Ubuntu 16.04 with kernel 4.4.0.21 does not recognize at all the nvidia card of a macbook pro 11,1

[Albert]

This macbook pro 11,1 has two cards:

1. An nvidia card, which was both recognized in Ubuntu 14.04 with kernels 3.13.*, and worked well using the provided drivers under "Additional drivers".

2. An intel integrated card, which was not in use under Ubuntu 14.04, but which now, under ubuntu 16.04, is the only card in use. The 'lspci' command states:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0a2e] (rev 09)

... and there is no trace at all of the nvidia card under lspci.

dmesg shows one crytic message, perhaps indicating that the nvidia card could not be recognized:

[ 0.190838] pci 0000:00:02.0: Video device with shadowed ROM

dmesg lists a number of "failed" entries, such as:

[ 11.791463] usb 1-3: hub failed to enable device, error -62

[ 24.891009] wl: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel

... and also:

[ 0.190096] pci 0000:06:00.0: BAR 15: no space for [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190098] pci 0000:06:00.0: BAR 15: failed to assign [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190099] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 14: no space for [mem size 0x00200000]
[ 0.190100] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 14: failed to assign [mem size 0x00200000]
[ 0.190102] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 15: no space for [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190103] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 15: failed to assign [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190104] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 14: no space for [mem size 0x00200000]
[ 0.190105] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 14: failed to assign [mem size 0x00200000]
[ 0.190107] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 15: no space for [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190108] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 15: failed to assign [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190109] pci 0000:06:00.0: BAR 13: no space for [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190110] pci 0000:06:00.0: BAR 13: failed to assign [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190111] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 13: no space for [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190112] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 13: failed to assign [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190113] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 13: no space for [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190114] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 13: failed to assign [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190116] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 14: no space for [mem size 0x00200000]
[ 0.190117] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 14: failed to assign [mem size 0x00200000]
[ 0.190119] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 15: no space for [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190120] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 15: failed to assign [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190121] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 13: no space for [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190122] pci 0000:06:06.0: BAR 13: failed to assign [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190124] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 14: no space for [mem size 0x00200000]
[ 0.190125] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 14: failed to assign [mem size 0x00200000]
[ 0.190126] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 15: no space for [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190127] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 15: failed to assign [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190129] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 13: no space for [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190130] pci 0000:06:04.0: BAR 13: failed to assign [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190131] pci 0000:06:00.0: BAR 15: no space for [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190132] pci 0000:06:00.0: BAR 15: failed to assign [mem size 0x00200000 64bit pref]
[ 0.190133] pci 0000:06:00.0: BAR 13: no space for [io size 0x1000]
[ 0.190134] pci 0000:06:00.0: BAR 13: failed to assign [io size 0x1000]

Please let me know what further information I could provide to facilitate addressing these issues.

Thank you.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: linux-image-4.4.0-21-generic 4.4.0-21.37
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-21.37-generic 4.4.6
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: albert 1695 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: albert 1695 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue Apr 26 08:02:03 2016
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-09-16 (588 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 004: ID 05ac:0259 Apple, Inc.
 Bus 001 Device 007: ID 05ac:8289 Apple, Inc.
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp. BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth)
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: Apple Inc. MacBookPro11,1
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-21-generic root=UUID=1fe82ec9-9c83-4e33-9506-2f7afb8d9d64 ro libata.force=noncq quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-4.4.0-21-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-4.4.0-21-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.157
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-04-23 (3 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 02/12/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.bios.version: MBP111.88Z.0138.B07.1402121134
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag#
dmi.board.name: Mac-189A3D4F975D5FFC
dmi.board.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.board.version: MacBookPro11,1
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Mac-189A3D4F975D5FFC
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAppleInc.:bvrMBP111.88Z.0138.B07.1402121134:bd02/12/2014:svnAppleInc.:pnMacBookPro11,1:pvr1.0:rvnAppleInc.:rnMac-189A3D4F975D5FFC:rvrMacBookPro11,1:cvnAppleInc.:ct10:cvrMac-189A3D4F975D5FFC:
dmi.product.name: MacBookPro11,1
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Apple Inc.

