Comments on: I hate it when that happens…

By: Head Geek

Head Geek — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:02:03 +0000

Yes, I discovered the live repartitioning system, and used it to set up my first attempt at installing Ubuntu. Then I used it again to remove it. Impressive.

No need for Quake 4 or Compiz, so it should be fine this way. And the battery life is definitely better… between five and ten (!!) hours now.

By: Ploni Almoni

Ploni Almoni — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:07:06 +0000

Hmm, maybe SMC support has improved. At any rate, running a VM full screen is basically the same nowadays unless you really need exploding windows and Quake 4 to perform well in Linux. You can repartition a Mac system live, in case you didn’t know, without booting a CD. Though I recommend closing all other programs while you do it, and logging in with the “shift” key pressed to disable all start up items, not because it’ll corrupt the file system, but because they could lock a file and then the repartitioning system will quit before it gets the job done – which can be dangerous. Disk Utility is on the OS or install disks, and I think also can repartition while running it off a CD or USB key image of your OS/install disk. Too bad if you’re installing or removing boot camp, you have to repartition while logged in, though I never had a problem once I stopped running other programs at the same time.

By: Head Geek

Head Geek — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:10:11 +0000

I’d installed the SMC support under Linux, and proved that it worked (i.e. the system wouldn’t overheat no matter what I threw at it). But I was only getting a couple hours of run-time off of the battery in Linux, rather than anything near the seven hours that it was supposed to have. So I took your advice and bought VMware Fusion this morning.

I’ve got my Ubuntu virtual machine up and running now, but I think I’m going to have to repartition the system again before I can get it right. Still looking into how to do it.

By: Ploni Almoni

Ploni Almoni — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:29:27 +0000

Cool! Welcome to Macintosh! One thing though, it’s really a much better idea to run Linux in VMWare Fusion rather than booting it up into the bare metal as I think you’re doing. Linux doesn’t support SMC, the proprietary voltage-regulation/fan/etc system of the Mac, very well – I often hear of “death by Ubuntu” due to Mac laptops, that aren’t very good at dissipating heat compared to PCs, overheating under load in a dual-boot Linux system. You’ll find that running VMWare Fusion (and to a lesser extent, Virtual Box) full screen has almost identical performance to running it dual-boot on a Mac with modern intel processors as all of them have. You’ll also find, as I think I mentioned before, VMWare Fusion to be very inexpensive. (Virtual Box is free of course, but I think you’ll find VMWare to be worth the purchase for you since you’ll need to be able to compile and such as fast as possible.)

By: Head Geek

Head Geek — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:12:38 +0000

Yes, that thought did cross my mind while pondering the purchase.

By: c-square

c-square — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:13:54 +0000

One door this does open for you is that now you’re able to write your own custom iPod Touch apps! Even if you never make them public, I could definitely see you pimping your iPod.

By: Head Geek

Head Geek — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:14:18 +0000

You still haven’t — I’m still a Linux user. I’m just running it on Mac hardware, because it was the best thing I could find for it. But yes, I’ll probably poke around OS X eventually, now that it’s available to me.

By: c-square

c-square — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:11:41 +0000

Wow! I never thought I’d see the day when you’d become a Mac user. Very cool!