Comments for Ubuntu + Mac: Pure EFI Boot - The Slightly Disgruntled Scientist

By System @system

2014-09-07 00:58:33.000Z

Comments for http://heeris.id.au/2014/ubuntu-plus-mac-pure-efi-boot/

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There are 188 replies. Estimated reading time: 95 minutes

C
crunchy2
2014-11-03 23:04:34.000Z
You're the man! Thanks so much for sharing. It worked wonderfully to make my new and shiny Mac mini 7,1 late 2014 boot Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS Desktop. One remark though: you missed the step to re-mount /boot/efi before chapter "Installing GRUB".
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1. J Jason Heeris
  2014-11-04 03:01:14.000Z
  Good catch! It was right there in my notes, but I overlooked it. Should be fixed now.
  Reply
I
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
israel
2014-11-06 22:38:01.000Z
It would be amazing if the future +mac ISOs would make an HFS partition and 'bless' it
Thanks for this tutorial!! You are rad!
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1. J Jason Heeris
  2014-11-07 00:13:09.000Z
  I filed bug #1369187 on Launchpad about this, actually. It might be helpful if people who try this on different systems leave a comment there detailing success or failure so the devs know how whether this approach is reliable, and what needs to change for various systems.
  Reply
B
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
BMourelo
2014-11-10 19:52:04.000Z
Only to comment that in some Macs you can install Ubuntu using the EFI partition (vFAT) and Grub, see https://help.ubuntu.com/com...
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1. J Jason Heeris
  2014-11-12 06:01:49.000Z
  Is that just for Macs prior to a certain model? Or can you do this on recent models as well?
  Reply
A
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
Alex Rodenberg
2014-11-18 08:30:43.000Z
Unfortunately does not work for 12.04, the grub-install does not have the efi parameters to install on the HFS partition :( and I get /boot/efi doesn't look like an EFI partition.
if just run with that target.
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1. J Jason Heeris
  2014-11-18 10:22:48.000Z
  grub-install used to be a shell script, not a compiled binary, and so you could patch in the desired behaviour. Go to Mike Hommey's instructions, do a ctrl+f for edit /usr/sbin/grub-install, and see if those instructions help.
  
  I know I did this for 13.10, I have no idea if it'll work for 12.04. Prior to 2012, EFI support even on non-Apple devices was pretty sketchy, so you might be out of luck :/.
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  A Alex Rodenberg
  2014-11-18 10:24:19.000Z
  I'm trying my current system install with 14.04 as we speak :) But I will give it a go if I run into problems with 14.04.
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  J Jason Heeris
  2014-11-18 10:25:05.000Z
  Let me know how it goes!
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  A Alex Rodenberg
  2014-11-18 10:48:02.000Z
  hmm i end up in my initramfs when i write boot at the grub console, and it doesn't go any further at a busybox console..
  Reply
  A Alex Rodenberg
  2014-11-18 11:16:38.000Z
  had to add bootdelay=20 (could probably have used less) on the linux kernel line, I do have a harddisk and not a SSD so dunno if that factors in.
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  J Jason Heeris
  2014-11-28 00:20:27.000Z
  No, the Mac Mini I used had a spinning-platter HDD too. I wonder what could be causing that.
  Reply
  In reply toAlex Rodenberg⬆:
  C2 Chris
  2015-09-11 18:14:56.000Z
  How did you add the bootdelay? Was it something you did from the grub prompt?
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  A2 Alex Rodenberg
  2015-09-11 18:17:00.000Z
  Kernel line
  Reply
  C2 Chris
  2015-09-11 18:24:37.000Z
  Thanks Alex - sorry for being a noob, but can you tell me how to do this? Maybe some command examples?
  Reply
  In reply toJason Heeris⬆:
  A Alex Rodenberg
  2014-11-18 12:00:45.000Z
  thats it, rest of install done according to your instructions working :) Imac 14,4 21,5" model.
  Reply
  C2 Chris
  2015-09-10 21:57:29.000Z
  Im having this issue as well - when I type in boot, it goes to initramfs and I can go no further. 2014 Mac Mini and I installed an SSD (512G
  click to show
  In reply toJason Heeris⬆:
  M Mario
  2015-12-02 00:13:56.000Z
  Mike's instructions don't help. I think these methods are outdated. I'm using an Ubuntu MATE 14.04 to try to get a USB stick with a bootable HFS+ partition with Grub in it. I'm stuck right at the point where I'm supposed to "edit /usr/sbin/grub-install, look for xfat" according to his instructions. Well, grub-install is a binary as you said, so no go.
  
