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I have been trying to dual boot OS X and Ubuntu on my MacBook Pro 7,1 and have found a few issues. First of all, I am using this guide. http://lifehacker.com/5934942/how-to-dual-boot-linux-on-your-mac-and-take-back-your-powerhouse-apple-hardware I have just installed Ubuntu and rebooted. I saw GRUB instead of rEFIt. When selecting Ubuntu and logging in, I get graphical glitches.

The glitches vary, and sometimes I get one before I hit the login screen.

When I try to boot OS X I get this:

http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j404/ryebread761/image_zpsdb83a7d9.jpg

However, I can get a terminal working nice!

So, my questions are: how do I get Ubuntu to work without graphic issues and how can I get OS X to boot again and preferably use rEFIt as the guide intended to boot the 2?

Quick Update: I have successfully booted OS X 10.8! I held option when starting, selected my OS X hard drive and from there it started rEFIt. I selected OS X and it booted as normal! Now I just need Ubuntu to work correctly.

Update 2: rEFIt now appears on startup, and the only issues is the Ubuntu graphics. If I can get unity to start correctly, and all the graphics to be displayed nicely, I'll be good. Yay, progress!

Update 3: In the process of reinstalling Ubuntu.

ryebread761
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  • Could you provide more information in your question? E.g., what happens after you push the power button? Do you go into GRUB? Is there an entry for OS X in Grub? – kalaracey Feb 24 '13 at 01:26
  • Yes and yes it does. – ryebread761 Feb 24 '13 at 01:32
  • Ok so there is an OSX entry. Have you tried selecting the OS X entry instead of the Ubuntu/Linux entry (using the arrow keys)? What happens then? – kalaracey Feb 24 '13 at 01:33
  • This: http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j404/ryebread761/image_zpsdb83a7d9.jpg – ryebread761 Feb 24 '13 at 01:44
  • Here is what the glitch has looked like before, but as I said, it varies. http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j404/ryebread761/image_zps8c6b5348.jpg – ryebread761 Feb 24 '13 at 01:51
  • Ok so from your updates it looks like you've made some progress; I'm relieved that you didn't wipe out your OS X partition! Also, putting rEFIt on is great as well. Could you specify (a) what MacBook Pro model you have (something like 6,2 or Mid 2010 which can be found by going to the upper left hand corner, clicking the Apple, click About This Mac >> More Info, and there it will say something like "Mid 2010') and (b) what version of Ubuntu? – kalaracey Feb 24 '13 at 20:14
  • If you can't solve your graphics problem (I would try googling it), then best bet would be to reinstall Ubuntu. I can help with specific install instructions for Mac, if you want. I've done this quite a few times. One thing - the Graphics problem might be because of what model your Mac is / if you installed it with EFI or BIOS support. Did you use the normal Ubuntu install disk, or the special Macintosh one? – kalaracey Feb 24 '13 at 20:16
  • I used the normal one. Woops? – ryebread761 Feb 25 '13 at 03:08
  • Oh and Macbook Pro is 7,1 and Ubuntu 12.10. – ryebread761 Feb 25 '13 at 03:10
  • Oh no, no "woops"... I always use the Non-Mac version. The Normal version. I would advise that you do as well. It appears on the Ubuntu Apple hardware page (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro7-1/Quantal) that your 7,1 is supported quite well under 12.10. I would wipe out Ubuntu and then reinstall it and see how it goes. – kalaracey Feb 25 '13 at 11:54
  • Ok, will try that. Hopefully it works. – ryebread761 Feb 25 '13 at 22:14
  • I've run into a couple roadblocks. 1. I went into disk utility and attempted to remove both the main Ubuntu partition and its swap. The swap refuses to be removed. 2. I somehow removed my Recovery Partition, is there any way to get this back? 3. Is there something else I should do to uninstall? rEFIt still has Ubuntu as an option (this may go away once I get rid of the swap) – ryebread761 Feb 25 '13 at 22:43
  • Alright... 1) I don't know why Disk Utility won't remove the swap partition. Just to clarify, you open Disk Utility, select your hard drive in the left-hand pane, then click on the "Partition" Tab, then select the Swap partition (whatever you named it) in the little graphic / table describing all your partitions on that drive (NOT in the left hand pane) under the title "Partition Layout" and click the small "-" button below the graphic / table and follow the prompts? Please give the error you receive if this doesn't work. – kalaracey Feb 26 '13 at 03:09
  • 2) I, too, have accidentally removed my recovery partition. Bummer. The only (safe) way to recreate the partition (or any way that I trust; you can Google the problem, but some of the ways online with custom scripts from other people seem a little sketchy) is to reinstall Mac OS X. This is actually not as bad as you think; you need to re-download your version of OS X (I assume Lion or Mountain Lion) from the Mac App Store, rerun the install. All your files and configs will be the same. Make sure you wipe out all the partitions after your main Mac one, though, first (including swap). – kalaracey Feb 26 '13 at 03:11
  • Then your recovery partition will be back where it started. Then you can reinstall Ubuntu. Also, when installing, at least when I installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my Mac, I did not use a swap partition. Typically 4GB is enough (default on Macs, maybe you have 8?) You can later create a Swap file which acts like swap but is just a file on disk in Ubuntu. I'm adding an Answer with all the info in the comments, which I'll update as your problem progresses. – kalaracey Feb 26 '13 at 03:13

