Author Topic: PXE Booting a MAC How to  (Read 20553 times)

garagevibes

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PXE Booting a MAC How to
« on: June 03, 2011, 01:06:02 pm »
Hi all,

I have been using LinuxMCE for a few years now but this is my first post so hello all.

I have had an old Mini Mac connected to my main TV for a while and find I really dont use it to much so decided it would make a great media director, of course theres the old issue of PXE booting the Mac but after a few months of searching I think I have found the answer and since I couldn't find it on here I thought I would share.

If like me you have been looking forever how to do this you will like me kick yourself with how easy it is.

First go here: h**p://rom-o-matic.net/gpxe/gpxe-git/gpxe.git/contrib/rom-o-matic/ and select the output format to "ISO bootable image", the NIC to "all-drivers" and then leave the rest all blank as is.
Then select the "Get image" button to download the iso file.

Once downloaded burn the iso to a blank disk and put it into your mac, then either reboot the mac and hold the control key or alt key (if you have a standard keyboard) during boot and select the cd, or in OSX go to system pref -> startup disk -> then select the cd and reboot (this will then always boot from the cd until you press the control key as above and select the hardrive).

As the cd loads it will start a small linux distro and create a pxe enviroment and then pxe to the core as normal, once your on linuxmce you can of course eject the disk until you need to reboot.

I have tested this process many times and it works great.

I do have an issue at the moment though which some of you maybe able to help with it seems that the av wizard freezes on the audio connection option unless I select no sound and even then when Sarah should pop up i get a black screen with a mouse, I think I know the reason and its to do with the intel drivers and alsa version however when I try to download the toolchains to compile the alsa module the apt-get freezes at about 46%, I thought this maybe due to the sources list but they are identical to the ones on my core and my acer revo which compliled the new alsa drivers fine, Im tempted to do a complete restore of the system with the current snapshot anyway unless anyone has an idea what this could be.

Many thanks


Daniel

merkur2k

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Re: PXE Booting a MAC How to
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2011, 04:27:44 pm »
this is very good information :)
however to best be of use to others, it would be better to make a wiki page about it.

garagevibes

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Re: PXE Booting a MAC How to
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2011, 08:28:30 pm »
I hope this is of some use to someone, I have tried to edit the current mac mini wiki page but when I save my changes I get told I'm blocked from editing the post by bongowongo due to possible spamming? sorry if this can be changes I will happily add to the wiki for others.
Thanks

bongowongo

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Re: PXE Booting a MAC How to
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2011, 08:35:13 pm »
Sorry, my fault, I will correct it ASAP.
You will be able to post in 2 hours.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2011, 08:37:00 pm by bongowongo »