[SOLVED] need help with older mac book pro and linux badly

[heavymetal2000]

Ok so i may have messed up. and I could use some help here.
I have an older Macbook Pro (I don't have the exact model/year) but it's limited to 10.6.8, so it doesn't allow me to use any mac os beyond snow lepoard if that helps narrow it down.

It was previously dual booted with windows 7 but the previous owner lost the keys to install windows 7 and it was corrupted so i removed windows 7 as much as i could. (But it still shows up as a boot option even though it doesn't exist.)

Recently i decided that i wanted to use the nwn toolset on my laptop and mac would not allow for that so i wanted to but a Linux distro on instead.

I opted to go with Kubuntu first but didn't really like it. When i tried to switch over to mint something went awry and now my laptop boots to a black screen with a single white underscore top right corner.

No matter what i do, i cannot fix/repair kubuntu or launch it, and cannot install Mint either as they all get to either the same black screen on boot attempt, or an IRQ (17),(22). error.

For what it's worth, i completely removed mac os from the laptop as i wanted a full partitioned laptop strictly running linux.

Can anyone help me, if you need anything else let me know. Sooner i get this thing rolling the better. Thank you in advance.

 

[velocityg4]

If it's limited to 10.6.8 it is the first MacBook Pro which shipped with a 32 bit Core Duo CPU. Any Linux you run will need to be 32 bit not 64 bit.

Actually that model is limited to 10.5.x. It required a hack to run 10.6 Snow Leopard. Did you do that hack? If not, or if you know it has a Core 2 Duo. You can run 10.7 Lion. Also if it has a Core 2 Duo. You can run Elementary OS. Which is a lightweight and most Mac like Linux distro. It's pretty easy to setup. Just download the ISO and use a tool to burn the ISO to DVD.

If you are just going to use Linux. Why not just reinstall OS X and sell it? Knowing the ridiculous prices used Macs go for. You'll probably get enough money to buy a used first or second gen Core i3 laptop off eBay. Then have something which will run Linux much faster and likely have better compatibility.

The most RAM it will use is 2GB (Core Duo). 3GB requires an early Core 2 Duo model.

 

[heavymetal2000]

I didn't need a hack for 10.6.8 that I know of.
When I first got it I did a fresh re install of snow leopard then let auto updates do the rest.
Iirc when I still had mac OS on it it said it was a core 2 duo.

Problem now is that I wiped mac OS completely and have no means of getting it back without buying it I guess?

That coupled with the issue that absolutely no Linux distro will install is frustrating tbh.

Is Lion available for free like some other versions?
I'll look into it.

I wouldn't mind using a more powerful pc for linux but honestly I just like the quality of the mac book.
All aluminum body and the keyboard is like new all these years later.

 

[heavymetal2000]

So I'm not as stupid as I thought.
Turns out I had created a boot file on my desktop and stored it but it wasn't labeled as a .dmg

After sifting through my HDD I found it and managed to create a USB boot for 10.6 over on the usb with linux on it.

I was able to finally locate the hdd on the mac and format it to mac extended and start an install.
Fingers crossed.

 

[heavymetal2000]

So I'm not as stupid as I thought.
Turns out I had created a boot file on my desktop and stored it but it wasn't labeled as a .dmg

After sifting through my HDD I found it and managed to create a USB boot for 10.6 over on the usb with linux on it.

I was able to finally locate the hdd on the mac and format it to mac extended and start an install.
Fingers crossed.

 

[heavymetal2000]

So I'm not as stupid as I thought.
Turns out I had created a boot file on my desktop and stored it but it wasn't labeled as a .dmg

After sifting through my HDD I found it and managed to create a USB boot for 10.6 over on the usb with linux on it.

I was able to finally locate the hdd on the mac and format it to mac extended and start an install.
Fingers crossed.

 

[heavymetal2000]

So I'm not as stupid as I thought.
Turns out I had created a boot file on my desktop and stored it but it wasn't labeled as a .dmg

After sifting through my HDD I found it and managed to create a USB boot for 10.6 over on the usb with linux on it.

I was able to finally locate the hdd on the mac and format it to mac extended and start an install.
Fingers crossed.

 

[heavymetal2000]

So I'm not as stupid as I thought.
Turns out I had created a boot file on my desktop and stored it but it wasn't labeled as a .dmg

After sifting through my HDD I found it and managed to create a USB boot for 10.6 over on the usb with linux on it.

I was able to finally locate the hdd on the mac and format it to mac extended and start an install.
Fingers crossed.

 

[velocityg4]

If it's a Core 2 Duo. Once you get OS X installed. Check which model you have. You may be able to run Lion or even El Capitan.

Had some trouble finding a page which will show the old way of looking up the Mac model. If yours is a Macbook Pro 3,1 or later. It should run El Capitan. 2,1 is limited to Lion.
https://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=8208

Once you're on 10.6.8. You can update Mac OS X through the App Store to a more recent version. Although I can't tell you if they will still provide such old copies of OS X to accounts which haven't already registered for them.

If you want to run Linux afterward. Elementary OS is pretty easy to setup.
https://elementary.io/docs/installation#installation

 

[heavymetal2000]

I'll double check once I'm home, but honestly.
I want nothing to do with the mac OS anymore.
Outside of using amplitube on it I find it limits me way too much in regards to using it as a nwn mod editor.

Linux has more freedom in terms of what I can use with it and is much lighter I find.
Windows is simpler but holy space required and it's a resource hog.

I'll check out that linux distro you mentioned.

Thanks for the links and information!

 

[heavymetal2000]

Ok so 10.6 installed flawlessly. No access to OS upgrade as I'm not the original owner and don't have access to the original account registered to it.
Which is fine as it's the machine I want.

Apparently it's much newer then I thought.
MacBook Pro model 5.4
Intel core 2 duo 2.53 ghz CPU
4gb of ddr3 1067 ram