Plucky fails to boot on (older) Macs

[Alexander Browne]

[Impact]

MacBookAir7,1 (i5-5250U)
MacBookPro12,1 (i5-5287U)
iMac14,1 (i5-4570R)

With three older Macs I am trying Plucky versions from the past two weeks or so fail to boot.

The built-in displays stay blank but the backlight is visible until I force the computers to power off. External video doesn't show anything.

I have tried both installed (more below) and live images. With the live image the GRUB menu with "Try or install" does show up.

All three do boot normally to 24.10 live images. The iMac has 24.10 installed which also boots fine.

The two MacBooks have Plucky installed, one upgraded from an earlier version and one installed several weeks ago. Plucky booted fine until around 2025-03-16 when this boot issue started, both with the installed version and the live image. I know this because it caused me to set these aside until now when I had a chance to look closer and find a non-Mac computer that I installed on that date.

[Test Case]

Boot on above mentioned Macs.

[Fix]

Enable efi hack only on arm64.

[Where Problems Could Occur]

Non-arm64 machines that need this fix (highly unlikely) might not boot.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Libera.chat.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/2105402/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Bjorn (kaustix2)]

Can confirm.

MacBookAir5,2 (i5-3427u) has the same issue.

If I remove "quiet splash" I get

> efi stub loaded initrd from linux_efi_initrd_media_guid device path

..and nothing more.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Guy Burdick (gwburdick)]

I also have this problem on both an imac mid 2011 and an imac late 2013.

Both in-place upgrades and booting of the 25.04 upgrades fail. They boot to grub but beyond that you get a black screen with a steady cursor.

I've found prople on forums reporting this problem on macbooks, imacs and mac minis.
It seems to be related to the kernel that 25.04 ships with. You can boot 25.04 with older kernels.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1546074/kernel-problem-cant-install-25-04-onto-macs?noredirect=1#comment2720603_1546074

[altazar (altazar)]

I am able to reproduce this bug on my Mac Pro 6.1. Ubuntu 24.04.2 installer starts successfully, but 25.04 stuck on black screen after GRUB menu.

I found this thread on Reddit there somebody try different Linux kernels and looks like kernels >= 6.14.0.11 are unusable on old Macs.

https://www.reddit.com/r/macpro/comments/1jjn8k0/ubuntu_2504_daily_build_on_macpro61/

[thestupidestthing (the-stupidest-thing)]

I have the same experience on an iMac-11,2 for both Ubuntu and Lubuntu (predictable for suspected kernel cause).
"booting of the 25.04 upgrades fail. They boot to grub but beyond that you get a black screen with a steady cursor."
I can boot the Ubuntu 24.04.X installer without issue.

[Eric Chu (echu888)]

To reiterate:
- linux-image-6.14.0-10 : works
- linux-image-6.14.0-11 : broken

[fraz (franz-pfoertsch)]

Is there a way to install linux-image-6.14.0-10 to get a running Mac?

I did not found the linux-image-6.14.0-10 packages.

[Marc Dietrich (marvin24)]

mmh, there is a change to related to efi in libstub (SAUCE: hack: efi/libstub: mitigate t14s exit_boot_services() failure). Will try to test a kernel without this patch.

[Marc Dietrich (marvin24)]

I can confirm that this patch was the culprit. Please revert as it seems not to fix the original problem it was made for anyway: https://<email address hidden>/

[Guy Burdick (gwburdick)]

Thanks Marc Dietrich. Is there a way install 25.04 without this patch (either an upgrade or from an iso installation)?
Guy

[Marc Dietrich (marvin24)]

No, no easy way. You can either revert to/install 6.14.0-10 (https://answers.launchpad.net/~canonical-kernel-team/+archive/ubuntu/bootstrap/+build/30416015), install the ubuntu mainline kernel (https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/v6.14.4/) or patch and compile the kernel yourself. Luckily, the old macbooks don't need a signed kernel.

[Eric Chu (echu888)]

Great investigation. I started to look at the git log between the two versions but didn't see the offending commit.

Will an Ubuntu kernel maintainer see this info?

[Robert R. McDonald (romactu)]

Same problem, Ubuntu 25.04 with Linux Kernel 6.14.0-15-generic won't boot on my Apple Inc. MacBookPro9,2.

