r/linux_on_mac

Honestly this was super easy to setup a bit of an issue with the WiFi firmware but got it resolved in like 30 minutes.

Hi, everyone!

My boss had this MacBook Air in the trunk of his car for years, and he just gifted it to me. It was running macOS Sierra.

I decided to install Fedora on it, and I'm loving it. It's small and works flawlessly; I just had to install the Wi-Fi drivers, and voilà.

The Mac itself has definitely seen better years, but it's surprisingly clean.

EDIT: Correction, it's a 2014 model. Sorry guys, my bad lol

I wanted to share some of my process as a lifelong Mac User in setting up My Mac after a Linux install. I'm currently using Fedora KDE, so some of this applies specifically to that case, but stuff like the keyboard setup and other stuff might still be useful.

I'm not technically inclined, so if you read this and you see things that are wrong and need correcting, let me know and I'll try to correct them.

Intel Mac setup suggestions (using a Fedora KDE distro)

In my case it was an intel based MacBook Pro 11,2 Mid 2014 with a Broadcom BCM4360

BCM4360 802.11ac Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a0] (rev 03) which uses a proprietary driver and doesn’t play well with most distros.

Step 1:

If your computer lacks an ethernet port and it has a Broadcom WiFi card, buy a cheap USB to ethernet connector and probably make sure you have an ethernet cable that can reach from your computer to your modem/ switch whatever.

Another alternative is to get a compatible wifi card or usb wifi dongle. Personally, I don’t like managing dongles or opening up the computer.

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Setting up a Modem Driver Blacklist

The following is for a Fedora KDE distro and is copied from an AI generated guide that worked for me:

If your computer has a Broadcom BCM4360 wifi card before you install the modem software, you will need to set up this Modem Blacklist to prevent other software from being installed that may interfere with the BCM4360 driver’s operation.

MacBook Pro (Late 2013) – Wi-Fi Driver Install Loop (BCM4360) & Tethering Issues

Broadcom BCM4360 on Linux

I tried adding them to a blacklist config file, since you can’t run blacklist as a command in the terminal.

blacklist is a kernel configuration setting, not a command. Your response doesn’t tell me much about what you are using. It is best if you provide the actual text – from long experience, new users often make spelling or permission mistakes so I have posted what has been working for me ever since my wife bought a new Apple Silicon system and gave me her old Intel iMac.

Here, with WiFI using broadcom-wl from rpmfusion:

% ls -l /lib/modules/*/extra/wl

/lib/modules/6.17.12-300.fc43.x86_64/extra/wl:

total 1464

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1497200 Sep 17 21:00 wl.ko.xz

/lib/modules/6.18.3-200.fc43.x86_64/extra/wl:

total 1464

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1498196 Sep 17 21:00 wl.ko.xz

and:

% ls -l /etc/modprobe.d/50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 249 Jan 4 10:43 /etc/modprobe.d/50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

% cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

# wireless drivers that conflict with Broadcom hybrid wireless driver 'wl'

# from: https://github.com/Vanco/broadcom-wl-aerynos

blacklist bcm43xx

blacklist ssb

blacklist b43

blacklist ndiswrapper

blacklist brcm80211

blacklist bcma

blacklist brcmsmac

Once everything is in place, reboot and check that the wl module is being loaded:

% lsmod | grep wl

wl 6524928 0

cfg80211 1544192 1 wl

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The following is for a Fedora KDE distro and is copied from an AI generated guide that worked for me:

Fedora: setting up the BCM4360 Driver

https://www.thetestspecimen.com/posts/broadcom-wifi-modules-fedora/

You should first make sure you are up to date

sudo dnf update

Then add the rpmfusion repositories

sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

Get the broadcom drivers:

sudo dnf install kmod-wl akmods akmod-wl

sudo dnf kernel-devel akmod-wl kmod-wl broadcom-wl?

Check if you have kernel-devel installed. It should be, but if not this will install it for you.

sudo dnf install kernel-devel

Now reboot / restart your system

Once the system has booted and you have logged in again we need to check if the driver "broadcom-wl" has installed. Obviously the the actual driver version might be slightly different to the output below, but you should get a similar response

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep broadcom-wl

broadcom-wl-6.30.223.271-1.fc22.noarch

Run modprobe

sudo modprobe wl

Check that akmods can be run

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ sudo akmods

Checking kmods exist for 4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64 [ OK ]

There is a chance that you will get a warning that "files needed for building modules against kernel could not be found" and "Is the correct kernel devel package installed?". If that is the case don't worry, just continue.

