Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (mid 2010)
Apple’s Mid 2010 13″ MacBook Pro (model code 7,1) is capable of installing and running Gentoo Linux. Installation and configuration is decently easy, especially when these types of guides are available!
Installation media
This computer is capable of an EFI only install. This is made possible via booting from EFI media. Some users have reported rEFInd was needed to get EFI working properly, however this did not appear to be the case for this system. It should be able to boot off of any EFI enabled media.
To boot to a LiveCD or LiveDVD put the disk into the DVD drive and reboot the system. Press and hold the option ( alt ) key at the beginning of the boot process (before the sound plays). Continue holding the key until a mouse pointer appears. The DVD drive should be making some noises. Eventually (around a minute) two boot options should appear. Select the DVD drive.
Note
When using SystemRescueCD, if a black GRUB2 screen appears then the system is booting via EFI firmware. If a blue screen appears SysLinux screen appears, then it is not booting via EFI and the system will be unable to load efivars into the kernel.
For further installation instructions see the AMD64 Handbook. Refer to some of the configuration instructions in the lower sections of this article for help with specific device setup and kernel configuration.
Hardware
lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 HOST Bridge [10de:0d60] (rev a1) 00:00.1 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 Memory Controller [10de:0d68] (rev a1) 00:01.0 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0d6d] (rev a1) 00:01.1 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0d6e] (rev a1) 00:01.2 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0d6f] (rev a1) 00:01.3 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0d70] (rev a1) 00:02.0 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0d71] (rev a1) 00:02.1 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0d72] (rev a1) 00:03.0 ISA bridge [0601]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 LPC Bridge [10de:0d80] (rev a2) Subsystem: Apple Inc. MCP89 LPC Bridge [106b:cb89] 00:03.1 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 Memory Controller [10de:0d7b] (rev a1) 00:03.2 SMBus [0c05]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 SMBus [10de:0d79] (rev a1) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 SMBus [10de:cb89] 00:03.3 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 Memory Controller [10de:0d69] (rev a1) 00:03.4 Co-processor [0b40]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 Co-Processor [10de:0d7a] (rev a1) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 Co-Processor [10de:cb89] 00:04.0 USB controller [0c03]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller [10de:0d9c] (rev a1) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller [10de:cb89] Kernel driver in use: ohci-pci 00:04.1 USB controller [0c03]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller [10de:0d9d] (rev a2) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller [10de:cb89] Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci 00:06.0 USB controller [0c03]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller [10de:0d9c] (rev a1) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller [10de:cb89] Kernel driver in use: ohci-pci 00:06.1 USB controller [0c03]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller [10de:0d9d] (rev a2) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller [10de:cb89] Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci 00:08.0 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 High Definition Audio [10de:0d94] (rev a2) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 High Definition Audio [10de:cb89] Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel 00:0a.0 SATA controller [0106]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 SATA Controller (AHCI mode) [10de:0d88] (rev a2) Subsystem: Apple Inc. MCP89 SATA Controller (AHCI mode) [106b:cb89] Kernel driver in use: ahci 00:0b.0 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0d75] (rev a1) 00:0e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0d9a] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: pcieport 00:15.0 PCI bridge [0604]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0d9b] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: pcieport 00:16.0 PCI bridge [0604]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0d9b] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: pcieport 00:17.0 PCI bridge [0604]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 PCI Express Bridge [10de:0d76] (rev a1) 01:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: LSI Corporation FW643 [TrueFire] PCIe 1394b Controller [11c1:5901] (rev 08) Subsystem: LSI Corporation FW643 [TrueFire] PCIe 1394b Controller [11c1:5900] Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci 02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:432b] (rev 01) Subsystem: Apple Inc. AirPort Extreme [106b:008d] Kernel driver in use: wl Kernel modules: wl 03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:1684] (rev 10) Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:1684] Kernel driver in use: tg3 04:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 [GeForce 320M] [10de:08a0] (rev a2) Subsystem: Apple Inc. MCP89 [GeForce 320M] [106b:00c2] Kernel driver in use: nouveau
lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 05ac:8403 Apple, Inc. Internal Memory Card Reader Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 004 Device 007: ID 05ac:820b Apple, Inc. Bluetooth HID Mouse Bus 004 Device 006: ID 05ac:820a Apple, Inc. Bluetooth HID Keyboard Bus 004 Device 005: ID 05ac:8213 Apple, Inc. Bluetooth Host Controller Bus 004 Device 004: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp. BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth) Bus 004 Device 003: ID 05ac:8242 Apple, Inc. Built-in IR Receiver Bus 004 Device 002: ID 05ac:0236 Apple, Inc. Internal Keyboard/Trackpad (ANSI) Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05ac:8507 Apple, Inc. Built-in iSight Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Configuration
Kernel
Configuring the kernel for most recent MacBook systems is relatively simple. Specific kernel options can be viewed on the MacBook Pro Retina Kernel Configuration article. The writer of this article has verified the kernel options listed there will work for the 13-inch, Mid 2010 MacBook Pro with the exception of the iSight microphone driver which can be seen below:
Device Drivers ---> Sound card support ---> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ---> [*] FireWire sound devices ---> Apple iSight microphone
Wireless drivers
See the wireless driver section from the MacBook Pro Retina article for proper wireless driver configuration. The writer of this article has verified the kernel options listed there will work for the 13-inch, Mid 2010 MacBook Pro. There is no need to repeat them here.
Tips
Detection tools
Many software tools and hardware detection utilities are available in order to help administer and troubleshoot a new Gentoo installation. Users who are new to Gentoo have many options to choose from. Quite a few of the packages available in the Gentoo repository are utilities available on other Linux distributions.
See also
- Apple Macbook Pro Retina (early 2013) — Instructions on how to install Gentoo on Apple’s the 2013 line of MacBooks.
- Portage TMPDIR on tmpfs — Instructions on how to build packages entirely in memory (RAM). This is useful for preserving read/write operations to a disk.
- Gentoo Cheat Sheet — A reference article for basic package management, USE flags, log file, and administration management.
External resources
- https://support.apple.com/kb/sp583?locale=en_US — Apple’s technical specifications page for this laptop.
- https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/ — Obtain a Minimal Installation CD from a Gentoo mirror.
Thread: Ubuntu + 2010 Macbook Pro
5 Cups of Ubuntu 
Ubuntu + 2010 Macbook Pro
apologies if this is the wrong section, been a Linux user for years, my last laptop Lenovo broke a while ago and got offered a 2010 Macbook Pro 13″ for cheap so been using that for a while. Found out the other day that this device won’t receive the newest MacOS update so decided this was an excuse to install Ubuntu 18.0LTS on it.
I followed a number of guides, firstly creating a partition for Ubuntu, then booting from Ubuntu bootable USB, I added nomodeset to the boot options or else the display won’t work. I then did the install from the live USB.
Once installed it would reboot but then go to a black screen, I eventually managed to get at the options during boot by holding shift or esc (cant remember which) while allowed me to put nomodeset into it again.
Once booted again then I could select the driver for the display and also driver for the wifi, it asks me to reboot then but when I do black screen again, only this time I couldn’t get esc or shift to work. Shift brings up a screen but there’s nothing to edit. I was expecting to take out nomodeset. Wifi also appears not to work even with the driver. I did all this on Ethernet.
Anybody who has installed on a 2010 MBP (intel duo core 2) that can assist? I knew it wasn’t going to be straight forward but the guides make it look fairly.