How to Put Elementary on your Mac

1 First steps

After partitioning your Mac’s hard drive, restart with the Elementary install media connected. Select the Penguin icon from the rEFInd boot manager, then choose Install Elementary OS and press to continue.

2 Connect to network

When the installer appears, select English and click Continue. Connect to your Wi-Fi network if prompted. Once done, tick both boxes to download updates and third-party software, then click Continue again.

3 Choose installation type

Elementary won’t be able to detect your OS X installation, so choose ‘Something else’ at the next screen and click Continue. When the partition table appears, select the free space you set aside earlier and click the + button.

4 Create required partitions

Set the size in ‘Create partition’ box to 4096MB to create a swap file 4GB in size (ample for most setups), select ‘End of this space’, click the ‘Use as’ pop-up menu and set to ‘swap area’, and then click OK.

5 Finalise partitioning

Select the remaining free space and click + again. Leave all the settings alone except for the ‘Mount point’ – click this and set it to just a forward slash (/). Click OK and then Install Now. Review the changes and click Continue.

6 Complete installation

The rest of the installer’s self-explanatory; verify your time zone and keyboard layout, then provide a username, computer name and password. Once done, the installation should proceed to a successful conclusion.