Ubuntu 18.04.4 on older Apple hardware

[James Linder]

> On 6 Apr 2020, at 8:00 pm, macports-users-request at lists.macports.org wrote:
> 
> Initially I burned the 64bit Ubuntu 18 version, but it wouldn't boot on my 32bit EFI Mac.
> 
> There was no 32bit version of Ubuntu 18.04.4 that I saw, so I booted the Ubuntu 16.x 32bit version without trouble. But I didn't want to install that, as that seems doomed and out of date.
> 
> And then I stumbled across a small C program that tweaks the ISO image in such a way that it allows the 64bit Ubuntu to boot on a 32bit EFI Mac. <https://github.com/demonicsweaters/make_single_eltorito.c> I risked one more DVD and to my modest surprise, it worked very well. I can't tell you exactly what it does, but someone on this list likely does know exactly what it does.
> 
> Quite possibly it might work with the USB boot method as well, but I didn't try that as yet.
> 
> To get the camera working on this older MacBook, there is software in Ubuntu that takes a driver from your existing MacOS installation and tweaks it slightly. "isight-firmware-tools".
> 
> For newer MacBooks, there is another project to make the HD camera work. I did't try that.
> 
> I did boot the 64bit DVD on another newer MacBookPro I have, and it booted up. I'm not sure at this second just which graphics card it is using.
> 
> It's certainly not MacOS -- the trackpad is jittery, the mouse moves a bit clumsily, setting up hardware is easy if it "just works" but not so easy if it doesn't -- you have to edit conf files, etc. The microphone works in some applications but not other applications (what is that about)? SO yeah -- it's Linux, with all it's benefits and all the warts I remember.
> 
> But it may be useful for some things, like the applications I need to use now that we're all at home with everyone in the house doing videoconferencing with different groups, and we all of a sudden have a need for many current computers with this capability.
> 
> I'm glad I have it as an option -- I partitioned my SSD and with a bit more software that I plan to tweak today, I'm supposed to be able to dual boot without trouble.

I’ve got a new MBP which does not play at all nicely with linux (no trackpad, keyboard, network I did not even try bluetooth.
I’m a fan of VirtualBox but I bought Parallels since it’s disk io was much nearer NVME native speeds.
I run full screen SuSE on 1 desktop, where it behaves beautifully: Fast, no noticeable impact on the rest of the system. I’m using Rosegarden and the USB transfer seems good.
The few niggles are: Setup is good but much more obscure than VirtualBox
If I plug in a mem stick OSX wont see it until Parallels releases it.

Ubuntu seems to have adopted many mac features eg toolbar menu on the focus’d app, dock etc
But this seems a way of getting all the pros without the cons

James