As you can see, a freshly downloaded Proxmox 6.1, burned with Etcher on an old 4 GB USB2 Drive (Can’t get 4 GBs for several years now…)…
And the iMac’s ready for installing.
This iMac is a 2010, 3.2 GHz Intel i3 modell, also with 8 GB RAM. The disk has been subsituted for a 500 GB SSD.
If I’m not mistaken, all intel based macs can boot from an external drive, no matter if USB or Firewire / Thunderbolt.
One Gotcha: NEVER use the USB plug on the Apple Keyboard - they’re only 1.1, not enough power and speed. Plug in directly, not via a USB hub.
I don’t get as far as the first step which is why I wonder if there’s something obvious I’m doing wrong…
I’ve even plugged the Apple mouse into the back of the mini! Now sitting looking at a white screen where I should have choice of boot drives.
I can boot using the alt key and get the choice as long as I don’t plug in the thumbdrive. So I know how to do that! Then I plug the thumdrive in and after about 10 seconds my keyboard and mouse stop responding. Mouse is connected directly to the mini!
My only other observation is that with the mini booted up as normal and the thumbdrive mounted (its named PVE) it takes FInder a long time to read the contents. It took a minute or so before I could ‘see’ any of the files or folders on the drive. Its as if the Mac really doesn’t like the format or contents of the thumbdrive.
In my case, Finder will not show the contents of theUSB Drive. Mac can’t read Linux file systems out of the box. There does seem to be a small FAT partition on it though:
I’m starting to think that specific mac mini is one of those (few) which have issues.
Another test…
As I recall, you have a USB HD lying around. Can that mini boot an apple system from a USB HD?
If you need an apple system, clone what’s on that mac with carbon copy cloner to the USB HD and see if it boots…
At the moment I’m fighting with the iMac to get it to install High Sierra, the last system which will run on it… Apple “expired” all my installers (Had all in a collection on File), now have to work around. The App Store will offer me the latest, that will download but not start…
I’ve got tools to get around that…
Yes. I’ve cloned a MacBook 2009 ish using ChronoSync to my random USB HD. That can boot the mini, I can login. It works. The mini can be booted via USB.
I’ve formatted the thumbdrive and redone the Etcher copy. While I’m in Disk Utility I see that the PVE is not bootable (when I click the ‘info’ icon at the top right of its window). But then again, I can boot my 2018 MacBook Pro using the thumbdrive.
So, time to give up on this one and go back to VirtualBox.
Before I go… I had a look at the Debian installation instructions, cos, as @Andy_Wismer says, Proxmox is built on Debian. I found some interesting information which I’m sure applies when installing Proxmox.
As I remember the Mac mini Server 2009 is a mini 3,1 but with the CD removed and a second drive in its place. So instructions for mini 3,1 apply!
Using any normal amd64 image written to CD/DVD, this machine will boot into BIOS mode and install Debian easily. You must boot from CD/DVD to boot into BIOS Compatibility mode; booting from USB causes the 3,1 to boot into EFI mode. Debian installs fine in EFI mode, but freezes on boot when the nouveauFB driver tries to load due to the lack of a video BIOS. Nouveau is a ‘known issue’, alternatively install nvidia or other driver and blacklist nouveau.
So all of that explains why I can’t boot my mini from a USB thumbdrive or hard drive.
I had a cunning plan to buy a CD reader/writer. But that’s not going to work, is it? It’s still USB. The only currently running Mac with a CD/DVD player says its connected via ATAPI, not as I had hoped the internal USB.
So, as far as my Mac mini is concerned, I really have run out of options. Unless there’s another way to install an OS?
IMVHO a bit more effort should be placed into writing the Thumbdrive in a “different way”.
I do not have any Mac to make tests (First gen mini should not be a “valid” test ground)
I had 2 of those 2009 last tall version Mac Mini Server. And with the USB CD from a Macbook Air, they were able to boot Linux…
I do recall something about a 32 bit BIOS, even though the CPU is 64 Bit…
But the CD, even though it is plugged in to USB, shows as a CD, not as a USB…
The 2010 modell also (some of them) had issues. “Unsupported” MacOS Systems were sometimes also in the G4/G5 era a problem…
The first Intels came Early 2006…
Your mentionned 1.83 GHz Intel CPU was a Mid 2007 model…
With a current max of 3GB RAM (Must be in the right slots!), you won’t be able to do much virtualizing…
I have heard of the Cruesoe chip, but not of a “Conroe” chip…
Last bit of OT for this thread. Conroe is the codename of a chip family/microarchitecture of Intel, including variants as Allendale and L, CL, XE for Conroe.
Into commercial names, Core 2 Duo and few Celeron and Xeon share the same tech level of die, with some differences (bus speed, cache, number of cores and socket).
So my cunning plan didn’t go to plan. I remembered I had a ‘spare’ CD reader in an old MacBook. So that’s now connected to the top HD bay, recognised and working. I bought some blank CDs, which made me feel twenty years younger. So, all systems go, let’s burn that ISO.
Computer says no.
The ISO is too big for the CD.
So, all you people who’ve been burning ISOs to boot old boxes for years, howsit done?
Well, I do recall a time when Windows fitted on three diskettes (25+years ago, Win3.1).
I also recall the time you could install Macs with Diskettes, 1 or 2 were sufficient…
Same thing with MS Office. Then it needed a CD. Later on a DVD.
Windows uses a double layer DVD with 8+ GB nowadays (Win10).
Same for MacOS, the last available on CD were actually 8+ GB double layer DVDs.
Proxmox uses around 850 MB, agreed to big for a CD, but a DVD with 4 GB works…
Older Versions worked with a CD a few years back.
Your Mac Drive (Superdrive?) should read a DVD without problems.
But you need an empty DVD now…
That’s life…
Get an empty 4.3 GB DVD and you’re ready to finish the task!
My 2 cents
Andy
PS: A good use for the CDs would be SystemRescueCD and Clonezilla, I keep a copy of each on CD and USB in my toolbox. (Both fit on a CD!).
OK, been out, queued up to get into the shop, got some DVDs. Sorted why it wouldn’t burn at first (24x doesn’t work on 16x disks!) and now successfully have a DVD with the Proxmox ISO.
Now why won’t the mini startup from the DVD?
I’ve held the ‘C’ key down, just boots from the HD. I’ve also tried holding the ALT key but that doesn’t show the DVD.
I bet it’s something to do with the DVD containing the ISO and not the extracted bits needed to startup, the grub or somesuch. Am I meant to expand the ISO into a DMG. It cetrainly appears different from the contents of the thunbdrive after Etcher did its business.
Test booting with that drive (Not just the dvd!) on your other Mac (Macbook?).
Booting something else besides Mac OS X will NOT harm your Macbook!!!
It’s a good neutral Test, just to see if the DVD will boot.
If it does start up, don’t click on anything, since the disk hasn’t been used, you can just switch off your Macbook and reboot without the DVD drive, all should be OK…
It’s true, unless you start to install/partition something. Read the instruction carefully for avoid any error.
For any measure, today is always a nice day for a backup.
