# Need help installing on mid-2007 Mac Mini



## simonpie (Mar 6, 2018)

Hello all

I have been trying to install FreeBSD 11.1 (and previous) on a 2011 (edit: 2007) Mac mini.  I have tried different solutions including this one.  As an aside, I have been able in the past to install both FreeBSD 9 and 10 on a G4 Mac mini.  Which is supposed to be much more tedious as an Intel Mac mini.  But, the installer just won't boot for my 2011 (edit: 2007) Intel Mac mini.

I downloaded the memstick image, checked sha512.  Everything fine.  I copied it to the USB key using dd(1) and then tried to reboot holding alt.  Boots straight to macOS.  I installed reFind.  It detected correctly the BSD installer, even gave me a FreeBSD logo.  To no avail, it gave me the following error :





Following the instructions on refind page, I bless the FreeBSD 11 installer after mounting the EFI partition.  Did not work, Mac hesitated and booted straight to MacOS.  I tried making a USB stick installer from the iso.  Again, without success.  I burned the ISO, and I got this :




I tried the 32 bit installer. I tried to bless all the partitions. Nothing works, nothing boots.  I need help.

Here some terminal captures from  runs.  They shows my thumb-drive seems well created.  And I bless refind, and then bless directly the installer.


```
[Neon:: 20:26] [~] > diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS neon                    119.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS neon2                   499.1 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *15.9 GB    disk2
   1:                        EFI                         819.2 KB   disk2s1
   2: 83BD6B9D-7F41-11DC-BE0B-001560B84F0F               60.4 KB    disk2s2
   3:                FreeBSD UFS                         770.3 MB   disk2s3
   4:               FreeBSD Swap                         1.0 MB     disk2s4
[Neon:: 20:27] [~] > bless --info --getboot --verbose
EFI found at IODeviceTree:/efi
Current EFI boot device string is: '<array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>F845B1F7-CD84-4936-8850-3D9E070E7145</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk1s1</string></dict></array>'
Boot option is 8BE4DF61-93CA-11D2-AA0D-00E098032B8C:Boot0080
Processing boot option 'Mac OS X'
Boot option matches XML representation
Found device: disk1s1
Disk boot device detected
/dev/disk1s1
[Neon:: 20:27] [~] > sudo bless --device /dev/disk2s1 --setBoot --verbose
EFI found at IODeviceTree:/efi
GPT detected
Booter partition required at index 2
System partition found
Preferred system partition found: disk0s1
Returning booter information dictionary:
<CFBasicHash 0x7f99b2d02760 [0x7fff73d5afa0]>{type = mutable dict, count = 3,
entries =>
    0 : <CFString 0x1074e4fb0 [0x7fff73d5afa0]>{contents = "System Partitions"} = (
    disk0s1,
    disk2s1
)
    1 : <CFString 0x1074e4f70 [0x7fff73d5afa0]>{contents = "Data Partitions"} = (
    disk2s1
)
    2 : <CFString 0x1074e4f50 [0x7fff73d5afa0]>{contents = "Auxiliary Partitions"} = (
)
}

IOMedia disk2s1 has UUID 9ED183AC-6DBB-11E7-838D-002590EC6166
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    efi-boot-device='<array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>9ED183AC-6DBB-11E7-838D-002590EC6166</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk2s1</string></dict></array>'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-file'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-mkext'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-kernelcache'
NVRAM variable "boot-args" not set.
[Neon:: 20:27] [~] > bless --info --getboot --verbose
EFI found at IODeviceTree:/efi
Current EFI boot device string is: '<array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>9ED183AC-6DBB-11E7-838D-002590EC6166</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk2s1</string></dict></array>'
Boot option is 8BE4DF61-93CA-11D2-AA0D-00E098032B8C:Boot0080
Processing boot option 'Mac OS X'
Boot option matches XML representation
Found device: disk2s1
Disk boot device detected
/dev/disk2s1
[Neon:: 20:27] [~] >




[Neon:: 20:43] [/Volumes] > diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS neon                    119.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS neon2                   499.1 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *15.9 GB    disk2
   1:                        EFI                         819.2 KB   disk2s1
   2: 83BD6B9D-7F41-11DC-BE0B-001560B84F0F               60.4 KB    disk2s2
   3:                FreeBSD UFS                         770.3 MB   disk2s3
   4:               FreeBSD Swap                         1.0 MB     disk2s4
[Neon:: 20:43] [/Volumes] > sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk2s1 /Volumes/ESP/
Password:
[Neon:: 20:44] [/Volumes] > cd /Volumes/ESP/
[Neon:: 20:44] [/Volumes/ESP] > ls
EFI
[Neon:: 20:44] [/Volumes/ESP] > cd EFI/
[Neon:: 20:44] [/Volumes/ESP/EFI] > ls
BOOT
[Neon:: 20:44] [/Volumes/ESP/EFI] > cd BOOT/
[Neon:: 20:44] [ESP/EFI/BOOT] > ls
BOOTX64.EFI STARTUP.NSH
[Neon:: 20:44] [ESP/EFI/BOOT] > sudo bless --mount /Volumes/ESP/ --setBoot --file /Volumes/ESP/EFI/BOOT/
BOOTX64.EFI* STARTUP.NSH*
[Neon:: 20:44] [ESP/EFI/BOOT] > sudo bless --mount /Volumes/ESP/ --setBoot --file /Volumes/ESP/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
[Neon:: 20:44] [ESP/EFI/BOOT] > bless --info --getboot
/dev/disk2s1
[Neon:: 20:44] [ESP/EFI/BOOT] > bless --info --getboot --verbose
EFI found at IODeviceTree:/efi
Current EFI boot device string is: '<array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>9ED183AC-6DBB-11E7-838D-002590EC6166</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk2s1</string></dict><dict><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string>MediaFilePath</string><key>Path</key><string>\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI</string></dict></array>'
Boot option is 8BE4DF61-93CA-11D2-AA0D-00E098032B8C:Boot0080
Processing boot option 'Mac OS X'
Boot option matches XML representation
Found device: disk2s1
Disk boot device detected
/dev/disk2s1
[Neon:: 20:44] [ESP/EFI/BOOT] > sudo reboot
```


