[gentoo-user] Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[gentoo-user] Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Grant Edwards]

I'm considering attempting to set up an Intel Mac Mini as a
MythTV frontend.  Right now I'm thinking I'll leave the
internal drive alone and boot from net or from a USB flash
drive.  That way I can spin down the internal HD and save on
power and noise (and the standard OS-X install is still there,
so it can be trivially switched back to normal desktop use).

I've been googling for info on running Linux on a Mac Mini, and
there was fairly active discussion 3-4 years ago, but very
little recent info.  That leads me to either of two
conclusions:

 1) It can't be done and everybody gave up.

 2) It's so trivial that people no longer need to ask about it.

So, how hard would it be to do a USB or network-based Gentoo
install for a recent Intel Mac Mini?
 
-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow! I want another
                                  at               RE-WRITE on my CEASAR
                               visi.com            SALAD!!

Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Thierry de Coulon]

I did not try recently. 3-4- years ago it may still have been Linux PPC. Now 
it is MacTel so it mainly should be a question of supported hardware and 
booting.

Thierry

On Friday 27 February 2009, Grant Edwards wrote:
> I'm considering attempting to set up an Intel Mac Mini as a
> MythTV frontend.  Right now I'm thinking I'll leave the
> internal drive alone and boot from net or from a USB flash
> drive.  That way I can spin down the internal HD and save on
> power and noise (and the standard OS-X install is still there,
> so it can be trivially switched back to normal desktop use).
>
> I've been googling for info on running Linux on a Mac Mini, and
> there was fairly active discussion 3-4 years ago, but very
> little recent info.  That leads me to either of two
> conclusions:
>
>  1) It can't be done and everybody gave up.
>
>  2) It's so trivial that people no longer need to ask about it.
>
> So, how hard would it be to do a USB or network-based Gentoo
> install for a recent Intel Mac Mini?

Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Stroller]

On 27 Feb 2009, at 20:21, Grant Edwards wrote:
> ...
> I've been googling for info on running Linux on a Mac Mini, and
> there was fairly active discussion 3-4 years ago, but very
> little recent info.  That leads me to either of two
> conclusions:
>
> 1) It can't be done and everybody gave up.
>
> 2) It's so trivial that people no longer need to ask about it.
>
> So, how hard would it be to do a USB or network-based Gentoo
> install for a recent Intel Mac Mini?

I don't know why your searches are coming up blank, but the Mac Mini  
is a very popular choice for MythTV frontends.

Try the MythTV-users list:
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Cocoy Dayao]

i used gentoo to run off vmware fusion on an intel mac. saved me a lot  
of headache. it works. i use it as a development/test bed.

On 02 28, 09, at 5:41 AM, Stroller wrote:

>
> On 27 Feb 2009, at 20:21, Grant Edwards wrote:
>> ...
>> I've been googling for info on running Linux on a Mac Mini, and
>> there was fairly active discussion 3-4 years ago, but very
>> little recent info.  That leads me to either of two
>> conclusions:
>>
>> 1) It can't be done and everybody gave up.
>>
>> 2) It's so trivial that people no longer need to ask about it.
>>
>> So, how hard would it be to do a USB or network-based Gentoo
>> install for a recent Intel Mac Mini?
>
> I don't know why your searches are coming up blank, but the Mac Mini  
> is a very popular choice for MythTV frontends.
>
> Try the MythTV-users list:
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/
>
> Stroller.
>
>



Cocoy
www.twitter.com/cocoy
"People who are really serious about software should make their own  
hardware" -- Alan Kay

Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Mark Knecht]

On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
> I'm considering attempting to set up an Intel Mac Mini as a
> MythTV frontend.  Right now I'm thinking I'll leave the
> internal drive alone and boot from net or from a USB flash
> drive.  That way I can spin down the internal HD and save on
> power and noise (and the standard OS-X install is still there,
> so it can be trivially switched back to normal desktop use).
>
> I've been googling for info on running Linux on a Mac Mini, and
> there was fairly active discussion 3-4 years ago, but very
> little recent info.  That leads me to either of two
> conclusions:
>
>  1) It can't be done and everybody gave up.
>
>  2) It's so trivial that people no longer need to ask about it.
>
> So, how hard would it be to do a USB or network-based Gentoo
> install for a recent Intel Mac Mini?
>

Grant,
   I have a Myth frontend only running on the terribly underpowered
and vastly overpriced PPC MM. I'm sure you'll be fine on the Intel MM.

