This week on the channel +288K views this week

Action Retro gives a rebuilt Touch Bar Mac an Ubuntu life

Sean Malseed's 2018 MacBook Pro gets working Touch Bar controls and a Steam gaming test after one Wi-Fi fix.

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Action Retro Story of November 10, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.

Installing Linux on a Touch Bar Mac (is EASY now!)

Things we can learn from the video

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0:29Sean built the 2018 MacBook Pro from two broken laptops, swapping the keyboard top case and battery.
1:24The T2 Linux installer prepares Ubuntu 26.04 for a USB drive flashed with balenaEtcher.
3:37Sean boots from USB and erases the internal drive for a clean Ubuntu installation.
4:44Missing Wi-Fi requires an Ethernet connection and the get-apple-firmware script to install drivers.
6:14After restarting, Wi-Fi works and tiny-dfr provides Touch Bar brightness, volume and media controls.
7:44Steam testing covers The Long Dark, Fallout: New Vegas and Brotato using Proton and native Linux builds.

Action Retro's Sean Malseed assembled this MacBook Pro from two broken laptops. Getting Ubuntu onto the resulting machine turns out to be the less complicated part, though the Wi-Fi does briefly disappear.

The channel's only new upload, "Installing Linux on a Touch Bar Mac (is EASY now!)", walks through the T2 Linux installer, a clean installation and the extra firmware needed to get wireless networking working. An Ethernet adapter bridges that awkward moment. After a restart, even the Touch Bar supplies brightness, volume and media controls. The video includes a sponsored segment.

That little strip of screen isn't the whole payoff. Sean moves from everyday web use to Steam, testing The Long Dark, Fallout: New Vegas and Brotato. It's a practical second-life experiment on hardware he has already rescued, rather than an installation performed just to prove it can be done.

The upload has reached roughly 138,000 views and is comfortably the busiest video on the channel right now. Viewers are adding their own Linux-on-Mac accounts: Mint on a 2019 MacBook Pro, Fedora on a machine used for client meetings, and Ubuntu installation notes about audio and waking from sleep. Another offers phone USB tethering as an alternative way to fetch those drivers.

Across the channel, daily viewing is below its usual level, while the subscriber count was unchanged over the week. Nearby in tech, Monitors Unboxed and Adrian's Digital Basement are both seeing busier-than-usual daily viewing. Action Retro's older "You Should Really Try MX LINUX" and "The New Haiku is Wonderful" continue picking up views, but this week's attention is firmly on the rebuilt MacBook and its unexpectedly cooperative Touch Bar.

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What viewers say

I'm writing this from a 2019 MacBook Pro running Mint
@DragonManMikeSee it on YouTube
This is my main computer, a 2020 Intel MacBook Pro running Fedora Linux. The T2Linux folks are doing great work. Stable, reliable, I take it with me to meetings with clients, Zoom works, even some gaming on Steam when I have freetime and it's never let me down. Great software, beautiful hardware.
@pabloenoccSee it on YouTube
If don’t happen to have an Ethernet dongle flying around or the router is too far away: usb tethering with your mobile phone works also well to download the drivers.
@fhoeg8076See it on YouTube

4 more comments

What no Haiku, shocking!! 😊
@trevorford8332See it on YouTube
Hell yeah! T2 macs deserve a second chance!
@Kaboomz97See it on YouTube
Most of the time when I am putting Linux on weird devices (Mostly Chromebooks) Fedora has been the one that works the best out of the box. Wifi, touchpad, touchscreen just work.
@ChaotecsixSee it on YouTube
Truly shocked because for a long time, I thought Intel Macs with security chips are a lost cause due to Apple's lackluster support for any other OS besides their own. I'm so happy that this is no longer the issue, and that these Macs can live longer thanks to Linux! Kudos to all the developers involved in the project, and thank you for demonstrating this, Sean!
@beyoftheUSSee it on YouTube