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Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

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Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#161

Post by MonaroVXR »

pansa2 wrote: post #13
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…

Do the latest Macs still support running Windows via Boot Camp? What would you recommend if I need to run both Linux and Windows alongside MacOS? Virtualisation? Or would I be better off using more than one machine?

I would buy a normal computer and virtualize MacOS on it. You can do that with VMWare Workstation or anything else, but VMWare is better for it.

That's what I would do.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#162

Post by MonaroVXR »

gorgoiler wrote: post #41
heelix wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run VMWare fusion on my Mac for virtualization. Being able to bump the Linux desktop to what the full retina screen can handle is glorious (though I had to fiddle with sizes on the terminal to find something that my eyes could work with). Got a Windows VM for the occasional MSI things that head my way. Nice access to the hardware - disk, cpu, memory - with a lot of snapshot management. I've got both Oracle's Virtua…

What’s superior with VMWare? I’m a virtual box user (via vagrant) but would switch for a compelling feature set. Performance, IPv6?

Running MacOS may be better in VMWare Workstation.

But it also depends if you using VMware Fusion on MacOS or VMWare Workstation on Windows and Linux.

But if you use Linux I would suggest using KVM/QEMU and on Windows, Hyper-V.

You can use Vagrant with both KVM and Hyper-V.

I can't use Windows boxes with Vagrant on Linux. It doesn't seem to work that great.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#163

Post by MonaroVXR »

Dunedan wrote: post #147
boulos wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you run on now? My worry is that while Apple is continually making their machines less and less useful for development (meaning macOS as an environment), that the Linux laptop story remains bad even on the Dell “Ubuntu Certified” machines or the Lenovo line of newer Thinkpads. I think this means I’m resigned to “No, I would rather ssh to a Linux workstation” because I want to spend ~0 hours per year fighting…

I use a ThinkPad now and I can't complain about missing hardware support. Something which feels almost magical to me is that Lenovo supports Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVDS) [1] which means you can issue a simple "fwupdmgr get-updates && fwupdmgr update" and reboot and you got the latest firmware updates for your machine. That's completely unthinkable with MacBooks as firmware updates come bundled with macOS upda…

Linux user on ThinkPad here, I believe the firmware upgrade system is only for the higher-end ThinkPads.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#164

Post by Sangeppato »

microtonal wrote: post #102
scarface74 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t either and besides the Mac, I’m fully onboard with the Apple ecosystem - iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods Pro, and an AppleTV 4K. I bought Macs way back in the day - my last one was a 2006 Mac Mini to use as an HTPC. But every time I get ready to buy a computer, Macs don’t seem to have any advantage. I would be installing the same software I use for Windows - Chrome, Visual Studio Code and various language…

I can buy a Dell a lot cheaper - of course from the MS store to avoid all of the crapware - and have more options. A while ago I installed a pristine Windows 10 (retail) copy on my NUC, just to see where Windows is at. I'll skip the Candy Crash Saga criticism. But I was really surprised that besides the drivers, it also auto-installed some crappy RealTek application and some crappy Intel application (for tweaking GPU…

Many drivers come with crap bundle apps with stupid behaviour.

My previous Windows laptop had a super annoying constant display flickering, even on a fresh installation.

After months, I learned that I had to disable "auto-resfresh display" (or something similar) that in an Intel app because it was enabled by default (and re-enabled after every major update). Compared to macOS/Gnome, I think that Windows shows poor taste in many aspects

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#165

Post by thomaslord »

bitwize wrote: post #141
0xff00ffee wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your reading skills are atrocious. > ... not a scroll+button. Unix/X middle click paste is a feature I sorely miss on macOS and Windows.

Middle-click paste is one of X's many usability fails, especially since it's a convention adopted by no other UI. All the rest assume a max of 2 essential buttons. Command-C and Command-V are just so much better. Learn to love them.

