Help me Obi-wan Kenobi

Firstly I need to state that I’m new to the Mac world with my first Mac being a second hand Apple MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16Ghz 13" (White) given to me a few days ago. However, I’m by no means new to computing, just more familiar with Linux and Windows environments. This will be a long post but to summarise, I’ve made a boo boo and I’m attempting to reinstall Mac OS X Tiger from a USB formatted with TransMac on my Windows machine using a DVD installer.dmg file. Why, what on earth happened? I was attempting to setup dual booting with Ubuntu. I can hear you facepalming, I would too if I were you!

I found rEFIt Boot Loader in this article (http://fosswire.com/post/2009/03/how-to-ubuntu-810-on-white-macbook/) and installed it. Once the boot menu loaded I thought I’ll scrap the idea of installing Ubuntu and try installing Kali instead, thus I found rEFInd from this forum (http://www.kalilinux.net/community/threads/how-to-install-kali-linux-on-macbook-pro-and-boot-it-via-efi-refit.516/). I followed the installation from the Dev (http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html#osx), when entering this command (sudo bless --mount /Volumes/esp --setBoot --file /Volumes/esp/efi/refind/refind_x64.efi) in step 8 and rebooting (several times) nothing happened, no boot manu, so I had the idea to try the other command as I’m a trial and error kind of guy (sudo bless --setBoot --folder /efi/refind --file /efi/refind/refind_x64.efi ). From what I can gather the first command I tried is for the ESP/EFI file system (can I get some clarification if ESP/EFI is a file system? I SEEMS like it) while the second is for the HFS+ file system.

Well it would seem like my Macbook uses the ESP/EFI file system as once I ran the second command by Macbook refuses to boot. Normal boot ends in a folder flashing a question mark. Holding the options key during boot gives me an EFI Boot option but when selected it just hangs at a white screen. When creating a MAC OS X Install DVD on a USB using TransMac and a .dmg file, the MAC OS X Install DVD option is available, selecting it the Apple icon with swirly thing comes up, it seems to be working… But the Apple icon is replaced with a circle with a dash through it and just hangs there. I have no idea if that means the USB isn’t formatted correctly (seems to be if if can be found in the boot menu), or if the MAC OS X image is the wrong one for this model (10.6)…
Basically I’m just trying to reinstall MAC OS X using a USB so I can at least use it! And perhaps try dual booting another day, after I learnt how to reinstall MAC OS X properly.

From what I’ve researched, this is my exact MacBook (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/specs/macbook-core-2-duo-2.16-white-13-mid-2007-specs.html) it came with Tiger 10.4.11.

Help me Obi-wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.

Firstly I need to state that I’m new to the Mac world with my first Mac being a second hand Apple MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16Ghz 13" (White) given to me a few days ago. However, I’m by no means new to computing, just more familiar with Linux and Windows environments. This will be a long post but to summarise, I’ve made a boo boo and I’m attempting to reinstall Mac OS X Tiger from a USB formatted with TransMac on my Windows machine using a DVD installer.dmg file. Why, what on earth happened? I was attempting to setup dual booting with Ubuntu. I can hear you facepalming, I would too if I were you!

I found rEFIt Boot Loader in this article (http://fosswire.com/post/2009/03/how-to-ubuntu-810-on-white-macbook/) and installed it. Once the boot menu loaded I thought I’ll scrap the idea of installing Ubuntu and try installing Kali instead, thus I found rEFInd from this forum (http://www.kalilinux.net/community/threads/how-to-install-kali-linux-on-macbook-pro-and-boot-it-via-efi-refit.516/). I followed the installation from the Dev (http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html#osx), when entering this command (sudo bless --mount /Volumes/esp --setBoot --file /Volumes/esp/efi/refind/refind_x64.efi) in step 8 and rebooting (several times) nothing happened, no boot manu, so I had the idea to try the other command as I’m a trial and error kind of guy (sudo bless --setBoot --folder /efi/refind --file /efi/refind/refind_x64.efi ). From what I can gather the first command I tried is for the ESP/EFI file system (can I get some clarification if ESP/EFI is a file system? I SEEMS like it) while the second is for the HFS+ file system.

Well it would seem like my Macbook uses the ESP/EFI file system as once I ran the second command by Macbook refuses to boot. Normal boot ends in a folder flashing a question mark. Holding the options key during boot gives me an EFI Boot option but when selected it just hangs at a white screen. When creating a MAC OS X Install DVD on a USB using TransMac and a .dmg file, the MAC OS X Install DVD option is available, selecting it the Apple icon with swirly thing comes up, it seems to be working… But the Apple icon is replaced with a circle with a dash through it and just hangs there. I have no idea if that means the USB isn’t formatted correctly (seems to be if if can be found in the boot menu), or if the MAC OS X image is the wrong one for this model (10.6)…
Basically I’m just trying to reinstall MAC OS X using a USB so I can at least use it! And perhaps try dual booting another day, after I learnt how to reinstall MAC OS X properly.

From what I’ve researched, this is my exact MacBook (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/specs/macbook-core-2-duo-2.16-white-13-mid-2007-specs.html) it came with Tiger 10.4.11.

Help me Obi-wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.

BIG_EARs2501 said:

or if the MAC OS X image is the wrong one for this model (10.6)…

Click to expand...

Just a thought, (your post indicates that you are far more competent than me.)

Where did you get the image from?
When I tried to install OSX on my first Macbook, I hadn't realised that the (grey) discs were machine specific. Once I switched to a retail disc, it installed without any problem.

.

Good luck. CB