2 Answers2

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Ok so there is an OSX entry. Have you tried selecting the OS X entry instead of the Ubuntu/Linux entry (using the arrow keys)? What happens then? UPDATE: Yes you have, but you get an error, you have updated that in your question

Update 1

Ok so from your updates it looks like you've made some progress; I'm relieved that you didn't wipe out your OS X partition! Also, putting rEFIt on is great as well. Could you specify (a) what MacBook Pro model you have (something like 6,2 or Mid 2010 which can be found by going to the upper left hand corner, clicking the Apple, click About This Mac >> More Info, and there it will say something like "Mid 2010') and (b) what version of Ubuntu?

If you can't solve your graphics problem (I would try googling it), then best bet would be to reinstall Ubuntu. I can help with specific install instructions for Mac, if you want. I've done this quite a few times. One thing - the Graphics problem might be because of what model your Mac is / if you installed it with EFI or BIOS support. Did you use the normal Ubuntu install disk, or the special Macintosh one?

I always use the Non-Mac version. The Normal version. I would advise that you do as well. It appears on the Ubuntu Apple hardware page (help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro7-1/Quantal) that your 7,1 is supported quite well under 12.10. I would wipe out Ubuntu and then reinstall it and see how it goes.

Update 2

You say:

I've run into a couple roadblocks. 1. I went into disk utility and attempted to remove both the main Ubuntu partition and its swap. The swap refuses to be removed. 2. I somehow removed my Recovery Partition, is there any way to get this back? 3. Is there something else I should do to uninstall? rEFIt still has Ubuntu as an option (this may go away once I get rid of the swap)

Alright...

  1. I don't know why Disk Utility won't remove the swap partition. Just to clarify, you open Disk Utility, select your hard drive in the left-hand pane, then click on the "Partition" Tab, then select the Swap partition (whatever you named it) in the little graphic / table describing all your partitions on that drive (NOT in the left hand pane) under the title "Partition Layout" and click the small "-" button below the graphic / table and follow the prompts? Please give the error you receive if this doesn't work.

  2. I, too, have accidentally removed my recovery partition. Bummer. The only (safe) way to recreate the partition (or any way that I trust; you can Google the problem, but some of the ways online with custom scripts from other people seem a little sketchy) is to reinstall Mac OS X. This is actually not as bad as you think; you need to re-download your version of OS X (I assume Lion or Mountain Lion) from the Mac App Store, rerun the install. All your files and configs will be the same. Make sure you wipe out all the partitions after your main Mac one, though, first (including swap).

Then your recovery partition will be back where it started. Then you can reinstall Ubuntu. Also, when installing, at least when I installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my Mac, I did not use a swap partition. Typically 4GB is enough (default on Macs, maybe you have 8?) You can later create a Swap file which acts like swap but is just a file on disk in Ubuntu. I'm adding an Answer with all the info in the comments, which I'll update as your problem progresses. Having no Swap removes some added complexity to everything.

