I've been trying to install debian 8 as the only OS on a MacBook 4,1 (Early 2008) with a 256GB SSD (and a German keyboard) so I can use it as a server in my home LAN. The installation using a USB netinstall image works pretty well until it tries to install grub to the EFI-partition (I'm assuming that's where it goes as the MacBook is supposed to support UEFI-Boot and I have no other system that would require an MBR). The bootloader can't be installed.
I have the SSD partitioned as follows:
• /dev/sda1: 1GB, EFI
• a 255GB encrypted volume with a Logical Volume Group containing:
(1) /dev/mapper/lvm-root: 32GB, ext4, /
(2) /dev/mapper/lvm-home: 215GB, ext4, /home
(3) 8GB, swap
I figured I can get rid of any instances of OS X since there aren't any more firmware updates to be expected for this model, but I also read somewhere that MacBooks won't boot if OSX isn't installed. Could this possibly be the mistake that prevents the installation from finishing successfully?
Thanks!
Edit 1: Maybe it's worth mentioning that I had it working as a dual boot with OS X 10.7 before but without disk encryption. Then I decided to remove OS X and encrypt the partitions.
Edit 2: The error message at the end of the installation process is this:
Unable to install GRUB in dummy — Executing 'grub-install dummy' failed. This is a fatal error.