A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I'm going round and round with my Mac right this moment
and one thing that could fix it nicely would be a Linux live boot
image that I could run on the mac and mount the main drive which,
thank every deity that exist, is not encrypted.  I was smart
enough not to fall in to that trap.

	Apple has locked down their latest update to osx and the
normal method for running it in single-user mode appears to no
longer work.

	If I could mount the system drive, I can bypass all this
securinoia and fix the problem.

Thanks for any and all constructive suggestions.

Martin McCormick

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

If your speakers the mac uses to talk are internal to the mac, Jenux
would probably work for you.  If you attach speakers by means of usb
ports Jenux cannot install with usb speakers and talk.

https://nashcentral.duckdns.org/projects/Jenux-2020.01.15-x86_64.iso
https://nashcentral.duckdns.org/projects/Jenux-2020.01.15-x86_64.iso.sha512
On Thu, 30 Jan 2020,
Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2020 22:10:36
> From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
> To: blinux-list@redhat.com
> Subject: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks
>
> I'm going round and round with my Mac right this moment
> and one thing that could fix it nicely would be a Linux live boot
> image that I could run on the mac and mount the main drive which,
> thank every deity that exist, is not encrypted.  I was smart
> enough not to fall in to that trap.
>
> 	Apple has locked down their latest update to osx and the
> normal method for running it in single-user mode appears to no
> longer work.
>
> 	If I could mount the system drive, I can bypass all this
> securinoia and fix the problem.
>
> Thanks for any and all constructive suggestions.
>
> Martin McCormick
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>
>

-- 

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com> writes:
> If your speakers the mac uses to talk are internal to the mac, Jenux
> would probably work for you.  If you attach speakers by means of usb
> ports Jenux cannot install with usb speakers and talk.

	Good to know.  These speakers are internal.

Thank you.

Martin McCormick

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I suspect I am about to learn something so here's the deal:

	I downloaded the iso image and used dd to pour it in to a
thumb drive

dd if=imagefile of=/dev/sdd in this case and away it went.

	Several minutes later, the roughly 1-gig file ended up on
the thumb drive.

	The mac is old enough not to have the T2 chip so if the
drive is bootable, it should boot which it does not.

	If you plug the drive in, a message pops up stating that
it is unreadable on this computer

	How do I get the Mac to boot off of that drive?

Martin McCormick

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

dd is not a good command for burning usb sticks and this is probably why
you had a failure.

On Sat, 1 Feb 2020, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2020 18:01:42
> From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
> To: blinux-list@redhat.com
> Subject: Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks
>
> I suspect I am about to learn something so here's the deal:
>
> 	I downloaded the iso image and used dd to pour it in to a
> thumb drive
>
> dd if=imagefile of=/dev/sdd in this case and away it went.
>
> 	Several minutes later, the roughly 1-gig file ended up on
> the thumb drive.
>
> 	The mac is old enough not to have the T2 chip so if the
> drive is bootable, it should boot which it does not.
>
> 	If you plug the drive in, a message pops up stating that
> it is unreadable on this computer
>
> 	How do I get the Mac to boot off of that drive?
>
> Martin McCormick
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>
>

-- 

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember instructions to do just that to 
create a bootable source for installing a distribution. Do you know 
where I can read about this subject?  Thanks!


Al


On 2/1/20 6:07 PM, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
> dd is not a good command for burning usb sticks and this is probably why
> you had a failure.
>
> On Sat, 1 Feb 2020, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
>
>> Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2020 18:01:42
>> From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
>> To: blinux-list@redhat.com
>> Subject: Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks
>>
>> I suspect I am about to learn something so here's the deal:
>>
>> 	I downloaded the iso image and used dd to pour it in to a
>> thumb drive
>>
>> dd if=imagefile of=/dev/sdd in this case and away it went.
>>
>> 	Several minutes later, the roughly 1-gig file ended up on
>> the thumb drive.
>>
>> 	The mac is old enough not to have the T2 chip so if the
>> drive is bootable, it should boot which it does not.
>>
>> 	If you plug the drive in, a message pops up stating that
>> it is unreadable on this computer
>>
>> 	How do I get the Mac to boot off of that drive?
>>
>> Martin McCormick
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Blinux-list mailing list
>> Blinux-list@redhat.com
>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>>
>>

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I'm curious about this as well. I've used dd to create bootable USB 
sticks for years. Here's just one page that instructs you to use dd from 
the command line 
https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-create-a-bootable-linux-usb-drive/


