Install ON an SD card -- Mac Mini mid-2011

[mnealbarrett]

A Raspberry Pi can boot from an SD card, so why not a Mac Mini? Actually, it CAN. I successfully installed Catalina on an SD card and booted from the SD card. (Not the Catalina installer, the actual installation, like a hard drive) Yes, it is slower than dog slow, but it works. I tried to do the same with Ubuntu. I put a Ubuntu installer on a flash drive, and after booting the flash drive, the Ubuntu Live environment does not see the SD card hardware. Any ideas?

[gsahli]

I just tried this (the part about booting from USB and then not seeing the SD card). I was able to use Disks utility to see/mount the SD. Did you try that?

[kevin160]

I think you may have a PCI-connected SD card reader. I'm pretty sure it's the same in my 2012 mini. Linux didn't work properly with it last time I tried. It boots vmware esxi like a champ, though.