Unable to Install Linux from USB or DVD on 2007 macbook

Matthew. · 02-18-2021, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by calliealbert

The first issue to your problem is there is no HDD in the MacBook to read. You need a storage location with at least 20GB to install the system (This applies for every computer). It sounds like you would like to install the latest version of macOS on the system itself, so I would first put an actual HDD inside.

Thank you for replying.
Please do not misunderstand this as Internet hate.

It seems you replied before reading my post properly, or it was not the latest of my posts that you read. No worries.
At no time have I tried to install an O/S to a machine with no drive to install to.
What I have described, as well as for a different machine under different circumstances, is the inability to install any Linux version on the 2007 machine.
I have clearly summarized the state of the machine on each occasion.
I see now that I have logged in that other users have answered me since you did.
I may be able able to follow what looks like a rather complex sequence of events posted by ofbarea, but as I now have the 2011 MB Pro running Mint 20 as of about Jan 2021, I have become rather less interested is spending time trying to get the 2007 machine doing anything at all, to be honest

Matthew. · 02-18-2021, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by G-Raps

Great, you have what you were looking to install on one of your Macbooks (Mint 19).
I'm currently on a project with Windows laptops. Probably not useful in this forum, but may install Mint on one of them.

Was Ubuntu interesting enough to try on one of the Macbooks ? Particularly the 2007 model ?

Thanks for replying.
As I managed to get Mint 20 on the 2011 machine, and I am pleased with it except for the Mozilla browser speed which is awful, and I put Play On Linux on it which (apparently) works with Wine, I now also have MS Office 2007 running fine (it's my main tool for making classroom materials).
As I said to another user, given that I now have a fairly good setup, I have become less interested in spending time to get the 2007 machine running, though on a rainy day it may happen some time...

Matthew. · 02-18-2021, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ofbarea

I have a Macbook 2006 (macbook 2,1) that has a 64-bit CPU and a 32-bit EFI.
On my own experience, it was easier to install Linux when I left a very Small OSX Lion partition on the system.

As I recall I started by wiping the whole machine, then I installed lion.
Then I installed the rEFInd Boot Manager
https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/

After it was working fine, I used BootCamp Assistant to create a Windows partition.
I left a minimal Lion partition behind just for convenience.

I installed Ubuntu on that "Windows partition", I initially installed Lubuntu 18.10 x64 but I have bee upgrading the laptop periodically.
Currently I'm running Lubuntu 20.10 with Kernel 5.8

I followed this approach because BootCamp emualates BIOS.
Using mattgadient software or using one of his preconfigured releases, you can boot Linux x64 from BIOS.
https://mattgadient.com/linux-dvd-im...e-2006-models/

the problem with these early macs is that EFI partition is located in HPFS+ partition.
Also for the boot strap you need EFI32 boot loader.
It is possible to manually configure EFI Boot loader and x64 Linux, but Is not standard.
So so I could not find a pre-caned released that would allow me to do this out of the box.
I found a procedure that allowed me to do just that, manually setup an EFI32 loader, confugured all to boot x64 linux, After several trys, I got it to work, but I dropped that solution as I was worried that a future release will override the manual configuration, rendering the system inaccessible until it gets manually fixed again.

So I followed mattgadient recommendations and I used his software to strips UEFI boot loader out of the Linux ISO, leaving only the BIOS loader.
I think you have the link from previous posts, but for completeness here it is again:
https://mattgadient.com/linux-dvd-im...e-2006-models/

Note that I had good luck with Lubuntu. So you might try that ISO.

Once Lubuntu boot, almost all hardware was recognized. The only problem was the web cam.
I ended extracting the iSight firmware from the OSX Lion partition. I followed this guide from steps 1 to 7…
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/use-...ntu-38894.html

Another problem that I faced this year, was high CPU utilization from ACPI/IRQ9 kworker.

When I checked ACPI interrupts, I noticed that gpe17 had a very high trigger count.
I found the problem with this command:

output:

You can see that gpe17 is very high.

to fix that issue I added boot parameter acpi_mask_gpe=0x17 to GRUB and reboot.
with Ubuntu/Debian add "acpi_mask_gpe=0x17" parameter to /etc/default/grub, at the end of line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT.

I edited the file using nano, but any editor will do:

Sample line before edit:

Sample line after edit:

then I ran the following to activate the setting:

and reboot

References:
For more details, see Linux kernel commit 9c4aa1ee which was first merged in Linux 4.10-rc3 and the bug reports linked to from there.
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux...9d9ae58fbafc11

Thank you. When I have (much) more free time than I have now, I will give your kind post a serious read and try what you suggest.

Matthew. · 02-18-2021, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SandsOfArrakis

If I remember correctly you need to just press the Option key on your Mac when pressing the power button, that should give you an option screen where you can choose to boot from the USB stick.

That is the standard situation, yes, but in my case, no.
As I have described fully in other posts - so I will not do so again here - it's one of the three following outcomes/circumstances...

1. boots OK from USB-connected SATA HDD with OS X 10.6
2. Gives completely blank grey screen booting with alt key pressed and any O/S at all on any other USB device at all.
3. Gives blank grey screen with a folder icon containing a question mark booting with alt key pressed and any O/S at all on any other USB device at all.

No worries. When I have time, I will give it more thought. For the time being, the 2011 MB Pro running Linux Mint 20 is good enough

calliealbert · 02-25-2021, 02:01 AM

I would like to install Debian or BSD on this MacBook, either as a dual boot, or as the single OS -- alternatively, any current linux distro or even Windows 10 would do.