OS X - XP Pro - Debian - Triple Boot Install?

[92GTA]

I looked through the Wiki but could not find what I think I'm looking for.

 

I have a brand new HD for my notebook and I want to install 10.4.5, XP Pro, & Debian all on the same drive. I know I'm going to need 4 partitions: Mac Journalized, NTFS, Linux, & the Linux Swap partition. I'm not new to booting multiple OS's on the same HD but I am with OS X.

 

What bootloader am I going to be using? What is the installation order? From what installer do I format the HD?

 

I'm guess I'll end up using GRUB? That I should install Linux, Windows, then OS X? I'm guessing I'll use the OS X HD tool to create all the partitions?

 

Also and very important to me, I have ALLOT of work into OS X running and also I do NOT want to redo my windows installation. I have them both on seperate HD's right now, each taking up and entire HD by it's self. I know after install a fresh copy of XP onto the new multi boot HD, I can use Ghost to backup my XP Partition on my old HD and copy it over the XP partition on my multi boot HD and it will work just fine, the boot loader is the issue. BUT, how do I do this with OS X?

 

EDIT: Maybe to make thing easier I'll just do a fresh install of Vista and not worry about my XP since this is all on a test system anyway. an IMPORTANT thought though, do you think I could maybe use a HD utility like the Hitachi one for the HD to create all of the partitions? Then I could install Vista, then Linux, the OS X last and configure GRUB to point to it's partition. Would that work you think?

 

EDIT, AGAIN, LOL: Ok, how about this, I boot into OS X on the HD it's installed into now. I use the Disk Utility to create a FAT32, Linux, and Linux Swap partition. I then boot from my Vista DVD, it's installer will recognize the FAT32 partition and will let me format it to NTFS and install. Then I'll boot from the Debian CD and use it to correctly format the Linux and Swap partition. Once it's install is done, I can then configure GRUB to simply point to the 2 other installs. All this will be on a 60GB 5400RPM drive. Would it then be possible to clone the ENTIRE HD 100%, MBR and all, to my other 60GB 7200RPM drive? Can Ghost do this and not FUBAR the OS X partition?

[patrick295767]

I looked through the Wiki but could not find what I think I'm looking for.

 

I have a brand new HD for my notebook and I want to install 10.4.5, XP Pro, & Debian all on the same drive. I know I'm going to need 4 partitions: Mac Journalized, NTFS, Linux, & the Linux Swap partition. I'm not new to booting multiple OS's on the same HD but I am with OS X.

 

What bootloader am I going to be using? What is the installation order? From what installer do I format the HD?

 

I'm guess I'll end up using GRUB? That I should install Linux, Windows, then OS X? I'm guessing I'll use the OS X HD tool to create all the partitions?

 

Also and very important to me, I have ALLOT of work into OS X running and also I do NOT want to redo my windows installation. I have them both on seperate HD's right now, each taking up and entire HD by it's self. I know after install a fresh copy of XP onto the new multi boot HD, I can use Ghost to backup my XP Partition on my old HD and copy it over the XP partition on my multi boot HD and it will work just fine, the boot loader is the issue. BUT, how do I do this with OS X?

 

EDIT: Maybe to make thing easier I'll just do a fresh install of Vista and not worry about my XP since this is all on a test system anyway. an IMPORTANT thought though, do you think I could maybe use a HD utility like the Hitachi one for the HD to create all of the partitions? Then I could install Vista, then Linux, the OS X last and configure GRUB to point to it's partition. Would that work you think?

 

EDIT, AGAIN, LOL: Ok, how about this, I boot into OS X on the HD it's installed into now. I use the Disk Utility to create a FAT32, Linux, and Linux Swap partition. I then boot from my Vista DVD, it's installer will recognize the FAT32 partition and will let me format it to NTFS and install. Then I'll boot from the Debian CD and use it to correctly format the Linux and Swap partition. Once it's install is done, I can then configure GRUB to simply point to the 2 other installs. All this will be on a 60GB 5400RPM drive. Would it then be possible to clone the ENTIRE HD 100%, MBR and all, to my other 60GB 7200RPM drive? Can Ghost do this and not FUBAR the OS X partition?

 

Hi,

 

In order to do your triple boot :

I would advice you very much to play with partition magic to install :

 

1/First make a AF type partition, at the beginning of your harddisk

& it should be more than recommanded to be /dev/hda1

(it ' s possible to make it)

 

2/ make the installations ...

AF type partition / Linux / Windows XP

 

3/ then, place the MAC OS in AF - empty space

 

4/ then, boot linux,

and use the grub

 

change the grub.conf in the /boot

grub-install

 

And That's it !

 

Enjoy !

[djtrix]

Hi,

 

In order to do your triple boot :

I would advice you very much to play with partition magic to install :

 

1/First make a AF type partition, at the beginning of your harddisk

& it should be more than recommanded to be /dev/hda1

(it ' s possible to make it)

 

2/ make the installations ...

AF type partition / Linux / Windows XP

 

3/ then, place the MAC OS in AF - empty space

 

4/ then, boot linux,

and use the grub

 

change the grub.conf in the /boot

grub-install

 

And That's it !

 

Enjoy !

