How to resolve 'unable to find a live file system' error during dual boot setup on old MacBook Air?

Question

How to resolve 'unable to find a live file system' error during dual boot setup on old MacBook Air?

Hello all,

Need help & advice here. I am setting dual boot for my old MBA 2013 A1466

Also learned that my old MBA probably does not have the T2 security chip; since I read the article from Booting from external media - Apple Community there isn't any option to turn on/off to allow external boot; by all means I assume External Media: Allow booting from all external media is always allowed.

I was able to get into alternate boot by pressing Option/Alt key while power-on, hence select EFI-boot as media for OS which I intended to setup with for example - ubuntu 23.04

However until the step/screen where the setup just complained about "unable to find a medium containing a live file system"

Any idea or recommendation here ?

Thanks a lot.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Dual boot setup issue

Posted on Dec 4, 2025 7:25 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 4, 2025 8:54 PM in response to rauphelhunter

Probably best to ask folks more knowledgeable in Ubuntu about that.

That seems to be an Ubuntu error:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/15425/error-when-installing-unable-to-find-a-medium-containing-a-live-file-system#26864

The Utilities > Startup Security Utility app is applicable to T2, and not earlier (such as here):

About Startup Security Utility on a Mac with the Apple T2 Security Chip - Apple Support

Usual with macOS is probably running a guest with Ubuntu. Or maybe running macOS as a guest of Ubuntu, given you’re on Apple hardware. Dual boot usually works fine, but when it doesn’t the damage can be impressive.

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