[Solved] Advice please re MBP dual boot install

[kdeen]

Perhaps also try the iommu=soft kernel parameter.

I tried appending "iommu=soft noapic nolapic" to linux command line. Result: I get a "BusyBox" shell prompt. But unusable because kb is dead.

I withdraw question about "noapic" vs "noacpi" after finding list of valid kernel parameters.

Even so, I see that "noacpi" is also a valid parameter. So, on a lark, I tried appending "noapic nolapic noacpi". Result: Same BusyBox shell prompt with dead kb.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Right, I've build a custom ISO image that uses the backported kernel & headers: https://github.com/Head-on-a-Stick/newe ... hybrid.iso

SHA512SUM here: https://github.com/Head-on-a-Stick/newe ... /sha512sum

It should boot to a console screen when you select "live" mode and you can check the keyboard from there. I forgot to install the gpm package (so you can test the touchpad from the TTY) but you can do that by using this to connect to the interweb:

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nmtui

And then run

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# apt update
# apt install gpm

If the keyboard & touchpad work with that kernel then reboot and select the installer.

Once the system is installed reboot and use this to select a desktop:

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# tasksel

You'll have to log in as root to do that because I also forgot to include the sudo package.

I'll be making another release shortly to include the sudo & gpm packages so check this page:

https://github.com/Head-on-a-Stick/newe ... r/releases

Click on the "assets" bit to reveal the actual image & sha512sum. As you can see the releases are fully verified with my personal GPG key so if anything goes wrong then you know who to blame

Good luck!

[kdeen]

Thanks! But no joy. I'm going to try Ubunutu Live next. I have reason to think it might work. I also welcome your further suggestions on the Debian front.

That's the short version. Here's the long version:

I downloaded /Users/kdeen/Downloads/buster-backports-10.3.1-amd64.hybrid.iso (your update). I copied it (dd) to USB stick.

I boot Mac while holding down option key. To my surprise, I see THREE boot options: (1) Macintosh HD, (2) EFI Boot, (3) EFI Boot. Both of the EFI Boots take me to a grub (I think it's grub) splash screen showing Build Time 2020-03-28 18:54:48. Beats me why "EFI Boot" appears 2x.

From the grub splash screen I hit Enter. I get a boatload of console messages scrolling by, many saying "[OK]". I did not notice any errors (progress). I land at a command prompt.

Keyboard fails, but failure mode now is different. I press any key, "a" for example, and instead seeing "a" echoed to the screen as I expect, I get a bunch of bluetooth error messages. (Huh? Bluetooth? I am not using Bluetooth!)

Here's why I'm going to try Ubuntu. If all of the statements below are true, then current Ubuntu versions 19.10 and 18.04.4LTS ought to work for me:

"Keyboard & Touchpad Works out of the box with Linux 5.3 and above for MacBookPro13,* and MacBookPro14,*." ( https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-lin ... --touchpad )

"Ubuntu 19.10 includes a new Ubuntu kernel based on Linux 5.3 — and that kernel update will find its way in to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS via the Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE), due later this year. [2019]" ( https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/09/lin ... e-features )

"If you downloaded Ubuntu 18.04.2 or newer desktop version, HWE is enabled for you and you’ll get the new kernel along with the regular updates by default." ( https://itsfoss.com/ubuntu-hwe-kernel/ )

[kdeen]

Update: As I predicted, kb, trackpad, wifi work using Ubuntu Live 18.04.4LTS. No sound, however.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Keyboard fails, but failure mode now is different. I press any key, "a" for example, and instead seeing "a" echoed to the screen as I expect, I get a bunch of bluetooth error messages.

Must be a l10n issue, my images are using the 5.4 kernel.

I'm baking a version with an option in the GRUB menu to select different locales, give me a bit...

[kdeen]

Update: I partitioned my internal SSD, booted to my mostly working Ubuntu Live USB stick, installed Ubuntu, and now I have a dual-boot MBP.

[kdeen]

Must be a l10n issue, my images are using the 5.4 kernel. I'm baking a version with an option in the GRUB menu to select different locales, give me a bit...

