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Has anyone run into issues installing ubuntu 18.04 on an external ssd drive using the mac mini 2018? I'm receiving error message regarding the thunderbolt ports on the mac mini during the installation.

Robert Webb
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After struggling with this for many hours I thought I'd provide an updated write-up for installing Ubuntu 20.04 on a Mac mini 2018 running macOS Catalina.

The most important sources turned out to be a great answer here that also covers installing Windows, but lacks information about installing on newer Macs with a T2 chip. Another source is this Reddit post which, however, is more complicated than necessary IMO. So here goes:

Preparations

For the installation, you're going to need a bootable USB stick and a partition on your Mac's internal drive or an external drive where the final installation shall reside.

  1. Follow the instructions in the link above for creating the boot stick.
  2. For the Linux partition, open Disk Utility, select the hard drive where you want to install Ubuntu and click "Partition". You are going to need at least 25 GB - I chose to allocate 50 GB which is enough for my use case.
  3. Select your new partition and click "Erase". Choose some name like "UBUNTU", Format "MS-DOS (FAT)" and Scheme "GUID Partition Map".

Boot and Install Ubuntu

  1. Disable the T2 Boot Security: Reboot and hold Command+R. Start the "Startup Security Utility". Select "No Security" and "Allow Booting from External Drive".
  2. Reboot your Mac and hold the Option key while it is starting. Select the "EFI Drive" - that is the boot stick you just created. You're presented with various options of which you'll choose the first one "Ubuntu".
  3. In the dialog that will appear, select "Try Ubuntu" to enter a live session.
  4. Now comes the part that took me forever to figure out: launch the Ubuntu installer via terminal with the command ubiquity -b. This way the installer won't try to install the GRUB boot manager which always failed for me. A warning will appear, that deprecated modules are being used. This seems to be due to ubiquity's implementation and can be ignored. Just wait for the installer window to appear and then proceed (this can take a few seconds).
  5. When asked where to install, select "Something Different". Highlight the previously created partition (the 50 GB one in my case) and click "Change". Select ext4 formatting, click the checkbox that you want the partition to be formatted and enter "/" (without quotes) as "Mount point".
  6. If you're on an external drive, be sure to select the right partition in the drop down menu (not just the drive). Then continue the installation.

Install rEFInd

Installing Ubuntu without its boot manager GRUB means that you cannot easily start it by holding Option when booting your Mac. That's why you'll install rEFInd which replaces the default boot manager of your Mac.

  1. Enter your Mac's recovery options by restaring and holding command+R. There, open a terminal and execute csrutil disable. Do not forget turning this back on again later!
  2. Boot back into macOS by restarting. You may have to hold Option and select your Macintosh-HD drive.
  3. Download from the link above.
  4. Open a new Terminal, drag "refind-install" into your terminal window and execute it by pressing Enter.
  5. Now you repeat step 1, this time typing csrutilenable.

Done

Everything should work fine now. When you turn on your Mac, you're presented with the rEFInd screen where you can select which OS to boot. Have fun!

