The following document provides an overview about Linux support for Apple's MacBook Pro 2016 and MacBook Pro 2017 models.
The MacBook Pro 2016 shares surprisingly many components with the Retina MacBook (e.g. keyboard and touchpad controller, Wi-Fi and bluetooth chipsets, ...), so figuring out how things work on one device should benefit both device families.
The Apple MacBook Pro 2017 models are nearly identical to their 2016 counterparts, except for the use of newer Intels Kaby Lake processors instead of Intel Skylake processors, faster memory and updated AMD Radeon GPUs in the 15-inch models.
The checks if hardware works below were done with multiple Linux distributions. To state the obvious: The newer the kernel the better. The information below assume that you run Linux 4.13 or newer. If in doubt which kernel to use, the latest significant improvements are part of Linux 4.16.
If you don't know what the model identifier for your MacBook Pro is (as that identifier is used on several occasions below), check https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201300
If you want to contribute to get Linux running smoothly on the MacBook Pro 2016, report all findings how to get devices working as pull requests! All help is appreciated.
There is also a chat available via gitter for discussions:
| Device | Status |
|---|---|
| Audio input & output |  |
| Battery |  |
| Bluetooth | |
| FaceTime HD camera | |
| Graphics card (Intel) | |
| Graphics card (AMD) |   |
| Keyboard & Touchpad | |
| NVMe (internal SSD) | |
| Screen | |
| Suspend & Hibernation | |
| System Management Controller | |
| Thunderbolt | |
| Touch Bar |     |
| Touch ID |     |
| USB | |
| Wi-Fi |   |
Not working, neither the internal speakers/microphone nor the headphone jack.
Alternatively, you can use:
- audio via HDMI
- bluetooth audio (see below)
- an USB-connected audio device like the Apple USB-C to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter
See also:
- https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195671
- https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=110561
- http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2018-November/141942.html
Working fine, including the interface to get current capacity, temperature, etc.
Battery life is still suboptimal, because power saving modes for several devices, like display (panel self refresh), SSD or the Thunderbolt controllers, aren't working yet. You can expected a battery life of less than 4 hours.
Works out of the box with Linux 4.16 and above, except for the models without Touch Bar, which still suffer from a bug and need an additional patch as noted in Dunedan#29 (comment)
Transmitting audio using A2DP is still choppy for unknown reasons, maybe because the Bluetooth support is limited to lower bandwidth applications so far.
For older kernel versions you need to compile a custom kernel with an additional patch set. For details check Dunedan#29
See also:
In the MacBookPro13,1 (without Touch Bar) the FaceTime HD camera is connected
via PCIe, like in previous MacBook Pro's. It's working with the
bcwc_pcie driver.
The models with Touch Bar have the FaceTime HD camera connected through the
iBridge device via USB. They are exposed as regular USB video devices and are
supported by the uvcvideo driver out of the box.
Graphical output using the Intel GPU is working out of the box on the MacBookPro 13,1 and 13,2, without dedicated AMD GPU. For the MacBookPro 13,3 with dedicated AMD GPU, only the AMD GPU is enabled when booting a OS which isn't macOS, so you have to follow the instructions in the following link to enable the integrated Intel GPU, if you want to use it: Dunedan#6 (comment)
Connecting external displays via USB-C-to-DisplayPort cables works fine, including connections with daisy-chaining/MST. An actual tested and working setup includes concurrent output on the internal display and two external displays daisy-chained together with Full HD each.
Works out of the box.
Basic keyboard and touchpad functionality is working with the out-of-tree driver developed for the Retina Macbook (https://github.com/cb22/macbook12-spi-driver).
The Esc and function keys are part of the Touch Bar in all Touch Bar-models, so follow the instructions for the Touch Bar to get it working.
Beside the actual keyboard the power button and the lid close event work out of the box.
Palm rejection based on touch-sizes and disable-touchpad-while-typing are working with this patch to libinput (master branch).
See also:
- https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=99891
- https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=108331
Works out of the box.
