This information is not new on this subreddit, but it is often buried inside a lot of other cruft, which made me overlook this for a long time. I think it's useful enough to deserve its own posting.

Tl;dr: On the Intel MacBook Air 11"/13" (2013-2017), and potentially other MacBook Airs and Pros from this era, disabling the thunderbolt ports can save 1.5W of power consumption, potentially increasing battery life up to 25% under idle conditions. (Others reported up to 2W of savings, I did not observe that.)

The screenshot above shows a projected battery life of 10h45m for my MacBook Air 11" (2015). That is unrealistic of course, because it assumes that the laptop is completely on idle. In real life, with some moderate Firefox browsing, I'm seeing 5-6h of battery life, which is noticeably better than the 4-5h that I was seeing before.

The instructions below are for Linux Mint 22.x which uses GRUB as the boot loader.

Kernel Parameters

First, edit `/etc/default/grub`, and add the following option to any other parameters which are in this variable:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="... acpi_osi=!Darwin"

Second, regenerate GRUB:

$ sudo update-grub

Third, reboot the machine. The default kernel selected on the GRUB menu will be configured with the `GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT` variable, and thunderbolt will be disabled. (If you select any other kernel version from the Advanced menu, it will get the `GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX` parameter, which will not contain this flag, and thunderbolt will be enabled. See how to use this to your advantage below).

Results

The power consumption of the MacBook fluctuates up and down every few seconds. I looked for the minimum power consumption over a few minutes, with the display set to about 1/3 brightness.

On my MBA 11 (2013) 4GB/128GB, I saw:

• Thunderbolt disabled: 4.2W
• Thunderbolt enabled: 5.6W

On my MBA 11 (2015) 8GB/256GB, I saw:

• Thunderbolt disabled: 4.5W
• Thunderbolt enabled: 6.0W

(The 2015 model seems to use slightly more power than the 2013 model, probably because of the larger RAM and larger SSD.)

This ArchLinux wiki page (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Mac/Troubleshooting#Disabling_Thunderbolt), says that they observed a 2W reduction. I never saw that on my MBA 11".

Reenabling Thunderbolt

[Update: This section may not be necessary, because even though the Arch Linux wiki page says that this kernel flag disables thunderbolt, my external monitor works just fine through the thunderbolt adapter.]

Occasionally, I use an external monitor with my MBA 11", which requires the thunderbolt to be active. I could go back into `/etc/default/grub`, remove the `acpi_osi=!Darwin` flag, run `update-grub`, and reboot.

But that's a lot of work. There are 2 easier workarounds:

Option 1: Install both the 7.0 kernel and the 6.8 kernel. Both are LTS kernels supported until 2029. Select the "Advanced" option in the GRUB menu, then boot into the 6.8 kernel. Since this kernel is not the default, it will boot with the `GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX` flag, and thunderbolt will be enabled.

Option 2: At the GRUB menu, type `e`' to get the edit screen where you can manually remove the `acpi_osi=!Darwin` flag. Then hit F10 or Ctrl-X to continue the boot process, and the 7.0 kernel will boot with thunderbolt enabled. Unfortunately, my memory is not as good as it was when I was younger, and I will forget about this technique in a few months, so I will probably end up using Option 1.

If anyone knows an easier way to enable/disable thunderbolt at runtime, without rebooting, that would be really useful. Please post info.

For me, no other power saving technique (e.g. TLP, CPU governor selection, CPU PowerSaver option, replacing the Broadcom WiFi card with an Intel AX210 card) made as much difference in power consumption and battery life as disabling the thunderbolt ports.

I just installed Linux Mint 22.3 on an IMac18. Great choice, this thing came back to life, I should have done it way earlier. this thing runs HoMM3 like a lightning. However, I have no sound, and I am way too new to Linux to figure out what to do.

I went to the Alsamixer and unmute what seems to be a mute port. But nothing happens and it goes back to MM after rebooting the system. I am lost here, and I would really appreciate any advise on how to go about this.

Saw this used macbook pro's listing,
I'm on a very tight budget and this will be my primary machine if i buy it.

I found a 2019 16" MacBook Pro A2141 with:

• Intel Core i9 (8C/16T)
• 32GB DDR4 RAM
• 2TB SSD
• Radeon Pro 5500M 4GB
• 16" Retina display
• ~5 hours battery
• Asking price: ~$400

My intended use is primarily software development, browsing, etc (no gaming)

I'm also planning to run Linux as my primary OS. (cuz no future OS support by Apple)

I don't really care about battery life because the laptop will spend most of its time connected to a USB-C monitor, effectively acting as my desktop workstation.

What worries me

I know this is a 7-year-old Intel Mac, and I'm particularly concerned about:

• T2 Linux compatibility
• Sleep/suspend
• Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/audio
• USB-C/Thunderbolt and external monitor support
• thermal throttling
• reliability of a 7-year-old MacBook

The question

Should I buy it? and run linux on it?

