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Triple boot -> linux, windows, osx


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(srry for spelling and all, english is not my main language)

Hi all, just to share my experience that made my headaches stop =)

 

this is how I did on my laptop and made booting much more simple after I got it all

 

What I used:

-Windows XP CD

-Ubuntu 9.04 CD

-Iatkos v7 DVD

 

 

this was on my laptop (toshiba a205-s4777) with 1 internal sata HD only (180gb)

 

I started with windows:

insert CD, boot, divided the HD in 3 60gb parts, formated the 1st one as NTFS, left the other 2 unformatted.

installed windows xp on the 1st partition.

 

Next step -> Linux:

Restart PC, insert Ubuntu 9.04, format the second partition as Ext3(or 4) and install normally

 

now I have grub installed as my boot manager, and windows is there automatically. So no trouble at all so far right? ok

 

Next step - > Leopard

 

restart, insert Iatkos v7 DVD, installed with the originally marked bootloader (charm. rc1 if im not wrg) vanilla kernel and just added a couple drivers for my PC (audio video etc from the customized install) on the 3rd partiton as HFS jour.

 

rebooted with no boot and/or boot error =O

 

Now here comes the fun part

 

Insert the ubuntu CD and reboot to start with it, load the live CD (" test ubuntu without any changes on your computer" option)

 

-download "boot_v9" (google it) and put inside YOUR LINUX PARTITION, inside /boot folder!

-restore GRUB to your MBR (google it)

-edit your menu.lst from grub and add mac there

 

here how it works, you will add the name there u want "leo" " hackintosh" w.e.

you will ask it to boot from your LINUX partition

you will ask it to boot from /boot/boot_v9 THAT IS ON YOUR LINUX PARTITION

 

thats it. =)

 

leave live CD, restart your computer, and see your GRUB managing all 3 OS'

 

ps.: when u chose to boot your mac OS, he might ask where your mac os is, options are 80, 81, 82 (for 1st, 2nd and 3rd partition). for me, if I just leave the countdown end, the bootloader finds mac on its own. After that it will load darwin and you can enter any option u like (if needed =P)

 

hope this helps people that are stuck on multibooting or even with trouble to find the OSX boot =)

 

GRUB ftw =D

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in addition =) (from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351)

 

How to restore Grub from a live Ubuntu cd.

This will restore grub if you already had grub installed but lost it to a windows install or some other occurence that erased/changed your MBR so that grub no longer appears at start up or it returns an error.

 

(This how to is written for Ubuntu but should work on other systems. The only thing to take note of, when you see "sudo" that will mean to you that the following command should be entered at a root terminal.)

 

Boot into the live Ubuntu cd. This can be the live installer cd or the older live session Ubuntu cds.

 

When you get to the desktop open a terminal and enter. (I am going to give you the commands and then I will explain them later)

 

Code:

sudo grub

This will get you a "grub>" prompt (i.e. the grub shell). At grub>. enter these commands

 

Code:

find /boot/grub/stage1

This will return a location. If you have more than one, select the installation that you want to provide the grub files.

Next, THIS IS IMPORTANT, whatever was returned for the find command use it in the next line (you are still at grub>. when you enter the next 3 commands)

 

Code:

root (hd?,?)

Again use the value from the find command i.e. if find returned (hd0,1) then you would enter root (hd0,1)

 

Next enter the command to install grub to the mbr

 

Code:

setup (hd0)

Finally exit the grub shell

Code:

quit

That is it. Grub will be installed to the mbr.

When you reboot, you will have the grub menu at startup.

 

Now the explanation.

Sudo grub gets you the grub shell.

Find /boot/grub/stage1 has grub locate the file stage1. What this does is tell us where grub's files are. Only a small part of grub is located on the mbr, the rest of grub is in your boot folder. Grub needs those files to run the setup. So you find the files and then you tell grub where to locate the files it will need for setup.

So root (hd?,?) tells grub it's files are on that partition.

Finally setup (hd0) tells grub to setup on hd0. When you give grub the parameter hd0 with no following value for a partition, grub will use the mbr. hd0 is the grub label for the first drive's mbr.

Quit will exit you from the grub shell.

 

for grub OSX entry =) (from http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...ded&start=)

 

 

Get boot_v9 from here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?rdonkiqyzlz

 

Rename it from boot to boot_v9

 

Copy it to /boot inside linux (enter terminal and enter nautilus with sudo command so you have permission to copy there (" sudo nautilus" enter password))

 

Then edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (terminal " sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst " )

 

title Mac OSX Leopard

root (hd?,?) (replace with same values grub uses for -Linux partition-, not ones for OSX partition)

kernel /boot/boot_v9

boot

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question.. What if Linux is installed through windows? It's on the same partition as windows. I installed it like a program. Also

I will be using windows 7 instead of xp does it matter?

 

I'm not sure I know how to answer your question... =(

If u installed linux inside windows like a program that means u dont really have a dual boot or grub as a boot manager right? when u want to use linux, you boot into windows and start it up as a virtual machine? If so, I dont think thats even considered " dual booting" xp and linux =O (I can be wrong here, I have never done it that way)

 

about windows 7 and xp, I believe it should work the same way as long as you install windows 7 1st and linux 2nd, since that way grub will automatically insert windows on its list, giving you less trouble =)

 

about installing on the same partition, well... windows likes NTFS, Linux works better on etx3 (or ext4) formats.. and macs will need the HFS journaled to work... so I advice you to make 3 diferent partitions, one for each system and it own format.

 

I myself use an external harddrive for data sharing between all OS (a 1TB mybook from western digital formatted in NTFS), mac has NTFS3G tool to read ntfs HD's and linux also has a similar tool for the same purpose. But if thats not your case and you have limited space, Linux and OSX dont really require a lot of space so u can make 15gb partitons for them and you should be fine, and leave the windows partiton with the bigger chunk for the OS and shared files.

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No the linux installs grub and acts independantly from windows it just housed in the same partition under C:ubuntu.

 

I think this time i'm going to instal Os X first then windows. Then if All goes well ill put linux on b\c thats easy. ;)

 

I myself do have 2 big externals for sharing purposes. I store all my media on it so i can spread it between 2 computers and 4 OS.. Also when the computer decides to crash its much easier to recover from

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i think that it should not be the biggest problem

i installed first osx, then 7 and the last one was ubuntu

works good - only grub is a little bit annoying (and the fact that ubuntu won't start without a sd card as a swap (even with a swap partition on the hdd))

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  • 2 months later...

I got no swap for linux, with 4gb ram and minimum use I didnt think it was necessary...

I guess the order dont really make a diference if you can handle bootloaders, I just particularly HATE 3rd party bootloaders... so I just stick with Grub.

I made a lil stupid boring video of my triple boot, nothing special... lol

Windows 7 booted in 1min 9 secs, leopard in 59 secs and linux in 40 secs

 

 

i think that it should not be the biggest problem

i installed first osx, then 7 and the last one was ubuntu

works good - only grub is a little bit annoying (and the fact that ubuntu won't start without a sd card as a swap (even with a swap partition on the hdd))

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