Since I recently (finally!) got broadband installed into our new house, I got started on the long-awaited upgrades to both my Macbook and my AMD64 desktop.
Starting with the Macbook, I installed Dapper on it about 9 months ago. Obviously, there were hacks needed to get some stuff working, and other bits just didn’t work at all!
I got started on the upgrade last week. This broke some things, well, not so much broke them, but changed them to work in a way I didn’t want! The most obvious one was the F keys. I like to use Alt + F(1-4) to switch virtual desktop. However, the Edgy kernel defaults the F keys to be the equivalent of Fn + F key. To undo this, put the following into a file in /etc/modprobe.d.
options usbhid pb_fnmode=2
If you’re using the Feisty kernel, the above option needs to be sent to hid instead of usbhid.
The wireless card seems to work much better under the later kernel in Edgy. Under Dapper’s kernel, the wireless connectivity was shaky to say the least. It’s a lot more stable under Edgy, I’m glad to see.
Also, under Dapper, whenever I closed the lid on the laptop and re-opened it, the screen remained dark. This seems to have been fixed under Edgy. So, suspend to RAM looks good to go!
The last remaining obstacle for me with the Macbook was the microphone. I wanted to be able to use Skype under Ubuntu, but without a working mic, this wasn’t possible. I found this page though, which explains how to fix the issue. Having followed these instructions, the mic now works perfectly.
I haven’t bothered touching on any of the stuff that already works like direct rendering, sound, touchpad, keyboard etc. The iSight camera apparently works, but I don’t know what I’d use it for, so I haven’t set it up.
I found this page to be an invaluable resource after the initial upgrade.
