PROBLEM with triple booting (SL/Windows7/Ubuntu)

[Riddler@Hackintosh]

Hey guys,

I wan't to triple boot Snow Leopard, Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10!

So i started to install each Os in an own Partition.

I also want to use the new Chameleon Rc4 bootloader to manage my os's.

To dualboot Snow Leopard and Windows 7 is not a problem for me. It works great!

 

But i have the problems with Ubuntu.

I install Ubuntu at least, because of the Grub bootloader. I also installed the boatloader on the Ubuntu Partition.

The problem is, that, Ubuntu messed up the Startup from Windows 7. So i can boot into Snow Leopard and Ubuntu 9.10 but not into Windows 7.

Next I started the Windows 7 DVD to repair the startup, but the DVD tells me that Windows 7 can't be fixed.

 

I think the Porblem is because i using the GPT/MBR formatted hardrive and when i install Ubuntu it turn the harddrive into purely GPT and there for mess up the windows boot file and wont even let me attempt to repair it.

 

Is there any way to fix the problem and boot into all OS's with Chameleon RC4???

[Evildemon989]

I'm just wondering if your problem is the flashing underscore?

[Riddler@Hackintosh]

I'm just wondering if your problem is the flashing underscore?

 

The flashing underscore?

Help me out?!

[Evildemon989]

The flashing underscore?

Help me out?!

When you try to boot do you get a flashing horizontal line?

 

I know what you are talking about with the GPT. If you install ubuntu before windows 7, it won't even let you install 7. Also, I have tried to install 7, then ubuntu with the GRUB installed on the ubuntu partition, then SL, then chameleon, and windows won't boot. Even if I load GRUB then try and boot from GRUB, it won't boot windows. If anyone has a solution for this, it would be greatly helpful.

[l3osx]

I think the Porblem is because i using the GPT/MBR formatted hardrive and when i install Ubuntu it turn the harddrive into purely GPT and there for mess up the windows boot file and wont even let me attempt to repair it.

 

Is there any way to fix the problem and boot into all OS's with Chameleon RC4???

 

I've encountered this exact same problem while trying to install Windows 7, Snow Leopard and Linux Mint (which is based on Ubuntu). My solution:

 

1. Install just Snow Leopard and Chameleon on a partition on a 2nd hard drive (GPT formatted), then boot with SL DVD and use Disk Utility to Copy the SL install to a partition on the hard drive (MBR formatted) on which I want to install the three OSes.

 

2. Next, install Windows 7 on the MBR hard drive, then installed EasyBCD and add a Mac entry (Generic x86 PC) to the Win 7 boot loader.

 

3. Install Linux Mint, choosing Advanced option, then choosing to install boot loader (GRUB 2) into the Linux partition (in my case, /dev/sda6).

 

4. Boot back into Windows 7 and use EasyBCD to add an entry for Linux (type: Grub, drive: Linux native)

 

5. Now I can boot all three. See my post here for more details: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...8411&st=560

[The Green Guy]

Hi l3osx...

I am trying to triple boot on my XPS M1710 but have failed so far. I want to triple boot Windows 7 x64, Vanilla Snow Leopard and Ubuntu 9.10 x64 on my 320gb HDD and i want to use Chameleon RC4 to boot into all the 3 Operating Systems. Can you guide me please?

I tried to partition with Disk Utility using my Snow Leopard install on my 8GB USB stick. I partitioned the HDD as:

 

First partition - Windows 7 - FAT

Second partition - Macintosh - HFS+ Journaled

Third partition - Ubuntu - Empty Space

 

The first two installs namely Snow Leopard and Windows 7 go smoothly and I can boot into either using Chamleon but when I install Ubuntu I cant boot into Windows 7 and the repair function on the install dvd doesnot work for Windows 7. I am using a 4GB USB to install Windows 7.

Any suggestions?

[srs5694]

First, anybody with these problems needs to read up on hybrid MBRs. To the best of my knowledge, my own Web page on the topic is the most complete reference to it on the Internet. Understanding hybrid MBRs in turn requires understanding at least the basics of both conventional MBRs and conventional GPTs. If you don't understand hybrid MBRs, including their boot implications, any success you have with hybrid MBR configurations will be by chance or because your OS installers happen to behave in ways that enable them to get along with one another. The latter is not guaranteed, and the blame rests with the existence of hybrid MBRs, since they defy the GPT standard.

