Mini needs to grow up ;)

trev said:
Get out the putty knife and replace the drive. Only nerve-wracking the first time you do it :)
Click to expand...
No options? This has been the most toxic experience of my entire IT life. It's as if this thing is haunted...
- "boot off the CD rom" - that mac does'nt
- "boot off a USB stick" - not on this mac
- "hit Alt-R to get in recovery" - yea sure
- "insert the disk and hit Alt to see and select the other medium" - you kiddin'
Yep...I'm cured of mac for good :)
Edit - wait a screw-ball minute 🤔 can I replace the disk? Looking at the specs...it is SATA..I mean, then the whole mac joke is gone...clearly, I can...if I follow the instructions...how utterly exciting 😄
Edit - I got the OS back on it...wow...what a (joy) ride...
 
If you can't boot off the CDROM or USB, particularly with original media, it's not the "mac", it's that the thing is broken.

I hate breaking into those things to change the drive.
 
msplsh said:
If you can't boot off the CDROM or USB, particularly with original media, it's not the "mac", it's that the thing is broken
Click to expand...
Hmm, much as I suspected.
msplsh said:
I hate breaking into those things to change the drive.
Click to expand...
Eh, I always imagine hurting the thing as it lies helplessly on its back 😈
I am, however, beginning to wonder if it will be worth it - even if only for the victory moment - regarding the low specs these things had (still have) and if replacing the harddrive will be of any help...
 
So, after some this-n-that, the mac OS is back on-disk. So, now on to the real beef: a real OS called FreeBSD.
I tried the tutorial, and already, the first step fails. I'm afraid msplsh was right, this thing Is broken...
Even if I get to replace the harddrive...it may nog solve anything.
I did try to clean the drive, though (cleaning CDrom)...
To no avail...
 
When the mac turns on, right after the sound, if you hold only alt/option, the mac is supposed to show you the internal bootloader. Probably anything plugged on usb ports will shows up. Even if you unplug and plug the device from the usb port, the bootloader will redetect and shows the new boot devices. Perhaps you should try with a pendrive or external drive/cdrom and see if it works?
 
Menelkir said:
When the mac turns on, right after the sound, if you hold only alt/option, the mac is supposed to show you the internal bootloader. Probably anything plugged on usb ports will shows up. Even if you unplug and plug the device from the usb port, the bootloader will redetect and shows the new boot devices. Perhaps you should try with a pendrive or external drive/cdrom and see if it works?
Click to expand...
Well, it does show the available bootables. Except my own home cooking. And I'm beginning to...suspect my own (in)abilities, here 🙀 to properly set up a UEFI bootable thumbdrive...there is something essential I need to learn, here... 😉
Tomorrow (almost midnight, here) I take the mac back out of the electronics trash and give that a go, thanks 😄
 
The 2,1 Mac mini will not boot in EFI/UEFI mode with a FreeBSD release image because the mini uses a 64 bit CPU but 32 bit EFI. I believe someone posted that they had managed to do it on a Mac Pro model which suffers the same issue, but I don't believe they ever returned to say how.
 
FWIW I was able to install OpenBSD 6.6 on a similar Mac mini, might be a 2006 or so. I haven't tried 6.7, but I've been running OpenBSD on this guy since like 5.4 or something, just OpenBSD, no dual-booting. Also, granted, this is related to PPC machines and might not help at all but here's a page on getting into open firmware and mucking about to allow booting from USB on older Macs. Boot PowerPC Macs via USB 2.0 drives
 
trev said:
The 2,1 Mac mini will not boot in EFI/UEFI mode with a FreeBSD release image because the mini uses a 64 bit CPU but 32 bit EFI.
Click to expand...
Hmm yes, that is why I choose the 32 bit flavor of FreeBSD, in the hope that the 64 bit component not being there, the rest would go smoothly...
 
Butterfly said:
Hmm yes, that is why I choose the 32 bit flavor of FreeBSD, in the hope that the 64 bit component not being there, the rest would go smoothly...
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure the UEFI boot is 64-bit only (and afaik, apple devices only boots in EFI mode since some years ago). You need a bootable media that have something like BOOTX32.efi in the efi partition.
 
