On 2012 Macbook Pro (9,2), so far I still need to boot with the fail-safe graphics driver. So far no wi-fi, bluetooth, or sound. Touchpad behaves like a single button mouse basically. No way I can see yet to adjust brightness. Battery level displays correctly. Ethernet works. (That’s how I am able to type here now 
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What is the process for always using vesa graphics. In BeOS I modified a config file, but here I am not sure.