Ubuntu on a 2006 MacBook - Is it possible?

[Adreneline]

Hi!

Has anyone had any success getting Ubuntu (Astronomy) to run on a MacBook 2006 running a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo with 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM? - it's one of those nice, solidly made white ones Apple use to make.

My old MacBook is pretty much useless for anything else as it cannot be upgraded/updated to run the more recent OS or Apps so I thought this would be a good use for it rather than consigning it to the scrap bin.

I have tried making a bootable USB using both Etcher (Mac) and Rufus (PC) and neither will boot, in fact the USB boot drive created by Etcher results in a drive that is not readable at all - on any machine! I've tried using an external powered USB hub just in case the onboard USB sockets are not initialised properly/fully at boot up but that didn't work either.

I've tried creating a bootable DVD containing the iso image using a MacBook Pro and after some delay that presents me with a strange menu with two items 1. and 2. but with no description as to what either does; it make no matter because pressing 1 or 2 results in nothing happening!

I'm not going to die in a ditch over this - it's just something I fancy having a go at but so far it's looking like the MacBook will be on a one way trip to the local refuse site, small electrical items skip! - once I've removed the hard drive  

Thanks in anticipation of any help/ideas. I'm quite happy to be told I'm wasting my time and I should make better use of my time by going to watch the grass grow.

Adrian

Edited August 19, 2019 by Adreneline
Clarification

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Can you install Virtual Machines??, if so you could probably run it in that....  Also try Balena Etcher on the PC, I use it all the time to write eMMc's \ micro SD's etc. and it does an automatic verify...

Is this any help ? https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-install-linux-on-mac-3637265/

[JamesF]

With only 1GB of RAM I might be tempted to go for the Xfce version of Linux Mint, but otherwise I see no fundamental problem why it won't work.  Can you get a photo of the options you get when it starts up?

James

[Adreneline]

2 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Can you get a photo of the options you get when it starts up?

Hi James,

With the usb I don't get any options. I hold down the alt key whilst powering up and the only option that presents itself is the inbuilt hard drive with MacOS.

I then get a message saying the usb drive is not readable and offering to initialize it - even though the bootable drive was made in a Mac using GUID and MS-DOS (Fat 32) as recommended on both the Etcher and Rufus websites.

40 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

Can you install Virtual Machines??

Hi Julian,

Well I have tried Parallels and VM-Fusion in the past and it is unbelievably slow on the MacBook - the current versions won't even load as the loaded MacOS is too old (Leopard). I have tried more recent versions of MacOS and they won't work either. I've created both the USB and DVD boot discs on my MacBook Pro and that won't read the usb disc once created and neither will it boot the DVD!

At the end of the day neither Rufus or Etcher care what operating system you are using - they just create a bootable drive from the provided iso image.

The MacBook runs quite happily providing it is only running the MacOS - anything after Lion and it starts to have problems or won't run at all. At the end of the day it is 13 years old and the rate at which Apple update their hardware and OS's it is perhaps hardly surprising I am having problems.

13 minutes ago, JamesF said:

go for the Xfce version of Linux Mint

Not heard of this one so it is certainly worth a shot.

Fingers crossed!

Thanks both for all your input and advice.

Adrian

[Adreneline]

48 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

Also try Balena Etcher on the PC

Hi Julian,

Sorry - missed this point - I'll give it a go and let you know.

Thanks.

Adrian

[JamesF]

If you can't get a bootable USB stick to work and you have a DVD drive available then it may be worth trying a DVD.

James

[Adreneline]

15 minutes ago, JamesF said:

it may be worth trying a DVD

Hi James,

I've tried the DVD and that won't work either. Holding down the alt key at power on results in the option to boot from the hard drive or the DVD - all seems good at this stage. Selecting the DVD results in a menu on the screen offering 1. and 2. with no further text highlighting the difference between them, and an instruction to select 1 or 2 to proceed. Well it doesn't matter whether you press 1 or 2 because nothing else happens other than the fact that the machine is now locked up and you have to force a shut down with the power button.

A tad frustrating!

Thanks again.

Adrian

P.S. Just about to follow Julians advice and use balenaetcher on a PC to create a bootable drive - I'm also going to try a different usb stick. Fingers crossed!

 

[Dr_Ju_ju]

If you have any spare, also try a micro sd card with a bootable image (get an Ubuntu minimal, if it works, all you'll have is a terminal window) then you can add in the desktop using tasksel ... 

