Install LM on 2006 iMac 6.1

[juicer]

I was gifted a late 2006 iMac 6.1 with core 2 duo and 4GB ram.
I would like to breathe new life into it as there is varying decline in support of Snow Leopard Mac OS which appears to be its limit for upgrade.
For my needs, every other core 2 duo in my house runs just fine with LM 17.
Is there a tutorial for this procedure and what is the most suitable version to install?

[bartszu]

This is Intel proc, Intel Board.

Any 64 bit Linux for example 17,3 or 18.

[juicer]

OK might as well grab 18 with support until 2021.
Is there a tutorial for the installation, either dual boot or clean install?

[bartszu]

Man this is PC like any other PC, don’t be overwhelmed with Apple tag, this is just Intel PC.
Of cause it has nice casing, but that is really it
Does it have USB ?

[bartszu]

OK might as well grab 18 with support until 2021.

Probably I am just flaming right now, and horde will attack this thread.
But in FOSS I never use "latests, the cutting edge" technology, as no matter what they say, buggy buggy buggy
Let the Linux mature like wine, so I`d say 17,3 for start

P.S.

You know what evangelist said

"There is no need to update"

[juicer]

OK since LM 17 Cinnamon seems like a decent version that I have been running on all of my other core 2 duo rocketships, I will stick to that.
Yes there is a USB on that pretty little piece of white fruit.
Again, can someone direct me to a tutorial for a dual boot installation?

[rumpus]

http://www.howtogeek.com/187410/how-to- ... -on-a-mac/

I don't know anything about mac but this may help you'
Good luck....r

[juicer]

thanks rumpus. I will give it a go.

[fabien85]

I installed Mint on a 2004 macbook and a 2010 macbook pro.
In my experience, there are some differences with respect to a normal PC.
For example, if I recall correctly, the 2004 macbook would not boot from USB in legacy mode. Had to be in EFI mode. Problem is that the EFI was 32-bit, not 64-bit (although the CPU itself was 64-bit). And the Mint 32-bit ISO was not including grubia32.efi (for an unknown reason), so I had to put it manually. That's the kind of problem you might run into.
On the 2010 MBP, I had no problem with the EFI (everything is 64 bit), but then later with the Nvidia graphic card. Wouldnt work because the firmware wouldnt initialize it. Found a workaround on the web.

So first thing I would do is to check whether your iMac is 32-bit, 64-bit, or in-between (as the MB 2004 that I talked about).
Then install refind, as told in the link given by rumpus. Simplest and most robust is you do that from OSX : http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html#osx. The refind-install script will automatically find whether you are 32 or 64 bit, and install the good stuff accordingly.
Reboot and check that refind works, and in the "about refind" you will see whether it's 32 or 64-bit install.
If it's 64-bit, rest will be simple : burn the Mint ISO to a stick (e.g. from OSX with Unetbootin, or from another computer), and boot the stick in EFI mode.
If it's 32-bit, look at the stick after you've burnt it, see whether there is a file called grubia32.efi in Stick/EFI/Boot/ . If not, download it from the web (or compile grub from source if you are paranoid) and put it there.

[bartszu]

In my experience, there are some differences with respect to a normal PC.
For example, if I recall correctly, the 2004 macbook would not boot from USB in legacy mode. Had to be in EFI mode. Problem is that the EFI was 32-bit, not 64-bit (although the CPU itself was 64-bit). And the Mint 32-bit ISO was not including grubia32.efi (for an unknown reason), so I had to put it manually. That's the kind of problem you might run into.

Another words you telling us that PC from 2004 was not able to boot from USB. And despite having "64-bit capable" processor you had to install 32-bit system on it. Well that`s an info

So first thing I would do is to check whether your iMac is 32-bit, 64-bit, or in-between (as the MB 2004 that I talked about).

His Mac is 64-bit about EFI no idea

[fabien85]

I did a quick search, and if this is the correct model, then this page :
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/i ... specs.html
tells that the EFI architecture is 32-bit. (but indeed the processor is 64-bit)

So simplest is indeed to go for a 32-bit distro, and add grubia32.efi to the live USB if it's not there.

If you want to try your luck, you can try installing a 64-bit distro with a 32-bit bootloader. But no guarantee this will work.

[juicer]

It isn't clearly identified in "about this mac" as what EFI. If I use 32 version, does this have any effect on machine using 4 GB ram? Sorry if uninformed question.