 

Not only will this not work (Windows throws hissy fits when its not on the first partition), but its more complicated than it needs to be (you dont need Partition Magic). Im running the same tripple boot on my laptop, and all you need is the three bootable dvds/cds:

Steps:

1) boot into osx Installer, before installing, open the disk utility from the top menu and make three partitions, format the second one as HFS+ and install OSX86 on it, dont bother formating the others.

2) finish the osx install, reboot, put winxp cd in. Load up setup for winxp and choose to format the first partition (which will come up as E:). Once done formating, DONT INSTALL, Reboot, now go back into the setup and it will not recognize the first patition as C:\ !!! so install winxp to that patition now.

3) reboot pop in debian/ubuntu/whateverflavorlinuxyouwant follow the linux install and put everything on the third partition (in my case i made 3 more partitions out of the third, one for / one for Swap and one for /Home/). Then make sure you say YES to installing grub when the option comes up. After the linux install is done, go into /boot/grub/menu.lst with your favourite text editor, and add a few lines, i forget what they are EXACTLY, so search about, or just use the examles they give you. Now also, do a cfdisk /dev/hda while your still in linux, and make sure to togel the bootable partition lables so that you only boot the linux drive, and not the windows one.

[92GTA]

all you need is the three bootable dvds/cds:

Steps:

1) boot into osx Installer, before installing, open the disk utility from the top menu and make three partitions, format the second one as HFS+ and install OSX86 on it, dont bother formating the others.

2) finish the osx install, reboot, put winxp cd in. Load up setup for winxp and choose to format the first partition (which will come up as E:). Once done formating, DONT INSTALL, Reboot, now go back into the setup and it will not recognize the first patition as C:\ !!! so install winxp to that patition now.

3) reboot pop in debian/ubuntu/whateverflavorlinuxyouwant follow the linux install and put everything on the third partition (in my case i made 3 more partitions out of the third, one for / one for Swap and one for /Home/). Then make sure you say YES to installing grub when the option comes up. After the linux install is done, go into /boot/grub/menu.lst with your favourite text editor, and add a few lines, i forget what they are EXACTLY, so search about, or just use the examles they give you. Now also, do a cfdisk /dev/hda while your still in linux, and make sure to togel the bootable partition lables so that you only boot the linux drive, and not the windows one.

 

Thank you! EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thank you!

 

Now I just need to figure out how to clone my OS X install from the old HD to the other. Any ideas?

[djtrix]

Thank you! EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thank you!

 

Now I just need to figure out how to clone my OS X install from the old HD to the other. Any ideas?

 

is it 10.4.5 -> 10.4.5? or is it more complicated? cause i guess you could just copy the files no? i dunno that much about how osx works exactly... sorry... im still learning it myself. I guess if its applications you're looking to copy you'de probably have to re-install. Although theres probable disk cloning utilities, like norton ghost for mac.... i found one once for linux, so i bet theres one for freebsd/darwin/osx.

 

Adrian

[92GTA]

I need to copy the entire OS X install to the new HD and the new partition. It's not that I care so much about anything I loaded, it's that I have countless hours now doing who knows how many tweaks and kext mods to even try and redo all that again.

 

It should be possible to do an initial OS X install on the new HD and then copy over the OS X install from the old HD to it's new partition and it be fine. For example this can be done with Windows using Ghost. However I don't know if a Ghost like Application for OS X that will run under XP Pro. I plan on hooking the old HD up via USB, copying the OS X partition, then hooking the new HD up via USB and copying over the partition.

 

Any ideas? I may be up a creek. I guess I could always parition my old HD for the tripple boot but it's a slower drive and I'm not sure how I can create a partition in FRONT of the OS X one to load windows...

 

EDIT: It looks like I'm simply going to use either "Carbon Copy Cloner" or "NetRestore", both found @ http://www.bombich.com

 

I'm guessing I'll boot from the old HD and plug the new one in USB and clone the parition from the old HD I'm booted from to the partition on the new HD that's plugged in which hopefully will be recognized with all those partitions on it, lol.

[ryan_d]

Not only will this not work (Windows throws hissy fits when its not on the first partition), but its more complicated than it needs to be (you dont need Partition Magic). Im running the same tripple boot on my laptop, and all you need is the three bootable dvds/cds:

Steps:

1) boot into osx Installer, before installing, open the disk utility from the top menu and make three partitions, format the second one as HFS+ and install OSX86 on it, dont bother formating the others.

2) finish the osx install, reboot, put winxp cd in. Load up setup for winxp and choose to format the first partition (which will come up as E:). Once done formating, DONT INSTALL, Reboot, now go back into the setup and it will not recognize the first patition as C:\ !!! so install winxp to that patition now.

3) reboot pop in debian/ubuntu/whateverflavorlinuxyouwant follow the linux install and put everything on the third partition (in my case i made 3 more partitions out of the third, one for / one for Swap and one for /Home/). Then make sure you say YES to installing grub when the option comes up. After the linux install is done, go into /boot/grub/menu.lst with your favourite text editor, and add a few lines, i forget what they are EXACTLY, so search about, or just use the examles they give you. Now also, do a cfdisk /dev/hda while your still in linux, and make sure to togel the bootable partition lables so that you only boot the linux drive, and not the windows one.

 

I believe that if you format the first the first partition to ms dos format during step 1 (using disk utility), then when you boot from Win XP cd it will be detected as C: automatically. Then you can re format it as NTFS. Just to save another step. I am about to try this so we'll see how it works.