Darth Revan pvraj

Derisking an unsupported/outdated Apple Watch for offline-only use

Purpose

An old Apple Watch Series 4 no longer receives security updates; the last I can see here was 10.6.1. Over time this leaves the watch open to more unpatched vulnerabilities that later models are patched for. But we can still make use of the unique hardware (heart rate, EKG) and fitness tracking features to get utility out of the device. This post describes how I reduced security risks on my watch to give it new life.

The TLDR:

remove the apple watch from your current/personal Apple ID, unpair it from your personal iPhone, and factory erase it
create a dummy Apple ID; use an old throwaway iPhone that has been factory erased; pair it to the watch; do the 1 time setup for EKG
Keep wifi/bluetooth/location services off; keep the watch in airplane mode

Summary

Notes to install Ubuntu 22.04.4LTS (Upgraded to 24.04LTS) up and running on my 2017 MacBook Pro 15 inch (MacBookPro14,3).

Now everything except the TouchID (Fingerprint), Suspend and Hibernation seems to work for me.

About Ubuntu 24.04LTS: I tried to install Ubuntu 24.04 and didn't have success. There was a crash issue during installation. https://bugs.launchpad.net/subiquity/+bug/2065310 But I installed 22.04 and upgraded it to the 24.04LTS later and it working same as 22.04.4.

Useful References (not mentioned in the text)

Introduction

This is about documenting getting Linux running on the late 2016 and mid 2017 MPB's; the focus is mostly on the MacBookPro13,3 and MacBookPro14,3 (15inch models), but I try to make it relevant and provide information for MacBookPro13,1, MacBookPro13,2, MacBookPro14,1, and MacBookPro14,2 (13inch models) too. I'm currently using Fedora 27, but most the things should be valid for other recent distros even if the details differ. The kernel version is 4.14.x (after latest update).

The state of linux on the MBP (with particular focus on MacBookPro13,2) is also being tracked on https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux . And for Ubuntu users there are a couple tutorials (here and here) focused on that distro and the MacBook.

Note: For those who have followed these instructions ealier, and in particular for those who have had problems with the custom DSDT, modifying the DSDT is not necessary anymore - se

	import gevent
	import gevent.monkey
	gevent.monkey.patch_all()

	from gevent.pywsgi import WSGIServer
	from flask import Flask


	app = Flask(__name__)
	app.debug = True