[Solved] Help 2006 MacBook 64 bit with 32 bit EFI issues

[whitecliff]

I am at my wits end. I have done everything I can and still can’t get a working version going. I installed 6 different modded ISO’s that would install but not boot. Finally switched to 32 bit version of Linux 19 which installs but won’t boot. I ran the live version and ran boot repair and still won’t boot. I am not trying to dual boot just Linux. I do not think there is a legacy boot on Mac, but could be wrong. There was one thing during the installer saying there was no efi system partition. I tried to go in with Live version and create the partitions but when I went into the install they are gone. I am open to any help. Thank you.

[Reddog1]

Did you get your modded .iso's from the Matt Gadient site? He also has a pretty good explanation of what can cause boot failures of newly installed systems, and there is quite a lot of discussion in his forum. I've never been tempted to try what you're doing, but good luck.

https://mattgadient.com/linux-dvd-image ... 06-models/

[whitecliff]

Did you get your modded .iso's from the Matt Gadient site? He also has a pretty good explanation of what can cause boot failures of newly installed systems, and there is quite a lot of discussion in his forum. I've never been tempted to try what you're doing, but good luck.

https://mattgadient.com/linux-dvd-image ... 06-models/

I did use those from his site. I installed so many that would not work I just went back to a straight 32 bit version of mint. Everything installs fine it just wont boot after installation. From what I understand there are not legacy boot issues with switching from that and UEFI on Macs but I am not 100% sure. The other thing that may be tripping it up is not having the correct EFI system partition. The drive does not have another operating system on it and it is fully partitioned so I cannot create or subdivide the existing space. When I run live from the CD and go into the "disks" program and add those partitions and go to run the installers the partitions are gone and it is one large one again. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Reddog1]

I've never installed on a system set up that way, so I have no qualifications to help. From the gadient site, there is a requirement that the drive being installed upon must be formatted MBR, which would definitely mess up a standard Mint installation because EFI hard drive partitioning is normally GPT, and only the EFI boot partition is msdos. The gadient disks are altered to get around the Apple efi to allow for mbr boot mode, at least it looks that way to me.

There is a way to boot MBR when the partition table is GPT, but it won't be done automagically by the installer. A small partition must be manually created at the beginning of the drive, and it must be a FAT partition, with the bios_grub flag set. Supposedly (I haven't done it), the installer will recognize the partition and put grub on it. Exactly how this works with apple firmware, or even if it does work, I do not know.

Gadient covers what may be the problem that you're having with his install disks:

If the install proceeds fine but the system won’t boot from the hard drive after installation, there is a strong possibility that your distro installer formatted the hard drive via GPT/EFI instead of MBR/BIOS. You can check this by booting from the LiveDVD again, starting the Terminal program, and typing parted -l or fdisk -l (that is a lower-case L). If you see “gpt” listed for the hard drive (instead of “dos” or “msdos”), this is likely your issue.

Apples have firmware, and there is no way to make changes to that firmware, and what firmware is installed depends on the last version of OSx that was installed on the machine. Basically, the firmware substitutes for a PC bios/UEFI, with no ability for a user to adjust anything. What you have is what you have.

Did your ancient computer have a working OSx before you began this project?

[whitecliff]

I've never installed on a system set up that way, so I have no qualifications to help. From the gadient site, there is a requirement that the drive being installed upon must be formatted MBR, which would definitely mess up a standard Mint installation because EFI hard drive partitioning is normally GPT, and only the EFI boot partition is msdos. The gadient disks are altered to get around the Apple efi to allow for mbr boot mode, at least it looks that way to me.

There is a way to boot MBR when the partition table is GPT, but it won't be done automagically by the installer. A small partition must be manually created at the beginning of the drive, and it must be a FAT partition, with the bios_grub flag set. Supposedly (I haven't done it), the installer will recognize the partition and put grub on it. Exactly how this works with apple firmware, or even if it does work, I do not know.

