A penalties should be imputed to manufacturers whom unjustified refusal to support their own product. We hear so much about eco-movement these days, and same time the mountains of "unsupported" e-waste grow even faster. The more eco-jabber we hear, the more waste they generate.
Hi, I’m about to convert my MacBook Air 2013 to Ubuntu. Before I commence, I would like to know how you installed the WiFi module since there’s no Ethernet port?
I love the business-like, no-nonsense, no-rambling approach you have here. I wish a few other CZcams tech presenters could take a clue from your technique. Five stars from me!
I use linux mint on a 2012 imac. Same procedure for that model's wireless drivers, but It's always good to see a well made video with clear instructions.
@@daomingjin I heard Gentoo was too complicated to install. I understand you get a bit of performance boost b/c of software being compiled for your machine specifically, is that something you've noticed?
I have been wanting to do this for at least five years on my 2009 MackBook Pro. Prior attempts didn't work, but your tutorial did. Thanks so much! My MBP is a nice piece of hardware and it would be a shame to scrap it - now it will have (hopefully) several more years of life!
Same here, 2009 MBP. I had installed an ssd and replaced the cd drive with an additional hd, and updgraded ram to max. Let’s see how old faithful runs now with Linux :)
Linux can be very powerful and as simple or complex as it needs to be. I am sure this will help many people who don't want to spend money they don't have to. I would install Arch on it personally but that's not exactly the most user friendly experience.
Yes, the main goal of this video was for people to give their MacBook a second breath of life instead of eWasting. A lot of people only need a simple laptop solution, which Ubuntu provides perfectly. Arch is a very nice choice as well, the graphical user interface looks great.
I've found that the speed of loading a live USB depends on the version of USB the machine runs. If you're trying something ancient enough to have only USB 2.0, it can be real slow. Maybe it's worth pointing out that updates in Linux are not normally a trouble. They are much less of an interruption than on Windows, and needing a reboot is uncommon. Can't remember what it's like on modern Macs. Old Macbooks are surprisingly cheap. You make me fancy getting another one and installing Linux.
That is a good point about the USB hardware differences. Modern Macs are slightly less invasive about updates than Windows I would say, but all of the big ones require reboots from what I can tell. Recently, Apple has put out two whole MacOS upgrades within the same year.
Either with USB 2 or 3, USB speeds are much slower than SSD speeds, and generally slower than hard drive speeds as well (at least 7200 RPM ones), so that is the limiting factor.
I recently installed Zorin in a 2011 MacBook Pro, and the results were amazing: speedy, smooth, no heating issues, perfect driver compatibility, and a beautiful UI to boot. Totally recommended
@@petrov8086 as far as I could ascertain, it worked the same way as in Windows. Full disclosure, I am way more used to Windows than I am to MacOS, so trackpad gestures are truly not that important to me. Linux being Linux, however, I would not be surprised to find out there is a way to mimic MacOS trackpad gestures on Zorin
Found that Ubuntu Mate 22.04 has worked extremely well, all the hardware is supported ootb including the facetime camera! performs great and mate still looks pretty nice and modern.
Stock Ubuntu 22.04 on a MacBook Pro from 2013 with only 4GB of memory and it works really well! Thanks for showing people what you can do and turning people on to Linux in this video.
I just loaded Linux Mint 21.3 on my 2015 MacBook Air with 4 GB memory using the same method as you used. No wifi driver was installed either. I stuck in a wifi USB stick, selected my wifi and password and then I could download the proper driver after several attempts. After driver finally got loaded, I removed the USB wifi stick and rebooted. This time internal wifi was running properly. Macbook Mint as I call it now, is working very nice. What a nice upgrade for an old Mac.
Thank you very much, I have a 2011 MacBook that I wanted to use as a Bitcoin Full Node but I couldn’t because I could not update the Mac OS on it. Your video has solved my problem. I appreciate it.
Great! I've installed ZorinOS on a macbook 2014 this weekend. Nvidia eas a mess but now it works very well. Im using it for work in order to test its performances before recommend this setup (react, node js and android apps development) Im glad that people around the world work ao hard to bring a second life to old but good devices
An older lady I know invited me over to help her find out why her internet was no longer working. She had some kind of stand up Mac (or machine built into the monitor?) running a really old iOS version and when I sat down to look at it, I tried the browser and it basically wouldn't let her browse the internet because of some SSL security error/warning that prevent you from getting to any web site. I had to use my phone to google how to fix this and it suggested upgrading the broweser (This was last year and I think it was FireFox running on a single or low double digit version!) I tried to see if I could just upgrade the browser but NOPE! The computer's OS was to old and not supported... a perfectly working computer was NOT allowed to have any internet access because Apple just decided to stop supported software or OS updates for it! Made me really mad that they decided to do that and was thankful that I use Linux and don't have to worry about that.
Just thought I would make you aware (in case someone else hasn't commented) Rufus is windows only. Balena Etcher is a better cross platform solution for making bootable USB drives. That's what I use in macOS and Windows, and for Linux, I use the built in USB creator because with newer versions of Ubuntu (especially) Etcher is harder to get running due to dependency and other system changes made. Have a great day. :)
Great way to start using old laptop/desktop. I did the same with a 7 years old Dell Laptop few days ago. Windows was extremely slow(almost unworkable). Have installed "Ubuntu Lite"(supposed be lighter & faster than Ubuntu LTS which you have used in this video. My laptop has got a new life now.
I have used OpenCore Legacy Patcher to update unsupported Macs to current(well at least Mac OS Ventura) with great results. I recently bought a 2104 Macbook Pro with 2.8Ghz i7 Quad Core, 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD for about $400. I also have an 2007 20" iMac with Intel Dual Core, 6GB RAM and 500GB SSD with Linux Mint Cinnamon installed. I would say that both machines perform better using Linux natively (I recently replaced Mac OS Ventura with Debian 12 Bullseye with KDE Plasma). They are very secure but truthfull so is Mac OS. Maybe most important is to me is that Linux makes the best use of the SSD and needs very little maintenance. Macs (Intel) with Linux are great.
