Bootloader installer fails for Fedora 37 on MacBook Pro 2015 - Manjaro installs fine on the same machine

Ask Fedora
1

When installing Fedora 37 on a MacBook Pro 2015, I get the following error:

Bootloader installation has failed: Failed to set new efi boot target. This is most likely a kernel or firmware bug.

…with this context:

INFO:program:Running in chroot '/mnt/sysroot'... efibootmgr -c -w -L Fedora -d /dev/sda -p 1 -l \EFI\fedora\shimx64.efi
INFO:program:efibootmgr: ** Warning ** : Boot0000 has same label Fedora
INFO:program:efibootmgr: ** Warning ** : Boot0001 has same label Fedora
INFO:program:Could not prepare Boot variable: Invalid argument
DEBUG:program:Return code: 5
INFO:program:Running in chroot '/mnt/sysroot'... grub2-mkrelpath /boot/grub2
INFO:program:/grub2
DEBUG:program:Return code: 0
INFO:anaconda.modules.storage.bootloader.grub2:bootloader.py: used boot args: rhgb quiet 
INFO:program:Running in chroot '/mnt/sysroot'... grub2-set-default 611ca740fd6847ee929a9c194741d33f-6.0.7-301.fc37.x86_64
DEBUG:program:Return code: 0
INFO:program:Running in chroot '/mnt/sysroot'... grub2-editenv - set menu_auto_hide=1 boot_success=1
DEBUG:program:Return code: 0
INFO:program:Running in chroot '/mnt/sysroot'... grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
INFO:program:Generating grub configuration file ...
INFO:program:Found Mac OS X on /dev/sda1
INFO:program:Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
INFO:program:done
DEBUG:program:Return code: 0
ERROR:anaconda.modules.storage.bootloader.installation:Bootloader installation has failed: Failed to set new efi boot target. This is most likely a kernel or firmware bug.

The context is that I’m installing from a Fedora Live USB stick with the SSD of the MBP formatted to be empty with the Live USB stick’s “Disks” utility prior to attempting to install with any of the three partitioning options (automatic, custom, custom alternate GUI) – the error is always the same.

Any ideas for what to try next?

UPDATE: I tried installing the latest Manjaro Linux and it installed completely fine, no problem. So it seems to me this is either a bug in the Fedora 37 installer or missing support for Macs, the latter which doesn’t seem likely due to many people on the Internet saying they have successfully installed Fedora on a Mac.

1 Like
2

Got the exact same error message while installing Fedora Linux 37 Server on an Apple MacMini from 2012… I let it continue its install and after a reboot, everything runs as expected…

3

For me it just shows the white-on-black boot menu with one option, and when I select that, it gives me an error about firmware boot not supported or something like that (I’m guessing due to Macs not supporting that or similar), so I think it means there are no valid boot options available.

UPDATE: I tried installing the latest Manjaro Linux and it installed completely fine, no problem. So it seems to me this is either a bug in the Fedora 37 installer or missing support for Macs, the latter which doesn’t seem likely due to many people on the Internet saying they have successfully installed Fedora on a Mac.

4

Same problem on a mid 2014 Macbook Pro.
Looks like there is a bug on the Fedora 37 installer regarding UEFI on macs…

But it is only with the installer, Fedora 37 works flawlesly. What I did to overcome the bug was to first install Fedora 36 and then upgrade to 37. No problem at all.

Here is a link on how to upgrade from 36 to 37, both with GUI or terminal.

PS: take into account that mac drivers may not work because of the kernel upgrade, I had to reinstall the wifi drivers.
This is what I did:

sudo dnf install broadcom-wl
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe wl

more info

Hope it helps and have a great day enjoying Fedora!

5

Running into the same issue on a late 2013 iMac.

Edit: this seems like a bug so I opened 2148206 – F37: Bootloader installer fails on early-mid-2010s Apple hardware

1 Like
6

Hi, same issue when trying to install Fedora 37 on my macbook pro 2011

7

Mac is a strange beast with closed source undocumented hardware and heavily modified undocumented known things like EFI. Fedora is also strange being a spin of Red Hat Enterprise Linux used on high end HPC clusters with information here : https://www.redhat.com/en with latest cutting edge ressources targeted towards system administrators and advanced users. Advice : explore System76 or similar open source hardware or a simple ordinary device as Linux uses very small ressources …

Manjaro isn’t better or worse … just targeted towards a different audience. Fedora isn’t at odds against Apple, just saying ‘sorry, won’t work as this point of software development’.

8

I had a similar experience as Xavi on a 2013 imac. In my case, the last fedora 37 beta did work, so maybe the bug came after that but before the final release.

9

I’m seeing this bug on a 2017 Macbook. Does anyone know if it’s being worked on?

10

Same issue here on 2008 MBP and 2010 Mac Book Air.

11

I have a MacBook Pro mid 2012. Originally installed Fedora 36 from a USB created with Bellena Etcher. As per suggestions I connected the ethernet cable do be able to download updates necessary for WIFI card. Installation was successful. Then I decided to try UltraMarine which is based on Fedora as well. Installation of UltraMarine was successful but the wifi card was not recognized. I didn’t feel like fiddling with it plus the Budgie Desktop was not what I was expecting. Decided then to do a fresh install of Fedora 37 and that’s when I encountered the issue. Decided to let it run and rebooted. The only available option was :

UEFI Firmware Settings

If anyone has any suggestions much appreciated. For now I will attempt a Fedora 36 Install again and then do an upgrade.

EDIT:
Flashed a Fedora 36 ISO image to a USB drive and installation completed successfully. I will now proceed to do the upgrade.

12

The log message is typical of EFI Secure Boot not accepting new OS having already a licence key being Apple OS. The only workaround is a patch with different versions in GitHub changing this and that used in Linux distributions but refused by Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora as sticking to canonical implementation of EFI that’s a good thing.

13

I have the same issue with my MacBookPro late 2013. The Fedora 37 mac-efi boot is not working. As workaround I installed F36 and then upgraded to F37. Works fine!

1 Like
14

Brilliant workaround.
It gives me confidence to try installing it on an external USB disk. It boots up without any errors
but it displays:

Non-secure boot 14

I booted up from Ventoy and once selecting the iso, chose Grub2.

The Magic Mouse does not detect, but it does with a a USB optical mouse. Tomorrow I will install 36 on an external hard drive and make it the startup disk. If that goes well, I will try the upgrade to 37.

15

Same issue on a Macbook Pro 2010 and a Macbook Pro 2011. The same Macbook Pro 2011 on a different device does run Fedora 37 obtained by upgrading Fedora 36. It is not a kernel bug and it is not a firmware bug, it is an installer bug. Unfortunately, I erased my F36 on USB with F37. F36 can still be found apparently here.

16

Fedora 36 is still available from here (among others) as the iso without using torrent, or directly from fedora here

17

I found this other article possibly showing the same problem and a solution.

18

I have the same problem with Fedora 37 and Macbook Air 2013.

I am able to install Fedora 36, Fedora 37 beta (from timemachine), and Rawhide.

Only Fedora 37 fails to set the new EFI boot target.

19

I tried this solution and worked very well. Good to know what is the real technical problem and how to solve it:

20

I got Fedora 37 installed by creating a bootable usb using Fedora Media Writer with this iso: F37-WORK-x86_64-LIVE-20230316.iso found here.

No grub, no terminal and no installing Fedora 36, just the normal installation without any problems.

I guess if you wait long enough the problem solves itself.