Hardware detection problem on MacBook Air
by linuxylophone from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5H4GS)
I began my Linux journey by installing MX Linux (XFCE) on a 2009 MacBook Air in the hopes of making it useful again. It booted from a live USB perfectly, and installed without any problems. After a week or so of use, I thought I would install a more lightweight distro to reduce sluggishness.
I've since tried to boot and/or install LOTS of distros, and it's all been downhill (I wish I had stuck with my original functional installation of MX). LXLE booted and installed, but then froze at login every time. Q40S wouldn't boot. Zorin Lite wouldn't boot. Peppermint also froze at login. Lubuntu wouldn't boot. Linux Lite wouldn't boot. Crunchbang++ wouldn't boot. In desperation I tried regular old Debian 10 to see if a major distro would behave better -- it installed after about a thousand years, but then ran like molasses. Bodhi wouldn't boot. I don't even remember what happened with antiX. I tried to install MX again, but it also froze on login. Slacko Puppy Linux didn't boot; FossaPup did, but froze up as well.
I currently have Absolute Linux installed, but a major issue popped up somewhere in the middle of my distro-hopping: At some point, linux stopped recognizing the built-in keyboard and touchpad, as well as my WiFi adapter. I do have a USB keyboard and mouse that I've been able to use, but for some reason they have an enormous amount of lag, to the point of being practically unusable. I would really like to be able to use my built-in keyboard and touchpad, and not being able to connect to the internet makes updating or searching for drivers very tricky.
After lots of googling, I found a suggestion that the hardware detection problem is a kernel problem, but I don't know how that could be true across so many distributions. It's been at least four or five distros since the keyboard, touchpad, and WiFi adapter worked.
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Sorry for the wall of text. tl;dr:
When I'm in the MacBook's boot menu, the keyboard and touchpad and WiFi adapter all work fine, but once I boot into any form of Linux, they go away entirely, and my USB keyboard and mouse have extreme lag.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you folks.
I've since tried to boot and/or install LOTS of distros, and it's all been downhill (I wish I had stuck with my original functional installation of MX). LXLE booted and installed, but then froze at login every time. Q40S wouldn't boot. Zorin Lite wouldn't boot. Peppermint also froze at login. Lubuntu wouldn't boot. Linux Lite wouldn't boot. Crunchbang++ wouldn't boot. In desperation I tried regular old Debian 10 to see if a major distro would behave better -- it installed after about a thousand years, but then ran like molasses. Bodhi wouldn't boot. I don't even remember what happened with antiX. I tried to install MX again, but it also froze on login. Slacko Puppy Linux didn't boot; FossaPup did, but froze up as well.
I currently have Absolute Linux installed, but a major issue popped up somewhere in the middle of my distro-hopping: At some point, linux stopped recognizing the built-in keyboard and touchpad, as well as my WiFi adapter. I do have a USB keyboard and mouse that I've been able to use, but for some reason they have an enormous amount of lag, to the point of being practically unusable. I would really like to be able to use my built-in keyboard and touchpad, and not being able to connect to the internet makes updating or searching for drivers very tricky.
After lots of googling, I found a suggestion that the hardware detection problem is a kernel problem, but I don't know how that could be true across so many distributions. It's been at least four or five distros since the keyboard, touchpad, and WiFi adapter worked.
---
Sorry for the wall of text. tl;dr:
When I'm in the MacBook's boot menu, the keyboard and touchpad and WiFi adapter all work fine, but once I boot into any form of Linux, they go away entirely, and my USB keyboard and mouse have extreme lag.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you folks.