See All RAM

[borgward]

I installed mattgradient Mint 18 Cinnamon 64bit on mid 2007 MacBook. Mint is the only OS on the drive. I plan to upgrade RAM to 4GB. The Mac OS will only use 3.5 GB of RAM. Will mint see all of it? If not, what would prevent it? Chipset ?

[absque fenestris]

My MacBook from 2006 can access 3GB RAM from the built-in 4GB (2+2). With your model everything seems to be possible between 3 - 4GB.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macb ... tails.html

[catweazel]

what would prevent it? Chipset ?

The CPU.

[borgward]

The MacBook has Intel EFI which limits RAM to 3GB. The MacBook is a 32bit/64bit hybrid. (64bit CPU) In this case the CPU is not the limiting factor. I do not think there is anything that can be done about the EFI liimitation. I would be glad to be wrong.

[ndroftheline]

Hey guys, just FYI a 32bit EFI doesn't limit you to 3.5gb RAM. I have a 2006 Mac Pro Classic with 8gb RAM that runs fine, detects and uses all 8GB RAM. I also have two 2007 iMacs with 32bit EFI that both have full access to and use all 4gb of installed RAM on each one.

You can see in the actual specs from a 2006 Mac Pro that it uses a 32-bit EFI and supports, officially, up to 16GB RAM: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_ ... specs.html

My understanding is that mattgadient's method forces the ISO to run in MBR mode, which triggers a compatibility mode in the mac normally reserved for Windows (ie, bootcamp). Even if you convert a 64bit ISO and install it using mattgadient's method, you'll end up with a harddrive formatted with an MBR partition map. I'm not sure anybody is exactly aware of what else Apple's "compatibility" mode screws around with but my experiences in this mode have been borderline at best.

If you're sure your computer has 64-bit processors and 32-bit EFI, you can get full native EFI behavior/performance. Simply copy a 32-bit EFI file to the /EFI/BOOT directory on the installer USB. I used this one: https://github.com/jfwells/linux-asus-t ... aster/boot (the one labelled "wrong efi", ha) - but if you prefer, he clearly lists the step by step instructions to compile your own 32-bit efi file instead.

On my imac systems, once i copied the file there, viola, i had a usb bootable by holding the alt/option key at start chime. My systems wait about 30 seconds on a black screen to actaully boot the installer, but aside from that it proceeds perfectly normally, and results in a native EFI install. Tested on LInux Mint 19 64-bit, 2007 iMac 2.4ghz 21".

good luck

[borgward]

I was mistaken that the White 13" Mid 2007 MacBook had 32bit EFI. Everymac shows that the MacBook's serial # indicates it has 64 bit EFI. Your MacBook Pro has a different chipset from my MacBook. When I installed 19 using a PC I did not select MBR. I did manually partition the drive. In spite of not selecting MBR during install it is MBR.

~$ sudo parted -l | grep Partition
[sudo] password for tom:
Partition Table: msdos

msdos means it's MBR.

I do not think the MacBooks chipset can be told to allow all the RAM to be seen, it is a MacBook, not a MacBook Pro. Different chipsets. You mentioned you had a MacBook Pro Classic. Is that something different than a MackBook Pro?

[ndroftheline]

I have a Mac Pro "Classic", not a MacBook Pro. My MBP is a much newer thing, and a work device anyway so I can't mess with it much.

Mac Pro Classic isn't an official designation as far as I know, it's what the Mac Pro community has dubbed the large aluminum-cased Intel-powered towers from 2006 to 2012. Example: http://thehouseofmoth.com/the-classic-m ... forgotten/

It's possible the chipset limits you to 3.5g RAM, but it's not due to the bitness of anything. 32bit EFI systems can absolutely address more than that RAM, *as long as the processor is 64bit* - assuming the chipset doesn't do something weird to artificially limit it, which would be annoying but also believable from Apple.

Having an MBR partition table also doesn't limit you to addressing only 3.5gb RAM. However it does suggest that you might have installed it in the "CSM/compatibility/bootcamp/MBR" mode instead of in native mode. That's also an undocumented feature so perhaps the limit is actually a software-imposed limit due to that compatibility mode.

If you have a 64-bit EFI you should be able to boot the normal Linux Mint 19 64-bit without messing around with anything. Just use whatever method you're most comfortable to put the ISO onto a USB stick, hold alt on boot chime, and run the live environment. In the live environment, you can check RAM availability with the 'free -m' command to confirm you can see all 4gb of RAM. If you install from that live environment and allow the installer to overwrite the entire drive, I'm not aware of any reason it would show up as an MBR partition table.

For your system, I don't think there's any reason to use the mattgadient ISOs - those are only necessary if you've got a system with 64bit procs and 32bit EFI, and you're willing to accept the compatibility mode limitations, whatever they are.

Note that on my Mac Pro 'classic' I also had to add "noefi" to the end of the "linux" grub line to get it to boot, per documented here: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=119131

good luck (:

[borgward]

The White Mid 2007 MacBook has 64bit 2007 Intel CPU. Everymac specs shows it has 64bit EFI. Apple won't say what it has. If it indeed does have 64bit EFI I suspect Apple has done something to insure planned obsolescence.

It will not boot 64 iso's. It will boot 32bit ones. Not able to install from either. It will boot 64bit Linux OS installed using another computer. The only way I have been able to install using the MacBook is to use the mattgradient mint iso