Cannot enter LUKS password on MacBook Pro 2017, the built-in keyboard does not work

Hello,

Context

My friend wants to try out Fedora 35 on his MacBook Pro 2017 (no touchbar) but he doesn’t want to replace his macOS on the internal drive.
We installed Fedora on an external drive by using my MacBook Air 2012. The system boots-up just fine on his 2017 MBP but…

Issue

The built-in MBP 2017 keyboard does not work, we cannot enter any symbols. The Enter and Esc keyboard keys are not responsive as well.

The only way to enter the LUKS password is to connect an external USB keyboard. Once fully-booted, the built-in MBP keyboard works just fine.

Failed troubleshooting attempts

Would you be able to help us out with enabling the built-in MBP keyboard on the LUKS password-prompt screen?

We’d greatly appreciate your help!

I guess the easiest way would be that you install it on the external HD using the MBP 2017.

Did you try with a live cd/usb if fedora recognizes the keyboard of MBP 2017 while just booting.

Hello,

I had a similar issue with a MacBookPro14,1 which, accordingly with this website, should be a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports).

To enable the keyboard in order to unlock luks during the boot I had to

  1. create a file /etc/dracut.conf.d/keyboard.conf adding the following:
#  load all drivers needed for the keyboard+touchpad
add_drivers+=" applespi intel_lpss_pci spi_pxa2xx_platform "
  1. save and then ran as root:
# dracut -f /boot/initramfs-5.16.14-200.fc35.x86_64.img 5.16.14-200.fc35.x86_64

Please note that you must use the kernel version currently running on your system.
You may want to make a copy of the original initramfs so that you can recover quickly if something goes wrong.

Hope this helps.

3 Likes

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2166209