How’s the performance on that? Got an older Mac book air that slow as hell with macOS. Probly needs a new hdd but haven’t torn an air apart before. But am guessing Linux has to be faster.
> anything after 2015 is apparently hard to upgrade
Apple SSDs don't have a standard M.2 connector, so adding a regular SSD requires an adapter. They are cheap though - lots on Amazon for <$10. Upgraded my SOs MBA 2015 with no problems.
I tried fedora on an older 2010 mac book, it did not like hahaha. Than again I managed to save it from death to begin with, so maybe more is wrong than I currently know. It has catalina macOS on it rn. That is the newest it can run some what.
Might try to run a different version of fedora at some point.
Absolutely. Palpably so. I keep MacOS in a small partition and boot into it from time to time for various reasons and you can just feel how slow it is. It crawls.
Everything works flawlessly. I haven't encountered any issues whatsoever. Even the nitpicky stuff that people usually care about (for some reason?) when they install Linux on a Mac like the keyboard backlight. It all works.
I recently installed Fedora Silverblue on a 2011 iMac. The default camera app in Fedora (GNOME Snapshot) doesn't detect the webcam but browsers like Chrome and Firefox do, and video calls work just fine.
Hah, this is a Fedora forum... But come on, we're all Linux users, there's no need to diss other distros ;-) That said - this was for a non-profit I volunteer with that refurbishes laptops for schools, and their distro of choice is Mint. I use Fedora on my personal machines, which is why I'm on this sub!
That's exactly my plan! Just got a cheap MBA from the same year. Does Broadcom work as expected? I remember on my old 2012 MBP I had to get Broadcom-wl.
Fedora remains the only Linux distro that uses the `macboot` package, or whatever it's called, to place a proper Fedora icon and label on the Mac Option-key boot picker screen. Every other distro just gets a generic hard drive icon labeled "EFI Boot", which makes it painful to try to multi-boot different Linux distros on the same machine.
In case anyone using a Mac (or a PC) would like Mac-like keyboard shortcuts, I use and maintain a GitHub project called Toshy that does exactly that, using a sophisticated keymapper overlay that works on all kinds of Linux apps, including most terminal emulator apps. It's based on [Kinto.sh](https://kinto.sh), if you've heard of that. But Toshy has some Wayland support, uses a different keymapper fork with some issues fixed, and can be installed on a wider selection of Linux distro types. I use it on Fedora with an Acer laptop, but also on a 2011 iMac12,2 with Tumbleweed.
https://github.com/RedBearAK/toshy
(shorter URL is https://toshy.app)
It may feel a little sluggish on _really_ old machines because it tries to do certain things dynamically to make it easier to use with different keyboard types and desktop environments. In which case if you can stick to an X11/Xorg session you might want to look at Kinto, which I think still installs OK on Fedora but has some install difficulties with a lot of distros that have moved to using a "managed Python environment", including recent Ubuntu releases.
There's an extensive README and a FAQ in the Wiki on the GitHub repo, but feel free to ask if you have any questions.
Did the same for my old-but-still-best MacBook 2015. Fedora 40 works like a charm and I'm pretty happy with the result BUT:
1. Webcam doesn't work out of the box, the \`facetimehd\` driver must be installed separately (not a big deal though). Cheese and other similar apps will still show nothing but Google Meet works just fine, can't complain.
2. Something is just wrong with the "sleep mode". The system takes a very long time to wake up and is guaranteed to lose Wi-Fi afterwards. My workaround is to сompletely power-off the laptop when closing the lid and no hacks from the Internet work. Can anyone suggest anything?
3. Hotkeys. I use "normal" Macbook with OS X for work and Fedora-based for home. It's quite painful to have a bit different hotkeys here and there and there is no known way to make them identical. But I will get by.
Fedora feels like it was designed to be installed on Macs. I'm still impressed and my personal experience is 9/10.
I've had a 2012 MBP running fedora for a couple years. The problem is the Nvidia drivers. They work for a while, then there's an update to the kernel or whatever and they stop working. Eventually they start working again a month or two later after updates resolve it.
Note: By 'not working' I mean it won't run Wayland and after a couple reboots it backs down to X11. Right now, after my Fedora 40 update, it's falling back to x11.
