Hi -- a few other people have seen this, so I thought I'd post the links here, for anyone interested. * https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/774089 * http://pubmem.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/flash-efi-firmware-update-manually-on-a-macbook-51/
The second article looks like the answer. Unfortunately, there are firmware updates available for all *but* my model (MBP 5,4), so it looks like I'm going to have to talk to someone at Apple to find out what firmware package I can use. On 30 April 2011 15:58, Matthew Daubney <m...@daubers.co.uk> wrote: > > > On 30 April 2011 01:55, doug livesey <biot...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> So guess who broke his Mac trying to install the latest Ubuntu? >> Every now & then, I think I'm more of a geek than I really am, and try to >> do something to make myself feel hardcore, but that ends up just being plain >> humbling! >> There follows a cut & paste from a post I left on the Ubuntu forums, but >> basically I've been stung by over-ambitious early-adopter's syndrome (which >> may or may not be a real term, I've been trying to fix my computer for the >> last 2 days straight & can't remember how humans actually talk to each >> other). >> Anyway, in the hope that some local talent may see this & know what's >> going wrong ... >> >> Hi -- I've tried to install 11.04 on my Macbook Pro (5,4) today. >> I had two drives in the machine, an SSD as my main drive, and an HD. >> I installed rEFIt before attempting to install Ubuntu. >> I moved my Snow Leopard install to the secondary HD & made sure I could >> boot to it. >> Then, I used the live CD & gparted to clear the 1st drive (the SSD), >> create the swap space, create the Ubuntu partition, and launch the install, >> where I used what I had just created on the SSD. >> The install completed okay (but with no option to select where the GRUB >> installer went, like some tutorials tell you to look out for). >> This seemed to go okay, so I went to restart at the end of the install, >> but the machine didn't come back up. >> Instead, the power came on & I could hear the drives, but the screen >> stayed black, the battery light flashed a load of times really quickly (too >> quickly to count, but at least 10 times), and then the machine let out 1 >> long beep and stayed on the black screen. >> I forced it to power down & tried again, and just got a black screen, the >> battery light shining steadily, and no beep. >> I forced it to power down again, and got the same, then again, and got the >> same, and then a 4th time, which actually allowed me to boot. >> And this has been the pattern since then. I shut down, and my first >> attempt to restart gets me the flashing light and the beep, with the black >> screen. I try 3 more times to power down and restart, and just get the black >> screen. Then, *every* time on the 4th time, I'm allowed to boot. >> The same routine will be gone through the next time I power down and try >> to restart. >> I've tried totally clearing the disk in gparted, restoring the OSX install >> from TimeMachine, everything I could think of, but all to no avail. >> Finally, thinking that maybe the OSX install I had safe on the secondary >> HD might still be okay (looking at it in gparted showed an EFI boot section >> & everything), I opened up my MBP, swapped the drives around so that the HD >> is now the main drive, and the SSD the secondary, and renamed the drives so >> that the primary HD is now called 'Macintosh HD' and is first in the list of >> drives that appear when I manage to boot each 4th attempt. >> But, to my great disappointment, I still got exactly the same error. >> Can anyone offer any advice on how to: >> 1) Get my machine booting to a safe Snow Leopard install on the (now >> primary) HD? >> 2) Safely install Ubuntu on the (now secondary) SSD? >> Obviously the first is a top priority, as I need my machine in order to >> work! >> Then I can concentrate on moving my dev environment to Ubuntu, which I've >> been dying to do for ages. >> Thanks very much for any & all assistance. >> >> Bed, now. I hate going to sleep defeated, but I've no idea what else to >> do. >> 'Night! >> Doug. >> >> PS -- apologies to any Geekuppers for the cross post. >> > > If you have a time machine backup I'd do the following. > 1. Grab the OSX install CD and throw it into the drive > 2. Using that CD flatten the OSX drive using the disk utility on the CD > 3. Reinstall OSX > 4. Attach time machine disk and restore from backup. > > Hope that helps. > > -Matt Daubney > > -- > ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ > >
-- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
