progression

Triple Boot: Vista, Ubuntu 7.10, OSX86 10.5.1

February 14th, 2008

Filed under: Development, Hardware, High Technology

This is a step-by-step how-to of how exactly I set up my triple booting system on a PC. I used two hard drives for this configuration, one 400GB for my Vista + Ubuntu, and another 120GB for my OSX86 partition. This cleans up a lot of problems with getting the EFI bios to work.

My hardware configuration:
-Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 (2.0 GHz)
-2GB DDR2 533MHz
-500GB + 120 GB SATA HD’s
-Board: Intel D945GCF
-Chipset: 82945G
-Intel GMA 950 Graphics
-10/100 Mbps Lan (Works on Vista + Ubuntu, not osx86)
-Integrated 8-Channel Sigmatel Audio (Works on Vista + Ubuntu, not on osx86)
-USB 2.0 Bluetooth Adapter (Works on Ubuntu + osx86, not on Vista)
-USB 2.0 Ethernet Adapter (Works on osx86, not on Vista + Ubuntu)
-USB 2.0 Audio Adapter (Works on osx86 + Vista, not on Ubuntu)

1. You will need:

A PC with the same board/chipset/graphics for this install to work. A lot of computers come standard with this configuration.
A copy of the Kalyway patched 10.5.1 OSX86 Install DVD.
A copy of Ubuntu 7.10 (http://www.ubuntu.com)
Any copy of Windows Vista (or xp really)
Two (2) Hard drives! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, makes life much easier and you don’t risk destroying your other partitions when installing OSX86.

2. Make sure both drives are attached by sata, configure your prefered vista drive as primary in your BIOS and go ahead and install it on your primary drive if you haven’t already.
3. When you’re done, use Vistas “disk management” tool under “computer management” in the “administrative tools” section of the control panel to free up some space in an additional partition for an Ubuntu install on your Vista Drive.
4. Insert your Kalyway disc and restart your computer, before the install starts jump into your BIOS.
5. Configure your hard drives so that your OSX hard drive will be primary instead of your vista drive. Exit + Save
6. Kalyway disc will start, allow the disk to load, it may take a few minutes. Patience is a virtue!
7. STOP, do not continue your installation yet, you need to partition!
9. Go to tools > disk utility and select your OSX hard drive from the left hand list.
10. Click the partition tab, and select 1 partition. Name your partition something simple, I used “osx”. DON’T USE SPACES. Choose MacOS Extended (Journaled) Filesystem. Do not click “apply” yet.
11. Choose “options” > this screen will appear:

12. For this hardware configuration only MBR will work with the EFI bios for this chipset. I’ve tried GUID, as it works better on intel processors, but nevertheless, no luck.
13. Click apply and complete the partitioning, close disk utility.
14. Continue the installer, agree to the terms + conditions. You will see a customize button before you click on “Install.” Click this option.
15. Check both the vanilla kernals and the EFI bootloader(MBR not GUID) at the bottom. I couldn’t get any of the sound drivers to work on my onboard sound, but i resolved the issue with a USB sound card (see bottom).
16. Click “done” and continue with the install.
17. When it’s all said and done, you should be able to restart and boot into OSX86 without the disc in the drive.
18. Eject the disc, and insert your Ubuntu 7.10 disc.
19. Restart the computer, and head into BIOS.
20. Reset your Vista drive as your primary hard drive. Save + Quit
21. When prompted to start ubuntu live cd, do so.
22. Once on the Ubuntu desktop, click install and follow the basic instructions. Use “largest continuous free space” for the space to install, and it will install to the empty partition on your vista drive you created in step 3. MAKE SURE YOU INSTALL GRUB BOOTLOADER!
23. Complete the install, eject Ubuntu disc, and restart.
24. When prompted with the Grub bootloader, choose Ubuntu 7.10 and boot into your linux partition.
25. Open up a new terminal and type in: “sudo fdisk -l” (confirm with password)
26. It should display a list of hard drives and their partitions, this will give you an idea of how you’ll need to configure GRUB, to boot into your OSX and Vista partitions. Keep this terminal open!
27. Open another terminal and type: “sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst” (confirm with password)
28. In front of you a gedit window will appear with the current Grub configuration. You’re going to have to add some new entries to this setup.
29. This is what my menu.lst file looks like, yours should look very similar, however you’re partitions may be labeled differently. Replace “root (hdX,Y)” as needed to make it match what you have displayed in the terminal you opened in step 25 + 26.

default 0
timeout 5

title Mac OS X86
root (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

title Windows Vista
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1
makeactive

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=c50989a9-f628-48e8-90f7-d8b3836d6bc2 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=c50989a9-f628-48e8-90f7-d8b3836d6bc2 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

title Ubuntu 7.10, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

30. Once you’re sure you’re good, save and restart. The configuration I put in above should work beautifully with OSX being primary, Vista/XP secondary, and Ubuntu tertiary. ENJOY!

Extras I had to buy later:
- USB audio adapter (works out of the box) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829128002
- USB ethernet adapter (works with drivers on this page) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833114017
- USB bluetooth adapter(works out of the box) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156069

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