Where should the selection window be coming from if starting with > alt

[proadesign]

.

hello ...

when switching on a macbook pro 2008 unibody
with the > alt < key pressed and no hdd installed

the pointer appears and can be moved
but no selection window coming up
for the usb stick to select ...

what is missing ?

is this a problem in the efi ?
or does the mbp need a hdd with a osx on it
to function ?

.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

The MBP shouldn't need an internal drive installed to startup. The Startup Manager should appear using the Option key, Alt on a Windows keyboard. It does sound like the Startup Manager is appearing if you have a gray screen and a cursor.

-What is on the USB flash drive? Does it have an installed version of OS X/macOS on it?
-What version of OS X/macOS is it?

C

 

[proadesign]

hello and thanks for your answer and question !

I did install with a > live linux creator
two versions of linux on two different sticks
and with both of them the same result

do I need a mac os on this for the selection to appear ?
since the start up manager will only be on there ?

.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Ahhh...I understand. Startup Manager doesn't support Linux as a bootable OS. Startup Manager is part of the Mac's EFI partition.

There isn't any way to officially support Linux as a bootable OS. There were some third-party utilities like rEFIt, but those aren't officially supported and/or haven't been updated for quite a while. I am sure there are articles on the Internet somewhere that address the issue you are having, but they are beyond my experience/knowledge.

You could always install a HD, install OS X, and use a third-party app like Parallels/Fusion to run Linux in a virtual machine.

C

 

[proadesign]

ok ...
we do not really need linux on this mbp ...
some body just told me
it would work ....

we have a leopard 10.5.6.dmg ... os here ...

and the question would be ... how to get this onto the sata hdd ?
when we have no other mac here ... just a windows pc with xp on it ...
and the optical drive on the mbp is not working !

or could we get leopard os onto a usb stick some how
to start the mbp with this ?

do you know... how to do this ?

.

 

[Cory Cooper]

It will work, it just takes a bit of configuring and third-party utilities.

So, you have a HD installed, but no OS on it? You had mentioned "and no hdd installed" in your initial post.

Depending on how the DMG was made, it could be very difficult to restore/install it on the HD. You can make a USB installer for OS X, but it requires a Mac with OS X installed on it and the application called DiskMaker X.

You could use macOS Recovery or Internet Recovery, but it sometimes requires a recovery partition, which you wouldn't have without Mac OS X installed. You could still try the different key combinations to see if Internet Recovery would work: Command-R since your Mac is older and probably never had Sierra installed.

About macOS Recovery
How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery

If you have an Apple Store nearby, they will normally install the version that came with your Mac at the Genius Bar.

C

 

[proadesign]

yes ...

there was no hdd on it ...
when some body gave this mbp to me

but I have a sata 250 gb here
that I could install ... but it has no os on it !
because it is from an external hdd
with some other data on

so there can be no recovery
it has to be newly installed

so ... what about a usb stick ?
either to get it started on from
or install it on the hdd

there is a mac store here in town ....
but I would think ... there should be some app
to make a usb stick with the leopard 10.5.6 dmg on it

or not ?