• 1
    Install, Drivers and Customization

     Getting wifi to work on A1466:

    sudo apt-get install dkms bcmwl-kernel-source

    Should fire up asap and works just fine.

    Install Cinnamon Desktop:

    https://tecadmin.net/install-cinnamon-on-ubuntu/

    then select the Cinnamon Desktop at the password prompt during boot login. It will be set to default after that.

    I also installed Adapta-Nokto as a theme for Cinnamon Desktop to make the window border style and task bar to my liking.

    Swipe gestures:

    https://github.com/Hikari9/comfortable-swipe

    For some reason, the auto-start at boot feature doesn't work for me, so I added it to the autostart in Cinnamon by adding a custom command in System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications

    comfortable-swipe start


    Custom boot screen:

    https://www.xmodulo.com/change-boot-splash-screen-ubuntu-linux-mint.html

    using https://www.gnome-look.org/s/Gnome/p/1009320

    but the folders need to be changed in file: /usr/share/plymouth/themes/darwin/darwin.plymouth (because almost nothing in Linux ever actually works out of the box):

    [Plymouth Theme]
Name=Darwin OS X Plymouth
Description=A Plymouth of OS X Yosemite
ModuleName=script

[script]
ImageDir=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/darwin
ScriptFile=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/darwin/darwin.script

    Then run:

    sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/share/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/themes/darwin/darwin.plymouth 100

    and then:

    sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth

    Select the theme you just installed via number and hit return.

    Then regenerate the ram disk:

    sudo update-initramfs -u

     That's it.

    Custom login screen:

    https://github.com/PRATAP-KUMAR/ubuntu-gdm-set-background

    Steam Games:

    Yes, the MacBook Air can play games, even under Linux. To my surprise, even pretty well, at least 2D games. I remember using a steam-installer package but this one should work, too.

    https://store.steampowered.com/about/

    Alternatively, this:

    https://www.codegrepper.com/code-examples/shell/how+to+install+steam+on+ubuntu+21.10

  • 2
    Battle.Net - DOESN'T WORK

    Just for testing, especially after Steam works so well with even 3D games, I wanted to see if I can get Diablo 2 Resurrected to work. So I went ahead and installed Battle.Net.

    https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-battle-net-on-ubuntu-20-04-linux-desktop

    However, the winetricks configuration didn't succeed as winetricks is outdated. Uninstall it and reinstall using a newer version using:

    sudo apt-get remove winetricks
wget  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks
chmod +x winetricks 
sudo mv -v winetricks /usr/bin

     according to https://askubuntu.com/questions/749549/winetricks-sha1sum-mismatch-rename-and-try-again

    However, following those instructions didn't lead to anything usable, but this page offers some guidance to get the login screen to work:

    https://github.com/lutris/docs/blob/master/Battle.Net.md

    Specifically, go to settings before the launcher crashes on you, then Advanced settings, and deactivate hardware acceleration for browser content. That brought me at least into the main view and allows me to install Diablo. The download is currently running so I can't tell if it's gonna work, yet, or not.

    EDIT: Wine and Battle.Net is horribly unstable. I won't be using it. I wasn't able to even install Diablo as the installer crashed four times because some sort of ad window popped up.

  • 3
    Change Keyboard Mapping

    After using the MacBook Air running Ubuntu for a few months, I can't help but notice that I'm not a fan of the keyboard layout. There are a few keys that need to be swapped for ease of use when running Ubuntu. Luckily, there is a very easy fix for that: https://github.com/free5lot/hid-apple-patched

    Following those instructions and using the recommended keyboard remapping, the keyboard is now much more enjoyable.