Plover

Plover is a "Late 2013" MacBook Pro with Retina display. Model number A1502

The screen delaminated when it was about 2 years old, but it's still usable. I missed out on getting Apple to fix it for free.

When I had ArcGIS installer here I ran Parallels on Plover.

History

2023-03-26 -- Installed Elementary 7.1 still no WiFi but charge goes up to 100% now.

2022-12-20 -- Got the new TP-Link wifi going.

2022-12-10 -- It's now running Elementary OS, with 2 small problems. The charge indicator never goes above 61%, and Wifi driver.

Support for OS upgrades stopped.

2019-??-?? -- I have Mojave on it now

2018-Jul-23 -- Removed ESRI software, personal license is now on Murre, developer license is history.

2016-Sep-02 -- Installed updates this morning and now it can't find any apps. See below

2016-Jan-16 -- I put El Capitan on it yesterday.

Software

apt install build-essential emacs-nox

Broadcom (built-in) WiFi

WiFi - I failed to find the right magic to make the built-in WiFi work with Elementary OS. For a week I used an Alfa USB device which is bulky and slow. Then the new TP-Link arrived and I had to do the dance to make it work. I think it's faster anyway.

lspci -vnn | grep -i net shows the built-in interface, which I don't have working yet.

03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a0] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [106b:0112]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Memory at b0600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]
	Memory at b0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M]
	Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [58] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
	Capabilities: [68] Vendor Specific Information: Len=44 <?>
	Capabilities: [ac] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [13c] Device Serial Number 3c-15-00-ff-ff-00-00-01
	Capabilities: [150] Power Budgeting <?>
	Capabilities: [160] Virtual Channel
	Capabilities: [1b0] Latency Tolerance Reporting
	Capabilities: [220] Resizable BAR <?>
	Kernel modules: bcma

Accordingly I need to install the "wl" driver, see https://wiki.debian.org/wl#Debian_7_.22Wheezy.22

Should be here since this is Ubuntu not Debian Wheezy. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl

The table there gives me "14e4:43a0 bcmwl-kernel-source bcmwl-kernel-source"

So I need to do the kernel thing. I dutifully installed the bcmwl-kernel-source package, it built the drivers, but they won't load because they say there is a symbol missing. Like this: "insmod: ERROR: could not insert module brcmsmac.ko: Unknown symbol in module"

Don't use insmod.... ooohhh.... !!! Use modprobe, like this,

modprobe -v brcmsmac
insmod /lib/modules/5.15.0-56-generic/kernel/drivers/bcma/bcma.ko 
insmod /lib/modules/5.15.0-56-generic/kernel/lib/math/cordic.ko 
insmod /lib/modules/5.15.0-56-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/broadcom/brcm80211/brcmutil/brcmutil.ko 
insmod /lib/modules/5.15.0-56-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/broadcom/brcm80211/brcmsmac/brcmsmac.ko 

TP-Link AC1300 WiFi adapter

I forget the exact commands I used to get the TP-Link AC1300 "Archer T3U Nano" (2357:012e) going. This is an approximation.

Find the current kernel number then install the headers. I have to do this again every time the kernel gets upgraded. I should make it into a script.

sudo apt install linux-headers-`uname -r`
# on first install
sudo apt install rtl8812au-dkms
# subsequently
sudo dpkg-reconfigure rtl8812au-dkms
sudo modprobe 8812au
sudo reboot

Camera

The built-in camera does not work; I use a USB when I need to Zoom. I tried to fix the camera by following instructions here: https://github.com/patjak/facetimehd/wiki/Get-Started#devvideo-not-created I had trouble getting the driver to install in bcwc_pcie/, sudo make install gives me arch/x86/Makefile:142: CONFIG_X86_X32 enabled but no binutils support

Clear DNS cache

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Dual displays

Apple does a superlative job of supporting multiple displays, I can plug in 2 external monitors and get 3 total separate displays or I can use external mouse and keyboard working with the lid closed on the Mac.

1. Plug in a cheap Firewire/Thunderbolt DVI adapter on the left side of Plover.
2. Connect monitor #1 (Dell 20") to the adapter.
3. Connect monitor #2 (Acer 23") to the DVI port on the right side of Plover
4. Connect Plover to AC power and close the lid.
5. Set the monitors to separate mode (not mirrored) using icon in Menu bar.

Use with either USB or Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

Voila! 2 big screens. Cables running all over heck.

Update fail

Was able to log in using Julie's account. Trying this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7376445 I see "mdworker deny(1) file-read-data" errors in /var/log/system.log

This worked:

find /private/var/folders |grep com.apple.LaunchServices | grep csstore > /tmp/foo

Now delete each of those files.

for i in `cat /tmp/foo`; do sudo rm -f $i; done

And reboot. All should now be well. I wonder what those files do and how that guy figured out what to do.

Hardware details

Model Name: MacBook Pro, late 2013 model "A1502".

 Model Identifier:	MacBookPro11,1
 Processor Name:	Intel Core i7
 Processor Speed:	2.8 GHz
 Number of Processors:	1
 Total Number of Cores: 2 (hyperthreaded so shows as 4 in Linux)
 L2 Cache (per Core):	256 KB
 L3 Cache:	        4 MB
 Memory:	        16 GB
 Boot ROM Version:	MBP111.0138.B16
 SMC Version (system):	2.16f68

APPLE SSD SM1024F:

 Capacity:	1 TB (1,000,555,581,440 bytes)
 Model:	APPLE SSD SM1024F                       
 Revision:	UXM6JA1Q
 Serial Number:	S1K6NYAF516200      
 Native Command Queuing:	Yes
 Queue Depth:	32
 Removable Media:	No
 Detachable Drive:	No
 BSD Name:	disk0
 Medium Type:	Solid State
 TRIM Support:	Yes
 Partition Map Type:	GPT (GUID Partition Table)
 S.M.A.R.T. status:	Verified