How To Triple Boot MAC OS X, Windows 7 and Ubuntu 8.10 Linux

Have you ever given a thought about installing three different type of Operating System on a single computer? Not Yet! Hmm... This sounds scary and too complex right? But You're Totally wrong! Its as simple as Install two Windows Based OS on one computer... Believe Me! Still Don't Believe Me? Ok Then, Read On :

You will need the following :

• A Computer with at least 40GB SATA Hard Disk + 2Ghz Processor + 512MB RAM + DVD ROM
• MAC OS X for Intel Architecture
• Windows XP
• Ubuntu Linux [Any linux will do, but i prefer UBUNTU]

Installing MAC OS X

• Set your first boot device to DVD-ROM
• Boot from MAC OS X DVD
• Create atleat 15GB Partition for MAC and while formatting it, format it as MAC journal file system
• Create atleast 15GB Partition for windows XP and while formatting it, format it as NTFS file system
• Create atleast 8GB Partition for Linux and while formatting it, format it as Linux file system [EXT3 preffered]
• Install MAC OS on the first partition
• Follow the instructions. Its a GUI based istallation.

Installing Windows XP

• Boot with Windows XP CD
• Install Windows XP as you do it normally on the partition that you formatted as NTFS from MAC
• But make sure you do not touch any other Partition
• Reboot your computer

Installing Ubuntu Linux

• Insert the Ubuntu CD and Boot from it
• Select the partitions that you formatted as Linux file system while installing MAC
• Now Create 1 GB swap partition from the remaining space
• Install Ubuntu
• Reboot

Now as grub has taken over all the boot loaders you will see only two options :

• Ubuntu
• Windows XP

But nothing to worry about...

• Now select to boot with Ubuntu
• Go to "/boot/grub/"
• Open "menu.lst" file with administrator's right known as "root"
• Add the following lines to the file and save it :
  
  
  Code:

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  title Mac OS X (Tiger)
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

  ---

• Reboot

Wow...! The grub boot loader shows all the three Operating system!

So..? Its so simple! Right? Finally... you believe me! :thumbup1: :thumbup1:

All the best...!


EDIT : If you already have any operating system installed and you don't want to loose data read post no.21

Just make sure you first install Mac OS X then any operating system and the last any linux flavor. Make sure you use different partitions for all the OS. The point in installing linux at the last is because of the grub's capability to boot from any partition regardless of the OS installed...

Hi All,
Actually I did two builds, one as described by Rudra J., and another on a different hard drive which already had the T60p seven-CD XP Pro build and a ton of app's on it. With the fear of losing the Win XP build, I went ahead with the appropriate partitioning, installed OS X, installed Eaay Peasy, and added the appropriate entries to Grub. The needed reference was (hd0,1) versus (hd0,0). It worked the first time and I have been using all three op/sys's for a month or more since my first post.

When you purchase a new Mouse and Keyboard you will receive a drive cd by the manufacturer. Normally maximum operating system like windows, mac, linux, etc has a inbuilt directory of driver files. They include a driver for USB, mouse, keyboard, etc. But still if you have any issue then go to Apple site and select your system model number in the driver column. Download the relevant drivers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sayanmaji

i have 250GB sata hard disk with 5 partition (NTFS) . XP installed in C (20 GB). now i want to dual boot with mac nd xp. how to prepare hard disk for this purpose?

where can i get mac os x for intel architecture?

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Boot from Mac OS X DVD and then when a windows saying you to click continue appears, From menu bar select Utilities > Disk Utility. Then select any partition and click on format tab, the format it with Mac OS Journaled File System, Then close Disk Utility and proceed with the Installation. Select Customize at the last screen before clicking on Install and then select drivers according to your hardware devices connected... Download iATKOS v7. How to find the download : G.O.O.G.L.E is everybody's friend... :thumbup1:

Update: Tried iATKOS v7 last nite... Chameleon works v nicely but unfortunately with VAIO the rest don't! I was locked out, as usual the graphics driver was a problem first up, did F8/ -s on boot to enter terminal mode but keyboard didn't work! Read the text above and OS is read-only so it said. Well I might give iATKOS anoter try, because the first time I customised the installation, adding a couple of drivers etc. Maybe just going with default maybe better? Kalyway 10.5.2 was much more successful, just need either rEFIt or Chameleon to sort the dual boot out. Any idea if it's possible to install Chameleon only from iATKOS disc, after installing Leopard from another (in my case Kalyway)? Would that work? Advice on rEFIt/Chameleon probs appreciated....

