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My Setup: Mac mini with rEFInd installed; Dual boot System: Ubuntu 15.10 and Mac OS X El Capitan;

When I try to boot from an USB-Stick (live disk), which has a Linux distro on it - currently Arch Linux, (Lubuntu before), my system boots directly into Ubuntu on the HDD.

QEMU can boot from the USB-Device (3 Partitions - 1x100M EXT4 with bootflag, 1x4G EXT4 no flag with the system 1x26G FAT32 no flag for files).

Is this an Ubuntu-Issue? rEFInd-Issue? Issue with every Linux system I had on the USB-Stick no matter how I put it on (unetbootin, dd and now installation via QEMU)?

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This sounds like a rEFInd or Mac EFI issue relating to the selection of a BIOS/CSM/legacy-mode boot device. Booting in BIOS mode from a USB drive is always a bit tricky on Macs. Some things you might try include:

  • Hit the Esc key in rEFInd. This will cause it to re-scan boot devices, which may yield a working option that wasn't initially detected.
  • Hold the Option (or Alt) key as you power on the Mac. This should produce the Mac's built-in boot manager, which might (or might not) work any better than rEFInd.
  • Install rEFInd's EFI ext4fs driver. This should enable rEFInd to boot Arch's kernel from the USB drive without involving another boot loader. This approach might necessitate adding kernel options, though, which is best done by adding a /boot/refind_linux.conf file inside Arch. (This file is covered in detail in rEFInd's documentation.)
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  • The USB Device is found, and booting via rEFInd and ALT-on-startup has the same result: I select the USB Device and Ubuntu is loaded (instead of Arch, which is on the USB Device) - BUT I have not tried option #3 yet! Maybe that'll help! Thanks - I'll let you know!
    – Kay
    Apr 15, 2016 at 18:08

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