Mac mini not recognizing linux boot CDs

A

antiphon

Registered
Hi,
I have an Intel Mac mini and I try to install Linux (Kubuntu) onto it. I used instructions found here http://sowerbutts.com/linux-mac-mini/ . Bootcamp installs fine, partitioning goes well, rEFIt installs and boots, but then when it is supposed to start the alien boot cd the machine tilts. Just "no signal" on the LCD and I have to powerdown with 5sec power button press.

I tried six different linux liveCD/installCD:s, burned either with my Mini (diskutils) or my laptop (k3b in KDE), in slow (x4) up to fast (x24) speed, verified all of them by booting succesfully on a PC computer. All this I tried with the three booting methods: rEFIt, <c> and <option>.

Weird thing is that apple's own OSX boot disc works just fine, it gives a correct name for the disc on the boot menu and boots. All other discs are just named "windows" :)

I thank for any kind of help in advance.

Greets from Finland,
Tuomas

----
Intel Core Duo 1.66Ghz (late2006)
Boot ROM version: MM11.0055.B08
SMC: 1.3f4
 
Have you tried using the Alternate Installation discs for Ubuntu/Kubuntu? I've had better luck with those in general, although I still haven't attempted an install on an Intel Mac.
 
nixgeek said:
Have you tried using the Alternate Installation discs for Ubuntu/Kubuntu? I've had better luck with those in general, although I still haven't attempted an install on an Intel Mac.
Click to expand...

Yes, I tried the "alternate" ISO of Ubuntu, with the same problematic result. I'm going to try the rEFIt bootable CD today, and maybe an official Windows CD if I can find one. If nothing works, I have to assume it's a hardware problem and send the mini for repairs. After all, Apple officially supports dualbooting with WinXP, don't they?

-t
 
Well, they do with Boot Camp but it's still in beta. It won't be final until Leopard comes out and they will probably charge a small fee for Boot Camp for users of 10.4.x and earlier.

In all honesty, I don't think that it's your mini. I've heard a good number of reports that installing Linux/x86 on the Intel Macs is no easy chore. You're probably better off running it in Parallels for now until the official support is there from Apple and Linux developers.
 
Well, unfortunately I hope that there is something wrong with the mini... OSX seemes just fine operating system, but for my needs and preferences I would like to use native linux, especially debian based distro. It is just so much more flexible than *BSD.

Tomorrow I'll go to the local Apple service center to test the linuxCDs with other macs and try out original Windows cd on my mini. If that doesn't give results... well, I guess I just have to start learning OSX :)

Thanks for being interested,
Tuomas
 
bump.

finally I have found someone with the same problems I have.

I too can't boot any other media (ubuntu linux, windows) than the original mac os x install disc.

Maybe Apple introduced something to prevent using other OSes on older machines.

I have the following setup:

Model: Macmini1,1
CPU: Intel Core Duo 1,83 Mhz
Memory: 512MB
Boot-ROM-Version: MM11.0055.B08
SMC Version: 1.3f4
Current OSX Version: 10.4.11 (Tiger)

I also have a Mac Mini at work and it will boot ubuntu without problems. But I currently do not have the detailed specs of that machine. Will check them later.

Anyone with an idea what could be wrong or what could be done to fix that issue?
 
Boot Camp won't work anymore on Tiger. You'll need Leopard for that. Still, you should be able to use rEFIt in order to run multiple operating systems on your Mac mini.

Remember that now you need the regular x86 version of Ubuntu (or any GNU/Linux distribution) to install it on an Intel Mac. The PowerPC ports are only for the Macs with PowerPC processors. Ubuntu has supported EFI-based systems for some time now. I imagine others like Fedora and Debian might also have that support included.

Remember that in order to boot from the disc, you have to hold down "C" when you hear the startup chime.
 
Yes yes all the obvious and default things were tried before ever even considering posting a question.

After 7 linux distros CDs, 2 Windows CDs, motherboard change and lots of lost hair, I finally found the problem: DVI. I had my Mini connected with the DVI-DVI cable (tried couple different), and when I switched to DVI-adapter-VGA cable the problem disappeared. Everything went smoothly after that, the discs booted as should and linux installed as in every howto in the net. Now can't find that in the manual, can you?
 
yeah, I found that out today, too. Using a DVI->VGA Adapter fixes the problem. But I'm still confused why it won't boot when plugging in my display using DVI without an adapter. Maybe it has something to do with the graphical grub menu on todays linux distributions. Would like to see if it works with grub in textmode, but I couldn't get grub to load itself in textmode.
 
Now that's really interesting. Maybe something with the framebuffer then? I wonder if passing a kernel argument at the boot prompt for the installation would resolve that problem? For example, on the iMac G5 I have to pass the kernel argument "video-ofonly" so that it uses OpenFirmware for the framebuffer. That's the only way I can get screen to work during the bootup process. Might be a similar issue on these Intel Macs.
 
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