   My input with Gentoo would be that if the CD boots it will work.

- Mark

[gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2009-02-27, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
>> I'm considering attempting to set up an Intel Mac Mini
>> [...]
>> So, how hard would it be to do a USB or network-based Gentoo
>> install for a recent Intel Mac Mini?
>
> I have a Myth frontend only running on the terribly
> underpowered and vastly overpriced PPC MM. I'm sure you'll be
> fine on the Intel MM.

SD or HD?

> My input with Gentoo would be that if the CD boots it will
> work.

Cool.  I should take some livecds (Gentoo, KnoppMyth,
MythBuntu) to the Apple store and try them out -- it might be
fun to mess with the Apple Geniuses (or whatever they call the
kids that work there).

-- 
Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Robert J. King]

It is done often.  Writing this on an 24" Intel iMac running Gentoo w/ kde.  
Just a few gotchas that I ran into:

1.  The 2008.0 livecd's version of grub doesn't have the Mac partition patch.  
Simple update of portage and then grub fixes this.
2.  Nvidia binary drivers seem to have a bug that will turn off the screen 
everytime you either close X11 or switch to a VC.  The screen comes back on 
when you go back to X by CTRL+Fn unless you have shutdown X11.   If that is 
the case, then you have to restart it by typing blindly or ssh'ing in from 
another machine.  I haven't found a fix for this yet.  Not sure if this 
pertains to the mac mini they might be using ATI.

Good info at:  http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Apple_Macbook_Pro

If you plan on installing to the hard drive I recommend keeping a small OSX 
partition (for firmware updates and stuff from apple) and using rEFIt as a 
boot manager.  http://refit.sourceforge.net
This is how I have it set up and its working well.

On Friday 27 February 2009 02:21:37 pm Grant Edwards wrote:
> I'm considering attempting to set up an Intel Mac Mini as a
> MythTV frontend.  Right now I'm thinking I'll leave the
> internal drive alone and boot from net or from a USB flash
> drive.  That way I can spin down the internal HD and save on
> power and noise (and the standard OS-X install is still there,
> so it can be trivially switched back to normal desktop use).
>
> I've been googling for info on running Linux on a Mac Mini, and
> there was fairly active discussion 3-4 years ago, but very
> little recent info.  That leads me to either of two
> conclusions:
>
>  1) It can't be done and everybody gave up.
>
>  2) It's so trivial that people no longer need to ask about it.
>
> So, how hard would it be to do a USB or network-based Gentoo
> install for a recent Intel Mac Mini?

[gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2009-02-28, Robert J. King <peritus@rajking.net> wrote:

> It is done often.  Writing this on an 24" Intel iMac running
> Gentoo w/ kde.  Just a few gotchas that I ran into:
>
> 1.  The 2008.0 livecd's version of grub doesn't have the Mac
>     partition patch.  Simple update of portage and then grub
>     fixes this.

Do the livecds now use grub?  I thought they used syslinux.
Maybe I'm thinking of a different livecd.

> 2.  Nvidia binary drivers seem to have a bug that will turn
>     off the screen everytime you either close X11 or switch to
>     a VC.  The screen comes back on when you go back to X by
>     CTRL+Fn unless you have shutdown X11.  If that is the
>     case, then you have to restart it by typing blindly or
>     ssh'ing in from another machine.  I haven't found a fix
>     for this yet.  Not sure if this pertains to the mac mini
>     they might be using ATI.

The Minis now use an Intel GMA 950.  Linux driver support is
supposed to be pretty good.  Not sure if it includes XvMC or
not, but a 1.8GHz core2 duo should be able to handle ATSC HD
playback without it.

> Good info at:  http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Apple_Macbook_Pro
>
> If you plan on installing to the hard drive I recommend
> keeping a small OSX partition (for firmware updates and stuff
> from apple) and using rEFIt as a boot manager.
> http://refit.sourceforge.net This is how I have it set up and
> its working well.

The first choice would be USB or network.  I'd like to shut
down the hard-drive.

