Comments on: Installing Ubuntu Linux on a MacBook Pro

By: Free Linux Guides: Install Linux Without Damaging Windows

Free Linux Guides: Install Linux Without Damaging Windows — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:44:19 +0000

[...] Linux you will use Advantages: Disadvantages: How to reverse it: What do I need: How do I proceed: using Bootcamp and Refit (ubuntu focused) Medium without using Bootcamp and Refit (ubuntu focused) Medium/Hard Using Refit [...]

By: Free Linux Guides: Links

Free Linux Guides: Links — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:38:05 +0000

[...] using Bootcamp and Refit (ubuntu focused) Medium without using Bootcamp and Refit (ubuntu focused) Medium/Hard [...]

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:49:28 +0000

Hi, thanks for your manual. I just tried to install grub in /dev/sda3 (My linux root partition), and it seems that rEFIt boots fine from the partition boot record. I don’t know about the MBR, maybe it works as well.

By: Terry jones

Terry jones — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:26:39 +0000

I have a series of questions about how to install Ubuntu 6.06 LTS on a 17 inch Mac Book Pro with a Intel Core Duo Processor

1. Will diskutil force me to reinstalled Mac OS X?

2. What are the commands in Refit to sink GPT with MasterBootRecord?

3. When should sinking take place?

4. What is a chrooted jail?

5. Can Ubuntu still boot If Windows becomes damage?

6. How and what point do I install lilo?

7. How do I make the swap file and tell if it is active?

8. Why is SMP kernal needed?
Can I use the standard x86 install for a PC?

By: João Guilherme

João Guilherme — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 19:15:07 +0000

Just one thing, to install Ubuntu on an external disc, do I still follow these instructions?

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:50:17 +0000

Ok, so I go through all of the above steps, I get out of chroot. run parted. When I try the ‘print’ command, I get the following error: “Error: Unable to open /dev/hda – unrecognised disk label.”

What do I do?

By: Erik

Erik — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:03:37 +0000

Hi mate! Appending the kernel option “root=…” in addition to lilo’s own “root=…” saved NOT JUST the day, but finally put an end to a week of frantic searching for buggy behaviour that started occuring on my macbook after months of normal booting. Finally I can get to work on my thesis again. Thanks a million for your in-depth explanation!

Best regards,
Erik

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:08:41 +0000

Just got Xubuntu working on my shiny new MacBook Pro. This worked perfectly, although it’s worth noting that I needed Greg’s workaround as mentioned above – with your default lilo.conf I got a “ignoring entry ‘boot’” message along with “Added entry ‘Ubuntu’”. On rebooting, then choosing Linux from HD in rEFIt, the boot process (as far as I can tell) just hung. I may have gotten the same error as Greg, but rEFIt has a splash screen which I’m fairly sure would have hidden any error messages.

I rebooted into the liveCD, opened a terminal and sudo -s’d, and then ran:

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mount –bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount –bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount –bind /sys /mnt/sys
chroot /mnt
vim /etc/lilo.conf (changed the ‘append’ line to say append=”noapic root=/dev/sda3″)
lilo

exited out of the chrooted session, and then umounted it all again before rebooting. Perfection
Thanks again!

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 00:55:42 +0000

I just spent a frustrating few hours trying to resolve a boot issue with Ubuntu on a MacBook Pro. Everything appeared to be fine after following your instructions EXECPT the boot would fail with a “Cannot open /dev/root” error. After much fiddling with lilo.conf and even trying grub, I eventually worked out that the problem was the BIOS parameters for accessing the hard drive.

To solve the problem and get the installed kernel to boot, I had to append “root=/dev/sda3″ to the kernel boot options. You can do this by updating your lilo.conf to say:

append=”noapic root=/dev/sda3″

By: » Re: installing Ubuntu on Mac - ubuntu.sitebolt.net

» Re: installing Ubuntu on Mac - ubuntu.sitebolt.net — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 17:16:35 +0000

[...] http://felipe-alfaro.org/blog/2006/08/19/installing-ubuntu-linux-on-a-macbook-pro/ http://felipe-alfaro.org/blog/2006/09/19/installing-refit-on-the-hidden-efi-system-partition/ http://felipe-alfaro.org/blog/2006/09/11/basic-backlight-support-for-macbook-pro/ http://felipe-alfaro.org/blog/2006/09/11/modifying-screen-brightness-on-ac-state-changes/ [...]