[fabien85]

a 32-bit distro will perfectly work on a 64-bit computer (though a bit slower), while the contrary is not true.
So you dont run any risk installing 32-bit.
If your model is indeed the one identified in the link I gave above, then your EFI is indeed 32-bit.
This is also confirmed by this link : https://mattgadient.com/2016/07/11/linu ... 06-models/
Another way to check, as I already said in a post above, is to install refind. Either it will tell you during install (see if it installs refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi), or you can check in the menu "about refind" in refind itself (the menu is signalled by a blue (i) logo).
And anyway, I advise you to install refind, I find it's an elegant boot manager and it makes bootloading easier, more understandable.

[juicer]

rEFInd shows 32 bit install
thanks
step one check
now off to the races

[fabien85]

A detail :
if you make a standard install, grub will be your boot loader. You may be fine with this, especially if you single boot.
Personally, I prefer refind over grub, and I couldnt get grub to boot OSX (I was doing a dual boot). So I made an install without grub :
Boot your live USB, open a terminal and issue

Code: Select all

ubiquity -b

which will launch the installer as normal, except it wont install grub. Instead, refind will take care of loading the linux kernel.
It's a question of taste.

[juicer]

If I boot into MAc OSX, can I simply partition the hd and then install the Mint from a live CD to this new partition? Will this even work?
Additionally, I downloaded Mint 17 iso and even converted it to a .dmg but I am lost as to where to go from there??

[fabien85]

Do you want to single boot or dual-boot ?
If single boot, from the live CD or USB you can simply erase the whole disk. An option for that will be provided by the installer ; or you can use gparted, which is also included.
If you want to dual-boot, you have to resize the OSX partition to leave free space. It's best to do that with OSX tools. In OSX 10.11, disk utility (in Application > Utilities) can resize a OSX partition. I'm not sure, but I think I remember that in OSX 10.6, disk utility can NOT resize partitions, which is unfortunate. In principle gparted can resize partition, but perso I have used it only on linux partitions, so cannot guarantee this will not mess a OSX partition.
If you care about the OSX install, you should make a backup of it anyway. Simplest is to clone the whole partition, e.g. with carbon copy cloner (free for 30 days) or something else (clonezilla? I know it works for linux partitions, not sure about hfs+ ones. there are many other options available if you do a quick search).

For the ISO it's simple : burn it to a USB stick with Unetbootin.

By the way the latest version of Mint is 18, and in the 17.x series it's 17.3.
Any particular reason why you downloaded 17 ?

[bartszu]

I downloaded Mint 17 iso and even converted it to a .dmg

Sorry naive question, what happens when you put just normal unconverted mint install to usb stick ?

What is the difference if image is compressed by iso or by dmg ?

Just do experiment take just regular image and see if it`s booting.

Do you have access to BIOS ? What is a boot order ?

[juicer]

I am looking to dual boot. An earlier post warned off LM 18 but I may just give it a try anyway.
Disk Utility works from 10.5 forward according to the Google.
More research to do... what type of partition etc. since I haven't found a iMac 6.1 specific tutorials.
Unewtbootin keeps crashing...?
After I partition can I use live cd to install in new partition created?

[fabien85]

In OSX, just format the partitions in the normal OSX filesystem, because you are going to reformat them anyway with the linux installer. (because OSX disk utility doesnt know how to create partitions in the linux filesystem).
You can either create the partitions already at the good size etc, and then you go the manual way in the installer with "Something else". This is especially useful if you want a separate /home (or /boot, or data partitions, ...) or if you dont want swap (e.g. you've got lots of RAM and you dont want to hibernate). This tutorial shows how to do this manual way (in the section "Installing Linux").
But you can also do something simpler : make a single partition for all the space you want, then in the live USB/CD open gparted and delete the partition. Then, voilà! you've got free space, the installer will detect it and propose "Install alongside OSX". This will make a standard install (one partition for /, one for swap), simple but neat.

So yeah you can install in the partitions you created, with the "something else" option, taking care to reformat the partitions to the good filesystem (swap for swap, ext4 for / and optional /home, /boot ...). If you want to exchange data between OSX and linux, I advise to create a FAT32 partition, that's the simplest.

Unewtbootin keeps crashing...?

strange, it used to work for me when I was using 10.6. There are not many other options on mac. (except dd from command line, but you have to be careful then). Simplest is if you have access to another computer. If you have access to windows (>= win7), use Rufus, this has been advised countless times on this forum. If you have access to linux mint, there is a default program called "startup disk creator". Unetbootin is also available for linux and windows.