On 2/1/20 5:32 PM, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
> I may be wrong, but I seem to remember instructions to do just that to 
> create a bootable source for installing a distribution. Do you know 
> where I can read about this subject?  Thanks!
>
>
> Al
>
>
> On 2/1/20 6:07 PM, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
>> dd is not a good command for burning usb sticks and this is probably why
>> you had a failure.
>>
>> On Sat, 1 Feb 2020, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
>>
>>> Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2020 18:01:42
>>> From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
>>> To: blinux-list@redhat.com
>>> Subject: Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks
>>>
>>> I suspect I am about to learn something so here's the deal:
>>>
>>>     I downloaded the iso image and used dd to pour it in to a
>>> thumb drive
>>>
>>> dd if=imagefile of=/dev/sdd in this case and away it went.
>>>
>>>     Several minutes later, the roughly 1-gig file ended up on
>>> the thumb drive.
>>>
>>>     The mac is old enough not to have the T2 chip so if the
>>> drive is bootable, it should boot which it does not.
>>>
>>>     If you plug the drive in, a message pops up stating that
>>> it is unreadable on this computer
>>>
>>>     How do I get the Mac to boot off of that drive?
>>>
>>> Martin McCormick
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Blinux-list mailing list
>>> Blinux-list@redhat.com
>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>>>
>>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

-- 
Christopher (CJ)
Chaltain at Gmail

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

If you have or can access another computer that isn't a mac, I'd check
the drive on that computer to see if it also fails.  If it fails, you
got a bad drive.  Flash drives can come from the factory and either work
temporarily or not at all.  Another possibility may be the usb port to
load the drive is bad so maybe try a different port.  Have you ever
booted a flash drive on that apple computer in the past?  If no, then
you're in new territory.  Apple uses a different disk format and I don't
know how this works with flash drives or if it's not relevant here.  If
you downloaded the sha512 file you'll have to fix its format a string of
' /out' is in that file and needs to be removed.  Then you can check the
iso integrity with sha512sum -c Jenux-xxx.iso.sha512.
If you can access the flash drive not booting it, an integrity check of
the iso on that flash drive after you copy the corrected .sha512 file to
the flash drive could be informative.

On Sat, 1 Feb 2020, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2020 18:32:16
> From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
> To: blinux-list@redhat.com
> Subject: Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks
>
> I may be wrong, but I seem to remember instructions to do just that to create
> a bootable source for installing a distribution. Do you know where I can read
> about this subject?? Thanks!
>
>
> Al
>
>
> On 2/1/20 6:07 PM, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
> > dd is not a good command for burning usb sticks and this is probably why
> > you had a failure.
> >
> > On Sat, 1 Feb 2020, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
> >
> >> Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2020 18:01:42
> >> From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
> >> To: blinux-list@redhat.com
> >> Subject: Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks
> >>
> >> I suspect I am about to learn something so here's the deal:
> >>
> >> 	I downloaded the iso image and used dd to pour it in to a
> >> thumb drive
> >>
> >> dd if=imagefile of=/dev/sdd in this case and away it went.
> >>
> >> 	Several minutes later, the roughly 1-gig file ended up on
> >> the thumb drive.
> >>
> >> 	The mac is old enough not to have the T2 chip so if the
> >> drive is bootable, it should boot which it does not.
> >>
> >> 	If you plug the drive in, a message pops up stating that
> >> it is unreadable on this computer
> >>
> >>  How do I get the Mac to boot off of that drive?
> >>
> >> Martin McCormick
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Blinux-list mailing list
> >> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> >> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> >>
> >>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>

-- 

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

	I've been using unix commands of one kind or other for 30
years + and dd is the goto utility when copying disks.  What else should
we use if not dd?

	I have just tried two different thumb drives with unix
distributions on them and both throw an error if you plug them in
to the mac.  Both drives also mount without incident on a debian
user system

	The different format someone mentioned is called ufs or
something similar

Martin

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

Certain distros specifically state to not use dd and to use other
copying utilities since those distros used structures dd cannot copy
well.  You'll find them by reading the copying instructions as I have
from time to time.

On Sat, 1 Feb 2020, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2020 21:44:58
> From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
> To: blinux-list@redhat.com
> Subject: Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks
>
> 	I've been using unix commands of one kind or other for 30
> years + and dd is the goto utility when copying disks.  What else should
> we use if not dd?
>
> 	I have just tried two different thumb drives with unix
> distributions on them and both throw an error if you plug them in
> to the mac.  Both drives also mount without incident on a debian
> user system
>
> 	The different format someone mentioned is called ufs or
> something similar
>
> Martin
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>
>

-- 

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I don't have any experience with Macs or writing bootable images to
USB sticks(I just burn isos to DVD using wodim when I need to make a
new Linux disc), but my first two thoughts are:

1. Perhaps the Mac's bios isn't configured to allow booting from USB
media. I know I've had to get sighted assistance to fix the bios boot
order on every laptop and desktop I've acquired since going blind
before I could boot installation media to install Linux... I even had
to do it for a netbook that came pre-loaded with Ubuntu if memory
serves.

2. I could be wrong, but I believe the files needed for making a
CD/DVD bootable and making a USB stick bootable are different. If so,
even a properly written iso might not result in a bootable USB stick
if the iso only includes the files needed for booting from CD/DVD.
Again, no experience with making bootable USB sticks, so I might be
horribly mistaken.

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

There was a cd image floating around that you could use to pass things on to a USB. The vinux project hosted it.

