grub2 EFI boot loader internal/external booting

[pxwpxw]

Works like a charm! I get the GRUB menu choice in rEFIt, and upon selection it goes to the standard looking GRUB menu traditionally seen when booting Linux.

That is good, now we can add MacBookPro2,2 to the lucky list. Thanks for reporting.

Now, the trick comes.

I need to correctly configure a boot command to address the Linux OS on the second, FAT32 partition. Specifically, I am trying to boot Slax 6.0.9 (http://www.slax.org) which I believe has a new enough kernel etc.

I can use the GRUB menu option to locate partitions, but not sure exactly which is my Linux OS. E.g. (hd0,1) or (hd1,1), etc.

If I can just get a little more help here, I think we have something!

I think you are going to have trouble trying to run Slax which is really a PC bios idea from my brief reading. A straight ubuntu intrepid install would be much easier to sort out, there should be no problem gettiong it to boot using grub.efi, and you would know the 2.6.27 kernel was configured for EFI. Also you can get all the help you need here about ubuntu, I have it with grub.efi on a usb flash drive.

Grub.efi will possibly boot a slax kernel, IDK, but from 10 minutes reading about slax (thats all I know about it), it is designed to work with PC bios machines, and the whole idea of using grub.efi is to work more closely with the Apple Mac EFI firmware, and get away from PC MBR booting, which does not work for external drives on the intel Mac.
To boot the external drive on the Mac we need to use EFI booting - grub.efi.

What I use for an 8GB usb flash drive, is a straight install of Ubuntu to a usb ext3 linux partition #2, with the small #1 hfsplus partition for grib.efi as you have there.

2GB is barely enough for a minimal desktop install, you could start off with a server install, about 600 MB, no desktop, to see how to do it and sort out any startup bugs, however the ubuntu Live CD is also useful to do any inital editing needed (agp blacklist).

But you should be able to locate files on your slax partition using the
grub command line (c from the menu).
for example to check the current grubefi root seting and find grub.efi

grub> set
grub> search /EFI/grub/grub.efi

You just need to know the full pathname of a file - for ubuntu "/vmlinuz" is a good one
.
The installed grub.cfg menuentry for Macosx should be working for you.

You may find some other useful notes in the grub/doc/ folder.

I would need to see a listing of the files in the FAT32 slax partition to be more specific.

I think a ubuntu install is the way to go, server install for the 2GB drive, or get a bigger flash drive, 8GB is good, with room for extras.

[tomcrossland]

Just to let you know, this doesn't work with the MacBook 5,1 (Aluminium brick) & latest EFI firmware.

Unsupported while loading grub.efi

[pxwpxw]

Just to let you know, this doesn't work with the MacBook 5,1 (Aluminium brick) & latest EFI firmware.

Unsupported while loading grub.efi

Thanks for trying and reporting.

[lidmoo]

The boot loader (r1934) runs on a iMac (Early 2006), except that it does not provide a menu interface and drops you to the command line. This was done with a blessed install on an HFS+ flash drive.

I also tried a MacbookPro2,2 (MBP22.00A5.B07) with the same result. However if I installed grub2 on a FAT32 partition on an internal HD, and used rEFIt to start that copy of grub2, I was able to get a normal looking menu.

I have been trying to get Ubuntu installed on my Macbook Pro's internal drive. However, the Macbook Pro's optical drive is not working, so I'm trying to boot live Ubuntu from a USB flash drive. The flash drive Ubuntu works fine on a BIOS PC, and can even start the iMac using rEFIt. But when I use rEFIt to try to start it on the Macbook Pro, it spews errors. I was hoping I would have more success with grub2... but when I run

grub> appleloader USB
grub> boot

the USB drive indicates disk activity for a few seconds and then stops, and the system is no longer responsive. Has anybody else been able to do something like this?

Hmm... some further testing and I was able to get the iMac to boot from the Ubuntu live USB flash drive after installing grub2 on the live flash drive, starting it via rEFIt, and using something like this:

grub> search --set /casper/vmlinuz
grub> linux /casper/vmlinuz noprompt noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz
grub> initrd /casper/initrd.gz
grub> boot

Once again, this fails on the Macbook Pro. After the "boot" command the USB drive flashes sporadically but nothing else happens. Looks like MacbookPro2,2 may not be able to boot legacy systems over USB?

[pxwpxw]

lidmoo

I have not tried to boot a live usb (casper) Otherwise you would need to disable agp
in the kernel (linux) boot line

video=efifb agp=off

then you might see some init messages, but casper might need more help, IDK.

