[TynesideLUG] Converting Macbooks to Linux boxes - A guide that I copied from Facebook.

[Ian Bruntlett]

Well, here it is...

*Converting Macbooks to Linux boxes.*
Spotted on Facebook, 14th March 2025
Linux Fans Group
*Nota Rockefeller*  ·
Spdoetosnr8l4lmuga305ta594lfmicl699gfc1cf906m3l6fh30lcc340g0  ·

Something I wrote for others who might be interested in converting obsolete
Macbooks to Linux boxes.

Yeah, it's long.

For the last decade or so I’ve been converting obsolete Macbook Pros and
Airs to Linux. I just find those Apple products to be better built than
most Windows counterparts.

Unfortunately, Apple since 2017 has all but locked down their laptops with
M series processors and/or T2 chip technology.

For those who are wondering, the M series chips replaced Intel and earlier
Apple series versions, while T2 is a lockdown protocol.

What exactly is the T2 chip and protocol?

With Apple going to the Intel based chips (and eventually back out) I guess
it soon became apparent users were doing funky things with their computers,
including blowing off OS X for Linux. Then again, some users were even
turning their Windows computers into HackIntoshes if the specs were
allowable for such (since Apple utilized Intel chips that were often found
in Windows computers, this wasn’t too hard).

So, starting in 2017 Apple introduced the T2 protocol which, in essence,
means you get to use OS X for a certain number of years (around 8 or so)
after which your laptop becomes obsolete and no longer updated. It’ll still
work but the OS will no longer be updated and you may become susceptible to
security issues.

To that end they went to proprietary drivers guaranteeing attempts to load
Linux or anything else in lieu of OS X will be downright difficult or
impossible. Doesn’t matter that the OS is no longer supported and possibly
full of security holes as a result, you can’t do diddly.

And just in case you didn’t understand that, Apple even flatly refuses to
release any of the drivers for anything other than OS X.

Take my word for it, Apple did a good job. I recently was asked to convert
a 2018 Macbook Pro. That didn’t end well, as nothing short of the screen
worked. No keyboard, touchpad, camera, wifi or audio.

What of T2 Linux? It’s touted as being the cure for installing Linux on
post 2017 Macbooks, but it’s limited to Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch Linux
offerings. All great in their own ways, but not what I’m after.

Not helping matters, the website (t2linux.org) admits things like Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, keyboards, cameras and audio might not cooperate. They even
recommend dual-booting OS X and Linux so the latter can borrow drivers from
the former to work.

Well, considering that 75% of your laptop might not work, that does present
issues, most of which are not easy to overcome. Forget help from Apple,
they don’t want to hear about your woes running Linux and why would you
want to have a dual boot option when OS X is *kaput*?

Sounds like too much of a hassle to me and I prefer simple over labor
intensive.

So, that leaves me (and us) with pre-T2 Macbooks and that includes models
from 2008 to early 2017.

Why not pre-2008 models? Well, they are dangerously close to 20 years old
and most of those laptops were made from a polycarbonate that didn’t age
well. Add archaic specs and you get the picture. Sure, you can do a Linux
conversion but the results may be somewhat lethargic, not to mention any
Linux variation out there today has drivers that probably far surpass
anything Apple offered back then.

Of course, internal components have been upgraded over the years with more
RAM, faster processors, bigger SSD capacities, brighter screens and
upgraded other gizmos. You can find a wide variety of used Macbooks ranging
from 4 GB RAM on up to 32+ GB and SSD capacities going from 128 GB or
whatever the processor or OS can handle.

And there are deals aplenty. I recently scored a 2014 Macbook Air 13 from a
Maine school district that had some in surplus storage they hadn’t used in
years. The unit had been stored for so long, the security tag (allegedly
applied with tamper resistant adhesive) just fell off when I lifted a
corner.

Other than a curious spot of white paint on one key, it was nearly perfect.
Good battery (still original but at 85% - go figure), 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD,
i5 processor and a pristine screen. It came with OS X Catalina and that was
discontinued in 2020 and the original magnetic charger.

All that for $69, and that included $10 for shipping. Not bad for a unit
that retailed for $999 back in 2014.

Upon checking, I found out support for this Macbook expired about 5 years
ago, but I don’t care about the OS - it was going bye-bye away.

For my experiment I decided on Linux Mint Debian Edition, aka LMDE. It has
a large user community since it’s based on Debian stable, and has the Mint
groups to back it up, too.