----------



## SirDice (Mar 7, 2018)

simonpie said:


> I tried making a USB stick installer from the iso.


Can't help much with the Mac issue itself but I can tell you that burning a USB stick from an ISO is never going to work for FreeBSD. As far as I know this 'trick' really only works for Linux installs. On FreeBSD the way the memstick and ISO images are built and booted is different. That's why we actually have two different images for it.


----------



## simonpie (Mar 11, 2018)

SirDice said:


> Can't help much with the Mac issue itself but I can tell you that burning a USB stick from an ISO is never going to work for FreeBSD. As far as I know this 'trick' really only works for Linux installs. On FreeBSD the way the memstick and ISO images are built and booted is different. That's why we actually have two different images for it.



Thank you, that's good to know.


----------



## trev (Mar 14, 2018)

I've successfully installed FreeBSD 11.1 using an external CD-ROM and booting the EFI option.
See my Apple System management Controller patch for the 2011 Mac Mini at https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/patch-to-support-asmc-on-mid-2011-macmini-5-2.64712/#post-377945


----------



## simonpie (Mar 17, 2018)

By external cd-rom, are you talking about an external drive ?  Not the drive internal to the mac-mini ?  Did you do anything special ?


----------



## simonpie (Mar 17, 2018)

Here is an update.  

I got an external dvd drive and burned a brand new FreeBSD 11.1 install DVD.  It did not work.  I tested the iso using a 2015 mac book pro and the installer started just fine using the same external dvd drive.  

I thought, I could put the mac mini in target disk mode and install from a macbook pro 2010 that I have.  Well, no, the 2010 macbook has the exact same behaviour as the mac mini.  It will not boot the memstick nor the dvd. 

