Recently, I chanced on an previous MacBook Pro 13″ from late 2011, with a 125GB SSD and 8GB RAM. I’ve taken this machine on journeys world wide, and again within the day, I ran many a session, workshop, or demo to share all of the AppDev goodness from JBoss applied sciences.
After verifying that its battery works, charging it up, and reinstalling a brand new OS X, it seems that the Safari browser model is proscribed to an previous safety specification, which suggests it will possibly’t hook up with quite a lot of HTTPS websites now. This renders this answer defunct.
What to do with this previous factor?
It’s been a number of years since I labored solely on Linux workstations as a developer. I particularly labored on Fedora, so I made a decision to attempt to set up the most recent model on this MacBook Pro.
It took me simply over an hour to get Fedora 33 engaged on this laptop computer with the steps beneath.
Download Fedora 33 and create a dwell USB
The first step is to seek out the suitable method to set up Fedora. This machine has a CD slot, so you would burn an ISO and boot from it, however I selected to go straight to a bootable USB possibility.
I received on my different MacBook and visited the Fedora Workstation site, which hyperlinks to Fedora Media Writer. Click on the icon on your machine sort (in my case, the Apple emblem), and also you get an set up package deal.
Start putting in it to see a graphical consumer interface (GUI) that guides you thru the method. Select the Fedora Workstation 33 possibility:
Next, choose the Create Live USB possibility within the top-right nook:
The picture will begin to obtain, and you will notice a drop-down menu to pick the place to put in it:
Plug in a USB stick to sufficient house accessible, then after the obtain finishes, you possibly can choose and set up the picture on it. Once it is completed, shut the GUI and take away the USB stick.
Install Linux
Insert the USB stick you created into the port on the left facet of your MacBook Pro, and restart it whereas holding down the Option (or Alt) key simply to the left of the Cmd key. This opens a menu of choices to begin the machine; use the EFI possibility, as that is the USB picture.
The laptop computer will boot from the USB gadget, and you may observe the normal Fedora installation course of. It helps for those who can plug the MacBook Pro right into a community cable connection, because the Broadcom WiFi gadget is not going to work out of the field.
You ought to get the chance to put in Fedora to your laborious drive and put it in your machine completely.
Once the installer completes, reboot your machine, and Fedora 33 ought to now be the choice besides from.
The solely factor lacking is a WiFi driver, so preserve your community cable linked to put in the event packages for the kernel you’re operating and to construct the broadcom-wl driver for that kernel.
Verify the cardboard you want for WiFi:
$ lspci -vnn -d 14e4:There will probably be a number of gadgets within the output, together with one thing like:
Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries....Subsystem: Apple Inc. AirPort Extreme...
Install a repository to tug the Broadcom stuff:
$ su -c 'dnf set up -y http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm'The subsequent half is fascinating: As you take a look at the operating kernel, you will see v5.9.Eight-200.fc33, however you’ll use the event kernel packages to construct your Broadcom wi-fi driver. So, you want to set up v5.Eight.15-301.fc33 (accessible on the time of this writing). Check them utilizing uname -r, and listing the put in kernel packages utilizing sudo dnf listing kernel:
$ sudo dnf listing kernelkernel.x86_64 5.Eight.15-301.fc33
kernel.x86_64 5.9.Eight-200.fc33
Install the event packages:
$ sudo dnf set up -y akmods kernel-devel-5.Eight.15-301.fc33Install the Broadcom wi-fi package deal:
$ sudo dnf set up -y broadcom-wlBuild the kernel module:
$ sudo akmodsReboot your machine, and you must be capable of view the wi-fi driver (wl) with:
$ lsmod | grep wlSet up your wi-fi connection in Fedora:
This article is a bit out of the peculiar for me, however I hope it would assist another person get pleasure from some enjoyable on the weekend with some previous hardware!
Going off the crushed path now… putting in #Fedora on a macbook professional from 2011. Wish me luck! pic.twitter.com/zlsESnq2Px
— Eric D. Schabell (@ericschabell) November 22, 2020
This initially appeared on Schabell.org and is republished with permission.
