Why does my Macbook Pro’s hard drive show up in disk utility, but I am not able to boot from it or install any operating systems on it?

I have an old MacBook Pro from I think 2011, and I want to use it for Ubuntu and stuff. It has 4 gb RAM, an Intel i7, 256 mb Video Ram, and it includes a bunch of ports, including Hdmi, USB, CD-ROM, and many others.

However, when I tried getting Ubuntu on a partition after making the partition through the Ubuntu installer, the download failed and I could no longer boot from the hard drive, but the disk still shows up in Disk Utility. This hard drive has worked for the last few years since when I got it. Also, my parents spilled some coffee on it, but I don’t think that is the full problem, because it has been working for a long time after that. When I try to do first aid, it works, but partitioning it from disk utility still doesn’t work.

To make it work, do I need to erase the disk and format it in a certain way for it to be able to have an OS downloaded onto it? I still have the Ubuntu USB if that is needed.