A short FAQ

So you've decided you're going to install Linux and want to know a few things.

Q. Will Ubuntu run on my MacBook (MacBook Pro)?

A. Yes, you can run it without making any major changes. You just install it with and the drivers you need and it works great.

Q. What about my iPhone/iPod? Can I sync those?

A. No. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to do that right now. Apple uses a hash database for the videos and music and this hash isn't known at this time (Jan 22/2009.) There are work arounds though. You can sync mail, calendars and contacts using Google Apps. You can boot into OS X every time you want to use iTunes - it's worth keeping the OS X partition around, even if you make it really small, so that you can apply Apple firmware upgrade to the MacBook and iPhone.

Q. How do I resize the Mac OS X partition so I can install Linux?

A. You use an application called Boot Camp Assistant which is free and installed with Leopard and Snow Leopard. It is located in /Applications/Utilities/ (Or use Cmd-Shift-U.) When you run it, it'll ask you how you want the partition split for Windows. You can resize it however you want, but I recommend leaving some growing space for OS X (at least 10Gigs.) Once you have this, it'll resize the partition and ask you to reboot to do some checks or for you to install Windows. You can then install Linux and partition the remaining free space into a swap partition and your linux parition(s).

Q. Does everything work?

A. As far as I can tell, yes. I use Bluetooth for a keyboard and mouse, wifi, I've used firewire to connect hard drives as well as usb. The built in iSight works too. So far I can't seem to find anything that doesn't work.

Q. Are there any repositories I should add in addition to the standard ones?

A. I've installed the mactel-support one: http://ppa.launchpad.net/mactel-support/ubuntu.

I hope this helps and when I find more questions I'll post them here.

Note: These questions were asked while I was in the #Ubuntu-uk IRC Channel (by "kjs") and decided to answer them there. However, I decided that these questions would be worthy of an FAQ.

-P