Someone on the Mint forum suggested updating my firmware from 1,1 to 2,1. It took multiple attempts--not sure how many. This implies to me that I was making mistakes, but I don't know where. In the end, it worked. OSX formerly said I had 1,1 and now I have 2,1.
The firmware update made booting from an iso usb stick finally work, with these additions to the grub entry : nomodeset quiet nosplash noefi The iso usb stick was made according to Stefan's directions on this page.
Before installation, I had given my ssd a tiny first partition containing /efi/boot/bootia32.efi, so the Mac would boot (just as in the iso usb stick, but no grub.cfg). I installed Mint 20 to my ssd, picked "something else" so I could select my own partitioning, keeping the first partition. I told it to put grub in sda2
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UTC 2020|09|26 22:01:19 (@)
Steve Smith From: b
Steen, I typed "/dev/sda1", yours may be different, like /dev/sda2 or something. Since my end isn't working yet, this advice may not be useful!
UTC 2020|09|19 19:43:15 (@)
Steve Smith From: Boston, Mass. USA
Steen, this is the sort of thing needed:
grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img grub> boot
note that /boot/vmlinuz is spelled correctly (z). If you don't have that, but have vmlinuz-xyz-123-abc or whatever, you may have to type the whole thing. Same applies to initrd.img, may have a longer name.
That said, the above isn't working for me (yet). What did get me able to boot from a live usb drive was Stefan's suggestion of editing the grub menu item (like 'boot ubuntu' choice, type e) and adding 'quiet splash'. The final bit was to append 'noefi'. Then I could start Linux. Unfortunately, I still cannot install. It's running off the flash drive, there is a 500G empty ssd in the Mac, and Linux Mint says "you need 12.8G to install, you have 0", which I interpret as it doesn't see the ssd.
Maybe this will inch you forward. Please advise if you get beyond this point!
Steve
UTC 2020|09|19 19:40:28 (@)
Steen From: United States
Thank you so much for this! Finally making progress getting a late-2006 MacMini with a wiped HDD/broken DVD to run Linux, and I'm able to boot into GRUB from a USB. The problem I'm having is that no matter what image of a distro I put on the 2nd partition, it doesn't load in GRUB...it just stops at the GRUB command line. I'm able to use 'ls' to look into the directories and find where the image is, but I feel like I'm obviously missing a step here. Any suggestions on how to get GRUB to find the Linux distro or how I can manually start it from the GRUB command line? Thanks!
Admin reply: His Distros did not have loopback.cfg in the folder /boot/grub/. I've added a troubleshooting section to my site.
UTC 2020|09|14 18:02:12 (@)
Steve Smith From: Boston, Mass. USA
Thanks very much for these instructions. I have a Mac Pro tower 1,1 2006 (32b efi) where I am trying to install Linux. Via Matt Gadient's instructions, used his Ubuntu 18.04 pre-made iso. I have also tried the unmodified Mint Mate 20 iso. Both give the same result. Using the option key, I boot off the efi flash drive. Grub starts and asks which choice I want to boot from, for example Linux Mint Mate 20. i choose that and have a blank screen with a single underscore (not blinking). After a few minutes this goes away, leaving a blank screen. I did try adding "quiet nomodeset nosplash", that did not change it. Please advise, Steve
UTC 2020|08|23 00:31:17 (@)
Steve Smith From: Boston, Mass. USA
Thanks very much for these instructions. I have a Mac Pro tower 1,1 2006 (32b efi) where I am trying to install Linux. Via Matt Gadient's instructions, used his Ubuntu 18.04 pre-made iso. I have also tried the unmodified Mint Mate 20 iso. Both give the same result. Using the option key, I boot off the efi flash drive. Grub starts and asks which choice I want to boot from, for example Linux Mint Mate 20. i choose that and have a blank screen with a single underscore (not blinking). After a few minutes this goes away, leaving a blank screen. I did try adding "quiet nomodeset nosplash", that did not change it. Please advise, Steve
UTC 2020|08|23 00:03:01 (@)
Bruce McLean From: US
I gave up on Elementary OS due to lockups on shutdown and frustrations installing apps. I switched to Cinnamon Mint 19.3 which seems snappier and more stable. The remaining problem is doing right clicks on a single button trackpad. Currently I work around it by turning on accessibility option to simulate secondary click by holding down the primary button. Does anyone have a better solution?
UTC 2020|08|20 10:09:52 (@)
Bruce McLean From: US
Thanks very much for the help here. With the instructions here, I was able to make a bootable Elementary OS 5.1 USB that worked for a MBP 2007. I booted into preview to try things out and started the install with these options.
- Connected to internet using WIFI. - selected macintosh keyboard - Selected to download latest updates during install. - Set up custom HD with 3 partitions of: 1) 209MB efi 2) 16MB swap 3) the remaining space as ext4 and mounted to /.
UTC 2020|08|19 14:49:09 (@)
Kevin From: USA
It worked perfectly on my mid-2007 black MacBook! I used a 20.04 iso from the Matt Gadient site in partition 2 on the usb.
When I did the install, I had Ubuntu write a new partition table to the internal drive. I then added a small EFI partiton, a 16gb swap, and then the rest of the 512gb ssd I had upgraded to became the ext4 / partition.
Next I have to figure out how to scroll with the touchpad. The internal ssd install is working fine.
UTC 2020|08|19 01:15:18 (@)
ChristianDF From: Venezuela
Installed with this method Ubuntu MATE 20.04 64bit on a MacMini 2007, runs super smooth.
I must add this, using the Ubuntu default partitioning, i got: 1.- 1MB EFI partition 2.- The rest of the drive as a second partition
No it fails trying to boot from the first partition, had to hold option (alt) while booting to select the second partition, fixed that using "efibootmgr -o xxxx" while on linux
I installed using the option "DOWNLOAD UPDATES WHILE INSTALLING", that way it downloaded and installed grub-efi-ia32 needed for booting 32bit EFI, it is not included in media drive
Tried with this method to install Manjaro Linux with no avail, if anyone knows a method please share
From: Boston, Mass. USA
The firmware update made booting from an iso usb stick finally work, with these additions to the grub entry :
nomodeset quiet nosplash noefi
The iso usb stick was made according to Stefan's directions on this page.
Before installation, I had given my ssd a tiny first partition containing /efi/boot/bootia32.efi, so the Mac would boot (just as in the iso usb stick, but no grub.cfg).
I installed Mint 20 to my ssd, picked "something else" so I could select my own partitioning, keeping the first partition. I told it to put grub in sda2
continued next comment