Here is where a word of caution comes into play. Any Linux version you
choose should come with a live mode. If not, go elsewhere for now.

Why? Live mode allows you to see what works and what fails. In brief, I
found that everything worked on my Macbook except for the camera. No great
biggie, that’s what USB webcams are for.

Still a little shaky about committing to Linux or OS X? If you’re
converting your prized 10 year old Macbook but want to have something in
case failure looms, do a USB backup.

And while on that topic, sign out of your iTunes and Mac store accounts, if
you opted to sign in on your Macbook. If you don’t sign out, they’ll remain
in limbo forever or until you manually go to the websites and discontinue
those items.

Of course, you don’t need to worry about these on a used Macbook you’re
converting immediately after purchase.

And what if all fails and you’ve just blanked out your MacBook? No sweat,
scroll down to the end of this document for the key command to reinstall OS
X via the internet.

Note: At this point I’ll take for granted your Macbook is up and running
and plugged in. Don’t trust batteries to carry you through the process,
especially on an older model.

Note 2: SSD a bit on the smallish side? Do an upgrade before you commit or
you’ll be repeating yourself (hint, eBay has a boatload of larger SSDs just
for MacBooks).

Note 3: RAM at 4 GB and you prefer more? You might be out of luck as Apple
went to soldered RAM in 2012. Sorry about that.

Want to save time with your new (used) Macbook purchase? Boot to make sure
the POST works and you get a screen with something on it, but don’t sign
in. For this experiment you’ll just be wasting time. Once you’re sure it
boots, turn it back off.

Why? Because, if you sign in you’ve just registered that laptop to you and
you’ll have to deregister it (read a couple paragraphs up).

Ah, but here’s the issue. You need a premade, bootable, USB with a Linux
iso image on it.

If you have access to another computer, download the iso image there and
burn it using Etcher (*https://etcher.balena.io/
<https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fetcher.balena.io%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1fwHRdrLGyOB04fal7I1GTMdgABpTtJBbFwQZsiAQ_6SdRv-raDFSeMV8_aem_GWxh1shFxMBOHfz5Rvmflg&h=AT2kwzUJrPPx2esNjxO4EHHGOk3IsatfR_bvV8KN_qPoITe9oPsc9F3U2YnBRAD8n0prz_0_nKlPdRLym1A7ft2H2pK5hqg_wjf7s4lNL7S5OTrI3FrFCVMy4p-Ud4q2AertgCAsdoff&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT0CQNHaFE_JJ8NBNoUVqdgKqPFkKjsHceHizHuP07HbiWyEVslQVqZ5aSF4Tz77OeZWxXbuP-oYcOp_TtsbQvXkiEzF1qH1pgH6iq73KTRc9pj4Q63wwmF0T3_xSJ6ZPc3nj_LKF4crfnN49vm1LIbONUEClX2JAPHqhgj8LOFqeO_AD8cvBGn81CuiHxx0xFkZxA6LdnTFggv1CUHYtF94DbBOUmoYwywz71YVc9UO-RSC4Y9tkQMTs9L2nEw>*)
to a USB drive (see below).

As a final option, you can buy USB drives on eBay or Amazon that contain
one or more iso images, generally under $20 (just make sure they’re not
peddling outdated variations).

Got a USB mouse? Good, use it. If for some screwball reason your trackpad
doesn’t work you’ll need it. Bluetooth mouse? Forget it. Once in Linux mode
you’ll have to establish a connection again and how well will that work if
your trackpad is wonky?

A couple warnings here:

* Macbooks have no issues finding USB drives but sometimes don’t take
kindly to SD cards. Don’t know why and it’s a hit or miss issue, so just go
with USB.Pre-C USB drives, please. Chances are if you’re dealing with an
older Macbook it won’t even have a USB-C port anyway. For unknown reasons,
I’ve had a great percentage of failures-to-boot using USB-C drives.

* Using a USB hub? Don’t. Simple enough. Your Macbook may or may not read
that USB connected that way.

Now onto the biggest part of this operation:

1. If your Macbook is on, turn it off and then plug in the USB drive.

2. While depressing the Option key, turn the power back on. You’ll see the
white Apple logo along with the line slowly creeping from left to right.
You can release the Option key now.

3. It may take a few seconds but you’ll get a screen that shows your Mac’s
main drive and one marked EFI. Using the arrow keys go to the EFI symbol.

