Re: Looking for Debian unofficial install for mac with firmware...

["Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net>]

Hi,

Rick Thomas wrote:
> I notice that the webpage at
>    http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmw
> are/10.3.0+nonfree/amd64/iso-cd/
> mentions a mac image as if it *should* be there, but it's not in the list of
> files.

As that text says, the "mac" ISOs do/did not contain anything extra
but rather lack/lacked of UEFI boot entry points and of any UEFI boot
software.
Some MAC firmwares are said to take offense from UEFI bootable ISOs.
Simply try whether yours is among them.
If any mentioning of "Debian" appears, then your machine needs no "mac" ISO.

If the Mac does not recognize the medium with the Debian "firmware" ISO,
then you could try whether
  https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-mac-10.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso
at least gets to some "Debian" screen.

If so, then next step would to convert
  http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/10.3.0+nonfree/amd64/iso-cd/firmware-10.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso
into a "mac" variant.

The UEFI boot entry points of Debian amd64 ISOs are:

- For USB stick a partition of type 0xef in an MBR partition table
  The partition table entry can be deleted on USB stick by a partition
  editor.
  (Unless the partition editor problems of Jon Magee appear ...)

- For CD/DVD an El Torito catalog entry.
  We could try questionable surgery on byte level, or you could repack
  the ISO according to the example in

    https://wiki.debian.org/RepackBootableISO#Determine_those_options_which_need_to_be_adapted_on_amd64_or_i386

  but with the mount point of firmware-10.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso as content
  of variable new_files:

    orig_iso="$HOME"/firmware-10.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso
    sudo mkdir /mnt/iso
    sudo mount "$orig_iso" /mnt/iso
    new_files=/mnt/iso
    new_iso="$HOME"/firmware-mac-10.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso

  and without the xorriso options which create the UEFI boot entry points:

    -eltorito-alt-boot \
    -e boot/grub/efi.img \
    -no-emul-boot -isohybrid-gpt-basdat -isohybrid-apm-hfsplus \


Have a nice day :)

Thomas