VSIDO on a macbook 2,1 early 07 model

[valroadie]

Alrighty! Well it took me a couple of days but I am ready to tackle this.

I will be putting info in here periodically as I test it, this is my only computer so I will need to do reboots and what not.

I have downloaded the 32-bit Vsido live cd and also the 64-bit (which I will be testing asap) and have come across what I assume to be a video error. When I try to start the regular live option on the boot menu it just goes to a black screen, everytime.
Now with the live safe mode option I can get to the desktop! (woo! heh) Now, that tells me this can potentially run great on here so this is why I am here. I have been in #VSIDO on IRC and have been helped by VastOne and JedsDesk thus far and am going to try some things they suggested here in a moment.

EDIT: Alrighty, I am in safe mode as per the screenie attachment.
(File too large so embed it goes!).

As you can see the res is very low. It results in most of the windows I open to be unmoveable or the options being unreadable. I am sure this is NORMAL for safe mode but I just want to make it apparent. I have also got ceni up and running and have connected to my wireless net just fine. (Hence why I am updating in safe mode xD)

Ok so being in safe mode, I have tried to do an install (regardless if it would boot or not, it is easier to work with something installed and tangible I think) BUT! When I tried the install I get hung up on the partitioning step. It seems the installer will not recognize any swap partitions I make, even newly made right in Gparted.

Alright! I am back with some more info and after a long period of procrastination hah.
Here is an update, I have successfully install vsido! Woo! For starters, the live cd decided to start working on its own without a kernel panic and booted right into the reg. boot instead of safe mode! So good going on that front, BUT! I was greeted with a problem while installing as the installer could not find or recognize my swap partition!
Now this was due to a partition format problem, the HDD needed to be in an MS-DOS format to be recognized! Weird huh? WellI assume it is because of the UEFI boot on this macbook. So mac users, keep this in mind!

I found a solution to this problem VERY easily because it was provided by our very own statmonkey! Thank you so much statmonkey for this awesome tutorial and fix!
You can find it here: http://vsido.org/index.php/topic,494.0.html
He basically explains that you need to format the entire drive to an MS-DOS format using gparted before you can continue. It worked great!

NOW! After that is done, and while it loaded the CORRECT grub options, it booted and was recognized perfectly by my EFI! Awesome!

BUT! I know I know, there is a BUT, I received the SAME kernel panic I was receiving with the livecd before hand.

( Excuse the picture, I can't scrot on a kernel panic! xD )

As you can see I am getting a kernel panic for the intel chipset in this macbook which is the i915 chipset, here is an excerpt of my LSPCI output.

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

Now to fix this, I needed to add an extra boot option to my grub, and after a few attempts with the knowledge from JedsDesk I was able to get it booted in no time!

Upon boot in the grub menu you will want to select 'Advanced boot options for Vsido' in the menu. It will bring you to a standard grub menu with 2 choices of kernels to boot into one normal and one safe mode, lets go with normal.

Now there is a file that pops up that you are able to edit so lets look at it,
There is a line the includes 'ro quiet' on the end of the line about 3/4ths the way down the file, after the quiet option you should type: nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0
After this hit ctrl+x to boot with these new commands.
Success! Now what this does it is turns off the nouveau video mode so as not to override my default intel video card.

I am so happy as I am NOW booted into VSIDO! WOO! It has been a trial and error nightmare but this is what it is all about people! If it wasn't for support from the community I wouldn't be here so, thanks to everyone who helped me and may this tutorial grant some poor soul retribution on their mac machine

Here is also a low res problem I am having with it, so this will be the next problem I fix!



So I have been working on the low res fix for this macbook with JedsDesk's help we had a good path going. It wasn't recognizing my LCD screen so it wasn't able to use the native resolution! So we needed to find the name given to the monitor, I booted into ubuntu, did a quick xrandr in terminal and viola! LVDS1 was the key!

Now this is where it gets weird! Which has happened a couple of times throughout this process, it fixed itself upon my nest boot of vsido! xD I have not rebooted to see if it retains its shape but I am weirded out and surprised, I am liking VSIDO!



Anywho that does it! Hopefully this helps someone with this same macbook or maybe even another mac period!

Now let me enjoy my VSIDO! /me installs xmonad muahaha!

HACK THE PLANET!

[lwfitz]

Awesome valroadie, I have two iMacs that I think might be good candidates for a 32bit install.

[VastOne]

Great work valroadie... Jedi was happy to see this happen too!

[valroadie]

It was def. a project but I enjoyed it and hey, a bit of learning goes a long way!

[dizzie]

For the lowres issue.. Have you tried to modprobe i915 (not sure there is a i945 driver)


I vaguely remember... I had to do that when I was using Arch on my XPC Shuttle, which have a GMA Serie2 onboard card


Try this too (need to scale it?)


$ xrandr --output LVDS1 --set PANEL_FITTING param

[valroadie]

Yes dizzie I have done modprobe for the i915 driver and it gives me no output but I assume that means it is found.

It seems the res is fixed, I have booted a few times and it has stayed native res, BUT! I know have a random kernel panic on boots at random intervals REGARDING the i915 driver soooo I will be working on chasing down the time sequence on booting I suppose.

[dizzie]

/var/log/debug
/var/log/messages
/var/log/kern.log
/var/log/dmesg
Happy grep'ing 

[valroadie]

Ah great! Thanks dizzie. I tried looking for boot error logs awhile ago but couldn't find anything about them heh.