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Debian 11 on old Macbook

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fra...@libero.it

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Nov 24, 2021, 9:10:04 AM11/24/21
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Hello,

I installed Debian 11 (386) on a 2009 Macbook Pro 13 "(5.5).

The installation did not give me any problems except it did not detect wifi card and touchpad, but I was connected with ethernet and used an external mouse, so the whole process ended.

During the installation phase of Grub I only chose the hd that appeared in the window and did all the installer.

I enclose photos of the subdivision that the installer did. I only chose to install Debian on a partition that I had left empty choosing partitions / and home Unfortunately Debian does not appear on reboot and neither does Grub, but Mac OS (Snow Leopard) starts immediately How can I solve this problem?

If I reinstall using AMD64 instead, what can be the right suggestions to install Grub in the right place to reboot with it?

Thanks and regards

David Wright

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Nov 24, 2021, 2:20:05 PM11/24/21
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You don't mention anything about how you boot. From my great
experience of Macs (watching people use them in the last
century), I'm guessing you might have to hold down some key
while you boot. That's not just for dual-booting (certainly
not, 30 years ago), but for doing various Mac-ish things,
so it should be documented somewhere.

Also there were threads here, in late August, about booting Macs.

Cheers,
David.

Ken Cunningham

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Nov 24, 2021, 2:40:05 PM11/24/21
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I can’t see your photos, but I am currently dual-booting between Ubuntu 21.10 (64 bit) and MacOSX 10.7 on a MacBook 2,1 without troubles.

Although you can usually hold down the option key during initial boot-up to bring up the Mac’s BIOS boot selector, and then select either the MacOSX 10.7 partition or the GRUB/linux partition, to make things simpler, most walkthroughs recommend installing rEFInd <https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/index.html> which gives you a nice graphical menu of your available bootable systems to choose from. 


There are various walkthrus available, and all of them seem to recommend rEFInd as well — not doubt I followed one of these several years ago




HTH,

K

Rick Thomas

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Nov 26, 2021, 1:30:04 AM11/26/21
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Hold down the <alt> key when you turn the machine on. Hold it until the <bong> finishes. You should see a menu of possible boot disks. Pick one that has a penguin on it.

Hope that helps!
Rick

fra...@libero.it

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Nov 27, 2021, 6:00:04 AM11/27/21
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Hello,
thanks for the help and suggestions:
I don't need to press alt (option) to view the operating systems because I have rEFInd installed.
However, 2 Debian icons appear, one OS X, and one Windows.
If I click on the latter, a white writing on a black background appears with: MBR 12: and a flashing underscore.
But I can't write anything.
The Debian 2 takes me to Debian and OS X to the Apple operating system. Assuming I keep the 2 Debian, how do I get rid of the Windows symbol, since it doesn't lead anywhere, so it results useless?
Thanks again
Francesco

Ken Cunningham

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Nov 27, 2021, 11:10:05 AM11/27/21
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Well if MacOSX is no longer booting immediately, then it appears installing rEFInd solved your initial problem, so that is good.

rEFInd is quite configurable via refind.conf, but you may find it is simpler to just ignore the Windows icon rather than try to force it not to appear. The hairy details are here:


And rEFInd has it's own mailing list for more user help here:


K

fra...@libero.it

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Nov 29, 2021, 2:40:04 AM11/29/21
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Ok, since this is how it works I keep it that way.

I thank everyone for the tips and advice.

Francesco

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