Anyone Running Linux on an Intel Mac Mini?

I am curious to see if anyone has successfully got Linux running on an Intel Mac Mini? If so, were all the devices (internet, CD/DVD, speakers, mic, etc.) all supported properly? Any problems with fan noise? What Linux did you try? Thanks!

I think it won't be as affective as if it were running on a PC. Bootcamp only supplies drivers for Windows.

Unless, the Linux distro you installed supports the Mac Mini's hardware.

I just threw in my Knoppix 4.0 CD into the drive of my Mac Mini (see notes on left).

It booted into KDE, Mouse detected (Microsoft Wireless Mouse), keyboard detected (i-rocks). No buffer issues, unable to detect hard drive (partitioned FAT32 and OS X via bootcamp).

found USB, Firewire, video card, not sure about sound. Dual Chip Board detected.


SLAX bootup: Sound works, video card works.. I get a minor lag when moving mouse. auto-mounted hard drives are sda3 (my Fat32 bootcamp partition). Not sure about dual core, not sure about OS X HDD detection (doubt it).

Slackware 10.2: No luck. kernel panic right after bootup.

Haven't bothered installing a linux distro on my mac mini just yet, and yeah.. it appears the "base.i" type kernels for PC boards work just fine with mactels, the problem you run into is device detection is kind of hit or miss.

SLAX sounds like they'll be including proper Mac Mini support after a post I had on their place. Personally, I think SLAX is the way to go for down and dirty linux. :]

Thanks for the updates Logan.

The lack of OS X hard drive support will be due to the absence of the hfsplus kernel module. So far the only Linux distro I have played with that will read Mac OS X formatted external drives is SuSE Linux 9.3, which does include this module, delivering full read/write support. I suspect that the others simpply don't have it included in their default line up.

SLAX does sound good, and it looks like with a little work, it could fill the bill. My *guess* is that SuSE will work too, but I'll have to try it out and see.

Google it, I've read that people have gotten Linux running comfortably under OS X on an Intel Mac.