Boot Precise Puppy from USB on 2009 iMac

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Les Kerf
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Boot Precise Puppy from USB on 2009 iMac

#1 Post by Les Kerf »

I have had at least partial success booting a USB thumb drive with Puppy Linux on my Wife's 2009 iMac (Snow Leopard) computer. In the past I was able to boot this machine using a live CD of Slacko 5.3.1, but I never did much with it except get on line just to see if it worked.

Since then, the optical drive on the iMac has ceased to function, and we have also discontinued our home internet service. We had used the iMac's optical drive to watch videos but are now limited to using my Acer laptop which has a much smaller screen and lower quality audio.

Since I knew how to boot my Acer laptop with a thumb drive, I decided to try booting the iMac in that manner, and then be able to play .vob file videos. While at the public library I researched booting an iMac with a thumb drive and thus tried many different methods that did not work. I finally stumbled onto what appears to be the answer, at least for our iMac.

Note: I performed all of the USB thumb drive prep work on my Acer laptop using Lucid Puppy 5.2.8-005

#1. Download refind-flashdrive-0.7.3.zip. Extract its files to /root. Read the text file README-flashdrive.txt. One of the files will be the disk image
refind-flashdrive-0.7.3.img

http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/ ... p/download

#2. Copy the above disk image to a USB thumb drive using dd

Code:

dd if=refind-flashdrive-0.7.3.img of=/dev/sdx

Note: The thumb drive will now contain a directory named EFI and also two files called shellia32.efi and shelliax64.efi, respectively. The EFI directory contains a boot directory which has six more files, etc. A large portion of the thumb drive will now show as “unallocated
Last edited by Les Kerf on Tue 11 Mar 2014, 10:42, edited 1 time in total.

megasewertoad
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#2 Post by megasewertoad »

Two brief random and separate thoughts:

1) An external single cord USB powered DVD drive connected to an iMac can boot from a live-CD.

2) I run puppy on a '08 Macbook. My steps are different.
- Install rEFInd onto Macbook
- rEFInd automatically loads and detects Live-USB puppy. Just select with arrow key, and press enter.
- Most standard bootable Live-USB will work. Only issue is hardware compatibility. My Live-USB stick (precise) runs and boots on either a PC or a Mac w/ rEFInd.

Les Kerf
Posts: 317
Joined: Sun 24 Jun 2012, 13:30

#3 Post by Les Kerf »

UPDATE:

After thrashing around trying various things I have stumbled upon a way to accomplish booting Puppy Linux on our 2009 iMac (Snow Leopard) using a single USB thumb drive rather than the previously mentioned dual-thumb drive method. I successfully performed this experiment using two different thumb drives, an 8 GB Sandisk Cruzer and a 4 GB Sony. I did this operation at least twice on each thumb drive just to verify my results.

I performed all of this using Lucid Puppy 5.2.8.005 PlusLibre on my Acer Aspire laptop; I had already obtained the Precise Puppy ISO and refind-flashdrive-0.7.3.img.

1. Use gparted (Menu>System>Gparted) to delete any (all) partitions on the thumb drive. CAUTION! All data on the thumb drive will be lost!

2. Create a new primary partition, FAT 16 format, and only 16 MB (yes, MegaBytes). I tried specifying 5 MB but Gparted informs me that 16 MB is the smallest partition that can be made.

3. Make absolutely certain that the space preceding the new partition is 0 (zero) MB. For some reason, gparted wants to place 1 (one) MB ahead of this partition. You MUST set this value to zero just prior to clicking “Add

Les Kerf
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#4 Post by Les Kerf »

I recently acquired a usb keyboard, and today we purchased a mobile hotspot with which we can now access the internet from home.

I am pleased to report that I am typing this on our iMac booted to the USB thumb drive with Precise Puppy. The usb keyboard seems to function well and this is the very first forum I have visited since booting up just a few minutes ago.

