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I have an old iMac (2008) with which I'm having serious problems.
Long story short, I installed Ubuntu on the iMac, and in doing so apparently deleted all partitions on the HDD. It also wiped rEFInd, which I previously had installed to dual boot OS X and Win7.
NO keyboard shortcuts work on the Mac during boot. I have tried two different keyboards (both windows keyboards, one wired one wireless), and every keyboard combo on the internet. Not even holding "Alt" (option) works.
I am wondering if I somehow overwrote the Mac bootloader/BIOS, and whether that matters. There is no longer an Apple logo on boot, though I do hear a chime. I have tried resetting the NVRAM and SMC. Again, the keyboard combo for NVRAM doesn't seem to do anything. I don't know whether this is the keyboard, or if it could be some bootloader issue.
Is it possible to reset the Mac to default "bootloader" without using any keyboard combos or being able to boot into OSX? I am unable to get my OS X install disk picked up by the bootloader.
Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated. At my wits end!
Fridge
Posted 2019-10-18T01:58:43.437
Reputation: 11
you should be able to access UEFI settings and change the boot order to the external installation media. – None – 2019-10-18T02:04:42.927
And if Ubuntu boots you can reinstall rEFInd... – None – 2019-10-18T02:33:42.343
Thanks @GabrielaGarcia. I actually did install rEFInd through Ubuntu. My install disks are still not showing up. I guess the more likely culprit is faulty install disks, because they were made on a PC using the instructions here: https://superuser.com/questions/383235/create-a-bootable-usb-drive-from-a-dmg-file-on-windows.
Just wondered whether there was any chance that the install discs are going undetected somehow because I've apparently messed with the Mac booting process (i.e., no apple logo on boot).
Follow up: I believe the issue was that I was trying to boot from USB. Looks like USB booting may not be supported, or at least can be finicky, on the old iMacs. Creating a DVD from a DMG on TransMac solved the problem. – Fridge – 2019-10-21T17:43:32.050