How to install CentOS 6.4 on Mac Mini?

Question

I have bought a new Mac Mini, and would like to use it as a Linux server. Now I'm trying to install CentOS on it. I downloaded CentOS-6.4-x86_64-netinstall.iso and booted the Mac Mini from a USB-stick.

But during the installation process I get these errors:

dmar: No ASTR found
IOAPIC id 0 under DRHD base 0xfed9100
HPET id 0 under DRHD base 0xfed91000
Enabled IRQ remapping in x2apic mode
Enabling x2apic
Enabled x2apic
Setting APIC routing to cluster x2apic
Kernel panic - not syncing: No mapping iommu for ioapic 2

Pid: 1, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.32-358.el6.x86_64 #1
Call Trace:
...

Any suggestions what the problem is? Do I need a different binary to be able to run on an Mac?

According to a tweet, CentOS 6.4 seem to work, at least on older, Mac Mini's: https://twitter.com/courtneycotton/statuses/312267424605036544

---

UPDATE: the suggestion of adding noapic to the boot took me further in the installation process.

Now I had to select an installation medium. The choice is CD/DVD, Hard drive, NFS directory or URL, and I have a USB-stick, so I choose Hard drive.

Then I'm supposed to choose a partition that holds the installation image for CentOS, the choice is between /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, /dev/sda3 or /dev/sdb1. Here I have really no idea what name my USB-stick has. I have tried with them all, but if I choose e.g. /dev/sdb1 I later get the message:

The installation source given by device ['/dev/sdb1'] could not be found. Please check your parameters and try again.

I put my iso file on the USB-stick by following the Ubuntu instructions.

Any suggestion on how to go further in the installation process?

Answer 1

Since the netinstall ISO was downloaded, it doesn't contain any actual packages for the installation. By choosing Hard Drive, what you're trying to say to the installer is "I have a hard drive that contains all of the installation packages." Being a netinstall ISO, you'll want to pick URL, and then specify a URL from which the packages can be obtained, by way of repository, such as http://mirror.centos.org/centos-6/6/os/x86_64/

This will pull down the installer image and set up a repository for installation, completely over the internet. You could also use an internal URL if you have a local repository.

Answer 2

It's not the most graceful solution but you should be able to install CentOS by tricking Bootcamp.

You would need a Windows disk for the Bootcamp wizard to set up the disk, then when it reboots hold the eject key during the chime to kick out the Windows disc and insert CentOS. Install only using the space allocated for the bootcamp partition. Once the install completes, make sure that Startup Disk in System Preferences defaults to the CentOS install. If you need to go back to OSX hold option at boot.

You do not have to, but you can then expand CentOS to take the whole partition using a GParted Live CD. Be careful not to modify the efi reserved partitions if you choose to expand, only expand into the main partition which OSX was using. In OSX you can see which partition is running the OS using the command diskutil list in Terminal. If it was me I would leave OSX intact with very little space in case Apple pushed firmware updates later, which typically happens a handful of times in the lifetime of the product.

I have done this before with a late 2008 MBP so hopefully it still works more recent models.