Installation on Macbook 7.1

[hsfujita]

Hello to all

I´m trying to install Kubuntu 23.10 on a Macbook 7.1 with no success. I burned the image to a pen drive and it boots fine from it, everything works in live mode but after the installation process it does not boot, I only get a blinking cursor..
Any suggestion would be of great help.
Regards

[Schwarzer Kater]

Welcome.

Could you be a bit more specific about what you have done?
E.g. describe the steps of your installtion process - did you erase the disk or did you partition the disk before/during the installation, is macOS still installed (if yes: which version and does it boot when you press [alt] during startup?), have you already had an earlier (working/booting) version of Kubuntu on this MacBook, etc.?

PS: Is your laptop a MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010) or a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)?

[hsfujita]

Thanks for your assistance Schwarzer Kater.

Sorry if I didn´t provide enough information, I just started learning about Linux.
My laptop is a MacBook Mid 2010 13-inch with Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor, 4 GB DDR3 RAM and 250GB SSD; It had Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.2 installed on and it has running fine.
I decided to give Kubuntu a try. I downloaded kubuntu-23.10-desktop-amd64.iso from Kubuntu website and burned it to a pen-drive with balenaEtcher; with this pen-drive I was able to boot the Macbook into a Kubuntu live session, checked hardware were working (wifi card, touch pad, web cam, keyboard) and then hit the Install Kubuntu shortcut on desktop, the installation process is very straight forward, I just followed the screen instructions and chose normal installation and to download updates while installing, opted to install using entire disk without LVM (did not erase nor partition the disk up to this point) followed the remaining steps and apparently it went through and at the end showed a window saying that installation has finished and giving the option to restart or continue testing, I chose to restart and removed the installation media when asked to, but then on restart the screen goes black with a blinking cursor and does nothing else.

PS: Later, I redownloaded the iso, checked its chsecksum and burned another pen-drive( different one) and did the same process again and got the same result.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Thank you for your detailed answer.

-> See the post below first!

Without having an actual idea what the cause is, I would suggest to try out the following things:

- Download a GParted live image (https://gparted.org/download.php), "burn" it to an USB stick, start with it and
1. install a new GPT partition table to your internal drive

Warning: (but be aware that by this all data will be lost on the drive!!!)

and
2. create a 320 MB partition with FAT32, call it "EFI system partition" and set the flags "boot" and "esp" for it and
3. for the rest create a partion with ext4 and call it e.g. "Kubuntu2310".

- Install Kubuntu 23.10 again, but
1. don't boot into the live session - choose the direct installation option and
1. don't install updates while installing and
2. choose manual partitioning and use the "EFI system partition" for /boot/efi and the "Kubuntu2310" partition for / .

[Schwarzer Kater]

In hindsight I have to make an addition:

Unfortunately you didn't answer the question about pressing the [alt] key during startup.


So before you try the things above, you should

1. reset the PRAM, see Reset NVRAM on your Mac (paragraph "If you have an Intel-based Mac")

2. press the [alt] key during startup (to get to the graphical boot menu) and choose the boot options from there

3. if you can boot Kubuntu this way, but not without using the boot menu (meaning: you have to press [alt] during startup every time to boot Kubuntu),
in Kubuntu open the Konsole terminal emulator and enter:
sudo grub-install /dev/sda
reboot


These steps can solve a certain type of Linux boot problem with some Macs.
If they don't work for you, see the post above.

[hsfujita]

Thank you for your detailed answer.

-> See the post below first!

Without having an actual idea what the cause is, I would suggest to try out the following things:

- Download a GParted live image (https://gparted.org/download.php), "burn" it to an USB stick, start with it and
1. install a new GPT partition table to your internal drive

Warning: (but be aware that by this all data will be lost on the drive!!!)

and
2. create a 320 MB partition with FAT32, call it "EFI system partition" and set the flags "boot" and "esp" for it and
3. for the rest create a partion with ext4 and call it e.g. "Kubuntu2310".

- Install Kubuntu 23.10 again, but
1. don't boot into the live session - choose the direct installation option and
1. don't install updates while installing and
2. choose manual partitioning and use the "EFI system partition" for /boot/efi and the "Kubuntu2310" partition for / .

You're The Man!! It worked!

I wasn´t home yesterday so I did that before reading your last message, but it worked anyway, and now I have Kububtu 23.10 booting and working on my Mac.

I´m very well impressed with this Kubuntu community, with so knowledgeable people willing to help the ones in need.

Thank you so much!!

[Schwarzer Kater]

Glad I could help a fellow Mac user!