Dual Boot Install DVD

[thestevo]

So here is an idea that I have been thinking about and decided maybe I should throw it out to public consideration and criticism.

 

I thought, since a number of people dual boot, or want to dual boot, why not build that into the installation DVD? Recent installation DVDs such as Uphuck 1.4i r3 have enough room for a standard dvd to include Ubuntu and Windows XP images and still have them fit on a single layer disc. I would imagine the installations of the images wouldn't be too difficult. Simply make a pkg that runs a dd of the image into place.

 

For a bootloader, I found that Grub should be able to install from OS X. I haven't had the time to try it yet though. It says that it can install from UNIX, however Tiger isn't full UNIX compatible so who knows. The stickier issue would be where to have the files for Grub. I found that it doesn't do HFS+, so not the OS X partition. NTFS doesn't work either. If you're doing one with Linux you're good. Otherwise one would have to create a small FAT32 partition to have the bootloader files on.

 

Obviously the nature of this project would make partition sizes preset, and therefore not desirable for everyone. But the only other alternative that I thought of would be to create your partitions ahead of the installer in the disk utility and then do installs of off the same DVD for each of the partitions. In that case why not just do it all yourself?

 

Maybe its pointless, but it was an interesting thought to me. If you can refine the idea, give feedback. If you just like the thought, drop a note so I know its not just a pointless concept.

 

Stevo

[bluedragon1971]

Interesting idea! It should be just a matter of writing a postflight script that installs the image. The only problem that I can think of is that installing XP customizes it to the hardware installed, so an XP image would only be good for the hardware it was made on. A Vista install doesn't do this, so it would work, but it might be too big to fit on a regular DVD along with OS X. As for a bootloader, you could simply use the Darwin one, since it will boot XP or Vista with no problems.

[thestevo]

Good points. Thanks for the feedback, I was beginning to think that the idea may not be of any use to anybody. You are right, it might have to be limited to Vista or Ubuntu. And GRUB would not be necessary, Darwin would indeed do the job. While certainly possible, I think that partitioning might be the sticky issue as far as user experience is concerned. I'm not sure.

 

Stevo