Booting / odd message on MacBook

Support & Help Requests
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1

I run Ubuntu Mate 20.04 in a MacBookPro mid-2009. Very happy with it, I have had no problems at all.
However, since yesterday or the day before I have the following message on booting the machine:

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I do not remember making changes in the computer other than routine updatind. The MacBook now takes a bit longer to boot. Otherwise, nothing seems to be wrong with it. There must be an error somewhere and I would very much like to repair it.

Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

2

Hi :slight_smile:

This is a error not related to the kernel. Something is not set up correctly in the EFI bios.

I found that statement :

"Just remove shim/shim-signed/mokutil, and make sure you also deleted /boot/efi/EFI/*/shimx64.efi, then this problem goes away. It's not related to linux kernel."

here : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1867092

Please try :slight_smile: but be careful inside there. Read all before acting :slight_smile:

3

Thanks. I did follow your advice and read it all. I didn't act, though. I am not very comfortable with the idea of dabbing with the bios and then I found the following statement further down in the forum:

I've got the same issue on my Macbook Pro early 2008. Deleting /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi doesn't help at all.

"Solution": Press "alt" when booting the macbook. Select "Boot from next target" and your system should boot by showing the error message. Alternatively, do exactly the same by starting a LIVE USB system at the first time.

The "solution" presented is no solution at all: it just makes the error message to come forth. Booting goes on as expected - despite the message.

Different posts say that a clean install - something I had considered as a possible solution - won't have any effect on the bug.

Will make further investigation. Thanks for your help.

1 Like
4

Not many clues other than your suggestion.
I suppose it involves entering bios and changing the settings, which is something I have done in Windows but never in Linux. I do not even know how to - and I suppose it is very, very risky...
I tried a clean install of Ubuntu Mate, which did not change anything. Then I thought perhaps the bug would go away if I installed a different OS. I am now running Linux Mint, the bug is still there, the computer boots and goes on working normally.
Thanks for your attention.

5

Problem solved - and now I am back to Ubuntu Mate.

From what I read, the Shim update is incompatible with old Apple machines.
Solution from AskUbuntu (https://askubuntu.com/questions/1279602/ubuntu-20-04-failed-to-set-moklistrt-invallid-parameter):

You have to replace shimx64.efi with grubx64.efi

sudo su -
cd /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu
cp grubx64.efi shimx64.efi
reboot

3 Likes
6

How does this solution hold up at future upgrades, do we take note now and make sure we do this again at next lts upgrade or is this a permanent solution?

Edit: forgot to say thank you for the solution :wink:

7

Thanks for the solution. But I can't find the files. I booted into a live usb and mounted my hard drive. But the boot/efi folder is empty. So there is no EFI and no ubuntu folder. I really appreciate your help.