I have heard about OpenCore! Both MacOS and Linux are typically more secure than Windows, which is certainly a plus. Solid state drives are also a game changer for these older machines.
I like how old macbooks can be custmized easily. Imagine doing this on an M1 pro, a couple of years down the line. Is it possible? I believe so. Is it plausible? Not for most people.
Just a few things worth noting: - There are ways to install newer Mac OS on these, had older (2009?) one with unsupported 10.15 some time ago, I guess it's possible to get even newer versions on this one - Rufus, while being a great tool, is Windows-only on other OS you may want to use Balena Etcher, Gnome Disks or something else - Android phones usually work plug n play as LTE modems when using USB tethering - Installing MacOS without another Mac is a terrible expirience - I recommend dual booting instead of completely wiping the drive (and rEFInd as boot manager) - Besides SSD (which is a must have) you can also upgrade RAM on an A1278 - you can go as far as 16 GB on i5/i7 models - These older Macbooks are often still quite expensive so after a bit of refurbishing you can trade one for a much newer ThinkPad just as I did :D
I run Ubuntu Mate on my MacBook Pro 2012, MacBook Air 2015 and my maxed out iMac 27in 2012. I find Linux so much more usable and flexible than Mac OS for my use case. Coding, light gaming using Steam/Proton and general internet usage.
This was great! Nice! All of the info in one place! I've found that the locking error on apt after a fresh install is usually due to the auto-update that fires in the background. It settles down in a few minutes, but that restart is a nice trick!
Very. nice walk through covering all the likely situations a newby might encounter. I have several older Mac systems and am in process of migrating completely to Linux now that there is commercial and/or mature FLOSS support for my critical music making and video production application arenas. With this vidi as inspiration, I will be attempting to migrate a couple of my laptops to Linux ASAP (though I'll be attempting MINT or Debian as the distro of choice). Will be trying the dual boot option as well!
With OpenCore you can actually run modern macOS's provided it has a Metal supported GPU. I'm running Garuda Linux on my 2011 17" MacBook Pro (upgraded to 16GB & SSD of course) & it runs great. Nice video.
I have done this with a dozen different older macbooks, several imacs and a mac mini, but with Linux Mint Cinnamon. Works great! Thanks for giving this good machines this chance for a second life. 😊
Hello. I managed to connect the Internet through my phone via cable and ended up installing the drivers. thanks to your instructions. Thank you! I’m not sure that I want to deal with this further, but I must admit that the problem with Wi-Fi has been solved. I got a little mad about all this and I apologize if it showed. Good luck!
Thanks great video. Worked, bcmwl-kernal-source has not found on my MacBookPro so I just skipped it and continued with the install firmware-b43-installer. It installed and I reboot after remove the USB wifi dongle and the Mac wifi worked. Woo-Hoo!
Would suggest using simple screen recorder instead of recording the screen with a camera. Where did you find the info on upgrading the Wi-Fi adapter? Might be another video there? I have a 2015 MacBook Air base model I just installed Ubuntu on. Seems to work fine except for Wi-Fi. Even has the keys lit. Other Linux distributions worked too, but non had the keys lit.
Yes, I linked the resource in the description of this video about the WiFi solution. I did not upgrade the adapter itself, but used commands to get the WiFi driver properly working again on Linux so that it shows WiFi on the machine. The extra detail in his article may help you resolve that problem. Thanks for the suggestions!
Omg finally! I've tried looking for how to get my wifi going when it doesn't show up. I hate distro hopping, and sometimes doesn't work out of the box on my distros of choice. I've had a hard time finding the installation process. Everyone makes you jump through hoops. Wish I would have known i can just apt-get it, would have saved frustration
I run Ventura on my MacBookPro (late 2008) using the Opencore Legacy Patcher. I setup dual boot with Linux Mint XFCE 21.2. By pressing Option at boot i can select between the two OSes. Both work fine!
Great video. Just one more thing to fix wifi: after the steps you mentioned I had to go to Additional Drives, choose to use the applicable device, apply changes and reboot. After that, all good.
Recently did this with a 17" 2010 MBP. The install went without a hitch. It used some generic network driver at first; later it sniffed-out a specific driver. Runs fine, everything works, only problem is video stutters when using fractional screen scaling, so just don't. The machine got much faster after I put an old SSD in it. I switched back to Windows several years ago when it became usable again. I like that Mint is more Window-y than Mac-ish. I'll never buy another Mac, or Apple anything. OpenOffice is better than Microsoft. Someday I'll probably do the same conversion on this PC. Glad to be off the computer treadmill.
Solid state drives make a huge impact on performance, I am glad it made a difference for you. Linux Mint and other distros make it simple, which is nice.
@@compumatterllc Yes, I was shocked at what a speed-up an old SSD gave, and the machine already had a hybrid drive in it. Also runs cooler and quieter. All for the price of an $8 adapter. This 13-year-old Macbook with its billboard-sized 17" display now makes a great internet terminal, music and video player, and ebook reader. Still hunting-down the best apps. Everything in Mint is smooth and simple, the GUI experience is equal to Windows and OSX in utility and polish. OpenOffice completes the deal. Microsoft and Apple should be very worried.
Your teachings are so clear. Thank you. In addition to my first question, I'll also like to know how much gigabytes of data will be required to complete this whole process on my macbook pro?
Ubuntu requires a minimum of 2.5GB, but I would recommend giving it a little more wiggle room. Also, make sure to be careful when installing if you have any important data on the drive you are installing it to, it could wipe it out. I hope it goes well!
Amazing video, although i don't have a macbook nor i use ubuntu (i prefer pacman over apt), it's great to see that LTS version running old machines, specially from mac sides.
