rEFInd / Discussion / General Discussion: Problems with Ubuntu 12.10 on my MacBook Pro 8,2

Anonymous - 2012-12-03

I'm attempting to get my MacBook Pro 8,2 working with Ubuntu 12.10. It seems some things may have changed since the instructions were written.

Following the directions on http://www.rodsbooks.com/ubuntu-efi/ works perfectly until step 12 under fixing the installation. In that step, rEFInd displays only the option for OSX. It does not display Linux (and it does not display CDs or DVDs if I try them).

I was able to continue to follow the directions by holding down the option key to boot from the Super Grub 2 Disk that way. However, then I encounter a problem on step 25. As described on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ubuntupreciseon2011imac, grub-install requires a parameter now. Following those instructions doesn't work for me either. I end up with two Linux choices in rEFInd (both seemingly identical) and neither continues loading after I enter my login password. Also it seems that the other link skips many of the rodsbooks steps, some of which must still be important even in 12.10.

I thought I could try from scratch taking all of the best parts from both sets of instructions. However, there is a fundamental difference. In rodsbooks instructions, after defining the partitions in the Ubuntu setup, we install the bootloader to /dev/sda whereas in the other instructions it specifically says not to install it to the hd root. I don't entirely understand the implications of either choice.

Does anybody know if I've done something wrong or if the instructions need changed. If the instructions are out of date, can somebody tell me definitively what steps I should be doing? I'm not very knowledgeable about bootloaders and such but I'm really trying to get this set up optimally.

Thanks.

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Roderick W. Smith - 2012-12-04

Concerning your lack of removable media showing in step 2, it could be that there was a typo in your scanfor line in refind.conf; or it could be that Apple's been playing games with its firmware again and it doesn't work because of a firmware bug/incompatibility.

When you write that "neither (Linux option in rEFInd) continues loading after I enter my login password," that suggests that you've booted Linux, gotten a login screen, and then hung. If that's the case, then the boot process is complete and you've got some sort of problem at the Linux login stage. If you're referring to some other type of "login password," though, please elaborate. If you really are booting and hanging at login, try hitting Ctrl+Alt+F2 to get to a text-mode login screen and log in that way. You'll be restricted to text mode, but that's at least enough to do some debugging. If that works, try posting to an Ubuntu forum, since you're into Linux debugging territory from there; it's not a rEFInd issue.

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Anonymous - 2012-12-04

OK, fair enough. However, I still wonder if those directions are leaving me with a hybrid boot table. Your directions have convinced me of the importance of doing it right, but I don't think the method that booted to the login is really right. Should the bootloader be installed to /dev/sda as your directions say, or to /dev/sdaX as the other instructions say? If you think the former, then I'll need to figure out why those directions don't work.

Last edit: Anonymous 2012-12-04

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Anonymous - 2012-12-04

I guess I was able to mostly follow your directions (minus the part where I have to hold alt to see the CD). In that case, what parameters would I need to pass to grub-install in step 25?

I'm also investigating another option at the moment. It seems that the 12.10 install that is not the amd64+mac version (as I used before) has an EFI boot option (when holding the alt key) on startup. If I can get it to install this way, is that without a hybrid GPT? There seems to be some confusion around Google on the matter, but it appears the answer may be yes.

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Anonymous - 2012-12-04

But alas, I can't seem to get that (non amd64+mac) image to boot with video.

Edit: I did get this method (EFI boot option) to boot and install (with some grub settings) but gdisk still shows that I have a "valid GPT with hybrid MBR." I guess I may as well go back to amd64+mac install, as it ran great (no finicky video). As above, can somebody tell me what the grub-install parameters will be assuming I follow every word in the rodsbooks instructions? I think then I'll be done.

Last edit: Anonymous 2012-12-04

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Anonymous - 2012-12-05

I just went through things another time and maybe I was confused about where my first error arose. It is actually in step 24 (sudo apt-get install grub-efi). I get an error complaining about dependency problems. Apparently grub-efi depends on grub-efi-amd64 but that package is not configured yet. It sort of looks like a bug in those packages. Thoughts?

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Roderick W. Smith - 2012-12-05

Try installing grub-efi-amd64 directly; maybe that will trigger the configuration script. (I agree that this sounds like a bug in the GRUB packages.)

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Anonymous - 2012-12-05

OK, it turns out that grub-efi-amd64 was already installed. I guess apt-get installed that before it generated its errors. This must be how I got past that step before.

Now I'm back at step 26. I can't figure out what parameters to use for grub-install. The other directions at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ubuntupreciseon2011imac address this but they are a bit different as I mentioned above. They do not use the /boot partition at all, so I'm not sure if the root-directory argument should point to the /boot partition or the / partition as they instruct.

I figured that I should be pointing to where we mounted the ESP:
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/boot/efi /dev/sda

This returned:
/usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: not found

I can't find that file anywhere on my system so I don't know what to do.

Last edit: Anonymous 2012-12-05

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Anonymous - 2012-12-06

OK, here's the line I got to work:
sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi /dev/sda

The target option was for good measure. I'm not sure it was required. The root-directory option seems to have been deprecated in favor of "efi-directory." This should point to where the ESP was mounted.

Now I'm on to video problems, but at least the Ubuntu option is in rEFInd and it does boot.

Thanks for the help and the useful tutorial.

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Gaetano Giunta - 2012-12-12

See also https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/discussion/general/thread/40a04df3/
I have the same config+hw that you have.
Finding out how to tell grub to copy itself to the esp was rewarding.
But the grub config generated automatically did not work for me, the only good grub config I had to craft by hand (actually i found one on the web)

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Problems with Ubuntu 12.10 on my MacBook Pro 8,2

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Problems with Ubuntu 12.10 on my MacBook Pro 8,2

Problems with Ubuntu 12.10 on my MacBook Pro 8,2

An EFI boot manager utility

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Problems with Ubuntu 12.10 on my MacBook Pro 8,2