MP 7,1 Trouble installing/booting linux ubuntu

[DrEGPU]

I'm trying to install any debian-based version of linux (ie, Ubuntu) on my Mac Pro 7,1 but am unable. I ran the Ubuntu desktop live-usb one time and managed to get ubuntu mostly installed on a separate nvme drive in a PCIe slot, albeit ruining my windows bootcamp partition on the Apple internal SSD. I deleted the Linux and bootcamp partitions and recreated the bootcamp partition and try to install again without grub this time. Now I get a series of error and the live-usb won't boot. I took some picures on my phone of the what's being reported. I pulled all devices and drives except the ssd on which I want to install linux, the Apple MPX RX580 and a RTX 3090.

I get this before the grub bootloader initializes. Not exactly sure what any of this means, but the errors about not finding /boot or grub_platform are intriguing. Grub does indeed load and I pick Ubuntu, safe mode, etc...

Picking either Ubuntu or Ubuntu(safe) briefly brings this up:

I get several lines of apple-properties stuff and then some readout on device detection. It seems like some kind UEFI troubles here:

The last thing it spits out is the rc-core line before shutting off, ie powering down. Not sure why this is the last thing to be reported, as the monitor has worked just fine with other Linux machines. This is as far as I can get. Any ideas?

 

[DrEGPU]

If you press "e" during the grub menu, you can edit boot parameters. Adding "nomodeset" gets the boot up sequence further, but it gets stuck on "[sda] Attached SCSI." It refers to the USB stick. I tried different usb sticks, including a usb-c stick in one of the TB3 ports, but I still get that error. Any ideas?

 

[DrEGPU]

OK, I gave up on Ubuntu. I tried Arch linux and got it installed on a nvme drive in a PCIe slot but I can't get it to boot. Both grub and systemd throw out an neverending loop error. How do I approach this probem?

 

[startergo]

Don't use grub. Or if you want grub use rEFInd. Otherwise burn the iso with etcher on a USB. That will give you EFI boot.

 

[DrEGPU]

Oh yeah, I only tried grub when systemd failed. Refind doesn’t seem to want to work. The install script isn’t successful. I’m not sure if it’s because the previous owner has upgraded to Big Sur or not. I downgraded it back to Catalina but it made no difference.

what do you mean by burning the iso to usb? I already did that to install arch. I just can’t boot it.

 

[startergo]

Oh yeah, I only tried grub when systemd failed. Refind doesn’t seem to want to work. The install script isn’t successful. I’m not sure if it’s because the previous owner has upgraded to Big Sur or not. I downgraded it back to Catalina but it made no difference.

what do you mean by burning the iso to usb? I already did that to install arch. I just can’t boot it.

Etcher will burn it in EFI mode. No grub involved.

 

[DrEGPU]

Etcher will burn it in EFI mode. No grub involved.

So you mean use the USB EFI to boot the nvme install? I tried using etcher to burn the ISO to the nvme drive on a lark, and it sort of worked. I can choose the EFI partition and it will boot up just fine, but the ISO only creates a tiny partition.

 

[startergo]

You burn the iso on a usb stick. Then you boot from the USB and install Linux on the NVME.

 

[DrEGPU]

Only the arch ISO/USB seems to be able to boot fully. I went through the install steps, and if you read above, neither grub nor systemd seem to work.

 

[startergo]

Sorry, can't help you as I can't test it as I don't have MacPro7,1. RefindPlus works fine on a T2 MacBookPro15,1.

 

[DrEGPU]

There must be something peculiar about my specific MP7,1 because I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere else. I can get the liveUSB of Ubuntu up and running if I use nomodeset and intel_iommu=on for boot parameters. Special thanks to aunali on the Linux on MBP discord for figuring that out.

Now I just have have to figure out how to get grub or some other boot loader to work on this thing...

 

[DrEGPU]

Got Ubuntu and grub working nicely on my Mac Pro. Just have to hold option and select the linux partition and grub boots up normally. You just have to install grub as if your linux partition was an external drive. This way, grub isn't fighting with your Mac's boot loader. I followed this guy's directions. Just scroll down to section D on installing grub. At the end when you actually install grub, make sure to add "--no-nvram" to the install parameters.

