Erasing the disk for a clean installation of Ubuntu Linux To be honest, the preparation took much longer than the actual installation. All I needed to do was to download the latest version as an ISO disk image, attach an Apple USB SuperDrive to my iMac, pop in some blank DVD media, and burn the ISO image to the DVD.
Since I did not currently have Mac OS X running on the old MacBook, installation was simple. Related: See which upgrades are compatible with your MacBook with My Upgrades Tool Sure, I could keep it on a previous release of Mac OS X, but where’s the fun in that? So what I’ve done is tried to install five different versions of Linux on the MacBook - Ubuntu 16.04.2 “Xenial Xerus”, Linux Mint 18.1 “Serena” with the Cinnamon UI, Antergos 17.4, KDE Neon, and Fedora 25 Workstation. I’ll talk about the installation process for each and about how they operated - or not - on a Intel Core Duo 2 2.4 GHz MacBook. Why would I want to do this? This MacBook is about nine years old and frankly, it just doesn’t have the ability to run newer versions of macOS.
One of the more common themes in the comments was “Why run Linux in a virtual machine? Why not just install it as the only operating system on a Mac?” This week, I’m grabbed the old 13-inch white 2008 MacBook that I converted to a Chromebook last year and installed various Linux distributions on it just to see how well it operates.
VBoxManage modifyvm nixos-livecd -memory 1024 -cpus 2 VBoxManage storageattach nixos-livecd \ -storagectl IDE \ -type dvddrive \ -port 1 \ -device 0 \ -medium $nixos_livecd # bump up memory and CPU VBoxManage storageattach nixos-livecd \ -storagectl IDE \ -type hdd \ -port 0 \ -device 0 \ -medium " $HOME /VirtualBox VMs/nixos-livecd/nixos-livecd.vdi" # attach livecd VBoxManage storagectl nixos-livecd \ -name IDE \ -add ide \ -controller PIIX4 \ -portcount 2 \ -hostiocache on \ -bootable on VBoxManage createhd \ -filename " $HOME /VirtualBox VMs/nixos-livecd/nixos-livecd.vdi" \ -size 8192 VBoxManage createvm \ -name nixos-livecd \ -ostype Linux_64 \ -register # create a virtual disk You should be able to copy and paste the script below, You can do all of the following steps there instead. If you’re more comfortable with the VirtualBox GUI, We’re going to create a VirtualBox VM running the NixOS livecd. So it was something I understood how to do.Īnd configure two partitions in Disk Utility:Įach should be formatted as “MS-DOS (FAT)”.
To prepare the Broadcom driver for installation.īut I had already written most of the steps The steps that follow are almost certainly You’ll need to follow the instructions belowįor any Apple laptop from the last few years. It may be necessary to use Broadcom’s unfree drivers. Open FileVault and disable disk encryption,įor the disk to be fully decrypted before continuing.ĭepending on your particular hardware configuration, If you use FileVault to encrypt your disk, If you’re not using FileVault for full-disk encryption, Since I knew it would take a lot of experimentationĮspecially if you intend to follow the guide below! You’ve probably heard of some of the major ones:Īnd found it very interesting and powerful.įrom which my entire system can be built.Īnd track the history of my configuration, There are many, many Linux distributions:ĭ tracks 278 at the moment.
Make sure you have any important bits saved somewhere safe, To a dual-boot system with OS X and NixOS.Īnd the requirement for Broadcom drivers. The steps in this guide will take you fromĪ single-boot OS X install on a Macbook Air The last time I tried to use Linux as my daily desktopĪs I struggled and encountered breakthroughs, I’ve been feeling the pull of desktop Linux for a while now.