Installing fedora(workstation or server) on Intel MacPro 2.1

Ask Fedora
1

Hello,

Please drop me a hint, what do I have to do in order to be able to boot an Intel MacPro 2.1 (dual xeon) from USB.
I already created a bootable USB but the mac doesn’t see it during the boot process.

CPUs are 64 bits but it has efi32 so it’s difficult to boot

Thanks

2

I seem to remember using rEFInd to install on those type of boxes back in the day. Not sure if it’s still relevant, but it basically let you chainload from the older Mac EFI.

3

yeah, this mac already has ubuntu on it which I installed back in 2020 but I dont remember what exactly I did :slight_smile:

4

Hah, yeah. I remember using rEFInd to do this with Fedora on older Mac’s, but likewise no longer remember how. :sweat_smile:

5

maybe someone else will remember and will drop me a hint here :slight_smile:

6

Is this an older generation of Mac Pros? I did install Fedora on an older MacBook, with no particular tricks needed.

Do you keep pressing the Option (⌥) key during boot-up, in oder to reveal the Startup Manager?

7

Yep, I did press.
USB doesn’t show up to load from :frowning:

Yes, from 2006 :slight_smile:

8

So the USB doesn’t show up, but other boot-up options (macOS, Ubuntu) do? That’s unfortunate.

This might be obvious, but did you by any chance check if the USB was created correctly, by booting from it on another machine maybe?

You might also want to check if disabling System Integrity Protection, as outline here changes anything.

9

Only Ubunto does show up and I can even boot into it.

10

The macOS installation has been removed?

11

Yeah, long time ago!

12

From what I’ve read, it’s generally a good idea to keep the macOS installation, or at least the Recovery partition/disk, in order to be able to perform certain low-level operations.

Pressing Cmd+R when booting would reveal the macOS recovery system, if still available. If not, you might want to try reinstalling the original macOS which came with the Mac, in case the installation media is still available.

13

right, I was thinking about that.
Also, someone told me to pull out all the HD from the bays and leave only the USB connected and reset the NVRAM, maybe this helps.
I will try. Thanks anyways!

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14

Good luck!

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