Lubuntu will not install on my macbook: "grub-efi-amd64-signed failed to install"

Question

I keep getting an error during installation saying

grub-efi-amd64-signed failed to install 

Specs:
Macbook 13-inch, Early 2008
4GB of RAM
Macs work differently

Are there any solutions to this problem?

Answer 1

It's hard to know what went wrong without more extensive error reporting; however, I have some suggestions for workarounds:

• As a temporary measure, you could download the USB flash drive or CD-R version of my rEFInd boot manager, prepare a boot medium, and boot with it. With any luck, rEFInd should enable you to boot into either Ubuntu or OS X. You can then try sudo grub-install from Ubuntu, which might work, or would at least be likely to produce more verbose error output that you could then share.
• You could try using the Boot Repair tool, run from the Ubuntu installation disk in "try before installing" mode. One caveat is that you should be sure you've booted in EFI mode before running this tool. You can verify this by looking for a directory called /sys/firmware/efi. If it's present, you've booted in EFI mode; if it's absent, you've booted in BIOS mode. If Boot Repair fails, be sure to post back and include the URL that is presents; that will give us more information about your configuration details, which may be helpful.
• You could boot into OS X and install rEFInd to your hard disk from there. Chances are you'll then be able to boot into Ubuntu without needing GRUB. This could therefore be an easy and permanent fix. If this fails, it's likely because of filesystem or partition details, so sharing how you partitioned your disk may be helpful.

Personally, I'd try installing rEFInd from OS X first -- but as I'm rEFInd's author, I'm biased. If you prefer to use GRUB, I'd suggest using rEFInd on a USB drive or CD-R for a one-time boot to Ubuntu and then install GRUB manually; but Boot Repair might do the job more easily in some cases.