Problems of Installation on macOS 10.14 Mojave

[Koma Kurt]

Hi there, they told me to send my question to this mailing list ..hope you can help me guys;-)

Hi there im new to Qubes OS and i want to install it on external ssd...
rEFInd 0.11.4 is already installed and macOS is updated to macOS 10.14 Mojave.
Wanna install it on MacBook Pro (Retina 13 Zoll, Anfang 2015).
I downloaded Qubes-R4.0.1-rc1-x86_64 ISO and dd ed it on a boot stick..

Now reboot my macbook...
there are now 3 options to boot from:
-->legacy mode (doesnt work)
-->vmlinuz (doesnt work -->freeze install progress @ dracut......with 4 penguins
-->fallback...it works installer starts but then where i have to choose language ..i cant choose cause the keyboard and trackpad are frozen :-/
the xen.efi is also missing or broken...

@eduncan911
you write above Apple hardware has been fixed: QubesOS/qubes-installer-qubes-os#20 ...
can you please tell me (step-by-step)

1. for what is the qubes-installer-qubes-os used for (to build iso?)
2. how to Compile/ build / use qubes-installer-qubes-os ??
   i couldnt figure out how to use this repo cause there is no README file ??
   Do i have to make it like the qubes builder? does it output an ISO ?

@marmarek
is there a way how i could build my own iso with all the fixes inside which works on my macbook?
i read in the issues that the problems where fixed but i didnt know how to fix it ..
could you please so kind to give me step-by-step instructions on which files i have to change before building the iso? can i build the iso in debian or only Fedora?

You are my last chance how to get answers ...i crawled the whole Internet to find some useful tipps and read every page of the documentation of cause macbook troubleshooting but with no success:-(
Could anyone add a README file to QubesOS/qubes-installer-qubes-os ...it wont only useful for me ..i think it would be great for everybody whos new to Qubes OS

Thanks sooooo much for your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[awokd]

Koma Kurt wrote on 11/20/18 7:23 PM:

> Hi there, they told me to send my question to this mailing list ..hope you can help me guys;-)
>
> Hi there im new to Qubes OS and i want to install it on external ssd...
> rEFInd 0.11.4 is already installed and macOS is updated to macOS 10.14 Mojave.
> Wanna install it on MacBook Pro (Retina 13 Zoll, Anfang 2015).
> I downloaded Qubes-R4.0.1-rc1-x86_64 ISO and dd ed it on a boot stick..
>
> Now reboot my macbook...
> there are now 3 options to boot from:
> -->legacy mode (doesnt work)
> -->vmlinuz (doesnt work -->freeze install progress @ dracut......with 4 penguins
> -->fallback...it works installer starts but then where i have to choose language ..i cant choose cause the keyboard and trackpad are frozen :-/
> the xen.efi is also missing or broken...
>

> @eduncan911 <https://github.com/eduncan911>
> you write above Apple hardware has been fixed: QubesOS/qubes-installer-qubes-os#20 <https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-installer-qubes-os/pull/20> ...

> can you please tell me (step-by-step)
>
> for what is the qubes-installer-qubes-os used for (to build iso?)
> how to Compile/ build / use qubes-installer-qubes-os ??
> i couldnt figure out how to use this repo cause there is no README file ??
> Do i have to make it like the qubes builder? does it output an ISO ?

> @marmarek <https://github.com/marmarek>

> is there a way how i could build my own iso with all the fixes inside which works on my macbook?
> i read in the issues that the problems where fixed but i didnt know how to fix it ..
> could you please so kind to give me step-by-step instructions on which files i have to change before building the iso? can i build the iso in debian or only Fedora?
>
> You are my last chance how to get answers ...i crawled the whole Internet to find some useful tipps and read every page of the documentation of cause macbook troubleshooting but with no success:-(
> Could anyone add a README file to QubesOS/qubes-installer-qubes-os ...it wont only useful for me ..i think it would be great for everybody whos new to Qubes OS
>
> Thanks sooooo much for your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>

It looks like
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-installer-qubes-os/pull/20 was already
merged, so you shouldn't have to do anything special with repos. Try
booting from the installer USB directly in legacy or EFI mode, without
rEFInd?

