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I have a MacBook Pro in dual boot Mac OS X / Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin). When I boot it I have a rEFIt menu, and I can chose between Mac OS X and Linux. A few days ago I have updated Mac OS X from 10.7 (Lion) to 10.8 (Mountain Lion) using a .dmg image provided by my company. Since then when I select Linux in rEFIt it says:

No bootable device --insert boot disk and press any key

  1. I have tried going to rEFIt partitioning tool. This is what I got:

Enter image description here

As suggested in Mac OSX update broke booting Ubuntu I wanted to fix the issue the same way as AndrewM, but I don't have the option "MBR table must be updated".

  1. Then I booted on Ubuntu 12.04 CD, chose repair broken system, chose root patition /dev/sda6 as this is where my Ubuntu file system is. I got a shell, but I don't really know how to repair the poblem since if it was just Windows dual boot. A GRUB update would solve the issue, but here I don't know where the GRUB 2 is installed.

Here are results from Parted, and it is a bit confusing for me as the Mac partition is the one with boot:

Enter image description here

As you can see the entry 1 is an EFI system partition and is the boot partition, so I wonder if I should install GRUB there or in sda6, which is the Ubuntu filesystem.

I am not sure should I work on rEFIt shell or Ubuntu. Unfortunately, I don't remember where GRUB was before update.

UPDATE: using same link above I have tried RoundSparrow hilltx answer and installed rEFInd, but the result is same.... still no bootable device when I select Linux.

UPDATE 2: just used alternate CD again, mounted on /dev/sda6 and the ran update-grub. It seemed to wok and started listing all my kernels. But after rebooting several times still no bootable device when I select Linux in rEFInd.

UDATE 3: Have tried to boot from Ubuntu cd and select "boot from first available filesystem. I got error and dropped to grub rescue shell. I even followed the indications on this link but was unable to boot as I tried to use sdb6 but no luck

UPDATE 4 as per Rob Smith request here is out put from ls -l $(find /EFI -iname "*.efi")

*MACOSX

-rw-r--r--@ 1 root  admin    55048 29 oct 17:44 /EFI/refind/drivers_x64/btrfs_x64.efi
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root  admin    38888 29 oct 17:44 /EFI/refind/drivers_x64/ext2_x64.efi
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root  admin    39304 29 oct 17:44 /EFI/refind/drivers_x64/ext4_x64.efi
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root  admin    43432 29 oct 17:44 /EFI/refind/drivers_x64/hfs_x64.efi
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root  admin    38984 29 oct 17:44 /EFI/refind/drivers_x64/iso9660_x64.efi
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root  admin    43656 29 oct 17:44 /EFI/refind/drivers_x64/reiserfs_x64.efi
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root  admin   175016 29 oct 17:44 /EFI/refind/refind_x64.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin    73232  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/dbounce.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   763248  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/dhclient.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin    67024  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/drawbox.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin    71312  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/dumpfv.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin    84848  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/dumpprot.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   472912  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/ed.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   143856  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/edit.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin  1801008  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/ftp.efi
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root  admin    47848 29 oct 17:44 /EFI/tools/gptsync_x64.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   320560  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/hexdump.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   286384  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/hostname.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   534416  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/ifconfig.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   395344  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/loadarg.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   587408  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/ping.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   730416  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/pppd.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   561360  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/route.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin  1961712  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/shell.efi 
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   750224  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/tcpipv4.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin     4048  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/textmode.efi
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  admin   320656  7 mar  2010 /EFI/tools/which.efi

*LINUX

Since Ubuntu 12.04 partition is not bootable I had to boot on live cd, so at first your command didn't work:

$ ls -l /boot/vmlinuz*
$ ls: cannot access /boot/vmlinuz*: No such file or directory

so I decided to mount my file system:

sudo mkdir /media/sda6
sudo mount -t ext4 -r /dev/sda6 /media/sda6
cd /media/sda6/
sudo ls -l boot/vmlinuz*

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4965840 Apr 25  2012 boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 4965968 May 21  2012 boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 4974672 Mar 25  2013 boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-40-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 4978416 Jun  6 20:24 boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-48-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 4978416 Jun 18 18:20 boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-49-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 4978960 Jul 24 20:59 boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-51-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 4980336 Aug 22 21:41 boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-53-generic

1 Answer 1

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If you followed RoundSparrow hilltx's instructions precisely, including the use of the --alldrivers option to install.sh, you should see one or more new options in rEFInd, with descriptions that include the string vmlinuz. These new entries should boot Linux. If they do, you can remove the non-functional Linux entry by editing /EFI/refind/refind.conf, uncommenting the scanfor line, and ensuring that hdbios is not among the options.

