Macbook reborn again

[comda]

Greetings Mac Rumors users!

It has been a while since I have posted to this forum, but upon returning I am pleased to find this section. After 4 years of retirement I have dusted off my White late 2007 Macbook 3,1 and figured i'd try and make it useful again. I had an old install of Mountain Lion on it, which I suppose was fine for most OSX things, however I needed a simple web browsing machine so i decided to try some OSX alternatives. Trying windows 10 was rather disappointing with the X3100 GPU this thing has. Same with Ubuntu things where choppy and youtube unplayable at even non HD resolutions, however I managed to get Linux Mint installed on it which is a slightly more light weight distribution of Linux, and it runs great. Under 4gb ram and a Spinning rust of a hard drive too! Upon installing the OS everything but wifi worked, but a simple ethernet connection and a visit to the built in driver installer found the right wifi driver and away i went. Im actually using it to type up this post right now.

There are a few things i still need to fix, such as getting right click on the trackpad, but I wanted to ask if anyone has tried other linux distriubtions and how far they have gotten? Its running great by far, but i remember this machine would get really hot with anything online done really, and that semi continues. I did repaste this machine about 7 years ago, perhaps i should consider taking a look at the paste again. Otherwise, i had a quick glance at the stickie on this forum and found I still have web browser alternatives for Mountain lion and even Snow leopard so i might consider a dual boot in the future! EVen Bluetooth worked so i uploaded a nice little photo of it running.

Enjoy, and feel free to make any suggestions on alternative Linux setups, or any other software to get this thing working even better!

Thank you!

 

[philgxxd]

What a good condition. I was given a blackbook 4,1 from a co-worker without battery but it is really in a battered state.

 

[MultiFinder17]

Man, that is one clean MacBook! A repaste would definitely do it some good, especially if it's been seven years now. A cheap SSD would go even further to pepping it up too!

 

[philgxxd]

I don’t have experience in alternative OS’s but I’m sure YouTube has a lot of users experiences hosting.

 

[iluvmacs99]

Greetings Mac Rumors users!

It has been a while since I have posted to this forum, but upon returning I am pleased to find this section. After 4 years of retirement I have dusted off my White late 2007 Macbook 3,1 and figured i'd try and make it useful again. I had an old install of Mountain Lion on it, which I suppose was fine for most OSX things, however I needed a simple web browsing machine so i decided to try some OSX alternatives. Trying windows 10 was rather disappointing with the X3100 GPU this thing has. Same with Ubuntu things where choppy and youtube unplayable at even non HD resolutions, however I managed to get Linux Mint installed on it which is a slightly more light weight distribution of Linux, and it runs great. Under 4gb ram and a Spinning rust of a hard drive too! Upon installing the OS everything but wifi worked, but a simple ethernet connection and a visit to the built in driver installer found the right wifi driver and away i went. Im actually using it to type up this post right now.

There are a few things i still need to fix, such as getting right click on the trackpad, but I wanted to ask if anyone has tried other linux distriubtions and how far they have gotten? Its running great by far, but i remember this machine would get really hot with anything online done really, and that semi continues. I did repaste this machine about 7 years ago, perhaps i should consider taking a look at the paste again. Otherwise, i had a quick glance at the stickie on this forum and found I still have web browser alternatives for Mountain lion and even Snow leopard so i might consider a dual boot in the future! EVen Bluetooth worked so i uploaded a nice little photo of it running.

Enjoy, and feel free to make any suggestions on alternative Linux setups, or any other software to get this thing working even better!

Thank you

I found that with an older machine like yours, just like what my dad uses which is a MBPro 2009 C2D 17", Linux Mint is the best most supported works out of the box OS that comes with long term support up till 2025 if based on the Ubuntu Focal kernel. If you want a lighter version, downgrade from Cinnamon to Mate or to Xfce which is the lightest of all the 3.

Unfortunately, the machine is going to run hot no matter what you do including re-pasting if you're watching a lot of Youtube videos. The reason it's running hot is because you are asking a 14 year old machine to do most of the Youtube's decoding via its old Core 2 Duo processors without any of the modern hardware decoding mechanism found on newer M1 Macs and even recent Intel Macs with Intel QuickSync which is only available on i Series Intel, not the Core 2 Duo processors.

