cannot get 32 bit distro's to boot for live dvd
 

ok - i am stuck - i have an old macbook and i finally installed debian 32 9.8 on it. it was an experiement because i was always curious as to what debian was all about. still am in a way. gnome installed no problem but since minimal ram installed lxde. however - i tried it chck out bodhi32 bit and also lxle i believe it was and another distro i do not remeber the name that was 32 bit - but when i boot it up and hold command or control key was it - one works sometimes and the other works other timesthere is no way to choose the dvd to run./ as in the past it asks

1.

2.

enete\r which (?????i forget what it said -) do you want to boot from but no way to make any entry or choice.


i also believe there is only one element that comes up prior to that and that is windows. and there isn;t any wondows ever on the mac - when i did get it to work with debian and possibly Mint lmde3 there was windows or some other to choose from and the other was always chosen and workd - sorry to be so sketchy - but for some weird reason the choice to boot up into the live dvd is not possible. any clues.

i am aksing this question from memory from the last few weeks of trial and mucho errors.

:-)

I'm answering not because I have an answer, but because I feel your pain. I have an iMac with 4GB RAM that was an absolute time eradicator trying to get reliably booting. It always has been able to boot a Snow Leopard installation DVD, but there have been many many many failed boot attempts with and without using the Cmd key. openSUSE Leap 15.0 and 15.1beta (both from NET CD installation) and El Capitan are its current installations. UEFI Grub is its primary bootloader, but not infrequently startup or reboot bypasses Grub and it boots right into MacOS. There also have been too many times where attempting to boot produces nothing but a white screen. Occasionally it launches the wrong Grub.

In summary, don't be surprised at a Mac's attempts to resist running anything but MacOS. Apple never intended a Mac to run anything else.

debian runs fine with lxde. just was trying to find something faster due to seriously minimal ram. 1 gb or less believe it or not.

i screwed a round again this AM while having coffee and tried many possible things and nothing. since debian is working fine but slsow and it is good until 2022 - i will live with it. i thought bodhi technically should work faster due to he minimal ram requirements. oh well. i am toying with maybe using this out in the shed since my old mac laptop pooped out a few years ago,

mrmazda, I found that rEFInd is a better bootloader.