Intel Macs with Hardy 'no bootable devices'

[linuxopjemac]

Do you use rEFIt 0.14? I would expect it to be able to sync better now. Otherwise you might want to follow this thread:

http://mac.linux.be/content/problems...r-installation

http://mac.linux.be/content/refit-014-released

[thann]

Thanks,
yes, I use rEFIt 0.14 . Also, I found some threads in some message boards when searching for the error message, and the usual response there seemed to be something along the lines of "Uh oh, something went terribly wrong" ...

[envious86]

I am having a problem. I have done all the suggestions in the first post but when I go to partition tool it says "no need to sync, hit any key to continue" when I do it kicks me back out to the refit menu and I get the blinking cursor. how can I fix this?

I am using iMac 10.6.7 with vista already installed with bootcamp and I have rEFIt installed.

[mochiswelt]

I have a Macbook with a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor (the Black One) and 4 GB Ram ...

Right now I'm Trying to run from Live CD the Ubuntu 64 bits version, in the forums said that it will take a long time to mac to boot Ubuntu... but... I waited all night in a Black screen that displays something like "choose CD to Boot"... (at least 9 hrs!!!!)

This is normal??? should I wait more time??

I'm Using rEFit to make it bootable...

[chaud245]

I am attempting to install Ubuntu to an external hard drive and I am having no luck.

Parts:

• 2.26 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook, 2 GB DDR3 ram
• Ubuntu Live Bootdisc (11.10 and 10.04)
• 500 GB external hard drive (USB)
• rEFIt bootable disk

I am not the administrator on my internal HD (Mac OSX 10.6.8 ) therefore I am not aloud to manipulate anything on my Internal drive. Although I have been given permission to create my own Mac OSX installation on the external (which works fine if I want it to), but I want Ubuntu on my external (I don't care if it's Dual-boot or Single-boot). I installed my ubuntu both alongside and as a single boot on my external and neither worked. Both times I receive the black screen stating the error "No Operating System Found", keep in mind BootCamp cannot manipulate external drives therefore I am using Disk Utility (from a Mac OSX install disc).

Please help I've tried for almost a week to solve this myself by surfing the web looking for similar cases, but with limited time to work on this and everything I try doesn't change anything, so I am quickly becoming frustrated.

[jhenes]

I have just installed Ubuntu 11.10 onto my iMac and this is how I was able to succeed :

1. Partition the disk as you want it with Disk Utility from OSX (any filesystem type will do)
2. (Install reFit - if desired)
3. Boot the computer from the LiveCD and open a terminal window.
4. Start fdisk and copy the partition info into text edit (or similar)
5. Run the installer, and choose manually the partitions you made in Disk Utility to install to, setting right type etc.
6. When the installer has completed, do the following before reboot :
- Download and install GptSync from http://packages.debian.org/sid/gptsync
- Run fdisk and delete all partitions - and re-create everything as it was before you started the installer.
- Run GptSync : 'sudo gptsync /dev/sda' (replace "sda" with your disk)
(I was not able to get GPTSync to succeed without re-creating the partition table using fdisk... the Ubuntu installer seems to screw up the MBR somehow)
7. Reboot, the system should be able to boot again now

Good luck

Johan
---
Some useful information :

First, if I create a new partition on an empty device, fdisk appropriately
uses 1MB offset from beginning by default:
"First sector (2048-10239999, default 2048 ):"

Yes, this is default. Anyway, you can move the begin of the first
partition to sector <1..N> in expert menu (commands 'x' and 'm') where
<N> is the end of the first partition.

[jhenes]

I have a Macbook with a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor (the Black One) and 4 GB Ram ...

Right now I'm Trying to run from Live CD the Ubuntu 64 bits version, in the forums said that it will take a long time to mac to boot Ubuntu... but... I waited all night in a Black screen that displays something like "choose CD to Boot"... (at least 9 hrs!!!!)

This is normal??? should I wait more time??

I'm Using rEFit to make it bootable...

See previous post

Johan

[wariobrega]

Hello I'm having the same issue that most of you experienced. After updating my mac OS to 10.7.4,my refit settings went off and after reinstall refit I've got the Tux logo / blinking cursor.

I already sync refit to the partition table and I cannot install grub from the ubuntu 12.04 live CD: apparently the instructions stated here are no valide, according to the terminal there is no grub installed on my system (impossible of course), and I should reinstall it from the terminal (not possible of course because the mac drivers are not set up in the live cd). Using the

diskutil list

command i got the following disk table:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS WarioMac                630.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data                         117.5 GB   disk0s3
   4:                 Linux Swap                         2.0 GB     disk0s4

("Microsoft basic data" is my linux partition)

Any idea on how to restore/reinstall grub in this case scenario?
My specs:

MacEarly 2011;
Ubuntu 12.04 installed

Thanks!

[Imago Hominis]

Okay, new Ubuntu user, first post, could probably have done this better if I'd planned ahead, but think I have something useful to contribute and get the impression that actively contributing is part of the whole linux thing.

I installed 12.10 from a CD onto my early 2009 Mac mini. I followed the instructions here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ma...elInstallation

These instructions were pretty good, but there is a section as follows (important bit in red), which left me facing the 'no operating system installed' message until I changed my approach:

Start Installing

Back on the Ubuntu LiveCD desktop, start the Ubuntu Installer from the desktop icon. When prompted, choose to manually partition. Select the EXT4 partition and click change. Select to use the space as the EXT4 filesystem and root (/) as the mount point. You will also want to check the box to format the partition. On the last dialog of the installer, be sure to click the “Advanced” button and choose to install the boot loader (grub) to your root Ubuntu partition, for example /dev/sda3. This will be the only partition with the EXT4 file system.

I think this is now superseded. When you try to install the boot loader to the Ubuntu partition, you don't get offered an 'Advanced' button and you do get an error message telling you the boot loader needs to go on a small additional partition marked as 'BIOS'. Sorry this isn't brilliantly explained, but I can't / won't try to reinstall to get the detail clearer. What I can say is that if you 'cancel' this step, you get back to the partition table and it is straightforward to add a new 1 GB partition and choose the 'BIOS' option from the drop down table. And then installation proceeds smoothly.

I did have to sync the partition tables in rEFIt, as others have described. This bit was easy.

Moral of the story: pay close attention to the error messages - they are intended to be useful and informative.

I had my system working cleanly for 36 hours, but have now done something to corrupt the screensaver so that I have to do a hard reboot every time it sleeps. But that's for another thread.

So, linux is looking a bit harder than Mac OS X "it just works". Conversely, I want to upgrade my computer to something more powerful, with an optical drive, for less than a bazillion pounds, and I don't care if the screen is more than 5 mm thick. I don't see why I have to replace my screen at all, to be honest.

Cheers

[alexferreirag]

I think this might help some of you:
Linux for Mac Help: rEFIt No Bootable Device Error Fixed