Boot 12.3 LiveUSB on Macbook

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hello,

I am currently trying to boot the Gnome Live-CD of OpenSuse 12.3 on my old Macbook (Version 4,1: detailed Specs can be found here).

Grub is found and I can select one of the two boot entries (normal or failsafe).

It does not matter which one I select, the system will start to boot and display “loading linux…” and “loading initrd…”.
This step takes about 30 seconds to a minute.
After that it will only display an image and stop booting any further.

I alread tried the following kernel options without success:

  • noapic
  • acpi=off
  • nomodeset

When I set splash=0 and leave all other options as default the boot process will hang after the following message:


[FAILED] Failed to start LSB: VirtualBox Linux Additions kernel modules.
See 'systemctl status vboxadd.service' for details.

Unfortunately I can not enter any input to check the details.

Moreover there are multiple messages of the type:

ACPI Warning: <...> SystemIO conflicts with Region <...>

I wonder if anyone has an idea what other options I could try to get openSUSE to boot.

Thanks in advance for any help or ideas,

Gjallar

#2

I’m going to hazard a guess and say it is because you are on Macbook, and that the Gnome Live-CD of OpenSuse 12.3 is for PC’s. I could be wrong, though.

#3

Don’t think so, otherwise it would not boot at all.

@OP I don’t think the Virtualbox message is important now, the second one IMHO is, but I know that some of us have Macbooks, be patient, they’ll drop in.

#4

True. I didn’t know that Macs could run a version of PC OS. I learn everyday. :slight_smile:

#5

In the old days Mac’s used to have RISC processors, some distros ( openSUSE / SUSE as well ) had, next to x86 and x86_64, ppc packages. These days Mac(book)s have Intel processors, NVIDIA cards, they can run linux fine.

Plus, linux no longer is just a PC OS. I bet you have linux based devices, like mp3-players, DVD-players, flatscreen TV’s, HD-decoders.

#6

Just to report back.

I finally decided to just install openSUSE by using the DVD :).

I only had to use ELILO as bootloader, as Grub2-EFI did not work.

#7

I would be interested to hear the results of this, as there is usually a considerable amount of hacking involved to install another OS on a Mac without using Boot Camp. Apple’s EFI is very unfriendly to anything other than Mac OS X.

#8

But 12.3 DVD on EFI boots using grub2-efi. So if you were able to boot installation DVD, grub2-efi works. Could you explain in more details what did not work?

#9

I had the same experience, the Live CD didn’t work, nor did the Network Install CD, but the DVD did. I got the same hang partway through boot, and none of the options available on the CD helped. I’m also on a MacBook4,1.

There’s definitely no issue with OpenSUSE being “for PC’s”, I’ve been able to boot Live CD for Debian, Fedora, etc with no problem.