I have an old MacBook white (Model 2,1 mid-late 2007) which won't upgrade beyond Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6). I have previously installed Debian with a dual boot by using rEFIt and booting from a DVD disk, but the DVD drive doesn't seem to reliably read disks anymore I would like to install Debian or BSD on this MacBook, either as a dual boot, or as the single OS -- alternatively, any current linux distro or even Windows 10 would do. I have tried a few things, all without success. For the record: • Burn.iso (or.cdr) image to DVD (Mac won't read disk) • Create a live Debian USB (with MBR partition) with rEFIt • Create live Debian USB with Mac Linux USB Loader (will boot on newer Macs, but not on MacBook2,1) I've seen something about manually putting a GPT table on the USB drive, or creating a separate EFI partition, but since it's more technical and time consuming I didn't get around to it. Main question: is there a reliable way to boot and install Linux, BSD, Windows (anything not OS X)? Bonus points for running the OS live from the USB -- since after 10 years HD may fail some time soon. Thanks for helping with recycling an old friend and protecting the environment.

Sartre Nausea Free Download on this page. EDIT: both replies, as well as all HOWTOs I could find operate under the assumption that I should be able to hold 'opt' on boot and choose the USB stick. That's not what happens when I have BSD or Linux there, but I am able to choose a USB stick with Mac OS X and install from it. So the question becomes, what is the difference that prevents that from being done with Linux/BSD? I personally installed, so I don't see why you can't do that with a 2007 MacBook.

Mar 13, 2016. Because of this, I created a rEFIt fork called rEFInd, which is under active development and that works better with both Linux (including Ubuntu) and recent. BIOS/CSM/legacy mode -- Much older documentation describes installing Ubuntu on a Mac using the Compatibility Support Module (CSM), aka. Other resources. Non-Apple Hardware: PlayStation3 and more; Apple OldWorld Computers: How to install Linux on OldWorld Macs; Gentoo Linux PPC HandBook. Yesterday I have succesfully updgraded my w1-810 from 'Windows 8.1 with Bing' to 'Windows 10 Home'.

But going back to the original question is there a reliable way to boot and install Linux, BSD, Windows (anything not OS X)? There is a site called (I linked the Apple section) that outlines what laptops are compatible with Linux. Specifically for Debian, they have a that describes exactly how to install it on a Mac. As mentioned before, I am partial to BSD. Has USB images specific to UEFI machines available for download.

There is also excellent available to assist you in this process. As for your 'Bonus Question'. Bonus points for running the OS live from the USB -- since after 10 years HD may fail some time soon. Why would you do this and not replace the hard drive? A SATA1 interface is 1.5Gb/s A USB2.0 port is 480Mb/s Rough math tells us USB is 1/3 the speed of a drive. A brand new is less than $50 online. It doesn't make sense to sacrifice that much performance for that small price.

A bit late but I hope this can help someone. I have a 2,1 (mid-2007) macbook that refuses to boot from anything that isn't an Mac OS X installer. The DVD drive is dead which is a problem that I suspect its common on old laptops.