So you want to explore Linux, or create a LAMP environment for web development without having to re-partition your internal drive or try some flakey Boot Camp hack to triple-boot your Mac? Can it be done? I decided to find out...
Limited for time? Read Installing Ubuntu step 10 first.
The ingredients
- 1 x good-for-nothing first generation 5 GB iPod with a dud battery;
- 1 x Ubuntu 5.10 for PC install CD-ROM;
- 1 x Intel Mac mini with Tiger 10.4.6 and Windows XP (via Boot Camp) installed;
- 1 x Firewire cable.
Preparing the iPod
- Connect the iPod via Firewire.
- Enter Disk Mode: hold down the Menu and Play keys and, when the Apple icon has appeared, immediately hold down the Rewind and Forward buttons.
- Open Disk Utility, select the iPod and choose Partition.
- Choose 1 Partition as the Volume Scheme; name the volume; choose UNIX File System and then Partition.
Installing Ubuntu
- Insert the Ubuntu install CD into the Mac.
- Restart the Mac, holding down the letter "C" to boot from the CD.
- At the boot prompt press Return for a default installation.
- Work through the standard Ubuntu installation screens.
- When you get to the "Partition Disks" screen, make sure your iPod is selected and press Return.
- At the warning hit the left arrow key then Return.
- Sit back and enjoy the creeping progress bar, then work through user configuration. A few more progress bars later the Mac will spit out the CD.
- Hit Return to "Continue" and hold down the Option (Alt) key as your Mac restarts.
- You should see a Firewire disk icon, oddly labelled "Windows". Select it with the arrow key and press Return.
- Bugger! You'll boot into XP. Weird.
So close, yet so far: we have an installation onto the iPod, but can't boot from it. Does anyone know exactly why this doesn't work? I know there probably needs to be some kind of Mac partition on the iPod (or other external Firewire disk, for that matter). Someone must know how to make it work...
Meanwhile, in a Parallel universe...
There is an alternative—Parallels Desktop (free trial key available) will let you load Ubuntu onto its virtual machine. In use it seems no different to the Ubuntu installation running on my aging Dell laptop. Getting this working is a snap:
- First, restore your iPod to factory settings using Apple's iPod Software Updater.
- Install the Intel-only app on the iPod then open it.
- Create a new virtual machine.
- Choose Guest OS Type; Linux and Guest OS Version: Debian Linux, then Next.
- Point the Configuration file to your iPod (e.g. /Volumes/LinuxPod/debian.pvs).
- If you have a 5 GB iPod, you'll see a warning advising you that the specified size of the virtual hard disk exceeds free space available on the target host disk. You can either go back and create a custom VM (e.g. 4 GB in size), or just click Yes.
- Click the "Play" button (well, that's what it looks like) and after the message about no boot device, load the Ubuntu CD then hit Return for a default installation
- Work through the standard Ubuntu installation.
It may not boot your Mac, but you should end up with a working installation of Ubuntu that you can carry around with you and run just by plugging into a receptive Intel Mac. And that old iPod now has a purpose in life.
![[Photo of Bruce McKenzie]](data:image/jpeg;base64,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)
Been messing around with Ubuntu myself. 6.06 is looking really good.
Version 6. That would be "Dapper Drake" then, a name that makes "MacBook Pro" sound OK by comparison ;-)
I'm impressed enough with 5.10 Ken... isn't 6 still pre-release? I'd be interested to know what you particularly like in 6.x
Linux has come a long way since I last looked at it (LinuxPPC, unsupported since 2000 I think). It's so much more usable to non-geeks and it sure is a weird feeling booting a Mac with a Linux for PC CD-ROM! (although that probably says more about how far Mac has come...)
The beta version of 6.06 is quite stable Bruce and perfectly usable. The UI is a lot more "polished" than 5.10 with icons that are less Windows and more Mac-like (think Aqua).
Thanks Ken, I see it is now a Release Candidate. It's mighty good of them to ship the distro free on CD-ROMs.
Wait, so step 10 is "it doesn't work"? Lame!
That's right Justin. So now you know to read first then leap :-)
Hello Everyone I knew that this would not work although I did have my doubts until i got to step ten were i read it would obviously not work. Let me explain why Ubuntu boots off a boot loader called grub which is loaded through the MBR as most of you know the Mac (any) does not have MBR so it will not boot grub therefore not booting Ubuntu, and last time i checke the ipod does not have an MBR. Regards Dr. Choc
I've been looking to make my dead 5G iPod into a disk that I can keep a Linux install on. I followed the steps in order until the last one, where it says it doesn't work! Ha!
Thanks anyway :)
Has anyone tried to use rEFIt as the boot manager, to point to the ipod???
It's because you're on a Mac. Macs actually don't have support for booting 'legacy operating systems' (read: anything that's not OS X) from external hard drives. In other words, your Mac boots Windows simply because it's a "bail-out" alternative. If you didn't have Windows installed it gives an "invalid boot disk" error message if I recall correctly.
That won't work either. rEFIt is nothing more than a bootloader, which means that it still cannot detect/boot non-OS X volumes on external hard drives. If you try it, it'll give some error message saying that Apple's firmware doesn't support it.
@John: thanks for what sounds like a definitive answer!
It IS possible booting Linux from a USB on useless, stupid MacBook Pros (I own a brand new one and I HATE it). You just need to first boot unto a CD that allows you to boot from the USB (stupic Mac): http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-419427.html
- Peder
[quote comment="76760"]It IS possible booting Linux from a USB on useless, stupid MacBook Pros (I own a brand new one and I HATE it). You just need to first boot unto a CD that allows you to boot from the USB (stupic Mac):[/quote]
Hmmm....so Apple should automatically create their systems to work with every possible build and feature of Linux right out of the box? IMO they don't support such a configuration because it would be too much of a troubleshooting problem. Their phone support is rated at least 20% higher than any pc company, and trying to support more operating systems than just their own could create a pretty severe decrease in the quality of their phone support. I don't think Apple needs to spread themselves thinner to support edge-use cases. Their strength lies in the fact that they have more control over things than the average pc company. I'd rather have a stable OS X than full support for 10 different operating systems on the hardware. Why not buy different hardware if you don't want to use their operating system? I understand wanting to dual or triple boot a mac, but I really don't expect it to be seamlessly supported by Apple.