Abdel Martínez: Installing Fedora on a White Macbook

Hello! Today I'm going to describe how to install Fedora 13 on a White Macbook. Possibly some steps would not be the same on a Aluminum Macbook (different hardware). Use this tutorial wisely.

BASIC INSTALLATION STEPS

Use "Software Update" to up-to-date your Mac OS X.
Through the "Disk Utility", resize your hard disk to assign the space for the Fedora partiition. The minimum space for Fedora is 10GB but feel free to leave the space you want.
Install rEFIt. This software will help you to select between the two operating systems.
Download your Fedora installer. Remember to choose between 32 or 64 bits (according to your CPU).
Insert your Fedora installation media and reboot your Macbook. When it boots, rEFIt will show you an icon with the media (CD/DVD/USB) and 2 hard drives (one represent Mac OS X and the other represent the free space). If you don't installl rEFIt you have to hold the key "C" for the machine to boot from the CD/DVD.
Follow the instructions of the "Fedora Installer". Instead of using all the space or replacing the Linux system, you should choose between "Use Free Space" or "Create Partition Table Manually". The first is the most convenient. If you select the second one, you have to create at least these three partitions: swap (2GB), boot (ext4 - 250MB) and root (ext4 - FREE SPACE).
Finish the installation of Fedora. Reboot. Remove the installation media.
If you installed rEFIt you will have the option to select between Mac OS X and Linux Fedora. Before choosing any of them, you need to update the partition table of rEFIt. This is in the "Partition Inspector".
Then reboot the Macbook and choose the Fedora partition. Wait until it loads and finish the installation of Fedora.
Enjoy your new operating system. Remember you should fix some issues detailed later.

POST INSTALLATION GUIDE

After installing Fedora on our Macbook we have to update our operating system. This is done through the following commands (using the Terminal):

su -

yum update

After this you should fix the wireless card and the camera iSight.

FIX THE WIRELESS

In this guide we use the official drivers of Broadcom STA because they are the more secure and stable. First of all, you have to enter the Terminal (Applications > System Tools > Terminal) and then write the following command (which enable the "RPM Fusion Non-Free" repository):

su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm'

Finally install the driver package through the following command:

yum install kmod-wl

INSTALL ISIGHT WEBCAM

First of all, you need to save a copy of the Apple Webcam Firmware in your home folder. Then you install the package "isight-firmware-tools" through the following command (on the Terminal):

su -c "yum install isight-firmware-tools"

Finally convert the AppleUSBVideoSupport in an usable firmware file. From the folder where you save the AppleUSBVideoSupport file, execute the following command: