To avoid that, you need to install the proprietary nvidia driver. The problem exists with Raring and I expect it arises with Precise (though see ‘‘alternative solutions” below). You can do a default install, it will boot normally, but you’ll soon see little glitches here and there and the computer will normally crash after a few minutes of use (especially when transparency or shadow effects are used, it seems). The graphic driver that Ubuntu installs by default (Nouveau) has bugs with the MacBook Air 3 graphic processor, the nvidia GeForce 320M (G320M). The core problem with the installation is this. If full graphics performance is desired, a “Legacy BIOS Install” is needed.įrom the forum post that the commenter cites, which is concerned with a MacBook Air 3,2:

A helpful commenter, Brian Moran, writes that, when installing Ubuntu on an older Mac with a NVIDIA graphics card, it may be better to “boot in ‘Legacy BIOS mode’, not in ‘EFI’ mode”:Īpparently what is happening is that both the open source and Nvidia drivers are buggy when doing an “EFI Install” on Mac machines. UPDATE (February 2017): Before moving ahead, you may want to consider the following.

Furthermore I think all the data I had on my USB stick is lost due to it being formatted in a certain way at some point in the procedure. There are ways to dual-boot both, but I wasn’t interested in that as Mavericks was running super slow on this computer. For example I believe I had to do steps 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 11 only because I have a MBP with an Intel chip.Īlso, WARNING, this procedure completely wiped my OS X and all the files and applications on that installation, as I intended. I believe I bought it in the summer of 2009.Īgain, note, this worked for me and my machine but may not for you.

Download ubuntu 14.04 mac without usb