77 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
77 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Manjaro with KDE on a MacBook Pro"
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date: 2020-01-14T21:22:00+02:00
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draft: false
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categories: [KDE, Kate, macOS]
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tags: [KDE, Kate, macOS]
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url: /posts/manjaro-with-kde-on-a-macbook-pro.md/
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author: "Christoph Cullmann"
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---
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I bought a MacBook end of 2014.
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My initial reason to buy it was to [improve the Kate port](https://kate-editor.org/2015/01/03/kate5-on-mac/) for macOS.
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Beside that, I wanted to try if the Apple ecosystem and macOS are really that great and will solve all my issues in life (short answer: no, they aren't, at least not for me).
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The HiDPI screen looked nice, too :=)
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After some initial "not a lot works", if you don't go the [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) or [MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/) way, the Kate port improved over the following years.
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I learned a lot about standalone non-Linux deployment of applications and macOS specifics in the process.
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As a side-effect of my porting efforts, with the help of others, I was able to improve the deployment of [KDE Frameworks](https://api.kde.org/frameworks/index.html) in some ways, e.g. by allowing to bundle more stuff inside [Qt resources](https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/resources.html).
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For example the [KSyntaxHighlighting](https://api.kde.org/frameworks/syntax-highlighting/html/index.html) or [KTextEditor](https://api.kde.org/frameworks/ktexteditor/html/index.html) frameworks are now just a library you link, you don't need to deploy any extra data files.
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This is a huge improvement, if you want to bundle them with your standalone application.
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Unfortunately, my initial hope, that we would get more people contributing to the macOS port (and with this to KTextEditor/Kate/...) didn't really take off.
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Beside some minimal help, not a lot happened.
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I think my last self-provided bundle update for macOS was in [2016](https://kate-editor.org/2016/06/16/new-katekwrite-bundles-for-mac/).
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The binary factory still churns out new builds, you can grab them via the links on our [download page](https://kate-editor.org/get-it/).
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I occasionally tried them, but they never got polished in a way like our Windows variants that we now even ship via the [Windows Store](https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9NWMW7BB59HW).
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Apple doesn't make the world a better place with each update of macOS, see for example the now necessary notarized builds and the effort the cause for e.g. [Krita](https://krita.org/en/item/first-notarized-macos-build-of-krita/)
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(and with necessary I mean: you shall do it, otherwise your users are nagged with "do you really want to execute this..." stuff that makes a very bad impression).
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In the last years, I used my MacBook more or less just to either grab some stuff from iTunes or do stuff inside my Linux VirtualBox there.
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Given I anyways have a proper Windows 10 VM to take care of the Windows development for Kate (yes, Apple, Microsoft allows that officially, you can just buy a license, you can even get some 'free' developer VM images for a fixed time...), I just migrated my seldom used iTunes account to that machine.
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With that away, I just installed purely [Manjaro Linux](https://manjaro.org/) on my MacBook last evening, who cares, I anyways don't use macOS at all beside as VirtualBox startup environment.
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I searched for some pointers in the internet, in the past I already had some parallel install.
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If you search a bit, you will find various hints how to do it.
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If people want to do the same as me, a pure Manjaro install without keeping any macOS around, here a minimal how-to for a MacBook Pro Retina 13" (model number MGX82**/A, model id MacBookPro11,1):
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* Get the USB installer from their [Manjaro Linux](https://manjaro.org/) homepage, I used the KDE variant ;=)
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* Get it on a stick and plug it into your MacBook
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* Boot up your MacBook (pressing the ALT key)
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* Select the EFI boot option.
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* Start the live system, like on any other machine
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* If you want to have internet, which is a good idea to e.g. later easily install the Broadcom driver, use your mobile phone with USB-tethering
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* Install it normally, I used the "erase my full drive and encrypt it" variant. Be careful, your data is gone afterwards, you got warned!
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* Reboot your MacBook, you will boot into your fresh installed Manjaro
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* Install the matching Broadcom driver for your kernel, something like "linux54-broadcom-wl"
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* Install some fan control like "mbpfan-git" and enable it afterwards with "sudo systemctl enable mbpfan" + "sudo systemctl start mbpfan"
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For me this did the job and the stuff is running well enough.
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The webcam won't work without additional effort, not that I use it.
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No idea if Bluetooth or other stuff like the Thunderbolt ports work, but I never used that even on macOS.
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Fortunately the HiDPI support on Linux & Qt & KDE has gone a long way since my initial try 2015 and now, with some scaling of 1.5 or 2, it is all nicely usable ;=)
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Given I still have some macOS machines available at work, I might still try out some Kate bundles there from time to time, but my personal life is now macOS free.
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