Good way to dual or triple boot?

poopboypat · Dec 2, 2008

Ok here’s what I’m doing, im going to ether dual or triple boot with xp, OSX (x86), and maybe a linux distro. I have dual booted before and have used grub to dual boot, and I don’t really like it.

I guess I’m looking for a quick but stylish way to choose what I can boot into. Anyone have any suggestions?

ihrsetrdr · Dec 2, 2008

You can dual & triple boot with rEFIt . I've used rEFit to dual boot OS X & XP, haven't tried a triple boot, but I believe there are instructions available on the rEFIt site.

As an alternative to triple booting, you can dual boot OS X & XP, and then set up a VM with VirtualBox for Linux, in either OS X or XP.

Stratus_ss · Dec 2, 2008

you can try Lilo, or BootMagic, or there was another one my dad used to use, he swears by it... can't remember now but it boots you into a small gui to chose your boot options

TalRW · Dec 2, 2008

I have to agree w/ you. GRUB isn't the prettiest of bootloaders. However you can add images to make it a little more asthetic.

I didn't take this but this is pretty much what mine looks like: http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4933/picture16lb.jpg

You can add other images to make it a little more stylish if looks are your only problem w/ grub.

MRD · Dec 2, 2008

OSX makes the whole thing more complicated. If you are using any number of windows versions, dos, various linux flavors, bsd, hurd, solaris, minix, or anything like that, Grub easily handles it all. OSX is different though I think. From what I understand you cannot just put it on a partition and load it.

I could be wrong though, I've never tried it, although I've read about it a bit.

Trombe · Dec 2, 2008

Could you do BootCamp for OSX/Xp and then Grub under the Xp partition?

curtis1552 · Dec 3, 2008

Trombe said:
Could you do BootCamp for OSX/Xp and then Grub under the Xp partition?

I don't think that you will be able to do that as the bootcamp would load windows and not GRUB. GRUB isn't a part of the windows boot process; it precedes it and takes the place of the MBR.
Your best bet would be to consider this guide i found by looking at pictures I googles of grub menus.

https://flic.kr/p/4w9tXh

HOW-TO: Installing OSX Leopard, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Linux Ubuntu on a Macbook

Updated: Now also triple boot without Vista

1) You will need a format and repartition of the whole disk, so time machine your previous data.

2) Insert OSX Leopard (also Tiger works) Install DVD. Reboot the macbook pressing the C key (so it will boot from DVD). From the "Utilities Menu" window menu select "Disk Utility". From "Volume Scheme" tab, select 5 partitions and use this schema:

0 EFI protected (which is invisible under Disk Utility)
1 Name: VISTA Format: MS-DOS File System <--create this partition *even* if you don't plan to install Vista, XP partition *must* be the 4th one to avoid missing hal.dll trouble!
2 Name: STORAGE Format: MS-DOS File System
3 Name: XP Format: MS-DOS File System
4 Name: OSX Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
5 - Format: Free Space (Linux partitions will be created here later)
Every partition will host its OS. The (optional, but very advidsed) STORAGE partition will be formatted in FAT32 to share files between the four OSes. If you are installing a brand new hard disk, check boot loader type as "GUID Partition Table (GPT)" (remove MBR default or you will not be able to install OS X). Then click the "Partition" button, and all your data on disk will be destroyed.
Now you can close "Disk Utility", and start install OS X to volume "OSX". After reboot into OS X, hou have to install rEFIt boot loader (download it from refit.sourceforge.net) into volume "OSX".

Update: If you have installed "MacBook EFI Firmware Update 1.1" (available via Apple Software Updater) installing rEFIt is no more compulsory if you plan to install linux after on your macbook. This update will fix built-in keyboard issue with "legacy" bootloaders, so you can use grub bootloader included in Ubuntu to boot Vista, Xp and Ubuntu. But I personally installed rEFIt because I really prefer his graphical boot than grub textual one

Update: If you want to obtain a triple boot macbook, without installing Vista don't create the VISTA partition on step 2), proceed to step 3a) and ignore 3b). Instead if you want to install Vista, jump directly to step 3b)

3a) You can use directly from OS X terminal the "fdisk" command, that handles an MBR-partitioned disk, to setup the XP partition suitable for installing that windows version. Open a terminal under OS X:

type "sudo fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0"
enter password and ignore the message "fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory"
type "p" to print MBR partition table
type "f " "4" to flag partition 4 active
type "q" to save and quit
3b) Insert Windows Vista install DVD. Reboot t

Dusnoetos · Dec 11, 2008

What I do is have multiple HDD's (different HDD for each OS)and use the BIOS boot menu to boot to the HDD that has the particular OS I want to use on it....

MRD · Dec 11, 2008

It's very easy to dual boot any number of the following: linux, windows 2k/xp/vista, dos, bsd.

Throwing OSX into the mix is more complicated, as it works off a different style of partitions and uses a custom boot loader. It's possible but tricky.

Good way to dual or triple boot?

poopboypat

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ihrsetrdr

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Stratus_ss

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TalRW

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MRD

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Trombe

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curtis1552

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Dusnoetos

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MRD

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