Sadly, the mac mini in target disk mode will not appear in the freebsd installer on the macbook 2015.  Probably the thunderbolt/Firewire adapter that does not work under FreeBSD.

So, any one has any idea, or should I just buy a new machine ?


----------



## trev (Mar 18, 2018)

I had no problems installing FreeBSD 11.1-STABLE snapshot (never tried RELEASE) on my Mac Mini mid 2011 machine using an external CD-ROM drive and the Disc 1 ISO.

See https://www.freebsd.org/snapshots/ and https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/snapshots/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/

You need to choose the EFI option when presented with a menu - the Windows option hangs.

[Note: There is no internal CD/DVD drive in the Mac Mini 2011. On June 15, 2010, Apple dropped a built-in optical drive from all versions of the Mac Mini - are you sure you have a 2011 Mac Mini? ]


----------



## simonpie (Mar 19, 2018)

Darn, you are right.  I dont know where I got it was mid 2011.  It is mid 2007.  So I guess I need to find a way to change the title of the post.

[   Done - DD ]


----------



## trev (Mar 19, 2018)

I'm also running FreeBSD on a couple of late-2009 Mac Minis.

After much trial and error I have found that it is possible to install FreeBSD 10.3-Release (I installed the non-UEFI, amd64 version -- ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/10.3/FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso ) if you forgo the GPT partitioning scheme and instead use the MBR partitioning scheme.  This may work for your 2007 Mac Mini.

And here is the recipe for achieving this:

Boot the FreeBSD CD/DVD by turning on the Mac Mini and holding down the ALT/Option key until a Windows CD Icon appears. Choose that icon to boot. *Do not use the internal CD/DVD drive* for the FreeBSD disc as you will not be able to eject it. I found this out the hard way. Luckily I also had an external DVD drive so I could load the OSX installation and use Diskutil to eject the disk.
When the system has booted to the FreeBSD Installation Menu, choose Install.
Choose your default keymap.
Set your fully qualified hostname.
Select your distribution files.
Select the Guided Disk Setup option.
Select the "entire disk" option.
Change the Partitioning Scheme from the default highlighted GPT to MBR.
Accept the defaults if you don't mind having everything in the root partition, otherwise delete the default setup and create your own mount points and disk sizes.
Proceed with the rest of the installation as normal.
Eject the disc when the installation is completed.
Boot into an OSX installation DVD (I had a Mac Mini Leopard DVD handy), choose the language, then Utilities, then Terminal from the menu at the top of the screen.
In the terminal, enter  diskutil list and look for the FreeBSD partition (it will look like /dev/disk0sX)
In the terminal, enter  bless -device /dev/disk0sX -setBoot -legacy (where disk0sX is the identifier you found in step 4 above - if you have one internal hard disk it will be disk0s1 in all probability).
Exit from the terminal and Quit the installation process
Reboot and enjoy FreeBSD 10.3!
The only upside to using the MBR partitioning scheme is that FreeBSD boots much more quickly than when previously using the GPT partitioning scheme which had a delay of around 60 seconds before the Mac Mini would find the FreeBSD boot partition.

[Edit: You can then upgrade the system by recompiling from source if you want a later version 10.4-Release, 10.4-STABLE which I what I did. The `freebsd-update` command may work to do a binary upgrade from the release version to the next release version but I've not tried it. Additionally you may have luck installing the 10.4 version first off using ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso]


----------



## simonpie (Mar 20, 2018)

Hello,

Thank you for your answer.  I did burn the image you propose to a cd, to no avail.  It does not boot nor from the internal drive, nor from the external drive.  I tried to hold option to bring up the chooser, I cannot see the iso.  I even tried to setup some nvram settings using 

```
sudo nvram enable-legacy-orom-behavior=1
```
.  I tried booting holding C to force booting from the drive.  Does not work eithe way. 

