Gentoo (and a little Ubuntu) on a MacBook Pro (5,3)

Getting Started

The Google-size summary: I’ve gotten Gentoo working on my MacBook Pro (5,3) again.

I’m going to attempt to recount all the little issues I ran across while installing Gentoo. If you notice I missed something, post it in the comments and I’ll try to figure it out and/or add it here. I also hope to add my findings to the Gentoo wiki, although the wiki is such an outdated mess that I’d almost feel like scratching the whole thing and having the Gentoo+MacBook community write their experiences back in.

My Desktop Is Dying

I wish I had more nice here’s-how-to sort of blog posts. I also wish my desktop had managed to stick around until it could be considered reasonable to buy a MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, nothing is going exactly how I want it to, for the most part.

My desktop began showing odd symptoms last summer. The hard-drive would make clicking noises for a moment, the sort it makes when it turns on and off, but everything would work fine. I did get a little worried when fsck reported errors, but it fixed them and I didn’t have any problems since…

Unofficial Ubuntu Assistance

As the launch of a new service I created, UUA, nears its launch, I thought I’d write up on what it’s all about right here.

Unofficial Ubuntu Assistance: #uua

I’ve written a nice little IRC bot for #uua (a new idea I’ve had, more on that in a later post) but I can’t host it, and it’s insanely expensive to host it elsewhere. What’s a computer user to do about that?…

Gettin’ Ubuntu Up

Wow! When I booted Gutsy, I knew this was gonna be cool! First of all, when you hit “Start Ubuntu”, it used to say “Loading Kernel…” and then text came up at the top (all green and scary) saying it was loading init that and kernel that. Only then would the splash appear, if the splash worked. Well, no scary green text, just a nice progress bar, then the splash screen actually worked on my machine! It worked in Edgy, then didn’t in Feisty. It’s nice to see that issue resolved.

So, then I wait for the desktop to appear. Nothing unusual – the background had changed, and… wait… new icons! They had added a user switch tool that lets you switch between users that are open. Also, Beagle’s now enabled by default and a new version is installed.

Then I moved along. I did my usual tests – checked sound, resolution, mouse and keyboard, and internet. Everything checked out, except internet, which I knew I could resolve later. As I was shifting around, I noticed the Compiz-Fusion effects they had enabled by default. Thankfully Gutsy (for the first time) recognized my card and automatically enabled 3D graphics. Otherwise I’d be toast right now, looking at an indirect-rendering of death-defyingly slow Compiz effects.

As I looked at the “Screens” configuration, I noticed the monitor configuration. They actually provide a list of monitors, so you can punch yours in and get all the resolutions and whatnot set up just right. 1280×1024, here I come!

After fiddling around with worthless temporary settings, I loaded up the installation and went through the usual process. I made sure to leave half the hard-drive space for Gentoo. The CD check had found one file that was corrupted, but there’s always one corrupted for some reason. I only hope it’s no different this time around.

And so the Gutsy adventure begins…