Gadient covers what may be the problem that you're having with his install disks:

If the install proceeds fine but the system won’t boot from the hard drive after installation, there is a strong possibility that your distro installer formatted the hard drive via GPT/EFI instead of MBR/BIOS. You can check this by booting from the LiveDVD again, starting the Terminal program, and typing parted -l or fdisk -l (that is a lower-case L). If you see “gpt” listed for the hard drive (instead of “dos” or “msdos”), this is likely your issue.

Apples have firmware, and there is no way to make changes to that firmware, and what firmware is installed depends on the last version of OSx that was installed on the machine. Basically, the firmware substitutes for a PC bios/UEFI, with no ability for a user to adjust anything. What you have is what you have.

Did your ancient computer have a working OSx before you began this project?

Hahah yes it did have a working version of OSX on it. Which one I forgot.

I will check some of the things you covered again once I get home from work. My other question is, if I just use the 32 bit system I do not have to use the ISO from gadient's site correct? I should be able to just install it normally, correct?

[Reddog1]

I don't think just installing a 32 bit linux is going to work, because mint ships with both mbr and efi boot loading and the apple firmware is going to choke when it sees both. And, making matters worse, ubuntu doesn't have a 32 bit uefi installer, as far as I know.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/392719/ ... ot-support

All that was a reason gadient built his boot disks. Keep in mind that I am outside of my comfort zone when it comes down to this. I hope you get it working and it would be really good if somebody that has already did this install would come on-line. There aren't a lot of us here on this list that have installed linux on apple hardware, much less on the apples with 32 bit efi.

[borgward]

I installed Mattgradient linuxmint Cinnamon on mid 2006 Macbook. As I remember I took the HDD out and installed using a USB external drive caddy with Dell Laptopr and then put the drive back in the MacBook.

[whitecliff]

I installed Mattgradient linuxmint Cinnamon on mid 2006 Macbook. As I remember I took the HDD out and installed using a USB external drive caddy with Dell Laptopr and then put the drive back in the MacBook.

I found a tutorial last night about preparing the partitions before installing to make sure the EFI, swap space, etc. was setup correct and reinstalled 32 bit Mint 19 and it installs perfect but then when I go to restart the machine it is the white screen of death. I ran a SMART test on the disk via the live CD and everything is good. I am not sure what to do next. I know it is something minuscule that is holding it up from booting after install. At this point it is not about the machine it is pure stubbornness wanting to fix this. Any other leads?

[Pulegium]

I've installed Mint on these machines on 3 or 4 occasions but the last time was a couple of years ago . So I'm a bit reluctant to offer advice as I'm rather rusty . Unfortunately at the moment I can't find my MacBook2,1 with Mint installed as reference . Nonetheless I've tried to remember a few salient features of the process .

Ideally your MacBook2,1 will have had at least OSX 10.6.8 Snow leopard with all the latest updates installed or better still OSX 10.7.5 Lion in order to have the most recent ( 2012 ) firmware installed . If you had only OSX 10.4.11 Tiger installed you will have firmware from 2007 at best . This is not to say you cannot install Linux without the latest Mac firmware but up to date firmware is likely to improve your chances . It might be worth the trouble to swap out your Linux HDD temporarily and install Lion on a spare HDD just to get that firmware . Lion is available to download for free from the apple website .

For best results install Linux from a DVD . I tried modifying the Matt Gradient ISO to work on a USB key without success . It was just beyond my abilities at the time . Macs of this period just seem to prefer installations from DVDs in general although I have had success installing OSX with a USB key .

I have only installed the Matt Gradient 64bit Mint 19 xfce OS on these machines . These laptops are getting pretty long in the tooth so later kernels might be a bit too much for them .

Install as much RAM as you can . These came with only 1GB installed ( not enough for a modern OS ) but will take 4GB , albeit because of a chipset limitation they can only use just over 3GB of it . The right RAM is available for cheap on Ebay .