I don't know the implementation details behind this, but it also seems to me that Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V has a separate clipboard while middle-click-to-paste pastes whatever is selected. Makes no sense to me but I've tried to Ctrl-C / middle click and had issues before. Just one more thing that makes it worse.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#166

Post by veidr »

MonaroVXR wrote: post #159
veidr wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, absolutely virtualization works so much better. In fact you can boot Mac and run VMWare Fusion, or boot into Windows 10 and use either Windows Subsystem for Linux or VMWare Workstation, and you will have a pretty great experience with Linux. OTOH if you try to install Linux on any recent MacBook Pro, you are in for hours and hours of googling weird shit with like only 2 comments on forums you have never heard of…

Wait a minute, I can run Windows, MacOS and Linux on the same machine with VMware Workstation. I run MacOS in a VM. The same goes for Linux and Windows. So you don't need a MacBook or an iMac to run MacOS.

Totally possible, yes. But, in my experience the Mac's OS updates break things fairly often, and running macOS on non-Mac hardware isn't supported or well-tested by VMWare.

But it might be worth it, depending what you need to do.. I tend to do my actual work writing code and on the Mac side, even if the code is running on Linux, so for me it makes sense to keep the Mac experience the native one.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#167

Post by 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 »

yadco wrote: post #154
3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #87

> Using Etcher to create bootable USB drive. For such a technical post, I’m surprised this is the recommendation. There are a million ways to copy the iso to the usb drive and make it bootable. The easiest in my opinion is: cat Ubuntu.iso > /dev/disk

And then overwrite your operating system. The main feature of etcher is that you can burn an operating system without worrying that you could brick your machine.

Good point, but at least in Mac I don’t think you can easily write like that to a partitioned device that’s still mounted.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#168

Post by Dunedan »

MonaroVXR wrote: post #163
Dunedan wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a ThinkPad now and I can't complain about missing hardware support. Something which feels almost magical to me is that Lenovo supports Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVDS) [1] which means you can issue a simple "fwupdmgr get-updates && fwupdmgr update" and reboot and you got the latest firmware updates for your machine. That's completely unthinkable with MacBooks as firmware updates come bundled with macOS upda…

Linux user on ThinkPad here, I believe the firmware upgrade system is only for the higher-end ThinkPads.

I'm not sure what you consider "higher-end", but the list of supported devices is pretty long: https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devices/#lenovo_thinkpad

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#169

Post by Dunedan »

mindfulhack wrote: post #157
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 can see it's been a long and slow painful journey of getting it to work on modern MBPs, and I want to thank you for the consistent work you've put into this quest which many of us are following and benefiting from. I've seen that github go from quite a hopeless situation, to a surprisingly complete amount of things working, under your watch. I do agree with your assessment that the ARM future isn't looking good, bu…

> I urge you to put a clear message at the top of the github about your current status of involvement. It may encourage others to step up and take the reins for a while? You've done an amazing job, maybe a break is in order!

No worries, I'm still accepting PRs and occasionally moderate discussions when they are in need of moderation.

Re: Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on MacBookPro14,1

#170

Post by Dunedan »

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…

> I envy your knowledge and ambition. What you've done is beyond my capabilities.

I mostly did just coordination and verification. The only code I contributed are very small workarounds for the NVMe controller and webcam. Nothing noteworthy. The serious work of reverse engineering and implementing custom drivers was done by others which are to be applauded much more!

There is one person I want to point out in particular and that's roadrunner2 [1] who took the existing input driver for the 12" Retina MacBook and not just made it work with the MacBook Pro's, but also implemented support for the TouchBar and ambient light sensor. As this driver is based solely on reverse-engineered workings of the input system and Apple does very unique stuff there this was so much effort. Including very subtle, but surprising bugs (e.g. [2]) which could've easily avoided if documentation would've been available.

roadrunner2 is also the one to applaud for bringing the support for keyboard and touchpad to mainline Linux. As that not just required an input driver, but also touched other subsystems and required serious refactorings that was quite an achievement as well and is the reason keyboard and touchpad even work out of the box after booting a Linux distribution nowadays (although it's still not perfect as some distributions don't enable the applespi driver yet).

[1]: https://github.com/roadrunner2/macbook12-spi-driver [2]: https://github.com/cb22/macbook12-spi-driver/issues/53

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