  I still think that his and your instructions are missing some crucial steps. I've tried approaching this from the Mac OS X side, and from the Ubuntu side, and I'm stuck.
  Reply
B2
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
baniowskinet
2014-12-05 17:53:15.000Z
Great thanks! Your post has saved many hair pulling hours :)
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U
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
Ubuntu
2014-12-07 19:21:21.000Z
I tried but I am stuck with the step where its trying to install mactel-boot, I am getting message that "mactel-boot not found" please help
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1. J Jason Heeris
  2014-12-07 21:46:53.000Z
  Did you add the necessary PPA?
  
  $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:detly/mactel-utils $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install mactel-boot
  Reply
  U2 Ubuntu
  2014-12-10 16:22:03.000Z
  First two commands ran fine with no errors, but when ran third one it's says not able to find mactel-boot
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  J Jason Heeris
  2014-12-10 22:07:51.000Z
  What version of Ubuntu are you trying to install? Maybe I need to add another series to the PPA.
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  U3 Ubuntu
  2014-12-11 15:56:04.000Z
  Thanks for the response. It's ubuntu 14.10.
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  J Jason Heeris
  2014-12-11 22:04:04.000Z
  Ah okay, I'll have to upload new packages for that. I hadn't realised I'd only done it up to 14.04. I'll do it later tonight and ping you again when it's done.
  Reply
  In reply toUbuntu⬆:
  J Jason Heeris
  2014-12-13 00:03:02.000Z
  New packages uploaded for Utopic/14.10 — let me know if it works now!
  Reply
  U3 Ubuntu
  2014-12-15 15:30:13.000Z
  It's throwing error while running the command add apt repository and after this my wired internet connection also getting off. I am new to u
  click to show
  In reply toJason Heeris⬆:
  P Peter R. Wood
  2016-07-13 04:10:41.000Z
  Any chance of getting packages for Xenial/16.04?
  Reply
  J Jason Heeris
  2016-07-22 00:23:06.000Z
  Should be up now. Let me know if they work, because I don't have a 16.04 system to test them on!
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  P Peter R. Wood
  2016-08-23 13:22:39.000Z
  Yes, this did work correctly. Thanks!
  Reply
  In reply toJason Heeris⬆:
  T Thorin Hanson
  2016-12-01 02:20:49.000Z
  Any chance we could get Yakkety/16.10? :D
  Reply
  J Jason Heeris
  2016-12-01 09:12:23.000Z
  Yes, but I'm travelling ATM, so not until early January :)
  Reply
A3
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
a_big_noob
2014-12-15 22:38:53.000Z
This is a great walk-through of a process I'm currently attempting with an early 2009 Mac Mini that stopped properly booting up after the OS X update a couple months ago.

Unfortunately, I get stuck pretty much right at the very beginning! When I boot from the USB I've created and select to install Ubuntu, my display "wigs out" and becomes totally unreadable/unusable. For some reason, it seems the Linux installer doesn't play well with my broken version of OS X. I've tried multiple different versions of multiple different distros and so far, no luck.

Currently, I'm reinstalling OS X to see if I can at least get that running. Then I'm going to follow this to a T.
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1. J Jason Heeris
  2014-12-16 01:25:35.000Z
  Another option might be to wipe the disk and use the server installer (which only needs console graphics).
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  A3 a_big_noob
  2014-12-16 14:16:44.000Z
  It looks like that's how I'm able to use the text-based installer, so I'm guessing you're right. But I may not be knowledgable enough to make that work. This is only the second computer I've ever installed Linux on, and I'm by no means a "computer guy." Just someone bored with extra hardware lying around.
  