The SSDs used in the MacBook Pros don't seem to support APST. As it's currently unknown how power saving works for those SSDs it's likely they consume way more power than they need to, therefore reducing the battery life.
Works out of the box.
Adjustable screen brightness only works out of the box for the models without additional AMD Radeon GPU (MacBookPro13,1 and MacBookPro13,2). For the MacBookPro13,3 with additional AMD Radeon GPU the following patch is necessary: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=105051#c32
There is one odditiy in the EDID data of the 13" models, as it contains a
2800x1800 mode in addition to the correct 2560x1600 mode. In the end that
doesn't matter, as Xorg probes and sets the correct resolution of 2560x1600.
Putting the MacBook Pro into suspend mode works, but it doesn't wake up again. @roadrunner2 did some work in this area. You'll find some details about it in cb22/macbook12-spi-driver#30 (comment)
The System Management Controller (SMC) is responsible for interactions with sensors and fans.
Fans, temperature and voltage sensors work out of the box using the applesmc
kernel module.
The ambient light sensor is working out of the box for the models without Touch
Bar, using the applesmc module as well. In models with Touch Bar the ambient
light sensor isn't connected to the traditional SMC, but to the iBridge
instead. For it to function, you need the third-party apple-ib-als kernel
module you can find in the following git repository:
https://github.com/roadrunner2/macbook12-spi-driver
An accelerometer isn't available at all.
Works out of the box.
Up to now power management support for the Thunderbolt controllers isn't complete yet, resulting in unnecessary battery drain when no devices are attached to the Thunderbolt ports.
Not working out of the box, but thanks to @roadrunner2 basic functionality
is working using the apple-ib-tb kernel module you can find in the following
git repository: https://github.com/roadrunner2/macbook12-spi-driver
Missing is as of now just the advanced functionality with custom graphics Apple offers in macOS.
Not working.
Works out of the box.
The MacBook Pro models without Touch Bar come with a Broadcom Limited BCM4350 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter which works fine out of the box using the
brcmfmac driver (ensure you got the matching firmware package installed).
The MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar come with a Broadcom Limited BCM43602 802.11ac Wireless LAN SoC (rev 02) which is also supported by brcmfmac, but
has several issues rendering it unusable, caused by the available firmware.
The issues are caused by failing country detection and are:
- Only 2.4Ghz APs are shown
- Connecting to an AP barely works or fails directly
According to Broadcom releasing a fixed firmware would require verification to ensure that it complies with regulartory limits, which is very unlikely to happen as it wouldn't provide enough return on investment for them (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=193121 for details).
- Working AMD graphics of the MacBookPro13,3 (which is the only model with both Intel and AMD graphics).
intremap=nosidas kernel boot parameter not necessary anymore, although it's unclear why.
- The NVMe controller in the MacBookPro13,1 and MacBookPro13,2 is now working out of the box (the one in the MacBookPro13,3 was already working before). (linux/commit/124298b)
- When booting with kernel modesetting (KMS) the screen isn't scrambled during boot anymore.
- On the Touch Bar models the FaceTime HD camera is working out of the box. (linux/commit/7b848ed)
- Adds support for the Alpine Ridge 4C Thunderbolt Chip used in the MacBook Pro's (linux/commit/5e2781b)
- Includes the foundation for upstreaming the
applespi-driver. (linux/commit/ca9ef3a, linux/commit/899596e, linux/commit/75fc70e, linux/commit/630b3af)
- Bluetooth is now working out of the box. (linux/commit/8353b4a, linux/commit/8bfa7e1, linux/commit/4c33162)
- Fixes a garbled screen issue with Intel graphics when using KMS, introduced with Linux 4.18. (linux/commit/d9a5158)
- Fixes a black screen issue for models with AMD graphics, introduced with Linux 4.18. (linux/commit/07e3a1c)
- Fixes a GPE storm, which caused unnecessary battery drain. (linux/commit/ca1721c)
The models with Touch Bar feature an additional USB device, called iBridge
(Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05ac:8600 Apple, Inc.). It's the interface to the
embedded T1-chip running iOS and providing access to the ambient light sensor,
the FaceTime HD camera, the Touch Bar and Touch ID.