[Marc Dietrich (marvin24)]

Eric, this here is the offending commit: https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-kernel/ubuntu/+source/linux/+git/plucky/commit/drivers/firmware/efi?h=master-next&id=524da2cfa3da1c60e90db958e33402f4e070c916

I guess that Apples EFI implementation isn't perfect, so these changes may work on regular PCs but fail on Apple HW. It's still good to know that - given the amount of duplicates of this bug - there are still a lot of people using this official legacy HW and file bugs in case something goes wrong.

[jmielke (mielkej)]

Impacts me too. Would be good to issue a new iso so that people are able to do fresh installs on macs. I was able to get it working using the old kernel from 14.10 or mainline.

[Eric Chu (echu888)]

For anyone affected by this bug, please click on the link at the top of the ticket, "Does this bug affect you?"

The ubuntu web interface for browing the kernel repo is not working properly for me (premature end of script headers), but based upon my local copy of the repo, there is an associated buglink noted in the commit message:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2100858

[Robert R. McDonald (romactu)]

Hello Eric Chu (echu888), that link talks about Ubuntu 25.04 on a snapdragon device, which I don't have a device that has that kind of a processor. But I can say that my Mid-2012 13" Apple MacBook Pro (9,2) can't boot to Ubuntu 25.04, but it used to, due to Linux Kernel 6.14.0-15, unless use 6.14.0-10 or older ones.

[Eric Chu (echu888)]

One of the patches for adding Snapdragon X Elite support is what causes your MBP to fail to boot. The link to the ticket is included for context as to what needs to be reverted.

[Juerg Haefliger (juergh)]

Can you please give this [1] a whirl and let us know if that fixes the issue?

[1] https://people.canonical.com/~juergh/lp2105402

[Eric Chu (echu888)]

Jürg, do we need the following packages as well?

Unsatisfied dependencies:
 linux-headers-6.14.0-17-generic : Depends: linux-headers-6.14.0-17 but it is not installable
 linux-tools-6.14.0-17-generic : Depends: linux-tools-6.14.0-17 but it is not installable

[Eric Chu (echu888)]

Sorry, seems that those packages aren't completely necessary for testing the kernel.

I'm able to boot to 6.14.0-17-generic, so it appears to solve the problem.

[Alexander Browne (elcste)]

I can also boot with that kernel (MacBookAir7,1) :-)

[fraz (franz-pfoertsch)]

Thanks to Jueg!

With this packages my iMac12,2 is starting again.

with the missing/broken linux header dkms is not working.

so my APFS is not working with this kernel ...

But never the less. the imac is starting :-)

[Juerg Haefliger (juergh)]

Thanks for the confirmation. Sorry, the cross-compiled headers packages are broken, that's a known packaging issue.

[Guy Burdick (gwburdick)]

Thanks Juerg, I can confirm that this works on an imac mid 2011 (12,1) (boots fine on 25.04 with kernel Linux 6.14.0-17-generic from https://people.canonical.com/~juergh/lp2105402

[Brian Tani (brian-tani)]

I tried installing on a Macmini6,1 (Late 2012) [i5-3210M]. Upgrading works from 24.04.02 to 24.10, but it fails to boot if I upgrade to 25.04 or try to do a clean install of the 25.04. In my case the external monitor does not receive any signal so I don't know if this is the exact same problem, but the computer starts, gives of the chime, but the monitor never receives any signal.

[Pavel Francírek (pavel-toplist)]

I can confirm this issue on MBPr mid 2014 (MacBookPro11-1). While it happened after upgrade the workaround for me was to boot older kernel (6.11.0-25-generic from 24.10.)

[Ole Frej Alkilde (olefrej)]

To confirm on a MacBookPro8,1 (ultimo 2011):
6.11.0-26: Works
6.14.0-15: Does not boot
6.14.0-17 (from Juerg above #21): Works
Thank you Juerg!

[Robert R. McDonald (romactu)]

My MacBook Air (Early 2015) and my MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) both are still unable to boot the installer of Ubuntu 25.04, but 24.04 LTS.

[Bernard MARTRON (albator90)]

Hello,
Me too unalble to boot on Apple Inc. iMac12,1 with 25.04.
How to we boot on differente kernel ?
Do you have some link to learn how to do that ?
Thanks.
Bernard.

[Guy Burdick (gwburdick)]

Hi Bernard,

You can do this:

1. Install 24.10.
2. Install kernel 6.14.0-17 from comment 21 above. Instructions at https://itsfoss.com/upgrade-linux-kernel-ubuntu/
3. Upgrade to 25.04. Ubuntu uses the latest kernel installed on a computer so it will use the one you've installed and your imac will boot (my imac 12,1 did).

