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Difficulty installing on a 2018 Mac Mini

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deb_user
Posts: 3
Joined: 2022-08-03 04:50

Difficulty installing on a 2018 Mac Mini

#1 Post by deb_user »

Hello, new user here!

I'm trying to install the latest Debian (11.4.0) on a partitioned (for dual boot) Mac Mini from 2018, that's a machine with a T2 security chip, and I got somewhat stuck. Before installing, I first boot using the recovery portion of macOS to disable SIP and use the "Startup Security Utility" to allow booting from another OS. Then I boot using the Debian image written to an external USB drive in order to install on the mini's internal drive, but it gets stuck at installing the GRUB boot loader, it says: "Unable to install GRUB in dummy. Executing 'grub-install-dummy' failed. This is a fatal error".

Anyone has experience installing Debian on a 2018 Mini and know how to proceed? If more info is needed, I'm of course happy to provide the details.

Thanks in advance!

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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Difficulty installing on a 2018 Mac Mini

#2 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

I've seen that error before: viewtopic.php?t=145105 — the OP in that thread was attempting to use a Logical partition for the ESP.

Please share the disposition of the target drive's partition table.

Code: Select all

# parted --list
^ That can be run from any live environment.
deadbang

deb_user
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Joined: 2022-08-03 04:50

Re: Difficulty installing on a 2018 Mac Mini

#3 Post by deb_user »

OK, I used the live environment to get the following:

Code: Select all

user@debian:~$ parted --list
bash: parted: command not found
user@debian:~$ sudo parted --list
Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/sda appears to be used, you can
fix the GPT to use all of the space (an extra 1459467776 blocks) or continue
with the current setting? 
Fix/Ignore? Ignore                                                        
Error: Can't have overlapping partitions.
Ignore/Cancel? Cancel
Model: WD My Passport 0740 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 750GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags: 

Model: APPLE SSD AP0512M (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    File system     Name                  Flags
 1      24.6kB  315MB  315MB   fat32           EFI System Partition  boot, esp
 2      315MB   234GB  234GB
 3      234GB   484GB  250GB   ext4            DEBIAN                msftdata
 4      484GB   500GB  16.0GB  linux-swap(v1)  SWAP                  msftdata
(the 750 GB disk is external, used for the live environment...)

Thanks for your reply by the way!

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Re: Difficulty installing on a 2018 Mac Mini

#4 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

Partition 3 should not have any flags set and partition 4 should have the swap flag applied. Those msftdata flags are probably messing things up so remove them.

I would just delete those two partitions and make 2 new ones to fill the space completely. Make sure the flags are set correctly.

This is a GPT disk for a UEFI system so make sure the installer boots in UEFI mode. Disable "Legacy" mode (CSM) from the firmware options, if it exists.

I don't have any experience with Macs (thank ****) so I can't help with the specifics.
deadbang

deb_user
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Re: Difficulty installing on a 2018 Mac Mini

#5 Post by deb_user »

Well, some progress. Here's what I did:

- I booted from the live environment and deleted partitions 3 and 4, and made new ones assuming the debian disk utility would do the right thing in terms of flags etc. Which it did.

- I tried to install debian again from an external drive, but failed again, with the same error. I finished the install anyway, skipping the GRUB boot loader install section.

- Assuming GRUB was not installed, I thought of doing it manually based on the following page: https://wiki.debian.org/GrubEFIReinstall, section "Using the rEFInd rescue media". I could not boot from any rescue media as described in that section.

- I then thought of installing rEFInd from within the macOS environment, using macOS's terminal application.

- I now could boot into the rEFInd screen, seeing an icon for an EFI boot, my just installed debian OS, and my existing macOS.

The weird thing is, I thought I tried that before and at that time rEFInd could not see the debian install... but now it can! Perhaps having the newly made partitions helped. I do think though, that rEFInd is now doing the boot loading; I did not reinstall any grub-efi because before I got to that step (I mean as described in the page mentioned above), I tried to boot with the help from rEFInd...

Anyway, for now it works, albeit perhaps not entirely as it should... Although I'm not really sure this is related to T2-based Macs, I could install debian an a 2010 MacBook Air, and a 2015 MacBook Pro, both without a T2...

Anyway, thanks again!

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