I have an used, beat up MacBook Air 2015 - and I can’t afford a new laptop for a long while. My situation is a bit messy and sad at the moment.

I can’t use MacOS on it, because the battery was replaced by a third party and MacOS freaks out about it and locks the CPU to 400 MHz.

I can’t use Windows on it, because the Intel HD Graphics drivers are no longer maintained and all versions compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11 have a regression that disables the internal display - there’s nothing you can do about it, they only run on external monitors.

And there’s an unknown bug on the Linux open source MESA drivers that, on the HD Graphics 6000, also causes a black screen unless you use nomodeset, which is terrible for battery life and performance. I tried the latest Ubuntu, Ubuntu LTS, Linux Mint, Fedora, Bazzite, Arch, Endeavour and Opensuse Tumbleweed - every single distro was affected.

Except Pop!_OS. Maybe someone with more Linux knowledge could isolate what they’re doing different than everybody else, but man am I’m glad I decided to test this last .iso as a last ditch effort.

Also, thank fuck for open source operating systems, otherwise this device would literally be shiny electronic waste thanks to Apple’s proprietary battery bullshit.

  • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nzM
    0·
    8 months ago

    Arch

    I’m surprised you had an issue with Arch - I’ve got a 2015 MBA as well, and Arch installed without any issue, didn’t have to mess around with any kernel boot parameters, nomodeset etc.

  • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
    0·
    8 months ago

    I don’t have a 7,1 in front of me to test with, but that sounds like a bad battery.

    I’m pretty sure the pre-retina airs don’t have any kind of counterfeit battery detection, so if it’s freaking out then the battery’s not communicating right or communicating that there’s a problem.

    It’s probably not dangerous, just keep everything backed up and use a journaled file system and put in a good one when you get a chance.

  • tartan@lemmy.ml
    0·
    8 months ago

    Not a horrible place to be stuck, though. Pop!_OS is pretty great. I run it on my media server and it’s been rock solid. I definitely wouldn’t mind running it on an old laptop.

    • circuitfarmer@lemmy.world
      0·
      8 months ago

      +1 for Pop. I fully expected to distro hop but have had it on my main rig for over a year now. Surprisingly pleasant.

      • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
        0·
        8 months ago

        Pop was a great stepping stone for my apple-fanatic of a partner. Installed on media tower for the main T.V. and now they’re actually seeing the value in replacing the apple tv in the bedroom for something more customizable with protections (the ads alone on youtube are so blatantly horrible that it’s a completely different experience viewing the same video from different rooms now). When we started getting ads on our paid-subscribed services, the whole “subscriber eco-system” those devices are based on just completely became obsolete when we started cancelling one service at a time. I feel bad for the little apple device though, it’s got some impressive hardware for it’s packaging. Gonna have to see what I can do to make it useful again one day with a second life use.

  • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    This isn’t a 64 bit versus 32 EFI issue is it?

    I ran into that when I was installing Linux on an iMac a while back

    • kadu@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      8 months ago

      Could be, though I have zero idea on how to check. All I know is that I can boot the installers (mostly on safe graphics mode), and I can install the operating systems, but they will always turn to a black screen after the initial splash animation unless I boot up grub and edit the parameters to include “nomodeset”.

      • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        0·
        8 months ago

        If you want to keep it persistent between boots, here’s the method (don’t know if you already know, but this might help someone else who finds this post too):

        1. In the /etc/default/grub file you need to add nomodeset to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX parameter and then save the file.
        2. Run sudo update-grub and that will generate the new config and place the files in the right locations.

        Also, I had this problem just recently with a 2009 iMac. I recall having a 2009 and a 2012 MacBook Pro around that time with the same issue. I just assumed since it’s still around all these years later that there isn’t an easy fix. But maybe no one’s had the motivation?

        My theory on why it happens is that when you’re booting Mac OS, the screen stays on that whitish-grey colour right through startup. Most computers have a momentary black screen during boot-up. I think whatever they’re doing to allow that is what breaks the usual handover between GRUB and Linux.

  • slembcke@lemmy.ml
    0·
    8 months ago

    Hmm. I still have my old 2013 MBA that I’ve used with Fedora, but it’s an HD 4000 IIRC. I feel you on Apple’s locked down stance to repairs. It was ultimately what pushed me off of OS X. I needed a newer laptop in 2020, and they only sold hardware with non-upgradable RAM and SSDs. So long and thanks for all the fish… I had already replaced my desktop machine with Linux a few years earlier. I used the Mac 70% as a Unix machine anyway, so it was a pretty comfortable transition.

    My Air worked great as a stand-in laptop when my System76 Lemur died last summer. Honestly I was blown away by how perfectly usable it still was for basic tasks. Parallel stuff like compiling was slow, but single threaded stuff still ran just great. Heck, I was even using it again yesterday to test OS X builds of my game on older hardware and it ran like a champ.