  Of course I'll try, though! Thanks for the recommendation.
  Reply
A4
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
asterix
2014-12-24 13:27:51.000Z
Great Job, Jason !!!

I had only a error when i try this command:

$ sudo grub-install --target x86_64-efi --boot-directory=/boot --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id="$(lsb_release -ds)"
Show me a not possible to found a grub unity to /dev/sda1. Verify your device map.

any sugestions?
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1. J Jason Heeris
  2014-12-25 06:56:57.000Z
  From reading some forum posts about this, I'd guess that a good first bet would be: reboot and try reinstalling grub again.
  
  Failing that, I'd need some more information, eg. the output of fdisk -l and the contents of /etc/fstab.
  Reply
  A4 asterix
  2014-12-26 13:58:59.000Z
  Thank you, its works for me , using the partition option type Guided – use entire disk
  I will to try again, with Manual Partitioning, to verify where is wrong.
  Happy New Year!
  Reply
C3
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
cubic23
2015-01-15 11:29:30.000Z
Hi Jason, thanks for the great tutorial!I followed your steps using the Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS Desktop Installer on a MBP 6,2 with a new SSD dri
click to show
J2
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
Justin Time
2015-02-01 15:12:18.000Z
What would you recommend to *double-boot* a Mac with the choice of OS X or Ubuntu at startup? As you said, the most elegant way is what I am looking for as well.
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1. J Jason Heeris
  2015-02-01 22:44:26.000Z
  I've tried a variant of this approach for dual booting on a Mac Mini server (two hard drives). I put OS X on the first drive, and did a normal Ubuntu EFI install on the second drive ie. I had two EFI partitions after that (/dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1). GRUB was installed on /dev/sdb1. Oddly enough, the one for OS X was vfat, and the Mac bootloader sees that fine; it didn't see the Ubuntu one.
  
  I then followed the instructions here for the Ubuntu EFI partition (leaving the OS X EFI partition alone) ie. converted it to HFS+, added the mach_kernel files etc. Then Ubuntu showed up in the Mac bootloader.
  
  The one problem I've been unable to solve is getting Ubuntu to boot by default. No matter what efibootmgr commands I run, I cannot get the Mac bootloader to boot Ubuntu by default. I'm still trying to figure that out.
  
  If you don't have two hard drives, I think as long as you (a) resize your OS X partition so there's some empty space at the end, and (b) carefully check the partitions that the Ubuntu installer wants to create, you should be fine.
  Reply
  J2 Justin Time
  2015-02-02 06:10:45.000Z
  Thanks for clarifying this! This is helpful information because for day-to-day operation, the ideal way for me is a default boot option which sticks until I deliberately choose the other one. grub has this with their DEFAULT=saved / GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true options, rEFInd has it automatically.
  
  My macmini has two disks, but from my perspective, two EFI partitions complicate things. I want one EFI partition on the system SSD to boot either OS X or Ubuntu from a partition of the SSD. Choosing with the option key at bootup is fine. From what you write, this should be feasible just with the mac bootloader.
  Reply
  J Jason Heeris
  2015-02-02 11:37:42.000Z
  Just be warned: I actually tried to do this with a single EFI partition too (ie. mounting /dev/sda1 as /boot/efi and installing GRUB), but I couldn't get it to work. Let me know if you figure out how!
  Reply
I2
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
ichicolco
2015-02-11 09:23:48.000Z
Great set of instructions - thanks for sharing. One question for you. I see in your repository you have the macfanctld. I added it to my 14.
click to show
M2
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
Michael
2015-02-21 06:47:04.000Z
I've been following your steps exactly but I've ran into a problem with "Fixing the EFI Partition". gdisk tells me that /boot/efi is on /dev
click to show
O
In reply toUnknown [DwE4KFYW2]:
obrientimothya
2015-03-16 00:41:01.000Z
+1 here - fantastic stuff! Thanks Jason :-)
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