However it is always handy to mount the EFI partition of the internal drive just to check.

you disconected the internal drive to prevent harm.) then only create a folder for and mount the EFI partiton of the USB drive. If you are sure that is not the case (e.g. Steps 2 - 5 are solely a work around for a glitch that I have experienced where the Ubuntu installer completely ignores when you told it to install the boot loader. Note: Some of you may not have to mount the EFI partition on the internal drive if GRUB managed to install itself on the external drive.

Now that you have your favorite version of Linux installed, it's now time to make it 'bootable' so that your Mac can see it as a boot drive. DO NOT restart at the end of the installation. Once you are sure that you have done the partition setup correctly you may hit 'Install Now' and finish the rest of the installation setup such as time zone, user ect.For this I am using a 4 GB Sandisk Cruzer from back when they made the 'U3' USBs Open Disk Utility and select the USB drive you wish to boot the installer from and erase it as FAT32 using GPT Partition Table.Once you have everything you need a good place to start is Disk Utility. Note: For this tutorial I am using a Mac with OS X El Capitan, If you are using a Mac with an earlier version of OS X installed then some parts that use Disk Utility will be slightly different. A USB Flash or Hard Drive of you choice and size (32 GB minimum recommended for Ubuntu 16.04) This will be erased so make sure you take everything important off it.ĭISCLAIMER: EVEN THOUGH I HAVE USED THIS METHOD MANY TIMES WITH MUCH SUCCESS AND NO ISSUES, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU CREATE A BACKUP OF YOUR CURRENT INSTALLATION USING WHATEVER METHOD YOU CHOOSE.This will be erased so make sure you take everything important off it. A 2GB or larger USB for putting the installer on.UNetbootin or similarly capable software for creating an install drive from the.A 64 bit EFI capable ( Desktop) Ubuntu iso file or equivalent for your favourite distro.A 64 bit capable Intel Mac (Anything from 2008 or after should be fine i.e Intel Core 2 Duo machines).Installing Ubuntu Linux (or any other Linux distro really) onto a USB drive for use with Macs.

How to install linux from a usb drive