I booted to mac os and from the external drive, the cd would mount normally, I can see the files and I can go to startup disk in the preference and choose that cd.  It will reboot, but it will have a strange behaviour :





I could not see the cd from the internal drive in macosx, it would show as blank.


```
[ananke:: 21:16:47] [../Stockage/CepH/install2] > ls -l Fre*                                   
-rw-r--r--  1 simonpie  staff  729845760 24 mar  2016 FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
[ananke:: 21:17:02] [../Stockage/CepH/install2] > gsha512sum FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso                 
8137966d9b62eb4bf597b047a8a43ae9f9a06f23ab7c812f229d32cbfab5bb0cc27089dcfb5d233e50a18620b75606e31ff01bb3084517746664b3b3c46c9d04  FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
[ananke:: 21:17:10] [../Stockage/CepH/install2] > grep -w FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso  CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64
SHA512 (FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso) = 8137966d9b62eb4bf597b047a8a43ae9f9a06f23ab7c812f229d32cbfab5bb0cc27089dcfb5d233e50a18620b75606e31ff01bb3084517746664b3b3c46c9d04
SHA512 (FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso.xz) = efbe9f7fa9e4a65d3640fe224e27b8674e3c551c401346f2ac9e2c09e7c854657977b788215c95c7219874b9f2357660462fdb281c3bea5c6ab48923318b95dc
[ananke:: 21:17:14] [../Stockage/CepH/install2] >
```






trev said:


> I'm also running FreeBSD on a couple of late-2009 Mac Minis.
> 
> After much trial and error I have found that it is possible to install FreeBSD 10.3-Release (I installed the non-UEFI, amd64 version -- ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/10.3/FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso ) if you forgo the GPT partitioning scheme and instead use the MBR partitioning scheme.  This may work for your 2007 Mac Mini.
> 
> ...




```
[ananke:: 21:16:47] [../Stockage/CepH/install2] > ls -l Fre*                                   
-rw-r--r--  1 simonpie  staff  729845760 24 mar  2016 FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
[ananke:: 21:17:02] [../Stockage/CepH/install2] > gsha512sum FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso                 
8137966d9b62eb4bf597b047a8a43ae9f9a06f23ab7c812f229d32cbfab5bb0cc27089dcfb5d233e50a18620b75606e31ff01bb3084517746664b3b3c46c9d04  FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
[ananke:: 21:17:10] [../Stockage/CepH/install2] > grep -w FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso  CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64
SHA512 (FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso) = 8137966d9b62eb4bf597b047a8a43ae9f9a06f23ab7c812f229d32cbfab5bb0cc27089dcfb5d233e50a18620b75606e31ff01bb3084517746664b3b3c46c9d04
SHA512 (FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso.xz) = efbe9f7fa9e4a65d3640fe224e27b8674e3c551c401346f2ac9e2c09e7c854657977b788215c95c7219874b9f2357660462fdb281c3bea5c6ab48923318b95dc
[ananke:: 21:17:14] [../Stockage/CepH/install2] >
```


----------



## trev (Mar 20, 2018)

Bummer!

I'll retrieve my own mid-2007 Mac Mini with Tiger from the back of the cupboard and run it up over the next couple of days and see how it goes with the FreeBSD disc.

Stay tuned


----------



## trev (Mar 20, 2018)

OK, I setup my mid-2007 Mac Mini (model 2,1 with1.83GHz Core 2 Duo and 2x 2GB DIMM restricted to 3GB usable) and experimented with the internal CDROM drive.

Boot method X: set from Tiger OSX for the system to boot from the internal optical drive.
Boot method Y:I booting into the Startup Manager (holding down ALT while booting) and selecting the Windows disc option.

The results are "interesting" 

1. FreeBSD 11.1-STABLE amd64 disc
   - a screen appears with the option to boot from 1. or 2. - both options are blank. Keyboard does         not respond.
  - this failure mode manifests itself for both boot method X and Y.

2. FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE i386 disc
   - boot method X produces the 1 or 2 no keyboard response failure mode.
   - boot method Y works and boots into the Installer.

3. FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE amd64 UEFI disc
   - both boot methods produces the boot from 1 or 2 no keyboard response failure mode

4. FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE amd64 disc
   - boot method X fails at the mountroot> prompt due to an ATA SCSI probe error suggesting hardware failure error 19. The optical drive cannot be detected.
   - boot method Y fails with the same error.

5. FreeBSD 9.1-RELEASE amd64 disc
   - boot method X works and boots into the installer
   - boot method Y works and boots into the installer
   - a bonus I noted was that the WiFi adapter is detected and driver loaded (ath0)

I did not try actually installing FreeBSD because I still need my Lazarus programming data on the drive for a little longer.

I suggest you try a 9.1-RELEASE amd64 disc 1 if you have 3 or 4GB of RAM, otherwise 10.1-RELEASE i386 if you have 2GB or less. Let us know how you go


----------



## simonpie (Mar 26, 2018)

Wow,

Thank you.  Why do you suggest tryin 9.1 if I have more RAM ?  I believe I have 4 GB, but i am aiming to upgrade to freebsd 11. 

Anyway, I shall try that tonight and keep you updated.


----------



## simonpie (Mar 26, 2018)

Are you sure you tried 9.1 ?  I can only find the 9.3 on the ftp site.


----------



## trev (Mar 26, 2018)

simonpie said:


> Why do you suggest tryin 9.1 if I have more RAM ?  I believe I have 4 GB, but i am aiming to upgrade to FreeBSD 11.



9.1 is a bootable 64 bit OS and 64 bit binaries use more memory. While you may have 4GB, the Mac Mini mid-2007 is only able to access 3GB.

If that installs successfully and boots, then you could try upgrading using `freebsd-update`


----------



## trev (Mar 26, 2018)

simonpie said:


> Are you sure you tried 9.1 ?  I can only find the 9.3 on the ftp site.



Yes - it is in the archive section... see http://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/9.1/


----------



## simonpie (Mar 27, 2018)

Thanks,

so I tried 9.3 and 9.1 

```
lftp ftp-archive.freebsd.org:/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/9.1> get FreeBSD-9.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
```

But none of them where seen correctly by the os.  Nor by booting holding option or C.  With the internal dvd drive or an external one.  Just to be sure that the cd was ok, I booted a late 2014 mac mini with it.  Booted fine until it tried to load the ahci sata controller where it hanged.  (the cd for 9.3 booted too, but stopped at the different point).

The 10.1 was no better, nothing works.

```
lftp ftp.freebsd.org:/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/10.1> get FreeBSD-10.1-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso.xz
```

Just for anyone interested, FreeBSD 11.1 dvd booted fine till the end on the 2014 macmini.  But I needed to hold option and choose efi boot loader (not the windows, holding C would not work).

Maybe we dont have the same firmware.  Mine is : "Version de la ROM de démarrage MM21.009A.B00" or 


```
[Neon:: 20:30] [~] > system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep -i "Version" | awk -F ':' '{print $1 $2}'
      Boot ROM Version MM21.009A.B00
      SMC Version (system) 1.19f0
[Neon:: 20:31] [~] >
```
Its still running a pretty ancient OS :

```
[Neon:: 20:30] [~] > sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion:    10.7.5
BuildVersion:    11G63
[Neon:: 20:30] [~] >
```

If that is not it, I will have to start to think to by a replacement computer.


----------



## trev (Mar 27, 2018)

My mid-2007 Mac Mini details:

o Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger)
o 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
o 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
o Matshita DVD-R UJ-85J, firmware revision FM0S (Apple shipped & supported)
o BootROM: MM21.009A.B00
o SMC version: 1.19f2    <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

My System Management Controller has a later firmware revision than your 1.19f0 version.

The "current" listing (archived on the Apple site at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518) shows no SMC update for the mid-2007 Mac Mini which is clearly incorrect as my version is later than yours. Clutching at straws... Contact Apple?


