Macbook Air 11.6 Early 2015 (MJVM2LL/A)

#1

Okay I’m just going to say I thought it’s going to be mission impossible to make WiFi work on this machine under any Linux distribution and I got lucky with yours :slight_smile:

So for anyone who wants to try this, the best way not to brick your PC is to create a separate partition under macOS and only after boot and choose that same partition under Mabox installer.

Second, the way I’ve managed to setup wifi is using my iPhone Bluetooth tethering. I then tried to install “broadcom-wl-dkms” package but I’ve encountered the error Missing kernel modules tree. So after researching the net a bit suggesting that you should do a system upgrade and that should fix that problem and Well IT DID! YAHOO!

Thank you kind sir for a such a lovely desktop environment and well done on maintaining such an inspiring distribution

Leaving you with this lovely picture, Thank you

[Album] Macbook Air 11.6 running Mabox Linux
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#2

Part II

Upgraded the SSD to OWC Aura Pro X2 480GB SSD. while the macOS update I did before should’ve updated the firmware which is essential to make the SSD work on my Macbook, after correctly installed my new SSD the Macbook did not recognize the new drive.

Solution? Mabox to the Rescue again (my first pick!) Recognized the drive from the get go a truly magnificent distro. Thank you again my friend

#3

@napcok With all being said. Would it be possible to include broadcom-wl-dkms in future releases or at least in your repo? I think that your distro would be a suitable home for old macbook users.

#4

@el3venS1x Thanks for all the kind words :slight_smile:

About broadcom-wl drivers …
I believe broadcom cards should work out of the box.
Have you tried to boot the ISO install image with non-free (proprietary) drivers?

Mabox_boot_properiatary-drivers
Mabox_boot_properiatary-drivers1024×768 36.4 KB

#5

@napcok Created a little video showing me booting into Proprietary live boot with the WiFi sadly not recognized. Also included my setup I used to get WiFi working with the above method.

#6

Mabox is powered by Manjaro and uses Manjaro repositories (with addition a rather not-so-big Mabox repository).
broadcom-wl-dkms package and also packages with broadcom modules precompiled for many linux kernel series are available in Manjaro repos:

napcok@mabox ~ $ yay --repo broadcom-wl
14 community/linux59-rt-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-3 (1.4 MiB 1.4 MiB) [linux59-rt-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
13 community/linux54-rt-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-35 (1.4 MiB 1.4 MiB) [linux54-rt-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
12 community/linux-rt-manjaro-broadcom-wl 5.9-1 (2.3 KiB 0.0 B) [linux-rt-manjaro-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
11 community/linux-rt-lts-manjaro-broadcom-wl 5.4-1 (6.6 KiB 0.0 B) [linux-rt-lts-manjaro-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
10 extra/linux59-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-16 (1.4 MiB 1.4 MiB) [linux59-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
9 extra/linux54-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-113 (1.4 MiB 1.4 MiB) [linux54-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
8 extra/linux512-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-0.6 (1.4 MiB 1.4 MiB) [linux512-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
7 extra/linux511-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-9 (1.4 MiB 1.4 MiB) [linux511-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
6 extra/linux510-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-39 (1.4 MiB 1.4 MiB) [linux510-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
5 extra/linux49-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-205 (2.7 MiB 2.7 MiB) [linux49-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
4 extra/linux44-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-161 (2.7 MiB 2.7 MiB) [linux44-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
3 extra/linux419-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-170 (1.4 MiB 1.4 MiB) [linux419-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
2 extra/linux414-broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-197 (1.4 MiB 1.4 MiB) [linux414-extramodules] 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver BCM43142.
1 extra/broadcom-wl-dkms 6.30.223.271-26 (1.7 MiB 7.6 MiB) 
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver

I am currently working on the release of the refreshed Mabox ISO.
Would you have time and willingness to test the new iso with the pre-installed broadcom module?
Anyway, I can not promise anything because I do not have equipment with a broadcom card for testing.

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#7

With real Pleasure :smile: (That would be an honour)

#8

Here is ISO for testing - with broadcam-wl module for 5.10 kernel preinstalled - if anybody want to try it.

Next few days I plan to work on ISO Refresh with all stable updates and some bugfixes and small changes. If all goes well I like to publish and announce it soon.

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#9

Using Mabox Linux as Mac Repair utility
Found out the hard way while trying to re-install macOS on a foreign SSD that it can’t be done so easily. As my firmware Internet recovery does not recognize my OWC SSD I’ve used Mabox Linux successfully to format the SSD using gparted although I needed to install hfsprogs from the “AUR” installing git and base-devel packages first I could then format the drive as HFS+ and so I could install macOS. Thanks to the Foltest-broadcomest It can now be done much more easily.

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