We then need to check that the kernel-devel package in the system is the same as the kernel-devel package installed with the $(uname -r) kernel of your system. First check the system:

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ ls /usr/src/kernels/

4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64

then the $(uname -r)

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ uname -r

4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64

If they are the same you can skip to the "Load the "wl" module" part just after the system restart in red below, otherwise you need to do the following

You now need to install the correct kernel devel for your system. This is the version that was output when you ran the "uname -r" command. Go to the following website:

Kernel Devel RPM files

You then need to find the correct rpm file for your system for example in my case it would be:

kernel-devel-4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64.rpm

...and download the file.

Once downloaded (I am assuming you will download the file to the Downloads folder) run the following commands replacing the rpm file name with the correct one for your system that you just downloaded

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ cd ~/Downloads

[testspecimen@localhost Downloads]$ sudo rpm -Uvh --force kernel-devel-4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64.rpm

Preparing... ################################# [100%]

Updating / installing...

1:kernel-devel-4.17.19-200.fc28 ################################# [50%]

Cleaning up / removing...

2:kernel-devel-4.17.19-200.fc28 ################################# [100%]

Run akmods again

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ sudo akmods

Checking kmods exist for 4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64 [ OK ]

Building and installing wl-kmod [ OK ]

Reboot / restart the system

Load the "wl" module

sudo modprobe wl

Check "wl" is loaded

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ lsmod | grep wl

wl 6463488 0

cfg80211 770048 3 wl,rtlwifi,mac80211

Check that module "wl" is used as a wifi adapter. Please note that the terminal will output a lot of different components like the one below, so you will have to search for the wireless controller specifically.

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ lspci -v

05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4352 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)

Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 855c

Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16

Memory at dfa00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]

Memory at df800000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M]

Capabilities: <access denied>

Kernel driver in use: wl

Kernel modules: bcma, wl

At this point unplug the temporary wifi card you are using or unplug the hardwired connection you are using. Then we can get a list of networks up

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ nmcli dev wifi list

IN-USE SSID MODE CHAN RATE SIGNAL BARS SECURITY

OnePlus5 Infra 11 130 Mbit/s 95 ▂▄▆█ WPA2

COSMOTE-F0CEBB Infra 6 270 Mbit/s 57 ▂▄▆_ WPA1 WPA2

COSMOTE-0EF1CE Infra 11 270 Mbit/s 35 ▂▄__ WPA1 WPA2

conn-x71aa38 Infra 4 135 Mbit/s 34 ▂▄__ WPA1

Then you can connect to the wifi network of your choice

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ nmcli dev wifi con "your_ssid" password "your_ssid_password"

That should be it!

Let me know if it worked for you, and if so which driver it worked for so I can create a working list for other people to reference.

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Installing the Broadcom 4360 Driver on Fedora 44 (from DuckDuckGo AI)

Note: for Ubuntu - based distros, you might benefit from reading

https://github.com/hsnuc09/bcm4360-fix

To successfully install the Broadcom 4360 driver on Fedora 44, follow these steps:

Step 1: Add RPM Fusion Repositories

You need to enable the RPM Fusion repositories, which provide the necessary drivers. Run the following commands in your terminal:

Enable Free Repository:

bash

sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

Enable Non-Free Repository:

bash

sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

Step 2: Install the Broadcom Driver

After adding the repositories, install the Broadcom driver using the following command:

bash

sudo dnf install kmod-wl akmod-wl broadcom-wl

Step 3: Reboot Your System

Once the installation is complete, reboot your system to apply the changes:

bash

Wait a few minutes

sudo reboot

Additional Notes

Ensure you have an active internet connection during the installation process, as it may require downloading additional packages.

If you encounter issues, check that the kernel-devel package matches your current kernel version.

Following these steps will help you set up the Broadcom 4360 driver on Fedora 44 effectively.

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Mac-like Keyboard setup

System settings: Keyboard:

Keyboard Model: Apple Aluminium (ISO) (you’re welcome to try others though)

System settings: Key Bindings:

Ctrl Position: Swap Left Win with Left Ctrl

Shortcuts: setup Cut, copy, paste, close, quit

To set up the keyboard shortcut for switching open apps, search for “Walk through Windows Alternative” and customise them once you find them. You might have to disable some of the other “Walk through Windows” shortcuts.

To set up the keyboard shortcut for switching through the windows of the current app you are using, search for “Walk through Windows of current Application” and customise them once you find them.

