If you select 'USB' and 'Mac' on, it gives a series of command line instructions to make a USB key which the MacBook will boot into Ubuntu from. I've followed them to the letter two or three times on different USB keys, and it doesn't work.

There's a very great deal of technical discussion about EFI etc. But this set of instructions seems to suggest it should just work, but it doesn't.

I'm increasingly unhappy with the more locked-down approach Apple is taking, and I'd quite like to start using Linux with a view to transitioning over to using it as my main operating system, but booting from the CD takes forever, runs slowly and I'm really hoping to get it moving off USB. Can anybody help me? Short answer: You can't. Apple doesn't want you to boot an OS other than OS X off USB. If your Mac has a working optical drive, use it.

It will save you pain. If you have a newer Mac (64 bit), just remember to use the ( amd64+mac), not the regular amd64 iso. (See for an explanation of the difference) Longer answer: (Ok, I lied above.) You can, but 'it's complicated'. One method that has worked for a number of people is to dd the bootable USB key to its own partition on your hard drive and then boot off that partition. The basic method is explained nicely. This doesn't always work, even on the same hardware. In particular, if you have a MacBook Air, which doesn't have an optical drive, then the forums are filled with posts of trying the dd-to-a-partition trick and failing.

For MacBook Air owners, it is strongly advised to obtain a MacBook Air SuperDrive (no, a regular USB CD/DVD drive ) and then use that to install through the usual CD route (using the Mac iso for a 64 bit install). Lastly, actually worked(!) to install 11.10 onto my MacBook Air 3,1 (late 2010 model). However, I expect some modification is needed to work on other versions of the Air, not to mention other Macs. How to create a bootable USB stick on OS X/macOS This procedure requires that you create an.img file from the.iso file you download. It will also change the filesystem that is on the USB stick to make it bootable, so backup all data before continuing. Open the Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities/ or query Terminal in Spotlight). Insert your USB flash media, which must be 2GB or larger and has only 1 partition on the USB flash drive.

For Ubuntu 18.04 and later the USB flash drive should be 4GB or larger. Launch the Disk Utility app which is located in Applications - Utilities or Spotlight search. In the lefthand pane, click on the USB drive to select it.

Click the Partition tab. Select 1 Partition from the dropdown menu. Enter a name for the drive.

Change the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Click the Options button. Ensure that the GUID Partition Table radio button is selected and click OK.

Actually Create A Bootable Linux Usb Key For Mac Download

Click Apply. Warning: Disk Utility needs to be used with caution as selecting the wrong device or partition can result in data loss. Convert the.iso file to.img using the convert option of hdiutil e.g., hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o /path/to/target.img /path/to/ubuntu.iso Note: OS X tends to put the.dmg ending on the output file automatically.

Run: diskutil list to get the current list of devices. Run: diskutil list again and determine the device node assigned to your flash media (e.g. Run: diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN (replace N with the disk number from the last command; in the previous example, N would be 2). Execute: sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/rdiskN bs=1m (replace /path/to/downloaded.img with the path where the image file is located; for example,./ubuntu.img or./ubuntu.dmg).

Using /dev/rdisk instead of /dev/disk may be faster. Give the dd command enough time to finish. It could take 3-5 minutes to finish executing. When dd is finished, you should see a confirmation that the process has completed. If you see the error dd: Invalid number '1m', you are using GNU dd.

Use the same command but replace bs=1m with bs=1M. If you see the error dd: /dev/diskN: Resource busy, make sure the disk is not in use. Start the 'Disk Utility.app' and unmount (don't eject) the drive.

Run: diskutil eject /dev/diskN and remove your flash media when the command completes. Booting Ubuntu on a Mac from the USB drive The newly created Ubuntu live USB drive is now ready to be inserted into a Mac. Booting Ubuntu from the USB drive To test the Ubuntu live USB on a Mac:.