See two EFI symbols? Just pick the first one. Have never been able to
ascertain the reason Macs occasionally ghost those symbols.

And what happens if you pick the second image? Generally nothing, in my
experience.

4. It may take a short while (a minute, tops) you’ll be given the option to
test the Linux OS (live mode) or install. Go with test or live mode first.

Within another minute or so, you should see your Linux welcome screen.
Don’t be scared away by a blank screen during the process, it’ll get there.

6. After booting to Linux, test your wireless, keyboard and screen. Audio
should be tested, too. Go ahead and try the camera, but my tests showed
that no webcam app worked and my guess is Apple utilizes a proprietary
driver there.

Note: There are plenty of websites advising conversion users to enter a
bunch of code to get the camera to work. Not one has worked for me, yet,
but go ahead and try if you like; however, do realize anything you do in
live mode disappears once that mode is discontinued.

And, no, Cheese (a webcam app) does not work. Come to think of it, I don’t
think it has worked in a while.

7. Once you’re satisfied you can go for the full install. For the most
part, just follow instructions and surrender the whole hard drive to Linux.
Attempting a dual boot with OS X is fraught with disaster, especially if
that version of OS X is obsolete.

If all goes well, you should have a Macbook that is now a Linux Box, but do
remember there is a period of adjustment.

For example, my boot up procedure asks me what OS I want to boot to even
though there is just one offering. All I have to do is hit the enter key or
wait 30 seconds for it to auto-boot. I understand there is a workaround for
this, but I’m in no hurry.

And the webcam, like I stated earlier, doesn’t work. Maybe now I’ll stop
getting those fake emails stating somebody has videotaped me via my webcam
pleasuring myself (come to think of it, since webcams focus on the face,
how would they know what I’m doing down there anyway?).

Go ahead and tinker with it. You will probably be surprised just how much
faster Linux operates compared to an old version of OS X.

Plus you saved $900 or more!

Weird goings on to be aware of:

* Got dead pixels, scratchy sound and a trackpad that won’t work in OS X?
Linux won’t cure any of those. Have realistic expectations. Linux will,
however, generally speed up an old Mac laptop.

* Battery giving a notice to replace? Not a big problem, batteries abound
for these laptops and installation videos are commonplace. I’ve gotten so
used to installing batteries it takes me maybe 20 minutes.

* Nearly any Linux variation should work; however, some are better than
others. Unfortunately, you don’t know until you try.

* Unlike years past where it was a guarantee that the sleep function (lid
closing) wouldn’t work, it does work now. I haven’t had a failure to wake
up in a while.

* You may notice battery life is greatly diminished in the beginning;
however, give it time. Eventually your Linux OS will stabilize and give a
longer reading; however, don’t expect miracles. Your battery is not going
to suddenly rejuvenate itself if it was ailing to begin with.

* Got your iso image directly from the Linux website? You’ll probably have
a 500 GB update waiting in the wings. Got it from somewhere else? Double
that figure. Using that iso image from 2020? Good luck. In case you forgot,
it's the same with Windows or OS X, too.

* Now that you’ve got Linux on your laptop you got rid of that annoying
bong at startup, right? Wrong. It’s baked into the Mac’s boot protocol, or
POST procedure. If it really bothers you, you’ll have to remove it via
terminal commands, but why bother? It’s merely there to let you know that
all is well in the background. Besides, snobs will think you’re running OS
X.

* Having second thoughts? You can go back to OS X by shutting down, holding
the Command and R keys down, and hitting the power button. If all goes
well, it’ll reinstall the last known working OS X version for your laptop.
Since it does this via the internet, it can be slow going, but it does
work. Or, if you made a backup, just boot from that using the Option key
setup mentioned above.

* Does this work on Mac Minis and iMacs? Yes, but only if your mouse and
keyboard are wired or you have USB dongles to handle the wireless
responsibilities. Keep in mind that bluetooth will be disconnected during
the conversion process and there goes those peripherals. This is important
since Apple often shipped bluetooth keyboards and mice with their computers
ordered directly from them.

* What about the pre-2018 Mac Pros, the ones that look like trash cans?
Originally $3,000 to $10,000, these came with some really jacked up specs.
Unfortunately, they came with a bad reputation, too, for not being as
upgradeable as some liked. Good thing for you, though. They can be had for
around $400 or less on eBay although you will have to provide a monitor,
keyboard and mouse. Just keep in mind these were often used for strenuous
video and audio producing so they may show substantial wear.

Have fun!