MacBook 2006 reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RemoteBroccoli · 2022-01-04 17:07 I will be given a OLD MacBook 13", the white one. Anyone here having a deal with that, as in "Can I use them?". Very grateful for all that I can learn. Also, I've used BSD (Free/Open) on thinkpads and HP's. So I know OF it, I don't know IF it works on macbooks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gumnos · 2022-01-04 17:42 Your experience might depend largely on whether it's a PPC MacBook or an Intel MacBook. I've got a PPC iBook G4 ("Snow", the last generation produced) from 2006. It's currently running OpenBSD 7.0 and is adequate for most things I throw at it. The biggest issue is getting a modern web-browser on a PPC architecture (pretty much…you can't) and the mouse (X applications generally expect at least a 3-button mouse for just about everything but the touchpad on my iBook acts mostly like a 1-button mouse, so I either need an external mouse or I sacrifice some keys to use `xmodmap`/`xkbset` to send MMB/RMB). But for light word processing (abiword) & spreadsheet (gnumeric) or server/dev work (all on a console), or light web-browsing (lynx or dillo), and some menial gaming, it's fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gumnos · 2022-01-04 17:48 (if you're running an Intel processor, you have a lot more options) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shawn_blackk · 2022-01-04 19:14 if it has 32-bitb intel core duo, try archlinux32. if it has 64-bit intel core 2 duo, then try standard archlinux, both of them with lxde desktop environment and midori web browser ( it is lighter than firefox ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TrenItaglia · 2022-01-05 01:14 I run freebsd on a 2008 macbook 4.1, the only issues are keyboard, brightness and the touchpad, for which i dont know. install asmc driver, there was a guide about using asmc it has efi so you can dual/multi boot. linux would be bloated enough to run slow but acceptable without some changes. freeBSD is more efficient and cpu can run at lower temps EDIT 2: Linux runs like crap on mine because it is bloated, a 2006 macbook has a Core2, you need optimization. If you have anything except intel graphics it should be fine. Mine can barely play 1080P at 24fps with 2GB ram, running FreeBSD. I can't even watch 720p with linux, or browse some complex websites, also the security patches use a lot of cpu, linux desktop, yeah, cpu core meltdown is more appropriate EDIT 1: smcdump is the tool, you have to recompile asmc driver with added smc keys for your platform, then sysctl will be able to comunicate with system management controller and do things like change brightness, volume, infrared etc... I haven't done it myself yet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kernigh · 2022-01-05 02:01 It might be a [MacBook1,1 (White) from 2006](https://everymac.com/syst ems/apple/macbook/specs/macbook_2.0_white.html), with a 32-bit Intel Core Duo (T2500), 2 cores at 2.0 GHz. This would be an i386, not macppc nor amd64. I run OpenBSD/macppc on PowerPC Macs, but know almost nothing about Intel Macs. The older Intel Macs don't have Secure Boot. I would try to boot a USB stick by holding the Option or Alt key for the boot menu. I'm not sure, but the Apple EFI in the oldest Intel Macs might fail to boot a USB stick. OpenBSD/i386 only boots from BIOS, not from EFI. Apple added a CSM for BIOS boots; this CSM can boot from internal drives, but maybe not from an external USB stick. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gumnos · 2022-01-05 02:30 yeah, I know the last PPC Mac was around 2005–2006 (when I purchased mine and it's the only Apple hardware I own) and they started doing Intel hardware around 2006 (didn't realize it was only i386, not amd64). I repartitioned my OSX partition to 5GB, allocating the remainder of the 30GB drive to OpenBSD, put the `ofwboot` and the `bsd.rd` in the root of the OSX HFS partition, booted to OpenFirmware (command+option+o+f), and entered boot hd:,ofwboot /bsd.rd which put me into the installer for the rest. My efforts to try and boot off a USB stick all failed. As for any Intel CPUs, hopefully they're less…fiddly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kernigh · 2022-01-05 06:06 For OpenBSD/macppc, given install66.iso on a USB stick, this Open Firmware command might boot it, boot usb0/disk@1:,ofwboot /6.6/macppc/bsd.rd The drive might be on usb0, usb1, usb2, ... so I run commands like `dev usb0 ls` to look for it. Open Firmware might fail to detect the drive, then I can't boot it. The above command bypasses the \*.iso's boot script (which tries to load ofwboot from the internal CD drive, which doesn't work if I put the \*.iso on USB). OpenBSD/i386 should be simple. Its \*.img boots via MBR, just like DOS or Windows 7. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DarthRevanG4 · 2022-01-05 07:21 All MacBooks are Intel. PowerPCs are called iBooks or PowerBooks. Neither of which came in a 13” variant. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DarthRevanG4 · 2022-01-05 07:24 FreeBSD should work. It has a CoreDuo most likely, and can do anything any other old Core Duo machine could do. If it is a Core **2** Duo, it is 64bit and opens up more options. The 32bit EFI can be ignored by using CSM, the bios emulator that is used for bootcamp. Mind you this can only be used when installing from optical media, so whatever you choose burn it to a disc and if you hold option and select “Windows” it will boot the disc using CSM. This is generally preferred as the EFI implementation on Macs didn’t get up to standard until around 2009-2010. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UncleSlacky · 2022-01-05 10:46 There's some advice [here](https://mattgadient.com/linux-dvd-images- and-how-to-for-32-bit-efi-macs-late-2006-models/) which might be useful (though it's intended for Linux). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gumnos · 2022-01-05 13:48 Huh, the naming change makes sense; I'd never thought about it. Thanks for the info. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mescaleeto · 2022-01-05 14:35 I thought they were still using the old power pc architecture at that time ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DarthRevanG4 · 2022-01-05 14:58 No. The transition was complete in 2006. There are no “2006” PowerPC Macs. There were however a few PowerPC Macs built and sold early into 2006; the 12” 1.5GHz PowerBook G4, and the 1.5GHz Mac Mini to name a couple. These are still 2005 Macs, there were no new PPC Macs released in 2006. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Easy75 · 2022-01-05 22:18 > All MacBooks are Intel. This is incredibly pedantic of me because it’s not relevant to a discussion about a 2006 MacBook, but it would be more accurate to say “there are no PowerPC MacBooks”. There are *lots* of non-Intel MacBooks. They’re just all pretty new. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DarthRevanG4 · 2022-01-05 23:43 I knew someone would attempt to correct that. Yes the ARM Macs they make now are also called MacBook. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Current_Hearing_6138 · 2022-01-06 20:56 Mac is a branch of bsd, historically speaking