I installed Ubuntu 20.04 on a secondary internal SSD on my Mac Pro 7,1. Its boots fine from the USB live disk and installs fine. But I could not get it to boot since Grub or ReFind both refused to show up at boot. T2 is no longer an issue since Ubuntu found the drive perfectly. What I do sense is that it could not write the boot loader to the encrypted main disk and hence could not boot.
While writing this message, it just occurred to me that if I disable file vault (potentially unencrypting the disk) and install linux on my Mac Pro 7,1,, it might just be able to install the boot loader and work. I'll try that this weekend.
I tried installing Ubuntu again with Filevault disabled. Got the same "Failed to install grub" error. Then I tried ReFind and it installs with success but I get stuck at the Apple Logo. Even Option booting does not show an available Refind/Ubuntu boot disk. So my assumptions have failed. I would love to have some input on this. It works flawlessly on my MacBook Pro 2018 15". So I am guessing there is something different with the Mac Pro
I have bootcamp installed onto the Mac Pro. And not on the MBP. The GRUB and Refind failed to install on both the second SSD and T2. I even tried Refind manually. I know option boot should just work, and it did on the MBP. Security settings on both Macs were turned off to none.
Last thing I am guessing is since the MBP didn't have bootcamp, maybe the install had success. This is just a lame guess. I will try removing bootcamp and installing linux tomorrow.
totally second that. Virtual box has issues with Catalina. It somehow messed up my network speeds as well.
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Well, I guess, I’ll keep trying. At some point in The future we might have success.
I think T2 is the problem,
Apple clearly say:
T2 does Not allow anything else to Boot.
"Apple T2 Security Chip.
Data on Mac Pro is protected by the Apple T2 Security Chip.
It integrates a Secure Enclave coprocessor and discrete controllers into a single chip.
It also ensures that the lowest levels of software aren’t tampered with
and that only operating system software trusted by Apple loads at startup."
Mac Pro with M2 Ultra combines our most capable Apple silicon yet with PCIe expansion for the ultimate in workstation-class performance.
www.apple.com
Probable Solution:
Don´t use T2 chip.
buy a PCIe to M.2 card from Startech or similar Acme chinese No brand.
x4 PCI Express 3.0 to M.2 PCIe SSD Adapter - M.2 NGFF SSD (NVMe or AHCI) Adapter Card - x4 PCIe Expansion Bay Adapter - Supports 'M'Key M.2 PCIe SSD
www.startech.com
x8 Dual M.2 PCIe SSD Adapter - PCIe 3.0 - PCI Express M.2 SSD Adapter Card - For PCIe NVMe and PCIe AHCI M.2 SSDs - Dual M.2 to PCIe Adapter
www.startech.com
or an eGPU using Thunderbolt3 + the PCIe to M2 card.
Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe M.2 adapter - Chassis + Card
www.startech.com
Razer X Chrome, Sonnet, etc...
eGPU.io
Find the best external GPU enclosure for your needs: hands-on unboxing, in-depth reviews, weekly-updated ranking & comparison, thousands of eGPU builds.
egpu.io
other option is to buy a dual SATA-III 6Gbps card from:
or single SATA from OWC
Accelsior S is the simple solution to add a high speed SATA 6G drive to silver Mac Pro towers otherwise restricted to 3G architecture.
www.owcdigital.com
SATA-III is limited to 600MB/s BUT.... 8TB SATA from Samsung QVO or Micron, is cheaper than 2x4TB M.2
or if you like Both at same time, Speed + Big Size.
buy the dual U.2 PCIe card, the card is cheap, but the U.2 drives are very $$$.
Two U.2 NVMe SSD slots on a PCIe 3.0 x16 card. Add your own U.2 SSDs for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
www.sonnettech.com
if you want 4x M.2
Four M.2 NVMe SSD slots on a PCIe 3.0 x16 card. Silent operation. Add your own ultra-fast SSDs for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
www.sonnettech.com
OWC
The ultimate performance drive for Mac Pro and PC towers. Achieve speeds over 6,000MB/s, and store up to 8TB of high-resolution footage, photos, and games.
www.owcdigital.com
if want 8x M.2 PCIe 4.0
SSD7500 Series
www.highpoint-tech.com
OWC
The fastest drive available for 2019-current Mac Pro or Windows computers with up to 8 SSD storage capacity performing at up to 26,926 MB/s speeds.
www.owcdigital.com
or
PCIe 3.0
SSD7140A is an 8-port M.2 NVMe RAID Controller, no bifurcation, standalone solution, with dedicated PCIe 3.0 x16 to deliver up to 14,000MB/s of transfer speed.
www.highpoint-tech.com
#2.
if that does Not work,
also needs to install OpenCore Bootloader
and replace Apple SMBios from 7,1 to MacPro6,1 2013 or MacPro5,1 2010
Apple SMBios/EFI is closed and does Not allow to Boot older Genuine Apple OSX,
MacPro 7,1 should be able to boot OSX SnowLeopard 10.6.8 that has Rosetta v1 PowerPC G4 CPU emulator designed for Intel CPU x86.
but No...
Apple locks SMBios, usually gives Forbiden logo.
MP7,1 does Not allow to Boot anything older than OSX Mojave 10.14.6,
MacPro6,1 oldest OSX is Mavericks 10.9.5
MacPro5,1 2012 OSX Lion 10.7.
MacPro5,1 2010 OSX SnowLeopard 10.6.8
Press Apple+V or Ctrl+V or Alt+V or Option+V to show Boot Text Verbose, & see the Actual Error.
take a photo of the Screen Text.
