Macs and Linux

[mjg59]

Firstly: If you want to buy a computer to run Linux on, don't buy a Mac.
Secondly: If you have a Mac and want to run Linux on it, the easiest approach is going to be to run it under virtualisation. Virtualbox is free, and worth every bit of what you're paying.
Thirdly: If you're going to boot Linux on bare-metal Apple hardware, boot it via BIOS emulation.
Fourthly: If you're going to boot Linux on bare-metal Apple hardware via EFI, and it doesn't work, write a patch. Apple's firmware has a number of quirks that I'm aware of and we're working through them, but anyone filing bugs against Apple hardware on EFI right now is likely to be ignored for a significant period of time until there's an expectation that it'll actually work. Maybe in six months or so.

Comments

[mjg59]

Well, with luck tomorrow I'll actually have a working patchset. That just leaves the problem of figuring out how they've left the nvidia hardware sufficiently weirdly programmed that the panel won't talk to you (the binary driver can't bring it up either). And then get the gmux stuff merged so the switchable graphics work. And solve the last couple of bits of managing install media.