Insert the USB drive into an available USB port. Reboot or turn on the Mac. Immediately after the startup chime, press the Option key (sometimes marked Alt). Select the USB drive from which to boot by using the left and right arrow and Enter keys. If you can't see the USB drive in step 4, download boot manager to get a screen where you can choose from the available devices to boot from. After a LOT of trouble with various methods i finally got ubuntu 13.04 32bits working on a macbook 2,1 (mid 2007). My DVD drive is broken so i really needed a live USB.

(DISCLAIMER:)I´m no programmer but after setting things up the following way it worked like charm. Install the latest version of rEFIt. Download Mac Linux USB Loader from this page:. Download the source code from the same link. You will need the bootlA32.efi file located in the 'EFI' folder.

Insert your USB flash drive, and format it to FAT 32 using disk utility. Open Mac Linux USB Loader and select the.iso file you want to boot. Click on Create Live USB and follow the instructions, it's a pretty straight forward process. My macbook model just refused to boot on efi64, so i had to do some tweaking here:. Go ahead and open the USB drive. Go to the 'efi' folder and then the 'boot' folder.

Inside you should see a file named bootX64.efi. Erase it and place the bootlA32.efi file instead. Now just reboot and from the rEFIt menu choose to boot from the USB drive. I Hope it helps somebody out there!

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Actually Create A Bootable Linux Usb Key For Mac Free

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Categories. Recommended Subreddits. Modern Macs allow you to boot off of external drives be it USB, Thunderbolt or an SD card. What's really great is that you can keep your SD card in your wallet or just about anywhere on you.

Plus, SD cards are cheap and pretty resistant to physical conditions so fairly reliable compared to external HDDs. 1) Buy a class 10 or faster SD card. Use 32gb or larger. 2) Format it to use a GUID partition scheme 3) Use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable copy of your current startup volume 4) Hold down the 'Option' key upon powerup and select your SD card EDIT1: Hey sorry for being a little technical. Just found this walk through for how to create a bootable drive for your Mac. You simply choose your SD card within the instructions: EDIT2: Reasons to do this at all for non-techie types Security: When you use a computer not yours, you are subjecting your entire computing experience to being recorded. Without spending a lot of time and having the appropriate access on the computer, you have no idea if malware like key loggers, screen capture, or cameras are enabled.

With your own boot drive, the machine you boot off of becomes YOUR machine. Recovery: If your Mac's startup disk fails, it's difficult (at worst) and time consuming (at best) to recover (if at all). Even if your data is stored on another disk, it would be time consuming to re-install and reconfigure all of your apps and their associated settings. Not all of your settings are backed up online like iCloud does with your iOS device.

Repair: If the primary boot drive of your mac fails, it's possible to fix your boot drive. However, you'd have to boot into another another volume to do so.

You could use a recovery disc but it'll only have the most basic tools and take a long time. With a bootable read/write volume, not only can you repair your original startup but you can even use your portable boot volume for day to day work in the interim unlike the repair disc. For laptop owners, you won't have to keep your optical drive with you everywhere. You can duct tape an SD card to your lapto p if you need to. Or just leave it in. I use it at college with Linux so I have an OS set up just the way I like it, with all my programs installed. If I don't want to carry my laptop around with me I can go to a computer lab, throw my usb in it and boot into an OS customized to my needs instead of spending all my time figuring out how the fuck to use Internet Explorer.

Also, If something goes wrong with one of your computers, you can use this to boot into an OS install that isn't having problems, and troubleshoot from within there. 1)You should always have some sort of recovery medium just in case. Your Mac probably came with a recovery disk. 2)It's fun to play around with different forms of linux without messing with your computers. 3)For general computer troubleshooting I keep a linux installed on a usb drive. Most public places will disable USB boot on their computers, so this is useless.

If they don't then they're more susceptible to theft and/or software tampering of their computers. Even if your workplace did let you boot from your storage device, do not use an SD card! A USB stick would be cheaper, faster, and more compatible (it's not all that common to have a computer that can boot from SD.