Problem Description:
I finally upgraded my old server from 22.04 to 26.04. The install didn’t go as planned and cooked my server. My server doesn’t do anything insane, its for my house, but I run KeaDHCP and few other services. I also use it for extra compute. Its a 2011 mac mini.
After my machine got cooked, i wanted to reinstall it. I spent at least a month trying to get past my screen went blank problem when putting in my USB stick.
None of the llm’s were able to help me except fable 5 when it told me to just hit right arrow 3 times (After making edits to the grub.cfg file on the boot loader).
Right as i was about to give up on it, i finally got got the loader!
This is the commands I needed to add to my usb drive.
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/esp/EFI/ubuntu sudo tee /mnt/esp/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg > /dev/null << ‘EOF’ set timeout=0 set default=0 search --set=root --file /casper/vmlinuz menuentry “Rescue nomodeset” { linux /casper/vmlinuz nomodeset radeon.modeset=0 — initrd /casper/initrd } EOF
i had to boot my mac mini holding the alt key into a black screen.
i had to right arrow 3x times, then click enter (while still having a black no signal screen)
i had to wait 2-3 minutes for it the work (while still having a black no signal screen).
without fable i had zero chance of doing this.
I am hoping ubuntu puts some system flag that when i create a boot disk, that i go back to teh old way of display loading for EFI/Grub/etc.. instead of relying on the kernal.
It cost me <$18 in credits, but i’m lucky i can afford to spend that, i know others can’t.
Without Fable 5 my box would have been heading to trashbin.
So, if I understand correctly, you did not come on Ubuntu Community Hub for help.
If you had done you so might have been told to boot into the Ubuntu ISO image on a USB memory stick and use that to backup your data.
You also might have been told how to boot into the machine’s UEFI settings utility. Or, to load the Grub boot menu. All without charge.
On this site it is common practice to advise backing up data before doing an online upgrade. Here is an example from the official Ubuntu server documentation.
Backup all your data: Although upgrades are normally safe, there is always a chance that something could go wrong. It is extremely important that the data is safely copied to a backup location to allow restoration if any problems occur.
I have found that by going to a manufacturer’s web site I can find information on what keys to press when the manufacturer’s splash screen appears.
AI agents suck information that has already been published online. The same information can be located by other web browser search methods or by knowing where to look. Ubuntu users have been giving help and support to other Ubuntu users since the early years of Ubuntu. All without assistance from AI agents.
I find the question and answer style of an AI agent useful. I use it a lot. But I have also learnt to think for myself and to reason and to learn from others.
i’m a 10 year + 10 year linux user. The gap being mac + windows.
I could not boot into the UEFI setting, or load the grub menu. There is no beep, sound, logo, bios, etc.. in a mac. Holding alt, esp, tab, clearing the memory, etc… none of it worked. Even the mac shortcuts to set it in recovery mode didn’t work.
Chatgpt, Claude earlier models, Grok, Perplexity, etc…. none of the models were able to help me.
This was is why Fable is brilliant. It gave me the steps to recover a machine without anything being displayed. Its really what NSA folks say it is.
So this change to push the graphics drivers into to the kernel is catastrophic for the 10-15million mac mini’s that were made. These are perfect candidates for linux.
so my post was 2 fold.
to ask for help to get a flag when we create boot loaders to push the graphic loaders up again.
The reasons for your post that you mention above are not going to resolved with a post here as the members are simply volunteers with some interest. If you have a request you would need to contact Canonical so the developers get that information.
The problems you mention are the result of waiting too long to upgrade as the standard method is to upgrade from one LTS to another and you were two years late with your upgrade so I would expect it would be a more convoluted process as well as more time consuming. Two other problems are that you are using a Mac and a 15 year old one at that. Support for old hardware declines with the passage of time with any computer software. Apple has no interest in making it easy to install other software than there own on any of their hardware and they never have and I doubt they ever will.
In theory there is no difference between in theory and practice. Apple isn’t going to care, but we can save 10million compute units to be helpful micro agents for their households.
This post is to help people removing macos off apple compute.