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Long story of my father's MacBook Pro

Posted Updated
By Vincent Wutthisit Brabandt
5 min read

In this post, I actually wanted to list all my Computers and equipment, but after writing some stuff, I’d ended up with too long of a text to keep everything, so I’m going to separate them out to different posts.

Anyway, this is my father’s last main MacBook Pro which I’m currently using as my main “desktop”.

Specs

Story

Inheriting this thing

I inherited this MacBook Pro from my dad, and despite its age, it served me well. It had some battle scars; the screen coating suffered from staingate (failing of the coating), and the speakers blew out. But I pushed through, using it until the battery began to bulge alarmingly. In January 2024, I invested in a new iFixit battery, a pair of speakers, and Arctic MX-6 thermal paste to keep it going.

Wolfsburg Woes

Taking it with me to Wolfsburg for the 42 Wolfsburg’s Piscine program was exciting, but the journey wasn’t smooth sailing. The LVDS cable, responsible for connecting the display, started to fail, causing the screen to get fuzzy. I replaced the cable myself, but unfortunately, the display went completely poof.

A Frustrating Diagnosis

Seeking a professional solution, I paid 50 euros for a diagnosis. To my disappointment, the repair shop declared the motherboard connector damaged and refused to fix it, deeming the laptop too old and expensive. They even scolded me for attempting a DIY repair, which felt unfair considering their website advertised fixing complex motherboard issues.

A Fresh Start

Back home, I soldiered on, using an external TV as a makeshift monitor (not ideal for the eyes!). This prompted a software refresh. I installed macOS Sonoma using OpenCore Legacy Patcher and initially opted for Windows 11. However, the latest Nvidia drivers (version 425.31) wouldn’t output to the external monitor for some reason. I settled for an older driver version that worked, but Windows 11 kept pushing the problematic update.

Linux Liberation

Losing faith with Windows, and having positive experiences with Ubuntu on other machines, I decided Linux was the answer. Ubuntu was okay, and Linux Mint felt a bit outdated. I finally landed on Endeavour OS with KDE Plasma 6 (think Arch Linux with a GUI installer). It’s been a fantastic experience ever since.

Driver Dilemma

The driver saga continues, though. Installing proprietary drivers on Endeavour OS (kernel version 6.8.9) proved unsuccessful. Honestly, I’m hesitant to use official Nvidia drivers any more. They’re outdated and don’t support Wayland. So, I’m sticking with the open-source Nouveau drivers for now. Yes, the performance isn’t ideal, but at least they’re still actively maintained, and for my Kepler-based GPU, the upcoming Vulkan driver, NVK, might even outperform the old official Nvidia drivers.

Despite the hardware hiccups, this trusty MacBook Pro has served me well. With a fresh Linux install and a focus on open-source options, it’s ready for a new chapter, even if the display drivers remain a work in progress.

Oh, um Linux still doesn’t have proper drivers for the built-in webcam, I know there’s an experimental driver out there, but honestly I don’t really care for it much (plus knowing my webcam is not working, helps with my paranoia).

Gaming stuff on Linux (WIP)

Linux kernel 6.8.9 + Mesa 24.0.7

  • Minecraft 1.20.4 (+ Sodium) = ~45-60FPS @ 1080p (kinda playable)
  • Civilization V = ~20-30FPS @ 1080p (Playable)
  • Civilization: Beyond Earth = ~20-30FPS @ 1080p (Worse than Civ5 but weirdly playable)
  • Portal 2 = ~40-60FPS @ 1080p (playable)
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney = ~50-60FPS @ 1080p (Very playable)
  • Genshin Impact = ~10-20FPS @ 1080p (Not playable and lots of artefacts)

Linux kernel 6.9.2 + Mesa 24.0.8

  • L.A. Noire = ~15FPS @ 720p (weirdly impressive but not playable)

Note: the FPS’s are really just estimates from my memory, please take it with a grain of salt (for now).

As you might have read, I’m using the Nouveau drivers, as of Mesa 24.0.7 + Linux kernel 6.8.9, there’s still no auto-reclocking support and OpenGL is still version 4.3, but luckily there’s still much hope with potential NVK support, and since this is a Kepler-based GPU, manual reclocking is actually supported and that’s what I’ve been doing whenever I’m playing a game.

So these are the FPS I’m getting with the highest clock speed manually set then using the latest Proton (or Proton-GE) and forcing it to use WineD3D (DirectX to OpenGL) instead of the more efficient DXVK (DirectX to Vulkan).

Another note: MacBooks have this weird thing where, if you use a third-party OS (Windows, Linux & etc), it will only enable the dGPU (my suspicion is because Apple used their own gmux technology for the GPU switching), but with OpenCore Legacy Patcher, we could actually spoof third-party OSes to allow access to both of the GPUs, but as of now I decided to have this option off for now, as I want to see the actual performance of the dGPU without it being affected by the more well-supported iGPU.

Gaming on macOS (WIP)

  • Minecraft 1.20.6 (+ Sodium) = ~60-150FPS (Very playable)

After doing some updates on macOS (14.5), I decided to try Minecraft out and OMG ~60FPS buttery smooth. I’ve missed this.

But the discontinuation of 32bit software support and the fact that this system using OpenCoreLegacyPatcher isn’t officially supported nor optimized for macOS Sonoma means drivers can be unstable at times.

Off-Topic: Honestly, I wish that Valve would implement Proton on macOS (& Asahi Linux) someday, especially since Apple’s M-series arm chips has been so good, though this would understandably be hard since it would have to translate x86 to arm & also DirectX to Metal (Luckily there actually already are experimental projects which is attempting this).

Computers, MacBooks
computers software hardware apple macbook linux macos gaming
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.