Safe to run a Linux LIVE CD on this iMac?

I have relatives using a Linux distro in another town. I need to run that same distro here somehow so as to help them keep it going properly. Is it safe to run a Live CD on this iMac, in the strictly CD mode? Will it confuse anything on the Mac as far as startup sequence or other ways? That is, are several doing that with no problems? If it is not a certainty, I'll have to set up a Linux-installed laptop here I guess. I have a verified-checksum disc to run as the Live CD. Also, of the apparently several ways to get the Mac to start off the disc, which works best?

Boot holding option, and choose the CD. That simple. No damage whatsoever. I ran Ubuntu 9.10 that way until I made space for it.

thanks

Howdy from Ellis County. And thanks.

I have run the Live CD's of both Ubuntu and Open Suse on my Intel Mac. Work great. Do what Deus above does. Hold Option at the Startup Sound and select the Live CD. I do it for testing new distros of Linux without installing.

Another thanks! My fear of course is on the next normal boot, OSX not booting up right. Seems I have seen on forums that some had that problem. If this works for me here on 10.4.11 can save me some time and money. I will try this with the disc I burned for LinuxMint 8, which is a humdinger of a good one.

Minimalist said:

Howdy from Ellis County. And thanks.

Click to expand...

Got a close friend from Midlothian.

If you have any issues with OSX booting fast, get into OSX and open System Preferences and click in Startup Disk. click on the OSX Hard Drive an on Restart. That will take care of any issues if you have one. Once the Linux CD is out of the drive I usually have no issues.

IT SEES 'WINDOWS" ... yikes

Did the option startup and it sees the other disc as "windows".....

does that make any sense? ... I have the disc named right I think, but it sees something else I guess... wonder should I chance it...

As long as you're just booting from the disc and not partitioning, formatting or installing anything to your hard drive you'll be fine.

Got LinuxMint running off CD but no sound

So I now have run LinuxMint off the CD, and it worked swiftly though with a good amount of what I guess is disc-spin distortion on the screen. But I had no sound, so perhaps that has to do with the codecs that are installed upon request right after you install this distro, and are missing on the Live CD method. May go get Puppy Linux and see if I get the same result there. In which case I might suspect it is a Mac preference setting needed.

Sound is normal when I returned to OSX.

Ubuntu and Open Suse had sound and everything else on my C2d Mini. What Distro of Linux is this?