Installing Mint on USB on a Mac

[spectre1989]

Hi all,

I want to install Mint on a USB stick for occasional use. The computer I'm doing all of this on is a Macbook Pro. There are a lot of guides out there, most of them include a step where I install rEFIt, which I'd rather not do. The thing which is irritating me, is that from my Windows partition I made a live USB of Mint using the Universal USB Installer from pendrivelinux.com. I can see the stick and boot from it by holding down the Alt key like I do when I want to boot to windows. But whenever I run the installer on the live USB and install Mint on a second USB stick, that one never shows up in the bootcamp menu! Is there any way to get it to do so? How does the Universal USB Installer do it?

Thanks
Joe

[3fRI]

First, you need either rEFIt or rEFInd to dual-boot Linux on a Mac. Bootcamp won't do it, unless the application has changed recently. Second, you can install Mint on a USB stick, but you won't be able to boot Mint from it--unless Apple/Mac has changed how it boots. Instead, I recommend that you download the iso and install VirtualBox. You can then install Mint in VB. The alternative is to burn the iso image on a DVD and then boot as a live disk.

[spectre1989]

First, you need either rEFIt or rEFInd to dual-boot Linux on a Mac. Bootcamp won't do it, unless the application has changed recently. Second, you can install Mint on a USB stick, but you won't be able to boot Mint from it--unless Apple/Mac has changed how it boots. Instead, I recommend that you download the iso and install VirtualBox. You can then install Mint in VB. The alternative is to burn the iso image on a DVD and then boot as a live disk.

I don't understand, why is it that bootcamp will boot my Live USB but it's impossible for bootcamp to boot an actual installation?

[3fRI]

First, you need either rEFIt or rEFInd to dual-boot Linux on a Mac. Bootcamp won't do it, unless the application has changed recently. Second, you can install Mint on a USB stick, but you won't be able to boot Mint from it--unless Apple/Mac has changed how it boots. Instead, I recommend that you download the iso and install VirtualBox. You can then install Mint in VB. The alternative is to burn the iso image on a DVD and then boot as a live disk.

I don't understand, why is it that bootcamp will boot my Live USB but it's impossible for bootcamp to boot an actual installation?

If you want to install Linux--any Linux distro--on your Mac, you need to understand that Apple/Mac uses a different boot system, which is EFI. The result is that what boots easily on a Windows or Linux PC might not boot at all on an MacBook or iMac, even if you've installed rEFIt or rEFInd. If you want to install Linux Mint on your MacBook, then I advise you to install either rEFit or rEFInd first. Personally I've never had a problem installing or running rEFIt with Ubuntu-based distros, but I've had boot issues with non-Ubuntu-based distros.

[spectre1989]

If you want to install Linux--any Linux distro--on your Mac, you need to understand that Apple/Mac uses a different boot system, which is EFI. The result is that what boots easily on a Windows or Linux PC might not boot at all on an MacBook or iMac, even if you've installed rEFIt or rEFInd. If you want to install Linux Mint on your MacBook, then I advise you to install either rEFit or rEFInd first. Personally I've never had a problem installing or running rEFIt with Ubuntu-based distros, but I've had boot issues with non-Ubuntu-based distros.

I know Mac uses a different boot system, what I'm asking is why my Mac has no problem booting a Live USB stick but won't boot a proper installation from a USB stick?

[3fRI]

If you want to install Linux--any Linux distro--on your Mac, you need to understand that Apple/Mac uses a different boot system, which is EFI. The result is that what boots easily on a Windows or Linux PC might not boot at all on an MacBook or iMac, even if you've installed rEFIt or rEFInd. If you want to install Linux Mint on your MacBook, then I advise you to install either rEFit or rEFInd first. Personally I've never had a problem installing or running rEFIt with Ubuntu-based distros, but I've had boot issues with non-Ubuntu-based distros.

I know Mac uses a different boot system, what I'm asking is why my Mac has no problem booting a Live USB stick but won't boot a proper installation from a USB stick?

I don't know why. For some reason, Mac doesn't support it. Perhaps you need to ask someone at Apple/Mac.

[3fRI]

OK, since Mint is Ubuntu-based, this should help you out. See: http://www.unixmen.com/how-to-install-u ... cbook-air/

[spectre1989]

I don't know why. For some reason, Mac doesn't support it. Perhaps you need to ask someone at Apple/Mac.

Actually it does, I just managed to get it working. I created an iso of the usb stick I installed mint on, and then used the Universal USB installer to install it on a USB stick like it would with a live USB, and it shows up in the bootcamp menu by holding down alt.