So, it seems that Puppy Linux can indeed be booted on an iMac and access the internet.
Les

Les Kerf
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#5 Post by Les Kerf »

I just today acquired the iso for Slacko 5.7 and installed it to a thumb drive as posted above. It boots perfectly on the iMac, and I am posting this from the iMac on Slacko 5.7

Les Kerf
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#6 Post by Les Kerf »

Super Lucid Puppy with the newer kernel also works on the iMac. Posting from it right now using Dillo web browser.
Les

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Ted Dog
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#7 Post by Ted Dog »

The UEFI.zip I posted in projects will boot both new Windows8 and Macs does not require this level of effort. regular from the factory USB drive and just copy files from within Windows or Mac onto USB and it boots. No formating require for off the shelf USBs.
Try Fatdog64 700series it works better than OSX on same hardware. Video playback is better and I use Fatdog64 and Chrome to watch Netflix on my linux MiniMac.

Les Kerf
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#8 Post by Les Kerf »

Thanks Ted, I will give that a try. Will need to wait until I can access internet with more bandwidth to download the Fatdog 700 iso.
Les

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cimarron
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#9 Post by cimarron »

Does your UEFI.zip method work only with FatDog, Ted? Or only with 64-bit machines?

If it could be used to boot a Precise pup (the subject of this thread), could you give an example of the grub entry needed for that?

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Ted Dog
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#10 Post by Ted Dog »

It is 64bit loader and can boot a 32bit kernel for use on a mac. The unicorn ISO is 32bit and boots fine ( if I bump up the memory passed the 3G it currently has, my laptop and minimac have same RAM series chips so I move them around.. )
Its standard Grub2 so you could unpack a ISO file and copy to folders then just about any frugal install would work. In many cases it will load faster that way. I have a specially tuned Fatdog64 631 version with video drivers and additional tools I copied to the OSX harddrive ( running OSX to copy ) that is in folders the fd.sfs file is removed from initrd. it boots twice S fast.
The USB ( my case a sdcard ) just is the bootloader.

But its a chicken egg problem. This and fatdog64 can get you started and use that to download and unpack other isos for frugal installs.

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Ted Dog
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#11 Post by Ted Dog »

oh should point out you maybe running a 32bit version of OSX but the hardware is almost always 64bit, this replaces the 32bit EFI Apple bottleneck. Yes you can not boot a 64bit kernel from 32bit bootloader. BUT the other way around does work 8)
Not the same issues with bootcamp etc. This loads BEFORE that silliness.

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Ted Dog
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#12 Post by Ted Dog »

can you post your config file. I can doctor it up for GRUB2. I am getting good at it Just finished Fatdog64rc and new Wary ISO released today.

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Ted Dog
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#13 Post by Ted Dog »

slitaz is super small and nearly fully functional. that would be the smallest total of bytes that would be useful with my efi zipfiles. Its so small it will fit in the unused EFI part of macs, you can also copy the zip files to there and not even need the USB.. still have to press Alt M on chime like you do now. and select the EFI.
I do that so I can boot my mac WITHOUT any thing else, also why fatdog64 is on the OSX part as files. I have done this for a long time...
if you are interested I can tell you how either here or PM..

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cimarron
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#14 Post by cimarron »

Okay, here's some examples. This is the syslinux config file from a multiboot USB I made with yumi. I think Mint boots from the ISO directly, and the others were unpacked on the USB. They all boot on PCs, but I'm interested about the possibility making a USB for Macs as well.

I'd appreciate seeing the grub2 entries that would work with your UEFI.zip for any or all of these, but especially the Puppy one (OB-Precise). All are 32-bit.

Code: Select all

LABEL Boot from first Hard Drive
MENU LABEL Boot from first hard drive
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd1
#MENU DEFAULT

#start linuxmint-17-cinnamon-32bit-v2
LABEL linuxmint-17-cinnamon-32bit-v2
MENU LABEL Linux Mint 17
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL /multiboot/linuxmint-17-cinnamon-32bit-v2/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/multiboot/linuxmint-17-cinnamon-32bit-v2/initrd.lz cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent persistent-path=/multiboot/linuxmint-17-cinnamon-32bit-v2 noprompt splash boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/multiboot/linuxmint-17-cinnamon-32bit-v2/linuxmint-17-cinnamon-32bit-v2.iso
#end linuxmint-17-cinnamon-32bit-v2

