BootCamp "preparing-automatic-repair" after triple-boot Linux Install.

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BootCamp "preparing-automatic-repair" after triple-boot Linux Install.

Hi everybody, and thanks in advance for your help, I am pretty desperate here...

I am using a MacbookPro retina 13" with dual-boot OS X el-captain and Win8.1 for years now, with also a small third "shared-file" partition.

Today I needed to instal a small Linux (ubuntu14) partition, so I decided to take some part of the macOS partition (26g) to Linux Ubuntu.

Everything went fine during the instal process, but now I can only access to my OSX. When booting with 'command-key' Linux Doesn't appear at all and Win8.1 goes to "preparing-automatic-repair" blue screen without further information.

I tried installing rEFIt or rEFInd without success.

Running diskutil list :

disk0s2 is my OS X partition

disk0s3 is my OS X recovery partition

disk0s4 is where I believe I installed correctly Ubuntu14

disk0s5 is my shared-file Partition (was working between osX and win8.1)

disk0s6 is my Bootcamp Win8.1 Partition

Running diskutil cs list :

Running gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0 :

Running disk /dev/disk0 :

Thanks a lot in advance to whoever can help me on that.

All best,

Yoln.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), Win 8.1 / Ubuntu 14

Posted on Nov 28, 2015 10:17 AM

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Answer 1

yoln1 Author

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Nov 28, 2015 10:22 AM in response to yoln1

Also, regarding this thread : "Bootcamp not bootable after Ubuntu install"

I have the exact same blue screen when trying to run Win8.1 but I never see the rEFIt / rEFInd screen, only straight booting to OS X if I don't press any keys.

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Answer 2

Loner T

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Nov 29, 2015 7:23 AM in response to yoln1

1. Was Ubuntu installed using EFI?

2. Your (Hybrid) MBR for Windows is incorrect.

3. Your Mac is a UEFI Mac model. All your OSes can be and should be installed using EFI. Mixing MBR and GPT will cause data loss.

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Answer 3

yoln1 Author

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Nov 29, 2015 5:11 AM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T,

I'm glad you are helping me on that, thanks a lot!

1. Yes, I believe I did use EFI for Ubuntu, Actually to make sure, here is the process I followed:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-linux-macbook-pro/

2. What do you mean by "Incorrect" ? How can I fix this ?

3. Ok, to what I understand, I should stop using MBR and only use UEFI/GPT ? How can I do that ?

Thanks.

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Answer 4

Loner T

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59,471 points

Nov 29, 2015 9:15 AM in response to yoln1

yoln1 wrote:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-linux-macbook-pro/

The problem is this...

Once you come to the partitioning step, choose to “Do something else”. Then, make sure that the small partition that’s ~128MB large is recognized as an EFI boot partition (you can check by clicking on it and choosing Options; additionally, that should be /dev/sda1). Next, you can create an ext4 partition in the new space and have the path “/” be mounted to it. You can also create multiple partitions here if you prefer that and know what you’re doing.

This is FAT and does not need to be created. The Ubuntu installation folks need to redo their installer and use the existing Mac EFI and store their information in a separate directory called Ubuntu.

yoln1 wrote:

2. What do you mean by "Incorrect" ? How can I fix this ?

A MBR can contain only four (4) entries. If you look at Fdisk output, there is no Windows entry and your GPT has 6 entries. Either we can coalesce multiple GPTs into a single MBR entry, which can cause some visibility issues, or you can switch to a EFI-GPT only model.

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Answer 5

yoln1 Author

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Nov 29, 2015 9:14 AM in response to Loner T

Allright, thanks.

Switching to an EFI-GPT only model seems the wisest solution, but the only problem is that I have absolutely no idea how to do that. Is there any tutorial you would recommend me to follow ? If the solution involves in a first time to get rid of the linux partition, this is not a problem at all, since the priority is now to get OS X and Windows working back.

Also I don't really understand when you say "there is no windows entry" in the Fdisk output, isn't it the "bootcamp" one ?

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Answer 6

Loner T

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Nov 29, 2015 9:54 AM in response to yoln1

1. Backup OSX using Time Machine.

2. Backup Shared using an external disk.

3. Backup Windows files that you need. You will need to re-install Windows. Is that possible?

4. You will need to wipe your internal disk and restore OS X first.

5. Re-install Windows using EFI Boot (not the BC Assistant BIOS/MBR method).

6. Install Ubunutu using EFI Boot. rEFIt is obsolete. Use rEFInd, but it may not be necessary.

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Answer 7

yoln1 Author

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Nov 29, 2015 10:13 AM in response to Loner T

Ok, that's what I was afraid you'd say. But this way everything will be done right.

I'll post updates as soon as I am done with it.

Also, could you elaborate a bit more on point 5 (install windows with EFI boot) or provide a link to a tutorial, and maybe point 6 too ?

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Answer 8

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Nov 29, 2015 10:36 AM in response to yoln1

Do not let BCA partition your disk, use only Options 1 and 2 (USB Installer and Download Software) and build a USB Installer.

Use DU to create Free Space and then boot from USB Installer and choose EFI Boot icon not, Windows. Point to this Free Space. It will be split into 128MB MSR and rest as MSD/NTFS.

Ubuntu is also using a FAT partition to store the Bootmanager/Bootloader.

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