[micr0....@gmail.com]

Ive downloaded the latest Qubes ISO from their homepage and dd ' ed onto 64 GB Sandisk USB 3.0 ... How to boot legacy or EFI ? w/ o rEFInd ?
If you mean rebooting and holding alt key then choose boot stick then i have to say that it didn‘t work... i only get a grey screen.... in rEFInd the legacy boot didn‘t work too..

[Eric Duncan]

On Tuesday, November 20, 2018 at 2:23:13 PM UTC-5, Koma Kurt wrote:
>
> Hi there im new to Qubes OS and i want to install it on external ssd...
>

Btw, this is exactly how I install Qubes R4 (and RCs) for all the testing I did. I installed Qubes OS on an M.2 USB3.0 adapter that uses the ASM1153E chipset, so it acts as an external HDD. Though a lot of my devices don't support SSD HDD booting, my Macbook Pro 2014 does and works fine with it.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2RP5G19609

What I did is simply down the ISO and used Etcher to write to a USB3.0 stick. Then I rebooted with that stick, holding down OPTION key and select "EFI Boot" to boot the stick.

I then immediately insert the USB SSD enclosure AFTER it starts to boot. I do this because if you have it in any sooner, than the OPTION boot process sees it and doesn't allow the USB stick to boot.

> rEFInd 0.11.4 is already installed and macOS is updated to macOS 10.14 Mojave.
>

> ...
>
> there are now 3 options to boot from:
>
> -->legacy mode (doesnt work)
>
> -->vmlinuz (doesnt work -->freeze install progress @ dracut......with 4 penguins
>
> -->fallback...it works installer starts but then where i have to
> choose language ..i cant choose cause the keyboard and trackpad are
> frozen :-/
>
> the xen.efi is also missing or broken...
> @eduncan911
>
> you write above Apple hardware has been fixed: QubesOS/qubes-installer-qubes-os#20 ...
>
> can you please tell me (step-by-step)
>

Do not use rEFInd. Or rather, Qubes doesn't support it nor have I even touched it. None of my macs (I have 3) has any boot manager installed. Just plan macOS and my USB boot stick I carry round.

In short, when using a true UEFI BIOS to boot Qubes OS, Qubes R4 will only configure the boot partition to boot the Xen.efi file directly - no EFI boot manager is installed nor used.

Xen supplies an xen.efi wrapper binary that will handle the boot sequence.

The downside to this approach is that you can't pass any parameters to the Xen EFI process - you can only tweak the efi.cfg file for boot params and kernel options.

Depending on your mac, you sometimes have to disable nomodeset or intel i915s to get things to boot.

> for what is the qubes-installer-qubes-os used for (to build iso?)
> how to Compile/ build / use qubes-installer-qubes-os ??
>
> i couldnt figure out how to use this repo cause there is no README file ??
>
> Do i have to make it like the qubes builder? does it output an ISO ?
>

I started with R4 rc3, and went to rc4 and rc5 and now R4 RTM ISOs directly from the downloads. No special builds.

Note, I have had several corrupt downloads and corrupt USB writes to USB sticks. Please always verify the ISO after downloading with at least md5sum. Etcher has built in "Verify" support - but sometimes it still corrupts. I end up writing to 2 or 3 USB sticks until one works.

> @marmarek
>
> is there a way how i could build my own iso with all the fixes inside which works on my macbook?
>
> i read in the issues that the problems where fixed but i didnt know how to fix it ..
>

So about that... That's been the biggest PITA for me. I am surrounded by no less 8 different PCs and laptops and tablets - and none of them helped me get the Broadcom drivers installed for my Macbook Pro 2014 Retina (15"). It is super annoying, no matter the dozen blog pops you follow online for Fedora kernels and all...

