Given Apple’s essentially abandoning its server product, I am looking to replace using NethServer on the same hardware - a Mac Mini 2009 with dual SSD drives. I have burned the ISO to a USB on my other Mac using both dd on the commandline and Etcher. However when I put the disk in the mini and reboot with the option key pressed down, the USB doesn’t appear in the list of bootable devices.
Is it not possible to install nethserver on Mac hardware?
I’m not sure - the latest debian installer boots fine. It too is an iso but its format is not recognised by the Mac OS whereas the NethServer ISO can be opened on the Mac Desktop, so I think its something else
As an alternative, you can try to install CentOS 7 minimal and then install nethserver from yum.
Don’t have a Mac Mini to test but have read it shall work but network card might not be recognized and may require drivers from ELRepo.
That’s what I intend to do. You are correct - CentOS doesn’t support the ethernet or the wireless card, so I have just ordered a USB ethernet that claims it works with Linux Hopefully will arrive in the New Year.
I’m running Nethserver on a Mac mini via VirtualBox. Af far as I’m concerned it works well. I continue to serve up shared files via the macOS, NS does the rest.
Sounds like a good idea although perhaps I am a little too paranoid; I don’t think the most recent Mac OS that can run on a 2009 Mini still gets security updates. However, if I can’t get the networking working, I will try the VirtualBox route
I ran a test using an old Mac mini which for whatever software reason could only use VirtualBox 5 - or was it 4? In any case, I couldn’t keep time, despite trying everything the server’s time would drift and be out by hours in a few days. I only solved this when using a different old Mac which runs VirtualBox 6. So my advice is check which VB your 2009 mini can run before taking my advice!
Have got a functioning NethServer system, after a couple of tries. I bought a UGREEN USB 2 ethernet adapter, installed Centos 7 Minimal, then installed the drivers from ELRepo, unplugged the USB adapter and installed nethserver via yum. My biggest issues were that centos 7 was unable to using any graphical installer and so my disks were automatically partitioned in a way not conducive to nethserver so I had to delete the /home partition and extend the / partition.
Would you please elaborate a bit more your experience?
Maybe this can become a little “HowTo”, that will allow recycle of old hardware for test purposes.
Now i put my bad eyes on a old crappy Proliant server. Maybe my little Scapegoat can be transformed into a more powerful machine…
Nethserver/centos iso does not ship the drivers for the old mac mini. work around could be to modify the ISO and andd the drivers for the mac mini.
Same for your old Proliant. (btw… is it 64 bit?) If the ISO doesn’t load in some way, if there are drivers available, add the necessary drivers.
This is the CPU Installed on that crappy server, unfortunately not that “energy efficient” as the current Scapegoat, which is using an Core 2 Duo CPU currently. With a ASUS MB and a desktop class hardware.
Can you elaborate what you mean by the drivers for the mini? The centos iso boots the mini but the nethserver iso doesn’t - would be good to understand why this is the case. I can the nethserver iso to do the early stages of booting if I format my USB as a DOS disk and copy the files from the iso via drag and drop…
Hopefully will arrive in the New Year.