Dude I've tried getting around partition problems many times using gparted after Windows already installed... everytime making partitions with via Linux has screwed Windows Boot Manager (ie Win doesn't boot anymore). Also in my experience Mac OS has to be installed first, making sure you format a ms-dos (fat) partition to install Win back onto, and another to install Ubu onto. See what Rudra says (he knows more than I do). Safest way I reckon if u want the triple boot is to follow his instructions at the top of this topic. If I can't sort out my Mac/Win dual-boot problems I will in the end triple-boot using grub as boot menu cos I know it works. Good luck

hallo guys, im reading this interesting 3d, i think was very good tutorial to learn more thing.
actually im trying to install on my hp laptop multiboot: i like to install leopard (or snow leopard) retail win 7 xp (or vista) and ubuntu 9.4.
i lost more time to try install but actually full multiboot not working so 1 time i have 7 and vista working but not mac and ubuntu, another time works mac and ubuntu with chameleon 2 bootloader but not win os and go on....
i have 1 question for you: is possible my configuration using first guide or using rEFIT to restore osx bootloader after installed in order leopard 7 xp (or vista) and ubuntu?
in last one case i must edit grub's boot file or not?
thanks for your reply ;-)

Woohoo! Great eh? No fun without Internet... If you find you have to put all the code into the Terminal again every boot to get ethernet working, what I did is take a copy of the AppleYukon.kext and install it sraight into /System/Library/Extensions/ using KextHelper (but keep it in IONetworkingFamily.kext as well).

Rudra,
Right on the money! It was easy. One stumbling block I found with the triple installation on my T60p is that, apparently the CD/DVD drive is IDE. Because of this, at boot time I got this error: "com.apple.Boot.plist" not found. Here is the full path: "/com.apple.boot.S/Library/Preferences/System Configuration/com.apple.Boot.plist" which did exist, of course.
Referring to (site name) I disccovered via "megavolkan" that the IDE CD/DVD drive needs to be unplugged and in its place I used a USB SATA CD/DCVD drive, SATA being the operative word. I did a reinstallation and all works perfectly... and easily. Thanks. ~Kilpat

Thank you for this! I had a hard time finding current 411 on triple-booting a mac mini using grub. (I want to avoid reEFIt, due to the issues with EFI updates and OSX tools/utilities.)
I am curious as to how I would go about quad-booting, using grub. I would like to run OSX, Fedora, openSUSE, and win 7. Do I need to place the extra linux partition in any specific section of the HD?
I am in the (painfully slow) process of installing OSX, and then I plan on following the remainder of your guide. If I did install a second flavor of linux, would it be as simple as pointing grub to the correct partition? I don't see why not, but this multi-boot mac stuff is new to me. I wasted several hours yesterday trying to get everything working, but I was SOL after installing OSX, win, and one linux flavor, after I followed another guide. Blah.
Thanks again!

Ive been facing a few hiccups with the whole triple boot especially with the part dealing with the Mac OS X(Leopard)

I have been using "iATKOS v7 10.5.7 DVD for Intel/AMD PC" for my mac Image. Is that the recommended Mac OS on this message board or is there a better option? Anyways, I pretty much follow the advice on the tutorial and start with the MacOSX install. I seem to be able to create the right partitions and install Leopard in the HFS partition successfully till I get to the message where it say it needs to restart to complete the installation. But I dont seem to never be able to complete that setup.

So, I follow through with the rest of instructions and follow it up with the XP install followed by Ubuntu 10.4. Then try to add the boot options to the menu.lst as suggested. And after when I try to boot up and select Mac OS at the grub bootloader menu. I momentarily see screen with a flourescent green chameleon loader(version 2.0) asking to select any key to get the boot options, which when I follow I get the choice of my leopard and windows. However when I choose Leopard, nothing after happens and it just reboots.

Can anybody here suggest any corrections to my approach to get this thing working ?

I have a couple years old IBM ThinkCentre M52 desktop with a Pentium D core with beefed up HDD(7200rpm) and RAM(2.5Gigs) and rest stock. Yeah, my trouble is I guess towards the end of the Leopard install phase, when I see that install completed sucessfully. It then goes on say, it needs to restart to complete the installation and i guess I can never seem to get to a point where I can complete that process :no: Any suggestions as to how I can get back and complete the Mac installation?