I stumbled upon one of my facebook friends post saying that they're selling their old 2019 MacBook Pro laptop and I'm really tempted to buy this one. It's 400$ and I wonder if any of you guys have any experience on an old macbook like this? I plan to install FedoraOS on it after getting my hands on it because I mostly develop and maintain web applications and I run docker containers locally so the massive 64gb ram would really help me in my workflows.

If you can share with me some of the things that I should check/verify before buying the unit, I would very much appreciate that. Thanks guys, and also I think for 400$ it's a fair deal, right?

Looking for advice.

Tried creating a bootable USB with Linux Mint xfce 22.3 on it to salvage an early 2015 Mac (which was also used here to create said USB).

I have checked integrity of the ISO file as instructed by the installation guide. I tried both balenaEtcher and with the dd commands in terminal, both have the following outcome:

During the process itself, no errors appear but once it's done, the laptop instantly fails to read it ("The disk you attached was not readable by this computer.") Rebooting doesn't seem to help. The disk (USB) works fine after running command to erase it.

Any thoughts on what may be causing this, and what should be done to successfully create the bootable media? Thanks!

UPDATE:
So, after some more research I decided to switch distros and move to Pop!_OS running a GNOME session (i think that's how you describe what I've got going on, tbh I have learned a LOT trying to breath life into this crappy laptop) because it apparently works better with this specific dual graphics card situation and it took a lot of tweaks and troubleshooting but I finally have something that is usable. I can now run mpv (I'm using cellulose because I like to have a more navigable ui) without scan lines or random skips. The only real issue I have now, other than figuring out the quirks of GNOME, is a small graphic issue where listed items (like files or settings) don't show up unless I hover or scroll and sometimes will just disappear again, but from what I could find there isn't really a fix and you kind have to just live with it. Thank you for those who gave suggestions and help.

I am having issues with VLC when trying to play videos. At the start of each video it flickers like crazy (enough to hurt my eyes) and on occasion will play at a much faster rate. Though, I think the problem is bigger than just VLC.

System Details Report:

Report details
- Date generated: 2026-09-02 19:09:41

Hardware Information:
- Hardware Model: Apple Inc. MacBookPro11,3
- Memory: 16.0 GiB
- Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-4850HQ × 8
- Graphics: NVE7
- Graphics 1: Intel® Iris® Pro Graphics P5200 (HSW GT3)
- Disk Capacity: 121.3 GB

Software Information:
- Firmware Version: 478.0.0.0.0
- OS Name: Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS
- OS Build: (null)
- OS Type: 64-bit
- GNOME Version: 50
- Windowing System: Wayland
- Kernel Version: Linux 7.0.0-30-generic

So far I've tried:

Changed VLC's Video Output Module to OpenGL, X11, and XVideo
Disabled Hardware-accelerated decoding
Removed Mesa VA-API
Reset VLC Preferences
Overrode Environment Variables
Bypass NVIDIA via GRUB (which was the most destructive causing UI issues and making it so closing the lid did nothing)
Running MPV instead but that just gave me messy glitchy mess that didn't show anything (screenshot attached)
Attempted xfce and gnome flashback sessions to see if Wayland was the issue

We actually did in April already. But now is a good time to show off as Tim Cook will no longer care :-)

It works, but still needs work. We want to be sure we won't break your Mac. Because it's quite easy to do so when messing with security. Ask me why I know.

Thus the video deliberately only shows the sensor registering finger presence and not fingerprint match.

We will deliver. And we will upstream it together with the t2bce driver stack. https://kait2en.org

I'm trying to setup a Virtual Machine on my Macbook Air M3, running Ubuntu through the VMware Fusion Virtual Machine. But for the life of me I can't get past this "EFI stub:" screen.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Dear users,

After so many years it finally happend. Those who still using the old late 2009 11.1 iMac with HD4850 GPU like me, can use the internal screen with hardware acceleration on the main/internal screen instead of using an external screen or boot up with nomodeset.

I personally tested it on my machine but there is a catch at this moment...

Currently I am using Refind with a dual boot setup between High Sierra and Ubuntu 26.04 with stock kernel 7.0.0.

The fix or patch that goes into getting HWA on your internal screen is currently merged with kernel 7.3-RC. So its in a testing fase at this moment. I personally tested this kernel and to my suprise it worked. Be sure to disable nomodeset in grub before reboot!

Be aware that testing kernels that are not stock could mess up your system so I advice against it unless you know what your doing! Dont blame me for it... So in the near future we can expect support for this old machine...

Many thanks for the people who worked on this problem, more info here...

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati/-/work_items/164

For those who want to check out the patch/fix its here....

