Think you can just plug a standard Linux live USB drive into your Mac and boot from it? Think again. You’ll need to go out of your way to create a live Linux USB drive that will boot on a Mac.
This can be quite a headache, but we’ve found a graphical utility that makes this easy. You’ll be able to quickly boot Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Kali Linux, and other mainstream Linux distributions on your Mac.
Free Download UNetbootin - Handy piece of software that enables you to install various Linux / BSD distributions and create your own bootable USB dr. UNetbootin is a free program for both Windows, Linux and MacOS X that allows the user to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions instead of burning a CD. It runs on both Windows and Linux.
The Problem
RELATED:How to Create Bootable USB Drives and SD Cards For Every Operating System
Apple’s made it difficult to boot non-Mac OS X operating systems off of USB drives. While you can connect an external CD/DVD drive to your Mac and boot from standard Linux live CDs and USBs, simply connecting a Linux live USB drive created by standard tools like Universal USB Installer and uNetbootin to a Mac won’t work.
There are several ways around this. For example, Ubuntu offers some painstaking instructions that involve converting the USB drive’s file system and making its partitions bootable, but some people report these instructions won’t work for them. There’s a reason Ubuntu recommends just burning a disc.
rEFInd should allow you to boot those USB drives if you install it on your Mac. But you don’t have to install this alternative UEFI boot manager on your Mac. The solution below should allow you to create Linux live USB drives that will boot on modern Macs without any additional fiddling or anything extra — insert, reboot, and go.
Use Mac Linux USB Loader
RELATED:How to Use Your Mac’s Disk Utility to Partition, Wipe, Repair, Restore, and Copy Drives
A tool named “Mac Linux USB Loader” by SevenBits worked well for us. This Mac application will allow you to create USB drives with your preferred Linux distro on them from within Mac OS X in just a few clicks. You can then reboot and boot those USB drives to use the Linux distribution from the live system.
Note: Be sure to move the Mac Linux USB Loader application to your Applications folder before running it. This will avoid a missing “Enterprise Source” error later.
First, insert the USB drive into your Mac and open the Disk Utility application. Check that the USB drive is formatted with an MS-DOS (FAT) partition. If it isn’t, delete the partition and create a FAT partition — not an ExFAT partition.
Next, open the Mac Linux USB Loader application you downloaded. Select the “Create Live USB” option if you’ve already downloaded a Linux ISO file. If not, select the “Distribution Downloader” option to easily download Linux distribution ISOs for use with this tool.
Select the Linux distribution’s ISO file you downloaded and choose a connected USB drive to put the Linux system on.
Choose the appropriate options and click “Begin Installation” to continue. Mac Linux USB Loader will create a bootable USB drive that will work on your Mac and boot into that Linux distribution without any problems or hacks.
Before booting the drive, you may want to change some other options here. For example, you can set up “persistence” on the drive and part of the USB drive will be reserved for your files and settings. This only works for Ubuntu-based distributions.
Click “Persistence Manager” on the main screen, choose your drive, select how much of the drive should be reserved for persistent data, and click “Create Persistence” to enable this.
Booting the Drive
RELATED:How to Install and Dual Boot Linux on a Mac
To actually boot the drive, reboot your Mac and hold down the Option key while it boots. You’ll see the boot options menu appear. Select the connected USB drive. The Mac will boot the Linux system from the connected USB drive.
If your Mac just boots to the login screen and you don’t see the boot options menu, reboot your Mac again and hold down the Option key earlier in the boot process.
This solution will allow you to boot common Linux USB drives on your Mac. You can just boot and use them normally without modifying your system.
Exercise caution before attempting to install a Linux system to your Mac’s internal drive. That’s a more involved process.
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Active1 year, 9 months ago
I'm trying to create a bootable USB key with Linux (debian) and that can be booted on Macintel hardware.
I have read that MAC's EFI can only boot GPT GUID formatted disks. I'm desperately trying to find a good tutorial which explains how to create such a key.