Notes

  • It seems some driver issues that previously existed (e.g. Bluetooth, affecting Magic Keyboard & Mouse) have been sorted out in the latest version of Ubuntu. One problem I did encounter was that scrolling on my Magic Mouse 2 didn't work. For that, consult this post.
  • As noted by David Anderson (see comments below), it is important to install Ubuntu first and rEFInd second.
Community
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japhwil
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  • In Preparations, step 2: I think you mean to create the new partition on your internal drive - NOT on the USB. IMHO, you could improve the answer by making that a bit more clear. – Seamus Jun 04 '20 at 10:05
  • In my case, I also wish to install Ubuntu 20.04 alongside macOS (i.e. dual boot), but on a late-2011 Macbook Pro currently running High Sierra. There is no T2 chip in this system. Can this step simply be omitted? If so, a couple of words to make that clear would help. – Seamus Jun 04 '20 at 10:09
  • Step 3 under Boot & Install Ubuntu states, launch the Ubuntu installer via terminal with the command ubiquity -b. But this Ubuntu documentation does not show the -b option. Could you please reference the documentation for this? – Seamus Jun 04 '20 at 10:15
  • For "extra credit" you may wish to take a look at questions I've posted on this topic here recently: (Q1 and Q2). I'd love to accept & upvote if they work for me! – Seamus Jun 04 '20 at 10:18
  • Thanks for the feedback @Seamus! I've updated the Preparations section of my answer. – japhwil Jun 04 '20 at 10:52
  • I also couldn't find proper documentation of the installer's -b option, but I've made a screenshot for you: https://imgur.com/a/olGvHpf – japhwil Jun 04 '20 at 10:53
  • And finally, I tried to answer the questions you linked. I didn't edit the answer here in that regard, because the question specifically refers to installation on a Mac mini 2018. – japhwil Jun 04 '20 at 10:54
  • I though Ubuntu could not be installed to the internal drive on a 2018 Mac Mini. Your answer does not explicitly state that you have done so. So I will ask: Have you successfully install Ubuntu 20.04 to the internal drive on a 2018 Mac mini? – David Anderson Jun 04 '20 at 14:08
  • @Seamus: You can go through the extra effort that may be required when the Mac has a T2 chip or one of these new onboard PCIe drives. However, your late-2011 17" macbook pro has neither of these. – David Anderson Jun 04 '20 at 14:18
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    @DavidAnderson Yes, I did install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on the internal SSD of a Mac mini 2018. I did a complete reinstall and update of macOS Catalina before performing the steps that I describe above. I am updating the answer to reflect that. – japhwil Jun 04 '20 at 14:25
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    Let us continue this discussion in chat. – japhwil Jun 04 '20 at 17:24
  • Good to know! I did verify the Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop installer can read the 2018 Mac mini internal drive, but stopped there and did not actually install Ubuntu. I put a link from my answer to your answer, so Ask Difference users can find your answer. Note to other readers: Ubuntu should be installed before rEFInd. Otherwise, the ext4_x64.efi driver may not be installed which is required for booting without GRUB. – David Anderson Jun 04 '20 at 17:28
  • Sorry to say this does not work for me. After booting from the USB, the GRUB menu appears offering 5 choices: Ubuntu, Ubuntu (safe graphcs), OEM install), Boot from next volume, UEFI firmware settings. IAW yr recipe, I selected Ubuntu, but never encountered a point at which to run ubiquity -b. When I aborted the install & went to Live system, I started a terminal, ran man ubiquity. There was no -b option offered. Started over 3 times, but never found what you refer to in your answer.??? – Seamus Jun 07 '20 at 03:33
  • Update to previous comment re ubiquity -b. It appears that it does work even though it acts as if it has erred & quit (see chat for details). However, this is a point of confusion - your answer would be much better if you could prepare the reader for how and when to start the terminal app, AND for what happens after the command is run. It really works like a charm, but it's incredibly confusing now. – Seamus Jun 07 '20 at 07:34
  • Hi @Seamus, I've updated the answer to clear up confusion due to this deprecation message. Hope it's clearer now. – japhwil Jun 08 '20 at 10:35
  • It is clearer now - I wish I could give you another upvote. The ultimate clarity would be some screenshots of the Ubuntu installer screens (during this phase in particular). @DavidAnderson shared with me how he has done this: VirtualBox(https://www.virtualbox.org/). Brilliant idea really - he's truly thinking outside the box! :) He also mentioned some limitations with this approach due to the secret status of Apple's APFS. At any rate - good show, and I appreciate you showing me the way ahead. David's approach works also of course, but I had discounted it due to my own faulty reasoning. – Seamus Jun 08 '20 at 19:57
  • @Seamus Can you give a link about the virtual box solution? – Bomin Nov 10 '20 at 05:47
  • @japhwil what if there's anything wrong when I install Ubuntu? Can I still remove the partition created for Ubuntu? I'm trying to understand if there's anything wrong, can I get this mac back like I have not tried to install Ubuntu on it. – Bomin Nov 10 '20 at 06:06
  • @Bomin: I would if I could. IIRC, this was David Anderson's work that he shared with me in the forum section. – Seamus Nov 10 '20 at 06:10
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    @Bomin Yes, using Disk Utility in macOS you can always just delete any partitions you created. – japhwil Nov 11 '20 at 07:05
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    I followed thease steps and ended up with just the OSX an no Ubuntu under refinf menu. macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 on Macbook Pro Late 2010 + Ubuntu Desktop 20.10 – WordPress Speed Apr 25 '21 at 22:14
  • I installed Ubuntu onto another partition on the internal drive and rEFInd seems to only show Windows/bootcamp and MacOS in it bootloader. I also installed in the order recommended (ubuntu, then rEFInd). Any other ideas? – Chris Smith May 31 '22 at 02:58
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I successfully installed 19.04 on the Mac Mini 2018. Had to add kernel params noapic efi=noruntime to USB Live Media to boot into live mode. Then I installed it onto an external USB-C drive and also added the aforementioned params to the GRUB config.

Now I can boot Ubuntu 19.04 from the external USB-C drive, but without some drivers (e.g. bluetooth and audio are not working).

damadam
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those
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From what I've gathered, Apple is giving the middle finder to third party OS's (other than Windows) with the T2-enabled machines, at least by default. You have to go into recovery mode and disable Secure Boot before running anything other than macOS, even on an external drive.