Head_on_a_stick - If you do "bake" a new version, I will give it a try. I did want a Debian install, and I am still willing to put more effort into that goal. On the other hand, I can get along fine with Ubuntu. I believe I can configure it to my needs. So, if you choose to abandon the effort, that's ok too ... in that case I'll call this thread closed ...

Either way, THANKS !!!!

[Head_on_a_Stick]

If you do "bake" a new version, I will give it a try

Yes please, that would be fantastic. I'm hoping my images will be of use to others (hence the new link in my signature) so if you could help me by testing them I would be very grateful.

At the moment I'm just working through the bootloader configuration to enable different locales and I've switched to the daily installer build, which should use a newer kernel & initramfs. I'll post back when it's ready.

For now it would be useful for me if you could run these commands in your Ubuntu system and post the full output here:

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uname -a
lspci -knn

Thanks!

[kdeen]

Say what? I can help you in some small wah??? Certainly! Here .you go ...

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kdeen@kdeen-MacBookPro:~$ uname -a
Linux kdeen-MacBookPro 5.3.0-42-generic #34~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 28 13:42:26 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
kdeen@kdeen-MacBookPro:~$ lspci -knn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v6/7th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers [8086:5904] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. Xeon E3-1200 v6/7th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers [106b:0174]
	Kernel driver in use: skl_uncore
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:5926] (rev 06)
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device [106b:0174]
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller [8086:9d2f] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
00:15.0 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 [8086:9d60] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
	Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:15.2 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #2 [8086:9d62] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
	Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 [8086:9d3a] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: mei_me
	Kernel modules: mei_me
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #1 [8086:9d10] (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 [8086:9d14] (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1d.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #9 [8086:9d18] (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1d.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #10 [8086:9d19] (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1e.0 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO UART Controller #0 [8086:9d27] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO UART Controller [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
	Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:1e.3 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO SPI Controller #1 [8086:9d2a] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO SPI Controller [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
	Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation Intel(R) 100 Series Chipset Family LPC Controller/eSPI Controller - 9D4E [8086:9d4e] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
00:1f.2 Memory controller [0580]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC [8086:9d21] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC [8086:7270]
00:1f.3 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio [8086:9d71] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_skl
00:1f.4 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus [8086:9d23] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus [8086:7270]
	Kernel modules: i2c_i801
01:00.0 Mass storage controller [0180]: Apple Inc. S3X NVMe Controller [106b:2003] (rev 12)
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. S3X NVMe Controller [106b:2003]
	Kernel driver in use: nvme
	Kernel modules: nvme
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4350 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a3] (rev 05)
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. BCM4350 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [106b:0170]
	Kernel driver in use: brcmfmac
	Kernel modules: brcmfmac
03:00.0 Multimedia controller [0480]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries 720p FaceTime HD Camera [14e4:1570]
	Subsystem: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries 720p FaceTime HD Camera [14e4:1570]
	Kernel driver in use: bdc-pci
	Kernel modules: bdc_pci
04:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation DSL6540 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge [Alpine Ridge 4C 2015] [8086:1578] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
05:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation JHL6540 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge (C step) [Alpine Ridge 4C 2016] [8086:15d3] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
05:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation JHL6540 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge (C step) [Alpine Ridge 4C 2016] [8086:15d3] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
05:02.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation JHL6540 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge (C step) [Alpine Ridge 4C 2016] [8086:15d3] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
05:04.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation JHL6540 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge (C step) [Alpine Ridge 4C 2016] [8086:15d3] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
06:00.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation JHL6540 Thunderbolt 3 NHI (C step) [Alpine Ridge 4C 2016] [8086:15d2] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation JHL6540 Thunderbolt 3 NHI (C step) [Alpine Ridge 4C 2016] [8086:0000]
	Kernel driver in use: thunderbolt
	Kernel modules: thunderbolt
07:00.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation JHL6540 Thunderbolt 3 USB Controller (C step) [Alpine Ridge 4C 2016] [8086:15d4] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation JHL6540 Thunderbolt 3 USB Controller (C step) [Alpine Ridge 4C 2016] [8086:0000]
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
kdeen@kdeen-MacBookPro:~$ 

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I can help you in some small wah?