If you did not use the --alldrivers option, or if you don't see the vmlinuz entry/entries, you should try installing the ext4fs driver that comes with rEFInd. Assuming you used the default rEFInd installation options, you need to create the /EFI/refind/drivers directory in OS X and then copy the ext4fs driver for your architecture (X64 or IA32) to that directory. When you reboot, you should see a new Linux option, with a name that includes vmlinuz. This should boot correctly.


EDIT: Could you please do the following and post the results (edit your original post to do this):

  1. In OS X, type ls -l $(find /EFI -iname "*.efi") and post the results here. (This assumes you installed rEFInd under OS X using the default options; if you installed it to the ESP, mount it and adjust the path from /EFI to your ESP's mount point.)
  2. In Linux, type ls -l /boot/vmlinuz* and post the results here.
  3. Check the refind.conf file for the presence of a line reading scan_all_linux_kernels. Be sure that it is present and that it is not commented out (by a leading # character).

You could also try to get BIOS-mode booting working again by fixing the hybrid MBR and/or by re-installing GRUB; however, hybrid MBRs are ugly and dangerous, so that's not the approach I recommend. If you do go down this road, try using the gptsync program from rEFInd rather than the one from rEFIt. The latter failed for you, but rEFInd's will probably work; or you can use gdisk for this job, as described on the page to which I linked earlier in this paragraph.


EDIT 2: Your kernels are all 3.2.x versions, which predate the EFI stub loader. This means that they won't work directly with rEFInd. Broadly speaking, there are two ways to work around this problem:

  • Add another EFI boot loader, such as ELILO or the EFI version of GRUB 2, to boot your existing 3.2.x kernel(s). This is fairly easy to do if you know how, but it's an unfamiliar process to most users. See my page on the topic for background and general instructions. Note that these instructions assume you've got a working Linux installation, though; you'll probably have to use a live CD to get things installed. Also, you need not run efibootmgr to register a boot loader with the firmware; just copy its files into place and set up its configuration file. Thereafter, rEFInd should detect whatever you install and enable you to launch it.
  • Upgrade your kernel to something from the 3.3.x series or later. This is fairly easily done if you can boot your current system, as described here, but of course this creates a catch-22 situation. You should be able to overcome this hurdle by using chroot from an emergency disc, as described here.

Another option is to upgrade your version of Ubuntu. I realize that 3.04 is an LTS release, but there have been 3.04.1 and 3.04.2 releases since then, and I'm pretty sure that they include the newer kernels. I'm not sure if you could install 3.04.2 over 3.04 to get it all working, but you might look into that possibility.

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  • thanks Rod Smith for your answer I have tried may times installing removing refind (also after removing refit) and of course installing with --alldrivers and each time I see only one linux entry but a non working one. if I uncomment the scanfor line as you say the Linux entry disappears and only MacOSX is available
    – vallllll
    Oct 29, 2013 at 17:01
  • Please see my above new edit.
    – Rod Smith
    Oct 29, 2013 at 20:58
  • 1) && 2) I have updated my question, Rod Smith, and 3) also checked for scan_all_linux_kernels and it is there and not commented and not followed by any arguments. For the hybrid MBR I started reading but it's quite complex so I will go down that path if there is no other solution. thanks a lot for your help so far I really don't understand why my kernels are not found since they should be.
    – vallllll
    Oct 30, 2013 at 13:10
  • I've edited my answer again. I'm afraid I missed the fact that you're running the original 3.04, which uses a pretty ancient kernel.
    – Rod Smith
    Oct 30, 2013 at 23:17
  • thanks Rod Smith I have successfully installed 3.8 kernel and it shows and boots. I have some other problems (grafic ones) with it but that will be the object of another question.
    – vallllll
    Oct 31, 2013 at 18:23

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