Re: Installing Linux on a Mac Mini without OSX
On Thu, 4 Dec 2014 13:25:37 -0500
Brian Sammon <debian-users-list@brisammon.fastmail.fm> wrote:
> I was recently given a Mac Mini (Intel Mid 2007) that had been wiped.
...
> Is there a way to install Debian/Linux on this machine that doesn't involve
> buying or borrowing (or "borrowing") a copy of OSX? Is it easier to install
> linux on a USB disk and run it off of that?
As a followup, I got Linux installed on it, but not (quite) Debian.
I burned a CD of the Ubuntu Trusty "+mac" image. It booted and installed Linux and Grub successfully on the first try.
Some things I noticed:
It used version 2.02 of grub, which is newer than that used in the Wheezy I
tried.
The Ubuntu installer (somewhat strongly) encouraged me to create a
"Reserved BIOS boot area" partition. I followed that advice.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that most/all of the features that helped with Trusty are also found in Jessie.
Now that I have a bootloader installed, I think I'll have more success installing Debian on it.
> Two particular subtasks that I may need to do that seem to require OSX:
> 1) "Blessing" a partition
Recent versions of GRUB come with a "grub_macbless" command, but I haven't tested it.
> 2) Checking what version of firmware it has (some versions have BIOS
> compatibility)
The Boot CD for rEFInd (http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/) reported a firmware version number, but it was a very different format from the firmware versions on Apple's site.
For upgrading firmware without MacOSX, the "Firmware Restoration CD" might be the thing: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518
This was apparently moot for my Mac Mini, as Apple's website doesn't list any available firmware updates for my model.
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