Having said that, I would stick with the browsers (Firefox and Brave) available under Linux Mint due to the security updates that it will receive. Since websites are going to a 1 year security certificate renewal after Sept 2020 of last year; this means that having an updated OS and updated browser with the latest signed SSL/TLS certificates would be recommended for better security if you plan to use your older Mac to do online banking, investing and receiving government benefits. Alternative browsers offered for Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard are fine for most everything as long as they are not demanding that your browser and OS have the latest SSL root certificates. But if they do, then you have to use Linux to log in, which is what ended up happening to my dad right now. He's only using Linux and no longer using the older MacOS which he could manage to do in years past before the pandemic.

In regards to the right click issue; try the fix below. You need to do this through SUDO with terminal.

[solved] Right click on touchpad not working - Linux Mint Forums

forums.linuxmint.com

And I'm typing this under Ubuntu 20.04.2 virtualized under Mojave so even when Mojave no longer receives updates after September 2021, I can still log on to sites that requires the latest security certificates through Ubuntu and Brave. Having the best of both worlds!

 

[comda]

What a good condition. I was given a blackbook 4,1 from a co-worker without battery but it is really in a battered state.

Man, that is one clean MacBook! A repaste would definitely do it some good, especially if it's been seven years now. A cheap SSD would go even further to pepping it up too!

First computer i bought myself brand new, so I've kept it WHITE and clean all these years. Keyboard is also still nicely intact. It was replaced as it was about to crack but never got as bad as others I've seen.

 

[comda]

I found that with an older machine like yours, just like what my dad uses which is a MBPro 2009 C2D 17", Linux Mint is the best most supported works out of the box OS that comes with long term support up till 2025 if based on the Ubuntu Focal kernel. If you want a lighter version, downgrade from Cinnamon to Mate or to Xfce which is the lightest of all the 3.

Unfortunately, the machine is going to run hot no matter what you do including re-pasting if you're watching a lot of Youtube videos. The reason it's running hot is because you are asking a 14 year old machine to do most of the Youtube's decoding via its old Core 2 Duo processors without any of the modern hardware decoding mechanism found on newer M1 Macs and even recent Intel Macs with Intel QuickSync which is only available on i Series Intel, not the Core 2 Duo processors.

Having said that, I would stick with the browsers (Firefox and Brave) available under Linux Mint due to the security updates that it will receive. Since websites are going to a 1 year security certificate renewal after Sept 2020 of last year; this means that having an updated OS and updated browser with the latest signed SSL/TLS certificates would be recommended for better security if you plan to use your older Mac to do online banking, investing and receiving government benefits. Alternative browsers offered for Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard are fine for most everything as long as they are not demanding that your browser and OS have the latest SSL root certificates. But if they do, then you have to use Linux to log in, which is what ended up happening to my dad right now. He's only using Linux and no longer using the older MacOS which he could manage to do in years past before the pandemic.

In regards to the right click issue; try the fix below. You need to do this through SUDO with terminal.

[solved] Right click on touchpad not working - Linux Mint Forums

forums.linuxmint.com

And I'm typing this under Ubuntu 20.04.2 virtualized under Mojave so even when Mojave no longer receives updates after September 2021, I can still log on to sites that requires the latest security certificates through Ubuntu and Brave. Having the best of both worlds!

Hi,

Thank you for your detailed response. Yes i figured it was missing some sort of decoding just wasnt sure exactly what. i installed Xsensors and noticed it sat at a nice and cool 37c on the CPU when at complete idle. Upon opening Brave and reloading the open windows i had (one of them was this page, and another a Youtube clip), it got up to 73c and as I am typing this with Youtube open but not running its sitting at 61c ish give or take. This is the second machine of this era I have tried Linux Mint on. Before this I had a Dell Inspiron 1520 with a Core 2 Duo that was a 2XXX running at like 1.6Ghz and only 2gb Ram. It ran Mint fine when not gasping for more RAM, but the CPU fans definitely where not as loud. I think these macbooks where sadly just loud as with a idle of 40c ish temperatures i think my paste is okay.

