Installing Elive on a Mac hardware

Just a thought... I was using TimeShift before, but this time i switched to Carbon Copy for my backups.

I like the way it works better, and could have to use it more often now that I began experimenting with Linux...

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Hmmmmm,I love this thread. :1up: :1up:
Makes me want to hunt down a second hand macbook to play with. :smiley14:

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You might want to share that shot up on the Elive screenshot page ..... it's awesome.

This definitely should become a Howto post in itself and is a good tutorial candidate, as well.. :happybounce:

Done as we speak (write) :grin: :grin:

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A post was split to a new topic: Chasing cheap 2nd hand macbook

How to install Elive on a Macbook Air / Macbook Pro (64 bit only) (32 bit doesn't work on a Macbook,
unless the Macbook is from a early version, but I haven't tried that)

  1. download Elive (64 bit) and make a bootable USB with Unetbootin (as recommended)
  2. put USB-stick in the Macbook
  3. Hold down "option" ("alt" if you used to windows); You'll get a boot menu
  4. Choose the "EFI boot" icon (with left/right arrow key / EFI boot icon is usually yellow colored)
  5. Proceed with the installation as normal
  6. If you, however, want a dual boot be aware that with Elive installs Grub within macOS EFI folder
    (hidden) and you want to go back to macOS, you have to startup with "option key" pressed.
  7. If you want to use only macOS you have to remove the "Elive folder" because the Macbook will
    start up with GRUB. (unless "option key" is pressed)
  8. So do the following in macOS: (in a Terminal)
    a: sudo mkdir /Volumes/EFI
    b: sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/EFI
    (use diskutil list to find the EFI partition usually /dev/disk0s1)
    c: cd /Volumes/EFI/EFI
    d: rm -rf Elive
    e: Reboot (sudo reboot in a Terminal)

If you still got any questions I'll be on the Elive Forum on a daily base (the advantage of being retired)
:grin: :grin:

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Btw:
Did you try (in the case of your description)
If you can boot into macOS from grub ?

Hi Rebel450

No, its not possible cuz even with update-grub the partition with macOS is nor being seen nor is it added, hence the fact that I refer to starting up with pressing "option key" option being "alt" if your used to windows

... because of the "preboot", EFI partition of macOS.
You will need an extra boot manager ( see above)

I was able to boot into Mac OS or Elive when I installed it on my Mac.
But I tried so many things that I can’t remember what I did correctly, beside what didn’t work...

I think that the first time I installed Mint and it worked well, no need to hold a key to get the boot menu. But when I installed Elive, it wasn’t that easy. I’ll try again soon now that I have a backup.

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Note: :hooray:
.
Keep in mind, that it is not always the same procedure in detail, it may differ -
relating to the certain Mac model (generation) you got.
And so reports are always welcome here;
I got many Macs here but not all, especially not the newer ones, like e.g. MacBook Air or iMacs with i5, i7 and so on (those with UEFI) ...
:surprise:

Cool to konw that you have many mac !! especially it's because they're old that I think it's coool... because I have a iMac G5 1.8 17" year 2004 and it seems that I'm really note able to install Elive on it...(or whatever comes from linux in fact...)

It's old enough to not to boot on a usb... only CD's, "ALT-T" (for target mode at start-up) or physically take out the HDD and install Elive (or another Linux distro) directly and put It back again into the iMac G5 .........

....whatever.... nothing worked .... what a pitty

I want Elive on that F.....g iMac G5 :1up:

any ideas ?

:baffled:

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I think you'll find some interesting tidbits here from our resident mac fan @Rebel450 :w00t:
https://forum.elivelinux.org/t/cannot-boot-elive-3-0-6-on-macbook/2429/5

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@manu

First of all: Welcome !

2nd... :sniff:
ALAS it aint be possible to get Elive/Debian run on these machines;
IF yes - then with a very, very poor graphic experience.
.
In my case: I gave up on it - after several hours of investigating, try & error and such.
The PowerPC platform is not the problem, but in company with the (mainly) unsupported build-in graphics adapter = no chance.
Result:
A waste of time. And so I've put Tiger on it and enjoy the iMac the way
it was made for. Btw: IMO Tiger and SnowLeo are the best OS Apple ever made yet.
If you can't let it rest - you can give MorphOS a spin, but also with this
you will encounter problems with the graphics; on the other hand it's AWESOME:

Advise:
If you want Elive/Debian on a snow white iMac,
get one with IntelCore and you will succeed easily.
You can get mint models at e.g. eBay for 50 bucks and less.

Let the iMac G5 be ....

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Extremely good advice this. :smiley14:

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Ok, Thanks a lot for the answer, I understand now why it was so complicate for me :eyepopping:... if it was like that for you !!!

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Indeed,
actually I encountered just 2 installs which went quite successful - after many hours of work on it.
Unfortunately these both releases were years old and totally outdated, better call it useless.
Then, as mentioned before, the graphics experience was that bad, that you can call it a big disappointment, only.
May be there are somewhere out there some geeks (I assume on Ubuntu) that could it get to run,
but I doubt that it will come any close to our expectations of a working GUI.
Even after long investigations I could not find
a confirmed successful install with any actual Linux yet.
.
If someone has got one, let me know... :tada: :confetti_ball:
.
So.... :tiger2: on it,
have peace ( and a well working iMac G5)
.
:mwahaha: :nod:

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Thank you so much for the quantity And the quality of your explanations and advises !
:omgomgomg:
I'll now try to find an availiable MacOS CD (or something like that) to install on it...
Thanks again all for the help and ...
Long Life to the beautiful Elive !
:cheerleader:

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@manu

You have mail in your PM box, check
:nod: