I’m trying to install Start9 on my Macbook but am running into unexpected difficulties. When I boot with the options key pressed I’m offered the startup alternatives. There is the Mac HD, but weirdly the flashdrive shows 3 times. When I select one to boot from the system tells me that I need to update to be able to boot from the flashdrive. I ran through the update process but it still won’t boot and it continues to tell me that I need updates.
Hi @vquest, if you haven’t already done so, I would suggest checking your MacBook’s Startup Security Utility to make sure that it is set to allow booting from external media. Please confirm that and we can proceed from there.
Thanks, Jeremy. It doesn’t have Startup Security Utility. I’ve reset my mac with a fresh install and what I’m getting now is an alert that says that it can’t verify the startup disk, so it seems that it does at least have an attempt. It gives the option of try again or boot from the main disk.
I’ve asked in the Apple Forums, so will see what might turn up there. I’ve tried rerformatting the usb as ExFat but it makes no difference. I’m trying to install the non-free version. I’ll flash the free version see if that makes a difference.
It’s all very new to me but I finally tracked down how to do it. All my settings are set to allow booting from a usb drive, but it still doesn’t boot. I keep getting a message that an update is required before I can boot from that drive. After doing the update nothing changes. Each time it tells me that it can’t boot and it requires an update.
Someone at Apple made this comment:
[HWTech]
User level:Level 9
62,774 points
“It is very likely that Start9 is not compatible with a T2 Mac. I know that even Linux isn’t well supported on the T2 Macs, so any other bootable OS probably is even less likely to work on a T2 Mac. I would suggest you confirm Start9 is fully compatible with a T2 Mac by contacting the Start9 developer & tech support team.”
Perhaps that is the case and T2 Macs can be added to your device list as not a suitable? It seems to be the case so I will look for an alternative. I would purchase a server outright but with freight to Australia it’s quite costly and there’s the wait. I’m itching to get something up and running sooner rather than later just to check it all out. Is there any most recommended device for DIY?
StartOS is designed to run, and tested on, servers that we sell. But because it’s Debian based, it works on most x86 systems, but not always. We do not test it on the plethora of x86 machine that it may run just great on. We do encourage trying out StartOS on DIY machines of all shapes and sizes. You can contribute to our DIY community, by letting us know if you were able to get it working on your own machine. To date, no one that I know of has got StartOS to run on a 2019 Macbook Pro. And I would suspect that the T2 chip has a lot to so with that. Apple is pretty hostile towards people using their computers in a manner that wasn’t approved by Apple.