Once you are all installed you will likely find that the iSight camera does not work . See here for a possible fix :

https://turanct.wordpress.com/2010/06/1 ... /#comments

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Macte ... ppleiSight

I hope these ramblings at least offer you some clue to your conundrum . Hopefully I will find my laptop soon and provide you with more concrete advice .
Good luck !

[whitecliff]

I've installed Mint on these machines on 3 or 4 occasions but the last time was a couple of years ago . So I'm a bit reluctant to offer advice as I'm rather rusty . Unfortunately at the moment I can't find my MacBook2,1 with Mint installed as reference . Nonetheless I've tried to remember a few salient features of the process .

Ideally your MacBook2,1 will have had at least OSX 10.6.8 Snow leopard with all the latest updates installed or better still OSX 10.7.5 Lion in order to have the most recent ( 2012 ) firmware installed . If you had only OSX 10.4.11 Tiger installed you will have firmware from 2007 at best . This is not to say you cannot install Linux without the latest Mac firmware but up to date firmware is likely to improve your chances . It might be worth the trouble to swap out your Linux HDD temporarily and install Lion on a spare HDD just to get that firmware . Lion is available to download for free from the apple website .

For best results install Linux from a DVD . I tried modifying the Matt Gradient ISO to work on a USB key without success . It was just beyond my abilities at the time . Macs of this period just seem to prefer installations from DVDs in general although I have had success installing OSX with a USB key .

I have only installed the Matt Gradient 64bit Mint 19 xfce OS on these machines . These laptops are getting pretty long in the tooth so later kernels might be a bit too much for them .

Install as much RAM as you can . These came with only 1GB installed ( not enough for a modern OS ) but will take 4GB , albeit because of a chipset limitation they can only use just over 3GB of it . The right RAM is available for cheap on Ebay .

Once you are all installed you will likely find that the iSight camera does not work . See here for a possible fix :

https://turanct.wordpress.com/2010/06/1 ... /#comments

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Macte ... ppleiSight

I hope these ramblings at least offer you some clue to your conundrum . Hopefully I will find my laptop soon and provide you with more concrete advice .
Good luck !

Can I download the Lion file and make a boot disc from that?

[Reddog1]

You know, I think once you have an Apple OS installed, it appears that rEFInd can be installed on the apple OS. From what I have read, 32-bit efi is supported with rEFInd and the 32-bit efi loader is included with rEFInd. I'd recommend that you use the apple disk utility to make space on your HD before installing linux, then install linux (which won't boot). Boot OSx and install rEFInd, and after that, rEFInd should find the linux loader, but there are some hoops to jump through to insure that you have priority given to the 32-bit rEFInd loader. I'm no rEFInd expert because I've only installed it once, to learn what it does when booting OSx and multiple linux systems, but my impression is that it is a cool tool that can be useful.

https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html

Apple installs are almost always an adventure, and I admire your determination.

[whitecliff]

Also is there really a huge benefit to installing a Matt Gradient modified ISO? I know you can run a newer version but isn’t it just much easier to revert back to a 32 bit version like mint 19?

[whitecliff]

You know, I think once you have an Apple OS installed, it appears that rEFInd can be installed on the apple OS. From what I have read, 32-bit efi is supported with rEFInd and the 32-bit efi loader is included with rEFInd. I'd recommend that you use the apple disk utility to make space on your HD before installing linux, then install linux (which won't boot). Boot OSx and install rEFInd, and after that, rEFInd should find the linux loader, but there are some hoops to jump through to insure that you have priority given to the 32-bit rEFInd loader. I'm no rEFInd expert because I've only installed it once, to learn what it does when booting OSx and multiple linux systems, but my impression is that it is a cool tool that can be useful.

https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html

Apple installs are almost always an adventure, and I admire your determination.

Thanks for the info. I am going to circle back and install OSX again and try to dial boot. We shall see. Ha

[Reddog1]

For what it's worth, I've never failed to install a working linux system on apple hardware, and I've installed quite a few, all older laptops and minis though, and the oldest was a macbook released in 2008. I have a reasonable expectation that you can do this.

