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Multi boot on MacTel (via refit/gdisk)
- 1. Multi-booting on a MacTel
- 2. Intro ● Who am I? ● OS experience: Dos, 95, 98, XP, XP64, 7, Ubuntu 10.04/12.04 LTS, OSX 10.6+ ● Why multi-boot? Convenient native access to multiple environments for browser or games gem testing ● Triple-boot Mactel is common, but what is the limit? ● Idea: how about 2 from each of the 3 major OS families?
- 3. Considerations ● Firmware interfaces: EFI vs BIOS ● Partitioning schemes: GPT vs MBR ● (refer to google for terms above) ● Is Mac EFI-compliant? Yes but... ● Windows (via Bootcamp) requires MBR partitions since Mac is not UEFI-compliant
- 4. Tools ● Installation / boot / recovery media ● Drivers (Bootcamp and others) ● Refit (bootloader for easy multiboot on Macs) ● Gdisk (fdisk for GPT disks) ● Time, patience and google-fu
- 5. Partition map (on OSX)
- 6. Partition map (on Ubuntu)
- 8. Possible sequence of actions: 1. Create desired partitions through Disk Utility in OSX #1 2. Install refit and gdisk (via homebrew) in OSX #1 3. Install OSX #2 to sda3 4. Map sda4, 5, 8 to the MBR table (via gdisk) 5. Format Linux partitions to ext (so that they will be invisible to Windows installers) 6. Install Windows #1, #2 to sda4, sda8 7. Install Linux #1 to sda5, using sda7 as swap 8. Install Linux #2 to sda6
- 9. Just one Gotcha... ● MBR slots taken up by Windows #1, #2 and Linux #1, how to boot Linux #2 ? ● Linux is GPT-aware: use grub2 in Linux #1 (sda5) to boot kernel in Linux #2 (sda6, does not require its own bootloader!) ● Therefore, in theory we can have 6++ systems given enough time and HDD space
- 10. Grub 2 menu
- 11. Other info ● Beyond the proposed procedure: – Installing/booting Windows on GPT disks (risky) – Touching the EFI partition (sda1) ● An easier starting point: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MactelSupportTeam/ AppleIntelInstallation
- 12. Questions?
Editor's Notes
- Technologist @ Dropmysite Pte Ltd Legacy windows systems Peripheral interest with respect to this interest group
- MBR: 4 primary partitions (w/ one extended containing logicals) GPT (backward compatible w/ MBR table) EFI capable to boot GPT disks Mac enables Bootcamp via BIOS emulation
- This is the after state of partitioning as seen on OSX (Note the sda1 is not visible) Use Disk Util to format Fat partitions for use with Windows and Linux later, this is to prevent the partition numbers from changing later due to OSX installation etc
- Final state as seen on gparted. Do NOT resize non-OSX partitions via Disk Util after work has been carried out on gparted.
- Gdisk is used to map necessary GPT partitions onto the MBR table Note: Under the “simple” setup with only 3 systems, this is not necessary, as all partitions will be found in MBR, with the exception of the swap (created last)
- Now that we have an idea of the final state, this is a possible sequence to get there. Gdisk can be installed on Linux and Windows as well, but most impt it has to be there somewhere and OSX seems like the most convenient place
- Mount sda6 as a data drive Sudo update-grub
- Customary screenshot of grub 2 (Arch Linux on sda6)
- Despite lack of UEFI, there have been attempts to boot Windows off GPT disks on the Mac. There are also methods that modify the default EFI system partition + OSX, which is more dangerous than the proposed procedure For starters who only want to get started with a tri-boot