I've just installed Zorin OS Core in my old Macbook Pro Late 2011, and there's a strange situation with the Wireless connection...
During the installation process in the USB Stick Zorin OS recognized my 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks.
After installing it on the SSD it had no WiFi at all, so I followed a procedure to identify the network card and to install Broadcom drivers.
First, I've identified it with the command:
lspci -vvnn | grep -A 9 Network
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4331] (rev 02)
After, I used the offline procedure (only WiFi available here) to install the drivers, using b43-fwcutter provided with Zorin OS USB stick and the broadcom-wl-6.30.163.46.wl_apsta.o file.
With that I got WiFi, but only 2.4GHz.
After I've followed the procedure to automate the firmware update:
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43 installer
It installed everything, I did a few reboots, but still, the WiFi only identifies the 2.4GHz networks and not the 5GHz networks just like the USB install did.
Any advices? Not a big issue, I can live with 2.4GHz, but it would be nice to have 5GHz as well.
Yeah, after a few hours Zorin found additional drivers, I've asked to install it and boom! Now I've 5GHz networks!
Everything is working just fine!
In fact not everything, if I enable Jelly Mode it freezes the program windows (closes the program but the window stay there), anyway, I dont need jelly mode, so Im fine!
If Your System runs in Wayland (You can check that in Settings>About on the Line ''Window Manager''; could named similar), You could change to Xorg and try if this helps. To do that, go to the Login Screen and click on Your Profile so that the Password Field appears. It has to be appeared! when it is appeared, You should see in the bottom right Corner a Gear Icon. Click on it and choose the Option ''Zorin Desktop on Xorg'' and then log in and test if it works.
But You don't have to do that, if You not want. When Your Wifi now runs like it should, is good to read.
It's a fresh install in an old Macbook that I'll give to me wife to use at her office (she only need access to google docs, nothing else), so if anything goes wrong I can just reinstall the system at all.
I'll try this tomorrow and post back, I may not need, but maybe someone need eventually and it can help... It doesn't seem a lot of trouble to try it, so I'll do it and post back!
By the way, I've installed an SSD on it, Crucial (CT500BX500SSD1), and it boots in 26 seconds! For a computer from 2011? It's AWESOME!
Of course, processor eventually gets usage spikes, it's a 13 year old, but for office activity it's more than enough!
I've created 3 partitions:
/ with 200Gb
/home with 280Gb
Swap with 16Gb (I've 16GB RAM on it)
Anyway, if reinstall is needed files (that for now I've almost none) wont be lost.
Really? I don't need swap? Lol! Thought I needed! Maybe I'm getting too old
Indeed, I'm using a 500Gb SSD with 16GB RAM, old hardware but it's working perfectly so far! In fact never really enjoyed MacOs system, always a Windows user, but those new Linux distributions are something out of this world! Getting to love those... My last trial with Linux was waaaay back in days with Slackware...
Yeah, I probably are going to reinstall later today and I'll redo the partitions, maybe a 100GB for / and everything else for /home...
Once I get in the office I'll try the fix suggested above by our friend Ponce-De-Leon and shortly after redo the system with the new partition scheme.
Theoretically, You don't need to create manually the Partitions. You could use the ''Erase Disk'' Option in the Installer and then the Installer deletes the Disk and creates everything automatically.
