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I'm running ElementaryOS Loki on a MacBook Pro which was previously running OS X 10.11.5. Now, I want to boot something (another Linux) alongside Elementary, but I can't figure out how to set up grub, which isn't showing up by default on system startup.

I've tried using grub-install /dev/sda (with and without --recheck), but all I get is:

Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
sed: can't read /boot/grub/device.map: No such file or directory
grep: /boot/grub/device.map: No such file or directory
/dev/sda1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.

How can I properly set up grub on my machine? I'm specifically looking for the selection menu and option to go to a grub prompt on startup.

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2 Answers 2

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Grub Customizer may be the answer:it let's you to show the menu, and configure the number of seconds until launching your default option:

General settings - grub customizer

Install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install grub-customizer
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I've always had to use refind boot manager for Macs. You can install from a live boot disk/usb

http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html#linux

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  • I've followed the instructions in your link, and my laptop now doesn't boot.
    – Jules
    Nov 4, 2016 at 5:41
  • Did you use the manual setup or the ppa? What happens when you try to boot? If it were working correctly it would detect your OSs and give you a Grey screen with icons for each OS. Does it get that far? Also what happens when you hold alt at boot? Does it find a boot able drive? My guess is refind overwrote your grub on the efi drive but isn't detecting elementary for some reason. Rebuilding grub can fix this.
    – Michael Roberts
    Nov 4, 2016 at 5:54
  • I used the PPA install, but made sure (and updated) files so that they matched those mentioned in the manual install guide. I get a black screen which appears to persist indefinitely, and no OS selection screen at all.
    – Jules
    Nov 4, 2016 at 5:56
  • I'm not sure what you mean by "made sure (and updated) files so that they matched those mentioned in the manual install guide"
    – Michael Roberts
    Nov 4, 2016 at 6:03
  • I'd made sure that the files the author mentions should be placed in specific points in the FS were actually in those places to avoid the "unbootable" scenario he describes in one of the grey boxes on that webpage.
    – Jules
    Nov 4, 2016 at 6:05

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