I can't recall on exactly which combination I did before... But I know my USB SSD enclosure worked on my late-2015 iMac 27" Retina 5k - with nomodeset if I recall. The GUI was painfully slow at that resolution (like 0.25 FPS!!!), but I was able to change the resolution and get a partially using system. I think that is where I installed the dkms drivers manually for the Fedora kernel in dom0 for the broadcom drivers.

Truth be told though, since my Mid-2015 Macbook Pro 15" retina uses an "Nvidia" GPU, not an AMD like the 2015, it's been a real PITA since I can't control the optimus easily. Battery life sucks as the GPU is always on and no matter how I configure the vendor for backlights, I can't control the retina-eyeball-burning brightness. You may have better luck with the AMD card in the 2015 edition you have I believe.

In the end, after tinkering with it off and on for 8 months, Ive given up and just ordered a Thinkpad P1 over the Blackfriday weekend. They had a special of 20% off for Thanksgiving (expired last night). You can still call them and tell them about the website problems over the last several days of "Under maintenance" and they will give it to you over the phone. The trick is to add it to your cart first, then "Save for later" so when on the phone, add it back to cart and given them the cart number. They will credit it over the phone.

I digress though... I still may have serious issues with Optimus and the Thinkpad P1 graphics, reading that the dGPU can't be disabled in the BIOS. Oh well. I plan on fiddling with Bumblebee and trying my luck with it. Worse case, I go back to Xen on Arch Linux and just run the VMs myself with VNC sessions.

I expect to continue helping to improve Qubes by submitting more PRs in the future, and experiencing the pain by others.

[Eric Duncan]

Oh, one other thing to note in the PR that was merged... I added an 00-README.txt to the /boot/EFI partition of Qubes.

Here's a trick to tweak Qubes settings over and over, especially on Macs...

You can boot into macOS normally. You should seen the EFI boot partition mounted under /Volumes/. It is a fat32 partition.

As soon as you browse into this location, you'll see the 00-README.txt where I explain how to open the xen.cfg file and tweak the parameters of your boot kernel and xen.efi options.

So if you are having problems booting Xen.efi on a device, you should be able to boot with another OS (e.g. a Ubuntu Live USB stick, or Arch Linux Installer stick, or even macOS if installed on the same machine, etc) and edit the fat32 boot partition manually to tweak the configuration.

[micr0....@gmail.com]

Thanks do you have a Link to the merged PR..
then you mean mounting the installer usb in macOS
cd to /Volumes and then cd into stick? Or mount macOS EFI and cd into the EFI ?

[Eric Duncan]

On Saturday, November 24, 2018 at 4:54:13 PM UTC-5, micr0....@gmail.com wrote:
> Thanks do you have a Link to the merged PR..

Sorry for the delay.

All work was here:

https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-installer-qubes-os/pull/20

> then you mean mounting the installer usb in macOS
> cd to /Volumes and then cd into stick? Or mount macOS EFI and cd into the EFI ?

If you have a dual-boot setup, or installed Qubes to a USB stick, when you boot macOS normally you'll see a new mount for HFS+ on your desktop (or after you plug in the USB stick). You'll see the 00-README.txt in the root of that EFI partition when you open it.

If you don't have a dual-boot, you'll need to boot off of some other Live USB boot disk. I personally prefer Arch Linux as I am used to its utility stack. But you could also easily boot a Ubuntu Desktop Live USB (normal USB install, just asks as an option on grub when booting).

Once you boot that Live USB and at the desktop, you can then drop to a terminal and run "lsblk" to see what disks and partitions you have. You should be able to easily identify the /dev/sdXy disk and partition that has the 200 MB EFI HFS+ format. Mount it as rw and then you can read the readme, and make changes to the Xen.cfg file.