Kubuntu/Ubuntu on first generation macbook air -- help!

Hi everyone,

I have a first generation macbook air (circa 2008), and am trying to get everything working properly with kubuntu 11.10. I've managed to install the operating system, and most things work out of the box, but there are still some annoyances that I would like to get resolved in order to get the machine to work. I know that there used to be a mactel ppa, but there does not seem to be any packages for the latest version of ubuntu.

My problems are:

1. keyboard backlight, and the backlight controls, do not work
2. touchpad is way too sensitive (it's difficult to type because the cursor randomly jumps around)
3. fan is always on full blast (even though it does not usually come on in osx)
4. battery life is bad
5. resume from standby does not work... I have to do a hard reset by holding the power button and reboot the computer
6. No "home", "end", "page up", and "page down" keys, and I don't know the key combo to simulate these.

I've looked around a lot on google, but most of the information I can find is extremely outdated, or written for the newer macbook airs. I've thought about perhaps just using vmware fusion and running kubuntu full screen, but am worried about the performance. Anybody have any experience with this? Is there a way to install a bare-bones version of osx?

Thank you for any help!

 

Have you read the mactel wiki support pages and installed the PPA?

You need pommed ("apple daemon") for the hotkeys and other functions like keyboard backlighting.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookAir1-1/Lucid

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MactelSupportTeam/CommunityHelpPages

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MactelSupportTeam

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MactelSupportTeam/PPA

I have experience with Debian on apple hardware so after you have read up on documentation, I may be able to help you work out any kinks. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the reply,

I have read the mactel support pages, and the problem is that there is nothing recent about the macbook air 1,1 (the first one). The information dates back to 3 ubuntu versions ago (Lucid), and there is nothing in the ppa for ubuntu 11.10. So I am a little bit at a loss as to what to do. Should I try to install pommed anyway?

 

You can apt-get install pommed normally for Oneric it seems...

Ubuntu -- Details of package pommed in oneiric

 

Ok, now after installing pommed, my keyboard backlight works as well as the special keys!

Now my biggest problems are:

- once the fan gets going, it almost never turns off. It also turns on faster than in osx
- typing is difficult as the trackpad is way too sensitive!
- battery life isn't as good

If I could solve these last problems, I would be extremely happy with this laptop!

 

You need macfanctld from the PPA. Use the latest version posted there.

The touchpad probably needs a patched version of xorg-input-synaptics and/or multitouch. Again, from the PPA get the latest version.

If they don't end up being compatible you can always apt-get --reinstall install packagename to get the original one back.

 

Hmmm... I have the mactel ppa installed, but there is no macfanctld available. I do have the latest xserver-xorg-input-synaptics package installed from the Mactel PPA, but the jumpy cursor problem persists, and there are no options to change the sensitivity in the driver GUI (in system settings).

 

You can get the deb package straight from the PPA webpage since it's probably an older version.

https://launchpad.net/~mactel-support/+archive/ppa/+packages

Do you have gsynaptics installed for the touchpad? It's much more advanced than the standard mouse properties applet.