Not just me — you're helping the entire community

Here .you go ...

Hmm, interesting. That kernel version is older than the one on my images so perhaps Ubuntu are keeping some fixes to themselves. I hate it when they do that

Anyway, a new build of my image is available here: https://github.com/Head-on-a-Stick/newe ... hybrid.iso

sha512sum: https://github.com/Head-on-a-Stick/newe ... /sha512sum

This one has the daily installer, the backported kernel & headers and a brand new firmware package stolen from stevepusser's AHS repository for MX Linux (thanks Steve!). If you could possibly test it and report back if it works or not with your machine that would be great. TIA.

The non-UEFI boot option has entries for various locales (including Sweden) but that's not working for UEFI booting. Yet.

[kdeen]

OK I tired your 10.3.2. Got a grub screen, hit Enter. Booted to a shell prompt. Same problem as 10.3.1 ... type any key, get Bluetooth error. Though this time there was a delay of a few seconds between keystroke and error message. I write down on paper the first of several errors for you ...

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[   15.729582] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: failed to write update baudrate (-110)

FWIW, below are the commands I used in macOS to write the image to USB stick.

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$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
Unmount of all volumes on disk2 was successful
$ f=$Do/buster-backports-10.3.2-amd64.hybrid.iso
02:05:37 ~ 558 $ sudo dd if=$f of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m
673+0 records in
673+0 records out
705691648 bytes transferred in 169.377942 secs (4166373 bytes/sec)
02:08:43 ~ 559 $ 

[kdeen]

(Ugh. Sorry about inconsistent shell prompts. I edited out the time, $PWD, and bash-history-number of two out of 4 of the shell commands. No good reason. Better I don't edit at all of course!)

[Head_on_a_Stick]

type any key, get Bluetooth error. Though this time there was a delay of a few seconds between keystroke and error message.

That error is completely unrelated to your key presses. To confirm this boot the image and wait a bit, the message will appear even without any user input.

What I need to know is if your key presses are accepted — do you see any letters appear on the screen at all? Can you switch to another TTY with, for example, <alt>+F3?

And is the touchpad detected and accepted? Does dragging your fingers on the touchpad make a moving cursor block appear on the console screen and can you select text by right-click & dragging the cursor and can you then paste the text with a middle-click?

Don't worry about transcribing literal output, I just need a general picture. Thanks.

And when copying the image to a USB stick be sure to run

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sync

after the dd(1) command and before removing the USB stick to ensure that the copy buffers are completely flushed to the stick.

EDIT: managed to get the localisation working in the live environment for both UEFI & non-UEFI booting, version 10.3.3 is now available from the Releases page on my GitHub repository (see my signature for the link).

[kdeen]

That error is completely unrelated to your key presses. To confirm this boot the image and wait a bit, the message will appear even without any user input.

Confirmed.

What I need to know is if your key presses are accepted — do you see any letters appear on the screen at all? Can you switch to another TTY with, for example, <alt>+F3?

mac db does not have Alt key. My google research tells me it's "option" key on my macbook. <option>+F3 does nothing. <any-modifier-key>+F3 does nothing. In fact, any key at all does nothing. No indication of any kind that a key has been pressed.

And is the touchpad detected and accepted? Does dragging your fingers on the touchpad make a moving cursor block appear on the console screen and can you select text by right-click & dragging the cursor and can you then paste the text with a middle-click?

No. Nothing I do on the touchpad has any effect whatsoever.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Okay, Ubuntu must have some fixes they're not passing upstream. What a bunch of twats.

Thanks for testing and my condolences — choosing between OSX & Ubuntu is like choosing between syphilis & gonorrhea...

[kdeen]

Thanks for testing and my condolences — choosing between OSX & Ubuntu is like choosing between syphilis & gonorrhea...

I got a kick out of that, but I disagree. Either one is light years ahead of Windows, esp. for someone like me who ENJOYS to spend most of his day at a CLI haha.

(OTOH, I'm not entiltled to an opinion, if you are implying that the Debian distro is the gold standard. I haven't experienced a Debian install yet.)

Thanks for all your help!