----- Original Message -----
From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
To: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2020 00:32:54 -0500
Subject: Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

> Older machines wouldn't have that capability.  One computer I have can
> do it and the other computer cannot.  The difference is the flash bios
> in each of the machines.  One permits it and the other does not.
> 
> On Sun, 2 Feb 2020, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
> 
> > Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2020 22:04:36
> > From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
> > To: blinux-list@redhat.com
> > Subject: Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks
> >
> > I don't have any experience with Macs or writing bootable images to
> > USB sticks(I just burn isos to DVD using wodim when I need to make a
> > new Linux disc), but my first two thoughts are:
> >
> > 1. Perhaps the Mac's bios isn't configured to allow booting from USB
> > media. I know I've had to get sighted assistance to fix the bios boot
> > order on every laptop and desktop I've acquired since going blind
> > before I could boot installation media to install Linux... I even had
> > to do it for a netbook that came pre-loaded with Ubuntu if memory
> > serves.
> >
> > 2. I could be wrong, but I believe the files needed for making a
> > CD/DVD bootable and making a USB stick bootable are different. If so,
> > even a properly written iso might not result in a bootable USB stick
> > if the iso only includes the files needed for booting from CD/DVD.
> > Again, no experience with making bootable USB sticks, so I might be
> > horribly mistaken.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blinux-list mailing list
> > Blinux-list@redhat.com
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> >
> >
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 
> 

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

Older machines wouldn't have that capability.  One computer I have can
do it and the other computer cannot.  The difference is the flash bios
in each of the machines.  One permits it and the other does not.

On Sun, 2 Feb 2020, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2020 22:04:36
> From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>
> To: blinux-list@redhat.com
> Subject: Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks
>
> I don't have any experience with Macs or writing bootable images to
> USB sticks(I just burn isos to DVD using wodim when I need to make a
> new Linux disc), but my first two thoughts are:
>
> 1. Perhaps the Mac's bios isn't configured to allow booting from USB
> media. I know I've had to get sighted assistance to fix the bios boot
> order on every laptop and desktop I've acquired since going blind
> before I could boot installation media to install Linux... I even had
> to do it for a netbook that came pre-loaded with Ubuntu if memory
> serves.
>
> 2. I could be wrong, but I believe the files needed for making a
> CD/DVD bootable and making a USB stick bootable are different. If so,
> even a properly written iso might not result in a bootable USB stick
> if the iso only includes the files needed for booting from CD/DVD.
> Again, no experience with making bootable USB sticks, so I might be
> horribly mistaken.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>
>

-- 

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I hadn't thought about older machines being incapable of booting from
USB, I was talking about newer machines that can boot from USB, but
which have it(and even booting from optical media) disabled by
default(or have them enabled, but the harddrive is first in boot
order, making them inaccessible).

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

Hi!
Mac should be able to boot from the usb stick.
Whether dd is a good command or not i won’t discuss because i don’t know.
But you should be able to boot from a usb or cd.
But can’t you just use the recovery utility from the internet.
/A

> 2 feb. 2020 kl. 04:04 skrev Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com>:
> 
> I don't have any experience with Macs or writing bootable images to
> USB sticks(I just burn isos to DVD using wodim when I need to make a
> new Linux disc), but my first two thoughts are:
> 
> 1. Perhaps the Mac's bios isn't configured to allow booting from USB
> media. I know I've had to get sighted assistance to fix the bios boot
> order on every laptop and desktop I've acquired since going blind
> before I could boot installation media to install Linux... I even had
> to do it for a netbook that came pre-loaded with Ubuntu if memory
> serves.
> 
> 2. I could be wrong, but I believe the files needed for making a
> CD/DVD bootable and making a USB stick bootable are different. If so,
> even a properly written iso might not result in a bootable USB stick
> if the iso only includes the files needed for booting from CD/DVD.
> Again, no experience with making bootable USB sticks, so I might be
> horribly mistaken.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 

Re: A Live Boot Image for the Mac that Talks

[Linux for blind general discussion]

	It is Macs from 2017 or later that don't allow booting
from foreign media.  Mine is from 2012 so it should boot a
properly-formatted external drive.

	After 2016, Apple included a disk security system called
the T2 chip that let's you approve individual drives but of
course, they still need to be correctly formatted.

	As for wodin, I don't remember how many years I have been
using that but it has never let me down.

Martin McCormick

Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@redhat.com> writes:
> I don't have any experience with Macs or writing bootable images to
> USB sticks(I just burn isos to DVD using wodim when I need to make a
> new Linux disc), but my first two thoughts are:
> 
> 1. Perhaps the Mac's bios isn't configured to allow booting from USB
> media. I know I've had to get sighted assistance to fix the bios boot
> order on every laptop and desktop I've acquired since going blind
> before I could boot installation media to install Linux... I even had
> to do it for a netbook that came pre-loaded with Ubuntu if memory
> serves.
> 
> 2. I could be wrong, but I believe the files needed for making a
> CD/DVD bootable and making a USB stick bootable are different. If so,
> even a properly written iso might not result in a bootable USB stick
> if the iso only includes the files needed for booting from CD/DVD.
> Again, no experience with making bootable USB sticks, so I might be
> horribly mistaken.