[MacBook4,1] Doesn't boot after install

[Michael Titke]

What is expected to happen is when one installs Ubuntu, and reboots from this initial install, one may login to a working OS.

What happens instead is it doesn't.

WORKAROUND: I renamed grub.efi to boot.efi and moved it into the root folder of the EFI partition.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: linux-image-3.19.0-15-generic 3.19.0-15.15 [modified: boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-15-generic]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-15.15-generic 3.19.3
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-15-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: mt 1448 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sat Jun 13 07:53:30 2015
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=df8c609c-a8cf-4e53-ae6d-c754aa1ead9b
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-06-08 (4 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Release amd64 (20150422)
MachineType: Apple Inc. MacBook4,1
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 splash quiet
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.19.0-15-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.19.0-15-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.143
SourcePackage: linux
UdevLog: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/udev'
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 02/09/08
dmi.bios.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.bios.version: MB41.88Z.00C1.B00.0802091535
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: Mac-F22788A9
dmi.board.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.board.version: PVT
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset Tag#
dmi.chassis.type: 2
dmi.chassis.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Mac-F22788A9
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAppleInc.:bvrMB41.88Z.00C1.B00.0802091535:bd02/09/08:svnAppleInc.:pnMacBook4,1:pvr1.0:rvnAppleInc.:rnMac-F22788A9:rvrPVT:cvnAppleInc.:ct2:cvrMac-F22788A9:
dmi.product.name: MacBook4,1
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Apple Inc.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Michael Titke (michael-tiedtke-i)]

Regarding the EFI variables (default boot entry & chime volume) I found the following situation:

- the kernel from live / installation dvd / iso does really contain the screwed up efi module configuration: there doesn't seem to be any way to access the firmware from within the live system

- the installed kernel (by that same installation) does have efi support built-in: thus the configuration file in "/boot" doesn't seem to match the installed kernel 3.19.0-15-generic.

 Snooping around in the variables this way gives me the following image:

 - I can't find or see the variables "SystemAudioVolume" and "SystemAudioVolumeDB" and thus I cannot change the volume of the infamous startup chime with my current setup

- regarding the boot sequence I see MS and Apple entries with mid level cryptographic information and some megabyte of data associated: probably the signed boot loaders of the default boot sequence. I know that it is possible to determine the default boot volume from within Mac OS X but I have no idea how to do this here.

- I am not able to see the hardware keys for signing my own kernel and I am not sure if this would allow unrestricted access to the firmware. Bot grub-XXX-signed and linux-XXX-signed seem to be crippled packages where Grub can't load any configuration file and Linux doesn't find initrd and can't even reboot.

Right now my system faithfully boots off the external hard drive but it takes time:
- first a pleasant gray screen while the Mac Firmware searches for one of Apple's cats
- at some point the gray screen time outs and decides to take the only option available: the grub esp on the external drive
- Grubs are known not be too fast: first a black screen blinking cursur. Than a menu that sometimes appears only at the end of its time out. Then some message about a blind boot because it couldn't find right video mode. Than finally the penguin lurks out of this box. But LSB-Waits one and a half minute for an cable ethernet connection that just won't be there. Then suddenly: the login screen.

I do understand that the hardware vendor is free to prefer certain operating system vendors and boot methods over others and I do understand that the distinction between hardware and software is not that clear when you buy a Mac. But some things just didn't show up in the manual of my Mac ....

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Michael Titke, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Just to clarify, are you able to take your MacBook4,1 when it had OSX on it, download a Ubuntu live environment, and install without any manual modifications (for example as outlined in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro9-2/Utopic)?

[Michael Titke (michael-tiedtke-i)]

On 13/06/2015 18:50, Christopher M. Penalver wrote:
> Michael Titke, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu
> better. Just to clarify, are you able to take your MacBook4,1 when it
> had OSX on it, download a Ubuntu live environment, and install without
> any manual modifications (for example as outlined in
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro9-2/Utopic)?

- It's referred as a MacBook4,2 (like in 2.4GHz which is scaled 2.6GHz) ;-)

- Mac OS X Snow Leopard was victim of an experiment: copied the
/Developer/.../usr/lib/ files to /usr/lib

- I had to visit four stores in Munich to finally find a magazine with
Debian, Ubuntu and other distros on two double sided DVDs (Linux User)

- I was able to completely install Ubuntu from the Live environment
without any manual modification: it left me with a completely unbootable
setup (well, perhaps I even could have used that kernel on DVD / root on
hd trick but that came only later on and was my only working setup for
some days)

- I decided to follow the Ubuntu EFI how to (How to boot Ubuntu from EF...
http://askubuntu.com/questions/91484/how-to-boo... [Firefox didn't print
the last part of the URL - sorry]) but I was not able to make the
firmware boot directly from the hd until I renamed grub.efi to boot.efi
and moved it into the root folder of the EFI partition.

