Single Boot Macbook Pro

[Dan Apsley]

My neighbor brought me his Macbook Pro, which was showing him a folder with a question mark at boot.

He told me how much he hated mac os, and was wondering if I could help him out, so I showed him LM18, and after looking at all the different environments, he settled on KDE.

I made a live usb, booted into it, and installed over his hdd. It booted up fine on its own, and I proceeded to install all the programs he wanted, and get it set up. After that, I went to bed fully intent on giving it back to him this morning, until I turned it on one last time.

Now, the computer will boot to GRUB, but if you select "Linux Mint 18.2 KDE 64-bit" it just goes to a black screen and never recovers.

If you select Advanced options and then the generic or upstart options, the computer stops on "Loading initial ramdisk ..."

If you select Recovery mode, you get further... through the encryption password request, to the recovery menu. From there, every option will eventually take you either back to the menu, or a black screen.

Also, I tried just doing a fresh install again, but grub doesn't recognize the live USB, and holding down option no longer gives me anything except a white screen with an arrow.

Please help.

[Dan Apsley]

Update... now recovery mode sticks at line "[ 1.360614] ehci-pci 0000:00:04.1: irq 17, no mem 0xd3489200"

[prestonR]

Try to boot with nomodeset:
https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/842

If you get a desktop go straight to Driver Manager and install the proprietary drivers. If the Macbook has an older Nvidia and 'legacy driver' is recommended do not install the other driver with the higher number but stay with the 'legacy' one.

If you need more help we'll need the output of:

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inxi -Fzx

to get your exact model number, macbook's hardware varies a lot.

[Dan Apsley]

nomodeset got me to a graphical depiction of the encryption password screen, but won't let me type in the field. Instead, its typing in the clear on the upper left side of the screen, and the system doesn't recognize the password.

I'm not opposed to completely re-installing and paying better attention to the drivers, if anybody can get me to that.

[prestonR]

You still haven't given us a model number or

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inxi -Fzx

It's vital.

[Dan Apsley]

Model number A1278
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JHni_q ... p=drivesdk

All the data is off the box, since grub won't run that code and I can't access any other terminal.

[prestonR]

That's the same model that I'm typing this on, the MBP 5,4, but with a 13' screen. Its nvidia 9400 definitely needs the 'legacy' 940.xxx driver. This is one of the easiest MBP to install linux on but the graphics card, the unreliable DVD drive and the sluggish disk are the main bottle necks of this model, an ssd makes a big difference.

I don't use disk encryption so I cannot help you with your particular problem, however, since the missing nvidia driver is the main culprit I'd try to boot to a command line (press Ctrl+Alt+F1 at grub), then log on there (maybe that also lets you type in your encryption password?) and then either

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sudo startx

(should be right for Mint KDE, it is for Mate) to get a desktop to go to Driver Manager or stay at the command line and install the nvidia driver with:

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sudo apt-get install nvidia-340

followed by

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sudo reboot

Most likely the Wifi won't work before you installed the proprietary drivers, so the machine needs to be connected via lan cable which should work out of the box.

It's worth mentioning that KDE is not the speediest desktop on it, although it works. I tried both Cinnamon and KDE and, unless you tune down the effects, the machine feels rather sluggish with the graphics temps above 70C.

Mint Mate and other light distros like Manjaro Lxde work great; they won't give you the black screen after install since they demand less from the graphics card and run fine on the included free drivers.

[fabien85]

For reference, it's a MBP 5,5 and the complete specs are here: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macb ... specs.html
Agree with prestonR, problem is most likely coming from the nvidia card. And KDE (probably Cinnamon also) is a bit too much for this machine. Mint Mate or Xfce will perform better.
Other options to get to a command line :
- at the recovery menu, enable networking (which should get you back) to the menu, then use the netry "drop to root shell prompt"
- at grub, edit the option to boot Mint (dont worry the change will not be recorded for future boots) and replace "quiet splash" by "single"