Hi Folks,
I'm not a regular lurker here, but when I looked into buying my used 2006 iMac last year with the idea to run Linux Mint on it, I was able to get the needed invaluable information to install and boot-load it here. I have been happily using said combination since! Thanks to all who weighed in and showed me the way.
I have been thrilled with the combo with the exception that I have not been able to boot anything that's not Mac via USB since I got it. I saw more than one piece of advice (here and elsewhere) saying that it probably wasn't possible. I've been playing around with it for a year off and on and I just discovered how to do it today!
As advised here when I first did my installation, I first installed reFind as a bootloader for the Linux Mint installation process. I remember reading somewhere that you can later remove reFind if desired, but I never did. I simply use it to boot OS 10, Linux Mint, or a live DVD of my choice using this method. Fast forward to a few weeks ago...I was playing around with an ancient Dell laptop that wouldn't ordinarily boot from USB, but was using the Plop boot manager to do so. Being the guy that always says "What if?" I simply slipped the Plop boot manager CD into the optical drive of the iMac today, rebooted, and selected the "disc" boot option in reFind. Viola! Plop booted up and displayed the full menu of boot options it ordinarily would. The USB I had inserted was for Xenial Pup (Puppy Linux) and it booted fine, however non of my mice, one optical mouse or my other two wired mice would move the curser. I hoped this was just a driver disagreement between the Mac and Xenial Pup and moved on.
Apparently it was because I next booted a USB install of Linux Mint and it worked perfectly including the mouse. Next a version of Boot Repair (Ubuntu based) and it also worked great! Same result with Linux Lite (also Ubuntu based).
One thing I've missed since my old Compaq died and was replaced by the mac was that I was just getting into playing around with Android based OS's for a PC platform. So I dug out a USB install of X-86 Android that I've had laying around for a couple of years. It wouldn't boot, but it's been so long I honestly don't remember if and how I had that particular distro up and running anyway. I was just about to claim a partial victory and quit when I rumaged down deep in the lined cookie tin I use as a Faraday cage/USB storage box, and I found an install of Phoenix OS, also an Android OS for PC's. I rinsed and repeated and what-a-ya-know? It booted! In fact I'm writting this while booted in Phoenix OS!
I don't imagine many here will be interested in all this, but for some reason I'm just thrilled I was able to do this. I love to play around with alternative OS's, and booting from DVD is a pain. If anyone feels spunky enough to try, you can find the Plop website here: https://www.plop.at/en/home.html. Navigate down the lefthand menu to "Boot Managers", download and burn the iso to a CD. Don't waste a DVD; the boot manager is very small. Refind, which also has to be present before you start, can be found here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/. FYI, I'm pretty sure reFind (which has to be installed first) needs to be installed on the Mac side, but I stand to be corrected if that's not so. I also don't know if you might have more trouble with any distro that doesn't have uefi support. I just started playing with this myself. Anyway, good luck if you try, and post back a reply if you had any success!
I'm not a regular lurker here, but when I looked into buying my used 2006 iMac last year with the idea to run Linux Mint on it, I was able to get the needed invaluable information to install and boot-load it here. I have been happily using said combination since! Thanks to all who weighed in and showed me the way.
I have been thrilled with the combo with the exception that I have not been able to boot anything that's not Mac via USB since I got it. I saw more than one piece of advice (here and elsewhere) saying that it probably wasn't possible. I've been playing around with it for a year off and on and I just discovered how to do it today!
As advised here when I first did my installation, I first installed reFind as a bootloader for the Linux Mint installation process. I remember reading somewhere that you can later remove reFind if desired, but I never did. I simply use it to boot OS 10, Linux Mint, or a live DVD of my choice using this method. Fast forward to a few weeks ago...I was playing around with an ancient Dell laptop that wouldn't ordinarily boot from USB, but was using the Plop boot manager to do so. Being the guy that always says "What if?" I simply slipped the Plop boot manager CD into the optical drive of the iMac today, rebooted, and selected the "disc" boot option in reFind. Viola! Plop booted up and displayed the full menu of boot options it ordinarily would. The USB I had inserted was for Xenial Pup (Puppy Linux) and it booted fine, however non of my mice, one optical mouse or my other two wired mice would move the curser. I hoped this was just a driver disagreement between the Mac and Xenial Pup and moved on.
Apparently it was because I next booted a USB install of Linux Mint and it worked perfectly including the mouse. Next a version of Boot Repair (Ubuntu based) and it also worked great! Same result with Linux Lite (also Ubuntu based).
One thing I've missed since my old Compaq died and was replaced by the mac was that I was just getting into playing around with Android based OS's for a PC platform. So I dug out a USB install of X-86 Android that I've had laying around for a couple of years. It wouldn't boot, but it's been so long I honestly don't remember if and how I had that particular distro up and running anyway. I was just about to claim a partial victory and quit when I rumaged down deep in the lined cookie tin I use as a Faraday cage/USB storage box, and I found an install of Phoenix OS, also an Android OS for PC's. I rinsed and repeated and what-a-ya-know? It booted! In fact I'm writting this while booted in Phoenix OS!
I don't imagine many here will be interested in all this, but for some reason I'm just thrilled I was able to do this. I love to play around with alternative OS's, and booting from DVD is a pain. If anyone feels spunky enough to try, you can find the Plop website here: https://www.plop.at/en/home.html. Navigate down the lefthand menu to "Boot Managers", download and burn the iso to a CD. Don't waste a DVD; the boot manager is very small. Refind, which also has to be present before you start, can be found here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/. FYI, I'm pretty sure reFind (which has to be installed first) needs to be installed on the Mac side, but I stand to be corrected if that's not so. I also don't know if you might have more trouble with any distro that doesn't have uefi support. I just started playing with this myself. Anyway, good luck if you try, and post back a reply if you had any success!
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