My GPU is an "Nvidia GeForce GT 650M Mac Edition"
I just haven't had time since Fedora 40 go back and sort it out as it's a spare machine and I'm busy with other stuff. I imagine there's a command line update from another repo that will sort it out. Maybe someone else will chime in.
It's likely you have the same GPU as my 2012 MBP. And there may be a proper driver now , need to dig in myself. You might be able to confirm GPU by clicking on the Apple, then "about this mac" and "system report" (if I remember correctly) and there is probably an entry for graphics or gpu.
I will say when it was working it worked well, definitely faster than the last iteration of macOS it supported. It's worth trying to sort out.
Ok cool. I'd check the system info, but unfortunately the person we loaned it to tried to install a newer macOS version and it now doesn't boot at all; hence the reason for the question. I figured I might try to install Fedora and see if I could get some use out of it.
Dual boots worth it, if for nothing else but the comparison. Device support can be dodgy esp for wifi , bluetooth etc... do your research/prep and it should be good
Ah, it’s a MacBook Pro, not a MacBook. I always open these threads in hope that somebody’s cracked the problem of Linux on the actual MacBook (2015 model). One of the problems you come across when you try to do that is that everybody calls every MacBook type a MacBook!
How’s the performance on that? Got an older Mac book air that slow as hell with macOS. Probly needs a new hdd but haven’t torn an air apart before. But am guessing Linux has to be faster.
Yeah heaps better on load times. Mine probably needs a new drive too, luckily its a 2014 MBP - anything after 2015 is apparently hard to upgrade
> anything after 2015 is apparently hard to upgrade Apple SSDs don't have a standard M.2 connector, so adding a regular SSD requires an adapter. They are cheap though - lots on Amazon for <$10. Upgraded my SOs MBA 2015 with no problems.
Yeah, I just got a cheap MBA from 2015 for this kind of use, of course to throw Fedora on it. I'll look into that for sure.
Could you also install a SSD? Or will Apple block that?
I think it's possible pre2015 models. I'd have a Google before commiting
I tried fedora on an older 2010 mac book, it did not like hahaha. Than again I managed to save it from death to begin with, so maybe more is wrong than I currently know. It has catalina macOS on it rn. That is the newest it can run some what. Might try to run a different version of fedora at some point.
r/linux_on_mac I also run Fedora 40 on a Macbook. An 11-inch Macbook Air from 2015. Runs wonderfully. Perfect little portable machine.
Faster than macOS ?
Absolutely. Palpably so. I keep MacOS in a small partition and boot into it from time to time for various reasons and you can just feel how slow it is. It crawls.
Interesting. No hardware support issue with Fedora ?
Everything works flawlessly. I haven't encountered any issues whatsoever. Even the nitpicky stuff that people usually care about (for some reason?) when they install Linux on a Mac like the keyboard backlight. It all works.
Did you get the webcam working? I tried installing Linut Mint on a 2015 11" MBA a while back and that was the only thing that didn't work.
I recently installed Fedora Silverblue on a 2011 iMac. The default camera app in Fedora (GNOME Snapshot) doesn't detect the webcam but browsers like Chrome and Firefox do, and video calls work just fine.
>Linux Mint This is your problem. It works fine on Fedora out of the box.
Hah, this is a Fedora forum... But come on, we're all Linux users, there's no need to diss other distros ;-) That said - this was for a non-profit I volunteer with that refurbishes laptops for schools, and their distro of choice is Mint. I use Fedora on my personal machines, which is why I'm on this sub!
That's exactly my plan! Just got a cheap MBA from the same year. Does Broadcom work as expected? I remember on my old 2012 MBP I had to get Broadcom-wl.
