Debian on a Mac Mini

First try...

It should be surprisingly easy according to this page...

1. debian-8.6.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso Go here and download the first dvd iso of the latest release.
2. I am installing on this Macmini 3,1.
3. The internal DVD "Superdrive" would not accept the freshly burned DVD so i attached my external USB DVD and that worked... Apple optical drives suck ;-)
4. Non free firmware (b43/ucode11.fw) is needed to make the wireless NIC work according to the install dvd. I opted to not supply this during DVD install.

It worked like a charm... question now isfor what purpose i should use it ;-)

Second try...

I started over and installed without any graphical desktop because i never use that on unix/linux systems.

When trying to set up wlan0 i discovered that iwconfig, wich is part of wireless-tools, were missing after i installed the non-free b43 wireless firmware.

http://wiki.debian.org/iwconfig was a big help too...

Third try

This might help: Mac Mini (late 2012) will not show any wireless networks.

Then configure the wireless interface as appropriate.