Having Problems installing Ubuntu on an old Macbook Pro

[Vici]

Before I say anything I want all of you to know that I already have asked this on the Ubuntu forums and have not received a reply.

Anyway, I'm trying to turn my old laptop into a Linux laptop so that I can teach myself how to run a server. Eventually I'm going to install Xbuntu but until then I'd rather have a friendlier interface while I learn the commands.

Anyway, I have made an Ubuntu bootable installation cd which is read perfectly by my pc but my mac treats it like a blank disc. It can't read it, and when I try to boot from it, or even just normally boot into OSx, it ejects the cd. I've also tried booting and installing from a USB which also isn't read. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do or if it is even possible?

My macbook pro is a 2.2

[NASpurs]

Not sure if you've received any help yet in that Linux forum, but have you checked out this link?

http://arunraghavan.net/2010/02/pure-efi-linux-boot-on-macbooks/

Sorry as I'm only a little familiar with MACs. I would have suggested to check out the BIOS and make sure your settings are correct and that it's booting from your the CD or USB (whatever it is that you're using) but Macs don't really have a BIOS per se (from reading up on them).

As for suggestions for the MAC, I'm assuming you're using something along the lines of OSX still on that machine. Maybe use the Mac version of unetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/) instead of the Windows version on your PC so it'll be properly configured to run on a Mac machine. Also another thing is to make sure it's a file system the Mac can read which I'm sure it can read anything but also be safe and use HFS+.

Another thing to be on the safe side and not to sound like a smart ass but it's probably better to hit up on a Mac forum in addition to the Ubuntu forum.

[ElNono]

Intel Macs don't have a older BIOS like PCs, but have an EFI bios instead (found in newer PCs). If your Macbook Pro is Intel, follow this guide:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MactelSupportTeam/AppleIntelInstallation

If your Macbook Pro is PowerPC, then it doesn't even have an EFI bios either, but OpenFirmware instead. If that's the case, you need to download a version of Ubuntu that's specifically compiled for Mac/PowerPC.

[IronMaxipad]

Are you trying to install Ubuntu over osx? or just run it off a live cd?

If the latter try Virtualbox.