Linux considerations

TidBITS Talk
41

Super, thanks. I thought this one was pre-T2 but it in the System Info it is a T2.

42

Indeed:

  • Hardware Overview:

  • Model Name: MacBook Air

  • Model Identifier: MacBookAir9,1

  • Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i7

  • Processor Speed: 1,2 GHz

  • Number of Processors: 1

  • Total Number of Cores: 4

  • L2 Cache (per Core): 512 KB

  • L3 Cache: 8 MB

  • Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled

  • Memory: 16 GB

  • System Firmware Version: 1968.140.7.0.0 (iBridge: 20.16.6072.0.0,0)

  • OS Loader Version: 540.120.3~22

  • Hardware UUID: 3AE910FC-9738-5AD7-BA81-8B8D8208CBFD

  • Provisioning UDID: 3AE910FC-9738-5AD7-BA81-8B8D8208CBFD

  • Activation Lock Status: Enabled

  • Controller Information:

  • Model Name: Apple T2 Security Chip

  • Firmware Version: 20P6072

  • Boot UUID: 7DA65569-80F3-48BA-A480-95FE4730FA0F

Is that the correct info?

Thanks for the other info too. Never got to the point of wifi driver (see additional note below). Couldn’t also figure out how to connect to internet even if I had. I wanted to use home wifi as it has more available data than iPhone. I could have moved the router or sat next to it, but I don’t seem to have an ethernet to USB A adapter to plug into the hub.

One socket has the USB installation stick, the other the hub for mouse and keyboard which have USB A sockets. Oh wait, I have a USB C hub and adapters for A to C! Maybe try that tonight if I get that far. Good to know the size of the download, that amount will be no problem on the iPhone data plan.

43

Attempt at succinct update for those interested:
Last night I was able, with an old USB hub (with a fairly thin connector so it fit in next to the stick) for wired keyboard/mouse, to run both Mint/Cinammon and latest Ubuntu from USB sticks. Decided to install Mint. Tried Disk Utility from Recovery to make a Linux partition. Wouldn’t do it as ‘not all volumes are mounted’ or similar, but when booted normally, DU was able to partition.

Remembered I’d, from Recovery, turned off both options in Startup Security Utility, and had seen online a screen shot (Step 4, point 4) showing only the lower one off to allow booting from externals (though the text next to the shot said both), so mistakenly turned the top one on again. After that the Mac would not boot from either USB stick and would not allow me to turn off the top option again. So now I’m stuck. Maybe the Startup Security settings can’t be changed for 24 hrs or something once they’ve been changed, but the bottom one still allows externals supposedly.