-dsr-
* 2023-06-08 19:32:13-0400, Timothy M. Butterworth wrote:
> I have a 2012 MacBook Pro that I am going to install Debian Bookworm on. I
> will not be keeping OSX on the Mac as it is no longer supported for
> updates. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for installing Debian on a
> MacBook Pro?
I don't have that same machine but I believe you won't need any or much
tricks: it should install and work nicely. I have Apple Macbook Air 2012
and I have had Debian in it since 2016 or 2017. I reinstalled Debian 11
last year and all went smoothly again with firmware installer image.
https://cdimage.debian.org/images/unofficial/non-free/images-including-firmware/
Debian 12's (Bookworm) official installer will include non-free firmware
files.
A couple of tricks I have made. I created /etc/modprobe.d/apple-fn.conf
file to modify function keys (F1-F12). Normally those keys have various
special functionality and to access real F1-F12 keys user needs "fn"
modifier key. I don't like that so I reversed the behavior with the
following settings:
# /etc/modprobe.d/apple-fn.conf
# fnmode=1 F1-F12 keys need "fn"
# fnmode=2 F1-F12 keys work without "fn"
options hid_apple fnmode=2
Apple computers have annoying startup sound ("chime") which can't be
modified easily from Linux side. I wanted to silence it and the trick
that works in my Macbook Air is described in Arch Linux wiki (the
"chattr" and Bash "printf" trick):
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/mac#Mute_startup_chime
I turned that information into a Bash script:
#!/bin/bash
f=/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/SystemAudioVolume-7c436110-ab2a-4bbb-a880-fe41995c9f82
chattr -i "$f"
# Must be Bash "printf"!
printf "\x07\x00\x00\x00\x00" > "$f"
chattr +i "$f"
The settings are persistent so probably that script is needed only once.
If you set the startup sound silent from Mac OS side before installing
Linux, that setting persists over to the Linux installation.
--
/// Teemu Likonen - .-.. https://www.iki.fi/tlikonen/
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