Questions about getting ready for your Red Hat remote exam?

[Deanna]

This thread is dedicated to connect you with Red Hat subject matter experts who can help answer your questions regarding Red Hat remote exams. Please see the following resources for Red Hat Remote Exams below:

• Remote Exams Announcement
• Technical Documentation for "Getting ready for your Red Hat remote exam"
• Remote Exams FAQ

For questions on scheduling or redeeming your exams,  please use the Red Hat Certification team comment form here. 

**Our subject matters experts in the Red Hat Learning Community will not be assisting with tasks related to scheduling exams. 

[vishals]

Hi there,

If you are on a Macbook, many Mac models do now work well with linux and its microphone may not be compatible with the remote exam image. If your external camera has an inbuilt, you can try to use it as the mic source.

If all fails, try using a basic wired earphones which have mic builtin as the input mic source.

Regards,

[Javier_Juarez]

I'm just trying to follow the guide to prepare my laptop for my scheduled exam EX180, and I wasn't able to set up my MacBook Pro 16" 2019, impossible to boot from the burned ISO, (rhexbox.iso c7002c0453d0ad086b6fec188c73c13fb5501228b6d6597653706d56bcef8e7b), honestly, I'm a bit lost and I'm thinking about to re-schedule the exam because I don't have another computer, any clues will be welcome

[JS_Learning]

Hola @Javier_Juarez ,

In the preparation guide, there's a link to contact live support (end of page 1):

https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/remote-exams-preparation-ebook 

Feel free to check with them.

Saying that, I doubt they will be able to help much because on page 18, also it talks about known issues with recent Mac devices and Linux :

...Important: 2018 and later series of Mac systems have been found to have compatibility
issues with several Linux® distributions. These issues impact the remote exam image as well...

If so, you have choice but to use another computer, unfortunately.

Maybe you could try to borrow one from a friend?

[Javier_Juarez]

Thanks, unfortunately, I don't have this chance, and the idea to take the exam under worse conditions than used to be working with my laptop seems pretty bad to me; I will think about the possibility to take the exam in the RedHat's office, which is a shame nowadays

[JS_Learning]

Hi @Javier_Juarez ,

What do you mean by "worse conditions", you mean from another laptop? If so, yes it's a bit less convenient but still doable. Fortunately for you, it seems that you haven't tried an exam on a big Koala laptop with different keyboard locale than yours :D.

Yes, Remote Exams are an option, there are others. Some exams center might have reopened during this pandemic crisis and it's probably possible to attend there physically now (depends on each regions, each location). In my case going to a center implies a 6h journey on the exam day (return included) and quite significant additional cost. Even to the point that from 2-3 exams, it would be worthier to buy a simple laptop just for that, instead of paying the transport. Maybe it's different for you.

It's a shame about Linux unable to run on latest implementations of Apple's hardware. Apparently MAC issue are due to the new T2 chipset which blocks any OS except Apple's from booting. I researched a bit the topic, another problem is that the related code is not made public and therefore it's hard for the open source community to get a workaround.

In this rather old article, from 2018, someone says it's actually possible to boot in macOS recovery to disable some of the T2 related features:

apple-t2-chip-cant-boot-linux 

Note: it's rather old and I found other article which are saying that only works for other MAC OS and Windows, and not Linux. Maybe don't get too much hope :)

I do not own any Apple's hardware, feel free to research on the topic and see if it's actually possible to bypass that added security?

(PS: Even if one workaround the T2 chipset issue, it's possible that some other hardware are not well recognised/working, please manage any expectations accordingly).

[Javier_Juarez]

Hi,

Finally, I figured out how to run the RedHat image for the exam, doing some changes to the security configuration of my mac (2019 with T2 chipset), but the configuration of the laptop is not good enough to take the exam, I have issues with the video and mic, bad luck for me, anyway someone could find interesting to take a look to these Apple documents to get ready to use the RedHat image...

Disclaimers:

1. This is a completely informal guide based on my experience trying to set up this image
2. I used a MacBook Pro 16" 2019 
3. I used external hardware through a USBC hub, a TDK USB stick, a Logitech wired mouse, an apple wired keyboard, and a Razer Kiyo webcam
4. I used the classic method to install the image on the USB stick with dd

The key point here y to decrease the security level of the laptop allowing it to boot from external disks, which is documented here by Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208198 

Be careful if you decide to change/set the firmware password, the keyboard layout and a "bad choice" of special characters could be a problem, more information about this is here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204455 

During the boot keep all the accessories connected

thanks, Javier

[mbessa]

Hello Everyone,

Does anyone figure out how use the "remote exam live ISO" on a macbook pro 13 2020 ??? I'm aware some older models work...

After changing some security options in the mac I'm able to boot into the live cd but some essential functionalities don't work while doing the compatibility test (sound for example show's a "Dummy" soundcard, wifi not detected, ...).

Is this issue being handle by the support team in order to allow the use of more recent models? Any workaround / fix for this?

Thank you !
Marco

[Gineesh]

Unfortunately it didn’t work out for me as well. Used a pc instead.

Waiting for Res Hat team to come up with a solution for this as MacBook is
a common workstation with everyone and this is a serious blocker for
attending RedHat remote exams.

Hope for the best
--


Gineesh

linkedin.com/in/gineesh

[garylinker]

I have a Macbook Pro 2019 running Big Sur. I do not see Big Sur listed in the Remote Exam System Requirements. Also, Macbooks no longer have USB ports. I can get an external USB hub but I'm wondering about the overall compatibility with my Macbook and Operating System.

[mbessa]

You'll need some USB-C dongle to connect USB stick with exam OS, external webcam (mandatory), wired mouse and keyboard (optional if you don't laptop keyboard/mouse).  
Unless 2019 model is supported, I suspect you would be facing exactly the same issues I describe in my previous post.

After changing mac boot security I was able boot with the usb stick into the exam OS, but a lot of stuff not working properly, wifi, sound... 

I'm still waiting for feedback from RedHat, but at this point it's a shame they don't support such popular laptops as @Gineesh mentioned as well...

@Deanna @JS_Learning any news on support for recent macbook models ? Thank you!