Installing Fedora on an Intel Mac Mini

My goal was to wipe OS X off my new Core Duo Mac Mini and install linux on it. I didn't want to use bootcamp since I had no plan to use OS X on this particular machine. I've never installed using bootcamp and can't offer any advice for that.

To summarize the steps below, we're basically making sure we have the latest EFI firmware update and then installing Fedora Core 5 just like normal, but rebooting into rescue mode afterwards to patch GRUB and make it compatible with the mini.

Step 1: Make sure you've run Software Update on OS X and performed the EFI update. That update adds a BIOS-compatibility mode that makes this process much easier.

Step 2: Acquire a copy of Fedora Core 5. Personally, I burned a DVD for installation and assume you did too.

Step 3: Make sure your Mini is plugged into the network (wireless won't work).

Step 4: Install Fedora Core 5 normally. Choose the partitioning option to wipe everything and install with a typical layout.

Step 5: When installation is done and it spits out the DVD, push it back in and reboot. The version of GRUB that ships with Core 5 is not compatible with the mini as-is and needs to be patched. Once the machine reboots and presents the boot prompt, type "linux rescue" and hit enter. Follow the steps until you eventually get to a shell prompt, but when it asks if you want to start your network interfaces, say No. (We'll start them manually in the next step.)

Step 6: Once you get to a shell prompt, execute the following commands:

chroot /mnt/sysimage
/sbin/service network start
wget http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/Projects/mini-xen/grub-0.97.tgz
tar xzf grub-0.97.tgz
grub-install /dev/sda

Step 7: Reboot your machine (typing "exit" twice at the shell prompt should do it), and hold down the left mouse-button so that the DVD ejects and the mini boots from your linux installation.

That's it! You're done. If your machine hangs while booting from the hard-drive, then your GRUB probably isn't patched correctly. Reboot from the DVD and follow steps 5 and 6 again.
If your mini is having trouble accessing the network (the 'wget' doesn't do anything, for example), make sure you say "No" to initializing the network when going through the linux rescue screens--reboot and repeat steps 5 and 6 (we start the network manually in Step 6).