Thanks

[jmielke (mielkej)]

Wish they would just put out a new iso. You could install the 25.10 daily iso I bet that would work too

[Alexander Browne (elcste)]

@jmielke I've tried Questing (future 25.10) ISOs and they don't work for me. (I think the reference to 25.10 in #33 should be 25.04.)

[Guy Burdick (gwburdick)]

You are right Alexander, apologies, I meant you can upgrade to 25.04 using Juerg's kernel from comment 21.
And I guess the builds for 25.10 are still using the kernel from 25.04 which we can't boot from.
Guy

[You-Sheng Yang (vicamo)]

Verified the proposed patch back ported to following kernels on MacBookPro11,1 (late 2013):
* linux-unstable-6.15.0-2.2
* linux-6.14.0-11.11
* linux-oem-6.14-6.14.0-4.4

[Juerg Haefliger (juergh)]

Patch was applied a couple of days ago:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-team/2025-June/160063.html

[Bernard MARTRON (albator90)]

Hello,

Thanks to Guy Burdick (burdick) for the explanation.
@Juerg: The patch is included in the standard distribution ?

Thanks.
Bernard.

[jmielke (mielkej)]

Good morning -- I'm on ubuntu 25.04 and do not have the kernels listed above by vicamo. My system was upgraded from 24.10 --- 6.14.0-15 does not work and has not been patched. I have to use the kernel from 24.10 if I want to boot. Did you include these patches on the .iso for new installs?

[fraz (franz-pfoertsch)]

Hello,

yesterday linux-image-6.14.0-22-generic arrived.
I installed via apt-get update / apt-get dist-upgrade, after this, again, my machine did not boot again.
It get stucked after grub.

For me, the fix did not include https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-team/2025-June/160063.html.
Did I made something wrong.

I roled back via supergrub.
I enabling via selection of vmlinuz.old via /etc/default/grub entry GRUB_DEFAULT='1>2'.

Now my machine is back.

So please take care with this update.
Inside of https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/6.14.0-22.22 the launchpad bug was not mentioned.

so please take a care with the new kernel.

regards
Franz

[Alexander Browne (elcste)]

I tried updating one of mine and it also still does not boot – or even show grub.

Questing daily live still not working either :-/

[Guy Burdick (gwburdick)]

Thanks Franz,

I can confirm that 6.14.0-22-generic which has appeared in Software Updater (or via apt update && apt upgrade) doesn't boot on an iMac mid 2011.

I reverted to 6.14.0-17-generic by updating grub, changing GRUB_DEFAULT=0 to GRUB_DEFAULT="1>2" (using supergrub).

Guy

[jmielke (mielkej)]

confirming not fixed on my macbook - I'm using a newer kernel from Mainline that does work. Autoremove took away my working ubuntu kernel that was brought forward from 24.10

[Marc Dietrich (marvin24)]

try 6.14.0-24-generic from https://launchpad.net/~canonical-kernel-team/+archive/ubuntu/ppa?field.series_filter=plucky. It should contain the fix.

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is awaiting verification that the linux/6.14.0-24.24 kernel in -proposed solves the problem. Please test the kernel and update this bug with the results. If the problem is solved, change the tag 'verification-needed-plucky-linux' to 'verification-done-plucky-linux'. If the problem still exists, change the tag 'verification-needed-plucky-linux' to 'verification-failed-plucky-linux'.

If verification is not done by 5 working days from today, this fix will be dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you!

[Guy Burdick (gwburdick)]

Hi Marc Dietrich,

I can confirm that my imac mid-2011 boots fine using kernel 6.14.0-24-generic.

Thanks

[Ole Frej Alkilde (olefrej)]

Hi,

Kernel 6.14.0-24-generic boots on MacBookPro8,1 (ultimo 2011)

However, keyboard and mouse does not work - Neither built-in or connecting external USB.
I think I am missing the kernel module applesmc in the new kernel, since this does not show up in dmesg for the new kernel but it does exist in the old (working) one.

EDIT:
Needed to install linux-modules-extra to make keyboard and mouse work.
In order to make wifi work the package firmware-b43-installer was needed and had to be loaded with 'modprobe b43'

[Marc Dietrich (marvin24)]

@Ole, maybe you just forgot to install the linux-image-modules (and maybe -extra) package.

[Alexander Browne (elcste)]

The -proposed kernel boots the MacBookAir7,1 from my original report! As #47 also reported success, I changed the tag to "verification-done-plucky-linux" as requested by the bot.

