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Was able to successfully install Ubuntu on my Mac Mini (mid 2010) and it shows up on rEFInd when I start up the machine.

But when I select the option, the machine says it's loading, the screen goes blank, and my monitor indicates that I've lost video signal. Then nothing else happens. High Sierra still boots up fine.

Any idea what's happening?

Eliah Kagan
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DanPersons
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  • You can try this: https://askubuntu.com/a/38834 – turbulence Jul 29 '20 at 03:50
  • Turbulence: Thank you for this, but even though I'm fairly comfortable tinkering around with computers, this is beyond my sphere of understanding. I'm not even sure this addresses my problem. Can I get an explanation of what the problem is and clearer steps on how to resolve it? – DanPersons Jul 30 '20 at 15:05

1 Answers1

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Though I have never installed Ubuntu on a Mac nor have I ever used rEFInd, but this problem may be causing this issue. I expect so because this could be a driver problem. Was rEFInd installed by default with Ubuntu on a Mac?

As given here

nomodeset

The newest kernels have moved the video mode setting into the kernel. So all the programming of the hardware specific clock rates and registers on the video card happen in the kernel rather than in the X driver when the X server starts.. This makes it possible to have high resolution nice looking splash (boot) screens and flicker free transitions from boot splash to login screen. Unfortunately, on some cards this doesnt work properly and you end up with a black screen. Adding the nomodeset parameter instructs the kernel to not load video drivers and use BIOS modes instead until X is loaded.

X server has better drivers than the kernel counter part. With nomodeset, the kernel does not loads the video drivers during the boot-process and it uses the modes provided by BIOS. The video drivers are loaded when the X-server starts. The drivers in X-server could be able to handle the hardware and show graphics properly.

You may see this forum for setting nomodeset in rEFInd, or this answer for setting it in grub

turbulence
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