neuromorphic
March 21st, 2011, 05:36 PM
Hi,
I am about to install Ubuntu onto my MacBook Pro (5,2). However the hardware configuration is a little unusual, and may cause complications. I have removed the optical drive, and replaced it with a SSD, onto which I wish to install Ubuntu. Since this will be the second internal HD, whatever bootloader I'm using will need to be able to see this second disk, and perhaps the MBP hardware may have trouble with this (I don't know)?
My questions are the following:
1) What bootloader should I use? (I'm not sure what exactly are the distinctions between rEFIt, grub2, grub2-efi, etc.)
2) Which partition[s] should I install this bootloader on? I am confused about whether I will need to install grub2 (or grub2-efi?) on the MBR of 'sda' (the HDD), or perhaps on the 'EFI partition' on that disk (originally created by OSX?), or perhaps somewhere else, or even at multiple locations.
3) How do I perform this installation? A link to the right (up-to-date) guide would be appreciated. (I've been browsing through perhaps rather too many help pages and forums, all written at different points in time over the last few years, when the technologies (GRUB2, distros, etc) were at different levels of advancement. And in that time, people have made progress in getting various things working on MBPs, their methods will have changed, and so will their advice/recommendations.) One thing in particular that I'll need to know is what to do when running the Ubuntu installer, to direct it to put the bootloader in the right place (or maybe we won't want the installing of the bootloader[s] to be handled by the Ubuntu installer). Also, it's still unclear to me what things like 'GPT-sync' (or 'bless') do, and what role they might have to play in this.
4) How do I accomplish this without having an internal optical drive? In the past I've been unable to boot MBPs from a Linux USB drive, and I understand that there are particular MBP issues with this. FWIW, the main HDD has already been partitioned into OSX and Windows (which I don't care about being able to use, actually, so if a proposed method makes Windows unusable it's of no consequence really). As such, perhaps some installation (eg of bootloaders) can be performed from within OSX? Alternatively, I do have USB sticks and a USB external optical drive that I can use. I also have access to another computer that's running Debian, so I thus have access to any Ubuntu/GNU software tools that may be needed. Finally, I can even put the optical drive back into the MBP temporarily if necessary in order to accomplish this installation.
I've been looking at a number of webpages and forum pages on this and related topics for a several weeks now, but I feel I'm now getting a bit lost in it all, and now I think I'm actually starting to become more confused the more I read. So, I'd appreciate a bit of expert advice at this stage. Thanks.
I am about to install Ubuntu onto my MacBook Pro (5,2). However the hardware configuration is a little unusual, and may cause complications. I have removed the optical drive, and replaced it with a SSD, onto which I wish to install Ubuntu. Since this will be the second internal HD, whatever bootloader I'm using will need to be able to see this second disk, and perhaps the MBP hardware may have trouble with this (I don't know)?
My questions are the following:
1) What bootloader should I use? (I'm not sure what exactly are the distinctions between rEFIt, grub2, grub2-efi, etc.)
2) Which partition[s] should I install this bootloader on? I am confused about whether I will need to install grub2 (or grub2-efi?) on the MBR of 'sda' (the HDD), or perhaps on the 'EFI partition' on that disk (originally created by OSX?), or perhaps somewhere else, or even at multiple locations.
3) How do I perform this installation? A link to the right (up-to-date) guide would be appreciated. (I've been browsing through perhaps rather too many help pages and forums, all written at different points in time over the last few years, when the technologies (GRUB2, distros, etc) were at different levels of advancement. And in that time, people have made progress in getting various things working on MBPs, their methods will have changed, and so will their advice/recommendations.) One thing in particular that I'll need to know is what to do when running the Ubuntu installer, to direct it to put the bootloader in the right place (or maybe we won't want the installing of the bootloader[s] to be handled by the Ubuntu installer). Also, it's still unclear to me what things like 'GPT-sync' (or 'bless') do, and what role they might have to play in this.
4) How do I accomplish this without having an internal optical drive? In the past I've been unable to boot MBPs from a Linux USB drive, and I understand that there are particular MBP issues with this. FWIW, the main HDD has already been partitioned into OSX and Windows (which I don't care about being able to use, actually, so if a proposed method makes Windows unusable it's of no consequence really). As such, perhaps some installation (eg of bootloaders) can be performed from within OSX? Alternatively, I do have USB sticks and a USB external optical drive that I can use. I also have access to another computer that's running Debian, so I thus have access to any Ubuntu/GNU software tools that may be needed. Finally, I can even put the optical drive back into the MBP temporarily if necessary in order to accomplish this installation.
I've been looking at a number of webpages and forum pages on this and related topics for a several weeks now, but I feel I'm now getting a bit lost in it all, and now I think I'm actually starting to become more confused the more I read. So, I'd appreciate a bit of expert advice at this stage. Thanks.