed" "0" 
    Option "VertEdgeScroll" "false"
    Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "false"
    Option "SHMConfig" "true"
EndSection

and edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf by uncommenting

Code: Select all

Load "synaptics"

and adding

Code: Select all

InputDevice	"Synaptics Touchpad" "AlwaysCore"

directly under

Code: Select all

InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

The only issue is that it is a bit jumpy when trying to do precision things or when right clicking (especially when trying to fix typos), which is fixable by running

Code: Select all

xinput set-prop "Synaptics Touchpad" "Synaptics Noise Cancellation" 10 10

or the number version for me,

Code: Select all

xinput set-prop 8 273 10 10

It also seems to scroll down briefly when I scroll up.
But I can finally do things with the mouse instead of having to go into the terminal to simply move a file (not that I really care, the terminal is my home).

I have found out some crucial information about the battery:

Code: Select all

# dmesg | grep battery
ACPI: Smart Battery System [SBS0]: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery present)
# cd /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0
# ls
alarm		    current_avg   model_name  technology	  voltage_now
capacity	    current_now   power/      temp
charge_full	    cycle_count   present     type
charge_full_design  device/	  status      uevent
charge_now	    manufacturer  subsystem/  voltage_min_design
# cat capacity
54

That is what my battery is at. So, all the info is there.

The only actual GUI program I see that actually knows what the hell is going on with my battery is Pup-SysInfo. And pommed recognizes when I unplug (presumably) my cord because it dims the screen (sometimes completely shutting the backlight off). HardInfo doesn't know it, xfce4-power-manager doesn't know it, nothing.

It seems that when I shut my lid and instead of suspending, it seems to have abruptly shut down. (passing time in class and I am walking with the lid half-closed )

That's all for now, though.

[easyaspi314]

Finally got tahr64 6.0.6 to boot. It looks very pretty.

And would you look at that, I have a battery in the status bar out of the box. And, a good old ls in the terminal shows that I do have /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0.

However, unlike on Slacko, I don't have a cycle count (not that it's important)

Just like Slacko, out of the box, I have no Wi-Fi, trackpad, or brightness control.

slacko why?

I managed to get a battery meter by compiling vattery.

However, I am trying my not-so-mad C skillz (I hate C. Java ftw) to make powerapplet_tray read from /sys/class/power_supply.

[JPsDad]

I have iMac7,1 Core2 Duo. So far, the best support is Tahr6.0.2
Strangely,6.0 and 6.0.2 connect with WiFi but 6.0.5 and 6.0.6 do not show the Wlan. I am loading from CD-RW with its internal drive. I have not been able to boot from USB.yet but id do have EFI now showing up and offering Linux CD to boot.
I need to brush up my CLI skills to try to find if b43 is present and loading in the later 3.14.56 kernel.

From Puppy Linux 6.0.5 tahrpup CE.announcement thread

tahrpup has the open source 'brcmsmac' wireless drivers for modern broadcom devices, however some users may need the proprietary WL driver compiled by 'peebee' here https://www.copy.com/s/qWQ1BkPMDnPPFk7C
k3.14.20_2 for 6.0.2 & k3.14.20 for 6.0

I want to replace Snow Leopard with something faster and better, but I need WiFi support.HTH