I’ve had nothing but good results w/ KDE as the desktop on Endeavour. But today… dealing with two MacBook Pro 2010 machines (one of which promptly had a video chip go bad and so was out of the picture)… I decided to go for a light weight Endeavour alternative. Lxqt.
Initially, what a cool desktop. I really like the minimalist vibe and some of the decorations are very nice indeed.
But. The MacBook’s brightness and volume keys failed to work. And even stranger behavior with some of the menus simply not responding when an “okay” or “select” button was pressed… not working.
I tread carefully here. As a non-user of Lxqt until today, I cheerfully admit that perhaps I did something to cause my woes. Though I don’t know what.
The final blow came when there were (as far as I could tell) no tweaks available to the sound output.
In KDE, I have used an alternative sound output (such as instead of analog stereo picking analog duplex or some such). This allows me to basically hide a blown speaker - one of the problems that tends to creep up in these really old MacBook Pros. The sound is not great but one doesn’t have to listen to someone gargling under your keyboard.
Anyway, all those alternative options via KDE are absent in Lxqt. So I wiped it and put KDE back on. Problem solved.
My first go-round with Endeavour was LXQT. It’s pretty. But a strange animal. You have to get a compositor and learn how to use it. And other stuff. You have to research a lot yourself because many things are not apparent or obscured.
I got used to working my a** of to make it functional and make it look the way I wanted…but eventually I got sick of working my a** off.
It’s special, I did like the experience. LXQT made me feel inadequate and lazy…perhaps I was :),
but you did mention hardware issues that were independent of LXQT or KDE and even persisted with the KDE install. I think what you are saying is you get more choices to remedy/mask/bypass the sound thing in KDE and maybe you do. lxqt has huge capabilities like this, but as i said, you got to research it to make it happen. I could fix lxqt for every self-inflicted malady but really had to look..EDIT: really had to look and ask too many questions here
But. The MacBook’s brightness and volume keys failed to work. And even stranger behavior with some of the menus simply not responding when an “okay” or “select” button was pressed… not working.
Maybe, this is not related to Endeavour or LxQt. I have a MacBook Pro (2011 I think) and observed the same some years ago when installing Debian, OpenBSD and FreeBSD.
So, can be that it is hardware related. For using as Laptop the machine works quite well. But with no chance to switch off the display it is just a use-and-switch-off-computer.
PS: still looking for a good distribution for this machine
I think I found that distro… Endeavour (KDE version) is great on it (the 2010).
Re the 2011 MacBook Pro 15"… run away. It has an infamous issue with the dedicated video that nearly always shows up sooner or later. There are hacks. But these days it is too much work and the machine will always be crippled. I had heard 2010s occasionally have the same issue, but the 1st of the 2 2010s I was playing with is the first time I’ve seen any MacBook (pro or air) fail. Except for two 2011s, that is. And hey, the 2011 13" MacBook Pros are fine. Don’t have the issue because they don’t have a dedicated video card. The 2012 15" is, of course, the ultimate unibody with all that stuff fixed.
