How to run the Debian 11.2.0 on an old Macbook 3.1 with dual boot

The plan

Objective : make my old Macbook 3.1 useful with a recent Operating System. Let’s do it with the last Debian (11.2.0 Bullseye at the time I wrote this post)

As you will see, after having installed Debian, a lot of things don’t run at all :

  • The keyboard is not recognized as a Mac keyboard (and works as a classic one, with the “-” on the “6” for example in the case of an AZERTY keyboard)
  • The Wifi doesn’t work (only ethernet network works)
  • Your printer can’t be used
  • The webcam doesn’t work (I have to admit that I did not arrive to make it running…)

Prepare the hard drives

Install Mac OSX

It is better to install OSX because it is the only way to act as a BIOS if needed to update the firmware.

Prepare the Hard Drive for Debian

With MacOSX, use the Disk Utility (Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility) and resize OSX partition between 30 and 50GB or more (it depends on if you really want to use it). The partitions needed to run Debian will be created during Debian installation process.

Install Debian

  1. Download a Debian image and create your installer : in my case I have downloaded debian-11.2.0-amd64-netinst.iso and have created a CD installer (for information, it works with an USB external DVD player… my internal one was broken)
  2. Start the Macbook holding the Key “alt” pressed
  3. Choose to boot from the installer you have created
  4. Create the 2 partitions needed on the free space
    • For Debian OS
    • For the Swap (usually the same space as the memory if between 2GB and 4GB)
  5. Finish the installation

In my case with a 250GB Hard Drive :

  • OSX : 50GB
  • Debian : 195GB
  • Swap : 4GB

Adjust the Debian configuration to the Macbook

As a reminder, the wifi doesn’t work, so before everything, keep your Macbook plugged to the ethernet network.

Keyboard configuration

Edit the keyboard config file :

nano /etc/default/keyboard

Insert the following configuration :

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="fr"
XKBVARIANT="mac"
XKBOPTIONS="lv3:switch,compose:lwin"

BACKSPACE="guess"

Restart the Macbook to take into account the new configuration.

Wifi configuration

Verify the prerequisites

apt install bzip2
apt install ca-certificates
apt install pciutils
apt install wget
apt install debconf
apt install libc6 

Install fwcutter & firmware-b43

cd ~/Download
wget http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/b/b43-fwcutter/b43-fwcutter_019-7_amd64.deb
dpkg -i ./b43-fwcutter_019-4+deb10u1_amd64.deb
wget http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/b/b43-fwcutter/firmware-b43-installer_019-7_all.deb
dpkg -i ./firmware-b43-installer_019-4+deb10u1_all.deb

Restart the Macbook to take into account the new configuration.

Printer configuration

You just have to run the following command line :

apt install printer-driver-all

Conclusion

Here is a tutorial than works for many Macbook. If it doesn’t work for you or if you want to follow the instructions on which I based my tests and this tutorial, you can go there : https://wiki.debian.org/MacBook

I tried to make it easier in this post and I can guarantee that all I described works fine. Every thing has been done twice : one time to test and a second time after having replaced the classic hard drive by a SSD to boost it.

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