This is perfect! I've got a 2012 Mac Mini just sitting on a shelf and was wondering what to do with it. It's a really nice one too, with an i7 quad-core eight thread processor (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) so it seems like a shame to not be using it. I think I'll turn it into a home automation server running Ubuntu. Thanks for this video.
Cool I went from a fast old machine running High Sierra to a linux machine with no sound, fans that run full tilt, and a browser that wont run because it doesn't support my graphics card. So much better! Not your fault, most of the time Linux works out on older machines... unless those older machines are macs.
I know the word "Ubuntu" is synonymous to "Linux" to many non-Linux users, but us Linux users should probably recommend something a lot more stable and futureproof to future Linux users, like Linux Mint or Fedora. Ubuntu is in many ways a mess of a project right now and will inevitably people the wrong impression of what Linux is.
Hello and thank you for your suggestion. We are a computer store and sell Linux computers to the public. We have found that when it comes to people needing a driver for their printers, wireless devices and most other consumer attached hardware products, manufacturers are far more likely to have offered a driver that has been specifically tested on Ubuntu specific distros and kernels than others. That means their "stuff" is more likely to work with Ubuntu. Additionally, unlike Mint for instance, Ubuntu is developed by a company called Canonical which also has a "for profit" arm to its business. It is not just community developed. That helps to ensure it is sustainable as an entity moving forward. We also like the 5 year long term support development cycle of Ubuntu as it ensures what we install on a system today will likely still work on this system 5 years from now. It is reasonable to say one Linux distro is better than another for one reason or another. Some are superior to Ubuntu in an area where another would not be. We have certainly tried Mint and MANY others along the way. We have used Mint, Xubuntu and others and sold them on systems as solutions along the way. That said, after all things are considered during our testing in the customer / consumer arena as a computer store, and the server arena for our business customers, we confidently recommend the Ubuntu platform at this time for server and desktop use.
@@tejasraman6913 Yes. Fedora is kinda like a beta testing environment for what ends up in Red Hat. Nothing wrong with that. A bit more cutting edge. I am aware of that. Ubuntu is still the one supported by all manufacturers the most, not Fedora. Snaps vs Docker is a another discussion ;-)
WiFi card drivers for old MacBooks should be available through the driver manager (at least in Linux Mint), so there is no need for those Terminal commands. You just have to ask the driver manager to search for proprietary drivers. Obviously you will still need a wired (Ethernet) connection to do this.
Great video! I am watching this on an almost identical Mac Pro My son was going to throw it away since it won't run current MacOS. I very much like debian/ubuntu but driver issues with that broadcom wireless adapter are annoying. I switched to Garuda Arch Linux, they are more up to date on drivers and kernels, the wireless worked during install. Another reason I prefer the Arch releases are support for btrfs Much better performance and data journaling. Thanks for this video. Great to re-use old PCs Especially with Windows 11+ forcing people to buy newer PCs to remain supported. I almost thought you were going to install deepin or cutefish to give a more MacOS look. haha
For the WiFi, at 5:50 when doing "Updates and other software," notice down at the bottom the "third party software for ... WiFi" check box? Check it. That's usually all it takes. If you do get to the point where you need to fix the WiFi after install and you aren't online, I've heard that people have had success tethering their phone with bluetooth or with a usb cable.
Thank you for the video. In fact, Ubuntu (like many other Linux distributions) is famous for the fact that it can be installed on any device from a PC/laptop to your slippers. :) As for me, it's much more interesting to install macOS Sonoma (with OCLP) and/or Windows 11 on the MacBook Pro 13 Mid 2012. Actually, that's what I did. In addition, this last Unibody MBP can be upgraded to 16 GB DDR3-1600 MHz RAM; you can install two SATA-III SSD drives (1-st - instead of the stock hard drive, the second through an adapter (caddy/optibay), instead of an optical drive. So it's still good work machine for today. :)
It's great to get Windows 11 and Sonoma on these older devices too! No need to go out and buy another laptop every 10 years. SSDs make sure a difference in speed and reliability - sounds like you have a great build there.
What for, I am still using a G5 from 2003 … Potoshop, InDesign works perfectly, no security issues, no breakdowns … well it sounds like a rocket launch on startup, but 😊
The only problem with using the b43 driver appears to be that the wifi won't be able to connect to 5ghz Wi-Fi. Personally I have not been able to resolve this issue. Has driven me nuts.
@@compumatterllc It managed to when it had Mac OS and when I was using Elementary OS 5.1. So I'm not exactly sure if there's been changes in the kernel the last couple of years, but across the board with any distro so far there is no working WiFi out of the box, and once I install the b43 driver, it only detects the 2.4 ghz wifi.
Great video, thanks. What I am missink is the actual specs of the laptop so I'd know what performance I should be expecting if I go down this route. I am not a Mac guy so have no idea what was in these. I am a big fan of linux though although I moved on from Ubuntu now.
If it still boots into MacOS, you should be able to view your specs by clicking the Apple logo at the top left once logged in. Then, click on "About this Mac". Let me know if I can help on this, you should be able to do the same thing with other distributions of Linux!
Max Out the RAM, insert SSD and install Linux Mint - Awesome, Mint runs flawlessly on unsupported Imacs 😉 Mint is less resourse intense. Well done you keep mit up.
I use Linux mint mate on a 2010 MacBook Pro with a 240 ssd with plank ( osx dock ) and few tweaks that look like Mac OS and with only 4 go, it run very well on the web.
I just traded one of these machines running Linux Mint for an 8TB external HDD. Currently everyday driving a 2015 MacBook Pro dual booting Zorin and Ubuntu 23.10.
Excellent! I'm about to be given a similar machine and will use this guide! Thank you! Post Script, I will be using Xubuntu 24.02 LTS as I really love the XFCE desktop!
