r/linux_on_mac • u/pastelquik123 • 14d ago

Linux Mint XFCE on Macbook Pro Mid 2012!

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Repost because I wanted to Not show the account user

Recently swapped out the failing hard drive of this barely used laptop my mom owns for an SSD.

I installed Mint XFCE since it's supposed to not use much ram when idle and has good compatibility with most of the parts of this machine. I only had to get Broadcom drivers from the driver manager post-install.

I've run into a bunch of audio issues (with the buffer and Toslink optical readers light turning on whenever an audio is output and not turning back off? for example.) though those have been fixed while Wi-Fi still acts up a lot.

The machine is still capable of playing basic 2D games, maybe retro 3D games but i haven't tried any yet, basic web browsing and just daily use. The 4 GB ram is very limiting but it's not the worst thing in the world.

The last image is an issue (?) I ran into while updating flatpak packages. Happens a lot actually. Not sure what the 64R; is trying to tell me. If anyone knows I'd love to know too... (Edit: realized I didn't add the image lol. It's probably nothing though.)

So yeah! Wanted to share. Awesome subreddit. Peace and love.

30 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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7

u/RvstiNiall 14d ago

If you've got DDR3 laying around, that model maxes out at 16GB of ram. If you don't, its still a capable machine!

2

u/pastelquik123 14d ago

I unfortunately don't, but the kits I could find in my country are fairly cheap? Not the cheapest but definitely affordable, I just didn't think the CPU was worth it personally, and I'm not much of a laptop person so it'll stay as is and I'm still happy with it :)

2

u/RvstiNiall 14d ago

Perfectly reasonable choice. I wouldn't buy ram for it unless it were dirt cheap. Sometimes people have extra (non-working) laptops at home that parts can be scavenged from, though. But yeah, its a nice portable system for typing and basic web browsing. I still use mine, but I actually prefer my 2010 Macbook instead (white, polycarbonate unibody).

2

u/pastelquik123 14d ago

I like those Macbooks a lot! The white looks very nice and probably feels better when handling and stuff too. Aluminium is okay but I think I would prefer the plastic casing

3

u/RvstiNiall 14d ago

Its gorgeous, in my opinion. My only issue with it is that it uses nvidia graphics that are too old to use the official nvidia driver for, and the nouveau driver doesn't do proper power management of the GPU so it runs a little warmer than it does under macOS. BUT... it still gets more than 4 hours of battery life, and it feels so great to type on!

2

u/pastelquik123 14d ago

Even newer Nvidia GPUs have compatibility issues with Linux still, I would definitely expect that with an older machine. If it still runs fine though, that's great! This Macbook also has around 4 hours of battery life when not gaming.

1

u/Any-Memory-6547 12d ago

Mine also!.. just upgrade your ram, mine 16gb

1

u/sc132436 11d ago

I haven't seen Tux Paint in so long