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Hello Friends I'm asking for help.I have a 2006 mac running ubuntu.The problem is it wont boot.So I decided to put an iso of ubuntu on a usb so I can boot it with grub 2.The thing is whenever I try grub> ls (hd1)/ I get error unknown filesystem.I want to know if anyone can help me the last time I was on this computer was Feb 5 2015.Thank you for reading.This is my first post please tell me if anyone needs more details.

Pika Miner1000
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There's an article here:

http://www.howtogeek.com/213396/how-to-boot-a-linux-live-usb-drive-on-your-mac/

that says:

Think you can just plug a standard Linux live USB drive into your Mac and boot from it? Think again. You’ll need to go out of your way to create a live Linux USB drive that will boot on a Mac.

Apple’s made it difficult to boot non-Mac OS X operating systems off of USB drives. While you can connect an external CD/DVD drive to your Mac and boot from standard Linux live CDs and USBs, simply connecting a Linux live USB drive created by standard tools like Universal USB Installer and uNetbootin to a Mac won’t work.

If your Mac has an optical drive and you can make a bootable CD or DVD, then that'd be the easiest way to get Linux running on your Mac.

Apple were transitioning away from PowerPC architecture and starting to use Intel processors around 2006, so it's important to check if your Mac uses one of the older PowerPC processors.

If so, you'll need to download the alternative PowerPC version of Ubuntu that's designed for 'Apple Macintosh G3, G4, and G5 computers, including iBooks and PowerBooks'.

The most recent version for PowerPC is Lubuntu 14.04 ('standard' Ubuntu no longer has a PowerPC alternative image) but there is also an old Ubuntu 12.04 iso that works with the PowerPC architecture. Search for 'Ubuntu PowerPC Downloads' if this is the case.

If you've got an Intel-based Mac from 2006 then this article here may help you https://astrofloyd.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/boot-linux-from-usb-flash-drive-on-macbook/

My only experience with booting Linux on a Mac was with an old G4 PowerPC Mac but the G4 wouldn't play ball (although the 'Ubuntu PowerPC FAQ' had lots of info) and I eventually gave up with the USB and burned an iso onto CD and booted successfully from that instead.

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pHeLiOn
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  • I thought you just needed to use dd or cat to make a USB from an iso on mac? – mchid May 28 '16 at 07:23
  • In my case I followed the PowerPCFAQ at (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ) and tried several times using dd to put the PowerPC iso on the USB stick. The iso was on the stick but the G4 I was using refused to boot from it. Might be specifically more tricky with PowerPC machines but the first linked article suggests that booting a Mac from a USB stick is certainly less straightforward than making a bootable USB using uNetbootin or similar. – pHeLiOn May 28 '16 at 09:47
  • Not all isos will boot right out the box. Sometimes, you will need to add a syslinux bootloader as described in this answer http://askubuntu.com/a/667224/167115 Also, that article you referenced, references the ubuntu how to http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-mac-osx which now has been changed to unetbootin instructions. I believe the instructions used to be the dd method. Newer versions of the Ubuntu iso do not need to install a syslinux bootloader, are supposed to be uefi compatible and can be made using dd or cat with no alteration. – mchid May 28 '16 at 11:15
  • I remember booting into the openfirmware (by holding down 'Command-Option-o-f' on reboot) & then struggling to find the openfirmware path to 'yaboot' (as outlined in the PowerPCFAQ). I remade the stick with dd a number of times (with a few suggested variations of 'bs= ') & tried again, but I was still getting nowhere. The optical drive option was far more straightforward. The article link was mainly to suggest that booting from USB might not be as easy as downloading the latest iso and creating a bootable stick with standard tools but your questions to Pika should get some clarity on this. – pHeLiOn May 28 '16 at 14:51