Regarding the wifi issue; if we don’t have an Ethernet cable on hand: does anyone know if the Ubuntu will recognize tethering an iPhone over USB C to the MacBook in order to get connected online to start downloading software? Thanks!
Thank you very much. I installed mint 21.3 on iMac 2010. I followed your instructions!Wireless wasn’t any problem. But the fan for “HDD” and original Bluetooth and mouse wasn’t recognized too. I changed hdd to ssd and with out original sensor works the fan fully and extremely laut. Until now I didn’t fixed (Is my first experience with Linux). Is very difficult an app or a software for this issues to find. I see you are a professional maybe can you make another video about that, anyway thank you very much for your hard work!
I would highly recommend installing mbpfan on your iMac to resolve that loud fan issue! We have a video on our channel that specifically goes over putting Linux on an iMac and the mbpfan installation is included. As for bluetooth, you might need some drivers to get it working. Is your mouse bluetooth or does it use a USB? I appreciate the comment and I hope the iMac video helps with one of those issues!
Just didn't work for me, it's trying to install to my flash drive, it doesn't seem to be recognising the main drive, I've been trying for 2 days, I'm now giving up and binning it.
This seem cool, would Linux on a mid 2012 i7 Macbook Pro handle a modern Video Editor like DaVinci Resolve better then iMovie ? When working with full HD 1080p videos in iMovie it seem like the computer struggles quite alot, maybe Linux would be more smooth and work better even for video editing ?
Honestly, I am not sure, haven't tested it out myself. I would recommend giving it a go, Linux is a lightweight OS and depending on your hardware, it might surprise you. Good luck!
I have an old (2006?) imac with 10.6 OS on it. A lot of people really seemed to love it back in the day . Just solid. I was thinking of trying linux on the imac because the OS doesn't work with many web pages and apps now. There's only 2 GB of ram tho, so is there a distro that could breathe new life into it and run smoothly?
2GB of RAM is very low, if you can upgrade, I would. Otherwise, normal Ubuntu would likely be too much for it. Lubuntu is another option, but I am unsure if you will have good results even then with 2GB of RAM.
Great tutorial. I did the same install on my MBP 2011. I am struggling with trackpad. The basic scrolling and clicking works. 2 finger tap to right click also works. But I find it very difficult to drag the windows to snap them in split screen mode. I also find it very tedious to select text with trackpad for copy and paste function or while reading pdfs to highlight the text
More people need to learn that "unsupported" doesn't automatically mean "junk." Thanks for the vid!
Exactly!
ok, ok...now we know.
more people need to learn that apple isn't "green"
Except when apples T2 chip blocks the installation of linux onto the hard drive of some newer Mac's.
A penalties should be imputed to manufacturers whom unjustified refusal to support their own product. We hear so much about eco-movement these days, and same time the mountains of "unsupported" e-waste grow even faster. The more eco-jabber we hear, the more waste they generate.
I have xubuntu running on a 2013 MacBook Air. Not bad at all for 4GB of memory. I love to see videos giving old hardware a new lease on life.
For me don´t work so good on my MacBook white (mid 2009). Now, itś's running Manjaro XFCE!
Hi, I’m about to convert my MacBook Air 2013 to Ubuntu. Before I commence, I would like to know how you installed the WiFi module since there’s no Ethernet port?
@@luigigarella5756 I had an old USB 802.11N dongle. Just enough to hop on apt and get the right drivers
@@luigigarella5756 You need to go to ask ubunru forums
I love the business-like, no-nonsense, no-rambling approach you have here. I wish a few other CZcams tech presenters could take a clue from your technique. Five stars from me!
Thank you, I appreciate the thoughtful review!
Just wanted to say thank you. This video helped me breathe new life into a 13 year old Mac mini that is going to now be in my daughter’s room.
Installed Debian 12 on my 2011 Macbook Pro. The machine now is so smooth, powers up very fast and can do everything. Thanks for your video
I use linux mint on a 2012 imac. Same procedure for that model's wireless drivers, but It's always good to see a well made video with clear instructions.
I use Gentoo.... on my 2005 PowerBook G4. LOL.
it's kinda funny how useful this computer still is.
@@daomingjin I heard Gentoo was too complicated to install. I understand you get a bit of performance boost b/c of software being compiled for your machine specifically, is that something you've noticed?
I have been wanting to do this for at least five years on my 2009 MackBook Pro. Prior attempts didn't work, but your tutorial did. Thanks so much! My MBP is a nice piece of hardware and it would be a shame to scrap it - now it will have (hopefully) several more years of life!
Same here, 2009 MBP. I had installed an ssd and replaced the cd drive with an additional hd, and updgraded ram to max. Let’s see how old faithful runs now with Linux :)
That 11 year old Mac runs quicker/snappier than almost new Win11 systems..; so equipped, it likely has 10 more years of life in it!
Definitely depends on the hardware, but some of the super low end Windows 11 laptops out there definitely cannot compare!
I followed your video and got my old 2009 MacBook working on Linux. Thank you! All of the sudden I feel like I have a new laptop!
Gotta dig my old MacBooks outa closet and do this😅😅
Linux can be very powerful and as simple or complex as it needs to be. I am sure this will help many people who don't want to spend money they don't have to. I would install Arch on it personally but that's not exactly the most user friendly experience.
Yes, the main goal of this video was for people to give their MacBook a second breath of life instead of eWasting. A lot of people only need a simple laptop solution, which Ubuntu provides perfectly. Arch is a very nice choice as well, the graphical user interface looks great.
I did basically this same thing last week except it was Mint and I used Etcher.
I've found that the speed of loading a live USB depends on the version of USB the machine runs. If you're trying something ancient enough to have only USB 2.0, it can be real slow.
Maybe it's worth pointing out that updates in Linux are not normally a trouble. They are much less of an interruption than on Windows, and needing a reboot is uncommon. Can't remember what it's like on modern Macs.
