macbook pro with 18.3 {SOLVED}

[ilikesteel]

while waiting for a reply, I did what CaptainKirksChair suggested. when I checked the disk with gparted, there was a EFI entry 200mb. I deleted the remainder of the disk and partitioned. here is the result:


Gparted

/dev/sda1 EFI System Partition FAT32 200mb boot/esp
/dev/sda2 / ext4 24.41 GB
/dev/sda3 swap linux-swap 1.95 GB
/dev/sda4 /home ext4 122.49GB

I'll go ahead and try an install and see what happens. please comment or advise.

thanks.

[ilikesteel]

completed the install. reboot. chimes, grey screen, the the mysterious folder appears with a question mark inside the image. never continues to mint desktop.

HELP!

[ilikesteel]

anyone:

still trying while waiting for replies.

I booted up to the live mint desktop. I clicked install mint. this time, instead of manually making partitions, I let linux erase disk and make the partitions. came up, restart, removed DVD. mac started, chime, went into grey screen for 30 or more seconds, then it started mint up to the desktop.

I started a terminal session. typed in at the prompt efibootmgr. it came back with efibootmgr: EFI variables are not supported on this system.

I looked at the hard drive with "disks", and it showed:

1MB partition/dev/sda1 partition type: BIOS Boot

/dev/sda2 Linux File system ext4 152GB

/dev/sda3 linux swap 8.5 GB

why isn't grub window coming up? I restarted again and got the same results, chime, grey screen and boot to mint desktop. it's repeatable.

[fabien85]

Nooo ... you just reinstalled in Legacy mode. Why ?
You were much closer in your previous post, and I was writing instructions on how to fix it...

Grub does not appear because it's the default on a single boot machine.
It's still there doing the bootloading, it just doesnt show its menu because there is no choice to be made, just boot directly the only OS.

Now you should redo the steps leading to your previous post, where you had a valid EFI partition.
Then I will (or captainkirkchair will) write instructions in order to get you an EFI bootloader
(the instructions are given in my first post on page 1 of this thread, you just need to adapt the partition numbers if necessary)

[ilikesteel]

fabien85:

Thanks for the reply. where it sits right now, can I do what I need to do so that mint will load automatically when powered on or restarted, or do I have to try and reinstall making my own partitions (using something else at format time) and then add what ever you want me to add.

remember, there is no mac OS on this hdd.

thanks

[fabien85]

Just redo whatever you did to get to this step :

here is the result:

Gparted

/dev/sda1 EFI System Partition FAT32 200mb boot/esp
/dev/sda2 / ext4 24.41 GB
/dev/sda3 swap linux-swap 1.95 GB
/dev/sda4 /home ext4 122.49GB

It does not matter if it doesnt boot (yet).

Then boot a live USB or DVD (whichever mode, it doesnt matter).
Download refind and decompress the zip file.
Open a terminal and cd to the directory where refind is. Then issue the following command

Code: Select all

./refind-install --usedefault /dev/sda1 --alldrivers

Shutdown, unplug the USB or eject the DVD. Boot pressing alt/option. You should get an entry called "EFI Boot", select it and you should get to refind. Refind should give you an entry to boot linux called something like "Boot /boot/vmlinuz-... on 24GB volume", or something like this. Boot it, does it work ?
If it works I will give you directions to make this bootloader the default, and customise its appearance and behaviour if you want.

[ilikesteel]

Fabien85:

Thanks a bunch. I got the startup time for the grey screen down to 20 seconds before it boots mint. tried it several ways, restart, shut-down and restart. always boots the same. I'm happy with with that. this is for my 6 year old grandson who's a wiz at technology. He will love it.

I have another macbook pro I will be re-doing in Mint 18.3 for my grand daughter who's 4 years old and wiz at technology. hopefully that one will have a good disk and I won't have to go through what I did doing for this macbook. I won't wipe out the disk on that one, and keep the EFI partition and the HFS+ partition. I have a few more tweaks on this one and then I can give it him.

I personally use a acer desktop with Win 7, and with linux mint 17.3 dual booting. it works fine. I use a program on the win 7 side called macrium reflect to clone win7 and linux mint. it allows cloning of the linux partitions. if I have to wipe it out, I can just restore the clone via a recovery disk and I'm back, system and files.

