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[Dario Bertini <berdario@xxxxxxxxx>]

@krysztof:
there's no 64+mac release for natty here: http://releases.ubuntu.com/natty/ (I know there are for oneric, but I'm not sure if we're talking about the same thing)

I dug up a lot of details about this bug, given its seriousness, and it
seems to be threefold:

-a bug in the installer, that wrongly detects mac systems as suitable for grub-efi to be installed (due to mac specific quirks it seems the plan will be to stay on the safe side and rely on the old bios-compatibility for installing ubuntu on macs... I asked on irc and this is what I've been told by cjwatson)
-(maybe) a bug in efibootmgr (or its configuration in ubuntu)... given that it deletes some of the BootCommands from the efi ...also: I read somewhere about efibootmgr using elilo by default (and this would mismatch with grub-efi), but i'm not so sure about that anymore
-a bug in the kernel, that was fixed in these commits:
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-3.0.y.git;a=commit;h=202f9d0a41809e3424af5f61489b48b622824aed
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-3.0.y.git;a=commit;h=7cb00b72876ea2451eb79d468da0e8fb9134aa8a
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-3.0.y.git;a=commit;h=935a638241b0658b9749edd060f972575f9d4a78
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-3.0.y.git;a=commit;h=916f676f8dc016103f983c7ec54c18ecdbb6e349
 (I got this info by asking redhat's pjones)

These changes are in the linux kernel 3.0, and that's the one that is
being used by oneric

I don't have the problem myself, but I have a friend who does... I asked
him to try and he reported me that indeed in oneiric the problem doesn't
seem to appear

I cannot confirm this first hand, though

also: the problem in the kernel has been fixed, but the bug in the
installer is still there afaik

some other useful info about the fix:

-after blessing the firmware updater, the reboot will take several seconds to start it up, so it's normal if you have to wait a bit more
-my friend as a macbook pro 5,4 ... as said in this thread: the firmware update for version 5,3 is fine as well. but pay attention to the actual .scap you'll be using: inside the 5,3 .app, there's also the mbp55 firmware... if you'll apply that, your efi will get even more bricked!
-unfortunately that's exactly what happened, and this was impeding the boot every single time (unless the PRAM was resetted, but resetting the PRAM deletes any boot settings, like the one enabled by bless)... but it seems there's also another way to recover from this situation:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8414998&posted=1#post8414998
by burning a .dmg to a disk, it's possible to load it and flash the firmware even without using bless

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You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mactel
Support, which is subscribed to the bug report.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/774089

Title:
  Booting fails 3 times, works every fourth time after new install of
  Natty Narwhal amd64 on Macbook Pro

Status in EFI Boot Manager:
  New
Status in Release Notes for Ubuntu:
  New
Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Dear all,

  I am experiencing a severe problem after a new install of Natty
  Narwhal on my Macbook Pro last night:

  The install worked fine, but after reboot nothing came up except fo a black screen.
  After forcing the machine off and on multiple times I was able to bring up the rEFIt boot menu by pressing and holding the 'Alt' (or Option) key and I can then boot into MacOSX or Ubuntu without a problem.

  After restarting / powering off I then have to turn the computer on /
  off the same number of times (3 or 4, I don't remember exactly) where
  nothing happens until it works again.

  I am using a MacbookPro 5,5 (13.3 Inch). My harddisk is setup as follows:
  200MB Partition for EFI
  20GB Partition for OSX
  18.6 GB Partition for / (ext4)
  108.49 GB Partition for /home (ext4)
  1.86 GB Partition for swap

  Other people also seem to experience the same issue:
  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10743955&posted=1#post10743955

  This is a pretty big problem for me, so your help is very much
  appreciated.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
  Package: linux-image-2.6.38-8-generic 2.6.38-8.42
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
  Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia wl
  AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
  Architecture: amd64
  ArecordDevices:
   **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
   card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: Cirrus Analog [Cirrus Analog]
     Subdevices: 1/1
     Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  AudioDevicesInUse:
   USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
   /dev/snd/controlC0:  paul       1487 F.... pulseaudio
  CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
  Card0.Amixer.info:
   Card hw:0 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xd3480000 irq 20'
     Mixer name	: 'Cirrus Logic CS4206'
     Components	: 'HDA:10134206,106b4d00,00100301'
     Controls      : 17
     Simple ctrls  : 10
  Date: Sat Apr 30 14:53:06 2011
  HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=55afdc53-85cf-4d37-98c6-fbdd4f1c8482
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
  MachineType: Apple Inc. MacBookPro5,5
  ProcEnviron:
   LANGUAGE=en_US:en
   PATH=(custom, user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=3aad2af7-44e6-4e93-8055-7e1818600eac ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
  RelatedPackageVersions:
   linux-restricted-modules-2.6.38-8-generic N/A
   linux-backports-modules-2.6.38-8-generic  N/A
   linux-firmware                            1.52
  SourcePackage: linux
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  dmi.bios.date: 06/15/09
  dmi.bios.vendor: Apple Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: MBP55.88Z.00AC.B03.0906151708
  dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag#
  dmi.board.name: Mac-F2268AC8
  dmi.board.vendor: Apple Inc.
  dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset Tag#
  dmi.chassis.type: 10
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Apple Inc.
  dmi.chassis.version: Mac-F2268AC8
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAppleInc.:bvrMBP55.88Z.00AC.B03.0906151708:bd06/15/09:svnAppleInc.:pnMacBookPro5,5:pvr1.0:rvnAppleInc.:rnMac-F2268AC8:rvr:cvnAppleInc.:ct10:cvrMac-F2268AC8:
  dmi.product.name: MacBookPro5,5
  dmi.product.version: 1.0
  dmi.sys.vendor: Apple Inc.

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