Revive your old hardware.
It just works.
Free and open source software (FOSS) operating systems (OS) like; GNU/Linux, GNU/Hurd or Open BSD is a proven way to replace; Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS or other proprietary non free OSes or go about in general.
As newer macOS versions no longer supports my old Macbook Pro I made some research just go get it going again.
Links
- Find Mac model: https://everymac.com/
- Decide on Linux distro: https://distrowatch.com/
- T2 chip: https://t2linux.org/
- Hardware Linux compatibility: https://linux-hardware.org/
Broadcom
Broadcom delivers WIFI hardware and their firmware is proprietary.
Here is some information:
- Clear Linux website
- Ubuntu website
- Arch Linux website
- Debian website
- About WL driver on linux-hardware.org
My Macbook Pro
- MacbookPro5,5 (A1278)
- Dual Core Intel Core2 Duo P7550,
- Broadcom BMC4322 802. 11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN
- balenaEtcher
How to
- Download the ISO and flash it onto a USB-drive, I used balenaEtcher on macOS 15.5, and plug the USB-drive to the MBP.
- Restart the MBP while holding down ALT to be presented by the option to boot from the USB-drive.
- Follow the instructions on screen to install.
Before Q4OS I tried; Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro, Debian, Hiku and Elemantary and there was a problem with wifi in general. I tried to install wifi drivers manually but had trouble following the tips and documentation. I had no Internet on the MBP, as WIFI was missing and I had no Ethernet, but later I got bluetooth teathering working.
I was close on Debian, they have a non-free version meaning including proprietary drivers. But during install, as WIFI hardware was detected, it needed the drivers/firmware as external files which I couldn’t find and bring into the ongoing installation. The non-free comes on several disks but the main is no 1 and it did not say witch one of the other many it needed. Mostly no 1 is enough they say.
I settled with ElementaryOS 8 Q4OS which make my Broadcom WIFI function directly after installation.
ElementaryOS 8
Elementary will use all CPU, most of the time, and fans will spin on this particular MBP, its not as lite-weight as I needed. I installed a system monitor from the app store to verify this. I also inxi via apt to study my hardware in detail.
Q4OS
The KDE version was kinder to my CPU and it will only reach 100% during YT playback in Chromium.