----------



## fvs (May 16, 2018)

trev said:


> I'm also running FreeBSD on a couple of late-2009 Mac Minis.
> 
> After much trial and error I have found that it is possible to install FreeBSD 10.3-Release (I installed the non-UEFI, amd64 version -- ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/10.3/FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso ) if you forgo the GPT partitioning scheme and instead use the MBR partitioning scheme.  This may work for your 2007 Mac Mini.
> 
> ...


----------



## simonpie (May 17, 2018)

Thanks, I got tired and bought a 2011 mac mini on ebay.  Worked right away.  It felt good after all that time I wasted on the 2007 macmini.

I am fairly  sure that I did tried that version, but I might still retry it later.  I could still use it.


----------



## trev (Jul 15, 2018)

This link may be helpful (I've not tried it, refer https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=215143):

https://mattgadient.com/2016/07/11/linux-dvd-images-and-how-to-for-32-bit-efi-macs-late-2006-models/

at "How-to: Making a standard Linux distro ISO compatible with 32-bit EFI Macs"


----------



## trev (Feb 13, 2019)

Just to "finish off" this thread, today I installed FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE i386 on the mid-2007 Mac mini successfully. Without "blessing" the HDD FreeBSD partition, one needs to hold down the Option/ALT key when booting to choose "Windows" on the HDD and FreeBSD springs to life. Or you can just "bless" the slice (disk0s1 - assuming internal HDD and FreeBSD uses the whole disk) with the OSX `bless` command:


```
bless –-device /dev/disk0s1 –-setBoot –-legacy
```

 and then it boots FreeBSD by default after about 20-30 seconds.

As another data point, the 12-STABLE i386 snapshot ISO of 20190207 fails to boot with a lua startup error. See attached PIC.


----------



## NapoleonWils0n (Feb 13, 2019)

trev said:


> Just to "finish off" this thread, today I installed FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE i386 on the mid-2007 Mac mini successfully. Without "blessing" the HDD FreeBSD partition, one needs to hold down the Option/ALT key when booting to choose "Windows" on the HDD and FreeBSD springs to life. Or you can just "bless" the slice (disk0s1 - assuming internal HDD and FreeBSD uses the whole disk) with the OSX `bless` command:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...



The bless command listed here is incorrect,
by default if the Freebsd boots into legacy mode which takes 30 seconds

So running that command wont reduce the boot time

I have a guide to install Freebsd on Mac hardware and blessing the hard drive so it boots in 3 or 4 seconds not 30 seconds

The correct bless command looks like this, after you have followed the steps in my how to guide


```
bless --mount /Volumes/ESP --setBoot --file /Volumes/ESP/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --shortform
```


----------



## trev (Feb 13, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> The bless command listed here is incorrect, by default if the Freebsd boots into legacy mode which takes 30 seconds



No, the `bless` command that I gave is not incorrect. Without it, the system does not boot at all. It just sits there at a white screen forever.



> So running that command wont reduce the boot time



Maybe not, but at least it will now boot without going through the boot-while-holding-down-Option/ALT and selecting the boot disk.



> I have a guide to install Freebsd on Mac hardware



You won't want to run ZFS on a mid 2007 Mac mini and do anything useful  There is under 2GB of memory (under 3GB if you install the maximum 4GB of memory).



> The correct bless command looks like this, after you have followed the steps in my how to guide
> 
> 
> ```
> ...



There is the problem right there.  The FreeBSD installer does not do an EFI boot on a mid 2007 Mac mini - you need a more modern Apple EFI. The EFI boot does work on my mid 2011 Mac mini and yes, it does boot in a few seconds.


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## trev (Feb 15, 2019)

Strangely, after the first successful reboot into FreeBSD which took approx 30-40 seconds, subsequent reboots now take 4 seconds from white/grey screen to black screen and FreeBSD spinner. <shrug>


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