Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

tlmiller76 · 2017-10-17 00:52

So have an old macbook air 1,1 setting at work. It's useless since it has Leopard on it, and can only be upgraded to Lion even if we DID want to upgrade because it's so old. That out of date, no use for it. So decided to try Q4OS scorpion. USB boots, but then gets an "initrd couldn't detect disk with os on" error or similar (had thought about taking a pic, but didn't). When I created the USB I had checked sums, and I've used this on 3 other machines to boot and run live without issues, and then booted another machine without issues after failing on Mac. Currently installing Debian 9 just to make sure it's not the laptops fault (going fine, so doesn't appear to be hardware issue), just wondering if there's known issues with that hardware and if so if there's a workaround for them. I really have no desire to play with Debian proper since Trinity isn't available, and KDE5 I feel will be...horrible...on this ancient hardware.

tlmiller76 · 2017-10-17 02:42

So downloaded the install iso, and it failed to find a cd-rom device.

Redownloaded the live iso, and this time I took a pic of the exact error.

Debian is installed and running (exceedingly slowly since it's plasma 5), so definitely not anything hardware.

Last edited by tlmiller76 (2017-10-17 02:43)

q4osteam · 2017-10-17 07:21

You could try to install from non-pae Q4OS installation CD. Download it from 'Installation CD' section http://www.q4os.org/downloads1.html

Alternatively, you could try to add the 'forcepae' kernel parameter at Live CD media startup, just press 'tab' key at the isolinux boot table.

tlmiller76 · 2017-10-17 13:24

I'm not using pae, I'm using 64-bit. Yes, it only has 2 GB ram, but it's a C2D, which is a 64-bit processor, so I've abandoned using 32-bit installs.

q4osteam · 2017-10-17 16:02

Anyway, you could try to install Q4OS using the 'Install CD', just download 64bit iso image 'q4os-2.4-x64-instcd.r2.iso' from here http://www.q4os.org/downloads1.html , section 'Installation CD'

tlmiller76 · 2017-10-17 16:58

I tried that, it starts the install but when it attempts to find installation medium it asks if I want to load cd-rom drivers, then says it can't find the cd-rom with an installation image (obviously from the USB stick). I tried telling it to look in /dev/sda and /dev/sdb for the "disk" but no dice. Not sure what it recognizes itself as when it boots.

Last edited by tlmiller76 (2017-10-17 17:00)

q4osteam · 2017-10-17 17:45

Which procedure did you use to create the bootable USB ? The most easy and quite reliable would be to use simple linux command:
$ sudo cp <path_to_installation_iso> /dev/sdX
as described here http://www.q4os.org/dqa011.html#install.1 . 'sdX' is the target USB drive to write iso image into. Please, double check the 'sdX' is really your USB drive, to not rewrite your harddrive.

tlmiller76 · 2017-10-17 18:36

I had used dd. Let me retry with using cp.

tlmiller76 · 2017-10-17 18:51

Exactly the same:

q4osteam · 2017-10-17 19:56

Thank you for the detailed report. Unfortunately, we are not able to reproduce the issue on any available hardware, so far. We will take a closer look at this and try to resolve it, we will keep posting here as soon as we discover anything new.

In the meanwhile, you can try one more way to install Q4OS on this machine. Proceed a minimal Debian Stretch installation and run Q4OS setup script for Devuan as described here http://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1592 , it should work for Debian as well.

tlmiller76 · 2017-10-17 23:41

q4osteam wrote:

Thank you for the detailed report. Unfortunately, we are not able to reproduce the issue on any available hardware, so far. We will take a closer look at this and try to resolve it, we will keep posting here as soon as we discover anything new.
In the meanwhile, you can try one more way to install Q4OS on this machine. Proceed a minimal Debian Stretch installation and run Q4OS setup script for Devuan as described here http://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1592 , it should work for Debian as well.

Oh cool. That'll work.

Yeah, ancient hardware this is will be hard to find. We were just going to toss it in recycling at work so figured I'd play around with it. If you're not familiar with Apples naming, this is the ORIGINAL 2008 version of the macbook air.

Last edited by tlmiller76 (2017-10-17 23:43)

crosscourt · 2017-10-18 00:02

I get some of my best hardware that way tlmiller76. Dell Inspiron 570, Dell Optiplex 760 for instance.

tlmiller76 · 2017-10-18 04:24

The script worked. Running Q4OS. Still not exactly what I'd call fast, in fact still a little slower than I'd like. And still can't get the wireless to work, but that's probably because it's a Broadcom wifi/Apple Airport combo card, not JUST a Broadcom wifi. Still, neat to see Q4os running on a macbook.

q4osteam · 2017-11-04 23:12

We have created a new ticket in our bug report tracker https://sourceforge.net/p/q4os/tickets/64/

Most likely some modules to recognize USB hardware are not compiled into the initramfs image. Any connections and related findings would be appreciated, please post them at the bug tracker.

Q4OS Forum

#1 2017-10-17 00:52

Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#2 2017-10-17 02:42

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#3 2017-10-17 07:21

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#4 2017-10-17 13:24

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#5 2017-10-17 16:02

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#6 2017-10-17 16:58

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#7 2017-10-17 17:45

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#8 2017-10-17 18:36

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#9 2017-10-17 18:51

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#10 2017-10-17 19:56

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#11 2017-10-17 23:41

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#12 2017-10-18 00:02

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#13 2017-10-18 04:24

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

#14 2017-11-04 23:12

Re: Any known issues with MacBook Air 1,1

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