I'm not sure if I did something wrong, but the x86_64-efi was missing from grub. Only the i386 was installed. I guess Ubuntu somehow decided to install as legacy instead of UEFI? I installed ubuntu manually without the boot loader by opening a terminal and using "ubiquity -b". If x86_64 is missing, just install grub-efi-amd64 package (ie, sudo apt install...). So stupid...

 

[eunhasu]

Got Ubuntu and grub working nicely on my Mac Pro. Just have to hold option and select the linux partition and grub boots up normally. You just have to install grub as if your linux partition was an external drive. This way, grub isn't fighting with your Mac's boot loader. I followed this guy's directions. Just scroll down to section D on installing grub. At the end when you actually install grub, make sure to add "--no-nvram" to the install parameters.

I'm not sure if I did something wrong, but the x86_64-efi was missing from grub. Only the i386 was installed. I guess Ubuntu somehow decided to install as legacy instead of UEFI? I installed ubuntu manually without the boot loader by opening a terminal and using "ubiquity -b". If x86_64 is missing, just install grub-efi-amd64 package (ie, sudo apt install...). So stupid...

I installed Ubuntu 20.04.2 on my Mac Pro 7,1.
But I can not install wifi and bluetooth drivers.
And I can not use full resolution(6012x3384) of XDR Pro display on Ubuntu 20.04(GPU:AMD Radeon Pro 580x)
Did you install wifi and bluetooth drivers?

 

[DrEGPU]

I installed Ubuntu 20.04.2 on my Mac Pro 7,1.
But I can not install wifi and bluetooth drivers.
And I can not use full resolution(6012x3384) of XDR Pro display on Ubuntu 20.04(GPU:AMD Radeon Pro 580x)
Did you install wifi and bluetooth drivers?

I don’t have an XDR, but I would’ve thought there wouldn’t be a problem.

I use wired Ethernet so I never bothered fiddling with WiFi. Wifi has been tricky with the newer Macs (MacBooks, Mac Pros, etc). Bluetooth should be easier, but I don’t really use Bluetooth. Sorry!

 

[eunhasu]

I don’t have an XDR, but I would’ve thought there wouldn’t be a problem.

I use wired Ethernet so I never bothered fiddling with WiFi. Wifi has been tricky with the newer Macs (MacBooks, Mac Pros, etc). Bluetooth should be easier, but I don’t really use Bluetooth. Sorry!

Thanks

 

[DrEGPU]

I don't mean to state the obvious, but just in case, there are quite a few PCIe WiFi/BT cards you could install in you Mac Pro, if you need it, as well as USB dongles/adapters.

 

[impulse462]

When I tried to install grub on my pcie nvme boot partition I kept getting errors for failure to finish installing ubutnu.

The way I got this working was to install ubuntu normally from the live USB and when the computer boots up, in the grub shell you have to manually point grub to where your linux partition is.

Basically I have grub installed on the Apple SSD and my ubuntu partition on my external nvme drive.

rEFInd never worked when i tried it on the 7,1

 

[DrEGPU]

When I tried to install grub on my pcie nvme boot partition I kept getting errors for failure to finish installing ubutnu.

The way I got this working was to install ubuntu normally from the live USB and when the computer boots up, in the grub shell you have to manually point grub to where your linux partition is.

Basically I have grub installed on the Apple SSD and my ubuntu partition on my external nvme drive.

rEFInd never worked when i tried it on the 7,1

Yes, grub is not smart and quite obstinate. See post #12 above. Ubuntu and grub work well if you install Ubuntu with out a boot loader and then manually install grub to the external drive afterwards using the procedure above.

 

[RChav]

The way I got this working was to install ubuntu normally from the live USB and when the computer boots up, in the grub shell you have to manually point grub to where your linux partition is.

Can you explain a bit more about how you did this? I've been trying to get Linux, macOS, and Windows setup on a fresh install of all three OS's with a Mac Pro 7, 1.

I tried following @DrEGPU 's links above and also continued to get this error:

Unable to install GRUB in /dev/nvme1n1
Executing `grub-install  /dev/nvme1n1` failed.
This is a fatal error.

I've tried using the /dev/nvme1n1 drive as a bootloader, also tried the T2 protected internal at /dev/nvme0n1, but nothing seems to let me boot into Linux. Also can't seem to get a proper setup of rEFInd loaded, and gotta believe I'm just missing something obvious. Any advice?

edit: failed to mention my gut feel is this is somehow APFS container related, do I have to disable even on the Mac partition to run w/ Ubuntu?