Macbook 2.1 shows GRUB_ black screen on dual boot, please?

Hello Members
I have Zorin Core 5 installed on an external 100gig Solidstate hardrive, and i use Plop bootloader to boot it up using my Macbook 2.1, it works really great so i thought i'd give it a go installing it to the Macbook as a duel boot system, below is what i did (following the Ubuntu instructions)...

1:I partitioned OSX 160gig HD into an 80gig for OSX, and 80gig for Zorin, i did this using 'Boot Camp' and only created the partition as if i was installing Windows.

2: While still in OSX i installed 'reFIT' dual loader for Mac's.

3: Then booted up the Macbook using the Zorin Ultimate DVD, and picked the 'installation' from the menu, when i got the point of choosing where to install i chose 'Custom' , then created an 75gig Ext4 (/ root )partition, picking 'Format' and 'Beginning of the drive', and a 'Swap' of 5gig.

4 I then chose for the 'boot-loader' (Grub) to install to the same Ext4 partition i had created, and everything installed great.

The problem is when i chose to boot from the 'Linux on HD' in 'reFIT' os picker, all that happens is that a black screen appears with the word GRUB_ (and a flashing cursor), i did try the 'resyncing' hard drive partitions facility in 'reFIT' but it didn't do anything, and even reported the partitions were correctly synced.

Has and member experience this GRUB problem, and knows what's wrong?

(just a note: it was easy enough to reverse everything i had done above, with no issues arising but it would be nice, to now have both Zorin and OS-X on the Macbook if it's possible)

kind regards
Livio

Hi Livio,

I think you need to install GRUB on your MBR in the PC and not in an external drive!!.

Regards Wolfman:)

Hello Wolfman thanks, i don't think Macbooks run a MBR, i was under the impression 'reFIT' was acting as a kind of BIO's, does that mean that i should format the 80gig partition as a 'Fat32' first somehow to have a bootable flag on it, thern format the partition again to Ext4?

regards

Thanks swarfendor437, and sorry for the slow reply.

I've been hunting around the web looking for answers, and there just isn't a simple, or straight forward way of doing it, issues always seem to be around getting GRUB to work, especially between Mac OS partitions, and anything else.

Just one more question though please, when you initially run the Zorin Core 5 installer, it ask if you want it to 'completely install it over the existing Mac OS X' (formating eveything), or install it along side Mac OS X, or a 'custom install'.

If i chose to install it over everything (losing Mac OS X completely), would the Macbook run straight into the Zorin os, or would it still not boot.

Has anyone done a full install onto a Macbook (laptop version 2.1), by only having to following Zorin's simple installer, and not having to use or make any special GRUB, or reFIT code modifications or additions in any way?

regards

Thanks swarfendor437, that's the set of instructions i followed, but used my Zorin Core 5 disk, i thought that it might still work....anyway... what i've decide to do after thinking about it, is to buy a 'used' HP laptop PC with a reasonable spec and install 'Zorin core 5' on that, i'd rather have the latest Zorin build than backtrack onto an earlier version, it runs so well on the Mac so i'm hoping it will run well on the HP laptop (it's a HP2710p), of-course, first trying it as a Live CD run, if there are running problems which can't be resolved, then i'll still use it as a workplace laptop (uses Vista OS).

I've gone down this route, as it seems too unpredictable trying to get Macbook's to accept a Linux OS install, and who knows how it would then react should there be any major updates, or upgrades to the system.

So, i'm hoping that when the HP laptop arrives, i can once again call upon the kind help that you, and other members have shown me should there be problems along the way. (....here's hoping there aren't many!.....none would be great!)

kind regards
Livio

I think i'll wait to see if anyone gets around the Grub issues for Macbook's, maybe making it easier for the layman to understand and install, or developing a simple reFIT installer package specific to installing Linux versions, for now Zorin core 5 runs well from my external SSD hard drive using my Plop bootloader CD.

Also, i'll hopefully have Zorin core 5 fully installed onto the HP laptop, and have it across the whole hard drive and not as a dual boot os computer.

regards