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I am new to Linux and I am trying to install Ubuntu on my mac book pro without deleting the existing mac OS. I am roughly following this tutorial (https://www.lifewire.com/dual-boot-linux-and-mac-os-4125733) to install Ubuntu 17.10 and I have installed rEFInd from my mac OS. When I try to install Ubuntu on my computer, I select the partition I already created with the ext04 file system and for the boot loader option I have tried multiple options but they all give the following error "the grub-efi-amd64-signed package failed to install into /target/. Without the grub boot loader, the installed system will not boot."

Abel Thayil
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  • i have this exact problem. 2015 macbook air with High sierra. I tried disabling csrutil in recover mode and still got this error. Strange because I remember installing ubuntu successfully on this machine before. – xdavidliu Mar 13 '18 at 07:06

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Firstly, make sure to back up your data. You are playing with drive partition tables and may accidentally delete or format your Mac partition.

If your mbp is one of the newer ones, there are some issues. I have no experience with that, but there are details at https://github.com/chisNaN/ubuntu-on-macbook12 and https://gist.github.com/roadrunner2/1289542a748d9a104e7baec6a92f9cd7#file-0-linux-on-mbp-late-2016-md

As far as grub goes, make sure you are installing in EFI mode. I've had the best luck by installing grub itself to the EFI partition. You'll want to configure Ubuntu to mount your EFI as /boot/efi, and to install grub there. If the installer doesn't give you that option, you are probably not in EFI mode.

Beauregard Slim
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  • what do you mean "installing in EFI mode"? What options can we select to do that? – xdavidliu Mar 13 '18 at 07:07
  • Generally speaking, if you aren't using Apple's Boot Camp utilities to enable BIOS emulation, your mac will be in EFI mode. If the Ubuntu installer gives you the option to install the boot loader on the EFI partition, you can be pretty sure you're on the right track. If it isn't giving you that option, you can force the issue by creating EFI-only install media. There is a thread at https://askubuntu.com/questions/395879/how-to-create-uefi-only-bootable-usb-live-media/ describing this process. – Beauregard Slim Mar 18 '18 at 23:49