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Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

victorleungtw.com

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Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#81

Post by verisimilitude »

sdrothrock wrote: post #18
cpach wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virtualbox is very good IMHO. Vmware also has a similar product.

Just a warning: Virtualbox with hard drive files on an external USB hard disk has been broken for me on Catalina on my both of my Mac Minis (late 2012, 2018) and iMacs (late 2012, mid 2017). That particular functionality worked fine on Mojave. It works fine as long as I keep my VDI files on my system drive, but that can be a pain since they're so large.

External VDIs -- that's exactly my use-case, but I've stayed back on Mojave. Any bug page I should follow to see if this gets resolved for Catalina?

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#82

Post by jedieaston »

ressetera wrote: post #52
ohwel2l wrote: post #49

Somewhat unrelated but do we still need Docker Desktop for Mac to run Docker containers on macOS? Why is that, is it because Linux is needed? Couldn't Docker run containers natively using just macOS?

I don't have a clear image of how Docker behaves on Mac, but I had wasted a whole day trying to make it work on Windows WSL. I'd suggest you virtualize a normal Linux host on your machine (under VMware for example) and run Docker there.

WSL2 makes this super easy. Once you have a distro installed, you just go into Docker Desktop's settings, click "use WSL2 backend" and it does it. Then you don't have to have Docker's slow boot2docker VM eating RAM all the time in the background. It's great!

The reason it doesn't work on WSL1 is because of the whole Linux kernel not being there, the features required for Docker to work don't exist. But since WSL2 is a (rather performant for certain tasks) VM, it works fine.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#83

Post by cevn »

ngrilly wrote: post #79
heelix wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The screen and the track pad are the best out there. From a coding perspective, the Mac is one of the few 16:10 ratio screens still out there, which means you get a bit more vertical height than 99% of the other 16:9 ratio resolutions. While 16:9 makes for better movie watching, coding/surfing/etc is far better on the taller screen. As a bonus, it is a really quality screen too. I'm less enamored with the rest. My da…

Looks like the new XPS 13 has a 16:10 ratio screen :)

Yes... and it's amazing :)

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#84

Post by banachtarski »

reaperducer wrote: post #68
Dunedan wrote: post #6

I used MacBooks with Linux starting in 2006 till the end of last year. That's when I finally gave up. I really love the hardware Apple produces, but we're at a point where I believe it's not feasible anymore to use Linux on MacBooks. For the MacBook Pros 2016 and up I put significant effort into trying to get mainline Linux running as smoothly as possible by documenting and coordinating the efforts to have drivers fo…

I envy your knowledge and ambition. What you've done is beyond my capabilities. But I think the crux of the problem is that people are trying to run commodity software on custom hardware. That just won't work long-term. Linux is commodity software, that runs great on white box commodity hardware. macOS is custom software that runs great on custom hardware. Each has its place and purpose. It's like driving a car on tr…

macOS runs horribly on custom hardware, it just runs better than other commodity software.

Any application that pushes frames/performance would do better on Linux/Windows on the equivalent amount of silicon. What's missing because the hardware and drivers is so closed is the feedback loop between application/game devs and the vendors. If I have an issue with what I'm building, I can hop into a chat and immediately talk to Nvidia/AMD/Intel folks/etc. In some cases, they share code, in some cases they release a driver update. In pretty much all cases, the code I'm working on gets better. Apple lacks this feedback loop, and their drivers are garbage.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#86

Post by lloeki »

gorgoiler wrote: post #73
heelix wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The snapshot options are much better in fusion, for that solo workflow, then stock virtualbox. I suspect vagrant covers those gaps. Long running (and pausing) VMs behave better on fusion. I see better stability when pushed hard. Better use of the hardware. Been a long time since I ran benchmarks, but the same VM was about 4-10 seconds faster on a 2 minute process. Not enough to matter for most. The native disk access…

Thanks for the write up.

I’ll add idle usage. VirtualBox shaves one-two hours off my MBP’s battery while Fusion leaves it untouched.

Vbox graphics performance also left much to be desired: e.g dragging a terminal window around was slow, produced insane tearing and huge performance impact, and no amount of tuning would help; I’m not even talking about 3D stuff, this is just some plain X lightweight WM without a compositor. No such issue on Fusion, where I just imported the same VM.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#88

Post by Dunedan »

pcr910303 wrote: post #50
Dunedan wrote: post #6

I used MacBooks with Linux starting in 2006 till the end of last year. That's when I finally gave up. I really love the hardware Apple produces, but we're at a point where I believe it's not feasible anymore to use Linux on MacBooks. For the MacBook Pros 2016 and up I put significant effort into trying to get mainline Linux running as smoothly as possible by documenting and coordinating the efforts to have drivers fo…

Ok, I was planning to put a PR on this repo - might be just faster to inform the maintainer directly! :-) > Audio doesn't work properly, Wifi does neither (expect for the non-TouchBar models, like the one the OP uses) Wifi has a (pretty stable) proper workaround now, you might want to see this[0]. [0]: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=193121#c52

I'm well aware of this kernel bug report, but even with all the reported workarounds I was never able to get stable 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wifi to work. As that's also the case for other users I believe it's not justified to mark wifi as working.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#89

Post by trimbo »

Narann wrote: post #15
fcanesin wrote: post #7

Buy a XPS-13 developer edition.

Honest question: Having Linux on a Mac a decade ago had sense has Mac hardwares were special enough to provide value, but now you have XPS-like hardware, why would people buy a Mac to install a Linux on it? Dual boot? What does Mac hardware have that others don't?

I've been trying since the Pentium III to use Linux on a laptop and have finally given up completely. I've tried on a variety of hardware, even with official support. Driver problems and battery life have always been an issue.

But... are we talking about the same XPS laptop? My wife's 13" XPS purchased ~2016 has had horrible reliability. The charging port died a long time ago, fortunately, it charges over USB-C. But now it no longer keeps a charge, won't sleep/hibernate properly (will cook with the lid closed), and more. A friend of mine bought the same one at the same time and his is also breaking down (keyboard problems).

I've tried to get her to switch to Mac, but she prefers Windows, so next time I'm buying her a Surface Laptop. HTH anyone considering the XPS.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#90

Post by Dunedan »

skrtskrt wrote: post #64
amaccuish wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I have a 2015 MacBook Air that runs great apart from the bluetooth using headphones is not usable, super choppy. But it took ages to get here and I've still got weird scripts I don't really understand to allow me to close the lid and open reliably. As an aside, I'm finding battery and performance much better on Ubuntu 20.04 and kernel 5.4+

I just booted my 2015 MBA with Mint (Cinnamon) last week and everything worked automatically. It had to install one proprietary driver for WiFi, which the Mint installer prompted me to approve then installed. I assumed it was because this machine didnt fall into the “newer Macs that have issues with Linux” bucket

Correct. The problems started with the 2015 12" MacBook and the 2016 MacBook Pro. Everything older than that should be supported pretty well by Linux.
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