Guestbook

naiwny
From: Poland

Very useful and clear instruction.
I can install Lubuntu 64-bit v20.04 on small Atom tablet (32-bit EFI)

Thanks a lot.

UTC 2020|07|21 14:02:43 (@)

LuisM
From: Colombia

Thank you so much for this instructions. I have done 3 diferent linux installations on my 2007 mac mini. (Lubuntu, Open Media Vault and Ubuntu 19.04)

UTC 2020|04|29 23:42:16 (@)

Avi
From: USA

Thanks for these instructions. I was able to install 18.04 Lubuntu from USB using your method, but now to boot my MacBook 2,1 I have to have the USB drive inserted. It is booting from the hard drive, not the USB, but if I don't have the USB inserted, I get the flashing question mark at bootup. Any suggestions?

Admin reply: As Avi wrote on Matt Gadient's page in the comments, she did solve the issue by first installing 16.04 and then upgrade to 18.04.

UTC 2020|04|16 12:53:13 (@)

Amanda
From: Massachusetts

Is it poss to make USB on something other than Linux? I have: 5 yr old Macbook running OS 10.15.3; a 2010 Lenovo Thinkpad x100 running Windows 10 Pro; a 2007 Macbook (2,1?) running CloudReady Chromium; and a 2006 MacBook Pro (2,2) running Lion (I think). I want to convert both the old Macs to Linux but haven't been able to do it. Neither will recognize a DVD as a boot disk despite everything I have tried. They WILL recognize a USB IF it is modified -- the successes have been Fedora Spins and an attempt at modifying Peppermint I found in a Forum. But only Sugar RUNS on the older Mac and that isn't what I want. Peppermint USB etc was recognized but wouldn't/couldn't load. So I thought w/ Matt G's mod and your USB guide maybe I could get something working. I can do Live Linux on Lenovo but I don't want to change that to Linux yet: need Windows still for just a bit. I am a complete newbie but I think I can follow your directions IF I can do it on something else? Thanks in any case!

UTC 2020|04|15 01:08:37 (@)

Dara
From: Seattle, Washington

Hi! Your instructions are the closest I've come to getting installs to go on my black Macbook 2,1 mid-2007. This is in fact the _only_ set of instructions that has this old Macbook recognising any boot device!

But I select the boot device and the screen goes white and stays that way forever. I've tried many flavours of 64-bit Ubuntu (Modern 18.04, 16.04 LTS modified by Matt Gadient, who is how I found you), the 14.04.6 version that I _was_ able to install on a hacked/firmware-upgraded Mac Mini 1,1 upgraded to a Core 2 Duo, a few others) and nothing works. White screen, capslock light _does_ respond, CPU fan ramps up, it sits there forever.

Any suggestions?

Thank you so much for posting your work on this, I'd really like to get this machine going on a modern OS.

(Oh: as usual, the optical drive is quite dead. So if I can't get USB working I'm not sure what to do!)

Admin reply: After some emails where Dara tried another USB stick and an approach from another website, it turned out, that it was not possible booting from a stick on the MacBook. It succeeded by installing the Linux on another Mac and mechanically install the Harddrive into the MacBook.

UTC 2020|03|22 03:48:19 (@)

Rick
From: Italy

Thanks for this great tutorial!

I have a question:
Once the live session has started, I start the installation and it crashes towards the end, with the message:

"the grub-efi-ia32 package failed to install into / target /. Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot."

How i can fix this problem?

Admin reply: Hi Rick,

I am sorry, but I've never tried to install it. Even using a search engine did not reveal any useful information to me.

UTC 2020|03|15 23:48:45 (@)

William
From: Canada, Qc

Thank you, it works perfectly!

Admin reply: Hi William,

thank you for the feedback! I am really glad to hear that.

UTC 2020|03|10 22:13:57 (@)

Kqpout
From: France

Hi and thanks,

When you say, in GParted, "- Right-click first partition - Format as - FAT32", it's the small 32 bit partition for the EFI? or should we format the large partition for the image as FAT32? Thanks.

Admin reply: Hi Kqpout,

yes, the small partition needs to be formated. If you want you can also format the big partition, but it is overwritten later anyway ;-)

UTC 2020|02|27 18:17:37 (@)

PopeRigby

I'm just getting a black screen after my install, even though it said it completed successfully

UTC 2020|02|09 23:19:55 (@)

Kim
From: Boston

Ok, this worked great! Thank you! Two notes:

1) The bootia32.efi URL to github is NOT for wget :)

2) You have to have a network connection, and chose to install updates during the install, else grub won't install and you won't have a bootable system. A USB network adapter is useful here.

System: White iMac, 2.16 ghz 24". Core2Duo, 32 bit EFI
Dist: M. Gradient's Lunbuntu 18.04

Admin reply: Hi Kim,

thank you for your two hints. I've figured out a way to use wget and also added your install hint to the page.

UTC 2020|02|03 02:44:12 (@)