[Discuss] Help installing linux on I Mac

[gaf.linux at gmail.com (Jerry Feldman)]

I am not familiar with Mac hardware. Most Linux distros come with gparted.
While both fedora and Ubuntu use different installers, both installers now
use the gparted libraries, but different front ends. You can use both to
remove the partition tables, but neither are very user friendly. I think
Ubuntu comes with gparted on the live USB. So, from the live USB, just use
gparted to blow away the partition table. Or, from a terminal you can wipe
the first few sectors using the dd comnand. If done this a few times to
zero the MBR
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1



--
Jerry Feldman <gaf.linux at gmail.com>
Boston Linux and Unix http://www.blu.org
PGP key id: 6F6BB6E7
PGP Key fingerprint: 0EDC 2FF5 53A6 8EED 84D1  3050 5715 B88D 6F6
B B6E7

On Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:25 PM Jay Kramer <kramerjm at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> It's been a long while since I have visited BLU mail.  After viewing the
> discussion on Self Sovereignty, I regret missing all of the excellent
> discussions within the group.
>
> I have a 2012 I Mac that runs OS X Sierra.  I never really used it so I
> decided to load linux on it.  I am unfamiliar with OS X.  Being lazy, dumb,
> and in a hurry, I assumed that it would install just like it would on a
> PC.  I did a few quick searches for how tos on the internet and followed
> the information provided to install Ubuntu 20.4 from a usb stick.
>
> Unfortunately, it did not work and in the process I installed linux on the
> entire system erasing OS X.  After the fact, I searched a little harder and
> discovered that the partition tables are completely different between
> systems.  Which is the likely cause of the problem.
>
> I tried and failed to restore OS X using the command -R key on boot so I
> imagine that I can not restore OS X.  If I could I would be able to
> eliminate the white screen that I get on boot from grub.  I could also use
> it to properly format the USB stick before loading ubuntu.
>
> I would be eternally grateful if someone can provide some positive advice.
>
> Do you think it would help to use a linux USB stick to reformat the hard
> drive prior to installing Ubuntu.  Does the ubuntu install come with
> gparted?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help,
>
> Jay
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