A prerequisite for all devices connected to the iBridge to work is a firmware stored by macOS on the EFI system partition (ESP). For the time being the easiest way to keep this firmware available is to install Linux in addition to macOS and keeping the contents of the original ESP in place.
If the iBridge couldn't be initialized (e.g. because the firmware is
missing), instead of the usual USB device, the following USB device is
present: Apple Mobile Device [Recovery Mode] (Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05ac:1281 Apple, Inc.)
usb-devices shows that iBridge exposes four interfaces:
T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=02 Cnt=01 Dev#= 2 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=ef(misc ) Sub=02 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 3
P: Vendor=05ac ProdID=8600 Rev=01.01
S: Manufacturer=Apple Inc.
S: Product=iBridge
C: #Ifs= 4 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=0e(video) Sub=01 Prot=00 Driver=uvcvideo
I: If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=0e(video) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=uvcvideo
I: If#= 2 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=01 Prot=01 Driver=usbhid
I: If#= 3 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=00 Prot=01 Driver=usbhid
The two video interfaces could be the FaceTime HD camera and the Touch Bar,
while the two HID interfaces could be the Touch Bar and the Touch ID button.
Booting macOS as a VM interestingly leads to the following changed output of
usb-devices:
T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=02 Cnt=01 Dev#= 2 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=ef(misc ) Sub=02 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 3
P: Vendor=05ac ProdID=8600 Rev=01.01
S: Manufacturer=Apple Inc.
S: Product=iBridge
C: #Ifs= 8 Cfg#= 2 Atr=e0 MxPwr=0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=0e(video) Sub=01 Prot=00 Driver=usbfs
I: If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=0e(video) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=usbfs
I: If#= 2 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=00 Prot=01 Driver=usbfs
I: If#= 3 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=10() Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=usbfs
I: If#= 4 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=02(commc) Sub=0d Prot=00 Driver=usbfs
I: If#= 5 Alt= 1 #EPs= 2 Cls=0a(data ) Sub=00 Prot=01 Driver=usbfs
I: If#= 6 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=00 Prot=01 Driver=usbfs
I: If#= 7 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=f9 Prot=11 Driver=usbfs
macOS somehow initializes some additional capabilities of the iBridge. Those additional interfaces are likely responsible for Touch Id and the advanced graphical functionality of the Touch Bar. There might also be some kind of interface for iBridge-firmware updates.
Apple introduced an "auto-boot" feature with the MacBook Pro 2016 causing the notebook to be switched on, whenever the screen lid is opened. By modifying a NVRAM variable this can be (luckily) disabled again.
How to do that from macOS as well as enabling the startup chime again is documented e.g. at http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/10/31/how-to-stop-the-new-macbook-pro-from-automatically-turning-on-when-the-lid-is-open/
To disable auto boot from within Linux, ensure that efivarfs is mounted and
run:
printf "\x07\x00\x00\x00\x00" > /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/AutoBoot-7c436110-ab2a-4bbb-a880-fe41995c9f82
If you get "No space left on device" errors, it's probably because of
dump-type0-*-variables written by the Linux kernel taking up all space.
Removing them solves the problem:
for i in $(find /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/ -name 'dump-type0*'); do chattr -i $i; rm $i; done
With disabled auto boot the MacBook Pro will show the battery percentage for a brief second as an image on the screen whenever you open the lid or plug in the power cord while the lid is open.
To reenable auto boot again run:
chattr -i /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/AutoBoot-7c436110-ab2a-4bbb-a880-fe41995c9f82
rm /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/AutoBoot-7c436110-ab2a-4bbb-a880-fe41995c9f82
- Excellent collection providing a status of hardware support for the MacBook Pro 2016 as well: https://gist.github.com/roadrunner2/1289542a748d9a104e7baec6a92f9cd7