Chose EFI boot on Mac but no Black & White screen to edit boot entry

Question

I am new to this but I wanted to try Ubuntu on my Macbook Pro (2012). i followed a couple of similar instruction on the internet but when I got to the 'edit boot entry' to add "nomodeset" after "quietsplash" before installing Ubuntu I was not able to do this. I carried on with the install anyway and all seems to be working however I briefly get a message on startup saying "Failed to set MokListRT: Invalid Parameter. Could not create MokListRT: Invalid Parameter. Importing MOK states has failed:import_mok_state() failed: Invalid Parameter Continuing boot since secure mode is disabled_
Is this because I was unable to edit the boot entry and can I do this from Terminal still? Any help would be greatly appreciated please, I have no idea of course why the boot entry should be edited like this as I am new to this but not sure how to start from scratch as I overwrote the MAC OS. Can I try to reboot from the usb again or do I need to flash Ubuntu OS on it again? Thank you.

Answer 1

TL;DR

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MokListRT has nothing to do with nomodeset. It is a list of all UEFI Secure Boot keys that your Mac’s firmware trusts. Since Secure Boot is disabled anyways (Continuing boot since Secure Mode is disabled, as it says), this error is actually completely harmless — other than probably being annoying.

To get rid of the error:

1. Head over to Rod Smith’s repository of common keys and download Microsoft’s third-party key
2. Run sudo mokutil -i /path/to/downloaded/file. Remember the password you enter here.
3. On rebooting the Mac, it should ask you for the password you had entered previously.
4. Víola! Now you shouldn’t see that error anymore. The password was just temporary, to make sure you were the same person between steps.

These steps are from Rod Smith’s website. He’s the creator of gpt-fdisk, and the Hermione Granger of disks, booting, and EFI.

MOKs

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Machine Owner Keys are signatures that the firmware trusts, and will allow to boot. Of course, if Secure Boot is disabled, then any boot-loader will be given the go-ahead. Ever since BootCamp, Apple does hard-code Mac firmware with Microsoft’s public key — the one they use to sign the Windows boot-loader. But till date (as of 2020 Intel Macs), they do not pre-install the key that Microsoft uses to sign third-party software, like GRUB in this case. This is why your Mac refuses to add GRUB stuff to the MokListRT with all that drama, and why I — with my 2019 MBP — still have to disable Secure Boot to install Ubuntu.

N.B.: Macs have always had their own EFI, only conforming in majority to the general UEFI specification. I really hope the mokutil acrobatics work, but the 2012 MBP — why, even a 2020 (Intel) one — might just plain refuse to add any other keys into its list.

nomodeset

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This is really just a kernel argument to prevent the kernel from loading-in hardware-specific graphics. Without context, I’m not entirely sure why you would need to do it, but I see no harm. If you’re experiencing any graphics-related issues, here’s how you can add that in (and no, you don’t need to do any wiping!):

1. sudo gedit /etc/default/grub (replace gedit with your favourite text-editor).
2. Find a line that says GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=.... If there isn’t one, make one.
3. Replace the right-hand-side (...) to "quiet splash nomodeset". (Just add nomodeset to the quoted list, if that was your sole objective. Btw, the presence of the option quiet hides the boot-up log output, and splash shows the familiar Ubuntu boot-up logo "splash screen".)

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Hope this helps!