HAIKU on Macbook Pro 2010 15"

1

Hi folks,

I thought I would give a report on how HAIKU works on the Macbook Pro 2010 15". My model number is A1286.

The alpha4 disc boots and initializes but when it reaches the desktop it only shows a blue screen with a white bar across the top and a mouse pointer. Which is to say, it freezes.

The nightly ISO is a different story: It boots, initializes, and the desktop populates with all the usual stuff. Looks good…
Problem A: The touchpad works OK, but tapping seems to be disabled, and I can run programs. The touchpad’s pointer speed is set too high.
Problem B: The Wifi does not work, but the Broadcom chip is identified as a networking device.
It normally requires that firmware be loaded for it to work.
Thus overall HAIKU nightly seems pretty stable. It would be usable as a daily OS for web browsing if the Wifi were functioning.

I’m pretty impressed and I truly desire an alternative to Linux and OS/X but the lack of Wifi is a deal-killer. If you want I can get you a PCI listing from Linux to clarify what my laptop has.

Cheers.

2

Non-Supported Hardware

The following Broadcom 43xx devices:
bcm4311: vendor 14e4, device 4311
bcm4312: vendor 14e4, device 4315

http://www.haiku-os.org/guides/daily-tasks/wireless#hardware-notes
http://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/workshop-wlan.html

3

In one spot the docs say a couple of the 43xx do not work, and in other it says a few of them do.

But I gather from the “workshop-wlan” file that getting Wifi running it not as facile as it is under Linux.

Maybe someone could port this to HAIKU:
https://projects.gnome.org/NetworkManager/

4

To get WiFi working you may have to install a firmware for your card. This is done using the install-wifi-firmware.sh script as mentionned in the workshop. There is no better way to do this, because the firmware distributors decided we are not allowed to bundle it with Haiku and/or you must agree to a license before using it.

Porting software from Linux isn’t an easy task. Our graphic system isn’t anything like the usual X11 system, and GTK doesn’t run. NetworkManager is very tied to Linux, and porting it would actually need rewriting most of its code. We do share some parts, for example wpa_supplicant, the program that handles WPA authentication, is ported from the Linux WiFi stack. But the user interface is our own one.

5

Then if possible & appropriate why the UI code should be converted to Haiku’s non-X11 windowing system.

Many Linux distros ship with the firmware included. I would recommend doing whatever they’re doing as far as license go. Accepting a non-free license sucks but it’s very helpful to the end user.