Fedora 13 on mac book pro 13″

I used preupgrade to updgrade Fedora from 12 to 13. After the process, I had to resync the partition in refit to be able to boot Linux. I rebuilded the needed packages for nvidia and the broadcom wireless card. I needed also to do some modifications to be able to use the integrated iSight webcam: 1. download the apple firmware :
wget http://www.i-nz.net/files/projects/linux-kernel/isight/against-revision-140/firmware/AppleUSBVideoSupport
then extract it (using the Fedora 12 package isight-firmware-tools) :
[root@delvaux ~]# su -c "ift-extract --apple-driver AppleUSBVideoSupport"
after this operation it should be working for most of the macbook pro, but not for this model, another change is needed. first find the idProduct number:
[fred@delvaux Desktop]$ lsusb -v | grep  iSight -B 3 | grep idProduct
  idProduct          0x8507 
and mofify the file /etc/udev/rules.d/isight.rules with the returned value :
[root@delvaux rules.d]# cat isight.rules 
ACTION=="add", SYSFS{idVendor}=="05ac", SYSFS{idProduct}=="8507", RUN+="/usr/lib64/udev/ift-load --firmware /lib/firmware/isight.fw"

I used preupgrade to updgrade Fedora from 12 to 13.

After the process, I had to resync the partition in refit to be able to boot Linux.

I rebuilded the needed packages for nvidia and the broadcom wireless card.

I needed also to do some modifications to be able to use the integrated iSight webcam:

1. download the apple firmware :

wget http://www.i-nz.net/files/projects/linux-kernel/isight/against-revision-140/firmware/AppleUSBVideoSupport

then extract it (using the Fedora 12 package isight-firmware-tools) :

[root@delvaux ~]# su -c "ift-extract --apple-driver AppleUSBVideoSupport"

after this operation it should be working for most of the macbook pro, but not for this model, another change is needed.

first find the idProduct number:

[fred@delvaux Desktop]$ lsusb -v | grep  iSight -B 3 | grep idProduct
  idProduct          0x8507 

and mofify the file /etc/udev/rules.d/isight.rules with the returned value :

[root@delvaux rules.d]# cat isight.rules 
ACTION=="add", SYSFS{idVendor}=="05ac", SYSFS{idProduct}=="8507", RUN+="/usr/lib64/udev/ift-load --firmware /lib/firmware/isight.fw"

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8 Comments

  1. How to install fedora fc13 on macbook pro 13″?
    Please tell me all the detail step coz I’m newbe here,..
    Thx

      • Hi!
        You mentioned you got the wireless card working.
        Could you tell me how to do that? Where can I find any info?
        I got fedora working on my macbook pro. It’s neat!
        Thanks!

        • Hi Daniel,

          you must install kmod-wl to be able to use the wireless card.

          the latest module in installed from rpmfusion-nonfree-updates repository.

          Name        : kmod-wl
          Arch        : x86_64
          Version     : 5.60.48.36
          Release     : 2.fc14.2
          Size        : 0.0  
          Repo        : installed
          From repo   : rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
          Summary     : Metapackage which tracks in wl kernel module for newest kernel
          URL         : http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
          License     : Redistributable, no modification permitted
          Description : This is a meta-package without payload which sole purpose is to require the
                      : wl kernel module(s) for the newest kernel.
                      : to make sure you get it together with a new kernel.
          
          • Hi,

            how is the battery reacting to Fedora? Did you notice an evident shortened life?
            Do you know if fedora recognize the video output (to projector or screens)?

            Thanks
            salvo

          • all is nice, battery and suspend on close works fine (a bit less smooth then macosx)

            for the video output you need to use nvidia-settings and it works fine !

  2. Heya,
    Thanks for this post, it worked absolutely fine on my late ’09 MBP. I didn’t even have to go the extra mile you had to.

  3. Good day! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if you knew where
    I could get a captcha plugin for my comment form?
    I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having trouble finding one?
    Thanks a lot!

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