Cannot install Parrot OS (Bare metal installation) on Mac Air 11.6 " early 2014, corei7,8gb,256 ssd

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Hello Experts, I am trying to install Parrot OS Mac Air 11.6 " early 2014, corei7,8gb,256 ssd . I tried almost all solutions available on the internet but Parrot OS (5.3) with bootable usb starts and reach try/install page but then shows error " unable to find partition to install". It only shows usb (32 gb) as available drive.I am new to cyber security and I will really appreciate the help if some one can point out a way to install Parrot OS as the only OS
*I tried partitioning the ssd with FAT32 /ext4 but of no use

  • I tried native install of Ubuntu (with ext4 partition and swap area) and was successful…then I tried Parrot OS still the same error
  • I tried dual booting Mac OS(Big Sur) and Ubuntu and was successful : But when tried with with Parrot it fails again
  • Its worth noticing that when I tried bare metal installation on Mac air 2011(11") 2gb , 64gb ssd with High sierra it recognized the ssd but was taking hours to install so instead I got this mac air 2014.
  • I tried to partiotion using GPT/MBR schemes but is on no use on 2014 mac air.

I was successful with M1 Mac Pro using UTM but its my main laptop so want to avoid using my M1 laptop it.
Its worth noting that same thing happens with Kali . Kali installs on 2011 mac air but not on 2014 mac air. It gives the same errors I mentioned . Also both Kali and Parrot recognize the wifi adapter on 2011 one but not on 2014. On 2011 mac air for both Kali and parrot its just plug and install but not with 2014 mac air. I know people advise against using Kali/Parrot OS security as a sole OS… but I just wanted to experiment it and learn.
Thanks, in advance
HM

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Update: After lot of tries and spending hours I was able to install Parrot 6 on mac air 2014 after repartitioning the drives from scratch as per Parrot website . But it only works on option :
“*Parrot OS 6 GNU/Linux, with Linux 6.5.0-13parrot 1-amd64 (Nomodeset/ ACPI off)”. I think I need to disable the ACPI.
Now trying to install wifi drivers.
I am very new to LInux in general so my apologies if this sounds easy for veterans. Any inputs will be appreciated. But I loved Parrot so trying hard to install it :slight_smile:
Regards,
HS

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Welcome to the forums,
installing any Linux to a mac is not as easy as a generic computer, there are extra hoops to jump through. [which i assume you have found]
The wi-fi on your mac is most likely to be a BCM chipset, you will need internet access to download the drivers from the software repository.
From the terminal run inxi -Nn if it says wi-fi is broadcom /bcm/b43 you will need to go to the software manager and download/install the b43-fwcutter this should install the correct driver for your chipset

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Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, as per your advice I downloaded the b43-fwcutter and tried installing the driver but no success. Then I followed few approaches after researching on the internet. Connected to the internet using wired USB ethernet

Inxi -N : To check the wireless card name
Output: Broadcom BCM4360 802.11ac Dual Band wireless card

lspci : just to make sure
Output: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM 802.11ac Dual-band Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)

lsmod : no driver or module was found related to wireless

apt search Broadcom : searched for firmware needed for broadcom

apt install firmware- (substituted name of the firmware) [installed various firmwares Please see thescreenshot]

uname -r : to find the right kernel version
output: 6.1.-1 parrot0

apt search linux-headers [to install header for right kernel]

apt install linux-headers 6.1.0-parrot1-amd64 [installed the Linux header]

sudo apt install broadcom-sta-dkms

reboot
Output: no result

Then tried another approach

sudo apt install broadcom-sta-source

reboot: No result

Then tried installing the drivers from git hub

sudo apt get-install git gcc make build-essential linux-headers-$(uname-r)

git clone -b patch-linux4.7 GitHub - antoineco/broadcom-wl: Broadcom Linux hybrid wireless driver (64-bit)

cd broadcom-wl

make

sudo make install [no success]

reboot
No success.

I also tried by downloaded the sta and dkms files from the internet and saved those in the Broadcom folder then

cd ~/Downloads/broadcom/

To install

sudo dpkg -iR ~/Downloads/Broadcom

to load :

sudo modprobe -r b44 b43 b43legacy ssb brcmsmac bcma

sudo modprobe wl

reboot

May be it was not the right driver or approach . Or it could be a conflictswith other firmwares I installed

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Picture1
Picture1693Ă—617 129 KB

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erm scratch of head, possibly a corrupt download or conflict somewhere, I know this will often work on other Debian based distros, make sure you have a working internet connection [Ethernet or tethered mobile]
and run
sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source && sudo apt-get -y install bcmwl-kernel-source

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Hi Thanks again for your input. I tried this but its also not working. However, now I am using a usb wifi adapter(1200 mbps dual band) … with some initial hiccups I was able to install it and its working great. I have installed Parrot OS on bare metal and using Kali on USB (128gb,3.2) with persistence on same mac air 11. USB adapter is working flawlessly with both and speed is excellent too. I believe broadcom has proprietary drivers and also like you mentioned some models of mac are inherently incompatible with some flavors of Linux . Thats why I also tried to update deb config files as well for non free firmware as well. But no results yet.
I really liked the form factor of mac 11.6" and it could be a great compact laptop with beautiful and elegant Parrot OS. But in this week I truly learned a lot about Linux in general during experimenting and have felt the power of open source. I will keep trying and if I find any solution will definitely post for fellow Parrot users :slight_smile:

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Was able to install drivers for Live kali …internal wifi chip (bvm4360)is working now for kali live usb…but not for Parrot yet! eh!