[SOLVED] Mint 13 installation freezes on Macbook Pro 8,2

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Koffer

[SOLVED] Mint 13 installation freezes on Macbook Pro 8,2

Post by Koffer »

Hi everybody,

I recently got fed up about Ubuntu's Unity interface and just got a violent crash during the upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04, so I eventually decided to switch to Mint.

However, when it comes to installing the distro on my Mac, I'm stuck. To be more precise, I'm trying to run the install process from a live DVD. The system boots properly, and I'm fully able to use the liveCD's environment; but when I click the "Install Linux Mint" icon, the process freezes after selecting my language: I get an error message like "The folder contents could not be displayed: You do not have the permissions necessary to view the contents of 'tmp.xxxxxxxxx'" (with 'xxxxxxxxx' a string I can't exactly remember). After this, everything hangs and I get an endlessly spinning cursor. The system is not completely frozen, but the installation is, and I can't quit the liveCD normally, I'm forced to do a "hard reset".

I'm using a Macbook Pro 8,2, and I'm trying to install Linux Mint 13 MATE 64-bit. My computer is currently dual-booting Mac OS X and Windows 7.

Did anyone get the same problem (the installation process freezing after the 2nd installation screen)? If anyone did, did you manage to fix this? How? I'm starting to be completely clueless about this issue.

Here is some information about my hardware I got using inxi -Fc 0 on the Mint LiveCD:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: mint Kernel: 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: N/A Distro: Linux Mint 13 Maya
Machine:   System: Apple (portable) product: MacBookPro8 2 version: 1.0
           Mobo: Apple model: Mac-94245A3940C91C80 version: MacBookPro8 2
           Bios: Apple version: MBP81.88Z.0047.B27.1201241646 date: 01/24/12
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-2635QM CPU (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 2001.00 MHz 2: 800.00 MHz 3: 800.00 MHz 4: 800.00 MHz 5: 800.00 MHz 6: 800.00 MHz 7: 800.00 MHz 8: 800.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Seymour [Radeon HD 6400M Series] 
           X.Org: 1.11.3 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: vesa,fbdev) Resolution: 1440x900@59.9hz 
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAICOS GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.2
Audio:     Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Caicos HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6400 Series] driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: 1.0.24
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57765 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: c8:2a:14:36:49:8f
           Card-2: Broadcom BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n driver: bcma-pci-bridge 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: e4:ce:8f:13:14:8c
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (-) 1: /dev/sda Hitachi_HTS54505 500.1GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 1.9G used: 152M (8%) fs: overlayfs 
Sensors:   Error: No active sensors found. Have you configured your sensors yet?
Info:      Processes: 175 Uptime: 10 min Memory: 627.5/3865.5MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.7.33

If anything seems unclear about the freezing issue or my computer's configuration, feel free to ask; I may have omitted to mention important information, so if it's the case I'll try to give you the relevant pieces of information as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance...!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
AlbertP
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Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by AlbertP »

Sounds like a bad burn. Did you check the md5sum of the ISO file after downloading? If it matches you may need to burn it again, at a lower speed.
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Koffer

Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by Koffer »

Thanks for your fast answer! It may be a bad burn, I'm going to try something else (I'm going to try installing from a live USB key, who knows...).

I also added some hardware info I gathered in the first post.

I don't know whether or not it can help to identify the problem, but I just tried installing Ubuntu 12.04 and got the same kind of freeze at the exact same moment of the installation (after the language selection and the screen telling me to check that I have enough disk space, that I'm connected to the Internet and that I'm not on the battery).

Thus, I have two hypotheses: either the disc isn't well burned (I tried burning the discs at the slowest speed I could choose), or this is somehow linked to the kernel update and/or driver issues. However, those are juste blind hypotheses, and I don't really understand what is going on there.

