Bug 2221007

Summary:	Fedora 38 installs but doesn't boot on a Mac Pro 2013 due to partitioning issues
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Julio Merino <julio>
Component:	anaconda	Assignee:	Anaconda Maintenance Team <anaconda-maint-list>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	38	CC:	anaconda-maint-list, vponcova, vslavik, w
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Regression
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
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oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Embargoed:

Description Julio Merino 2023-07-07 01:53:36 UTC

While installing Fedora 38 on an Mac Pro 2013 (Intel) and using automatic partitioning, the installation completes successfully but, upon reboot, the machine does not recognize the disk as bootable and Fedora cannot be started.

This happened while installing on an external USB drive, but I have no reason to believe installing to the internal SSD would be any different.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Fedora 38 on a Mac Pro 2013 (and possibly other Intel Macs).
2. Use automatic partitioning.
3. Install the system and reboot.
4. Hold Cmd after the startup chime to enter the built-in boot loader.
5. See how Fedora does not show up.
Actual Results:
Fedora cannot be booted after installation.

Expected Results:
Fedora should show up as an option to be booted in the built-in boot loader.

I tracked this down to the MacEFI partitioning scheme that the installer selects.

If I patch platform.py in the Live DVD so that the "is_mactel" code path uses EFI() instead of MacEFI(), the installation completes just fine and the machine does boot into Fedora as intended.

I do not know what MacEFI is supposed to achieve, but it's unusable on this machine.

It's also very annoying that one cannot use custom partitioning to set up a different type of EFI configuration. The installer will not allow the user to proceed unless the partitioning scheme matches MacEFI. So I had to end up with a code patch.

Also, neither the built-in bootloader nor the rEFInd boot loader recognize Fedora, so this sounds like a bug in Fedora and not the old firmware of this machine.

This used to work fine in an earlier version of Fedora. I think it was 36 the last time I tried.