[Ole Frej Alkilde (olefrej)]

@Marc, yes that was it.
I needed the -extra package.
I also needed firmware-b43-installer for wifi and needed to load it with 'modprobe b43'
Now everything works!
Thank you Marc.

[fraz (franz-pfoertsch)]

Hi,
first I had the same issue like Ole, graphic is running, mouth is working, but keyboard and second screen not on my iMac27.

In the end I installed

apt-get install linux-image-6.14.0-24-generic
apt-get install inux-modules-extra-6.14.0-24-generic
apt-get install inux-modules-ipu6-6.14.0-24-generic
apt-get install inux-modules-iwlwifi-6.14.0-24-generic
apt-get install inux-modules-usbio-6.14.0-24-generic

after this second screen and keyboard is working

[fraz (franz-pfoertsch)]

Apple Inc. iMac12,2 is working fine with
uname -a
Linux newmoon 6.14.0-24-generic #24-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sun Jun 15 11:18:07 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Bill Nickless (wknickless)]

Apple Inc. MacBookPro14,1 is working fine with uname -a
Linux aritrade 6.14.0-24-generic #24-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sun Jun 15 11:18:07 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Alexander Browne (elcste)]

@Marc Dietrich Will this fix end up in Questing as well? I realize Questing has been mentioned in a couple comments but the bug details at the top don't list it.

[Bill Nickless (wknickless)]

@elcste Per https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/announcing-6-17-kernel-for-ubuntu-25-10-questing-quokka/61484 Questing is slated to use the 6.17 kernel, but https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/ is still using the 6-14.0-15 kernel (which doesn't have the fix for MacBook SPI keyboards and trackpads). Not sure when the Questing ISO builds will shift to the upstream 6.17 release candidate, but I'm planning to try booting it from live images before the release.

[Danny (dannyp777)]

I also have this problem on my iMac14,4. Tried upgrading from Ubuntu 24.10 to 25.04 on 27/06/2025.

Bug report here: `https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/2115580`

Fails to boot into kernel v6.14.0-22-generic from grub, but works with kernel v6.11.0-28-generic.
LiveUSB also fails.

[Danny (dannyp777)]

I just tested linux-image-6.14.0-24-generic(https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/6.14.0-24.24) from the plucky proposed ppa (ppa:canonical-kernel-team/proposed) on my iMac14,4 and it booted successfully!!

Everything seems to be working fine.

[Danny (dannyp777)]

Are there any other specific tests we should do apart from successfully booting on each of the old Mac systems with the bug?

[Marc Dietrich (marvin24)]

I think @elcste should close it, as he was the original reporter. If for some (unlikely) reason Questing will also include this bug, a new report would be good (this here is about Plucky).

[Peter (vp2177)]

I think it would be premature to close this. The fix hasn't reached plucky yet, if people upgrade today they will still end up with an unbootable Mac. Or not easily bootable without GRUB knowledge. Perhaps upgrades to 25.04 should be disabled for now?

And while the proposed 6.14.0-24.24 fixes the initial boot issue, resuming from suspend-to-RAM doesn't seem to work, the result is the same black screen. Apparently the CPUs aren't idle (are getting hot), but the fans aren't turning on in this state. If somebody leaves their Mac at that black screen for too long this can be dangerous...

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is awaiting verification that the linux-intel/6.14.0-1005.5 kernel in -proposed solves the problem. Please test the kernel and update this bug with the results. If the problem is solved, change the tag 'verification-needed-plucky-linux-intel' to 'verification-done-plucky-linux-intel'. If the problem still exists, change the tag 'verification-needed-plucky-linux-intel' to 'verification-failed-plucky-linux-intel'.

If verification is not done by 5 working days from today, this fix will be dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you!

[Bill Nickless (wknickless)]

Works in uname -a :

Linux aritrade 6.14.0-1006-realtime #6-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_RT Wed Jun 25 17:16:34 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Daniel Calcoen (daniel-calcoen)]

Works on iMac14,2

Linux iMac 6.14.0-24-generic #24-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sun Jun 15 11:18:07 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

using
linux-headers-6.14.0-24_6.14.0-24.24_all.deb
linux-headers-6.14.0-24-generic_6.14.0-24.24_amd64.deb
linux-modules-6.14.0-24-generic_6.14.0-24.24_amd64.deb
linux-modules-extra-6.14.0-24-generic_6.14.0-24.24_amd64.deb
linux-image-6.14.0-24-generic_6.14.0-24.24_amd64.deb

from https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/6.14.0-24.24