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Novice here.

Trying to install Elementary OS 5.1 Hera from usb on Macbook Pro 2010.

I get the normal screen showing the bootable drive after powering on and holding the option key. I get the Elementary OS splash screen. After that the screen goes black. The screen begins to brighten with a weird splotchy white with horizontal black lines. This happens until the screen is bright white and then goes black. I can't get it to do anything else.

Like I said, I'm a novice, but I have successfully installed Elementary OS on a 2009 Mac Min and a very old Dell laptop. Just not sure what to do here.

Thanks

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  • Add 'nomodeset' to your boot. That should get you through that. Your favorite search engine will show you how. As I said, 'should' get you through it. Report back if it doesn't and I'll see what I can dig up - but I'm not proficient with everything Mac hardware-wise so someone else may need to help if that doesn't work.
    – KGIII
    Dec 10, 2020 at 1:57
  • Thank you. I replaced "quiet splash" with "nomodeset" and that worked.
    – kevmck1
    Dec 13, 2020 at 22:30
  • Excellent, I was pretty sure that was the problem and solution. I'll write up a full answer in a few minutes.
    – KGIII
    Dec 13, 2020 at 22:39

1 Answer 1

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The solution is to add nomodeset to GRUB's boot parameters. You can do this by the advanced options during the initial boot process easily enough. Just add it after, or replace it with, "quiet splash".

If you have to add it to your system permanently then:

sudo nano sudo /etc/default/grub

Scroll down to where you see "quiet splash" and add "nomodeset" next to it, while still between the quotes. If you want, you can remove quiet splash and see the boot process, but you can just add nomodeset and leave quiet splash there.

When you're done, you need to save it and then you need to tell the OS that it has changed. To do that, it's:

sudo update-grub

That should do it.

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