As for the system, its dual booting with Ubuntu but my plan is to dual boot it with 10.8 in case i need any OSx related software. Its got a few bugs such as never shutting down properly right now, but being that I will be nuking this install anyways it doesnt bother me juuuuuuust yet ;p. My daily driver is a 2012 Macbook pro 9,1 so this machine was for a spare web browsing machine since the battery is fairly fresh in it.

As for trackpad ideas, you actually found the same link I stumbled on moments after posting so I will definitely be giving it a shot!

Thank you

 

[rampancy]

I have a similar A1181 running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on 4 GB RAM and an SSD - while it isn't a screamer, it's very pleasant to use, and needed only minimal setup of the Wifi and other related drivers. IIRC right click on the trackpad wasn't supported, but it also required only a minimal amount of tweaking to get working.

I have to say, overall it's an excellent upgrade. Zoom and modern, up-to-date versions of Firefox and Chrome all work perfectly on it! The only hitch is that I've only been able to successfully install it on MacBooks with a working bootable internal optical drive. For reasons I can't fathom, the install doesn't work if I try it on a USB hard drive or a USB DVD drive.

 

[comda]

I found that with an older machine like yours, just like what my dad uses which is a MBPro 2009 C2D 17", Linux Mint is the best most supported works out of the box OS that comes with long term support up till 2025 if based on the Ubuntu Focal kernel. If you want a lighter version, downgrade from Cinnamon to Mate or to Xfce which is the lightest of all the 3.

Unfortunately, the machine is going to run hot no matter what you do including re-pasting if you're watching a lot of Youtube videos. The reason it's running hot is because you are asking a 14 year old machine to do most of the Youtube's decoding via its old Core 2 Duo processors without any of the modern hardware decoding mechanism found on newer M1 Macs and even recent Intel Macs with Intel QuickSync which is only available on i Series Intel, not the Core 2 Duo processors.

Having said that, I would stick with the browsers (Firefox and Brave) available under Linux Mint due to the security updates that it will receive. Since websites are going to a 1 year security certificate renewal after Sept 2020 of last year; this means that having an updated OS and updated browser with the latest signed SSL/TLS certificates would be recommended for better security if you plan to use your older Mac to do online banking, investing and receiving government benefits. Alternative browsers offered for Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard are fine for most everything as long as they are not demanding that your browser and OS have the latest SSL root certificates. But if they do, then you have to use Linux to log in, which is what ended up happening to my dad right now. He's only using Linux and no longer using the older MacOS which he could manage to do in years past before the pandemic.

In regards to the right click issue; try the fix below. You need to do this through SUDO with terminal.

[solved] Right click on touchpad not working - Linux Mint Forums

forums.linuxmint.com

And I'm typing this under Ubuntu 20.04.2 virtualized under Mojave so even when Mojave no longer receives updates after September 2021, I can still log on to sites that requires the latest security certificates through Ubuntu and Brave. Having the best of both worlds!

So after a few weeks, i took another approach and did end up installing Linux mint XFCE as you had suggested and its yet again a completely other system. Much snappier than before.

I will admit i am struggling to install or edit the trackpad settings. I am just a beginner when it comes to this and the terminal.

Looking at the following:

"
mkdir /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ (if it doesn't exist)
cp /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf

Then edit the first section so it looks like this:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
Driver "synaptics"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
# This option is recommend on all Linux systems using evdev, but cannot be
# enabled by default. See the following link for details:
# http://who-t.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-t ... rrors.html
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Option "TapButton3" "3"
Option "ClickPad" "true"
Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "0"
Option "SoftButtonAreas" "50% 0 82% 0 0 0 0 0"
EndSection"

I inserted the first line with Sudo in front. copying the scond line replied with "no such file or directory".

i genuinely dont know where to go from there. from what i understand i need to create something like a batch file or find the one that controls the trackpad and edit it from there.. Correct?