Linux Headless MacbookPro 2017 ‐ it's Breezy without your top
After my XReal Air 2 Pro arrived, I was really disappointed with the capabilities of Nebula on my Mac and Windows devices.
Using the Beam and the Beam Pro the glasses were reduced to a media and gaming consumption device.
Sniffing around a bit I tripped over Breezy, and the implication that it may work well with Linux on a device without having to need a recent modern beast of a machine.
The end result was finally ripping the top off my damaged MacBook Pro 2017. Leaving me with the portable development device I have been waiting for since the late 2000's.
I had a 2017 MacBook Pro that had a damaged screen, it was sat on a shelf, simply due to the massive cost of replacing the screen, over £600. Trying a few different distros to get a Linux that supported the mac well. PopOS was pretty good, and Ubuntu 24.04 was not bad, although there was some pain getting the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth working. On this mac they didn't work well at all, but to be fair I don't really care.
The Wi-Fi on this model would only support 2.4Hz. So, in the end I opted for USB Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, simplifying the installation of Linux and improving the network performance.
With all the distros I tried to have a good fit with the Mac, the easiest thing to get up and running was Breezy. On a fresh install, it's important to install 'curl' and 'flatpak'. The install scripts will prompt you to do this.
After the install activating Breezy was straight forward. The result is exactly what I originally hoped for.
Running in Widescreen mode, curved display, and Movement look-ahead set to 20ms is great.
I have been wanting to code in a virtual environment for so long. And have been disappointed with all the click bait posts and videos about working in VR.
Equally disappointed with those videos promising the same for the XReal.
Breezy solves my issues and I am finally here. Woohoooo!!!!!
I have been deving and coding for over 45 years now, many years of over 10 hours a day in front of a screen, and only recently have I suffered from eye fatigue. What I find with the XReal's and subscription lenses (Not strong), my eyes are way less strained than they have recently become. Big win.
Turn it into a Cyberdeck
Once I saw Breezy working so well I tried some of my other devices, I have a few. Just to see if lower spec machines could cope.
Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo. As you would expect, this machine breezes it. This device although its a beast, does not kick the Display Port through the discreet GPU so fails miserably with Nebula. However Ubuntu, Gnome and Breezy are great. So Linux is on this machine now. Although feels a bit strange having a laptop with 2 built in screens and choosing to use a Virtual one instead. So this is a dev machine but not choosing to use the XReal on it at the moment.
Lenovo Yogabook C390, the one with the eink keyboard. Actually works quite well, as long as you don't go widescreen
Headless MacBook 2016, tries to handle it but cant keep up, basically unusable
GPD Pocket really can't handle it