Ubuntu on Mac Mini questions: manually booting without grub, and preserving GPT partition

[nilesrogoff at gmail.com]

The insaller will retain the gpt and you will be unable to boot into ubuntu. I solved this easily with rEFInd. sorry I can't link you I am on mobile. Do install grub

> On Aug 26, 2014, at 1:31, Jason Heeris <jason.heeris at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> About a year ago I decided to try for a sole-Ubuntu installation on my Mac Mini 6,1. I got it to work, but I never followed through on my promise to write it up[1]. This time, I'm installing 14.04, and I am determined to record the details! Really.
> 
> The only complication is that I want to have an EFI-booted system, and the usual installation uses BIOS emulation. Note that this is mostly for science — I want to see if it's (a) possible and (b) repeatable.
> 
> I already have a very good starting point in the form of Mike Homney's instructions[2]. The basic process is this:
> 
> 1. Do normal installation up until partitioning
> 2. Leave a 100MB empty partition at the start of the drive, but partition the rest as normal
> 3. Continue with installation to /dev/sda2
> 4. Don't install grub
> 5. Reboot into the new system
> 6. Manually set up the EFI partition so the Mac Mini recognises it (this requires an extra PPA and some apt-installed packages) and install grub to that
> 
> I'm trying to figure out what to do about step 5. The reason I don't install grub during the installation itself is because I think, theoretically, step 6 should take care of it after that point. Because I'm trying to record the minimal required steps here, if I don't *need* to do something, I would prefer not to do it. But of course, without grub in the MBR, the system won't boot.
> 
> Question 1: Is it possible to get the USB installer to somehow boot into /dev/sda2 manually? I tried using the rescue mode shell, with /dev/sda2 as the root, but I didn't have access to the distribution's whole set of tools, nor could I resolve server names (I had a network connection... just no resolution for some reason).
> 
> Question 2: Let's say I start with a GPT-partitioned disk (ie. a fresh install of OS X), and run the Ubuntu installer. I get to the partitioning stage and set up my partitions manually. Will the installer retain the GPT, or will it replace it with an MBR partition table?
> 
> Cheers,
> — Jason Heeris
> 
> [1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2013-August/271091.html
> [2] http://glandium.org/blog/?p=2830
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