Old Macbooks are surprisingly cheap. You make me fancy getting another one and installing Linux.
That is a good point about the USB hardware differences. Modern Macs are slightly less invasive about updates than Windows I would say, but all of the big ones require reboots from what I can tell. Recently, Apple has put out two whole MacOS upgrades within the same year.
This device has USB 3.0.
Either with USB 2 or 3, USB speeds are much slower than SSD speeds, and generally slower than hard drive speeds as well (at least 7200 RPM ones), so that is the limiting factor.
I recently installed Zorin in a 2011 MacBook Pro, and the results were amazing: speedy, smooth, no heating issues, perfect driver compatibility, and a beautiful UI to boot.
Totally recommended
How about touchpad functionality? Is it comparable to macOS one?
@@petrov8086 as far as I could ascertain, it worked the same way as in Windows. Full disclosure, I am way more used to Windows than I am to MacOS, so trackpad gestures are truly not that important to me. Linux being Linux, however, I would not be surprised to find out there is a way to mimic MacOS trackpad gestures on Zorin
I did this with my maxed out 2012 mac mini and it is my daily driver for software development since then
nice. Ubuntu can be the first step to a long linux journey
Found that Ubuntu Mate 22.04 has worked extremely well, all the hardware is supported ootb including the facetime camera! performs great and mate still looks pretty nice and modern.
Thank you for making this video.
I now have Ubuntu running on a 2012 Macbook Air and it works great!
Great to hear!
Stock Ubuntu 22.04 on a MacBook Pro from 2013 with only 4GB of memory and it works really well! Thanks for showing people what you can do and turning people on to Linux in this video.
great video. I just put linux mint on my old 2014 MBP and my 2010 white poly carb macbook. Definitely gave them a new lease on life
That's great to hear!
I just loaded Linux Mint 21.3 on my 2015 MacBook Air with 4 GB memory using the same method as you used. No wifi driver was installed either. I stuck in a wifi USB stick, selected my wifi and password and then I could download the proper driver after several attempts. After driver finally got loaded, I removed the USB wifi stick and rebooted. This time internal wifi was running properly.
Macbook Mint as I call it now, is working very nice. What a nice upgrade for an old Mac.
Shes got the BOB ROSS VOICE OF SOFTWARE INSTALLS
Thank you very much, I have a 2011 MacBook that I wanted to use as a Bitcoin Full Node but I couldn’t because I could not update the Mac OS on it. Your video has solved my problem. I appreciate it.
I'm glad it helped give the machine another chance!
Great! I've installed ZorinOS on a macbook 2014 this weekend. Nvidia eas a mess but now it works very well. Im using it for work in order to test its performances before recommend this setup (react, node js and android apps development)
Im glad that people around the world work ao hard to bring a second life to old but good devices
Btw. I've subscribed right now and I noticed the subscribers counter has changed to 666. Im super happy for that 😅😈
I hope it continues to work well for you! Reuse and repurpose. :)
An older lady I know invited me over to help her find out why her internet was no longer working. She had some kind of stand up Mac (or machine built into the monitor?) running a really old iOS version and when I sat down to look at it, I tried the browser and it basically wouldn't let her browse the internet because of some SSL security error/warning that prevent you from getting to any web site. I had to use my phone to google how to fix this and it suggested upgrading the broweser (This was last year and I think it was FireFox running on a single or low double digit version!) I tried to see if I could just upgrade the browser but NOPE! The computer's OS was to old and not supported... a perfectly working computer was NOT allowed to have any internet access because Apple just decided to stop supported software or OS updates for it!
Made me really mad that they decided to do that and was thankful that I use Linux and don't have to worry about that.
I actually have Macbook Pro 2012 Reitna and your video might have just injected another life into my macbook!!!! Thanks for the video!
Just thought I would make you aware (in case someone else hasn't commented) Rufus is windows only. Balena Etcher is a better cross platform solution for making bootable USB drives. That's what I use in macOS and Windows, and for Linux, I use the built in USB creator because with newer versions of Ubuntu (especially) Etcher is harder to get running due to dependency and other system changes made. Have a great day. :)
Great way to start using old laptop/desktop. I did the same with a 7 years old Dell Laptop few days ago. Windows was extremely slow(almost unworkable). Have installed "Ubuntu Lite"(supposed be lighter & faster than Ubuntu LTS which you have used in this video.
My laptop has got a new life now.
That's great to hear!
I have used OpenCore Legacy Patcher to update unsupported Macs to current(well at least Mac OS Ventura) with great results. I recently bought a 2104 Macbook Pro with 2.8Ghz i7 Quad Core, 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD for about $400. I also have an 2007 20" iMac with Intel Dual Core, 6GB RAM and 500GB SSD with Linux Mint Cinnamon installed. I would say that both machines perform better using Linux natively (I recently replaced Mac OS Ventura with Debian 12 Bullseye with KDE Plasma). They are very secure but truthfull so is Mac OS. Maybe most important is to me is that Linux makes the best use of the SSD and needs very little maintenance. Macs (Intel) with Linux are great.
I have heard about OpenCore! Both MacOS and Linux are typically more secure than Windows, which is certainly a plus. Solid state drives are also a game changer for these older machines.
Thank you. It worked on my bricked macbook. Regards from Menorca.
I'm glad to hear it! Best regards.
I like how old macbooks can be custmized easily. Imagine doing this on an M1 pro, a couple of years down the line. Is it possible? I believe so. Is it plausible? Not for most people.
i love any video teaching people how to install Linux and keep perfectly good computers operational.
Thank you so much! You couldn't have done a better job at explaining this!
Very helpful, especially for making the wifi work!
Excellent video with useful, clear instructions on how to breathe new life into an old Mac. Thanks Auren!
Excellent video, you have help me ressuscitate my old Macbook pro and now i'm looking to learn a bit more about ubuntu. Thanks for that great video.