 

Second, if an installer reverts a hybrid MBR to a conventional GPT, that change can be undone by use of most tools that create hybrid MBRs. This can be done transparently by Disk Utility (when it creates a disk with a FAT partition), by gptsync, or by my GPT fdisk. Disk Utility may not be useful for converting an existing partition table from pure GPT to hybrid MBR, though; it seems to only create a hybrid MBR when you create a FAT partition. Note also that Windows is fussy about its boot partition. If that partition changes position in the MBR table or if characteristics such as its CHS geometry alter, I can't promise that Windows will continue to boot.

 

Third, hybrid MBR needs and issues interact with those of your boot loader. Most OSes overwrite the MBR's boot loader whenever they install themselves, although some OS installers provide a way to override this behavior. (l3osx alluded to this in his or her step #3.) Note that even pure-GPT disks can have an MBR-based boot loader.

 

Finally, if you have two physical disks and need to boot both Windows and OS X, my recommendation is to use a pure MBR on the Windows disk and a pure GPT on the OS X disk. Linux can handle either format. If you have just one disk for both Windows and OS X, and especially if you want to add more OSes, a pure MBR configuration may be easier to deal with in the long run, provided you can install all your OSes without running out of primary partitions. OS X doesn't install easily to an MBR disk, but there are workarounds available. It's conceivable that you'll be able to convert from a hybrid MBR to a pure MBR via GPT fdisk, although that conversion is still somewhat experimental and it's got some significant limitations. You'll almost certainly need to reinstall your boot loader if you attempt such a conversion.

[The Green Guy]

Thank you for such an elaborate reply. I have read your HybridMBR article and I was kind of impressed. Its very well written and I could only grasp about 25% (due to my ignorance).

What you just wrote probably translates as this for me:

 

I would want to partition using either Windows 7 x64 Installer or Ubuntu 9.10 x64 Live CD... which should I prefer?

I can then install a dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10... which bootloader to choose?

I will Clone a Snow Leopard install from another disk... no problems here

Will Chameleon 2.0 RC4 work on an MBR disk? (Will Google it myself too)

 

Once again, thanks a lot for your guidance.

[srs5694]

I would want to partition using either Windows 7 x64 Installer or Ubuntu 9.10 x64 Live CD... which should I prefer?

 

I'm not very familiar with the abilities of the Windows 7 partitioner, so I'm not sure if it can set up the spare partitions you'd need for Ubuntu and OS X. It certainly won't get the type codes right. You might try using it, but if you run into problems, try the Ubuntu partitioner, and if that fails try using an emergency CD such as PartedMagic or System Rescue CD, both of which provide GParted, Linux fdisk, and other partitioning tools that are very flexible.

 

I can then install a dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10... which bootloader to choose?

 

Windows will automatically install its own boot loader (partly in the MBR, partly in the Windows boot partition). When you install Ubuntu, it will install GRUB 2. Unfortunately, GRUB 2 sometimes has problems installing in a Linux partition, so it may need to overwrite the MBR portion of the Windows boot loader. (This is the default; you need to dig around on an advanced configuration option to direct the boot loader to install to the Linux partition.) Installing GRUB 2 to the MBR will be fine in a Windows/Ubuntu dual-boot, since GRUB 2 can chain-load the rest of the Windows boot loader from the Windows partition. When you go to install OS X, though, the OSx86 boot loader may overwrite GRUB 2's MBR portion, and Ubuntu may then fail to boot. There are several possible workarounds, most of which are best done after installing Ubuntu but before installing OS X:

 

• Try to force GRUB 2 to install in the Ubuntu boot partition. Typing "sudo grub-setup --force /dev/sda4" (changing /dev/sda4 to the Ubuntu boot partition) at a Linux shell prompt may work, but I can make no guarantees. If this works, Chameleon can then install to the MBR and will chain-load GRUB 2 as a secondary boot loader for Linux.
  
• Replace GRUB 2 with GRUB Legacy or even LILO, and install the replacement boot loader in the Linux boot partition. You can use Synaptic or apt-get to install the "grub" or "lilo" package and uninstall GRUB 2 (the "grub-pc" package). You'll still need to configure the new boot loader and install it to the boot partition (which is distinct from installing the package), and this is a complex topic. If this works, Chameleon can then be installed to the MBR and will chain-load GRUB Legacy or LILO as a secondary boot loader for Linux.
  
• Install GRUB 2 to another hard disk or to a USB flash drive. This can be done by typing "grub-install /dev/sdb" (changing /dev/sdb to the filename associated with the second hard disk). You can then install Chameleon to the MBR of the main disk and either use a chain-load from one boot loader to the other or a BIOS option to select which boot loader to use.
  
