Issues installing Fedora 34 on Mac Mini 2018 (w/ Kernel Panic Logs)

[Jorge Castello]

Hi Folks,

Thanks in advance to those who read this email to help me out!

I'm super excited to try out Fedora 34 - please note that this is my first
time installing Linux. I'm eager to get things working but I've run into a
roadblock that I'm having tremendous difficulty figuring out. Please let me
know if you can help.

System Specs:
- Mac Mini 2018
- macOS Big Sur Version 11.3.1
- Note: I replaced the original Mac Mini RAM with 32GB of Crucial RAM
<https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071H38422/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1>

Installing Fedora:
- I obtained a USB stick from my local Walgreens (16GB Infinitiv)
- I downloaded the Fedora Media Writer, & proceeded to follow the
instructions to write Fedora 34 to the USB
- I also disabled secure boot & enabled the ability to boot from an
external USB

The problem:
- When I restart my computer holding the options key, I see an orange
option titled "EFI Boot"
- When I click it, everything immediately becomes black and it's very clear
that the Mac is restarting
- When it restarts, it mentions that "A problem occurred that necessitated
the reboot"
- I've attached the full Kernel panic log to this email

Some details from the Kernel Panic Log:
- caused_by: "macos"
- "os_version": "Bridge OS 5.3"

- "kernel" : "Darwin Kernel Version 20.4.0: Thu Mar 4 23:34:36 PST 2021;
root:xnu-7195.101.1~1\/RELEASE_ARM64_T8010",

- "macOSPanicString" : "panic(EFI): Exception 6 occurred: Invalid
Opcode\r\n\n

- EFI Version: 1554.100.64.0.0


Thanks again for your input. I'd love to buy coffee, beer, or whatever you
prefer if you can help me out.


Looking forward to hearing from you!


Best,

Jorge

[George N. White III]

Post by Jorge Castello
Hi Folks,
Thanks in advance to those who read this email to help me out!
I'm super excited to try out Fedora 34 - please note that this is my first
time installing Linux. I'm eager to get things working but I've run into a
roadblock that I'm having tremendous difficulty figuring out. Please let me
know if you can help.
- Mac Mini 2018
- macOS Big Sur Version 11.3.1
- Note: I replaced the original Mac Mini RAM with 32GB of Crucial RAM
<https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071H38422/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
- I obtained a USB stick from my local Walgreens (16GB Infinitiv)
- I downloaded the Fedora Media Writer, & proceeded to follow the
instructions to write Fedora 34 to the USB
- I also disabled secure boot & enabled the ability to boot from an
external USB
- When I restart my computer holding the options key, I see an orange
option titled "EFI Boot"
- When I click it, everything immediately becomes black and it's very
clear that the Mac is restarting
- When it restarts, it mentions that "A problem occurred that necessitated
the reboot"
- I've attached the full Kernel panic log to this email
- caused_by: "macos"
- "os_version": "Bridge OS 5.3"
- "kernel" : "Darwin Kernel Version 20.4.0: Thu Mar 4 23:34:36 PST 2021;
root:xnu-7195.101.1~1\/RELEASE_ARM64_T8010",
- "macOSPanicString" : "panic(EFI): Exception 6 occurred: Invalid
Opcode\r\n\n
- EFI Version: 1554.100.64.0.0

<https://www.lifewire.com/dual-boot-linux-and-mac-os-4125733> recommends
rEFInd: <https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/>, which has been updated for Big
Sur.
Note that Big Sur has a new pre-boot mechanism, so what worked for dual
boot
on older systems may need revisions for your use case. I have used rEFInd
many
times, but don't have recent hardware.

Note that Arch Linux often has the best linux documentation. You may find
<https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface>
useful.