Installing an OS on My Intel Mac Mini I have an old (2006) Intel Mac Mini Core Duo, 1.67 Ghz, model A1176. I wanted to single-boot Linux, so I made a bootable USB Gentoo install, which I booted with the help of rEFIT (installed on my OS X) and used gdisk to wipe my hard drive and write a new partition table. Yes, I realize that removing OS X was risky and stubborn.
But I accidentally shut down my computer without configuring the bootloader.

Now I can't boot my computer because there's no bootloader. I put Ubuntu on a USB flash drive (MBR format, FAT filesystem), but the computer doesn't recognize it as bootable.

I can't use the CD/DVD drive either, because a blank CD is already in there. The drive can't eject the disk because there's no operating system to control it.

Note: I don't have the Mac OS X install discs.

I have two questions:


How can I most painlessly install an operating system (probably Linux) on this computer? 


2a. Assuming the answer to #1 is "put distro xyz on a DVD and boot from that", how can I eject the current disc?

2b. Assuming the answer is "install rEFIT on one partition of a USB flash drive and a distro on another partition", what's my best bet to get this to work?

I really appreciate any help you can provide
According to Apple support, pressing the Eject or F12 key or holding the mouse or trackpad button at boot time will eject any removable media, such as an optical disc.