cryptomule Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Hi Guys, I'm seeking help and would like to have a discussion about booting Linux on Apple hardware using an EFI boot loader. Probably not going to be a popular suggestion considering one of your sponsors is System76 but I thought I'd give it a try regardless. I came across a great tool called "Mac Linux USB Loader" which is still under heavy development. "This is the Mac Linux USB Loader, a tool allowing you to take an ISO of a Linux distribution and make it boot using EFI." http://sevenbits.github.io/Mac-Linux-USB-Loader/ https://github.com/SevenBits/Mac-Linux-USB-Loader I spoke to "SevenBits" the developer and there's an unresolved problem he hasn't been able to fix, which affects myself and others who use older Macbook Pro hardware (late 2008 4,1 and others). "I actually have an early 2008 MacBook Pro which also fails to boot Linux. I test the bootable drives my tool creates on a newer, separate machine. I believe with 90% certainty that the reason for this problem is the lack of Linux kernel mode setting (KMS) support in Apple's EFI firmware, which is required for nVidia video drivers to function properly. Disabling KMS in the boot options of most distros actually causes the splash screen to show up, but then X (the graphical windowing system used to provide a desktop) can't start because KMS is disabled, and so you are dropped into the terminal with a bash shell. If you like command line Ubuntu, this is fine, you can just connect to the web via Ethernet (and even install WiFi drivers) and go, but for 90% of us, this is an inadequate solution." Have you, or anyone you know had success finding a solution to this problem? Thanks, cryptomule Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spazi Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 (edited) I installed rEFIT on my macbook from 2011 and installed backtrack through a live cd. Just for fun I added windows xp as well so I had a macbook with tripleboot :p Haven't tried over usb since I've been told that apple are morons when it comes to booting OS's over usb. Edited August 2, 2013 by spazi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry99705 Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 I installed rEFIT on my macbook from 2011 and installed backtrack through a live cd. Just for fun I added windows xp as well so I had a macbook with tripleboot :P Haven't tried over usb since I've been told that apple are morons when it comes to booting OS's over usb. Heh, I used to keep os9 installed on a usb thumb drive when I supported a school district. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sitwon Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Please test the latest version of Byzantium Linux with your Macbook. Instructions for Mac booting available at the links below: http://project-byzantium.org/isc-grant-milestone-achieved-v0-3-2a-runs-on-macs/ https://github.com/Byzantium/Byzantium/wiki/How-to-Download-and-Boot-Byzantium Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twopoint0 Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Are you looking for a live boot of linux from USB or a bootable install from USB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cryptomule Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 Are you looking for a live boot of linux from USB or a bootable install from USB? Live boot from USB is what I'd like but it's a display screen issue as stated above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twopoint0 Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 I was able to successfully do a live boot from USB from an .iso image using dd utility 1. Formatted USB Drive as MS-DOS (FAT) 2. Unmounted the drive (in this case mine was disk1): diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk1 3. Using dd utility, put iso on USB Drive: sudo dd if=linux.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=512 conv=noerror,sync USB Drive is labeled as Windows in the Startup Manager Boot was successful, Drivers are a different story... Drive created on Mac OS X 10.9 (13A524d) Test System: MacBook Air "Core i7" 1.7 13-Inch (Mid-2013/Haswell) Distro: Kali Linux 1.0.4 amd64 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 I was able to successfully do a live boot from USB from an .iso image using dd utility 1. Formatted USB Drive as MS-DOS (FAT) 2. Unmounted the drive (in this case mine was disk1): diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk1 3. Using dd utility, put iso on USB Drive: sudo dd if=linux.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=512 conv=noerror,sync USB Drive is labeled as Windows in the Startup Manager Boot was successful, Drivers are a different story... Drive created on Mac OS X 10.9 (13A524d) Test System: MacBook Air "Core i7" 1.7 13-Inch (Mid-2013/Haswell) Distro: Kali Linux 1.0.4 amd64 Formatting the USB as FAT is worthless because you are blasting over the file system with the ISO data. Just FYI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twopoint0 Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Formatting the USB as FAT is worthless because you are blasting over the file system with the ISO data. Just FYI. Tried doing it when it was formatted as HFS+ and it dd utility didn't like it for some reason and it didn't work. Not sure why... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Tried doing it when it was formatted as HFS+ and it dd utility didn't like it for some reason and it didn't work. Not sure why... Must be a Mac protection thing. I smash out disks with anything on them in linux all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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