Recently I faced a task, that required me usage of Linux. I’m not a very experienced user of this OS, so I spent some time investigating this question.

I have only my old MacBookPro14,3 that can be used for installation and running Linux. Due to the task, the preferred distributive of Linux is Debian. As a result, I decided to note every step I took, to make this happen.

Related articles:

Installation of a second OS to MacBook

As I mentioned above, I have only an old Macbook, that can be used for this. At the same moment I use that PC, so some files and other stuff are present there. So the only option for me was to install Linux on the same machine.

To make this happen I need to perform a few steps:

  • grab part of hard drive space for a new system
  • modify the system boot mechanism to allow boot selection
  • prepare installation image
  • install the system

A pretty easy task at first look, but the devil is in the details.

Disk partition

We need to use some separate disk partitions for the new OS.

To do so, we can use a great build utility on Mac - DiskUtility. I won’t cover the full process of how to do that, instead - here is the perfect tutorial from Apple related to this.

The only moment that I want to mention - during this process, I got some errors and needed to switch to recovery mode and complete the process interruption there - during partition the process was unable to complete. Thus this is not an undoable process, always remember that it’s a bit risky.

disk



As I mentioned above, I have some data on my Mac and I did everything with the knowledge, that I could lose everything in case of error, but it’s better to make a copy before u start.

A few moments that need to be remembered:

  • backup data that is present on the disk
  • for Linux, u need at least 30GB for decent installation (I created a disk with 35 GB)

Parameters for DiskUtility:

  • Name: anything u like,
  • Format: OS X Extended (Journaled)
  • Size: 30+ GB (keep in mind that some parts of this space can be used by Linux for swap).

As a result, I got a divided hard drive:

disk



In this image, u can see that I have a Macintosh (for MacOS), disk0s3 - system Linux, small partition with asterisks * - swap area for Linux.

Modify the system boot mechanism to allow boot selection

To be able to load different systems we should somehow be able to select a boot start point. To do so, we can use rEFInd - a great tool designed specifically for this purpose.

Note, that the process below may harm your pc, so be ready ;]

The very first thing that needs to be - noted, is that I have an old Mac - MacBookPro14,3 with arch x86_64 - this means that all steps and approaches applicable only to this kind of arch, for M1 need to use a different approach.

To set rEFInd u need to do the following:

  • disable System Integrity Protection:
    • boot in recovery mode (CMD+R during Mac start)
    • execute csrutil disable
    • boot anch check csrutil status - should be System Integrity Protection status: disabled.
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U can also use diskutil list command to inspect u’r drive:

disk



  • mount EFI partition:
    • run mkdir /Volumes/ESP
    • run mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/ESP
  • create directory REFIND
    • mkdir REFIND at the EFI volume -> /EFI/REFIND
  • from the rEFInd archive grab files and copy them into just created dir REFIND
    • refind/drivers_x64/
    • refind/icons/
    • refind/refind_x64.efi
    • refind/tools_x64/
  • grab config example, rename it to refind.conf, and copy it to just the created dir REFIND
  • bless the new created partition with rEFInd using bless --mount /Volumes/ESP --setBoot --file /Volumes/ESP/EFI/REFIND/refind_x64.efi --shortform
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Note some commands require sudo

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Restart u’r Mac, u should be able to see rEFInd screen:

disk



Huh.. done for now.

After reading docs and googling around I found a perfect guide for this here, so maybe u should look at also.

There is a good moment described - after u install a new system, the blessing disappears from Refind, so u need to repeat the bless. To do so, u can use a small script:

#!/bin/bash
mkdir /Volumes/ESP
mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/ESP
bless --mount /Volumes/ESP --setBoot --file /Volumes/ESP/EFI/REFIND/refind_x64.efi --shortform

source - link above

Prepare installation image

To make a bootable stick u need to do a few things:

  • obtain an image of the OS u want to install
  • flash stick with that image

Obtain an image of the OS u want to install

As I mentioned earlier, I need a Debian system, but u may use any u like. To select an image - go to official web page and select dedicated architecture under stable releases.

To check which arch is u’r - uname -p.

In my case, I selected this image.

Now, we need to create a bootable stick. This process involves a few steps also:

  • download and prepare .iso file - done as described above
  • convert the .iso file into a .img.dmg. To do so, we can use hdiutil convert
khb@MacBook-Pro-kyryl ~ % hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o linux1.img /Users/khb/Downloads/debian-12.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso  
Reading Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)…
Reading Debian 12.5.0 amd64 n            (Apple_ISO : 1)…
..................................................................................................................................
Reading  (Type EF : 2)…
...................................................................................................................................
Elapsed Time: 75799.157ms
Speed: 658.6MB/s
Savings: 0.0%
created: /Users/khb/linux1.img.dmg

khb@MacBook-Pro-kyryl ~ % diskutil list                                                          
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:             Apple_APFS_ISC Container disk1         524.3 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk3         494.4 GB   disk0s2
   3:        Apple_APFS_Recovery Container disk2         5.4 GB     disk0s3

....

/dev/disk8 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *2.1 GB     disk8
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 UNTITLED                2.1 GB     disk8s1

As u can see, in my case the name of the disk - disk8.

  • unmount disk for flashing diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk8:
khb@MacBook-Pro-kyryl ~ % diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk8
Unmount of all volumes on disk8 was successful
  • copy dmg to flash drive:
khb@MacBook-Pro-kyryl ~ % time sudo dd if=/Users/khb/Downloads/linux.img.dmg of=/dev/disk8 bs=1m                                 
3808+0 records in
3808+0 records out
3992977408 bytes transferred in 241.202992 secs (16554427 bytes/sec)
sudo dd if=/Users/khb/Downloads/linux.img.dmg of=/dev/disk8 bs=1m  0.02s user 6.89s system 2% cpu 4:04.80 total

Note, that the last operation can take some time.

I also found a very useful guide with 3rd party tool balenaEtcher. The downside of this - is that this tool asks u for u’r root password without a system popup, but it works a bit faster than the approach described above.

The complete guide is here: Create a bootable USB stick on macOS

Note: if u select incorrect arch - when u boot, rEFIt will not show u anything in the menu. If everything is ok, u will see an additional installation menu on the next boot of u’r Mac:

disk



Install the system

The last part of this story - Debian installation ;]. Now we just need to go through installation and we are good to go. Pretty easy.

The pitfall is next - some hardware is not recognized and so not workable during this process, so u need an additional mouse and keyboard and also a USB-C to USB-A adapter. Also note, that only 2 USB-C ports are working (active one).

I didn’t know that, so was not prepared - as a result, I had wait to until the morning so I could buy a mouse and keyboard and complete the installation.

Note, also wifi, audio, video, and some other stuff are dead, so u can’t connect to them until u complete the installation.

Later I found a workaround for wifi - just create a fresh access point on u’r phone and connect to it - after that, u can connect to other networks - not sure about the reason.

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If u interested in a detailed guide to the Debian GUI installation wizard - here is one of many that u can find.

The most tricky moment here - is the part related to the hard disk. Previously we already created it and configured the file system, but, as u remember, I mentioned that Linux may use a swap disk for better performance. So the best choice here - is to erase the newly created partition on the disk and to allow the installation wizard to perform the partition with automatic swap space configuration.

When u done, reloading Mac, u will be redirected to the Linux system, so u need to perform rebless (as described earlier, above).

After rebless, my system looks like this:

disk



And the loaded Debian:

disk



Problems

Of course, as I expect, some hardware is not working. The problem list contains the following items:

In the next articles, I will cover how to fix these problems to make u’r Debian shine.

Resources