Intel Macs with Hardy 'no bootable devices'

[zaksoup]

I recently Attempted to install Ubuntu 8.10 on an external volume (120 GB iomega) from a 2006 macbook (white). Now when i reboot I get the flashing question folder no matter what. I cannot boot into either the ubuntu external drive or the macbook's internal os x drive. Could this problem be caused by the ubuntu 8.10 bug or is it unrelated.

[pxwpxw]

I recently Attempted to install Ubuntu 8.10 on an external volume (120 GB iomega) from a 2006 macbook (white). Now when i reboot I get the flashing question folder no matter what. I cannot boot into either the ubuntu external drive or the macbook's internal os x drive. Could this problem be caused by the ubuntu 8.10 bug or is it unrelated.

Possible fix is to use your OSX dvd to reset the startup volume to internal OSX.

[leogibson]

Ive had this problem for a few days, but i'm making progress. I'm triple booting OSX, XP, Intrepid. I have installed refit, and i have all the right icons when I boot up, i was able to fix the "freezing tux" and "two tux icon" issues myself whith a combination of managing flags in gparted, syncing the MBR with the refit CD, and reinstalling grub to my ubuntu partition (im not sure if that actually helped, because when i installed ubntu, the installer wouldnt let me install GRUB to hda 0,3 (ubuntu) it only let me install to hda0,1 (my MBR?).

I installed osx first, then used bootcamp to install xp, then made a partition at the end for ubuntu. At first boot after install, it wouldnt let me boot from refit, but holding option, selecting "windows" did. now when i boot, the windows and linux icons both start booting windows....???

do i need to edit the boot.ini in windows? how will that let me boot into ubuntu when i select the linux icon? do i need to reinstall refit? do i edit boot.ini file with the xp install cd?

[cyberdork33]

Ive had this problem for a few days, but i'm making progress. I'm triple booting OSX, XP, Intrepid. I have installed refit, and i have all the right icons when I boot up, i was able to fix the "freezing tux" and "two tux icon" issues myself whith a combination of managing flags in gparted, syncing the MBR with the refit CD, and reinstalling grub to my ubuntu partition (im not sure if that actually helped, because when i installed ubntu, the installer wouldnt let me install GRUB to hda 0,3 (ubuntu) it only let me install to hda0,1 (my MBR?).

(hd0,3) would be the 4th partition on the primary hard drive...
(hd0,1) would be the second partition (likely OSX)
(hd0) would install to the MBR

I installed osx first, then used bootcamp to install xp, then made a partition at the end for ubuntu. At first boot after install, it wouldnt let me boot from refit, but holding option, selecting "windows" did. now when i boot, the windows and linux icons both start booting windows....???

This happens when the windows bootloader is installed in the MBR (as it is for XP) and the bootloader for Ubuntu (GRUB) is not installed properly.

do i need to edit the boot.ini in windows? how will that let me boot into ubuntu when i select the linux icon? do i need to reinstall refit? do i edit boot.ini file with the xp install cd?

If windows boots OK, I wouldn't mess with anything there.

I think you are going to have to reinstall GRUB again.

Can you boot into OSX and post the Partition information from the Partition Inspector tool found in /Applications/Utilities ?

[leogibson]

im pretty sure i solved this, but it involved deleting windows...i never use it anymore anyways. now i can boot to linux, but i had to remove the boot flag with gparted. (i did this before and it diddnt seem to matter.

now that windows is gone. how to i remove it from the grub menu? i cant recall the config file, but im sure some commenting would fix it.

in any case, here is my new partition info:

*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 MS Reserved
2 409640 106205714 Mac OS X HFS+
4 106205715 156296384 Basic Data

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 39 ee EFI Protective
2 40 409639 c0 Unknown
3 409640 106205714 af Mac OS X HFS+
4 * 106205715 156296384 83 Linux

MBR contents:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable

Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type MS Reserved
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type c0 Unknown

Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type af Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 106205715:
Boot Code: GRUB
File System: ext3
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Basic Data
Listed in MBR as partition 4, type 83 Linux, active

my kaplan premiere GRE companion is supposed to work according to the wine app database, but i get some errors still. it would be cool if i could get that and my blackberry desktop manager to work in either wine or darwine, which is the only reason i had windows to begin with.

i spent hours trying to fix this problem and got fed up with it, so this immediately solved it. now if gparted could make my HFS+ partition bigger, that would rock, but i dont think it can

thanks for your help

Matt

[cyberdork33]

im pretty sure i solved this, but it involved deleting windows...i never use it anymore anyways. now i can boot to linux, but i had to remove the boot flag with gparted. (i did this before and it diddnt seem to matter.