[whitecliff]

For what it's worth, I've never failed to install a working linux system on apple hardware, and I've installed quite a few, all older laptops and minis though, and the oldest was a macbook released in 2008. I have a reasonable expectation that you can do this.

Thanks for the vote of comfidence. My daily driver at home is a 27 inch iMac from 2011 with Linux Mint so I have experience with Mac hardware but there are some issues I can’t overcome on this stupid thing. My sister has the original install disk for it I found out. So once I get them can try to reinstall originally OSX and update as high as the hardware will go and try to setup dual boot.

[Pulegium]

Mac OS Lion installer available here (only free to download just since last summer I think) :

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2077?locale=en_CA

You can burn it to a DVD or USB key .

Unfortunately you must have Snow leopard installed first ( before you can install Lion) and you will have to acquire an original disk for that . It's not available for download on the Apple web site . Disks are fairly easy to find but are " white listed " . That is to say that a Snow Leopard installer that came with a mac mini of 2008 won't work on a 2006 MacBook . However I think the install disk from a 2006 iMac 5,1 will work . I might also have heard that it is allegedly possibly available by " alternative means " . Macintosh Garden seems to have a good reputation .

Necessary Snow Leopard updates before you install Lion .

https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1400?locale=en_CA

https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1860?locale=en_US

I have dual booted Snow Leopard and 64bit Matt Gradient Mint 19 on a iMac 5,1 of the same period and same 31bit efi as your MacBook so I would surmise that it is possible on your device .

I'm pretty sure you could install a normal 32bit Linux distro on that thing but again it's been 2 years since I've dealt with these laptops so my memory might fail me . 32bit antiX will give you a quick answer . It seems to boot on just about anything I throw at it .

Is there really a huge benefit to installing a Matt Gradient modified ISO ? That's a bit subjective with ancient equipment like this . It depends on what you want to do with it but support of 32bit apps is gradually lessening which does add more limitations to what is already a limited machine by today's standards . Personally I'd go with a 64bit Matt Gradient install - a fun way to learn about Linux , OSX and computers and it works beautifully on my Macbook2,1 .
Now if only I could find the damned thing ...

[whitecliff]

well I had a few more minutes to work on this and finally got it figured out. If anyone else is trying this hopefully it will help them out. As with most of the distros it will install just fine but when you reboot after install nothing happens and eventually it will show a blinking file folder with a "?". That kept making me assume the install failed. If you boot while holding the option key it will again give you the choice to choose the live CD or a hard drive labeled "windows" which I assumed was the failed install drive. If you click on the "windows" drive it will boot successfully. So if you don't boot holding the option key it seems as if everything failed. I knew it was something small and stupid I was not doing right. I hope this helps someone else and thank you to all the people for your input.

[Reddog1]

Glad you got it working, even though it is a bit of a hack. But then, most installs on any Apple are a bit of that. While Apple doesn't actively prevent loading linux systems, Apple definitely doesn't assist in any manner whatsoever.
If you mark your thread as [Solved] some other hapless person trying to deal with Apple 32-bit efi and 64 bit OS might stumble across this and be helped.

[borgward]

Forget about installing OS X whatever unless you plan on dual booting. Does the mattgradient boot live? like I said earlier remove the HDD, Install Mattgradient on it, put the drive back in the MacBook, power on and you are in business. As I remember I switched the drive in my 2006 Dell Laptop with the one from the MacBook, put the mattgradient DVD in the optical drive, installed mattgradient, put that drive back into the Macbook, hit the power switch and I was in business.

The 2006 Dell Inspiron Laptop Wallmart special is far superior to the mid 2006 MacBook except the MacBook has better screen.

Just booted the MacBook (it's a spare) it has Linuxmint Cinnamon 20.2 64bit. Yes, that's right 64bit. Thought I installed 32bit. Looked at the Mattgradient DVD. It is 20.0.

If you have another PC or laptop try using it to install Mattgradient on the Mac's HDD, and then place in the MacBook.