[ubuntu-in] Ubuntu 12.04 on Macbook Pro 5,1

[Linux Lingam]

I'm still struggling to install Ubuntu 12.04, which is supposed to be
supported for 5 years.

in brief:
machine: my macbook pro 5,1 which i've recently upgraded to mac osx
Mountain Lion, after upgrading the internal HDD.
the optical disc is damaged or for whatever random reason,
consistently spits out failed discs while reading or writing. so am
not replacing that. hence i've taken the route of trying to install
12.04 using a usb-stick and/or from a separate partition on my hdd.

for this, i spent about 7 days researching into all issues. the two
best methods are mentioned here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1329407

and

http://cweiske.de/tagebuch/ubuntu-on-macbook-air.htm

note: none of these are specific to my MacBook Pro 5,1 but the
concepts are applicable.

my status:
1. used gparted to add dos partition tables to a usb-stick.
2. used Unetbootin to install the mac-alternative.iso of 12.04 to the usb-stick.
3. created several partitions on my mac hdd, and in the fourth
partition, used the powerful 'dd' command to install the image on the
usb-stick to the internal hdd. at this stage, the first problem
occured, my terminal just hung, though the image was copied.
4. restarted and synced rEFIT.
4.clicking on the 'tux' option in rEFIT i got the unetbootin option,
but instead of booting a live version it just went into installing. so
i did. several errors of installing software, and of failure to
install grub, occured.

5. on the restart, the tux logo shows up next to the mac os logo.
clicking on it just leads to a black screen.
6. holding down the option key, and rebooting, i get the boot from
'windows legacy' option. clicking on that i seem to get into loading,
but the 'missing operating system' error pops up.

for sure, apple has made it extremely tough and challenging to install
linux on their laptops.
i've never experienced so much suffering in trying to install linux in
the 14 years i've used it.

the documentation on the ubuntu site also has nothing on how to
install on the macbookpro 5,1 without an optical disc.

frustrated.

regards
niyam


On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 5:45 PM, Linux Lingam <linuxlingam at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 10:48 AM, Ninad Pundalik <ninadsp16289 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Sorry, hit the send button too soon. :s
>>
>> Does this help you? https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CategoryMac
>>
>
> thanks Ninad, had already seen that.
> it does not mention macbookpro 5,1 for 12.04.
>
> n
>
>> Ninad
>>
>> --
>> ubuntu-in mailing list
>> ubuntu-in at lists.ubuntu.com
>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-in
>
>
>
> --
> niyam bhushan



-- 
niyam bhushan