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Installation

The installation starts in macOS and continues in Fedora:

  1. In macOS Recovery, disable Secure Boot and allow booting from external media.
  2. In macOS, create a separate partition for Fedora.
  3. Boot macOS and run the KAIT2EN installer.
  4. Choose a supported Fedora edition and an empty USB drive.
  5. The installer downloads and verifies the official Fedora image.
  6. It collects the Apple Wi-Fi firmware from your Mac and, where required, the PCIe Bluetooth firmware.
  7. It writes the unchanged Fedora image to the USB drive, then adds separate KAIT2EN boot files for keyboard, trackpad, firmware, and installer support.
  8. Boot the USB drive and install Fedora. After the first login, the guided KAIT2EN setup installs the remaining drivers and system integration.
  9. After another reboot, you can enjoy KAIT2EN on top of vanilla Fedora.

The installer currently supports Fedora Workstation, Fedora KDE Desktop and Fedora COSMIC Spin. We strongly recommend installing Workstation (Gnome) because that is what we devs use ourselves. KDE and Cosmic are generally more problematic. We can't help you with that because we don't use it.

Before you start

You need:

  • a T2 Mac with macOS still installed
  • an empty USB drive
  • an internet connection in macOS

Back up important data before changing partitions or boot settings.

Keep macOS installed. It is the clean source for Apple firmware and can recover T2/bridgeOS hardware states.

Disable Apple Secure Boot

  • Shut down the Mac.
  • Turn it on and immediately hold Command-R until macOS Recovery starts.
  • Select a macOS administrator account and enter its password when prompted.
  • From the menu bar, open Utilities > Startup Security Utility.
  • Select the macOS system disk if the utility asks for one.
  • Set the following options:

Secure Boot: No Security

Allowed Boot Media: Allow booting from external or removable media

  • Close Startup Security Utility and restart into macOS.

Apple Secure Boot cannot boot standard Fedora while it is enabled. The installer checks the current setting and warns when it cannot confirm that Secure Boot is disabled.

Create space for Fedora

Open Disk Utility in macOS. Select the internal macOS disk or container, choose Partition, and add a real exFAT partition for Fedora. Do not add an APFS volume. Fedora will reformat this partition during installation; exFAT only makes it easy to identify.

Choose the size carefully because resizing the partitions later is not a small maintenance task. Keep at least 50 GB for macOS so there is enough space for updates, firmware work, and recovery tasks. Give the remaining space you want to use for Linux to the new partition.

Do not delete the EFI partition or macOS.

Create the Fedora USB drive

Boot macOS and connect the empty USB drive. Open Terminal and run:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/kaiT2en/KaiT2en-Fedora/releases/latest/download/install-kait2en-fedora.sh | bash

Choose the Fedora desktop and USB drive. The script downloads and verifies the official Fedora image, finds the Apple Wi-Fi firmware used by this Mac and asks for an exact confirmation before erasing the USB drive.

The official Fedora image itself is not modified. After writing the verified vanilla image, the script adds KAIT2EN boot files only to the USB drive's EFI partition. Separate initramfs overlays provide the temporary input drivers and installer integration at boot; Fedora's live system and installation payload remain unchanged.

Be exact when selecting the drive. All data on it will be destroyed.

Install Fedora

Shut down or reboot the Mac. Hold Option during startup and select the orange EFI Boot entry for the Fedora USB drive. The KAIT2EN Fedora entry starts automatically.

Keyboard, trackpad, and Wi-Fi should work in the live system and installer. The live system installs the Apple Wi-Fi firmware from the USB drive for itself, so you can connect to a network before or instead of installing Fedora.

Macs whose Bluetooth controller sits on PCIe (BCM4377) also get their Apple Bluetooth firmware in the live system, so a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse can be paired before installing. Every other T2 Mac drives Bluetooth over UART and needs no separate firmware file.

Install Fedora normally. Use custom partitioning and select the Linux partition you created in macOS. Do not erase the whole disk or macOS. When reinstalling, format an existing Linux /boot partition so old kernels do not fill it.

After installation finishes, remove the USB drive and boot the installed Fedora system.

If the live system does not start

The boot menu offers a few troubleshooting entries that are only needed when the normal boot does not work. Try them in this order and stop at the first one that works:

  1. Troubleshooting: KaiT2en with boot messages shows the console instead of the logo. Photograph the last lines for a bug report.
  2. Troubleshooting: KaiT2en with the dedicated GPU disabled keeps amdgpu out of the boot and leaves the Intel GPU fully accelerated.
  3. Troubleshooting: KaiT2en with basic graphics adds nomodeset. Rendering is done in software and feels slow, but it can run the installation.
  4. Troubleshooting: KaiT2en with basic graphics and conservative PCIe is the last resort and also covers a power off coming from PCIe or Thunderbolt.

All of them keep the KAIT2EN input drivers. If entry 2 or 3 was needed, make the fix permanent afterwards as described in Configure GPUs.

If hardware is missing in the live system

KAIT2EN supports the known T2 configurations, but Apple shipped several controller and firmware variants. If keyboard, trackpad, Wi-Fi, or PCIe Bluetooth support is missing, collect diagnostics before continuing with the installation.

The individual helpers can be run manually to see the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth setup result directly:

sudo /run/kait2en/kait2en-live-wifi
sudo /run/kait2en/kait2en-live-bluetooth

For a complete diagnostic archive, run:

sudo /run/kait2en/kait2en-live-diagnostics --rerun

This reruns the firmware setup while recording what happened. The archive lands on a second USB drive when one is mounted, otherwise in /tmp; the path is printed at the end. It contains host names, MAC addresses, and the names of nearby wireless networks, so inspect it before attaching it to a bug report.

Finish the KAIT2EN installation

Sign in to Fedora and connect to Wi-Fi. A terminal opens automatically and starts the KAIT2EN installer in two phases. Do not close this window and follow the prompts.

The first phase updates Fedora and prepares the new kernel. Reboot when asked. After signing in again, the second phase opens automatically and runs the regular KAIT2EN installer. Reboot once more after it completes successfully.

If the terminal does not appear, open one and run this command without sudo:

kait2en-install

The installer asks for administrator access when it is needed. It can also be started again at any later time to update KAIT2EN.