[JamesF]

36 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

I've tried the DVD and that won't work either. Holding down the alt key at power on results in the option to boot from the hard drive or the DVD - all seems good at this stage. Selecting the DVD results in a menu on the screen offering 1. and 2. with no further text highlighting the difference between them, and an instruction to select 1 or 2 to proceed. Well it doesn't matter whether you press 1 or 2 because nothing else happens other than the fact that the machine is now locked up and you have to force a shut down with the power button.

Without booting a system from a stick or DVD I can't recall exactly which step this may be.  I think it's where you're offered different start-up options.  Assuming you haven't already, you could try pressing the return key at that point and seeing what happens.

Strange that it appears without any text though.

Another thing to check, whilst I remember.  This is a 32-bit machine, isn't it?  And you are installing a 32-bit version of Ubuntu?  Apologies if I'm educating my parents' mothers on the nature of orally-induced ovarian pressure reduction at this point :)

James

[Adreneline]

6 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Another thing to check, whilst I remember.  This is a 32-bit machine, isn't it?  And you are installing a 32-bit version of Ubuntu?  Apologies if I'm educating my parents' mothers on the nature of orally-induced ovarian pressure reduction at this point

Haha! What an excellent way of putting it! I might be getting old but I'm never too old to learn or to be prompted onto the paths of rightousness and self-fullfilment! It is indeed 32 bit and I am about to follow Julian's advice and try to install a 32 bit version of Mint.

I've always tended to think I've got a pretty good idea on PCs and Macs but this one has got me stumped because everything I try dosn't work!

The really odd thing is that if I create a bootable thumb drive in my MacBook Pro using balenaEtcher and follow all the instructions it all goes to plan until the very end when it happily tells me the drive it has just created is not readable in this machine! What?! Same end result with two different thumb drives. If I create the drive in balenaEtcher on a PC it says it is readable and everything is fine except it won't boot from that drive. Same thing with Rufus.

Maybe watching the grass grow is the way forward after all.

Thanks again for all your help and suggestions.

Adrian

 

[JamesF]

A quick search suggests that people have got Ubuntu to work on a 2006 MBP, though it may not be without a certain amount of fiddling around.  I've not read any of the found pages in detail however.

James

[Dr_Ju_ju]

A search on Ubuntu throws a few possibilities https://ubuntu.com/search?q=macbook

[Adreneline]

Well @Dr_Ju_ju and @JamesF I've finally made some progress.

I managed to get the 32 bit Mint Linux to run from a bootable DVD but not from a bootable thumb drive; there really seems to be a problem with the usb ports on the old MacBook not being initialised at boot up.

Anyway the problem seems to be it has to be a 32 bit version and Astro Ubuntu seems to be 64 bit only - there is no option on the web site to download a 32 bit version that I can see. Once installed it all seemed to work but the touchpad was almost unusable so it made it very difficult to select menu options.

No worries. I think the 13 year old MacBook has had it's day to be fair - 32 bit dual core processors seem to be a thing of the past these days. Maybe it is time to strip out the battery for safe disposal and remove the hard drive and say a fond farewell.

Thanks both for taking the time to provide all the help and advice.

Adrian

[Dr_Ju_ju]

ummm, if you install the IndiLib package with Kstars etc. (https://indilib.org/),  its only 32bit.....

[Adreneline]

1 hour ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

if you install the IndiLib package with Kstars etc. (https://indilib.org/),  its only 32bit.....

Thanks Julian. I'll give it a go and see how well it works out.

Thanks again for all your help and advice.

Adrian

[Xilman]

On 19/08/2019 at 13:43, Adreneline said:

Well @Dr_Ju_ju and @JamesF I've finally made some progress.

I managed to get the 32 bit Mint Linux to run from a bootable DVD but not from a bootable thumb drive; there really seems to be a problem with the usb ports on the old MacBook not being initialised at boot up.

Anyway the problem seems to be it has to be a 32 bit version and Astro Ubuntu seems to be 64 bit only - there is no option on the web site to download a 32 bit version that I can see. Once installed it all seemed to work but the touchpad was almost unusable so it made it very difficult to select menu options.

Could you install stock 32-bit Ubuntu and then apt-get the packages which bring it up to (enough of) a clone of Astro Ubuntu?  A PITA but rather similar to what I've been doing on my Ubuntu 19.04 system.  However, you do get the chance of running a light-weight window manager.

[Adreneline]

1 hour ago, Xilman said:

Could you install stock 32-bit Ubuntu and then apt-get the packages which bring it up to (enough of) a clone of Astro Ubuntu?

Hi! Well maybe I could but I no longer have the MacBook; I decided it had had its day and it was time to consign it to scrap and spares. I felt it was no longer worth the effort especially as it was only 32 bit and the battery would not hold any charge; 13 years of use was not too bad.

Thanks for the input and advice though.