Trisquel Install Unable to See Internal SSD

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aidanjalili
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Joined: 05/19/2019

I am trying to run Trisquel on a MacbookPro 2017 with touch bar, I know a computer made by the a not so free-software supportive company, but I really only made the full shift to a free software only mentality after I had already bought the mac.

fdisk -l doesn't note the internal ssd, an nvme drive, that the macbook pro has. This mac was made before the obnoxious "T2" chip came into play, which would have prevented this attempted install entirely. Other distro's of Linux, for instance Ubuntu's install, recognizes the internal drive. Lspci shows that the drive does indeed exist, but is "UNCLAIMED" -- meaning that there is no driver "claiming" the drive, even though the linux kernel has drivers for NVME, which, I even doubled checked, trisquel also has.

Any ideas as to why the install can't see the disk? Any suggestions? Any help at all is appreciated.

jxself
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Joined: 09/13/2010

"Any ideas as to why the install can't see the disk?"

Probably a kernel thing.

"Ubuntu's install, recognizes the internal drive."

Which Ubuntu version? And which Trisquel version? Trisquel 8 is based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus.) Did you try that specific Ubuntu version for comparison? And which installer? The text installer or the graphical one?

"I even doubled checked, trisquel also has."

To be clear, what checking was this? To see if the kernel module was loaded or something else? Does lsmod indicate that it's loaded?

nadebula.1984
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Joined: 05/01/2018

To install GNU/Linux on new MacBook (2017 or newer), you must first:

1. Reboot into "troubleshooting mode", disable "secure boot" and enable booting from USB device
2. Get a Type-C dock with enough USB ports, because the keyboard, touchpad and internal SSD are unusable under GNU/Linux
3. Connect a keyboard, a mouse, a GNU/Linux installation medium with (U)EFI support and an external storage where you want to install GNU/Linux to to the dock.

At the end of last year, we helped someone to install GNU/Linux on a new MacBook. Unfortunately, even the latest daily build of Ubuntu (with lots of nonfree firmware) couldn't recognize the internal SSD. The keyboard and touchpad were not functioning, either.

To sum up, new MacBooks are extremely hostile to GNU/Linux, even if you can still disable its secure boot.

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

There's a discussion on the linux-nvme mailing list about Macbooks of that era having a known issue with nvme, in that their drives report an incorrect PCI device class. This apparently required manual binding, at least for the 2016 Macbooks. You might want to read this entire thread on the linux-nvme mailing list: http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-nvme/2016-May/004613.html

aidanjalili
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Joined: 05/19/2019

thanks so much for the mailing list as a resource -- I'll take a look. Thinking about just getting a new laptop anyway, however, so then I'll be sure to get one as compatible as possible with free software.