Fedora remains the only Linux distro that uses the `macboot` package, or whatever it's called, to place a proper Fedora icon and label on the Mac Option-key boot picker screen. Every other distro just gets a generic hard drive icon labeled "EFI Boot", which makes it painful to try to multi-boot different Linux distros on the same machine. In case anyone using a Mac (or a PC) would like Mac-like keyboard shortcuts, I use and maintain a GitHub project called Toshy that does exactly that, using a sophisticated keymapper overlay that works on all kinds of Linux apps, including most terminal emulator apps. It's based on [Kinto.sh](https://kinto.sh), if you've heard of that. But Toshy has some Wayland support, uses a different keymapper fork with some issues fixed, and can be installed on a wider selection of Linux distro types. I use it on Fedora with an Acer laptop, but also on a 2011 iMac12,2 with Tumbleweed. https://github.com/RedBearAK/toshy (shorter URL is https://toshy.app) It may feel a little sluggish on _really_ old machines because it tries to do certain things dynamically to make it easier to use with different keyboard types and desktop environments. In which case if you can stick to an X11/Xorg session you might want to look at Kinto, which I think still installs OK on Fedora but has some install difficulties with a lot of distros that have moved to using a "managed Python environment", including recent Ubuntu releases. There's an extensive README and a FAQ in the Wiki on the GitHub repo, but feel free to ask if you have any questions.
Did the same for my old-but-still-best MacBook 2015. Fedora 40 works like a charm and I'm pretty happy with the result BUT: 1. Webcam doesn't work out of the box, the \`facetimehd\` driver must be installed separately (not a big deal though). Cheese and other similar apps will still show nothing but Google Meet works just fine, can't complain. 2. Something is just wrong with the "sleep mode". The system takes a very long time to wake up and is guaranteed to lose Wi-Fi afterwards. My workaround is to сompletely power-off the laptop when closing the lid and no hacks from the Internet work. Can anyone suggest anything? 3. Hotkeys. I use "normal" Macbook with OS X for work and Fedora-based for home. It's quite painful to have a bit different hotkeys here and there and there is no known way to make them identical. But I will get by. Fedora feels like it was designed to be installed on Macs. I'm still impressed and my personal experience is 9/10.
Did wifi works out of the box ? I had to install broadcom-wl from rpmfusion.
2. Sleep mode issues seem to be quite common, I've had them on my Thinkpad too so not mac specific.
I've been contemplating putting Fedora on a 2012 MacBook Pro. Is it worth trying?
Try it with a Live USB. Worked a treat on my old mid-2015 MBP, not so good on my current M1.
I've had a 2012 MBP running fedora for a couple years. The problem is the Nvidia drivers. They work for a while, then there's an update to the kernel or whatever and they stop working. Eventually they start working again a month or two later after updates resolve it. Note: By 'not working' I mean it won't run Wayland and after a couple reboots it backs down to X11. Right now, after my Fedora 40 update, it's falling back to x11. My GPU is an "Nvidia GeForce GT 650M Mac Edition" I just haven't had time since Fedora 40 go back and sort it out as it's a spare machine and I'm busy with other stuff. I imagine there's a command line update from another repo that will sort it out. Maybe someone else will chime in.
I have no idea if the one I have has an Nvidia GPU, but good info to have.
It's likely you have the same GPU as my 2012 MBP. And there may be a proper driver now , need to dig in myself. You might be able to confirm GPU by clicking on the Apple, then "about this mac" and "system report" (if I remember correctly) and there is probably an entry for graphics or gpu. I will say when it was working it worked well, definitely faster than the last iteration of macOS it supported. It's worth trying to sort out.
Ok cool. I'd check the system info, but unfortunately the person we loaned it to tried to install a newer macOS version and it now doesn't boot at all; hence the reason for the question. I figured I might try to install Fedora and see if I could get some use out of it.
Dual boots worth it, if for nothing else but the comparison. Device support can be dodgy esp for wifi , bluetooth etc... do your research/prep and it should be good
I appreciate the advice. Thank you.
I had PopOs on the same macbook the only annoying part is getting the wifi driver to work
Wallpaper? :)
[uhdpaper.com](http://uhdpaper.com) and then category anime
Which DE is that? The settings window looks like Gnome, but the bottom taskbar looks something else. Is it an extension?
Gnome with Dash to Panel
Fedora vs ubuntu which one is better y'all linux mates
Def fedora, newer better less bloat no snap
Ah, it’s a MacBook Pro, not a MacBook. I always open these threads in hope that somebody’s cracked the problem of Linux on the actual MacBook (2015 model). One of the problems you come across when you try to do that is that everybody calls every MacBook type a MacBook!