Done.
I have a doorstop with an apple logo
deurstopmac.jpg

😂 🤣😂🤣
 
Menelkir said:
In the worst case scenario, you can put a raspberry pi inside with a harddrive
Click to expand...
🙀 hey! that is a super idea! That is not even half silly! At least the performance would be better and it would let me get to know the PI...
Hmm, the very thought: gutting a mac to put a PI in it...a bit scifi innit? ;)
 
Butterfly said:
🙀 hey! that is a super idea! That is not even half silly! At least the performance would be better and it would let me get to know the PI...
Hmm, the very thought: gutting a mac to put a PI in it...a bit scifi innit? ;)
Click to expand...

Well it's a bit cruel if the machine works, I did with a Apple Time Machine case and a rapsberry pi 2 some years ago.
Anyways, did you tried rEFInd? I did a quick seach here and Ive found this.
 
Menelkir said:
Well it's a bit cruel if the machine works, I did with a Apple Time Machine case and a rapsberry pi 2 some years ago.
Anyways, did you tried rEFInd? I did a quick seach here and Ive found this.
Click to expand...

Hehe, I have a cruel streak 😈
I tried A refind, clearly, not the one I should try, as the behaviour differen. I'll dig it up again and try...that...version :)
 
Menelkir said:
Anyways, did you tried rEFInd?
Click to expand...
Tried it just now. No bootables. The CD I have put in, can be boot off a normal PC (makes mac an abnormal PC...hehe)...
Edit - I even tried to uninstall (the mac way) something and that even fails. I'm woindering if that thing has'nt been flashed (rom -wise, I mean) and needs to be unflashed.
I mean...anything I throw at it...it fails...
I dont get it...thins thing defies all reason...
 
Butterfly said:
Tried it just now. No bootables. The CD I have put in, can be boot off a normal PC (makes mac an abnormal PC...hehe)...
Edit - I even tried to uninstall (the mac way) something and that even fails. I'm woindering if that thing has'nt been flashed (rom -wise, I mean) and needs to be unflashed.
I mean...anything I throw at it...it fails...
I dont get it...thins thing defies all reason...
Click to expand...

Maybe the cd is lacking the proper refind_x32.efi?
 
Do you not have a copy of Snow Leopard or something to boot the machine with so you can verify that the hardware even works properly?
 
Menelkir said:
Maybe the cd is lacking the proper refind_x32.efi?
Click to expand...
Hmm, what if I unpack the ISO ands append to it by way of copying and then DD the whole folder t a menium?
msplsh said:
Do you not have a copy of Snow Leopard or something to boot the machine with so you can verify that the hardware even works properly?
Click to expand...
Yes, I do. Once booted, got any idea how to check the hardware?
Thanks :)
 
Run system profiler, check the SMART status on the drive. I'm not sure how to run AHT on it, that usually only came with the original discs.
 
Butterfly said:
Hmm, what if I unpack the ISO ands append to it by way of copying and then DD the whole folder t a menium?
Click to expand...

Or maybe installing a tiny linux (arch linux is easy to do this) with refind into a pendrive with some tools (refind, network, etc) so you can boot this pendrive (since it'll have the proper refind_x32 at ESP partition) and then copy this ESP folder into the mini hard drive and install refind with efibootmgr.
That should work but you'll end up having to set up your partitions manually to install freebsd, but hey, it'll work.
 
Menelkir said:
but you'll end up having to set up your partitions manually to install freebsd, but hey, it'll work.
Click to expand...
...the FreeBSD way...read:"consolework" (flexing my fingers as I drool at the very thouhght)...neat!
msplsh said:
Run system profiler, check the SMART status on the drive.
Click to expand...
I could/should do that...after all, it's totally atypical how this thing behaves. Basically nothing sticks to it...if it were a pan, it'd be a perfect Tefal pan 🤣
 
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