Installing Mint 14 MacBook Pro - GRUB not working

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tuxter

Installing Mint 14 MacBook Pro - GRUB not working

Post by tuxter »

I've been trying to install Mint for two days now. I used unetbootin to create a bootable USB disk. It boots fine, and installs fine. But when it comes to installing GRUB I would get a message saying that grub-efi failed to installed to "//target//" I don't know what that means exactly. Manually installing GRUB didn't work, it said "installation impossible." I've tried using boot-repair as well, but that didn't work. I've tried a manual install after mounting my installation and binding dev, sys, and proc, that kind of gave my something, but I can't remember what it was exactly. It said that it could install block sectors but it was highly recommended that it wasn't done.

When I try to boot the installation after doing all that I get a grub rescue prompt. I tried using that to boot, but I get a bunch of errors about missing symbols. I can't even load the linux module. The only thing I can think of that's affecting it is that, with rEFIt installed, it's trying to boot the installation that's setup for EFI in an MBR manner. If that makes any sense. It doesn't show up in the Apple EFI list of bootable media, so I don't think it's actually EFI bootable, which could explain why rEFIt would want to boot it as MBR, right?

Anyways, I'm at my wit's end here. I'd really love to give Mint a go.


This is my partition layout:


Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 583817207 Mac OS X HFS+
3 584079360 968914943 Basic Data
4 968916879 976773118 Linux Swap

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
2 409640 583817207 af Mac OS X HFS+
3 * 584079360 968914943 83 Linux
4 968916879 976773118 82 Linux swap / Solaris

MBR contents:
Boot Code: GRUB

Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 584079360:
Boot Code: GRUB
File System: ext4
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Basic Data
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type 83 Linux, active

Partition at LBA 968916879:
Boot Code: None
File System: Unknown
Listed in GPT as partition 4, type Linux Swap
Listed in MBR as partition 4, type 82 Linux swap /



Thanks.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
tuxter

Re: Installing Mint 14 MacBook Pro - GRUB not working

Post by tuxter »

The missing symbols error that I got t the GRUB rescue prompt were grub_realidt when trying to load the Linux module, and grub_disk_dev_list when trying to load the normal module.
tuxter

Re: Installing Mint 14 MacBook Pro - GRUB not working

Post by tuxter »

I found the solution. Before installing, you have to update the grub, grub2, and grub-efi packages. There are missing dependencies for the grub-efi package and the package itself is broken I think. I didn't look so much into what caused the problem as fixing it, but this works. The only issue I have is that grub takes precedence over my rEFInd installation, but that's probably due to my selecting "something else" as opposed to "Alongside Mac OS X" when I chose the partitioning scheme. This might be a matter of simply installing rEFInd again. All works well, I can get to rEFInd by holding the 'option' key at boot and selecting the HDD labeled "EFI Boot."

I hope this helps someone.
lakona

Re: Installing Mint 14 MacBook Pro - GRUB not working

Post by lakona »

How did you update the grub files?
lakona

Re: Installing Mint 14 MacBook Pro - GRUB not working

Post by lakona »

Okay. I'm Posting from Mint 14 on MacBook Pro 7.1.

The Workaround:

1. Install Ubuntu in small partition (5GB) - This installs grub (but Ubuntu desktop fails).

2. Install Mint 14

3. Start Troubleshooting wireless. - I may be able to help.
(this will probably help too: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... _in_Ubuntu)

4. I changed to the NVIDIA Proprietary Driver - seems to be working better than the open-source one - which seemed to be giving me problems (I'll update if I find otherwise).

I'm now looking at power issues. I'd be happy for the help. Cheers
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