No "Install Alongside OS X" option when installing Ubuntu

Question

Problem I have is that when I run through the install procedure I do not get the “Install Alongside OS X” option. I have an IMac 21.5” mid 2011 running OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 Version of Ubuntu I wish to to install for dual boot is 14.04.01.

Followed this procedure described on howtogeek:

A bit of info around the procedure.

1. I have installed reFInd
2. Created bootable USB stick using this procedure.

create-a-usb-stick-on-mac-osx

3. Reduced partition size of existing mac hd using disk utility. Left the 100Gb space as “Free Space” - note I have also repeated the procedure twice adding a partition and formatting as FAT and then changing Free Space

4. Booting MAC brings me to reFInd fine but I see 4 icons, not the 2 icons I was expecting.

5. Select UBUNTU icon and continue

6. The once install starts I select "Install UBUNTU". The next options confirm enough disk space is available and a connection to the internet exists.

7. Then I have the problem. No "Install Alongside OSX" option.

8. So I have looked at the "Something Else" option. I see the 100Gb of FREE SPACE is listed so I wonder what to do next.

So you can see I am stuck. Anyone know a fix?

Solution 1

I was able to successfully install Ubuntu along side with MacOS X (on Mac Mini 2010) with install option of "something else", here I am giving process I followed for the same:

1. created bootable USB as mentioned above and then installed reFInd in Mac using admin privileges.

2. Reduced partition size of Mac HD using disk utility. I have kept 100gb free for Ubuntu, (Note: this free space is not partitioned or Formatted). Shutdown mac after this step.

3. Started mac with install usb plugged-in into usb port. In reFInd screen select Ubuntu and proceed with installation of Ubuntu.

4. In Ubuntu install wizard selected "Something Else”, you will not see option for “install alongside with OS X”.

5. Wizard displayed list of available drives and it showed 100gb free space as "free". Selected option to partition this free space then completed setup of swap area, I have first selected 20 gb of 100gb as "SwapArea". As a next step partitioned remaining 80gb of free space with root directory as /.

6. Selected 80gb partition for ubuntu install and went ahead with next steps with no issues.

I had some issues with system recognizing my bluetooth keyboard & mice, but otherwise entire process was smooth. I recommend plugging in usb keyboard and mice for install process, Also install on ethernet instead of wi-fi.

Good luck with installation process!

• Vinay

Solution 2

I had the same problem with Yosemite not now being detected in the ubuntu alongside mac option and also was confused at 'howtogeek' on how to partition manually and here's what I did: I created three fat partitions in Mac disk utility: 80GB for the 'main', 8 GB for the 'swap', and 1GB for the bios 'boot', and then went to Ubuntu's install "something else" option, highlighted and pressed 'change' for these three partitions as Mount "/" & ext4 for the 80GB main partition, 8GB for the Mount "swap", and 1 GB as Mount for for whatever they now call the 'boot' loader instructions, and lastly click "install now". (It did not ask me for 'logical' or 'primary' partitions or anything like that, I guess because that was handled in the prior mac partition!) This vid will visually (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssKpGeJ--UY) give you a great idea on how to do it!!! (I replaced Ext4 in this vid because of my newer mac and the installer would recommend also a 'swap' which was NOT in the video!)

Comments

[Jens Erat]

If you want to post pictures but yet lack permission to do so, just drop the links, somebody will edit them in for sure. You will soon be able to post images, anyway.

[Admin]

Is your Mac partition encrypted (or FileVault enabled)? I've had the same problem with installing alongside encrypted partitions.

[noirscape]

Havin 20gb for swap is often not needed. swap should typically be double the amount of physical ram installed. (e.g. 2gb ram is 4gb swap.)

[Matt Bannert]

I previously installed ubuntu on my older macbook pro (8,2). Though some hacks were needed to get the video going, it worked well. As opposed to that my macbook pro retina refused to find the ubuntu partition on startup. Do you know whether/why I really need another boot manager here?