***********************

Macifying Konsole Keyboard Shortcuts

Launch Konsole: go into Menu: Settings: Configure Keyboard Shortcuts

Customise shortcuts for copy, paste, Close session, Close window.

Bought this hardware brand new in 2010 and couldn’t keep up with Apple upgrades since 2019 until it would not even come up after logging in…. Stayed on my garage collecting dust for 2 years or so. After running into a youtube channel where the dude installed linux on old Mac HW, bought an USB image of the latest Ubuntu and installed it a month ago. After some tweaking, it’s back to life. Better than a Google Chromebook i bought late last year

Hey so I have this old IMac and it’s very very slow, I saw people download Linux on old iMac’s and I saw that it runs better. Im posting this on Reddit because I have so questions
* is it worth it downloading Linux?
* are there any good tutorials on downloading Linux on old iMac?
* can I play any steam games on it? If so what’s the biggest game you can run on it.

About a month ago, Linux Mint pushed out kernel version 7.0. If you run Update Manager or apt upgrade, your computer will download and attempt to upgrade to 7.0.0-28. The installation will fail because the proprietary Broadcom wifi driver (broadcom-sta-dkms 6.30.223-.271-23ubuntu1.2) does not build with the 7.0 kernel.

If you reboot your laptop, you will see the KERNEL PANIC error message shown above. This happens on my MacBook Air 11" (2013-2015) models, and the same problem probably occurs on the MacBook Air 13" (2013-2017) models and other similar Intel MacBook Air and Pro models from that era.

I spent some time researching this problem, and I am posting my notes here in case this helps other people.

(Note: I do not use AI to write my posts. I do use AI as a search agent.)

Boot to a Previous Kernel

The GRUB boot loader can display a menu of the previous kernels, and the user can select using the arrow keys. Unfortunately by default, Linux Mint on the MacBook configures the GRUB menu to be hidden.

The Update Manager says (View > Linux Kernels): "Press and hold the Shift key to show the boot menu." Unfortunately, the Shift key does not work on the MacBooks. You must instead use the ESC key to get the boot menu.

You must hit the ESC key only once. If you hit the ESC more than once, you will get the GRUB command line prompt, which looks like this:

grub> 

If this happens, type "normal" to restart the boot process:

grub> normal

then hit the ESC key again, but only once.

When the menu appears, select the previous working kernel (e.g. 6.17, or 6.14, or 6.8), then hit ENTER to boot into the previously working kernel.

Enable GRUB Menu By Default

You can force GRUB to always display the boot menu, instead of being hidden. Edit the /etc/default/grub file, change the values of the following options as shown below:

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5

Run the update-grub command:

$ sudo update-grub

Now when the machine reboots, you will always see the GRUB menu. If you don't select anything for 5 seconds, it will automatically boot using the default kernel.

Remove the 7.0 Kernel

If you remove all kernels of a given series (e.g. all versions of the 6.17 kernel), the Update Manager apparently will no longer prompt you to install any new versions of that entire series.

However, if you do a fresh install of Mint 22.3 which comes with the 6.14 kernel as the default, running the Update Manager will prompt you to install the 7.0 kernel, even though there are no 7.0 kernel installed.

It seems then that you must install the 7.0 kernel, then immediately remove it, to prevent the Update Manager from downloading any additional 7.0 kernels in the future. However, if Linux Mint releases a 7.1 kernel, I suspect that the Update Manager will grab the new version since it is a new series.

Pin the 6.8 Kernel

The 6.11, 6.14, and 6.17 kernels are all End Of Life, and will not receive any further security updates. But the 6.8 kernel is supported until April 2029. It seems to work perfectly well on my MacBook Air 11" (2013-2015) models.

Various AI bots suggest that the apt-mark command can be used to pin the kernel to the 6.8 version with something like this:

$ sudo apt-mark hold linux-image-6.8* linux-headers-6.8* linux-modules-6.8* linux-generic linux-image-generic linux-headers-generic

However, this does not work. I have tried dozens of variations of this command, none of them work.

Filter Out the 7.0 Kernel

More advanced AI agents suggest that we can filter away the 7.0 kernel by creating a /etc/apt/preferences.d/no-kernel-7.pref file that contains the following lines:

Package: /^linux-(image|headers|modules|generic|hwe).*/ 
Pin: version /^7\..*/ 
Pin-Priority: -1 

I have verified that this method does work. The 7.0 kernel will not get downloaded by the Update Manager or by apt with this filtering in place.

But I Really Want to Use the 7.0 Kernel

The 6.8 kernel is supported until April 2029. The 7.0 kernel is also an LTS kernel which is supported until May 2029.

