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I'm planning to a buy a new 13" Macbook Pro, the one that was just released this week with the Thunderbolt port. The question is, has anyone given it a shot with Ubuntu (10.10 or 11.04 alpha)? I'd be especially interested whether temperature sensors/fan control, external displays via the displayport and 3D acceleration (for Compiz or some simple 3D games) via the integrated HD3000 GPU work without flaws.

Thanks!

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3 Answers

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Okay I found a forum thread about it:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10499597

It seems graphics is okay with Natty, but WiFi (BCM4331) is not (yet) supported. Which is a bummer, if you ask me.

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BCM43 cards should be supported if you install the b43 drivers. – Marco Ceppi♦ Feb 28 '11 at 10:37
It doesn't seem so: wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#available_devices I guess brcm80211 is a better shot, its source contains the IDs for 4331, but someone should try it first. – ldx Feb 28 '11 at 11:45
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The closest match will be the MacBook 7,1. Notes for this can be found here.

Most of it appears to work, but "with remarks". That said, given the hardware changes in the new MacBook Pros, I'd expect some of this information will change.

Thunderbolt itself is definitely not supported yet, although I shouldn't anticipate any major issues using an external DisplayPort screen over Thunderbolt as long as you use the latest proprietary driver (which you might need to download.)

For the ATI Radeon HD3000, you may need to download the latest proprietary ATI Catalyst driver manually.

I haven't been able to find any reports of anyone trying Ubuntu on the new MBPs, though. They are, however, very good machines, so look on the bright side--you'll be the first to know how well they run Ubuntu! :-)

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It isn't Ati, it's an Intel graphic card – user11571 Feb 27 '11 at 23:35
Yep it's an Intel HD3000 integrated GPU. Some article on phoronix.com suggests 3D is working, but I also use my external display a lot, so if that doesn't work that's a major showstopper. The only other thing I'm worried about is whether fan control and CPU dynamic clock adjustment work. – ldx Feb 28 '11 at 9:05
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I have a Macbook Pro 7,1.

Keep OSX on it. Ubuntu is very buggy on it and very hit and miss. Though there are sites dedicated to supply help for Macbooks and Ubuntu, you'll find in practice little practical help.

Ubuntu 10.10, is your best bet. Ubuntu 11.10, sound issues, as well as touchpad issues.

Buy a windows PC, then install Ubuntu, far better support.

I use an Acer Aspire, pretty much worked out of the box, just issues with wireless, but sorted that relatively easily.

Most may argue that Ubuntu is the best thing, works out of the box, etc, but it just never does, especially on MAC's.

The problem lies with drivers and Apple's closed door.

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Thanks, in the end I bought a Thinkpad X220, very happy with it. – ldx Dec 26 '11 at 12:51

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