How to boot a MacBook Pro with the Lakka USB Drive?

Libretro Lakka
#1

Hi,

I am aiming for using my lakka-USB on both, MacBook Pro (2015) and my PC.

Preparing the stick in windows with the generic lakka image for PCs worked fine. i was able to boot into lakka without further trouble- However, in boot device selection on my macbook the USB stick does not show up. In OSX the system tells me that it can not identify the stick. Unknown file system. I flashed the stick again and used the lakka guide to prepare the stick via OSX. I did not know which lakka image to grab. Would it work with the same generic image? I re-used the lakka image for PCs. The stick got prepared as the guide suggested. However, back in the boot deivice selection the stick did not show up. I read in some other places, that I could try to use an USB extension cable, or that I should put the stick in after the boot selection is already loaded. I tried both without further success.

Any idea? Is it even possible to prepare a stick to work with both systems?

thanks and best regards

#2

well, i would make sure that you can make a usb bootable for MAC first.

when you answer: On which hardware do you want to install Lakka? yes, you will pick generic/pc.

the follow up question would be your architecture: i believe the mac book pro i5 cpu is x64? try it.

last question: i think it is possible, if your usb drive have 2 partitions?

#3

Ah, thanks a lot. I am still new to retro gaming. I will check later whether my mac can boot to USB.

Do I understand you correctly: the generic release should work on any hardware but may brings the worse performance since it is not build for a specific hardware stack? In that case I would not need two different partitions but only one with the generic build. Using 2 partitions seems stupid to me. I would lose the chance to re-use one configured system with scanned roms. And given the small costs for USB drives, the setup of these 2 partitions and 1 lakka build on each plus the booting part seem too complicated.

Good input sir. Thanks a lot.

#4

I tried to find any low level bios/efi like setting to enable booting from usb. turns out there isnt any.

which lakka image should I use for intel based MacBooks (2016)? is there any of them working? I do not get any prepared USB drive to show up as bootable on the macbook

#5

I use Lakka on my Macbook Air 2013.

I use the Generic x86_64 image.

When flashed to the USB drive, OSX will complain that the drive is unusable, because of the presence of a Linux partition on it. Just ignore this message.

Reboot your macbook and press Alt during the boot. You should see your Lakka USB drive appear avec 30 seconds, it will certainly be labeled “Windows” because anything that is not OSX is seen as Windows by OSX.

But anyway, click on it and it should boot.

#6

All Mac’s can boot USB, hold the alt key on startup to get the menu DO NOT BOOT LAKKA!!! any other distro is fine, but due to limited terminal access you cannot install mbpfan which is used to make the fans spin so that you don’t yk FRY THE COMPUTER!!! I have gotten lakla installed on a mid 2014 Mac mini but temps hit 100 and I shut that shit down fast! Just get something extremely minimal and use the same emulator as LAKKA