#start lubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-i386
LABEL lubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-i386
MENU LABEL Lubuntu 14.04.1
MENU INDENT 1
CONFIG /multiboot/lubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-i386/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
APPEND /multiboot/lubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-i386/isolinux
#end lubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-i386

#start lubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386
LABEL lubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386
MENU LABEL Lubuntu 12.04
MENU INDENT 1
CONFIG /multiboot/lubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
APPEND /multiboot/lubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386/isolinux
#end lubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386

#start obprecise puppy
LABEL ob-precise
MENU LABEL Precise Puppy
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL /ob-precise/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/ob-precise/initrd.gz pmedia=usbflash
#end obprecise puppy

#start pmagic_2013_08_01
LABEL pmagic_2013_08_01
MENU LABEL Parted Magic
MENU INDENT 1
CONFIG /multiboot/pmagic_2013_08_01/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
APPEND /multiboot/pmagic_2013_08_01/boot/syslinux
#end pmagic_2013_08_01

#start windows7
LABEL Windows Vista/7/8 Installer
MENU LABEL Windows 7 Installer
MENU INDENT 1
COM32 /multiboot/chain.c32 fs ntldr=/bootmgr
#end windows7

gcmartin

#15 Post by gcmartin »

I do not have any iMacs. I only have had experiences in LAN setup and LAN use of these PCs. I do own 2 MACs (dumped on me by friends, the powerPC versions) which I need to donate as my "grands", now, turn their noses at the site of them. So I have NO experience with iMacs to provide any useful testing.

I have 2 questions for those who have Intel Macs to ponder
  1. Isn't your processor an Intel 64bit one. I am not a Mac specilist, but, my cohort suggest that those with Intel Macs are the 64bit variety.
  2. Can the MAC's OS exist on a USB? He suggests that it can.
@Ted Dog's simple presentation of his solution for EFI/UEFI PCs would seemingly work on non-UEFI systems, UEFI systems, and EFI systems; assuming proper deployment.

I would like to help anyone with EFI systems to produce a "Guide for PUP ISO boots" on these systems. Anyone who has one, and would like to help, PM me. Or, maybe these owners can produce one which would make it easy for MAC users to implement with PICs.

Here to help

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cimarron
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#16 Post by cimarron »

On second thought (and re-reading this thread), I think I might try Les Kerf's second method instead. I'm more familiar and comfortable with Grub4dos and it sounds like it wouldn't be too hard to make a USB that would boot on both PC and Mac.

Even if the method is less convenient, I feel better when I understand more of what's going on...

Les Kerf
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Joined: Sun 24 Jun 2012, 13:30

#17 Post by Les Kerf »

gcmartin wrote:...

I have 2 questions for those who have Intel Macs to ponder
  1. Isn't your processor an Intel 64bit one. I am not a Mac specilist, but, my cohort suggest that those with Intel Macs are the 64bit variety.
  2. Can the MAC's OS exist on a USB? He suggests that it can.
@Ted Dog's simple presentation of his solution for EFI/UEFI PCs would seemingly work on non-UEFI systems, UEFI systems, and EFI systems; assuming proper deployment...
1. Yes, mine is an Intel 64 bit processor.
2. I have found documentation on the web that details how to boot an Intel mac with OSX loaded on a USB drive. I have not attempted to do this.

Les Kerf
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Joined: Sun 24 Jun 2012, 13:30

#18 Post by Les Kerf »

cimarron wrote:On second thought (and re-reading this thread), I think I might try Les Kerf's second method instead. I'm more familiar and comfortable with Grub4dos and it sounds like it wouldn't be too hard to make a USB that would boot on both PC and Mac.

Even if the method is less convenient, I feel better when I understand more of what's going on...
:D I'm pretty sure that I don't understand what's going on! :oops:

My method is just a dirty hack that I stumbled onto by trying many things that DIDN'T work. But it does work on all of the machines I have tried thus far; I just haven't had access to any UEFI PC machines to try.
Good luck!
Les

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