Non-Mac OS for a Mac Mini? (MA206LL/A)

[Calab]

I have an old 2006 Mac Mini (MA206LL/A). I would like to load an alternative OS onto it. I've been having no luck finding an installer USB stick that the Mini will see as a bootable device.

My choice OS would be Mint Linux, but the installer stick does not work. I've been sure to download the 32 bit LMDE version of Mint. I've tried several different apps to put the ISO onto a USB stick, including BalenaEtcher and Ventoy.

This is a 32bit Intel Duo Core cpu, so this limits my choices of OS.

The Mini doesn't seem to support booting from an EFI partition. I can create a 32bit EFI that my Mac Pro can see at boot, but the mini never sees it. Does this machine even support EFI?

Having said all this, is there an alternative OS that I can try installing on my Mini?

 

[Nermal]

Have you ever used Boot Camp/Windows on that machine? I seem to recall something about the 2006 machines not being able to boot any "PC" operating systems until the firmware was updated.

 

[Calab]

Have you ever used Boot Camp/Windows on that machine? I seem to recall something about the 2006 machines not being able to boot any "PC" operating systems until the firmware was updated.

No Boot Camp here.

I considered the firmware version, but I checked the firmware revision and it's the latest according to Apple.

 

[Calab]

I found a page that tells you how to upgrade the CPU to a Core 2 Duo, with the requisite firmware upgrade. I am going to do this and see if it changes anything.

Mac Mini Upgrade Link

Worst that can happen (other than a failed upgrade) is that I will be able to run OSX 10.8 instead of OS 10.6.