Thank you for the kind comment, I'm glad to hear it! Hope you enjoy Ubuntu.
Just a few things worth noting:
- There are ways to install newer Mac OS on these, had older (2009?) one with unsupported 10.15 some time ago, I guess it's possible to get even newer versions on this one
- Rufus, while being a great tool, is Windows-only on other OS you may want to use Balena Etcher, Gnome Disks or something else
- Android phones usually work plug n play as LTE modems when using USB tethering
- Installing MacOS without another Mac is a terrible expirience - I recommend dual booting instead of completely wiping the drive (and rEFInd as boot manager)
- Besides SSD (which is a must have) you can also upgrade RAM on an A1278 - you can go as far as 16 GB on i5/i7 models
- These older Macbooks are often still quite expensive so after a bit of refurbishing you can trade one for a much newer ThinkPad just as I did :D
I run Ubuntu Mate on my MacBook Pro 2012, MacBook Air 2015 and my maxed out iMac 27in 2012. I find Linux so much more usable and flexible than Mac OS for my use case. Coding, light gaming using Steam/Proton and general internet usage.
That's great to hear! Proton is a very powerful tool for gaming compatibility.
This was great! Nice! All of the info in one place!
I've found that the locking error on apt after a fresh install is usually due to the auto-update that fires in the background. It settles down in a few minutes, but that restart is a nice trick!
Do you come from the future? 😂The only thing missing was black sunglasses. No hating - loving the content!
Very. nice walk through covering all the likely situations a newby might encounter. I have several older Mac systems and am in process of migrating completely to Linux now that there is commercial and/or mature FLOSS support for my critical music making and video production application arenas. With this vidi as inspiration, I will be attempting to migrate a couple of my laptops to Linux ASAP (though I'll be attempting MINT or Debian as the distro of choice). Will be trying the dual boot option as well!
I hope it went well, I love the dual boot functionality!
With OpenCore you can actually run modern macOS's provided it has a Metal supported GPU. I'm running Garuda Linux on my 2011 17" MacBook Pro (upgraded to 16GB & SSD of course) & it runs great. Nice video.
I have done this with a dozen different older macbooks, several imacs and a mac mini, but with Linux Mint Cinnamon. Works great! Thanks for giving this good machines this chance for a second life. 😊
Great to hear! I have heard good things about Cinnamon.
Hello. I managed to connect the Internet through my phone via cable and ended up installing the drivers. thanks to your instructions. Thank you! I’m not sure that I want to deal with this further, but I must admit that the problem with Wi-Fi has been solved. I got a little mad about all this and I apologize if it showed. Good luck!
I am glad to hear you found another way around it, wonderful!
I succesfully installed KANOTIX linux on a 2013 MacBook Air, and it work very very smoothly. Sorry for my bad english.
Thank you. May do this on a 2015 soon. Appreciate the video!
This is brilliant. Thank you for sharing. I can use my mackbook for longer now now.
Thanks great video. Worked, bcmwl-kernal-source has not found on my MacBookPro so I just skipped it and continued with the install firmware-b43-installer. It installed and I reboot after remove the USB wifi dongle and the Mac wifi worked. Woo-Hoo!
Would suggest using simple screen recorder instead of recording the screen with a camera. Where did you find the info on upgrading the Wi-Fi adapter? Might be another video there? I have a 2015 MacBook Air base model I just installed Ubuntu on. Seems to work fine except for Wi-Fi. Even has the keys lit. Other Linux distributions worked too, but non had the keys lit.
Yes, I linked the resource in the description of this video about the WiFi solution. I did not upgrade the adapter itself, but used commands to get the WiFi driver properly working again on Linux so that it shows WiFi on the machine. The extra detail in his article may help you resolve that problem. Thanks for the suggestions!
Omg finally! I've tried looking for how to get my wifi going when it doesn't show up. I hate distro hopping, and sometimes doesn't work out of the box on my distros of choice. I've had a hard time finding the installation process. Everyone makes you jump through hoops. Wish I would have known i can just apt-get it, would have saved frustration
Amazing video! Wish all other tech/tutorials were like this one
I run Ventura on my MacBookPro (late 2008) using the Opencore Legacy Patcher. I setup dual boot with Linux Mint XFCE 21.2.
By pressing Option at boot i can select between the two OSes. Both work fine!
That's great!
Very interesting and informative video. Thanks for keeping it straightforward. Maurice from Malvern UK.
Great video. Just one more thing to fix wifi: after the steps you mentioned I had to go to Additional Drives, choose to use the applicable device, apply changes and reboot. After that, all good.
Excellent how-to tutorial! Better than many other geeky-how-to's. 5 stars!
Thank you for the kind review!
I guess you scripted your tutorial. Good plan and execution. Consider becoming a teacher and then a professor!@@compumatterllc
Great tutorial. You have such a calming voice 😊
Recently did this with a 17" 2010 MBP. The install went without a hitch. It used some generic network driver at first; later it sniffed-out a specific driver. Runs fine, everything works, only problem is video stutters when using fractional screen scaling, so just don't. The machine got much faster after I put an old SSD in it. I switched back to Windows several years ago when it became usable again. I like that Mint is more Window-y than Mac-ish. I'll never buy another Mac, or Apple anything. OpenOffice is better than Microsoft. Someday I'll probably do the same conversion on this PC. Glad to be off the computer treadmill.
Solid state drives make a huge impact on performance, I am glad it made a difference for you. Linux Mint and other distros make it simple, which is nice.
@@compumatterllc Yes, I was shocked at what a speed-up an old SSD gave, and the machine already had a hybrid drive in it. Also runs cooler and quieter. All for the price of an $8 adapter. This 13-year-old Macbook with its billboard-sized 17" display now makes a great internet terminal, music and video player, and ebook reader. Still hunting-down the best apps. Everything in Mint is smooth and simple, the GUI experience is equal to Windows and OSX in utility and polish. OpenOffice completes the deal. Microsoft and Apple should be very worried.
Your teachings are so clear. Thank you. In addition to my first question, I'll also like to know how much gigabytes of data will be required to complete this whole process on my macbook pro?
Ubuntu requires a minimum of 2.5GB, but I would recommend giving it a little more wiggle room. Also, make sure to be careful when installing if you have any important data on the drive you are installing it to, it could wipe it out. I hope it goes well!
I have a 2011 iMac laptop, and would benefit from a switch from iOS to a Linux-based operating system.
Thanks for this!
Amazing video, although i don't have a macbook nor i use ubuntu (i prefer pacman over apt), it's great to see that LTS version running old machines, specially from mac sides.
Thank you! :)
I installed Ubuntu 20.04 on my 2011 Macbook. It is running perfectly. Thanks and btw you look alot like Billie Eillish
Thanks for the feedback, I'm very glad it's working well on your Macbook!
This is perfect! I've got a 2012 Mac Mini just sitting on a shelf and was wondering what to do with it. It's a really nice one too, with an i7 quad-core eight thread processor (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) so it seems like a shame to not be using it. I think I'll turn it into a home automation server running Ubuntu. Thanks for this video.
7:16 Uh, I called this moment 'Coffee Broke'. Yeah the mug slipped from my hands. I was awe-stricken to see Ubuntu booting, successfully!
The MacBook is typically opposed to coffee breaks unlike us. Glad it's booting!
Cool I went from a fast old machine running High Sierra to a linux machine with no sound, fans that run full tilt, and a browser that wont run because it doesn't support my graphics card. So much better! Not your fault, most of the time Linux works out on older machines... unless those older machines are macs.
Great video clear and well explained, you get full marks from me !! Thanks.
I know the word "Ubuntu" is synonymous to "Linux" to many non-Linux users, but us Linux users should probably recommend something a lot more stable and futureproof to future Linux users, like Linux Mint or Fedora. Ubuntu is in many ways a mess of a project right now and will inevitably people the wrong impression of what Linux is.
Hello and thank you for your suggestion. We are a computer store and sell Linux computers to the public. We have found that when it comes to people needing a driver for their printers, wireless devices and most other consumer attached hardware products, manufacturers are far more likely to have offered a driver that has been specifically tested on Ubuntu specific distros and kernels than others. That means their "stuff" is more likely to work with Ubuntu. Additionally, unlike Mint for instance, Ubuntu is developed by a company called Canonical which also has a "for profit" arm to its business. It is not just community developed. That helps to ensure it is sustainable as an entity moving forward. We also like the 5 year long term support development cycle of Ubuntu as it ensures what we install on a system today will likely still work on this system 5 years from now. It is reasonable to say one Linux distro is better than another for one reason or another. Some are superior to Ubuntu in an area where another would not be. We have certainly tried Mint and MANY others along the way. We have used Mint, Xubuntu and others and sold them on systems as solutions along the way. That said, after all things are considered during our testing in the customer / consumer arena as a computer store, and the server arena for our business customers, we confidently recommend the Ubuntu platform at this time for server and desktop use.
@@jaylepore5420you know Fedora is partially developed by red hat right? Ubuntu has made some questionable decisions (snaps being one of them).
@@tejasraman6913 Yes. Fedora is kinda like a beta testing environment for what ends up in Red Hat. Nothing wrong with that. A bit more cutting edge. I am aware of that. Ubuntu is still the one supported by all manufacturers the most, not Fedora. Snaps vs Docker is a another discussion ;-)
My MacBook Pro 2011 late had install Ubuntu already but one problem is can not connect with external Microphone 😢
WiFi card drivers for old MacBooks should be available through the driver manager (at least in Linux Mint), so there is no need for those Terminal commands. You just have to ask the driver manager to search for proprietary drivers. Obviously you will still need a wired (Ethernet) connection to do this.
Good to know, thank you for the tip!
Great video, you explain everything very well, you help me to bring my old macbook back to life, thanks a lot!!!😀
Thank you so much Mam ❤❤.
For Putting life in old MacBook, brings back to world,
From MacBook pro 2012. Ubuntu.
Great video! I am watching this on an almost identical Mac Pro My son was going to throw it away since it won't run current MacOS. I very much like debian/ubuntu but driver issues with that broadcom wireless adapter are annoying. I switched to Garuda Arch Linux, they are more up to date on drivers and kernels, the wireless worked during install. Another reason I prefer the Arch releases are support for btrfs Much better performance and data journaling. Thanks for this video. Great to re-use old PCs Especially with Windows 11+ forcing people to buy newer PCs to remain supported. I almost thought you were going to install deepin or cutefish to give a more MacOS look. haha
Great Video as it takes you from start to finish with an Ubuntu install on Apple hardware.
Nice. I'll try Ubuntu after I play with Linux Mint. Getting temporary Wifi via USB tethering was handiest for me.
Canonical and opensource & free software community are really awesome
You are so cute
For the WiFi, at 5:50 when doing "Updates and other software," notice down at the bottom the "third party software for ... WiFi" check box? Check it. That's usually all it takes.
If you do get to the point where you need to fix the WiFi after install and you aren't online, I've heard that people have had success tethering their phone with bluetooth or with a usb cable.
Thanks for the tip! Tethering is a great solution as well for that.
Good and calm video!
keep up!
Thank you for the video. In fact, Ubuntu (like many other Linux distributions) is famous for the fact that it can be installed on any device from a PC/laptop to your slippers. :) As for me, it's much more interesting to install macOS Sonoma (with OCLP) and/or Windows 11 on the MacBook Pro 13 Mid 2012. Actually, that's what I did. In addition, this last Unibody MBP can be upgraded to 16 GB DDR3-1600 MHz RAM; you can install two SATA-III SSD drives (1-st - instead of the stock hard drive, the second through an adapter (caddy/optibay), instead of an optical drive. So it's still good work machine for today. :)
It's great to get Windows 11 and Sonoma on these older devices too! No need to go out and buy another laptop every 10 years. SSDs make sure a difference in speed and reliability - sounds like you have a great build there.
