[Solved] TinyCore in a 2007 Macbook Intel_x86?

[Santos]

Hi

system_profiler
uname

Code: [Select]

Hardware:

    Hardware Overview:

      Model Name: MacBook
      Model Identifier: MacBook2,1
      Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
      Processor Speed: 2 GHz
      Number Of Processors: 1
      Total Number Of Cores: 2
      L2 Cache: 4 MB
      Memory: 1 GB
      Bus Speed: 667 MHz
      Boot ROM Version: MB21.00A5.B07
      SMC Version (system): 1.17f0
      Serial Number (system): W8738GPDZ5V
      Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-001B6335695E
      Sudden Motion Sensor:
          State: Enabled



Code: [Select]

Darwin 10.8.0 Darwin Kernel Version 10.8.0: Tue Jun  7 16:33:36 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1504.15.3~1/RELEASE_I386 i386 i386




I have an old 2007 Macbook. I tried to boot from a usb. Turning on the laptop while holding down 'alt' to get the boot menu. The usb prepared with Rufus/dd/cat when plugged in, makes the laptop stay in a white screen. If I hold down 'alt' without a usb attached then the boot menu appears and gives only the hdd to boot from.

Issuing sudo in the terminal makes it to ask for a password I don't have. So my only guess (first time ever working with Linux on a Mac; regular user of TC) is that the laptop is 'account-locked' and that makes it impossible to boot from usb drives/cd/dvd (optical disc tried as well). The account the laptop boots into is a guest account.

Any ideas on how to make this laptop run Tiny Core? or is it just paper weight at this point?

[Santos]

Yes!

Did it. Thanks to the previous efforts of many people who thought of this before me, I was able to piece together several tutorials to get it working.

All of this is assuming MacOS is removed or RAM based operation with Tiny Core, i wasn't interested in a dual boot set up.

These old Macbooks have a 32bit EFI but the CPU is 64bits, so a 32bit bootloader is needed to load a 64bit OS.

First, how to set up a EFI USB and download the bootia32.efi file:
https://mesom.de/efi32boot/index.html

In a nutshell, create a MBR disk with a primary fat32 partition with the folder structure.

I made my partition 100MB just to load Tiny Core but you can make another partition in EXT to hold any other distro.

Code: [Select]

./efi
./efi/boot
./efi/boot/bootia32.efi
./boot
./boot/grub
./boot/grub/grub.cfg
./core
./core/corepure64.gz
./core/vmlinuz64


grub.cfg content, replace the UUID placeholder for the actual partition's UUID

Code: [Select]

insmod part_gpt
insmod part_msdos
insmod fat
insmod ext2
terminal_output console

menuentry "tc12x64" {
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root "UUID"
linux /core/vmlinuz64 loglevel=3 video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr:3 waitusb=5:UUID="UUID"
initrd /core/corepure64.gz
}


Inside the 'core' folder place the kernel and initramfs. Reboot while holding down the 'alt' (also called "option") key. The usb should show up.

I did not like to use rEFInd since it wasn't working for me or I was not able to make it work. Well, I did use to deactivate 'system protection' or something like that and remove the OSX boot entry from the bootloader selection. I used the rEFInd premade iso and dd it to a usb.

When turning off the efi loader/bios or whatever loader Apple puts in these machines ends up in a 'unstable' state and the laptop will not power back up unless you hold down the power button for 20 seconds, I timed that. Any less and the laptop will refuse to boot again until al parasitic current leaves the main board.

This particular Macbook2,1 takes 3GB ram max. The battery is dead so the laptop will throttle and there is no way around that since the charger can't provide enough power.

Since the bootloader is GRUB (a beta version) you can chainload any other ISOs and distros but I haven't tried that, I only cared about Tiny Core.

GRUB can only show up in text mode, any graphics will corrupt the EFI frame buffer.

It gets very hot if you close the lid for the model I've got the air vent is underneath the keyboard and the exhaust is blowing all the hot air to the LCD base, sustain load will reduce its lifespan for sure.

Useful links:

Guided me with the grub.cfg
https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,22848.msg143377.html#msg143377

Wifi issues post, my chipset worked with the ath driver. Just in case.
https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=21096.0

Booting up in a Macbook Air
https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,23414.0.html

Install libreboot. I may test this later on.
https://libreboot.org/docs/install/macbook21.html

bootia32 file
https://github.com/jfwells/linux-asus-t100ta/blob/master/boot/bootia32.efi


yeah, solved.

Edit:

Once you have your set up just dd a copy of your usb for future use just the beginning of the drive. It will be easier if the USB fails. I did.

dd if=/dev/sdx of=my_mac-image.img bs=1048576 count=128

btw, you  can also load dCore this way. Just give time for everything to load, even with just the small vmlinuz and initramfs it takes about 2-3 minutes to load.

[Rich]

Hi Santos

... These old Macbooks have a 32bit EFI but the CPU is 64bits, so a 32bit bootloader is needed to load a 64bit OS. ...

I had a similar issue a few years ago.

I have an old ASUS T100-CHI tablet that has a 64 bit Atom but 32 bit UEFI firmware.

I also found out this tablet would not boot a 32 bit kernel, so I used vmLinuz64 with
Core64 (not CorePure64) so I could still run 32 bit applications since this tablet only
has 2 Gig of soldered in non expandable RAM.

[patrikg]

Funny facts of this !!
I have seen this now two times with computers with 32bit bios/uefi, and 64bit cpu.

And have I Oracle POS unit my self, but i get the 64bit bios update so it solved that way.

Theses YT videos have struggle with this a lot.
I like the geek/nerd of these videos.
https://youtu.be/oEqvYXYI56s
https://youtu.be/MmJ8NVLji84

[Santos]

Hi

I had a similar issue a few years ago.

...

Core64 (not CorePure64) so I could still run 32 bit applications since this tablet only

Core64? I looked at the download section and can only see the Pure64 version, where can I get the Core64? I would like to also run x32 code.

What efi file should I use (if you know) if the bootloader takes only signed bootloaders?

Theses YT videos have struggle with this a lot.
I like the geek/nerd of these videos.
https://youtu.be/oEqvYXYI56s
https://youtu.be/MmJ8NVLji84

Nice watch and learnt from them, thanks for sharing!

[Rich]

Hi Santos

... Core64? I looked at the download section and can only see the Pure64 version, where can I get the Core64? I would like to also run x32 code. ...

This explains how it's done:
https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,27843.msg180030.html#msg180030

... What efi file should I use (if you know) if the bootloader takes only signed bootloaders? ...

I used grub2 and disabled secure boot.

[Santos]

See it now, thank you Rich.

Thread can be marked as solved. 

[Rich]

Hi Santos

... Thread can be marked as solved. 

Done.