• When you install OS X, install its boot loader to a secondary hard disk. As with the previous option, one boot loader can then chain-load the other, or you can use BIOS options to select which boot loader to run.
  
• When you install OS X, omit installing its MBR-resident portion and rely on GRUB 2 to chain-load the portion of the boot loader that resides in the OS X partition.
  
• When you install OS X, omit installing any OSx86 boot loader. Instead, configure GRUB 2 to boot the OS X kernel directly. This is tricky, but it is possible. Recent Ubuntu versions include a configuration to do this, which may or may not work. You'll probably need to re-run some GRUB 2 tools after you install OS X to get this to work, but I'm afraid I'm foggy on the details.
  

 

I realize these options are likely to sound daunting. There are "cookie-cutter" guides out there for triple-booting, but I don't have any URLs offhand, and people sometimes have trouble even when following such guides exactly, since subtle differences in BIOS setup, disk partitioning, etc., can all cause procedures to fail. The problem really is that boot loaders are complex and delicate multi-stage programs with competing needs, and trying to get two or more of them to coexist can be very tricky.

 

Will Chameleon 2.0 RC4 work on an MBR disk? (Will Google it myself too)

 

Yes. (That answer at least is simple!)

[The Green Guy]

Phew! thats a lot to try I appreciate your help a lot

What I get is that:

 

I partition the disk into maybe three or four partitions using most probably Ubuntu Live CD (GParted) with MBR partition scheme. First for Windows, second for Snow Leopard and the last for Ubuntu.

I install Windows first followed by Ubuntu (with GRUB 2 on the Ubuntu partition). I might use GRUB 2 for booting into Windows for the time being.

I then Clone Snow Leopard from the external install.

I install Chameleon on the Snow Leopard's partition.

 

The question then comes to mind now is:

 

Will I be able to boot into all the three operating systems individually using Chameleon?

[srs5694]

I partition the disk into maybe three or four partitions using most probably Ubuntu Live CD (GParted) with MBR partition scheme. First for Windows, second for Snow Leopard and the last for Ubuntu.

I install Windows first followed by Ubuntu (with GRUB 2 on the Ubuntu partition). I might use GRUB 2 for booting into Windows for the time being.

I then Clone Snow Leopard from the external install.

I install Chameleon on the Snow Leopard's partition.

 

The question then comes to mind now is:

 

Will I be able to boot into all the three operating systems individually using Chameleon?

 

With that configuration, the Windows boot loader will be the primary boot loader. It will silently redirect the boot process to whichever partition is marked as active (aka bootable). In principle, this could be any of the three OSes you've installed. If it's the Linux partition, you'll see GRUB 2's menu; if it's the OS X partition, you'll see the Chameleon menu. Either menu will (or at least can) have entries for all your OSes. When you select Linux from the Chameleon menu, you'll see the GRUB 2 menu; when you select OS X from the GRUB 2 menu, you'll either see the Chameleon menu or OS X will boot immediately, depending on how it's configured. (You can configure two OS X entries, one for each option, if you so desire.)

 

This is all in theory. In practice, you may run into problems. Most importantly, as I noted earlier, GRUB 2 doesn't always install cleanly in the OS boot partition; it may have to go in the MBR. If that's unacceptable, you'll have to replace GRUB 2 with GRUB Legacy or LILO to boot Linux. Unfortunately, Chameleon cannot directly boot a Linux kernel; AFAIK, it can only boot OS X kernels or redirect the boot process to another boot loader.

[The Green Guy]

I forgot to mention that I will mark the Snow Leopard partition active after installing Chameleon on it.

And this setup should work as you described (in theory at least).

 

Now, one last thing please; if I use Disk Utility for partitioning, using MBR, will it work?

 

I am grateful for all your help so far

[srs5694]

Now, one last thing please; if I use Disk Utility for partitioning, using MBR, will it work?

 

Disk Utility is extremely inflexible, particularly for MBR disks. I'd use something else. In fact, you'll have to use a Linux or third-party tool to set the correct partition type codes for the Linux partitions; AFAIK, neither Disk Utility nor the standard Windows partitioner can create partitions with the right type codes for Linux.

[The Green Guy]

Ok. I will try it tonight and update you as I go.

Thanks once again for all your help

[acerimmer]

You didn't list your tech specifications, so I don't know if this will be workable. Nevertheless, here's what worked for me.

 

Acerimmer's Triple Boot Success.

