Nouveau Error while installing Ubuntu on Macbook Pro

Question

I installed Ubuntu 18.04.1 on a late 2010 Macbook pro. I deleted macOS to have Ubuntu as the primary OS. I was having trouble installing as it could not install the GRUB bootloader. I ended up creating an EFI partition and it installed no problem. After I restarted the computer to finish the installation, a screen came up with a bunch of codes with [OK} next to them, as well as the code

[ 1572.848299 ] nouveau 0000:04:00.0: fb: trapped read at 0100e22000 on channel -1 [0fedf000 unknown] engine 06 [BAR] client 08 [PFIFO_READ] subclient 01 [IN] reason 0000000b [VRAM_LIMIT]

It repeats these messages with different numbers just stays on this page for about 20 minutes until the screen glitches out and freezes.

Any thoughts on how to fix this?

Answer 1

As for now, nouveau drivers for macbook pro's Nvidia graphic card won't work with kernel 4.15 which is the default kernel installed with 18.04.1. If you still have access to an older kernel through GRUB, (e.g. kernel 4.13 if you updated your system from 17.10), it will probably work better, but it's just a workaround.

Nevertheless, if you want to use the 4.15 kernel, you should install Nvidia proprietary driver... but that comes with some problems (including the well known "I'm stuk on a black screen"). Read this perfect answer which explains how to install Nvidia proprietary driver on a 2010 Macbook pro and how to make it work.