[Albert (sapristi)]

Forgot to mention: the "Additional drivers" does not list any nvidia driver at all, mirroring what lspci does (no listing either). The ubuntu 16.04 system as a whole ignores the nvidia card of this macbook pro 11,1 laptop.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Albert (sapristi)]

I realized that my laptop is using firmware BIOS MBP111.88Z.0138.B07.1402121134 02/12/2014, with the apple website listing an update available: at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518, there's MBP111.0138.B16 (2015-002), which, in its page (https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1848?locale=en_US and also https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205317) is described as "merely" a security update for EFI, removing some unused EFI functions.

If it doesn't matter, I'd rather leave the EFI firmware as is.

[Albert (sapristi)]

More issues related to this:

1. Once every few minutes the screen flickers.

2. Upon resume from sleep, more often than not the laptop screen is black: not working. Switching to a tty and back to control+alt+F7 sometimes makes the screen work again. What works always, though, is to plug in an external monitor which shows the desktop background overlaid with a grid of dots indicative of the password screen, type in the password blindly (fortunately the focus is by default on the password input field, which is in the blackened laptop screen), and then move the mouse into the other display, go to top-right and push the system menu icon to then select the System Settings, go to Display, choose "Mirror", and then the laptop screen works again. Of course, this workaround is not always feasible, given that one does not carries a second monitor around.

[Albert (sapristi)]

I have found a workaround to ensure that the screen always comes up after resume from sleep: keep an application like Blender open. Perhaps it's because Blender uses OpenGL, which might have an effect on the graphics card upon resume, or in some other way it triggers whatever is necessary to make this laptop's screen work.

[Albert (sapristi)]

More details: upon resume from sleep, after pluging in an external monitor to be able to trigger whatever makes the screen come up, the tty 1 shows the following:

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS metall tty1
metall login: [ 7875.907520] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: Command comp
letion event does not match command
[ 7876.111524] usb 2-3: device not accepting address 4, error -62
[ 7880.915458] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: Error while assigning device slot ID
[ 7880.915482] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: Max number of devices this xHCI host supports is 32.
[ 7880.915504] usb usb1-port1: couldn't allocate usb_device
[ 7886.707269] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: Command completion event does not match command
[ 7892.126537] usb 2-3: device not accepting address 5, error -62

For comparison, the "lsusb" command prints:

$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05ac:0259 Apple, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 05ac:8289 Apple, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp. BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth)
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 413c:3016 Dell Computer Corp. Optical 5-Button Wheel Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Of note: when the screen is black, the keyboard LED lighting doesn't come up either.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Albert, as per https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518 an update to your computer's buggy, insecure, and outdated BIOS is available (MBP111.0138.B16). If you update to this following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BIOSUpdate does it change anything?

For more on BIOS updates and linux, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette .

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful.

Also, you don't have to create a new bug report.

Once the BIOS is updated, if the problem is still reproducible:
1) Please provide the output of the following terminal command (not perform an apport-collect):
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date
2) Please make a comment specifically advising on if there was an improvement or not.
3) Please mark this report Status Confirmed.

If it's not reproducible, please mark this as Invalid.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Albert (sapristi)]

Dear Christopher,
Thank you for your instructions. So far, I have managed to obtain the update from apple, open the dmg and pkg files, and obtain the correct .scap file containing the firmware for my specific apple laptop model. Now the issue is how to apply it, given that the only tutorials out there for updating firmware from linux in apple hardware assume one is booting with EFI.
I do not have macosx available, which is the recommended approach in all tutorials (paraphrasing, "leave a usable macosx install in disk so as to be able to apply firmware updates", which is not even true, given that it can be done from an EFI boot setup).
Do you know of any way to update the firmware without an EFI boot setup?
The pages you pointed to do not have any instructions for apple hardware.
Thanks,
Albert

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Albert, with my MacBookPro9,2 I'm able to reinstall OS X via https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904 to apply firmware updates, even after installing Ubuntu. Would that work for you?