Select the “Create Live USB” option if you’ve already downloaded a Linux ISO file. Next, open the Mac Linux USB Loader application you downloaded.

If it isn’t, delete the partition and create a FAT partition - not an ExFAT partition. Check that the USB drive is formatted with an MS-DOS (FAT) partition. This will avoid a missing “Enterprise Source” error later.įirst, insert the USB drive into your Mac and open the Disk Utility application. Note: Be sure to move the Mac Linux USB Loader application to your Applications folder before running it. You can then reboot and boot those USB drives to use the Linux distribution from the live system. This Mac application will allow you to create USB drives with your preferred Linux distro on them from within Mac OS X in just a few clicks. RELATED: How to Use Your Mac's Disk Utility to Partition, Wipe, Repair, Restore, and Copy DrivesĪ tool named “ Mac Linux USB Loader” by SevenBits worked well for us. The solution below should allow you to create Linux live USB drives that will boot on modern Macs without any additional fiddling or anything extra - insert, reboot, and go. But you don’t have to install this alternative UEFI boot manager on your Mac. REFInd should allow you to boot those USB drives if you install it on your Mac. There’s a reason Ubuntu recommends just burning a disc. For example, Ubuntu offers some painstaking instructions that involve converting the USB drive’s file system and making its partitions bootable, but some people report these instructions won’t work for them. 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. RELATED: How to Create Bootable USB Drives and SD Cards For Every Operating SystemĪpple’s made it difficult to boot non-Mac OS X operating systems off of USB drives.

Create a usb linux live for mac