LINUX ON A MAC MINI INSTALL
Pop in the OS X install disc (may need to reboot again to get it to boot) and open a terminal once the install disc fully boots.
LINUX ON A MAC MINI PC
Reboot again, but hold down the Eject key (or F12 on PC keyboards) during boot to eject the refit disc. It might say that your GPT partition is empty - that’s okay. When refit appears, choose the second icon from the left in the bottom row and press enter.
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Reboot the Mini again while holding Option (or alt key) and choose the disc again at bootup. I generally put everything in one giant partition as it makes the “bless” step a little easier later on.Įject the Linux CD/DVD once the installation is complete and toss in the refit CD that you burned previously. When you’re done with parted in that terminal, switch back to anaconda with CTRL-ALT-F6.Īt this point, you shouldn’t have any partitions on your disk and you’ll be ready to install your Linux distribution normally. If you’re using an anaconda-based installation, you can get to a root shell by pressing CTRL-ALT-F2. This will instantly erase the hard drive - make sure you’re ready for this step. Hop into a terminal, start parted on your main hard disk and type mklabel msdos. When I installed Fedora, I had to switch the hard drive’s partition table from GPT to a plain old “msdos” partition table. The boot screen might say “Windows” for the Linux CD/DVD, but choose it anyway. While it’s rebooting, hold down the Option key (alt key if you’re using a PC keyboard) and you’ll have the option to boot from the disc when it boots up. Put your Linux CD/DVD in the drive and reboot. It’s really difficult to get this done properly outside of OS X, so take the time to do it now. This will get rid of the Mac chime on bootup.
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After reading the title of this post, you might wonder “Why would someone pay for a Mac Mini and then not use OS X with it?” Well, if you have a somewhat older Mac Mini you want to use as a server with Linux, these instructions will come in handy.