Works great after a couple of tweaks.

First, I built kernel 4.2, as that's the first version to support the trackpad.

Getting the keyboard to work properly took a few module options.

In /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf:

• fnmode=2 sets Fn mode to be off by default
• swap_opt_cmd=1 swaps the position of the Alt and Apple keys
• iso_layout=0 makes my tilde produce tildes when pressed

The documentation for these settings (including how to set them without rebooting or reloading kernel modules) is here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AppleKeyboard

There was also the issue of the HDMI output being seen as the first and default audio device. I fixed that so that sound would go out the speakers and headphone port instead.

In ~/.asoundrc:

I also had screen corruption in Firefox until I forced UXA (thanks ponce):

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...2/#post5411624

In /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf:

UPDATE: I noticed that my clock was wrong every time I booted into OS X and then booted back into Linux. So I ran timeconfig and told it that my hardware clock is in UTC and not in local time. We'll see if that helps.

Bet it's a nice machine. What resolution is the screen?

Any difference in the battery life between Slack and iOs?

It's a 2560x1600 display. I haven't checked the battery life differences (and I won't, since draining the battery shortens its life).

dugan can you send me (also privately) a step to step guide to install Slackware on macbook 2015?

No, I'm not going to send that to you privately. First the point of forums is to share knowledge publicly, and asking to be contacted privately misses that point. Second, if I'd written a step-by-step guide (I haven't) then I'd put it either on SlackDocs or my personal homepage.

On a high level, the steps were:

1. shrink the hard drive partition from OS X.

2. install rEFIND on the Mac. It's a matter of downloading it and running the installer.

3. Download slackware64-current. I used lftp and its "mirror" command on another machine.

4. Create an EFI-bootable USB installer from the slackware64-current directory tree you downloaded. rkelsen was kind enough to provide me with step-by-step instructions. Copy the slackware64-current/slackware64 directory tree to the partition on the boot USB that you've created to have it (not the boot partition).

5. Plug the USB stick into the Mac and turn it on. Choose the USB stick's from the rEFIND menu and start installing Slackware. Make sure the USB stick is booted in UEFI mode. When prompted, do not install LILO or ELILO; your boot loader is rEFIND, and it will see the kernels that you can boot from.

Then once it's installed, you do post-installation steps such as what I described in the top post (if needed, of course), and what's described in the Arch Wiki's HiDPI page.

2 members found this post helpful.

This is now handled by the Slackware package, and does not need to be added manually.

i too be interested in battery life.

about "shortens their life" - not all that simple. you may have seen dead li batteries with only 30 - 50 cycles in them - worked by
years without discharge, from wall psu.
also is a known, li batteries take most wear from big currents, and deep discharge. as so, discharge up to say, 25 - 30 percent is very small stress for that.
on apple.com is also a recommendation to discharge battery at least once in month, if you work from wall electricity all the time.
btw, i have 2011 map with 1626 cycles on it! cannot imagine, how previously user can do such number of cycles in 5 years - looks like more than one cycle each day?
in any way, my battery has 84% health on stat pro, and last about 5 hours...:-O

1 members found this post helpful.

I was having problem to have the special key working as expected (fn+Fx) for screen brightness and sound volume control with pommed-light. After upgrade kernel to 4.4 (from 4.2.13), everything works as expected. I did not try the 4.2 or 4.3 series.

readed, win 10 is better than win7 on macbooks by energy saving features - work time from battery.
yet i can say, win10 is absolutely terrible OS. get some touch with it in work....

btw, if not a secret, what is your reason to put linux on mac ?
as i found, i can get native imagemagic, and even freeciv, and ffmpeg, and ufraw, and even moon-buggy on mac (throught homebrew and mac ports) , i think, i not need there slackware on dualboot...

Some people just prefer to run Linux (Slackware, in my case) over Windows or OSX. It's all personal preference. I feel hindered running Windows, because the issues I see are easily fixed with Linux. I don't have much experience running OSX, but I am extremely happy with Slackware, so I see no reason to pay the "Mac tax" just to find out I'm not impressed with OSX and would rather run Slackware.

I like to do development under Linux.

1 members found this post helpful.

Been contemplating installing -current on my MacBook Pro Retina, might have to pull the trigger this weekend.

Linux is the target platform for all of the software I'm developing these days. Some of it (like SlackBuild scripts) can be tested in VMs, but some of it (like anything that requires OpenGL 3) cannot.

1 members found this post helpful.

personal preferences most of situations based on rational or not - but things, and almost anything have basement - "why".

when i switched from windows fully in desktops about in 2005 - i mostly use winxp on desktop. winxp tense my nerves, and in one evening, when it again got in swappy and almost unresponsible state, i said "enought is enought"! - and switches fully to slackware \ mandriva - at home, and at work too. and be happy - much less time to manage computer. no viruses, no "system reaches his half-life and must be reinstalled", no viruses and other things.

and now i become to Mac OS X with similar thing - that is even easier and more light than linux. in the same time looks like, i can get my linux habits there too - i have midnight commander, imagemagick, ufraw and gimp, and lot of another familiar thing, as so as a console.
that is great.
surely, i too, as you, be careful and doubt if there is reason for me to "pay mac tax", for that i about year ago purchased old and cheap apple powerbook g4 1.67 gHz/ 1 Gb / 80 gb PPC notebook with Mac OS X 10.5.8 ( leopard) for a 55 euro. that i can afford to spend without big sad in any case - even i get in final to not to move to mac world.
and yet that is really slow machine, especially in todays web, and many programms cannot be get for that old OS, and OS itself too not supported anymore, i get a thing, mac os x looks like very interesting and progressive - even today, not to look, that is OS developed in about 2007...
as so, some weeks ago i purchase more or less modern macbook pro 13" ( i5 sandy bridge, latest mac os x - el capitan), and very happy at this moment. really fast and very beautiful. yet i spend almost as 10x price as for my testing powerbook

btw, if someone interested in all that topic, i can recommend book of

Mac for Linux Geeks
Authors: Steidler-Dennison

looks interesting. now reading it.
also very good is series of David Pogue - "Missing manual" series...


2dugan and qunying: thanks for clarification....

That all boils down to price/performance. With similar hardware specification, (compare it with Dell XPS13, Lenovo X1 Carbon), Macbook Pro edge out a little bit, IMHO. And we got OS X in stead of MS Windows. Linux support maybe lacking for the latest model.