Just as a future reference, I wouldn't mess with the flags manually. Let OSX and the installers set them as they seem to do it correctly. Plus there is a bug in gparted that can mess up FAT32 partitions by placing a bad flag on it (that cannot then be removed).

now that windows is gone. how to i remove it from the grub menu? i cant recall the config file, but im sure some commenting would fix it.

Should be pretty easy. just open /boot/grub/menu.lst and find the Windows Entry and remove it or comment it out.

in any case, here is my new partition info:

*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 MS Reserved
2 409640 106205714 Mac OS X HFS+
4 106205715 156296384 Basic Data

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 39 ee EFI Protective
2 40 409639 c0 Unknown
3 409640 106205714 af Mac OS X HFS+
4 * 106205715 156296384 83 Linux

It appears that there is a problem. you seem to have a FAT32 partition defined in your MBR partition table, but not in your GPT. I would sync the partition tables with rEFIt again... If something becomes unbootable after that then it can be fixed.

i spent hours trying to fix this problem and got fed up with it, so this immediately solved it. now if gparted could make my HFS+ partition bigger, that would rock, but i dont think it can

nope. no open source tool can "grow" an HFS+ partition currently. Some can create a new one though. You can use DiskUtility to resize your HFS+ partition i you want to.

[septic1]

Hi,

I am trying to install Ubuntu 9.04 to my Macbook following these instructions. Everything went well until i rebooted my computer and tried to sync partitions using rEFIt. It just keeps telling me "Tables are ok, no need to synchronize", but I still ain't able to boot Ubuntu. It freezes on the grey Tux logo every time.

What I am supposed to do next?

[cyberdork33]

Hi,

I am trying to install Ubuntu 9.04 to my Macbook following these instructions. Everything went well until i rebooted my computer and tried to sync partitions using rEFIt. It just keeps telling me "Tables are ok, no need to synchronize", but I still ain't able to boot Ubuntu. It freezes on the grey Tux logo every time.

What I am supposed to do next?

I think the partition syncing issue was fixed in jaunty.

Try shutting down and restarting again a couple of times (not rebooting). If that doesn't help, you may need to reinstall grub as indicated in the thread.

[kokoroexchange]

What a nightmare this has been!!

I have been working on getting Ubuntu (9.04) running on a Mac Mini (2.0Ghz Intel) for three days now.

I first tried by following the instructions for Single-Boot here but I couldn't install Grub and my Mini subsequently became a brick. Couldn't boot from anything (CD, HD, nothing). Finally manged to get it back by mounting the drive in target disk mode and reformatting to HFS and then reinstalling Max OSX.

Tried the same thing again with same results.

Then tried doing a dual boot using Bootcamp first to minimize the OSX partition to it's smallest possible size.

Then used the 9.04 CD again and that time was able to install everything, including Grub!! But I put it on the wrong partition (oops).

Also, forgot to mention, I did install rEFIt on the OSX partition. Instead of starting all over and reinstalling Mac OSX because I can't mess with the partition made with Bootcamp without reinstalling, I just installed 9.04 again and put Grub in the correct location the second time (I thought).

Booted up and got the rEFIt screen and selected the 2nd penguin but now all I have is a blinking cursor. Maybe I was supposed to select the Bootcamp penguin...? No, tried that and I get a blinking GRUB.... So, do I have GRUB on one partition and Linux on another. Hmmm... run the partition synchronizer again...?

Feel like I'm close but what a ridiculous journey this has been.

Any advice welcome.

Jason

P.S. At least I can boot into something now since I have OSX on the machine.

[kokoroexchange]

WOW!!! FINALLY!!

I tried again with a slightly different method and finally achieved success!!!

When installing I had previously tried the LVM option and installing to the sda3 open partition and both of these failed spectacularly.

Tried again with the "use entire disk" option and everything worked Grub was installed and upon restarting I was able to boot into my LAMP. I guess the fix that has been incorporated into 9.04 was only for the desktop version and they haven't implemented it yet on the server CD. Oh well, I don't need LVM....not yet at least

Jason