4

I've found a lot of helpful information on running Ubuntu on a Macbook Pro from 2006. This is the 1.1 macbook pro, and I can't see any tutorials that use a Macbook Pro this old.

I have installed refit and burned my start up disk, but I have had a hard time running the disk on startup. I am given about 7 choices including the mac and Ubuntu OS. When I choose Ubuntu and begin start up I have a choose cd-rom screen, and my keyboard is locked. I have seen forum posts of this but with no solution.

Did I burn my start up disk incorrectly, or can a Mac this old not run Ubuntu?

Zanna
  • 70,465
Opie
  • 41
  • I would recommend using rEFInd instead of rEFIt, as the latter is no longer maintained. You might have a better time. – TheWanderer Jan 05 '16 at 05:52

3 Answers3

5

Yes, installing Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS on a MacBook Pro (2006) works out of the box.

I have not been able to make the computer boot from USB-stick, but if you have a burnable CD or DVD available you can easily get it done.

If you have a burnable CD available with room for 700MB data, use the Network installer (mini.iso).

If you have a burnable DVD available you can use the standard 16.04.2 LTS desktop iso.

NOTE that this computer has a 32-bit CPU, so you must select the i386 and not the amd64 images.

Once you have your CD/DVD ready restart/turn on your computer, press and hold the C-key until you see the Ubuntu installer boot-menu.

fnordahl
  • 106
1

This site indicates there is likely no known version of Ubuntu that works on a MacBook Pro 1.1: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro

Albeit, that is not directly stated. I would be more accurate to say "there are no known Wiki's that tell you how to install a particular version of Ubuntu on a MacBook Pro 1.1"

I have a MacBook Pro 5.1 and I have had success installing Linux Mint 17 Xfce. The Xfce desktop works better for my mac than the other desktops.

I believe Linux Mint 13 is a fairly stable OS for older computers - you might want to try that one out.

I did not use rEFIt or rEFInd.

When you boot from the DVD, there is a "Window" option and an "EFI" option. If you have an EFI based system (and not a BIOS based system), use the EFI boot. My mac required the EFI boot.

Another error I experienced when booting required me to add "nomodeset" to the grub boot command. (I suspect this is the point where you "choose Ubuntu and begin start up I have a choose cd-rom screen, and my keyboard is locked.") To add nomodeset, press the "e" key when you see the grub screen & your desired boot option is highlighted - this will take you to a screen with the boot commands behind that option. Find the line (probably second from the last line) that contains "quite splash --" and modify it to read "quiet splash nomodeset --". You can tinker with deleting the word quiet and/or splash, but leaving them in generally works best for me.

I actually saved all of my steps for installing Linux Mint 17 Xfce on my MacBook Pro 5.1 in an Excel sheet. If what I gave you is fruitful, I can post everything else I did. It might take a few days for me to do that though.

JustinMT
  • 46
  • 4
0

I was able to install Lubuntu 15.10 on my 2006 Core Duo model, though not without some problems. Nothing fatal, but some pretty major annoyances. So I don't recommend this route if you can get rEFInd/rEFIt to work at all, but here's what I did.

With Boot Camp, I repartitioned the drive, put in an XP disk I had laying around, then hard reset the laptop once the installer was running. Then I held down Alt on startup, ejected the XP disk, and put in my Lubuntu disk and chose the "windows" option in the alt menu.

Lubuntu is running fine now (in legacy BIOS mode) and I even found out the battery wasn't dead after all!

Again, this is a stupid method, so I'd really consider it a last resort. But I thought you might like to know Ubuntu/Lubuntu will at least run on one of these machines. Happy computing!

Luke Totallyisrealname
  • 1