Linux Format forums

Re: Linux on a MacBook Pro 2011

heelguru — Thu Apr 26, 2012 1:22 am

Author: heelguru

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 1:22 am

You will need reFit (it's an EFI bootloader that allows you to boot other OSes that aren't windows)

Anyway, you can download it from here http://refit.sourceforge.net/

Once you have installed the package you can then boot linux from bootcamp.

Hope this helps!

Re: Linux on a MacBook Pro 2011

vinodh — Sat Apr 14, 2012 2:37 pm

Author: vinodh

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 2:37 pm

Thanks for the info. I watched that video and it seems as if Ubuntu was installed on the exact same spec MacBook as mine without using any other boot loaders or software except for Bootcamp. I tried using 10.04 LTS and it failed. I'm busy downloading 12.04 LTS beta 2 now to try again.

Re: Linux on a MacBook Pro 2011

towy71 — Sat Apr 14, 2012 9:51 am

Author: towy71

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 9:51 am

I'm fairly sure that you don't need a Mac specific version to run on that hardware, although I think that you need to use a different boot loader, is the Mac boot loader called 'boot camp'?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1VezJENet8 describes installing 11.04 on a Macbook Pro

Linux on a MacBook Pro 2011

vinodh — Sat Apr 14, 2012 8:40 am

Author: vinodh

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 8:40 am

I have a MacBook Pro 2011 13" that currently runs Lion 10.7.3. I would like to install any version of Linux on a partition so that I can dual boot. I've tried using various guides that involve using refit, a combination of USB and CD/DVD installers, custom versions of Ubuntu that are supposedly Mac compatible but it always fails. If I don't get an error about no valid source/file system found, then the installer just gets to a certain point and freezes.

If anyone has any experience with this and can give me any info that can help, I'll really appreciate it.