MacBook install: triple boot: linux, windows, Mac OS
By JBK on Wednesday, February 27 2008, 03:17 - Geek & Computer - Permalink
This details the installation of a MacBook white, shipped in the beginning of 2008.
Set up Mac OS X
Updates
First before anything, update to the latest MacOS X.5.2, and all the necessary downloads... Reboot as many times as needed
Software
Then, install VLC, Firefox 3 béta, Adium and Xcode if you need it.
Done.
Quite easy, so far, no ?
Install Windows XP
Be sure to have your Windows XP SP2 CD and a legit license number.
Bootcamp
Go to spotlight, look for Boot Camp assistant or find it from your Applications folder.
- Run it.
- Prepare a disk space for Windows ( 16GB is ok, I think )
- Quit and re-run it.
- Install Windows with your CD Rom inside.
- Reboot and wait during all the Windows installation that is long and needs a couple of reboots. Mine did fail once, for no obvious reasons.
Windows XP
Once you have your complete Windows XP installation, you will see a Boot Camp icon on your task bar. Keep it.
- Put the Apple OS X CD-ROM in, and let it do all the installation of the drivers. It may require some reboots, but at the end, you have a very new and completely functional Windows XP!
- Reboot
- Do your Windows Update and reboot and again, and reboot, and again... Until nothing appears there.
- Launch the Boot Camp assistant and Default Mac OS HD
Mac OS again
Reboot to mac OS. Be pleased.
Linux
This should work with any distribution and was tested with Debian and Ubuntu
Resize
- Go to Applications/Utils and launch Disk Tool
- Split and resize the main partition in order to have a new partition that you name Linux and format in HFS. (16GB here)
- Check everything.
Reboot on linux
- Put your linux live CD and reboot
- Press `C` to boot on the CD
- Launch your live-CD and install linux.
Install
During the install I deleted the new partition and added two in place:
- One root partition /
- One swap 1GB
- Finish everything, reboot
You should be careful to install your grub in your linux partition and NOT in the MBR, to let reFit do it correctly.
rEFIt
On Mac OS X, install rEFIt and configure it quite quickly.
Reboot and use rEFIt to boot on linux using the "option" key.
Configure linux
You have all you want working except the wireless... Which is a Broadcom BCM4328
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.9
Find in your Windows partition your wireless drivers:
sudo su
cp -r /media/Windows/WINDOWS/DRVSTORE/bcmwl5_**/ /root/
mv bcmwl5_*** bcmw
cd bcmw
ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l
ndiswrapper -m
modprobe ndiswrapper
ifconfig
Updates
Uncomment what is needed in your sources.list.
Reboot.
Problems
If you have any issues, like not having the linux partition shown anymore, reinstall grub on your linux partition with a live-CD.
Comments
Originally, I had Tiger. Then I installed rEFIt and Ubuntu Linux. I decided one day to try to add Windows Vista. Eventually, it installed. However, rEFIt no longer displayed Linux as an option to boot to. When I synced the GPT and MBR tables, Vista would no longer boot. Both Linux and Vista became unusable, and every tool (gparted, etc.) showed Vista as empty space, like it had never existed.
Now, I've wiped and installed Leopard, then successfully installed Vista with Boot Camp. Currently, I switch between them with the native Mac bootloader (pressing the Option key). I would like to turn this into a triple boot by installing Ubuntu, but I'm not sure how I should setup GRUB, etc. I don't want to use rEFIT for the danger it poses to my partitioning tables. Is it possible for the Mac native bootloader to choose between three partitions for booting?
My second preferred option is to overwrite the MBR with GRUB to choose between Linux and Vista, which I have done several times on other computers. But I'm afraid this might mess up the whole Boot Camp situation. I guess the safest option is to use Windows' NTLDR to load Linux.
What do you suggest?
I would suggest that you install Linux but install grub on your linux partition and NOT in your MBR.
Mark this partition as active and reFit should play it fine.
Hi, I am having a little trouble understanding how to do this. I have a 13" Macbook running leopard and have tried to install windows xp pro sp2 using the bootcamp program but after windows has installed and my mac reboots I try to boot into windows and it comes up with error some file missing or something. I had figured out how to get around this by installing a fresh tiger and then running bootcamp on that and windows worked fine. All had to do was update into leopard and the windows partition remained, but now I want to install ubuntu and windows??
Matt
Brilliant site! I have already installed XP using bootcamp and installed rEFIt today while just playing around. A couple of months ago I created a Ubuntu disc and played around with it on a desktop, but would like to learn more Linux on my Macbook. Now for the questions--
1)What is the procedure for installing Ubuntu after the above described procedure?
2)In the following passage you wrote---
During the install I deleted the new partition and added two in place:
* One root partition /
* One swap 1GB
* Finish everything, reboot
You should be careful to install your grub in your linux partition and NOT in the MBR, to let reFit do it correctly.---
will this all be self evident? I know the definition of a grub, but can you be a bit more descriptive on this step?
3)Lastly, to install the drivers for the wireless modem, do you simply type all of that code in the terminal on Ubuntu?
Thanks a bunch--I hope to be able to learn a hundreth of what you know about Linux!!
my macbook not active keyboard
Indeed cool site! unfortunately I cannot boot into Windows. I get the Grub bootloader and when I chose XP I getan error 12: invalid device requested.Boots great in ubuntu and leopard.menu.lst looks good.using rEFIt of course
any advice please?
thanks
you must resync the mbr/gtp by rebooting and right clicking until you get to the partitioner in refit. enter 'y' and your done.
i cant split and resize my partions
"Error resizing format" occured.
i used. terminal with follow:
sudo diskutil resizeVolume disks01 400G "JFHS+" "Linux" 33G
any idea ?
Thanks
I installed Fedora10,Windows 7 beta and MacOSX
Further details are in my blog
http://triplebootonmacbook.blogspot...
So , 7 hours later I now have a working mac with 3 OS on it. This tutorial as well as the on provided by Alien ( much simpler to follow ) work.
Also don't forget to sync like twodogs mentioned.
"you must resync the mbr/gtp by rebooting and right clicking until you get to the partitioner in refit. enter 'y' and your done."
The only thing that I can see is that the option to boot into Refit or another OS shows the Windows 7 option along side of the Refit. Is this becuase windows 7 is gpt/efi compatable ?
Thanks for the tutorial guys!
h JBi, cool reference!
I have installed windows on it now want to add linux. I think you have a typo in the linux part, it is disk utility instead of disk tool right? could you map out a bit detail how to do this step? i dont want to screw up anything as i have a lot of stuff installed in windows already.
thanks for your help!
These instructions works brilliantly!! Simple yet functional.
Very good the part about installing grub to the linux partition instead of the mbr. That has been a headache for me. Now Im triple-bootin and doin movie editing in cinelerra in ubuntu 9.1, gaming in MSXPpro and using snow leopard for the rest.
Thanks a bunch!
I have been trying got weeks to be able to triple boot my macbook 5,2 with snow leopard win 7, and ubuntu 9.1. I have osx and win7 working, and after alot of work, I was able to finally install ubuntu, but now after I select it thru refit, it says grub loading, then I have an option to select what I want to run, I choose linux. After this, I get a curser and then a black screen. Nothing happens.
I would appreciate any help or advise. Thank you.