[The Green Guy]

I did it! Finally

 

>>acerimmer: Thanks but I managed it. My system specs are in my signature

 

Triple-booting Windows 7 64-bit AND Mac OSX Snow Leopard 64-bit (mostly) AND Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit using Chameleon 2 RC4

Thanks to srs5694 for all the help

 

I will try to post a tutorial for anyone else who might want to follow

PS: Time to modify my signature

[the_gael]

I did it! Finally

 

>>acerimmer: Thanks but I managed it. My system specs are in my signature

 

Triple-booting Windows 7 64-bit AND Mac OSX Snow Leopard 64-bit (mostly) AND Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit using Chameleon 2 RC4

Thanks to srs5694 for all the help

 

I will try to post a tutorial for anyone else who might want to follow

PS: Time to modify my signature

 

Green Guy - I will be most interested in your tutorial when you post it - I have a a Ubuntu PC a Ubuntu Laptop, two OSX86 Snow Leopard Hac Pro's, a G4 Quicksilver and a MacBook Pro 5,3. I would quite like to make the MacBook Pro Dual Boot with Ubuntu and Snow Leopard. I have previously installed Windows 7 with Boot Camp but junked it as I couldn't find a use for it.

 

I would like to triple boot one of the HacPro's in case I ever find a use for Win 7 (by that I mean it can do something that I don't prefer doing on either Snow Leopard or Ubuntu).

[D-an-W]

Post your method please Green Guy

[Detosx]

Install OpenSUSE 11.2 instead - that's not the answer that any of you want and I too am a big fan of Ubuntu but I have never been able to get Ubuntu (even 10.04) to not wreck Windows 7 (no matter where I install Grub via the Advanced command), at which point, as people have mentioned, the Windows 7 DVD sees the gpt labelled drive as being unrepairable/un-installable, identifying at as gpt. OpenSUSE11.2 has more specialized install options, so you can avoid overwriting and having to - try unsuccessfully - to repair Windows 7.

 

If your Windows 7 partition had vital information on it and you feel that all is lost - you might even have tried putting that hard drive in a USB caddy and found you can't access the information - you can migrate that windows 7 partition to a new hard drive using a free Paragon tool which will even make it bootable. Search for "Paragon Backup and Recovery 2010"; you install it in Windows and burn a bootable iso of the program to a Live CD - it gets you first to make an image of your existing Windows 7 partitiion and then writes that image to a new hard drive (which I labeled msdos and formattedd ntfs).

 

Edit - for those who have installed Ubuntu or other Linux distro and Windows no longer boots, take a look at my post number 28. If your partition setup is the same as mine, you should be able to get it back.

[srs5694]

Install OpenSUSE 11.2 instead - that's not the answer that any of you want and I too am a big fan of Ubuntu but I have never been able to get Ubuntu (even 10.04) to not wreck Windows 7 (no matter where I install Grub via the Advanced command), at which point, as people have mentioned, the Windows 7 DVD sees the gpt labelled drive as being unrepairable/un-installable, identifying at as gpt. OpenSUSE11.2 has more specialized install options, so you can avoid overwriting and having to - try unsuccessfully - to repair Windows 7.

 

I haven't investigated the Ubuntu installers specifically about this, but it sounds as if you were using a hybrid MBR configuration to begin with, and the Ubuntu installer converted this to a standards-conformant GPT configuration. Some versions of libparted (a partitioning library used by many Linux installers) do this, although the latest versions don't. Such an unwanted conversion from hybrid MBR to standard GPT is one of the many perils of hybrid MBRs. If I'm right, the problem is easily corrected by using gptsync, GPT fdisk, or some other tool to re-convert the GPT back into a hybrid MBR. Note that if I'm right, this really has nothing to do with boot loader configuration per se. The GRUB installation doesn't change the MBR/hybrid/GPT configuration; it's the partitioning software that does this.

 

Note that many Hackintosh users mistakenly believe they're using standard GPT configurations when in fact they've got hybrid MBRs. This is because some utilities convert GPT to hybrid MBR without telling you of this fact. Apple's Disk Utility, for instance, converts GPT to hybrid MBR whenever you use Disk Utility to create a FAT partition.

[Detosx]

Hi srs5694, a lot of that makes sense to me, good to hear your thoughts!

 

The OpenSUSE installer has many boot options but as well as letting you install Grub to your root partition, there is a checkbox that you can clear to make sure OpenSUSE doesn't overwrite 'mbr' which Ubuntu seems to without offering you the choice.

