Macbook Air M2, 2022 Option to allow external device boot not showing

I downloaded Ubuntu 24.10 to a usb with the intention of using it on my Macbook Air M2, 2022 like in the title.

I cannot, in any way shape or form, boot to this usb. Nor can I even see the OPTION to allow booting from an external source. When I'm in macOS Recovery the usb doesn't show as a bootable source obviously, but then the part of the picture below saying "allowed boot media" is not even there. Also I don't have the option for medium or no security like the picture. It says full security or reduced security.

I have googled for hours. Hours. And found no help. I went to an apple store and spoke with someone at the genius bar and found no help.

The instructions are clear from everything I've read, unless I just haven't found the right post.

Hopefully one of you has an idea. Thanks for the help in advance.

Posted on Jan 16, 2025 5:25 PM

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

75,078 points

Posted on Jan 16, 2025 6:37 PM

At this time I'm not aware of any options for booting Linux from USB on an M-series Mac.

Currently the only somewhat officially supported version of Linux for an M-series Mac is the Fedora Asahi Remix edition from the Asahi Linux developers who have been reverse engineering the M-series Macs to provide working Linux drivers for the M-series Macs. The Ubuntu Asahi version also works, but both are still relatively new & a work in progress. I've installed both of them although I have not done anything significant with them although I hear that it is possible to play some games on them.

https://asahilinux.org/fedora/

https://ubuntuasahi.org/

These Linux distributions currently can only be installed onto the internal SSD, plus macOS must remain installed since the various Asahi Linux distros need to leverage the macOS components. Remember, the M-series Macs are a type of ARM system....and ARM systems have always been limited with their boot options.

FYI, you must carefully read all the directions when running these Asahi distribution installers since some steps must be manually performed by the user.

Also keep in mind that there is no uninstall options or automatic removal of Linux. You may need to perform a clean install of macOS which may require using a DFU firmware Restore to reset the internal SSD & push a clean copy of macOS onto the internal SSD (requires access to another working Mac running macOS 15.x Sequoia).

Make sure you have a good backup of your macOS system before doing anything else since it is very easy to permanently lose access to the data on the internal SSD even without manipulating partitions.

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Macbook Air M2, 2022 Option to allow external device boot not showing

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