# intel mac mini

## d_m

So, I am getting an intel mac mini (one of the new ones).

I expect someone will get Gentoo booting on it pretty soon. Anyone know how that effort is going? Based on the hardware, I don't think it should be that different from the intel imac, which people are having some success with.

I will update this thread when I get the thing and check it out. If anyone can reply with what they know that would be great.

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## Elv13

these coputer have no bios, its actually impossible to most distro to work, or only boot. Actally knoppix have a working kernel for these computer but not gentoo

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## shazza

There's EFI support in current kernels, there's elilo, there's a number of bootable CDs around. Where's the problem then?

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## d_m

Yeah I was under the impression that elilo works at least, and that people have booted Gentoo on the macbook and intel imac (for instance).

Anyway, it shipped today so I will let people know what I discover.

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## d_m

Mini just arrived... let's see what the live CD can do.

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## d_m

So, for anyone else trying to do this, you can't boot the current live CDs due to the EFI. Check out http://www.mactel-linux.org/wiki/HOWTO for some ideas.

I downloaded the linked Ubuntu Live CD and tried to boot it. I got to the Apple Boot Device Selector, and saw the Linux CD show up. As soon as I tried to boot it I got a black screen and then very quickly swtched to booting OS X. Couldn't figure out what it said (it was only visible for a split second).

Seems like the current strategies involve USB flash drives. When I get home I may try that out.

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## Aonoa

 *d_m wrote:*   

> Seems like the current strategies involve USB flash drives. When I get home I may try that out.

 

Did you try booting from USB? I'm curious about the results.  :Smile: 

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## d_m

So I have managed to get the mini booting off of USB.

I can boot into rEFIt, and now I can boot linux (using a patched kernel). However, the display is still messed up. I'm trying to figure out if I need to just find the correct kernel invocation, or if the driver just isn't working for me.

If I try to boot with the new intel mac framebuffer, I get garbled output to the screen. If I try to disable the framebuffer, then I get no output (after decompressing the initrd).

Eventually I will try to post a basic guide to what I'm doing, but I'm reluctant to do so now.

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## chunderbunny

The garbled screen is probably due to the fact that the mini using a completely different graphics chipset to the other new intel-Macs. I doubt anyone has had time to get the new hardware working yet.

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## d_m

Actually I did get a patch that works.

Was able to boot the kernel with an ok framebuffer. The new problem is that the fstab i was using was inconsistent with my root device... working on that.

Seems like this should work pretty soon.

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