Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (mid 2010)

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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

root #lspci -nnk

lsusb

root #lsusb

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:

KERNEL iSight driver (CONFIG_SND_ISIGHT)
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