General Tutorial

How To: Setup Ubuntu on MacBook Pro 2015

Update: In this post I talk about how to setup an Ubuntu virtual machine on a mac.

I recently setup up ubuntu 14.04 LTS on a new 2015 MacBook Pro and it was no mean task.

    1. Firstly if disk encryption is enabled (you might have turned it on during setup), you will have to disable it. Reboot your machine and press Cmd+R, this will take you into a special boot mode. Run Disk Utility and disable disk encryption.
    2. Then follow the instructions here to install dual boot ubuntu.
    3. Once that is done the next important step is to upgrade to the latest kernel (at the time of writing this, I upgraded my linux kernel to 4.3), follow the instructions here. Upgrading the kernel gets you the latest drivers which are needed on the macbook. Wifi, trackpad should now be working.
    4. Fix the keyboard mapping. create a file .Xmodmap in your home directory (~/.Xmodmap). Then add the following content to it.


clear control
clear mod4
keycode 105 =
keycode 206 =
keycode 133 = Control_L NoSymbol Control_L
keycode 134 = Control_R NoSymbol Control_R
keycode 37 = Super_L NoSymbol Super_L
add control = Control_L
add control = Control_R
pointer = 1 2 3 5 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

 

Now create a file in ~/.config/autostart by the name xmodmap.desktop, in that file paste the following: xmodmap /your home directory full path/.Xmodmap

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