linux-mbp-arch VS mbp2018-bridge-drv

You don't compile the kernel from scratch to solve this problem normally, or should I say ideally, unless you're referring to aunali1/linux-mbp-arch.

I have a macbook with the T2 security chip, so a few patches are needed for most of the hardware: https://github.com/aunali1/linux-mbp-arch I dunno if there are many other computers like this where you need patches for hardware compatibility.

But when I look at the patches to support T2 Macs, most of them haven't even once been submitted to the Linux Kernel Mailing List for review (or am I missing some mail archive?)

The specific display issue you’ve described there is probably the one fixed by https://github.com/aunali1/linux-mbp-arch/blob/master/2001-drm-amd-display-Force-link_rate-as-LINK_RATE_RBR2-fo.patch (this patch is in mbp-fedora)

You need this kernel patch to prevent that overscan. Have a look at https://wiki.t2linux.org for how to get that without compiling the entire kernel.

Does anyone happen to have info on how I might get things up and running? I have tried googling, but not finding much specific to Debian. What I have found points to MacBook Bridge/T2 Linux Driver, but my undersanding this is in the kernel from 5.7. Also found linux-mbp-arch but that is specific to arch, and wouldn't work on Debian yeah? Or could I run those patches against something to get a Debian compatible kernel?

I once installed Arch on a MacBookPro15,1 (2019). It worked but I was mainly experimenting with it rather than actually using it. I had to use a custom kernel https://github.com/aunali1/linux-mbp-arch but I think this is MacBook specific. WiFi, the touchbar and the Intel iGPU are among the things that caused me the most headache. Also, the keyboard and mouse don't work without the custom kernel. But I managed to get the system to work overall (incl. WiFi) and most of those issues don't affect iMacs, I guess.

Does anyone happen to have info on how I might get things up and running? I have tried googling, but not finding much specific to Debian. What I have found points to MacBook Bridge/T2 Linux Driver, but my undersanding this is in the kernel from 5.7. Also found linux-mbp-arch but that is specific to arch, and wouldn't work on Debian yeah? Or could I run those patches against something to get a Debian compatible kernel?

It's the other way around: Linux has some extra support for these laptops. And of course the place where extra support is required is the input devices. Despite Microsoft kinda pushing the industry to standardize on HID over I2C, they themselves now do HID over… uh… a custom protocol that runs over UART of all things.

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/driver-api/surface_ag...

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/hid/hid.git/...

Well at least it is HID inside I guess.

Meanwhile Apple used a custom simple protocol over SPI for the Broadwell-Kaby Lake generations (and now Apple Silicon), but the few "T2" generations went back to USB… over some truly cursed custom T2 USB host controller https://github.com/MCMrARM/mbp2018-bridge-drv (WTF)

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Also many Surface devices used awful Marvell Wi-Fi :/ At least the "Laptop 3" generation switched to Intel on Intel models and Qualcomm (seems like ath10k) on AMD ones.