"Macs with T2 Security Chip" section

[Yebubbleman]

I'm not entirely sure where this would go hierarchically in the forums here. In the IT space (if not others as well) there's a notion of there being three different hardware types of Mac that are supported today:

1) Intel Macs without the T2 Security Chip - Admittedly, there are only four models of these currently supported by macOS Ventura (and presumably there will be fewer supported in whatever macOS 14 is called): 2017 MacBook, 2017 MacBook Pros, 2017 iMacs, and 2019 iMacs. Though, if we're not limiting discussion to Ventura-capable Macs, there's much more out there (especially considering that Big Sur and Monterey are both still supported and that there's earlier hardware that can still run those)

2) Intel Macs with the T2 Security Chip

3) Apple Silicon Macs

There is already a decent dedicated section for Apple Silicon Macs. It's kind of assumed that all other discussion taking place outside of that section can be for Intel Macs, but there's not really a dedicated place to discuss Intel hardware nor a sub-section or other section for T2 Intel Mac hardware. The T2 brings with it a lot of unique hardware and software problems/challenges/workflows that aren't really seen in later Apple Silicon Macs nor earlier Intel Macs that don't have a T2.

I don't know if there needs to be a subsection for Intel Macs without the T2; since this place has functioned just fine without it. But I think a sub-section for T2 Mac related issues and problems might not be a bad thing, especially given their uniqueness (as well as unique issues).

Anywho, just a thought.

 

[appltech]

Hi. Hmm, reminds me of one penguin phrase:
"Kowalski, analysis"

There aren't many unique issues, T2 makes more flexible (and reliable, so harder to replace/repair) security settings specifically for Firmware Password.

Maybe Apple will block or defuse one terminal command and its permissions. Without T2 it's easy to use
sudo firmwarepasswd

+ setup
and it will set up firmware password without booting into Recovery, see? And, a password input is invisible, so somebody can put wrong character or password = serious problems.

T2 chip allows to avoid this, or, at least to reset the password, which is impossible on non T2

 

[HDFan]

The T2 brings with it a lot of unique hardware and software problems/challenges/workflows that aren't really seen in later Apple Silicon Macs nor earlier Intel Macs that don't have a T2.

Can you give examples? Seems to work quite invisibly for me.

 

[nemodomi]

Can you give examples? Seems to work quite invisibly for me.

Can't boot from an external SSD is a deal breaker for me.

 

[prefuse07]

Can't boot from an external SSD is a deal breaker for me.

1. Turn on your Mac, then press and hold Command (⌘)-R immediately after the chime. Your Mac will boot into macOS Recovery.
2. When you're asked to select a user you know the password for, select the user, click Next, then enter their administrator password.
   
   
   
   
3. When you see the macOS utilities window, choose Utilities > Startup Security Utility from the top menu bar.
   
   
   
   
4. When you're asked to authenticate, click Enter macOS Password, then choose an administrator account and enter its password.
5. From within the 'External Boot' sub-section, choose "Allow booting from external or removable media"
   
   Set allowed boot media
   Use this feature to control whether your Mac can start up from external or removable media. The default, most secure setting is to disallow it. If you attempt to boot from such media and you get a warning that your security settings do not allow it, you can change the setting in Startup Security Utility.

6. Once finished, select the apple logo at the top menu and reboot

7. From within macOS, head to Settings > General > Startup Disk

8. Choose the connected drive you want to boot from, enter your password, and press Restart (you will receive a warning that the machine will boot from the selected drive).

The machine will restart and boot from the selected drive that you connected over USB or Thunderbolt.

 

[Jupeman]

Can you give examples? Seems to work quite invisibly for me.

My Mac Pro can't sleep without crashing. It can't even think about sleep without crashing. I believe it is T2 related after months with Apple support, replacement computer, all kinds of hardware component testing across two Macs (Apple replaced my one MacPro with a new one, they were too lazy* to try to troubleshoot - exact same problem). I survive via a $19 mouse jiggle dongle so that my Mac always thinks there is activity. Pathetic.

*I'm being mean, they gave up at tech level, I was on level 3 support or some such after months. They concluded it was a hardware problem with that computer, despite it passing every test. Same with this "new" one. Imo, this was an OS update that sent the T2 awry, kernel update somewhere along the way. Everything went south for me after a particular OS release 2+ years ago. Been jiggling ever since.