kalaracey
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  • Disk utility just makes it look like it is taking it away but doesn't actually do so. I get no error message. The partition is grayed out, if that helps. – ryebread761 Feb 27 '13 at 22:19
  • There, I got rid of it by erasing it to a FAT partition and then deleting that. So now I reinstall OS X (without erasing settings)? – ryebread761 Feb 27 '13 at 22:25
  • Ok so your partition layout should be just Mac OS X, with a bunch of freespace after it (however much you want to allocate for the Recovery Partition (which is pretty small) and Ubuntu). What version of OS X do you have installed? I had 10.8 Mountain Lion, and downloading OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store, and installing it left everything the same. – kalaracey Feb 28 '13 at 00:16
  • Just one thing: before doing anything like this, you should back up your computer with Time Machine. There is no excuse not too. Also, on a lighter note, here are two resources that I used to learn that you can just reinstall OS X with no harm to your installed apps / docs / configs, but recreate the recovery disk: http://alanghamilton.com/2012/07/20/restoring-the-recovery-partition-in-mac-os-x-lion/ and http://www.ivanexpert.com/blog/2012/09/create-or-update-a-lion-or-mountain-lion-recovery-partition/ – kalaracey Feb 28 '13 at 00:20
  • As far as partitions go, I extended OS X to take the full disk, bad idea? – ryebread761 Feb 28 '13 at 01:42
  • Ok, well, I got 2 things. 1) I found out my Mac supports Internet recovery (Command + R on startup) which gives me the same functions as a physical partition so can I skip reinstalling OS X? 2) On boot, rEFIt still has an option to boot Ubuntu. Ubuntu isn't even on my disk, why is the option there/how do I get rid of it? – ryebread761 Mar 02 '13 at 04:15
  • Ok 1) I would just download it from the Mac App Store. I did that, and it did not affect any docs / configs. Also, will CMD+R even work now that the recovery partition is not there? I'm not sure. I was pretty sure it was tied to the Recovery Partition. 2) In rEFIt, you need to sync the mbr partition table.I think you need to, instead of selecting an OS, select the Partition Tool, and it will prompt you to sync your MBR so that it is up-to-date (i.e., it knows that Ubuntu is not there. – kalaracey Mar 02 '13 at 18:34
  • 1) Yes, CMD + R will do "Internet Recovery" if there is no partition in place to do so. This works just the same (though takes about 10 min to boot) 2) Did that, The tables synced though the option (Boot EFI\ubuntu\somethinghere.efi from EFI) is still there. On another note, I booted the Live CD and got the same graphics crap as before, so I think I need to get a working CD before I reinstall. I have checked the md5 of the file I burned, and it matches. Should I try the Mac version or perhaps retry burning the disk? – ryebread761 Mar 02 '13 at 21:12
  • 1) Ok sounds good, I guess do that. If I were you, I would still do the Mac App Store method, but your choice man. I would check online to make sure it doesn't wipe out settings + docs. 2) As for the icon still being there, I remember that was an issue but unfortunately a quick google search reveals naught. I would suggest keep googling. Or, try rEFInd. rEFIt is no longer maintained, and rEFInd is much more advanced. It's what I use now. As for the graphics issue, I don't know. I would post a bug on launchpad if it is an issue. – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 01:41
  • By launchpad I mean here: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/221910 or https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu. I really don't know what's going on with your graphics, I'll do some more research and get back to you. As for Mac and the EFI disk, see here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/37999/what-is-different-about-the-mac-iso-image and https://answers.launchpad.net/mactel-support/+question/162838. I have never used it, as support for EFI booting in Ubuntu (versus the normal, stable legacy MBR booting) is more experimental. Please just ask for more explanation – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 01:54
  • Also, as for resizing Mac OS X, you should probably not expand it to fill the whole disk. If you do that, where will your recovery disk and ubuntu partition go? Sorry I just saw that comment up above from Feb 28 at 1:42. – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 01:57
  • Another thing to try would be see how 12.04 works, and go from there. – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 01:58
  • One question: where did you install all of your Boot stuff to when it prompts you in the installation? – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 01:59
  • It didn't prompt me - I selected "Install Ubuntu alside OS X". so I think it installed it to my main hard drive. That's what the guide seemed to say to do. – ryebread761 Mar 05 '13 at 02:05
  • Ok See http://youtu.be/ba9Wv-XU_4M?t=1m53s for what I mean, the whole video and that particular moment. When you do an install of Ubuntu, select the third option - not "install Ubuntu alongisde OSX, but 3) Something Else. Your partition map (as seen in the video) should be something like 1) /dev/sda1 EFI system partition (FAT) 2) /dev/sda2 Mac OS X (HFS+) 3) /dev/sda3 Recovery Disk (HFS+) 4) /dev/sda4 Ubuntu (EXT2/3/4). Then, for the option "Device For Bootloader installation", you should choose your /dev/sda(4?), or whichever one Ubuntu is installed on. – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 02:07
