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#1 2025-10-07 15:10:23

deviate
Member
Registered: 2025-10-07
Posts: 5  

"Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

Hi, I'm running Daedalus OpenRC on a 2009 MacBook (MacBook5,2) with Trinity DE. When I go into the laptop battery settings, it says "Your computer seems to have a partial ACPI installation. ACPI was probably enabled, but some of the sub-options were not - you need to enable at least 'AC Adaptor' and 'Control Method Battery' and then rebuild your kernel." I'm not sure if this is just Apple hardware weirdness or not, but is there any way for me to fix this?

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#2 2025-10-07 16:16:35

fsmithred
Administrator
Registered: 2016-11-25
Posts: 2,727  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

This is just a guess, but you could start by seeing what acpi packages are already installed and compare that to what's available in the repo. Post the output of the first command and maybe someone can tell you what's missing.

# show what's installed
dpkg -l | grep acpi

# see what's available
apt-cache search acpi

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#3 2025-10-07 17:09:08

deviate
Member
Registered: 2025-10-07
Posts: 5  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

I only have

ii  acpi                                     1.7-1.2                             amd64        displays information on ACPI devices

I wasn't aware anything else might be needed

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#4 2025-10-07 17:44:46

fsmithred
Administrator
Registered: 2016-11-25
Posts: 2,727  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

Oh, interesting. I don't have that one. I have:

ii  acpi-fakekey                     0.143-5.1                     amd64        tool to generate fake key events
ii  acpi-support                     0.143-5.1                     all          scripts for handling many ACPI events
ii  acpi-support-base                0.143-5.1                     all          scripts for handling base ACPI events such as the power button
ii  acpid                            1:2.0.33-2+b1                 amd64        Advanced Configuration and Power Interface event daemon

I don't know what you need, but -support and -support-base are probably good ones to try first.

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#5 2025-10-08 12:38:20

deviate
Member
Registered: 2025-10-07
Posts: 5  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

I added all four here and rebooted, still seems to have the same problem.

ii  acpi-fakekey                     0.143-5.1                     amd64        tool to generate fake key events
ii  acpi-support                     0.143-5.1                     all          scripts for handling many ACPI events
ii  acpi-support-base                0.143-5.1                     all          scripts for handling base ACPI events such as the power button
ii  acpid                            1:2.0.33-2+b1                 amd64        Advanced Configuration and Power Interface event daemon

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#6 2025-10-08 16:43:01

g4sra
Member
Registered: 2018-12-12
Posts: 52  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

rebuild your kernel

Been bit by this before on an Intel (not mac) laptop, the kernel did not have the correct ACPI motherboard support.
Hit the MacBook forums...

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#7 2025-10-09 13:54:59

deviate
Member
Registered: 2025-10-07
Posts: 5  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

Been bit by this before on an Intel (not mac) laptop, the kernel did not have the correct ACPI motherboard support.
Hit the MacBook forums...

So I assume I will have to just reconfigure and build the kernel? Guess I can do that when I'm at my other machines, doing this on a Core 2 Duo sounds a bit painful.

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#8 2025-10-09 14:14:01

g4sra
Member
Registered: 2018-12-12
Posts: 52  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

So I assume I will have to just reconfigure and build the kernel?

No idea. Hit the MacBook forums...to determine that this is a MacBook ACPI Kernel specific issue.
If it is and you are lucky and someone has posted which driver module you need..just add it to your default Debian kernel config and re-compile.

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#9 2025-10-09 18:00:19

deviate
Member
Registered: 2025-10-07
Posts: 5  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

Hit the MacBook forums

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but you mean the ones on discussions.apple.com, right? I've never cared about MacBook stuff until a few months ago when I picked this one up so I'm not really familiar with the relevant forums.

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#10 2025-10-10 11:13:31

kapqa
Member
Registered: 2019-01-02
Posts: 458  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

still have lubuntu 12 on a macbook pro1.1 picked up on ebay as replacement for a broken powerbook g4 years ago;

it is dualboot macos x / lubuntu , but was difficult to setup; would not have succeeded without a proper guide and a few tweaks that were offered i think as an ubuntu help page (espcially also for keyboard layout).

unfortunately ubuntu website has "received" a major overhault and cannot find the help page any longer since it could have had contained valuable information even when compared to a newer macbook5,2.

but i think with the newer macbook you will have much less issues and with devuan maybe less so so good luck for the usage.

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#11 2025-10-10 12:25:35

Altoid
Member
Registered: 2017-05-07
Posts: 1,859  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

Hello:

kapqa wrote:

... ubuntu website has "received" a major overhaul ...

Maybe this page could sort the OP out?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Macte … stallation

Have a look at the Single-Boot: Ubuntu Only bit.

Best,

A.

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#12 2025-10-10 15:23:05

kapqa
Member
Registered: 2019-01-02
Posts: 458  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

oh, thanks altoid,

was wrong laying blame prematurely,

this is great info, resurfced!

there was however special needed for keyboard layout to get "tilde" "email-key" etc on mac keyboard etc. if am not mistaken, could have been covered elsewhere, and depends naturally also on the specific keyboard layout being used.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AppleKeyboard

Last edited by kapqa (2025-10-10 15:25:01)

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#13 2025-10-10 21:36:40

Altoid
Member
Registered: 2017-05-07
Posts: 1,859  

Re: "Partial ACPI Installation" on MacBook5,2

Hello:

kapqa wrote:

... great info ...

Yes.

Every time I see someone wanting to run Linux on a Mac[whatever] I try to pitch in.
To me, it's personal and after all, hardware is just hardware but the BIOS has to be able to access it.

But thanks to crappy BIOS / DSDTs encouraged by the usual suspects, many notebooks/netbooks/laptops of various brands / CPUs have needed tweaking. Apple hardware is a prime example.

@deviate
Try adding this stanza to the kernel command line: ACPI_OSI=Darwin 
See here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/MacBookPro11,x

Just in case, test this first by editing the grub configuration at boot so that the edit will not be permanent.
ie. it will apply to only that boot.

If it boots properly, carefully check the dmesg printout to see what is going on.
Save it to a *.txt file and compare the printout with / without the edit.

There may be useful data there.

Best,

A.

Last edited by Altoid (2025-10-10 21:37:24)

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