[SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

amgine · 2012-02-04 18:58:02

Hello everyone.
I'm having issues getting a legit GRUB installation on this macbook. I'm only booting to linux (was going to reinstall Snow Leopard over Lion anyway). I can get the partitions correct based on the Macbook Wiki here https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ma … Linux_Only, I have /boot/efi and /boot as the first two partitions respectively.

I've tried the simple "install GRUB to /dev/sda" which was a bad move, that didn't boot.

Then I tried the "Install GRUB 2 during installation" method as explained here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … stallation, by mounting and chrooting, then installing GRUB2 through pacman to /boot/efi. That didn't work as well. I've finished reinstalling packages, and now at the configure system menu on the arch installation cd. What steps do I need to take to have a correct grub install. Or which GRUB instructions based on the plethora of conflicting macbook wiki pages do I choose?

Thanks.

Last edited by amgine (2012-02-07 18:09:07)

Trilby · 2012-02-04 19:07:39

amgine wrote:

I've tried the simple "install GRUB to /dev/sda" which was a bad move, that didn't boot.

Did it hang at the light grey screen? Did you wait to see if it would eventually boot?

I have arch-only on a macbook and I followed the regular grub install instructions. It worked perfectly except that there is a very long delay between power-on and grub. I've seen wiki's say that 30s can be expected, but it is about 1.5 minutes for me. This can be fixed though by "blessing" the boot partition from a mac-disk if this is the issue.

amgine · 2012-02-04 19:10:54

Thanks for the quick response. I let it sit until it decided to boot to the CD instead. What does "blessing" consist of? Does it matter this is on a SSD? Would EFI installation make the boot process faster?

amgine · 2012-02-04 20:35:37

I tried the standard way with no special GRUB settings. Ejected the CD and booted to... "missing operating system"

amgine · 2012-02-04 21:04:24

Alright, did the BIOS-compatible way. I'm thinking the wiki is incomplete, that the *suggested* EFI way is not GRUB compatible, it NEEDS GRUB2 to boot correctly.

Trilby · 2012-02-04 23:34:12

If it's still useful, 'bless' is a mac os specific (I think) command that makes the EFI firmware recognize a partition as bootable. The installation tools mark the boot partition as bootable, but mac's efi doesn't recognize this.

This leads to a very long delay on start-up - yet, oddly, if you do nothing, it eventually will try to boot suitably.

There are several tutorials around on 'blessing' a linux partition. It's particularly easy on a dual boot system, but on a linux-only mac one must boot into an OSX disk, then bless the linux drive to get rid of the long delay at start-up.

This sketchy bit is the extent of my knowledge on this though. I have a macbook and an old iMac both running arch-only. For now I've tolerated the long delay as I don't have to reboot that often. I suspect the EFI options for arch would avoid all of this, I've yet to really look into those.

In any case, this seems to not be your primary issue.

amgine · 2012-02-07 18:07:51

Figured out the problem (for future reference). The Wiki suggests the EFI way, but that way is Grub2-specific. BIOS-compatible is with GRUB. I edited the EFI section accordingly, if someone finds issue please correct it.

I ended up installing GRUB2 and switched to EFI after getting the machine running with GRUB. It took 45 seconds or so to get to the GRUB2 menu, so i 'blessed' the GRUB2 partition, knocked it down to about ten seconds. rEFIt is not necessary to bless (some parts of the wiki seem to suggest this).

the.ridikulus.rat · 2012-02-07 18:10:57

You can also try (for bless) https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=755093 (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=54847)

Trilby · 2012-02-07 22:48:45

I just tried that blesser - I didn't have any luck. There doesn't seem to be any documentation except for a one-line help message that says it will only bless HFS+ partitions. I'm not sure I understand the purpose of that tool if it won't bless the arch boot partition.

cfr · 2012-02-13 00:02:41

Trilby wrote:

If it's still useful, 'bless' is a mac os specific (I think) command that makes the EFI firmware recognize a partition as bootable. The installation tools mark the boot partition as bootable, but mac's efi doesn't recognize this.

It's actually more generic than this. The command pre-dates the move to intel. I think it also predates OS X. Certainly you do it for PowerPC macs running OS X and I think, as I say, it goes back further than that. Those machines don't have EFI but Open Firmware (for New World macs, at least). That means (some version of) the command works with Apple Partition Maps etc., as well.

Grub2 cannot boot a GPT partitioned disk, as I understand it, but that's independent of bios vs efi boot, I think.

stryder · 2012-02-15 10:37:36

cfr wrote:

Grub2 cannot boot a GPT partitioned disk, as I understand it, but that's independent of bios vs efi boot, I think.

I take it you mean legacy grub cannot boot a gpt partitioned disk. You need grub2 to do this.

WildeGeist · 2012-03-01 01:29:53

If you want to rid your system of OS X altogether, I found that if I get to the Disk Utility, and do the 'Erase Disk 7 Times' thing, then install NodeZero which is a modified Ubumtu Distro for PenTesting, I get a fresh clean and smooth Linux going. After that all the other "Live" Installers like Debian, and PC-BSD/FreeBSD work fine, so far as of a couple weeks ago. If you want a ZFS Install, try PC-BSD to make it easy to set up, then flop over to FreeBSD. Arch seems to like to run over FreeBSD/PC-BSD Installations on my MacBook Pro 5,4 (Mid 2009). The latest OS X Lion is making it almost impossible to run anything Linux. I am not savvy enough to know how Apple does it, but this morning, like last week (1 March 2012 today Saipan +10 Hours time), huge updates alluding to "Applications Installer" have come down. Not one of my "Live CD/DVD" will run, not even Knoppix! It seems to me Apple went out of their way to somehow make it difficult for a MacBook Pro owner to experience anything other than OS X lately. My rEFIt folder disappeared too, somehow? The whole thing just vanished? OS X has turned EVIL on me!

I would appreciate it if one or more of you Super 'Nix people can throw a Blog out here or Wiki on how to abolish OS X altogether on a MacBook Pro, and be able to use most the 'Nix Distros out here. I am getting so fed up, I am about ready to toss my "investment" in the BBQ, and save my pennies to buy another machine like a ThinkPad (used). I have lost all respect for Apple, and grown to hate it worse than Microsoft since OS X 7.x.

I will never buy another Apple product again. Even if it be the sole Hardware left to buy anymore, I will go back to smoke signals before I buy Apple again.

Done with Apple!

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-04 18:58:02

[SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#2 2012-02-04 19:07:39

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#3 2012-02-04 19:10:54

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#4 2012-02-04 20:35:37

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#5 2012-02-04 21:04:24

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#6 2012-02-04 23:34:12

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#7 2012-02-07 18:07:51

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#8 2012-02-07 18:10:57

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#9 2012-02-07 22:48:45

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#10 2012-02-13 00:02:41

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#11 2012-02-15 10:37:36

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

#12 2012-03-01 01:29:53

Re: [SOLVED] Macbook Pro 5,5 grub issues

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