  • You might get a little warning message, but that is what Ialwaysdo.......... BUT ANYWAY THIS MAY NOT EVEN HELP YOU! Sorry. I am thinking perhaps your boot is messed up, which is why you are having this problem. But many other people probably do it your way, so your way is fine. I would try my way if you can, and see if it resolves the problem. Otherwise, try 12.04. Otherwise, you have a Graphics issue. I would post on Launchpad, they are more knowledgeable, or the ubuntu forums. The shot of the weird overlapping graphics problem is priceless though because its hard to describe in words. – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 02:09
  • Also, maybe your specific graphics card is giving you issues... You could Google "graphics issue " ubuntu 12.10 (optionally, Macbook Pro 7,1 Mid 2010). See here for more information on that year's graphics cards (looks like their were two options, you can find out which you have in OS X -> System Profiler) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro?section=9#Technical_specifications_2. Thing is, I don't know much about graphics problems, just boot/partition/install stuff. I can only google; I would suggest finding graphics-knowledgeable people on launchpad or ubuntu forums – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 02:15
  • This issue (I linked to it before) looks like it particularly might affect you: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/221910. Guy has a Graphics issue with 12.10 on a Mid 2010 (albeit, 13") with a Nvidia GeForce 320M. Is that your graphics card? Do you have a 13" or a 15"/17" (the graphics cards differ between the 13 and the 15/17) – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 02:21
  • Ok, I was thinking of trying 12.04. How should I get rid of Ubuntu's remaining bootloader? – ryebread761 Mar 05 '13 at 02:22
  • Oh yes, that's my card aright! – ryebread761 Mar 05 '13 at 02:25
  • Cool. To try 12.04, 1) Make sure you have room after your Mac OS X and Recovery Disk partitions. 2) Install 12.04 just like you did 12.10. If I were you, I would choose "Something Else" when you have the option to do that or "Install Ubuntu alongside OS X." See the video I posted a couple comments back. Then, you know, create a partition in the empty space following your other partitions for Ubuntu with Mount Point "/". (again, see the video). For the option "Device for boot loader installation" make sure to choose the Ubuntu partition you just created, i.e. something like /dev/sda4. – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 03:01
  • Not the root /dev/sda (with on number). Then I think you have to click the check box of the Ubuntu partition in the "Format" column, then continue with installaiton. The good thing about this method is that you assured not to harm any of the rest of your computer. In this process, *don't touch the other partitions _AT_ALL_. Do all the resizing in OS X diskutility. Then, in the Ubuntu installer, create a partition from the free space for Ubuntu. All the bootcode will be installed on the Ubuntu partition, not mucking up your other partitions. Got it? Also, always backup before you do this. – kalaracey Mar 05 '13 at 03:03
  • Got it, normal disk right? – ryebread761 Mar 05 '13 at 03:30
  • Sorry what do you mean by "normal disk"? – kalaracey Mar 06 '13 at 13:17
  • Mac or normal disk? – ryebread761 Mar 06 '13 at 13:38
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Your grub configuration is wrong, I actualy just fixed this on my macbook pro. In grub configureation, /boot/grub/grub.cfg, delete the menu entries for "Mac OS X (64-bit) and (64-bit) but copy your uuid (where it says search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root youruuidhere) and just put this:

menuentry "Mac OS X (32-bit)" --class osx --class darwin --class os {
    insmod part_gpt
    insmod hfsplus
    set root='(hd0,gpt3)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root youruuidhere
        load_video
    chainloader /usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi
    boot        
}
menuentry "Mac OS X (64-bit)" --class osx --class darwin --class os {
    insmod part_gpt
    insmod hfsplus
    set root='(hd0,gpt3)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root youruuidhere
        load_video
    chainloader /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
    boot   
}

This method just dumps the grub bootloader into the efi component of the mac operating system instead of trying to load the xnu kernel manually with the kernel extentions. Grubs way of booting mac has never worked for me so i just use apples way of booting. Hope this works for you too.

P.S. This method i probably not the best because grub constantly reconfigures itself, instead of editing /boot/grub/grub.cfg it might be better to edit a grub config file such as the one that produces these entries, /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober or change grubs custom.cfg to add these and disable os_prober

Trevor Rudolph
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