Usually the failure to get a grub.efi menu when using refit is due to the EFI folder getting changed to lower case efi, grub.efi cant find grub.cfg, but should not matter if you are blessing --folder --file and booting using the Apple boot screen as far as I can remember, I would have to recheck it.

Any way, a grub> command line should be enough for a start.

But if you want to install on the HD you can possibly download a ubuntu alternate cd iso, leave it on your hd, and do a hd-media install which will find the iso (without needing to burn it)

From my local isp these images are in the ubuntu repo
.... /ubuntu/dists/intrepid/main/installer-i386/current/images/

[Poisonsting]

I've been following this whole issue for a few weeks now, and the main source of my frustration is that grub2 seems to be skipped when booting my MBP 3,1. I select GRUB from the boot menu (Option Held Down) and the computer promptly follows standard OSX boot procedure.
With rEFIt I get an error message; ERROR: Unsupported while booting EFI

I am completely confused, and I would like to know:
1. Are these errors an indication that my struggle is a lost cause?
2. Would a FireWire Drive change anything?
3. Could putting Ubuntu on the internal HDD work instead?

Thanks so much!

[pxwpxw]

I've been following this whole issue for a few weeks now, and the main source of my frustration is that grub2 seems to be skipped when booting my MBP 3,1. I select GRUB from the boot menu (Option Held Down) and the computer promptly follows standard OSX boot procedure.
With rEFIt I get an error message; ERROR: Unsupported while booting EFI

Thanks for reporting your result, sorry it is not working for your MBP3,1.

I am completely confused, and I would like to know:
1. Are these errors an indication that my struggle is a lost cause?

Sadly yes, the refit message "Unsupported while loading grub.efi" is an indication that the MacBook Pro 3.1 firmware will not load grub.efi due to some incompatibilty with that firmware version.
Maybe the future holds a solution - grub development continues. The Macbook2,2 is the latest mac firmware so far that will run the current grub.efi. I dont know it there may be a change back to compatibility in later version Mac firmware, seems unlikely.

2. Would a FireWire Drive change anything?

Firewire wont help, the problem is loading grub.efi - if grub.efi loaded it can handle usb or firewire.

3. Could putting Ubuntu on the internal HDD work instead?

Thanks so much!

You can install Ubuntu on a partition on the HDD and boot it using the grub1 legacy bootloader that is installed by default with ubuntu810. Just needs running the refit Partitioning Tool to sync the MBR partiton table for grub1 after the install. There are other Virtual install methods to install inside MacOsx or Windows without re-partitioning, they have some linitations though.

Current help on installing, some under revison -
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MactelSuppor...unityHelpPages

[hajk]

MBP 4,1 early 2008, with latest Leopard 10.5.6 update: alas, no dice...
The rEFIt menu shows a new Grub icon (love that avatar!), but booting it gives the message:

Starting grub.efi
Error: Unsupported while loading grub.efi

[gcarlsen]

Thanks for putting this together, it's exactly what I've been looking for... except that I can't get it working. I'm on a macbook2,1 and I can boot OSX from grub, but I'm having trouble with linux. From the grub command line, I can "search --set" the drive (hd1, 1), and I get no errors from

linux /vmlinuz

However, when I set root=/dev/sdb3 I run into trouble: no such directory (it doesn't actually give an error, but any further actions do).

"ls /" shows the Ubuntu filesystem (home, dev, vmlinuz et al) but there's no sda or sdb devices in /dev. Any idea what's going on?

[pxwpxw]

Thanks for putting this together, it's exactly what I've been looking for... except that I can't get it working. I'm on a macbook2,1 and I can boot OSX from grub, but I'm having trouble with linux. From the grub command line, I can "search --set" the drive (hd1, 1), and I get no errors from

linux /vmlinuz

However, when I set root=/dev/sdb3 I run into trouble: no such directory (it doesn't actually give an error, but any further actions do).

"ls /" shows the Ubuntu filesystem (home, dev, vmlinuz et al) but there's no sda or sdb devices in /dev. Any idea what's going on?

Thats good, if you got that far we can get it working.

Could you be more specific about the menuentry or grub> commands you used, and your disk partiton list (diskutil list should do), it should not be difficult to get it right just by editing one of the grub.cfg menuentry.

If you just run

grub> ls -l

That should help you by listing all partitons and drives as seen by grub.