HOWTO : Kali Linux 1.0.6 on MacBook Air (Mid 2013) 13 inches

I make a persistence USB pendrive for the Kali Linux 1.0.6 (x86_64). I boot it up and find out that almost everything is working out of the box on my MacBook Air (Mid 2013) 13 inches.

The procedure of making a persistence Kali Linux USB pendrive and how to boot to persistence mode, please refer to the official site of Kali Linux.

One of the out-of-order devices is wireless. The wireless device of my MacBook Air is Broadcom 4360. Since Ubuntu is based on Debian and Kali Linux is based on Debian, I steal the Broadcom STA driver from Ubuntu and apply to Kali Linux.

Wireless

The Broadcom driver of Ubuntu is situated at here.

Step 1 :

apt-get install dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Step 2 :

Download the latest version of the source file.

wget http://ftp.wa.co.za/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/pool/restricted/b/bcmwl/bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb

dpkg -i bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb

After the installation, the wireless APs will be detected and login.

Keyboard

Step 3 :

The keyboard is not mapping correctly and the following will fix it.

nano /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf

Append the following :

options hid_apple iso_layout=0
options hid_apple fnmode=1


For reference, please refer to this article.

Power Saving

You can have more than 10 hours battery life if you apply the following.

Step 4 :

nano /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf

Append the following :

options i915 i915_enable_rc6=1
options i915 i915_enable_fbc=1
options i915 lvds_downclock=1

Step 5 :

Download this file, "99macbookair6", make it executable and place it at /etc/pm/power.d/99macbookair6



nano /etc/rc.local

Insert the following before "exit 0".

/etc/pm/power.d/99macbookair6 true

Step 6 :

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Append the following :

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/linrunner/tlp/ubuntu lucid main

Save and exit. Then run the following :

apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 02D65EFF

apt-get update
apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw

nano /etc/default/tlp

Change the following values.

DISK_IDLE_SECS_ON_AC=0
DISK_IDLE_SECS_ON_BAT=2
MAX_LOST_WORK_SECS_ON_BAT=60
CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR_ON_BAT=powersave
DISK_APM_LEVEL_ON_BAT="1 1"
RUNTIME_PM_ALL=1
RESTORE_DEVICE_STATE_ON_STARTUP=1

* Or, leave the /etc/default/tlp settings untouch

Step 7 :

Reboot. Upon bootup, press <tab>, and append "persistence" to launch Kali Linux.

Step 8 :

To examine the power saving condition, you can install "powertop" and run "tlp-stat".

Remark

You can apply the power saving part to any Linux laptop.

If you want to install Kali Linux on your MacBook Air (Mid 2013), you have to fight to EFI.

By the way, this Kali Linux USB pendrive can boot from any laptop that support x86_64 CPU.

If you are using USB 3.0 pendrive, after the making the live USB or updated the live USB, you need to boot it up once on USB 2.0 computer. Otherwise, the USB 3.0 pendrive cannot be bootup on MacBook Air. It is very interesting.

If Kali Linux is installed on the MacBook Air, you need to do the following :

update-initramfs -u

Meanwhile, if Kali Linux is installed on the MacBook Air, you need to add "noatime, nodiratime" to ext4 at /etc/fstab.

For dual boot Kali Linux on MacBook Air, you can refer to this guide.

Reference

(1) Ubuntu Documentation - Apple MacBook Air (Mid 2013)
(2) Debian Documentation - Apple Keyboard
(3) TLP - Linux Advanced Power Management

That's all! See you.