State¶
While Linux is usable on all T2 models, some features are limited due to the lack of drivers or similar. This page should give a general overview of what is working and what is not.
| Feature | Status | Upstream | Notes | Issues/links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal Drive / SSD | 🟢 Working | 🟢 Kernel 5.4 | Filesystem notes | |
| Screen, iGPU | 🟢 Working | 🟡 Partial | ||
| USB | 🟢 Working | 🟢 Yes | ||
| Keyboard | 🟢 Working | 🔴 No | t2bce | |
| Trackpad | 🟢 Working | 🔴 No | Works, but isn't as great as on macOS (no force touch or palm rejection). | t2bce, Trackpad tuning |
| Wi-Fi | 🟢 Working | 🟢 Yes | Requires macOS firmware | Setup guide |
| Bluetooth | 🟡 Partially working | 🟢 Yes | Requires macOS firmware only for devices with BCM4377 chip. Also, Bluetooth glitches on devices with BCM4377 Chip if connected to a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connection. Thus, in order to use Bluetooth either turn off your Wi-Fi or use a 5 GHz Wi-Fi connection. | Setup guide |
| Camera | 🟢 Working | 🔴 No | t2bce | |
| Thunderbolt | 🟢 Working | 🟢 Yes | If it doesn't work, try adding pcie_ports=native in the kernel parameters via GRUB. |
|
| Touch Bar | 🟢 Working | 🟡 Partial | "Touch Bar Keyboard" mode works OOTB, where only the Function Keys or the Media/Brightness Control Keys are shown. Touch Bar drivers were upstreamed in kernel 6.15, while the internal USB connection is provided by t2bce. | t2bce, tiny-dfr |
| Suspend | 🟡 Partially working | 🟢 Yes | t2bce handles suspend and resume of the BCE, VHCI, and audio stack. Remaining suspend issues are model-dependent and may involve other hardware. | #53 |
| Audio | 🟢 Working | 🔴 No | The internal microphone has low input volume without DSP. This is a hardware characteristic and cannot be compensated for in an upstream kernel driver. | t2bce |
| Hybrid Graphics | 🟡 Partially working | 🟡 Partial | Toggling dGPU power doesn't work. | Hybrid Graphics |
| AMD GPUs | 🟡 Partially working | Changing resolution, using DRI_PRIME and doing various other things can cause crashes, but echo high \| sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/amdgpu/0000:??:??.?/power_dpm_force_performance_level or adding amdgpu.dpm=0 to the kernel commandline stops these crashes. |
||
| MacPro7,1 | 🟡 Partially working | Users have encountered PCIe Address Space issues, with auto remap breaking. A temporary solution may be possible by removing the Infinity Fabric Link (Bridge or Jumper) from the GPU(s). | ||
| T2 Secure Enclave | 🔴 Not working | Used for Touch ID, storing encryption keys on macOS | ||
| T2 Audio Video Encoder | 🔴 Not working | Used for Sidecar on macOS |
Filesystem notes¶
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Linux using APFS filesystems: Linux cannot read the internal SSD's macOS APFS partition's Data and System volume (for other APFS volumes, linux-apfs-rw can be used for reading data, but attempting to write is risky).
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macOS using Linux filesystems: There are FUSE implementations of some Linux Filesystems that can be used on macOS (but again, most only have experimental write support).