Since my external HDD`s adapter died and I found out that these Western Digital`s adapters are bad all over through Google. I threw the contoller away and bought a new instead of another faulty adapter. There were little information about this controller, but it has tons of features at a low cost. My main concern was support in Ubuntu, but I found some defuse info about Linux support after some heavy Googling. I gave it a shoot and this post is my blessing for it`s plug`n`play comparability with Linux. I can now use the WD SATA disk and an old IDE disk laying around!

So I decided to make something with RC-servos using the Arduino board and the sensor shield which I recently purchased.

I went ahead figuring out how to send arrow signals from my computer to Arduino using USB interface.

Using void setup() { Serial.begin(9600); } on Arduino and screen /dev/ttyUSB0 9600 on my computer, I managed to send commands back and forth. I hooked up the standard servo library and write some code before I mounted the Arduino board on my mini rock crawler. I now had a computer controlled car. Because of Arduino`s simple interface I had it all up and running around an hour. Check the small video and code below.

You can view and or use the code as you like below. (Sorry about the indention, WordPress messes it up).

How I installed Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 on my MacBook Pro 5,3.

After you have installed Ubuntu on your MBP and connected to internet. We need to add some lines in sources.list to be able to get special packages developed for apple products.

WARNING: be carefull with all the ” when pasting, they tend to change into a similar sign!

Update
echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mactel-support/ubuntu jaunty main | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
echo deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/mactel-support/ubuntu jaunty main | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 7A6BC20C4FE04DADD10837608DB7F87A2B97B7B8 (DONT WORK)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade


REBOOT (recommended)

Get hardware packages
sudo apt-get install mbp-nvidia-bl-dkms applesmc-dkms hal-applesmc bcm5974-dkms lm-sensors

Reboot if you want it to work right away or just continue below.

Keyboard
Apple keyboard backlight and Fn-keys should now work.
If you want to change the fn-usage buttons.

echo options hid_apple fnmode=2 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u

I like to use gnome-do and usually use the Menu key for this. You will be prompted for next login, make sure you load the file.
Add this to ~/.xmodmaprc
keycode 252 = Super_R
echo keysym Super_R = Menu
keycode 49 = apostrophe

If you`re having problems getting the $ or brackets (and more) we need to do edit your keyboard layout. Go to Gnome menu -> preferences -> keyboard -> layout and change keyboard model to apple and make sure you have the right layout selected.

Sensors
For using sensors and fans we need to load apple modules:

echo coretemp | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
echo applesmc | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

Reboot (optional).

Caps lock
By default the green caps-lock does not work. It´s a easy fix.

sudo apt-get remove mouseemu

Monitor
If you don`t like the way your MBP auto dim your screen, you can disable it.

gconftool -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/ambient/enable -t bool false

Touchpad
To get multitouch we need to do a little trick.

echo bcm5974 | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
echo usbhid | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
echo blacklist usbhid | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Open /etc/hal/fdi/policy/x11-synaptics-bcm5974.fdi and paste.
sudo gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/x11-synaptics-bcm5974.fdi

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
 <device>
  <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
   <match key="info.product" contains="bcm5974">
   <merge key="appledevice" type="bool">true</merge>
   </match>

   <match key="appledevice" bool="true">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">1</merge>

        <merge key="input.x11_options.FingerLow" type="string">40</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.FingerHigh" type="string">70</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.ClickFinger1" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.ClickFinger2" type="string">3</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.ClickFinger3" type="string">2</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton2" type="string">3</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton3" type="string">2</merge>

        <merge key="input.x11_options.VertEdgeScroll" type="string">false</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizEdgeScroll" type="string">false</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>

        <merge key="input.x11_options.MinSpeed" type="string">0.5</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.MaxSpeed" type="string">2.5</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.AccelFactor" type="string">0.15</merge>

        <merge key="input.x11_options.PalmDetect" type="string">0</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.PalmMinWidth" type="string">25</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.PalmMinZ" type="string">250</merge>
   </match>
  </match>
 </device>
</deviceinfo>

Reboot (optional).

Sound
Follow this recipe and your sound should work.


sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic linux-restricted-modules-generic
wget ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tiwai/snapshot/alsa-driver-unstable-snapshot.tar.gz
tar xf alsa-driver-unstable-snapshot.tar.gz
cd alsa-driver-unstable
sudo ./configure --enable-dynamic-minors --with-cards="hda-intel" --with-oss
sudo make
sudo make install
cd ..
sudo rm -rf alsa-driver-unstable alsa-driver-unstable-snapshot.tar.gz

REBOOT (recommended)

Now, don´t forget to unmute sound channels.

If you´d want a automatic fan program, I wrote one in bash. It requires lm-sensors (installed above) to work. I will write it in C some day.
#!/bin/bash

# we don`t want to go all the way up to critiacal temp, safe_temp is substracted from critical temp
SAFE_TEMP=10

# AUTOMATIC VALUES BELOW, DON`T EDIT

sleep 5
done


Pommed
If you would like to install pommed on this machine at this time we have to modify pommed. I have notified creator of pommed about macbook5,3 support. If you have version above 1.27 you can skip this how to.

wget https://alioth.debian.org/frs/download.php/3084/pommed-1.27.tar.gz
tar zxf pommed-1.27.tar.gz
cd pommed-1.27/pommed/
pico pommed-mpb5,3.patch

Then paste following.
--- pommed.c-old 2009-08-22 20:23:21.796989322 +0200
+++ pommed.c 2009-08-22 20:22:42.270020918 +0200
@@ -677,6 +677,7 @@
* MacBook Pro 13" (June 2009) */
else if ((strcmp(buf, "MacBookPro5,1") == 0)
|| (strcmp(buf, "MacBookPro5,2") == 0)
+ || (strcmp(buf, "MacBookPro5,3") == 0)
|| (strcmp(buf, "MacBookPro5,5") == 0))
ret = MACHINE_MACBOOKPRO_5;
/* Core Duo MacBook (May 2006) */


Now apply the patch
patch -p0 < pommed-mpb5,3.patch

Install required packages
sudo apt-get install pommed libdbus-1-dev libalsa-ocaml-dev libaudiofile-dev libconfuse-dev libpci-dev

Compile
cd ..
make pommed
sudo cp pommed/pommed /usr/sbin/pommed


Reboot.

Read additional info here.

Ever seen a cool movie on the Internet? embedded in flash, unable to download it? who haven’t..

Solution is quite simple and here is it quick for you: Open a page with flash. Wait till it’s completely downloaded, then fetch if from /tmp/.

A longer explanation would be to a youtube page and load the entire movie like so:

When you see the movie has loaded fully, without interruptions from the user (you). You can find it in /tmp/:

Now you just copy it to where ever you’ll like. If you want to convert it, you can open it with avidemux or Kino and then export it to .mpeg or whatever format you’d want.

Using ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -i "/tmp/Flash8CRIFL" "mechanical hand.mpeg"

Got my new printer today. Shortly after unpacking it I hooked it up and setup it on my windows-partition. Basically because I didn’t have time to see if HP or anyone else had setup software for it on Linux.

The cool thing about this cheap printer is WiFi. It has WLAN which can be turned physically on/off. After it was connected to my network, I did like 5 mouse-clicks and the printer was wirelessly installed in Ubuntu.

Scanning did also work (in Ubuntu) wirelessly, which was pretty cool. It’s a joy to see Ubuntu managing these things just as good and in my opinion; easyer than windows.

Thumbs up for HP Photosmart C4380. Don’t be frighten to buy, even if you’re a tux.