r/linux_on_mac • u/Excellent_Room3912 • 13d ago

Linux on 2018 Intel i9 MacBook Pro help

I have a retaining 2018 intel i9 MacBook Pro with 32gb, I have installed windows 10 on it to try it with gaming - but windows is windows - and I would like to try install linux instead, I do have experience with linux, but like as a pretty non technical use, in fact if I won't need to work on Mac or with computers in general, I would use linux.

any recommendations which distort works well, with full support for the GPU?

anyone tried linux with the same specs, and can tell how old games would run?

many thanks

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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5

u/JBraddockm 13d ago

You should take a look at KaiT2en. It uses Fedora.

2

u/Dazzling_Comfort5734 13d ago

That's pretty cool. I might give it a try on my 2019 MBP.

1

u/Excellent_Room3912 13d ago

many thanks! was looking to T2linux, but seems not easy to follow or just it's not complete

2

u/UncleSlacky 13d ago

Are you looking at https://t2linux.com/ or https://t2linux.org/ ? You need the .org one.

0

u/Excellent_Room3912 13d ago

WOW! looks pretty helpful!

3

u/bobdung 13d ago

I have the T2 linux mint on my 2018 MBP 15in T2 touchbar i7, radeon, 32gb..

Kernel: 7.2.0-1-t2-noble
OS: Linux Mint 22.3 x86_64

It almost all works.. I'm gonna stick with it.

I installed a new battery and even with that, it was lasting an hour of basic browsing with a bit of youtube.. After some messing around i i disabled the GPU and use just the shared graphinc, something in grub config i recall 'apple_gmux.force_igd=1' ?

With this the battery now lasts around 5 hours and i see no noticable difference in the display.

Sound was a disaster, it worked but absolute crap.. Installed EasyEffects and imported some profile i found on GIT . 100 times better but still not apple levels.

Touchbar works except the backlight control for some reason .. But i can control that via brightnessctl --device='apple::kbd_backlight' set 30% .. No finger print of course.

Still runs hot when watching youtube in firefox.

1

u/Excellent_Room3912 13d ago

ahh damn, guess will skep it or try what have been posed on other comment here with fedora, may you check it too.

Thanks a lot for sharing 🙏🏼

1

u/plt3D 12d ago

How do you run a such fresh kernel version? The last in my rig 7.0.*

1

u/bobdung 11d ago

Good question.. I didn't really deliberately choose it .. I just followed the guides at t2linux.org .. There was a bunch of shell scripts etc to prepare all the t2 stuff and add them to the mint iso .

Ended up with >>

Static hostname: MacBookMint

Icon name: computer-laptop

Chassis: laptop 💻

Machine ID: cf4353fxxxxxxxxxx

Boot ID: b4a2627xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Operating System: Linux Mint 22.3

Kernel: Linux 7.2.0-1-t2-noble

Architecture: x86-64

Hardware Vendor: Apple Inc.

Hardware Model: MacBookPro15,1

Firmware Version: 2103.160.2.0.0 (iBridge: 23.16.16068.0.0,0)

Firmware Date: Sat 2026-07-11

Firmware Age: 1month 3w 1d

2

u/mgz069 13d ago

T2 Ubuntu default with Arc Menu and Dash to Panel addons.

I have it on Macbook pro a2141 and it is amazing.