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I bought a MacBook Pro 9,1 (Mid 2012, 15inch, NOT retina). Can anyone tell me how to install Ubuntu 12.04 on it? I already have Windows installed via BootCamp. Also, where to install drivers for Ubuntu and all? This link https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro has nothing for 9,1 so please help me. If I have to remove BootCamp and reinstall Windows manually because BootCamp doesn't allow resizing of partitions, that's fine. Please tell me how to install Precise on MBP 9,1

Thanks!

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  • You might check askubuntu.com/questions/157514/…
    – belacqua
    Aug 19, 2012 at 17:46
  • What is "9,1" suppose to mean? When referring to MacBooks the year and screen size, or generation is usually mentioned.
    – Yi Jiang
    Aug 20, 2012 at 1:07
  • Added the year and screen size @YiJiang
    – pratnala
    Aug 20, 2012 at 7:42

5 Answers 5

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My suggestion is to just install it on a flash drive and before it shows the apple boot logo, hold option key and select the flash drive. It performs surprisingly fast off a flash drive. I have a cousin that uses this method on his Mac.

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    But I want to do it on a partition. Could you tell how?
    – pratnala
    Aug 19, 2012 at 17:20
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I have one of these and have still not got it all working properly. However I have managed to get Mint 13 (derived from 12.04) installed on it. The basic setup that you are asking about is described here. In order to get an Ubuntu live image to boot you need to pass some options to the kernel as described here in the section entitled 3rd attempt. I could only get it to boot from a DVD, it wouldn't work from a USB drive for me.

As I understand it, if you want to have Windows also then you can't use EFI boot, but the default install uses BIOS boot so that shouldn't require further config.

There is further discussion about this laptop on ubuntuforums.org (AU won't let me post any more links so you'll have to search) full support for it still seems to be a work in progress.

The key thing about booting from CD or HD in BIOS mode is to add "noapic" to the kernel boot parameters otherwise it will not boot. For EFI mode you need "noinitremap".

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  • Can we interact on email?
    – pratnala
    Aug 20, 2012 at 7:50
  • It's probably better if you use the forum then everyone can benefit have a look at these threads.
    – glennr
    Aug 20, 2012 at 19:46
  • I only asked for email so that you could give the link (because AU isn't allowing you)
    – pratnala
    Aug 21, 2012 at 7:21
  • How to add noapic to kernel boot parameters?
    – pratnala
    Sep 15, 2012 at 6:42
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What works for me (13.04 and above work well on a Mac):

  1. Install Ubuntu with the 64-bit ISO.
  2. For wireless drivers and NVIDIA drivers, go to Additional Drivers and install them.

Works like a charm!

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So i just installed an almost "perfect" MacbookPro 9.1. A pretty long process but completely worth it! Here we go:

Install 12.10 -use the 64 bit version on the default download page -it has EFI boot support ie: ubuntu-12.10-desktop-amd64+mac.iso. -Download and install Refind on your macbook pro. -Hold down Option key during booting the macbook pro and insert the DVD/CD. Wait for it to be read and select "EFI Boot" NOT "Windows"

Upgrade To 13.04 (Its Pretty Stable For Me :) using for Java development) -Install and update your 12.10 completely. -Once 12.10 is installed and updated, upgrade to 13.04 using: sudo do-release-upgrade -d [it should now download the 13.04 packages and upgrade. Everything worked for me out of the box except my wireless]

Install Wireless: After a few searching and trials, i found this thread "http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1966236" ...that did it for me.

Suffice it to say that i'm writing this using the macbook now :) Enjoy.

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  • I installed Ubuntu - the BIOS one not EFI install because I use Windows too and apparently you can't triple boot 3 EFI OSes :(
    – pratnala
    Mar 26, 2013 at 8:26
  • One more thing, were you able to install NVidia's drivers? I'm currently using X.org's drivers.
    – pratnala
    Mar 26, 2013 at 8:27
  • i didn't have to do all that with my approach. i'm comfortable working with just Mountain Lion and Ubuntu. It will take some work, i admit, so if u are up to it, then jump on!!! otherwise i will suggest waiting for the release from Canonical. Enjoy. Mar 26, 2013 at 15:51
  • Well I use all 3 :P Thanks for the help anyway. Much appreciated!
    – pratnala
    Mar 26, 2013 at 17:38
  • Happy for you man, Wow!!!! Can you help? It can sleep and hibernate but it does not seem to resume after. I always have to restart(AND LOOSE MY WORK) after that. Apr 29, 2013 at 11:52
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I have a non retina macbook pro 9,1 as well. I followed the installation instructions for a mbp on the ubuntu website (with refit), but after the installation would complete, I'd reboot, and after passing the grub screen, get an unresponsive black screen.

The solution I found to get a good install is to remove all nvidia drivers after installation and before reboot, via sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-*. I don't know exactly why this worked for me, but it did.

I also changed the grub option "quiet splash" to "nomodeset", and ran update-grub after.

After these steps, I rebooted, and everything worked perfectly! Hope this helps.

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  • on Ubuntu 13.04, NVIDIA drivers install perfectly.
    – pratnala
    Jun 26, 2013 at 7:52

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