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/agd5f/linux/-/commit/b4e6a8e84af6cf91d39a5f33dbf524f7b995ff63

what's the best linux os for my macbook air a1369 2010 macintosh? also i'm a beginner on linux, it will be my first time using this. ever since the second time the battery of this laptop broke, i've been using it for a long time, and now it's broken again, so i'll be buying a new battery and charger. i don't want to buy a new laptop because i don't have the budget, and computer parts have gotten expensive, even mini pcs, so i'll stick with this one instead. it's only for streaming, to watch free movies on brave browser, watch free live sports, and youtube.

previously i was using opencore legacy patcher to run a newer macos on this old hardware, but now i want to try linux instead, for more storage space and so it uses fewer resources overall.

also, the screen itself is broken it doesn't turn on properly anymore. it's black and white now, and i can only see anything on it by shining a flashlight on the screen. it broke after the table it was on shook. because of that, i just use an external monitor now instead.

i also don't know if it's still worth investing in fixing this old machine, or if i should just save up for a new device instead.

i asked claude ai about this, and it recommended linux mint xfce edition, saying it's beginner friendly and lightweight enough for this old hardware. just want to hear other opinions before i commit.

Hola a todos. Tengo un MacBook Pro Retina 16” 2019 (i7 6C 2.6GHz, 16GB RAM, Radeon Pro 5300M 4GB, chip T2) y estoy evaluando instalar Linux, principalmente para jugar con Steam/Proton (el caso puntual es Fallout 4, que tiene rating Platinum en ProtonDB).
Ya investigué un poco y llegué a dos caminos:
1. Fedora Workstation “normal” + kernel parcheado de t2linux (teclado/trackpad/SSD funcionan de fábrica, wifi/bluetooth con pasos extra).
2. T2 Atomic (Fedora Atomic/Silverblue con hardware enablement para T2, ahora en github.com/kansei-os/t2-atomic) — la idea de que sea inmutable y con rollback automático me atrae porque mi mayor miedo es que una actualización de kernel me rompa el teclado/trackpad interno y me deje sin poder usar la laptop.
Algunas dudas puntuales:
• ¿Alguien ha probado T2 Atomic en un 16” 2019 específicamente? ¿Qué tan estable está webcam/audio/Touch Bar en la práctica?
• Sé que ninguna de las dos opciones soporta dual-boot seguro con macOS (el instalador Anaconda no lo maneja bien). ¿Vale la pena sacrificar macOS por completo, o conviene mejor un dual-boot “a la antigua” con rEFInd y Fedora Workstation normal, aceptando el riesgo de romper cosas con las actualizaciones?
• Para uso de gaming vía Proton con la Radeon Pro 5300M, ¿alguien tiene referencia de rendimiento real (FPS, estabilidad) en este modelo específico?
Cualquier experiencia real con T2 en este modelo (o similar, 2018-2020) se agradece. Gracias de antemano.

I’ve installed linux mint on this and a 2010 macbook pro but with the recent update on lmce anytime I update it has a kernel panic. I just need something light. I was thinking debian with XFCE I recently used that on a different computer and kind of getting annoyed with debians restrictions on external drives and stuff. (Ik i can fix it but i don’t wanna troubleshoot for an hour or more)

I also need some thing with good drivers.

I am the "new" owner of a 2015 4GB MBA. I am currently running High Sierra on it. I am looking for "the sweet spot" for Linux and doing light web browsing and documents / pdfs. I am not a complete beginner on Linux, as I have two other computers running Mint and Bazzite. I have installed Mint XFCE onto a 2012 iMac. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

I have a 2019 16' MacBook Pro running Bazzite off of a Lexar D400 Flash Drive, then re-based with Kansei OS for Bazzite. Everything but the wifi works, and I just want to get wifi to work on this device, so i'm not stuck in one location with a cable. Is there anything I can do?

Hello! I've now tried installing both Ubuntu (22.04) and Mint (22.3) on my 2011 Macbook Air. They both work fine, but they both exhibit the same issue: both of the "<," and ">." keys are unresponsive.

It's not a mechanical issue, as the keys work under Mac OSX. It's not a numlock issue, as I've tried forcing numlock on and off with numlockx. If I connect an external keyboard, the "<," and ">." keys on that external keyboard work fine.

I'd really like to use the laptop without the need for an external keyboard.

Any ideas? It's driving me mad! :D

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

I have macbook pro 2019,i7, 512gb storage out of which 410 gb i gave to fedora while setting it up i came across this issues how can ? 😭
I am linux noob so please help me out

Been using this for fun lately lol

2013 Intel Macbook Air: considering getting OpenSuse Leap with the default Sway setup. Anything I should be aware of?

How is the support for Broadcom-wl wifi module, sleep/wake behaviour, etc.?

I have Ubuntu 26 running "well enough" on my A1706. I've documented what I've done to get reliable 5GHz wifi, sleep/resume and touchbar functional.

Agent-oriented writeup is here --> https://gist.github.com/bgausden/c7f8a3737c1e52a260dfcdb1fb2e90b2

From the gist:

"This procedure fixes the hardware exercised in the investigation:

the tested suspend/resume path without multi-minute PCIe stalls;

BCM43602 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi, including 5 GHz after suspend;

Apple S3X NVMe resume; both Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt domains and the tested USB Ethernet adapter after resume;

T1/iBridge fixed-function Touch Bar, including resume from s2idle;

NetworkManager compatibility with the 2015 Broadcom firmware.

It does not attempt to configure speakers, Bluetooth firmware, FaceTime camera firmware, or arbitrary Touch Bar graphics."

It’s been upgraded to an SDD and 8GB RAM.