[Detosx]

To elaborate a little on why what srs5694 makes sense to me, to get Windows 7 to install I went through the following very strict routine.

 

in Gparted I change the disk label of the hard drive to GPT and leave the drive unformatted. Using a preboot CD I boot my snow retail DVD. Disk Utility recognizes the hard drive as GUID. I select six partitions. Starting from the bottom as seen on Disk Utility's Partition graphical interface and entering the figures manually and pressing the Enter/Return key after each entry (if you try sizing by dragging the partitions, you get some very odd sizes rather than the sizes you wanted), I make the sixth partition msdos-FAT, the four above it journalled hfs+ and the one at the top FAT.

 

Even with Snow Leopard installed to the Second partition and Chameleon installed on EFI/HFS+, Windows 7 can still be installed to the first partition; all you do is format that partition from msdos-FAT to NTFS in the Windows installer, which at this point doesn't identify the drive as gpt and uninstallable to.

 

Things go awry, in gparted or Linux install, as soon as you change the third partition to swap, the fourth to root, the fifth to home - the Windows 7 DVD now sees the hard drive as gpt and refuses to install to it or repair it. In other words, if you install Ubuntu and that kills the Windows boot, you can't repair the windows boot, or at least not without perhaps using additional tools that I don't know about.

 

As srs5694 says, Disk Utility apparently makes your hard drive a gpt/mbr hybrid when you use it to make the FAT partition(s), even though when viewed in Gparted the information tab identifies the drive as GPT.

[srs5694]

As srs5694 says, Disk Utility apparently makes your hard drive a gpt/mbr hybrid when you use it to make the FAT partition(s), even though when viewed in Gparted the information tab identifies the drive as GPT.

 

GParted doesn't seem to recognize hybrid MBR disks as being distinct from GPT disks -- or at least, the versions I've tried don't do so. With some versions this doesn't seem to cause problems, since it doesn't touch the MBR; however, other versions do modify the MBR, converting it from hybrid to protective form. (A standard GPT disk contains a "protective MBR," which is an MBR that contains a single disk-spanning partition of type 0xEE. This configuration is designed to keep GPT-unaware utilities from ruining the disk.)

 

From a standards compliance point of view, I can't really fault GParted on this. Hybrid MBRs violate the GPT standard, which is one of the reasons they're so flaky. Unfortunately, hybrid MBRs are sometimes very useful, even to the point of being necessary.

 

FWIW, on a triple-boot installation when using a hybrid MBR, I'd recommend using either GParted or my own GPT fdisk to do the initial partitioning, paying careful attention to Apple's partitioning rules. I'd create a BIOS Boot Partition in addition to the other partitions. I'd create the partitions of the appropriate types from the start and then use GPT fdisk, gptsync, or Disk Utility to create the hybrid MBR. I can't promise that Ubuntu's installer would leave the hybrid MBR as such in this case, but the less that needs to be done (in terms of changing partition types, etc.), the less likely it is that a libparted-based tool will muck with the hybrid nature of the MBR.

[Diels-Alder]

I have the same problem with ubuntu 10.04.

 

I can't start MAC. And now I can't start Mac with chameleon 2 RC3. When I boot I see only an underscore top-left.

Yesterday all works fine. Today after restart... System destroyed!

 

Can you help me please???

 

My system is on a P5q mobo with Juzzi bios mod and snow hazzard 10.6.2.

[Detosx]

I have the same problem with ubuntu 10.04.

 

I can't start MAC. And now I can't start Mac with chameleon 2 RC3. When I boot I see only an underscore top-left.

Yesterday all works fine. Today after restart... System destroyed!

 

Can you help me please???

 

My system is on a P5q mobo with Juzzi bios mod and snow hazzard 10.6.2.

I would use a preboot CD to boot up to your Snow desktop and then reinstall from there whatever has been overwritten.

 

In my case, with a single hard drive set as follows - EFI/Windows7/Snow/swap/root/home/Storage (FAT) and with Chameleon on my EFI HFS partition, I fire up Terminal and type the following:-

 

sudo -s

 

 

- and then press your keyboard's Enter/Return key - you will be asked for your password; type it and press the Enter/Return key and then type -

 

 

fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0

 

 

- (0 being my one and only hard drive) and then press Enter/Return and then type -

 

 

flag 1

 

 

- (that makes the first partition active/boot)then press Enter/Return and then type -

 

 

update

 

 

- then press Enter/Return and then type

 

 

w

 

 

press the enter/return key and then respond by typing

 

 

y

 

 

now type exit