Here what I have done so far:
While all steps were successfull and in some cases I could even boot on a PC, the step of booting on Macintel software failed (on a macbook). I need to precise that I holded the 'alt' key while booting the mac and the only visible bootable disk was the hard disk.
PS: I have tried with rEFIt as well. In one case I had a 'Windows' icon but it then failed to boot with a message like 'no system found'
Edit: This is a rather old question, I haven't tried for a while, maybe today it is just a matter of running dd to copy the iso, but it did not work 5 years ago. I'm going to try with a recent macbook and linux iso
ascobol
ascobolascobol
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migrated from stackoverflow.comJan 23 '11 at 21:37
This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.
4 Answers
From Boot Linux from USB on MacBook Pro 17″ :
It works! Can now boot Linux on an unmodified MacBook Pro (5,2) from a single USB stick (or external hard drive).
I created a small 25MB partition as the first partition, formated it as Mac OS X Journaled and installed rEFIt to it, then followed that partition with a 100 MB boot partition, and then a root partition on a thumb drive (if using an external hard drive you could create swap as well, but I don’t do that on thumb drives so they don’t get worn out).
Install linux normally (debootstrap is how I do it) onto the second and third partitions. Make sure Grub is installed to the MBR of the drive and points to the /boot partition as the second partition. Then take the USB drive to a MacBook Pro and insert it.
Turn on the MBP and hold down the Alt/Option key until you see a boot menu offering Mac OS X or rEFIt. Choose rEFIt. After that you’ll be give a menu to choose OS X again or Linux. Here, choose Linux.
Tada, now comes the Grub boot screen and then on into the Linux of your choice. Congrats and enjoy…
Unetbootin Kali Linux
Some other useful articles that contain detailed instructions:
slhck
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harrymc
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I have found that a standard Ubuntu/Fedora and even Debian install disc, live CD or USB key will boot fine on a Mac. With a CD you may need to hold down the c key to boot. But I have no problems with USB installs.
I would warn that I only have Linux installed on my MacBook now. I installed Ubuntu with a live CD a while ago, now rocking Fedora. Once there is no more OS X, any Linux distribution will boot without much trouble.
I'm not sure what happens when you boot a USB key and OS X is still on the machine though. I would recommend looking up key combinations to hold down to boot from USB – c might be enough.
slhck
Usb Kali Program Unetbootin Alternative For Mac
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user37968
I would recommend using the UNetbootin utility to create the bootable USB stick from your favorite Linux distro's install disc ISO. I've created many USB sticks with this, including OS X install sticks.
Then simply hold the alt/option key while booting the Mac (wait until you hear the boot sound and the Apple logo appears on screen), and you should see the option to boot off the USB drive. Take it from there :)
Doktor JDoktor J
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Here is an easier alternative and also a more modern answer.
Unetbootin Free Download![]()
I do the following from macOS (assuming the USB was listed as disk4):
With that ready, then do the following to prepare your Mac system. Download refind, unzip it, place it in Applications ...
You should disable SIP first (optional but recommended), so restart your Mac, holding command + R, and once in recovery, open a Terminal up and disable SIP:
Unetbootin Alternative Mac
Now that SIP is disabled, you can install refind without Recovery mode.
Insert USB drive from Step 1 above
(Some users report trouble, even after disabling SIP, so the refind maintainer recommends installing refind in Recovery Mode if this happens.)
Unetbootin Alternative For Linux
You will be greeted by the refind bootloader now. At this stage, select your Debian .iso that you made in Step 1. There will be an option to pick Grub or to pick the kernel directly (since refind is also an alternative to Grub). It will boot either way, but the Debian installer has a known glitch with the track pad, so use a USB mouse while installing, or use the optional n-curses installer. Insert a second USB drive, and follow the instructions to install the Debian OS to that second USB drive. I agree with the other answer about not using SWAP.
I would not use refit, it has been deprecated and not maintained for quite some time. Refind is a modern fork that is maintained (see link above).
oemb1905oemb1905
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