Linux hardware crashes MacBookPro11,4

Issues & Assistance Unsupported hardware | Dual boot
1

Hello all,

I’m having a very weird issue with my 2015 retina Macbook Pro when attempting to run Garuda (or any other) linux on it. It will boot up all the way, then hardware crash (black screen, reboot) right before the login screen hits. MacOS and windows both have no issues with this laptop and apple diagnostics (D key) and memtest have verified good hardware. There are two ways to get around this issue seemingly…

  1. Disconnect the trackpad internally. This makes no sense to me why it would allow linux to run properly, but it does.

  2. When linux boots, suspend the system, then wake it back up before the login screen appears (recovery mode is a great way to achieve this). On older Kernels, this solution allowed the macbook to run linux smoothly for quite a few hours before crashing. On newer kernels, it’s hit or miss.

What I also find odd it that there is nothing in the journal that points me to what the issue is…

INXI 
System:
  Kernel: 6.5.3-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
    clocksource: tsc available: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
    root=UUID=189f3d17-46b7-4000-9e7e-7cc8431344b3 rw single
    rootflags=subvol=@
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.8 tk: Qt v: 5.15.10 info: latte-dock
    wm: kwin_x11 vt: 2 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBookPro11,4 v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 9 v: Mac-06F11FD93F0323C5
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-06F11FD93F0323C5 v: MacBookPro11,4
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Apple v: 481.0.0.0.0 date: 01/12/2023
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard K400
    serial: <filter> charge: 50% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
    status: N/A
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-4770HQ bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell
    gen: core 4 level: v3 note: check built: 2013-15 process: Intel 22nm
    family: 6 model-id: 0x46 (70) stepping: 1 microcode: 0x1C
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB
    L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3074 high: 3400 min/max: 800/3400 scaling:
    driver: intel_cpufreq governor: performance cores: 1: 3400 2: 3400 3: 3400
    4: 798 5: 3400 6: 3400 7: 3400 8: 3400 bogomips: 35119
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities: <filter>
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Crystal Well Integrated Graphics vendor: Apple driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-11 process: Intel 10nm built: 2019-21 ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2, HDMI-A-3
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0d26 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.0
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,intel,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2880x1800 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 762x476mm (30.00x18.74")
    s-diag: 898mm (35.37")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Apple Color LCD built: 2015 res: 2880x1800 hz: 60
    dpi: 221 gamma: 1.2 size: 331x207mm (13.03x8.15") diag: 390mm (15.4")
    ratio: 16:10 modes: 2880x1800
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.1.7-arch1.1 renderer: Mesa Intel Iris Pro
    Graphics P5200 (HSW GT3) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Crystal Well HD Audio vendor: Apple driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:0d0c class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:8c20
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Broadcom 720p FaceTime HD Camera driver: N/A pcie: gen: 2
    speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1570 class-ID: 0480
  API: ALSA v: k6.5.3-zen1-1-zen status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: N/A
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.80 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM43602 802.11ac Wireless LAN SoC vendor: Apple
    driver: brcmfmac v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:43ba class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Apple Bluetooth Host Controller driver: btusb,hid-generic,usbhid
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-8:4
    chip-ID: 05ac:8290 class-ID: fe01
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.2
    lmp-v: 8 status: discoverable: no pairing: no class-ID: 7c010c
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 704.24 GiB used: 35.99 GiB (5.1%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Toshiba
    model: KXG50ZNV256G NVMe 256GB size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter>
    fw-rev: AADA4105 temp: 40.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS545050A7E680
    size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: USB
    rev: 2.1 spd: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 tech: HDD rpm: 5400
    serial: <filter> scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 48.83 GiB size: 48.83 GiB (100.00%) used: 35.7 GiB (73.1%)
    fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 200 MiB size: 196.9 MiB (98.45%)
    used: 8.5 MiB (4.3%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 64.45 GiB size: 64.45 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 285.6 MiB (0.4%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4
  ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 48.83 GiB size: 48.83 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 35.7 GiB (73.1%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
  ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 48.83 GiB size: 48.83 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 35.7 GiB (73.1%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 15.5 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    comp: zstd avail: lzo,lzo-rle,lz4,lz4hc,842 max-streams: 8 dev: /dev/zram0
  ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 5.86 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 maj-min: 259:5
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 58.0 C pch: 55.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 245 Uptime: 7m wakeups: 5 Memory: total: 16 GiB
  available: 15.5 GiB used: 2.07 GiB (13.3%) Init: systemd v: 254
  default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1 clang: 16.0.6
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1910 libs: 538 tools: octopi,paru Shell: fish
  v: 3.6.1 default: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.29
Garuda (2.6.16-1):
  System install date:     2023-09-19
  Last full system update: 2023-09-19
  Is partially upgraded:   Yes
  Relevant software:       snapper NetworkManager mkinitcpio
  Windows dual boot:       No/Undetected
  Failed units:
Sample Journalctl

Garuda's PrivateBin

2

Have you reset the power manager (SMC) and PRAM yet?

1 Like
3

Please repair this condition , which can cause innumerable negative outcomes. It’s a bad, bad place to be.

5 Likes
4

Update: it seems as though the GPU chip power management may be bad. It crashes the system under heavy load in every OS.

How I figured this out:

  1. Connecting the macbook to a external monitor causes GPU artifacts. Suspending the system and waking it up removed these artifacts.

  2. Disconnecting the trackpad cable causes the macbook pro hardware to throttle itself significantly (ahh. Pure apple design.) Assuming this is power issue, it would make sense why down clocking the GPU would make it relatively stable.

1 Like
5

Yes. That was tried.

1 Like
6

Are the cooling fans still functional?

7

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