I can't thank everyone enough who took the time to answer my post. this forum is amazing. my email ilikesteel@yahoo.com. I'll probably post again the forum. for you and all the others that give their time and knowledge to help someone like me is unbelievable.


just one more question! I would like to install 18.3 over 17.3 on my dual boot system. can I do it without too much hassle?

thanks,

ilikesteel

[fabien85]

just one more question! I would like to install 18.3 over 17.3 on my dual boot system. can I do it without too much hassle?

In principle you can upgrade from Mint 17.x to 18 (and then to 18.3) following the tutorial by Clem. Note all the caveats listed there. It may be long and not work.
The recommended, simpler and usually faster, solution to make a fresh install on top of the existing one. Then restore your backups.

Basic steps :
- backup everything
- boot the LM 18.3 live USB, launch the installer, choose the "something else" option
- mark the existing swap partition to be used as swap, and the existing / to be used as / partition. Do the same if you have a separate /home (but if you have one, you should basically already know all this)
For some context/example on the manual partitioning in the installer, see viewtopic.php?f=42&t=163126
- optionally, you can mark the / partition not to be formatted, and that may conserve your data as well as software configuration. I have not (yet) tested this, so no guarantee this will work.

[ilikesteel]

fabien85:

Ok thanks for the reply. I want to do a fresh install and not upgrade. I did order on ebay a software down load of Lion x 10.8. I will put it on a DVD. I remember you saying to reload Lion on the macbook and then afterwards just delete the mac system, leaving the EFI partition and the recovery system for mac. then install 18.3 and partitioning the disk. that's still an option.

at least I have the mac lion install disk in case I need it for the 2nd macbook I will be doing. thanks again for helping me. the forum members are amazing.

ilikesteel

[CaptainKirksChair]

I want to do a fresh install and not upgrade. I did order on ebay a software down load of Lion x 10.8. I will put it on a DVD. I remember you saying to reload Lion on the macbook and then afterwards just delete the mac system, leaving the EFI partition and the recovery system for mac. then install 18.3 and partitioning the disk. that's still an option

Sorry for the assumption at the beginning. I always think that the Mac owner has the original install DVD on hand. I guess yours didn't come with one. I don't know why people sell their Apple computers without the original DVD. If they're not going to give you one, they should pay for, download, and build a new DVD for you before you take the computer. And you are right; you will need it for the next MacBook.

Do what you said above, or follow my instructions from here: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=265501#p1442450

When you are done, you should be okay. Holler if you need any other help.

[ilikesteel]

Greetings:

A special thanks to Fabien85 and CaptainKirksChair for timely and valuable information. The macbook pro I was working on is running and doing fine. the only issue was that at boot time there's a 20 second grey screen before linux mint actually boots. It's not a big issue and I may do something about it later.

I do want say that I'm working on another macbook pro late 2009 13". This macbook does have an intact mac OS El Capitain. the first one did not because I installed a new HDD to replace a defective HDD. I followed the instructions provided by CaptainKirksChair that's posted in the panel above this one.

everything worked as described in the instructions. This time I used a USB flash drive with the 18.3 iso instead of a DVD. upon completing the instructions and after mint was installed, I restarted the macbook. when it booted, I got the apple chime, a splash of a grey screen, then a black screen, then a linuxmint logo screen, then a black screen and finally the desktop. It was a great experience.

If it wasn't for this forum and everyone who participates in helping other noob's like me, I'd still be trying to figure things out.

just a point of interest. in 1967 I started to work at Bell Laboratories in Murry Hill, Nj. There I met both Brian Kerginhan and Dennis Ritchie, the fathers of UNIX. I worked in the computer operations group. They were given free reign over their work schedules. they would often come in at 5pm when everyone else was going home. their life at that time was developing UNIX. I think they were both MIT geniuses. I retired in 2002 after 35 years. Ive been involved with people and systems that ran UNIX exclusively. many of the IC developers and memory developers used a UNIX system on a SUN micro systems desktop. although I'm familiar with UNIX (a little), it was great working with people who were innovators.

Thanks again, I will be posting another topic soon on my dual boot win7 and linuxmint 17.3 system.

[ilikesteel]

See last panel on page 2.

[ilikesteel]

I should have included Ken Thompson in that group. he and dennis ritchie I believe were the main contributors to Unix development. it was done on a GE 645 main frame system. 64K of memory filled a room, yes that's "K". 128K filled a 20x20 foot print. at that time no one could foresee the enormity of the project.

ilikesteel

[fabien85]

Congrats !

I'm too young to know all this names, I just learned about Dennis Ritchie when he died. I understood he also is the father of C. That with Unix is the base for a large part of what we do with computers today.

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