Being a Linux user for more than 8 years now I was quite excited about the really cool looking MacBook Pro I got to work with @itemis.

The *arrrg* part: So why would I want Linux on a MBP after 1 day with Mac OS X 10.5?

The short answer: The MacBook Pro is a visible cool piece of art, (K)ubuntu is a usable cool piece of art.

For a long answer I’ll concentrate on the major obstacles I encountered.

Being a 10 finger power user of an IBM keyboard and especially being used to configuring everything to anything I want, Mac OS X really is no option for me in a developer role.

Example it? Alright. For instance, this is the second time I (try to) write this blog in my browser. Why? Well, the first time I got to “@itemis” in the first sentence, I pressed [Alt Gr]+[Q] to get the [@] Symbol. On a Mac keyboard this subconscious motor action results in [Apple]+[Q] causing the browser to quit immediately. I just don’t even want to think of annotations in java code at this point… Yes, maybe I could reconfigure the keyboard somehow somewhere if it was only for this…

Another thing is multi monitor usage. There’s just no way to display the menu bar of a window on the same screen, the window is on. And if there is, it’s apparently no intuitive configurable way. With this dis-feature Mac OS X 10.5 becomes an “OS of the long mouse ways” to me. It is anyways, as in the file save dialog (and other dialogs) there’s just no way to tab through ALL visible input fields and buttons (I tried to combine Tab with the most obvious and intuitive [Ctrl], [Alt], and [Apple] keys). Ergo, in OS X 10.5 the user just seems to be forced to use the mouse in situations even MS Windows didn’t require it.

The fun part: Installing Kubuntu 8.04 

(For the installation I stuck to this guideline I found on the Internet: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBook)

Step 1: Update the firmware to the latest version. I used the standard “Software Update” to do so. (accessible from your OS X partition, if you have one).

Step 2: Get the Kubuntu 8.04 Live CD ready. I preferred to use the i386 over the 64bit version, since the MBP doesn’t have more than 4GB RAM (Yes, I’ll spare the swap file later).

Step 3: Install rEFIt for a boot menu (to select between OS X/Kubuntu) to appear on every boot. I stuck to the automated installation guide on the above rEFIt website:

The steps to install rEFIt this way are as follows:

Download and mount the rEFIt-0.11.dmg disk image.

Double-click on the “rEFIt.mpkg” package.

Follow the instructions and select your Mac OS X installation volume as the destination volume for the install.

If everything went well, you’ll see the rEFIt boot menu on the next restart and OS X will auto boot after a few seconds.

 Step 4: With Boot Camp (Click Desktop then [Shift]+[Apple]+[U]) I resized my 185 GB OS X partition and made 80 GB space for Kubuntu. Don’t waste a CD creating a Windows driver disk.

Step 5: Reboot + insert the Kubuntu Live CD. Hold down “C” to boot from the CD.

Step 6: Do not start the Live CD, but rather install Kubuntu right away from the CD boot menu:

In the partitioner, select Manually edit partition table

Delete /dev/sda3 (FAT32, created by Boot Camp) and /dev/sda4 if they exist. Changing the FS type didn’t work for me, so you really should delete sda3!

Create a new ext3 partition for your root. Note that Boot Camp will cause problems if you make more than two partitions in total. So I didn’t create a swap partition.

Mount the newly created ext3 partition on ‘/’

On the last screen, click on the “Advanced” button and select instead /dev/sda in the drop-down list for installing GRUB

Finish the install and reboot.

Step 7:  With rEFIt installed, there’s a choice between booting OS X and Kubuntu now. Before booting Linux, to avoid a “No bootable device — insert boot disk and press any key” message, go in rEFIt to the Partitioning Tool, and let it update the MBR and reboot. Then use the arrow keys and Enter to select Kubuntu.

So far on getting Linux running on my MacBook Pro 4.1. Keep track of my blog on further progress configuring Kubuntu 8.04 to utilize the features and special hardware of the MBP.

Questions, comments, help & hints on Mac OS X 10.5 and critics welcome.