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Goal: Single boot Ubuntu with no Mac Os X installed. For dual booting there is no problem - use refind.

I tried the following iso's (all x64): 12. 10/13. 10/14. 04 and the corresponding Mac versions and it seems there is no bootloader after installation, the mac version won't even boot into the Ubuntu LiveCd. Also, I tried all sort of settings with boot-repair with no success.

Recap: When booting from a mac iso a "Boot error" message or "this is not a bootable disc..." error is encountered. When booting from regular desktop iso the installation is successful but the OS itself is unbootable.

Has anyone got this to run on newer macbook air's?

3 Answers 3

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I have ubuntu running natively on a macbook pro 5.5 without OSX. It appears I ran into the same errors as you have described, which is that the grub bootloader fails to install to disk during installation.

Edit:

The following steps were needed to prepare a mac/macbook for ubuntu single booting:

  1. To prepare your disk run the Apple recovery media (USB/Disk/HD Partition) by holding opt at boot. (If you do not have this you can create one inside OSX using this app)
  2. Using Disk Utility erase and set up a new partition scheme in Fat32 format (1 partition intended for the ubuntu system and 1 for swap). During this phase Disk Utility will create a hidden EFI partition at the beginning of the disk.
  3. Run the ubuntu live CD however ensure you select 'something else' as an option. The partition editor should now allow you to see the hidden EFI partition. At this point make sure you set this partition to 'do not use this partition'. Specify your system and swap as normal and continue the installation.
  4. You will get an error regarding continuing without a bootloader, and a warning about being unable to boot. Do not worry about this, ignore and continue.
  5. When installation completes do not reboot, select 'continue testing'. Now we must install the bootloader. Enable networking (if not already enabled) and download boot-repair:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update

    • Press ENTER.

    • Then type:

    sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && (boot-repair &)

Select 'fix recommended' and Boot-repair will ask you to open a terminal to purge grub. The EFI files will be put where they need to be for your mac to find them, and all that is left is to reboot.

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A good solution to this is just virtualizing the Linux environment inside of the host operating system (in this case Mac OS X) by using an application like virtual box. So instead of worrying about dual booting or partitioning your drive and risking loosing data, you can virtualize it. Its a great way to use linux, experiment, and break linux because you can return back the previous state without any penalty to your main operating system. Take a look at the link below and learn about it and install it. Hope this helps friend.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

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  • This does not solve the problem. Apr 6, 2017 at 12:41
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Apparently, the problem is that when syslinux is not in the MBR there's nothing to point to where the thing we want to boot is located. Solution is to create the LiveCD usb version in Mac Os X:

1) Plug your USB flash drive into your Mac.

Open a terminal and run

diskutil list

Note the drive name of your USB, mine was /dev/disk1 but this number will differ depending on how many devices you have connected, look at the size to identify.

Open the Disk Utility and select your USB drive and erase it, leave it in msdos format.

2) Unmount the USB:

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX

(Substitute X with your drive number obtained earlier)

3) Mark the partition as active

sudo fdisk -e /dev/rdiskX

(Substitute X with your drive number obtained earlier)

You will get a message saying:

fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory Enter 'help' for information

Everything is OK!

4) Enter 3 commands

f 1

write

exit

Keep an eye on the desktop, if the usb drive mounts itself at any command that (last one included) then unmount the drive with diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX

5) Download syslinux

https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-6.01.zip

6) cd to the syslinux-6/bios/mbr folder

cd Downloads/

cd syslinux-6/bios/mbr

7) Write the needed code to MBR

sudo dd conv=notrunc bs=440 count=1 if=mbr.bin of=/dev/diskX

(Substitute X with your drive number obtained earlier)

It will report number of bytes written as 440.

If you have an error, try unmounting the USB again or if there is no mbr.bin then check that you cd'd to the correct syslinux folder, it has to have mbr.bin inside.

7) Download the Ubuntu iso file

releases.ubuntu.com/13.10/ubuntu-13.10-desktop-amd64+mac.iso for 13.10 cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/trusty-desktop-amd64+mac.iso for 14.04 (it just did a pre-release, works great on my 6-2 2013 year 13 inch MBA).

8) Install Unetbootin for Mac and make the Live USB following on screen instructions.

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

It will take some time to finish...and it might seem that it is stuck - it is not!

When done then it reports that the USB will not be bootable on a Mac. (This is normal.)

(If when you open Unetbootin it complains about unknown source then hold Ctrl and click on the file and select Open then from the new warning you can select Open to actually open the program.)

9) Install Ubuntu

Restart your computer, hold the Alt key soon as it powers on and select the "Windows" option given, then choose Install ubuntu from the Unetbootin menu (you might have to choose it twice!). Follow instructions, I replaced Mac Os X with Ubuntu and let it deal with partitioning etc itself.

Source: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2174630

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