As far as I can tell, there are no major features in the 7.0 kernel which are relevant to an Intel MacBook Air or Pro laptop from the 2011-2017 era. The only thing that might be beneficial are some improvements to the memory management subsystem which might help laptops with limited memory, e.g. only 4GB of RAM.

Currently, it seems that the only way to run a 7.0 kernel on a MacBook from this era is to replace the Broadcom WiFi chip with an Intel WiFi chip (e.g. an Intel AX210). The Intel chip driver is built directly into the Linux kernel, and does not require a proprietary driver like the Broadcom.

I have upgraded one of my MacBook Air 11" to use the Intel AX210, and I have verified that it works perfectly with the 7.0 kernel. No more Broadcom driver required. I will make another post that describes my experience with the AX210 WiFi card upgrade.

After installing the Ubuntu 26 T2 ISO (which in my opinion is a great system) on my MacBook Pro I decided to install Cosmic while keeping GDM3 as my display manager, and I installed Flatpak and Flathub which have become my “store”. Cosmic is really underrated, it's the Pop_OS environment! (I think it's my favorite Linux system) but on Ubuntu
it works like a charm, Gnome seems so boring…

I also set zsh as my default shell. I kept gnome terminal because it's better than cosmic. I actually kept some apps from one environment and some from the other. I didn't remove gnome entirely because I want it to continue managing my video drivers. I don't know if they could break. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good audio driver? The quality is embarrassing compared to macOS.

EDIT1 that with Chrome open in the background and the Cosmic Store you only use 2.3GB of RAM, this is ridiculous.

EDIT2 I noticed that when I try to open a video in full screen on Chrome after a second it exits the full screen, I have not noticed any strange behavior on games and in fact I found an Issue opened 4 days ago just about this Cosmic Compositor error with chromium, so I think they will update it soon

EDIT3

A grub update had inserted duplicate files that skipped the bootloader and went directly to grub. I deleted those files from the recovery and now they both work. To be safe, you can disable write access to the bootloader partition within Linux. Note that if you want to update grub, it must regain access:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Finds ‘/dev/disk/by-uuid/5F66-17ED /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1’
Edit in ‘/dev/disk/by-uuid/5F66-17ED /boot/efi vfat ro,defaults 0 1’

If you find yourself in my situation from MacOS recovery:

rm -rf /Volumes/EFI/EFI/BOOT

I partitioned the disk in FAT 32, copied the contents of the Ubuntu T2 ISO into it and boom! The Linux installer booted without the need for a USB stick. Can anyone help me with partitioning?

EDIT: It worked! I simply used nvme0n1p1 without altering the partition with the “/boot/efi” patch and envme0n1p4 with the “/“ patch for the Linux disk. Just a quick note: pay attention to the links and make sure the ISO is copied completely.

Remember to disable the t2 bootloader security checks from the recovery menu, otherwise linux will not boot, MAKE SURE you do not corrupt or format your mac boot partition or your macos partition.

the bootloader menu may use linux as default, in which case use cntrl at startup and then from the macOS terminal type:
“sudo nvram manufacturing-enter-picker=true”

Unfortunately this is an 8gig RAM model so not great for heavy tasks, but overall it’s been working well.

Initial issues: Suspend (suspend would kick in and upon waking the computer jack up the keyboard and trackpad wouldn’t respond for about 10 to 20 seconds, on-top of losing the ability to connect to WiFi),

WiFi (as a result of suspend WiFi wouldn’t turn on again after waking the computer up so I had to manually turn the NetworkManager on and off again to restart it which fixed the issue),

Bluetooth (Bluetooth connects but is very unstable and cracks a lot),

Camera (Camera doesn’t work, not sure why, I don’t plan on using it so spoilers but I didn’t spend time trying to fix it),

RAM (RAM is limited so running models in Ollama that are to big start causing problems and crashes, but that’s just a result of to little RAM so I’ll go cry about it or something).

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Fixes: Suspend (implemented a script that resolved the issue by cycling the controller for the trackpad and keyboard as well as NetworkManager on wake-up which resolved the issue),

WiFi (Above explained how)

RAM (smaller models unfortunately)

- Bluetooth and Camera I left non-functional since I won’t use either. -

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Experience**:** Pretty good. Wish the T2 chip wasn’t such a pain; I’d probably use a different distro otherwise, but Ubuntu is cool. I could probably switch to another Debian-based distro and carry over the T2-specific firmware/kernel setup, but honestly I’m good. I like Ubuntu enough.