P5K Dual Boot Success Story with GRUB

[tweak41]

Call me ambitious if you will but the other day I got an idea to setup my system differently from the way it is now, due largely in part to the fact that I just picked up two 1TB Seagate SATA drives and configured them in a RAID 0 array. Since then I've read that OS X doesn't support Intel's Storage Matrix, and I'm fine with that, but in my few minutes of playing around I was able to boot into my Kalyway install of OS X with no stability issues (while my SATA was configured as RAID in my BIOS - an important point).

 

So that got me thinking, what if I could install OS X on my RAID array using the Boot132 method and a retail disc.

 

Well, that didn't last long because I get the "Still waiting for root device" error when SATA is configured in a way other than AHCI. But again, I was able to boot into OS X without a problem while configured as RAID from my other hard drive.

 

Although I can't natively install Leopard on my RAID drives, I can install it on another drive while leaving my BIOS configured as RAID. That way when I boot Vista I can still take advantage of the RAID0 capabilities, and still be able to boot a fully functional Vanilla Leopard install.

 

That's what lead me to my current line of thought, which I'll most likely need community input on if I'm to have any success with. I think that it would be possible to load GRUB onto my 128 MB compact flash card that I have lying around and set that as my default boot device in my BIOS via the USB media card reader I have on my tower. From there I can configure SATA as RAID and point GRUB at my two hypothetical installations. My default will be my Vista installation on my RAID 0 array and I'll wipe out my old 300 GB hard drive containing my old Vista/OS X dual boot installation.

 

Will this work? I'm not sure. First of all, I really don't know much about GRUB and how to install it, but I do have some guides that I've bookmarked which will hopefully help. Secondly, I'll need to figure out if there will be any issues booting to my MBR Vista install and its GUID OS X counterpart. I think tonight I will focus my energies on getting OS X up and running on its own hard drive and then move on to figuring out GRUB and the CF card.

 

YES. This does work.

 

Here's where you can help. I'm not expecting anyone to hold my hand or walk me through this. I'm a big boy and I thoroughly enjoy experimenting with this stuff despite the little knowledge I have of unix based operating systems and OS X in general. However, if anyone has any suggestions or tips for me I would greatly appreciate the input. Plus, if this comes across as a good idea that no one has suggested yet, it could be a very big help to everyone who's considering dual booting OS X and any other operating systems in the future. I don't see why a thumbdrive or other media couldn't be used as a loader should this experiment pan out. Additionally, should this work, I don't see why it wouldn't be a more future proof type of installation since the initial booting will occur outside my hard drives. Hypothetically this would allow for numerous installations and partitions to experiment with in a convenient and non-destructive fashion. I guess we'll see.

 

My to do list

Install Vista on RAID 0 array

Install OS X on 300 GB drive

Install GRUB on CF card

Enjoy my dual boot system? - Still a work in progress as I have yet to create an installation that boots more than once following the 10.5.6 ComboUpdate.

[tweak41]

Successfully installed GRUB onto my CF card for booting. DAMN that was difficult considering I knew nothing about how it worked before starting. After days of googling along with tons of trial and error I stumbled upon this guide that made it very easy to do. All that is required is an Ubuntu LiveCD.

 

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installat...romCForUSBStick

 

For anyone thinking about using an external medium for booting, such as a compact flash, USB thumbdrive, or even a really small hard drive; following that guide (sans the steps where you copy over Ubuntu installer files) will get you the results you need.

 

AWESOME...that should have been the hard part. I'm looking forward to installing OS X next.

[tweak41]

Ok, so I've installed OS X on my drive that I've reserved for that using the Boot132 method. That was slick, sure beats those custom install discs.

 

I've also figured out how to install grub to an external media card and use that as my primary booting mechanism. Also pretty slick.

 

The catch is that OS X doesn't like it when my BIOS is configured to read my SATA drives as RAID. Now normally, I'd sweep this issue under the table because OS X doesn't have native support for whatever RAID "drivers" it would need, BUT (and there's always a but) I was able to boot my previous Kalyway installation while configured as RAID. So, there's something out there that will allow OS X to interact with my drive while configured as RAID...it's just a matter of figuring out what was different between the Kalyway install and my vanilla install now (there are a number of things it could be, I'm sure).

 

So, if anyone has any ideas as to what things I should investigate first to figure this out, I would greatly appreciate the help. Some sort of kexts for the ICH9R interface is probably the best place to start, but I'm not sure what exactly to look for. There has to be something that might work considering another variant booted at one time.

 

I found that using kexts from the plugin packaged you can download for the P5K-E Wifi/AP motherboard in UInstaller (from pcwiz) works to allow me to boot 3 times. After the third time, the computer continually loops messages about logging errors. This continues until I reinstall...very odd. I'm going to try some kexts that are *hopefully* newer and maybe will work better with 10.5.6. My hunch is that IT is the problem, because my non-HFS+ hard drives don't show up either once I reboot following the Combo Update.

 

[sargatanas]

Thanks for this!