Say hello to PLOP:Speaking of Linux, this marks the second week I'm spending using Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS as my daily driver on my MacBook 4,1.
I have to say, I'm thoroughly impressed. With the exception of the iSight camera, everything works out of the box. WiFi, sound, graphics drivers...even Bluetooth audio. (And getting the iSight to work didn't take much effort.) Installation was as easy as running my system off of a burned ISO. I admit this probably sounds a little basic to people who've been running Linux on their older hardware for a while, but whenever I've tried to boot and install Ubuntu, Mint, or Lubuntu on my older MacBooks, it's always ended up failing miserably. For example, running the Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS installer from my burned vanilla DVD .ISO worked perfectly, yet when I did the same with Lubuntu 20.04.1 LTS I got a "Boot Device Not Found" error. WTF?
My usualy UI niggles with Ubuntu aside, my main problem is that in my experience there doesn't seem to be an easy way to do this with the Macs that arguably need this kind of upgrade the most: '06-'07 Intel Macs with 32-bit EFI, especially Core Duo equipped models. I've tried almost all of the modded .ISOs from mattgadient.com and nothing would work; they'd all just boot to a black screen with a flashing cursor. Maybe there's something I've missed?
Plop Boot Manager 5.0 - Download
www.plop.at
Boot off a PLOP CD, then install the OS from a USB. Worked like a charm on a Mac Pro 1,1 I tried it on many moons ago.