Apparently, Macs have trouble booting the standard Ubuntu iso images (see ref).
[Macs] apparently can't cope with multi-catalog CDs, and simply refuse to boot them… [Colin Watson] therefore created the amd64+mac CD images, which are exactly the same as the amd64 images except that they only support BIOS booting. Macs are happy to boot these in their BIOS emulation mode.
I'd like to install Ubuntu Server 12.04.1 LTS but get an error when booting from an install disk. From what I've gathered, it seems like a solution is possible and therefore should be achieved. This is what I would like to do and any assistance in alternative boot methods or creating a 'BIOS boot only server image' would be greatly appreciated.
Update: Installing rEFIt gives hope but no progress. Still boots disk with the same error:
1.
2.
Select CD-ROM Boot Type : _
Update 2: Successfully installed Ubuntu 12.04.1 DESKTOP amd64+mac
. Going to attempt to install the server version from within Linux next.
Best Answer
(My) Steps to success
To be clear, my goal was to actually dual-boot Mac OSX and Ubuntu Server on my old busted macbook. The following steps my be helpful for anyone trying to install a disagreeable OS on mac hardware.
OS X
at the beginning of the hdd (50Gbs). I have OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (w install disk)amd64+mac
iso. rEFIt should let you boot from the disk.gparted
and then copy the Ubuntu 64-bit Server iso to it. For simplicity, let's say we now have/dev/sda6/ubuntu.iso
Restart and select Ubuntu again, this time before Ubuntu loads access the GRUB2 command line by pressing
c
when the GRUB menu appears. Type the following:I now can boot into either OS (Snow Leopard or Ubunutu Server 12.04.1) via rEFIt.
Also, big thanks / reference to this post about installing ubuntu from iso file using grub2. It was key to my success.