-- 
Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Robert J. King]

On Friday 27 February 2009 11:32:04 pm Grant Edwards wrote:
> >
> > 1.  The 2008.0 livecd's version of grub doesn't have the Mac
> >     partition patch.  Simple update of portage and then grub
> >     fixes this.
>
> Do the livecds now use grub?  I thought they used syslinux.
> Maybe I'm thinking of a different livecd.
The livecd's boot is fine.  I was refering to grub is installed to the HD by 
default.  Can ignore it anyway as 2008.0-r1 installs grub-0.97-r4 that has 
the gpt patch.

[gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2009-02-28, Robert J. King <peritus@rajking.net> wrote:
> On Friday 27 February 2009 11:32:04 pm Grant Edwards wrote:
>> >
>> > 1.  The 2008.0 livecd's version of grub doesn't have the Mac
>> >     partition patch.  Simple update of portage and then grub
>> >     fixes this.
>>
>> Do the livecds now use grub?  I thought they used syslinux.
>> Maybe I'm thinking of a different livecd.

> The livecd's boot is fine.  I was refering to grub is
> installed to the HD by default.  Can ignore it anyway as
> 2008.0-r1 installs grub-0.97-r4 that has the gpt patch.

I see.  I don't plan on installing to the HD, so it's not
something I need to worry about ... except I guess installing
to a USB flash drive is logically equivalent, so I probably do
have to worry about it.  I wonder if Linux and OS-X can share a
swap partition...

-- 
Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Robert J. King]

On Saturday 28 February 2009 10:21:40 am Grant Edwards wrote:
> I see.  I don't plan on installing to the HD, so it's not
> something I need to worry about ... except I guess installing
> to a USB flash drive is logically equivalent, so I probably do
> have to worry about it.  I wonder if Linux and OS-X can share a
> swap partition...
The way my mac came from the factory was with 2 partitons.  The first, I 
think, is some special partition needed for EFI and doesn't even show in OSX 
disk util.  The second is the OSX HFS+ partition.  What I did was resize the 
HFS+ partition in OSX with disk util then created 2 new partitions for 
linux-swap and linux with parted on the livecd.

Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[KH]

Robert J. King schrieb:
> It is done often.  Writing this on an 24" Intel iMac running Gentoo w/ kde.  
> Just a few gotchas that I ran into:
>
> 1.  The 2008.0 livecd's version of grub doesn't have the Mac partition patch.  
> Simple update of portage and then grub fixes this.
> 2.  Nvidia binary drivers seem to have a bug that will turn off the screen 
> everytime you either close X11 or switch to a VC.  The screen comes back on 
> when you go back to X by CTRL+Fn unless you have shutdown X11.   If that is 
> the case, then you have to restart it by typing blindly or ssh'ing in from 
> another machine.  I haven't found a fix for this yet.  Not sure if this 
> pertains to the mac mini they might be using ATI.
>
> Good info at:  http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Apple_Macbook_Pro
>
> If you plan on installing to the hard drive I recommend keeping a small OSX 
> partition (for firmware updates and stuff from apple) and using rEFIt as a 
> boot manager.  http://refit.sourceforge.net
> This is how I have it set up and its working well.
>
> On Friday 27 February 2009 02:21:37 pm Grant Edwards wrote:
>   
>> I'm considering attempting to set up an Intel Mac Mini as a
>> MythTV frontend.  Right now I'm thinking I'll leave the
>> internal drive alone and boot from net or from a USB flash
>> drive.  That way I can spin down the internal HD and save on
>> power and noise (and the standard OS-X install is still there,
>> so it can be trivially switched back to normal desktop use).
>>
>> I've been googling for info on running Linux on a Mac Mini, and
>> there was fairly active discussion 3-4 years ago, but very
>> little recent info.  That leads me to either of two
>> conclusions:
>>
>>  1) It can't be done and everybody gave up.
>>
>>  2) It's so trivial that people no longer need to ask about it.
>>
>> So, how hard would it be to do a USB or network-based Gentoo
>> install for a recent Intel Mac Mini?
>>     
Pleas no top posting

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo on Intel Mac Mini?

[Robert J. King]

On Saturday 28 February 2009 07:05:58 am KH wrote:
> Pleas no top posting
>
> A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
> Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
> A: Top-posting.
> Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
my apologies