Question for the Techies: Dual Booting MacOS and Linux

I have a 2014 Mac Mini. It originally had MacOS "El Capitan", and I've gone as far as upgrading to "High Sierra". I originally needed the machine when I worked with a client that specified Apple devices, but since that contract ended the Mac has largely functioned as a rather expensive monitor stand!

It's the base model and while it has never given a sparkling performance, I was getting fed up with it taking an age to do the most basic of tasks, and I decided to have a go at running Linux on it. I found an internet guide and successfully installed Ubuntu using REFIND as the boot loader.

Tonight I booted into MacOS, it decided it wanted to do a software update, and after the subsequent reboot it will only load MacOS. I've done a bit of Googling and there are a few articles on the subject, but most of them had me baffled after a few paragraphs. As far as I can tell, the Linux installation is still there on its original partition(s). I've tried to reinstall REFIND, to no avail - it still just boots straight into MacOS.

Has anyone else had similar issues, and if you've overcome them, would you be willing to share your secrets?

If it was me, I'd be using a virtual machine and not bothering with dual boot.

Rather than faffing about if you don't need the MacOS side, why don't you flog it on eBay and the like and just buy a PC to run Linux? (If you wanted portability Intel NUC etc.) - being a Mac it probably holds decent resale value!

yorkie said:

If it was me, I'd be using a virtual machine and not bothering with dual boot.

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The problem with that is that the "host" OS is becoming so resource hungry that the "guest" runs fairly poorly. I have tried.

johntea said:

Rather than faffing about if you don't need the MacOS side, why don't you flog it on eBay and the like and just buy a PC to run Linux? (If you wanted portability Intel NUC etc.) - being a Mac it probably holds decent resale value!

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I don't actually need MacOS at all. I hated it from the moment I first had to use it, and it would probably be far simpler if I just nuked it and installed Linux as the sole OS. I'll do that if I can't find a solution to my conundrum, but I'd rather try to find a way to make the two co-exist.

The Mac isn't my main computer, by the way - I have a 2012 vintage PC running Windows 10 quite happily (that will run virtualised guests when asked to!). I only brought the Mac back into use when my laptop gave up and I needed something to use when away from home.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, though!

yorkie said:

If it was me, I'd be using a virtual machine and not bothering with dual boot.

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I don't find VMs much good with peripherals, and for me using a peripheral which is not supported in my main OS would be the main reason for a VM*. My main OS is Linux, but believe it or not I dual-boot into Windows 95 to use an old but fast scanner that has drivers for nothing else. The scanner will run in Win95 in a VM but it takes about 20 minutes for one scan instead of 2 seconds, and then it's corrupted.

As for the OP's problem, I'd never heard of REFIND, Sounds like the Mac update trod all over it. I use Grub 2which is more or less the Linux standard boot loader, but less eye candy than REFIND I gather. If you boot Linux from a rescue CD or pen drive, grub-install will find all the OS's on the computer and set up a boot menu.

* The other reason for a VM is for scam baiting. I keep a honeypot copy of WinXP in a VM ready to boot and play with scammers calling from "Windows" in India to tell me I have a virus.

yorkie said:

If it was me, I'd be using a virtual machine and not bothering with dual boot.

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AFAIAA, you cannot legally run macOS as a guest OS on anything other than Apple hardware.

GusB said:

I don't actually need MacOS at all. I hated it from the moment I first had to use it, and it would probably be far simpler if I just nuked it and installed Linux as the sole OS. I'll do that if I can't find a solution to my conundrum, but I'd rather try to find a way to make the two co-exist.

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In that case, I'd go with @Lucan's suggestion - boot into recovery from a USB drive, install GRUB to boot to Linux and then delete the macOS partition.

This sounds remarkably similar to a problem I had with dual-booting Windows following upgrade and 'grubbing' around (REFIND rings a bell) for a while to try to create a boot menu wasn't successful. I seem to remember reading that this problem is quite common ; i.e. works as a dual boot until the original OS upgrades - and for some reason, difficult / impossible to get back to a dual-boot.

In other words, I was left with a Windows or Linux ultimatum and I currently sit at a Linux computer devoid of Windows.

najaB said:

AFAIAA, you cannot legally run macOS as a guest OS on anything other than Apple hardware.

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If you were to try it, I think you should be locked up anyway.

433N said:

If you were to try it, I think you should be locked up anyway.

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Back when I was in a support role I often wished to be able to run a macOS VM. We were a mixed environment, mostly Windows but the occasional Mac. Being able to try things out without having to have a spare Mac around would have been really handy.

It sounds to me like the OSX update has overwritten your hard drive's boot sector (or the modern UEFI equivalent) under the assumption that it's the only OS installed. That's the experience I'm used to from dual booting Windows!

najaB said:

AFAIAA, you cannot legally run macOS as a guest OS on anything other than Apple hardware.

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433N said:

If you were to try it, I think you should be locked up anyway.

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I did that once on an IBM Thinkpad (an R60e iirc) just to see if I could get it triple-booting Linux, XP, and OSX. OSX ran, but the lack of drivers for audio and networking interfaces made it a bit useless for me.

krus_aragon said:

did that once on an IBM Thinkpad (an R60e iirc) just to see if I could get it triple-booting Linux, XP, and OSX. OSX ran, but the lack of drivers for audio and networking interfaces made it a bit useless for me.

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Hackintoshes are possible, just difficult to get working unless you've got the right hardware.