A journey to a 100% functional linux distro on Macbook 4,1 (Early 2008)
Hello people,
Do you know that quit and dusty (RIP?) macbook 4.1 (white / black, early 2008) you thought would discard it? Are we going to resurrect him?
My proposal is a clean install of Fedora 26 (released June 2017). In it I assure you that all features (wifi, bluetooth, iSight, keyboard) will be 100% functional.
Brief History:
After a few years with my Macbook 4.1 White, it stopped receiving updates from Apple. The latest version supported was Mac OS 10.7.x Lion and has not received any more updates on applications and security patches. Some browsers no longer support the release of new versions and the operating system has become virtually obsolete.
The first searches to resurrect the Macbook 4.1 white have been trying to install a newer version of Mac OS X, through a forced upgrade of newer versions (not officially supported by Apple) maintained by communities around the world. This solution, besides complicated, did not leave my Macbook White 100% functional. I then left to search for some Linux distribution that resurrected my obsolete equipment.
Requeriments this post:
Knowledge in the linux world, prefer Fedora and Gnome world.
1. Install Fedora 26:
The installation of the Fedora is similar for any other computer. Download the latest version in site fedoraproject.org, create an USB/DVD Live boot and initiate the process of the instalation (Use the Fedora Media Writer for simplify the process).
If you’ve done others installation, go ahead. Do the installation like any others computers. If you is insecure, search for tutorials for dualboot mode and others forms of the installation. I recomend an installation full in the disk for simplification the boot configuration and others process.
2. Wi-fi:
The first problem for the Fedora in Macbook White machine is the connectivity wifi. It does not load the broadcom module by default in kernel.
The following process will be done with networking cable in the ethernet por.
Install the repository Rpmfusion free and nofree:
# sudo dnf install -y
https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-26.noarch.rpm
Installation
# sudo dnf install -y kernel-devel akmod-wl
Restart the computer if the wifi icon does not appear in the upper right menu,
3. Touchpad:
Two problems was exists previous in fedora 25 in the touchpad mouse:
No smooth scrooling in screen text (browsers, text editor)
Cursor Dance Bug (Crazy cursor dancing)