  • misspacific@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    0·
    8 months ago

    hell yea.

    i’m about to install GNOME on my old Surface Pro 4 since W10 EOL is next year. first time i looked into linux in a long time and GNOME is gorgeous.

  • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    Nomodeset won’t cause battery issues or ajy other significant issuea with your system.

    “Mode set” just moves the video mode setting into the kernel so you can access graphic card features really early at boot (and have fancy boot screens for example and have a smoother consistent boot on the optimum graphics mode for your card). Some graphics cards don’t work well with that and a flashing black screen is a symptom of that.

    “nomodeset” turns the feature off, and the boot menu uses the basic bios graphics mode settings instead. The main graphics drivers will load fully later when the X11 or Wayland call for them.

    All of the Linux systems you use should work fine with nomodeset; you’ll just have a more basic boot menu. You may notice some changes in screen resolution as the system loads but that’ll be about it.

    So you can pick whichever Linux spin you like rather than limit yourself.

    • mmus@lemmy.ml
      0·
      8 months ago

      Maybe he was using Vesa basic graphics mode in the other distros?

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    8 months ago

    I can’t use MacOS on it, because the battery was replaced by a third party and MacOS freaks out about it and locks the CPU to 400 MHz.

    That’s fuckin’ evil. I like Apple’s platforms but holy shit.

        • pythonoob@programming.dev
          0·
          8 months ago

          Their computers and software aren’t shit. They’re actually pretty good.

          They ruin it by being shitty and charging ass loads of money

        • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
          0·
          8 months ago

          Something that is a “good value” means you get a lot for the money paid. You cannot ruin a “good value” proposition with a bad price, because the price is an inherent component of the “good value”.

          See you are very close to get it it, but I think your assumption is incomplete. There is more to the value than just the cost: there is the opportunity cost and utility.

          If Apple doubles their price all of the nice things and features are still there. It still has the 18hr battery, but more people may be comfortable with the shitty battery of an intel (not to mention the new opportunity of getting a new phone with the saved money). If Apple keeps their price the same, but made things repairable then their pricing might feel more justifiable. If you pay too much for your house you won’t have much left over for furniture. The price is an important component, but I think you’re evaluation is too hollow.

  • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
    0·
    8 months ago

    Your battery probably isn’t supplying sufficient voltage and your laptop is compensating. It is almost random chance in getting a good battery for a machine of that vintage. Using Linux will likely cause unexpected power off at low charge states.

    Your best bet is to return that battery to the vendor and try another battery from another supplier.

  • TwinTusks@bitforged.spaceEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    battery was replaced by a third party and MacOS freaks out about it and locks the CPU to 400

    What? My A1502’s battery is about dead and I in mind to replace it soon. This is ridiculous.

  • RockyC@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    How random. My 2014 MBA with Intel HD Graphics 5000 runs Linux beautifully. What a difference a year makes.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    also causes a black screen unless you use nomodeset, which is terrible for battery life and performance

    Why is nomodeset bad for battery and performance? My understanding is that you just can’t do a fancy boot screen. X will still load whatever drivers it needs.

    • kadu@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      8 months ago

      Oh, is that true? I was told nomodeset was equivalent to using Windows’ basic display adapter, as in, no hardware acceleration for video decoding, the CPU being responsible for rasterization and composition, and so on. If that’s not true, I might go to Debian. As you can see, I’m a noob, so please do explain - I would be happier with Debian.

      • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        8 months ago

        I believe you should be fine - I’ve set it before without issue. I didn’t think it had any bearing on whether you can load drivers later (with X or Wayland).

  • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    Is your battery dead dead? It should work just fine with a 3rd party battery, I’ve never had any machines give me problems with 3rd party ones. It’s only when the battery is below 5% state of charge that it will throttle like that.

    • tahoe@lemmy.world
      0·
      8 months ago

      I don’t know about the 400Mhz part but I’ve had a similar experience with my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro. I replaced the battery multiple times with an iFixit one, and since then the computer has had all kinds of problems (dying at 40% battery, randomly switching off and other similar things). I’m on my third replacement battery, so either I’m really unlucky or there’s something fishy going on

      • projectsquared@lemmy.world
        0·
        8 months ago

        I’m also running an Ifixit battery and have had zero problems save for the original battery being DOA out of the box. 3 in a row is really bad luck.

      • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        8 months ago

        (dying at 40% battery, randomly switching off and other similar things). I’m on my third replacement battery, so either I’m really unlucky or there’s something fishy going on

        Not unlucky, they’re just garbage 3rd party batteries, and no official 1st party batteries.

        • tahoe@lemmy.world
          0·
          8 months ago

          Yeah :( It sucks because I don’t think there are any alternatives, and they’re expensive too for what they are

    • kadu@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      8 months ago

      Not dead dead, just made by a third party and at around ~83% capacity compared to new. Every system works fine, just with the lesser battery duration as expected. MacOS will freak out though and alert about the battery, which is why I assume it’s some kind of genuine part restriction