More news after the USB key attempt...
bloom1

Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by bloom1 »

This is most probably not a bad burn. I got the same issue with a MacBook Pro 5,5. With both DVD and USB flash drive. Ubuntu doesn't want to boot either...
Matt267
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Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by Matt267 »

Koffer, bloom1,

I had a similar problem. The error that comes up is cosmetic (see realease notes:http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_maya.php). However, the installer seems to hang for some people. See this topic: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=102866 for the solution that helped me. I had the same problem with Ubuntu 12.04, Xubuntu 12.04, and Mint 13. But it's all good now.

Matt
bloom1

Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by bloom1 »

Matt,

thank you for your reply. However, I saw your post earlier today and I uninstalled ubiquity-slideshow-mint before I started the installation process, and unfortunately it still hangs when I click on Next on the page saying how much space is needed, Internet connection required, etc. The other window does not pop up anymore though.

I am wondering if the fact that my hard drive is in GPT format is the issue... Because I took a look at the syslog and it seems that os-probe or something like that is the last thing that works (and the last thing found is my HFS+ partition).

I want Linux Mint on my MBP :(

Edit:
I noticed that ubiquity had a debug mode, here is the output (/var/log/installer/debug):
http://pastebin.com/wtvJTpVk
bloom1

Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by bloom1 »

Hello,

I am happy to say that I sucessfully installed Linux Mint 13 MATE 64-bit on my MacBook Pro. I had to search a lot on Google to be able to do so but I found the solution.

The grub-mount binary provided with the distribution is broken (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/988583). It hangs when it sees a HFS+ partition. So all you have to do to be able to install is to launch the terminal, ps -aux to find the grub-mount process ID and sudo /bin/kill -KILL the process ID. You have to use /bin/kill because bash provides a kill that doesn't work. Then the installer does not hang anymore. You also have to uninstall ubiquity-slideshow-mint before the installation. Note that the installer will hang 3 times total during the installation, in which case you juste have to kill grub-mount again. It hangs before the partitioning and while looking for other operating systems and then when it installs grub.

I also found this page http://www.rodsbooks.com/ubuntu-efi/index.html which is really useful.

If you have any question don't hesitate.
AlbertP
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Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by AlbertP »

Please add [solved] to the title by editing the first post if you don't need any more help.
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bloom1

Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by bloom1 »

Hello,

if you look carefully I'm not the OP.

Regards,
AlbertP
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Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by AlbertP »

In that case you should have opened your own topic in fact (we call this hijacking somebody's topic). Anyway your problem is solved so Koffer can use the topic again.
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bloom1

Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by bloom1 »

No, we don't call this hijacking a topic. I had the same problem, contributed to the discussion and found a solution for OP because I had the same issue. Please stop behaving like a mod if you're not. Thank you.
Koffer

Re: Mint 13 installation freezes [Macbook Pro 8,2]

Post by Koffer »

Hi everybody,

First of all, thank you very much for your responses! (I was away with no computer and no Internet for two days, so I couldn't try and answer your messages earlier)

I eventually got the installation to work, thanks to bloom1's instructions about killing grub-mount everytime it tries to mount the HFS+ partition. I had started to suspect such an issue, but I had no idea how to fix it.

So to sum things up, what I did was check everytime the installation seemed to freeze (using ps-aux | grep grub-mount) whether or not grub-mount was running (using ps-aux | grep grub-mount), and kill the process in a Terminal window (using /bin/kill -KILL) if it was trying to mount my hard drive's HFS+ partition. It happened several times during the installation process.

Anyway, I now have Linux Mint 13 running on my computer in tri-Boot with no major problems (I'm currently trying to fix the WiFi issue, but it's a classic one so it shouldn't be too difficult).

I had been struggling for two days straight with this problem, I'm really relieved to see that it can be fixed. Thanks a lot guys!
cmSCIguy

Re: [SOLVED] Mint 13 installation freezes on Macbook Pro 8,2

Post by cmSCIguy »

I'm interested to know if you've gotten the wifi to work yet, and if so, what did you do? I've got the same situation (8,2 with Mint 13) and can't seem to solve the wifi issue. Any light on this subject would be great!
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