Enable Intel Graphics on Ubuntu 20.04 on MacBook Pro Mid 2012 Retina (10,1)

IntelGfxUbuntu20.04MacBookPro10-1.md

How to get Intel graphics working on MacBook Pro mid 2012 (10,1) Ubuntu 20.04:

Ubuntu was intalled with the default nvidia drivers that it brought (I believe 3.90)

Clone https://github.com/0xbb/apple_set_os.efi

For details, see the README.md

Build it:

apt-get install gnu-efi
git clone https://github.com/0xbb/apple_set_os.efi
cd apple_set_os.efi
make

Copy it to /boot/efi/EFI/custom

mkdir /boot/efi/EFI/custom
cp apple_set_os.efi /boot/efi/EFI/custom

Configure Grub to automatically start apple_set_os.efi. Add the following lines to /etc/grub.d/40_custom:

search --no-floppy --set=root --label EFI
chainloader (${root})/EFI/custom/apple_set_os.efi
boot

I edited etc/default/grub and disabled quiet/splash so that I could at least see what's happening.

Clone https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch

run gpu-switch -i to switch to integrated.

At this point I rebooted, and the graphics were messed up. I could still access the machine via SSH though, and I ran:

sudo prime-select intel
sudo reboot

After rebooting, nvidia was still selected, but I could see the Prime Profiles (which did not show up previously) in the nvidia config window. I selected intel from there, and again sudo reboot. At this point intel was successfully enabled.

Hi Harold, I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 in a MacBook Pro Retina mid 2012 that needed something else than macOS. I decided to run Ubuntu because I read it was great but the problem I have is with the fans. I tried your tutorial but I got lost in the Clone https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch.
I will appreciate any help.

@Ivargasmoya616 it is git clone

git clone https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch

The you need to

cd gpu-switch
sudo ./gpu-switch -i
sudo prime-select intel
sudo reboot

After reboot run to check you are running Intel. It is quite easily apparent by the lack of choppiness in UI

sudo prime-select query

Thank you for the instruction I got my early 2013 mac running half decently Ubuntu now. YouTube still loads the CPU a lot but at least visuals and scrolling are not choppy.

I did this on Arch Linux with a Macbook pro 2012 with Opencore running Sonoma and it actually worked! I didn't need NVIDIA prime since us Arch people don't have access to it on older hardware it seems. All I needed with gpu switch and and to build the EFI image and follow the directions.

Thank you so very much