Please note that this MacBook is a bit picky about what boot from an
external drive - the internal hd has been completely unusable for a long
time but before that it was flaky: sometimes gone, sometimes there -
makes sometimes the system hang. No matter how often you selected the
external drive as a boot volume whenever the internal hard disk decided
to come back to life again it tried to boot off it.

During the recent installation of Ubuntu I experienced another
interesting behavior of the Super Drive: after that and that many tries
or changes it would just lock itself: no way to insert any DVD anymore.
Some hours later I could try again. But it locked right before inserting
the DVD for the first time and not only after that and that many tries -
and it was just about finding the right moment when that locking bar
retreated in the drive: it just makes you go nuts. But now things have
returned back to normality.

BTW on a third thought about EFI variables: I checked the manual pages
of Darwin's nvram(8) and bless(8) and now I think there are a lot of
misconceptions about the Mac booting process out there on the WWW

As far as I can tell my current setup with the "boot.efi" file reflects
the EFI standard and should work for a lot of systems out of the box?
GPT partition tables are far more flexible and have less restrictions
than MBR partition tables. This is why I propose to use it as the
default for future releases.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Michael Titke:

>"- It's referred as a MacBook4,2..."

Not according to your bug description.

Despite this, just to clarify, when I say install successfully I mean it installs, one reboots at the end of the install, and one gets a working OS that you could log into successfully without any manual modifications.

As per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1464831/comments/5 this is not the case. Hence, let this bug report be scoped to this, versus any sort of speculation, initial thoughts, etc.

With this in mind, could you please test for the post install issue via http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ and advise to the results?

[Michael Titke (michael-tiedtke-i)]

On 13/06/2015 22:06, Christopher M. Penalver wrote:
> Michael Titke:
>
>> "- It's referred as a MacBook4,2..."
> Not according to your bug description.

True. It really says 4,1

>
> Despite this, just to clarify, when I say install successfully I mean it
> installs, one reboots at the end of the install, and one gets a working
> OS that you could log into successfully without any manual
> modifications.

After the reboot I ended up with a gray screen of EFI death. Only after
the manual boot intervention with the live system kernel from the DVD
and a loopback thingy I was able to see a working OS with a functional &
fashionable login screen.

>
> As per
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1464831/comments/5
> this is not the case. Hence, let this bug report be scoped to this,
> versus any sort of speculation, initial thoughts, etc.
>
> With this in mind, could you please test for the post install issue via
> http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ and advise to the results?

They want to make me pay 15,- € for 500 MB by now and last time I tried
I wanted to have a hourly salary 120,- €.
I'm sorry but right now I'm glad to have working system with automatic
boot. I don't think my results would be to trustworthy anyway w/o any
f2f contact. There are many heads on the Internet

>
> ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Low => High
>
> ** Description changed:
>
> - Please make Ubuntu Install default to using sane EFI compatible
> - partitioning scheme and boot loader installation.
> + What is expected to happen is when one installs Ubuntu, and reboots from
> + this initial install, one may login to a working OS.
>
> - Full Install
> + What happens instead is it doesn't.
>
> - Partition Table: GPT
> -
> - First Partition: Boot / ESP Label: EFI (VFAT/FAT32 with GPT boot flag enabled - see Mange Flags in gparted)
> - On my Mac which has never seen BIOS and never will I need a EFI compliant boot setup for the firmware to recognize for example an external hard drive as a boot option: put the corresponding boot image (probably grub.efi) into the root of this boot partition with the name "boot.efi" or it won't show up on startup (using the alt key on a Mac)
> -
> - Swap: I still prefer to use two times the size of the RAM for this.
> - Root: I prefer to limit this to 150GB and leave some 300GB for further experimenting but it really should be as big as possible.
> -
> -
> - Please check the grub setup: the current configuration file as created by the installation is too complicated / Debian's handling of the Grub configuration is not user friendly because this. My simple counter example:
> -
> - grub.cfg
> -
> - # Boot automatically after 30 secs.
> - set timeout=3
> -
> - # By default, boot the GNU/Linux
> - set default=ubuntu
> -
> - # Fallback to GNU/Hurd.
> - #set fallback=gnuhurd
> -
> - # For booting GNU/Linux
> - menuentry "Ubuntu (EFI)" --id ubuntu {
> - set root=(hd0,gpt3)
> - linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 splash quiet
> - initrd /initrd.img
> - }
> -
> - ...
> -
> -
> - (The next one is just a guess as I yet have to recompile the kernel myself to check it myself)
> ...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]