What for, I am still using a G5 from 2003 … Potoshop, InDesign works perfectly, no security issues, no breakdowns … well it sounds like a rocket launch on startup, but 😊
The only problem with using the b43 driver appears to be that the wifi won't be able to connect to 5ghz Wi-Fi.
Personally I have not been able to resolve this issue. Has driven me nuts.
Do you know if the machine was ever able to connect to 5ghz Wi-Fi? Could be a hardware/compatibility related issue if it only ever supported 2.4ghz.
@@compumatterllc
It managed to when it had Mac OS and when I was using Elementary OS 5.1. So I'm not exactly sure if there's been changes in the kernel the last couple of years, but across the board with any distro so far there is no working WiFi out of the box, and once I install the b43 driver, it only detects the 2.4 ghz wifi.
Great video, thanks. What I am missink is the actual specs of the laptop so I'd know what performance I should be expecting if I go down this route. I am not a Mac guy so have no idea what was in these. I am a big fan of linux though although I moved on from Ubuntu now.
If it still boots into MacOS, you should be able to view your specs by clicking the Apple logo at the top left once logged in. Then, click on "About this Mac". Let me know if I can help on this, you should be able to do the same thing with other distributions of Linux!
Awesome tutorial, clear and easy to follow instructions. Thank you for the info it helped me out alot.
This was incredibly helpful and well done. Thank you!
Thanks for the well-made tutorial.
Good luck with yoru channel.
Max Out the RAM, insert SSD and install Linux Mint - Awesome, Mint runs flawlessly on unsupported Imacs 😉 Mint is less resourse intense. Well done you keep mit up.
but the heating effect
I haven't noticed any issues@@haibaidzokwomandre1468
I use Linux mint mate on a 2010 MacBook Pro with a 240 ssd with plank ( osx dock ) and few tweaks that look like Mac OS and with only 4 go, it run very well on the web.
Love the way how u explain ❤
I just traded one of these machines running Linux Mint for an 8TB external HDD. Currently everyday driving a 2015 MacBook Pro dual booting Zorin and Ubuntu 23.10.
Excellent! I'm about to be given a similar machine and will use this guide! Thank you!
Post Script, I will be using Xubuntu 24.02 LTS as I really love the XFCE desktop!
That's great! I hope that process goes well for you! :)
And she said Ubuntu correctly very cool video!!
nice tut. keep it up!
I am still using 2014 MacBook Pro with Fedora, using the latest Fedora 40. Linux can let you use old hardware beyond the original Applw support.
Regarding the wifi issue; if we don’t have an Ethernet cable on hand: does anyone know if the Ubuntu will recognize tethering an iPhone over USB C to the MacBook in order to get connected online to start downloading software? Thanks!
Thank you very much. I installed mint 21.3 on iMac 2010. I followed your instructions!Wireless wasn’t any problem. But the fan for “HDD” and original Bluetooth and mouse wasn’t recognized too. I changed hdd to ssd and with out original sensor works the fan fully and extremely laut. Until now I didn’t fixed (Is my first experience with Linux). Is very difficult an app or a software for this issues to find.
I see you are a professional maybe can you make another video about that, anyway thank you very much for your hard work!
I would highly recommend installing mbpfan on your iMac to resolve that loud fan issue! We have a video on our channel that specifically goes over putting Linux on an iMac and the mbpfan installation is included.
As for bluetooth, you might need some drivers to get it working. Is your mouse bluetooth or does it use a USB? I appreciate the comment and I hope the iMac video helps with one of those issues!
Just didn't work for me, it's trying to install to my flash drive, it doesn't seem to be recognising the main drive, I've been trying for 2 days, I'm now giving up and binning it.
This seem cool, would Linux on a mid 2012 i7 Macbook Pro handle a modern Video Editor like DaVinci Resolve better then iMovie ? When working with full HD 1080p videos in iMovie it seem like the computer struggles quite alot, maybe Linux would be more smooth and work better even for video editing ?
Honestly, I am not sure, haven't tested it out myself. I would recommend giving it a go, Linux is a lightweight OS and depending on your hardware, it might surprise you. Good luck!
Excellent video I really appreciate your professionalism
I have an old (2006?) imac with 10.6 OS on it. A lot of people really seemed to love it back in the day . Just solid.
I was thinking of trying linux on the imac because the OS doesn't work with many web pages and apps now.
There's only 2 GB of ram tho, so is there a distro that could breathe new life into it and run smoothly?
2GB of RAM is very low, if you can upgrade, I would. Otherwise, normal Ubuntu would likely be too much for it. Lubuntu is another option, but I am unsure if you will have good results even then with 2GB of RAM.
@@compumatterllc thanks
@@compumatterllc Ok. I was just reading that some have used antix or sparky and have had decent results on older stuff.
thanks for the reply!
Great tutorial. I did the same install on my MBP 2011. I am struggling with trackpad. The basic scrolling and clicking works. 2 finger tap to right click also works. But I find it very difficult to drag the windows to snap them in split screen mode. I also find it very tedious to select text with trackpad for copy and paste function or while reading pdfs to highlight the text
Do you have an external wired USB mouse? There are also some mouse settings for sensitivity that may help your situation in the Ubuntu settings gear.
On my 4,1 cheese-grater Mac , I've used manjaro, mint, Bodhi , Siduction, but have hopped it to MX23.2 Libretto curently - which I highly recommend
Install opencore legacy patcher and you can have latest macOS Sonoma. Also 2012 MacBook Pro is ram and ssd upgrade possible
That made spared a lot of money, thank you so much !
Excellent video. Thank you.