About the Linux version, I mis-typed it. I am installing a Ubuntu 9.0.4 distro. Additionally I notice, as I follow the MacOSX-WindowsXP-Ubuntu order of installation that at the ubuntu install phase the disk manager utility does recognize the partition where I have the Mac OSX as such. Just an info point for what its worth i guess !!

Is there anything else I could do during the MacOSX install phase in terms of configuration. I read on another message board that Chameleon v1 works in most cases as opposed to v2(which is selected for install in case of iATKOS). Is that worth trying?

An update. This one is important, Now its possible to create [may be it was possible before and i was not aware of it] HFS+ partition when some other Operating System is installed. But remember, you must have an extra partition to create or convert the partition to HFS+ file system. Boot from Ubuntu CD-ROM [or Any Linux Live CD] and boot to the live environment. Now once that is done, open terminal and type :

Code:

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cfdisk

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Now select the extra Partition which has no data and which isn't used by any operating system. Format it as HFS+ file format, thats it, Done...! Installing Mac is now posisble when there are operating systems already existing on the hard disks. :thumbup1:
Will Keep updating this one...

ANOTHER UPDATE : DUAL BOOT WINDOWS AND MAC using MAC BOOT LOADER :

Ok, the dual boot only [Windows OS and Mac OS X] is now possible. I was just experimenting with my triple boot and i screwed my Ubuntu partition. I booted from the Mac DVD and formatted the entire hard drive. Now i installed Leopard on the first Partition and then install Windows XP on the second. I then booted from Mac DVD and i again chose to install Mac, but in customize [on the last user interactive screen just before install]. I kept the defaults settings and the othe driver setting which i need and kept all the settings except the iATKOS v5 which is the actual Mac OS X Leopard. The remaining things which were left to install took about 40 seconds and i got a message saying installation successful. I rebooted the PC and the Mac OS X boot loader started and when i checked it showed me the option and choose from which partition i would like to boot. Here i selected Mac OS X [first partition] booted perfected, on next reboot i tried to boot from Windows XP [second partition] and Windows XP booted flawlessly too. Now this is what i would say a wrong experiment going right....

So the actual process :

• Install Mac OS X see the previous posts
• Install Windows [Any Version]
• Again boot from Mac DVD and in the customize screen uncheck every option except bootloader [Don't select both boot loader]
• Click on Install.
• Reboot when done.
• Ok, Thats it...

This thread is a result of experiments. Many people are looking for this topic and this topic is getting updated frequently so i think, Moderators should make this thread Sticky... :whistling

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rudra.J

If you have re-partitioned then your first partition should be HFS+ [Mac JFS] and the rest as you wish to, I recommend using iATKOS v7 the latest one. In the guide i have used iATKOS v5, but v7 works similarly. Ok do post your System Config, may be i could help you with the drivers...

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Well first of all, I've only got a copy of Ideneb here, maybe iATKOS v5 would serve me better? Ideneb won't allow NTFS partitioning, only FAT32 that would be compat with windows... not sure FAT32 would worrk with Win 7 tho'? Ideneb seems to want to reformat entire drive as Mac JFS, ie, like u said at top of thread, Mac HAS to be installed first. I will give Ideneb another crack, I didn't customise it at all, just did the default install (which failed due to wrong drivers).

System spec: Sony Vaio NR-series laptop/2000 GB SATA HDD/ DL DVD+/-RW ROM/3GB DDRII SD RAM, PC-2 5300, 667MHz/ Intel Core 2 Duo CPU 667MHz T5450/Mobile Intel 965 Express Family Chipset/Mobile Intel GMA X3100 Graphics Adaptor string (res: 1280x800), Available graphics memory tot: 358MB (64 system, 294 shared)/Realtek Hi Def Audio driver v6.0.1.5449/Intel 82801 HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller + Intel ICH8M Ultra ATA Storage Cotrollers - 2850/Marvel Yukon 88E8039 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller/Intel PRO Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection/...is that enough? there are many more of course, eg USB driver, Express Slot Controllers DRAM, etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rudra.J

If you manage to get the iATKOS v7 disk for mac, you will get a new graphical boot loader from chameleon. Its chameleon boot loader v2. It looks awesome... :thumbup1:

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Me again... nearly there with the video kexts... following' steps I saw on the InsanelyMac Forum for Vaio NR-series users specifically, I installed SwitchResX onto my VGN-NR280E, changed res, rebooted, (no change in res yet of course), installed the two kexts I got from there (AppleIntelGMAX3100FB, Natit.kext), entered the following into Terminal before rebooting:

sudo -s

(password)

sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/

sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/

sudo rm /System/Library/Extensions.mkext

exit

No change upon reboot, except I get lots of choices of res, none of them the right one! (ie 1280x800). Then I went online and found a a bundle of the full five, including the two on there I already got, plus three others that come with Leo Update: AppleIntelGMAX3100GA.plugin, AppleIntelGMAX3100GLDriver.bundle, AppleIntelGMAX3100VADriver.bundle. Installed those too, entered the Terminal code again, rebooted, still no good. Then a dialog box keeps coming up saying that the AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext (which I got off the 2nd website) is not installed properly, also the AppleIntelGMAX3100FB.kext (which is from IM Forum). I've reinstalled many times, tried everything, FB seems to stick now but I think the original AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext is corrupted/damaged and I desperately need it. May need another FB too. Anyone? I assume attachments at kext/driver level are allowed? I'm also needing the Marvel Yukon Ethernet driver, (got no internet), Optiarc DVD RW driver or equiv that works, also Realtek Audio too (sound is out also). Can anyone help? THANK YOU!

man Im glad i found this. I had linux, windows 7 installed plus 50GB free. I went ahead and try to install mac to the 50GB after formatting to HFS+...bad idea. I ended up losing a partition with all my data(because mac install failed and mess up my MBR), had to run TEST DISK to get it back but it change my MBR to GPT which mess up everything so i couldn't install anything(windows7 wouldn't let me and leopard didn't see my hard drive). Long story short I got back my data and I am now backing up my stuff to a hard drive with bad sectors(no choice). I plan to erase the new hard drive and follow this guide, with the exception of creating 2 extra partition for my data. I am gonna use Windows 7, Leopard(iATKOS v7) and Ubuntu 9.10. Rudra, do you have any suggestions before I proceed? also knowing 9.10 comes with GRUB 2, how do I proceed to adding the leopard to its list??

hey there, me again. Well yeah I'm going with the Kalyway10.5.2 with 10.5.3 Leo update combo you suggested (just too many problems with the iDeneb install onto SonyVAIO NR-Series - you're right, there are a pain in the a** when it comes to Mac OS X). Thanks for the .kexts, I'll be sure to let u know how it all pans out (though I can't see anyway around losing Win7 unless Kalyway will let me instal it onto my spare partition- iDeneb sure didn't... I did try the tretinal command from Ubu live disc environment to try and not lose the data but it would't accept it.
Questions:
1. Do I install the 10.5.3 update as soon as possible (ie as soon as i've got a screen to look at, albeit a default square one and not the full 1280x800 yet), or do I wait until everythings working as it should?
2. When installing .kexts, I assume can this be done by simply dragging and dropping them into the /Extensions folder? (bear with me here, I'm pretty new to Macs!)
3. ...Perhaps most importantly, which kernal do I go with? The guy who started an Insanely Mac Forum thread dedicated to sorting out the Graphic Adaptor probs with Sony VAIO NR-Series said the fix (same as the one you're suggesting) was for Vanilla, but further down another guy had great success using Kalyway 10.5.2 + 10.5.3 update combo with the speedstep kernal. Does it matter which?
Thanks so much for all yr help mate

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rudra.J

You can drag and drop the kexts. But how can you do that if your Mac OS X installation doesn't work? Ok, You need to update your Mac as soon as the updates are downloaded. These updates are meant for Mac Hardwares and not a non-mac hardware, so there are chances that this may screw your system. Also you can use any kernel... If you want the latest version of Mac, consider downloading iATKOSv7. It comes with Mac OS X Updated till 10.5.7. It also includes Chameleon v2 Bootloader... This will definitely help you... :thumbup1:

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OK so what happened was the install went much better than with iDeneb, I got sound and DVD RW drive working fine, but two big problems:

1. When I ran the update, it crashed halfway thru and screwed the whole OS and I had to reinstall. When I tried again, it said:

Installer is damaged.
Installer is unable to open the package. This is likely due to Install framework's runner executable not having the proper ownership and/or permissions.

I tried redownloading it but the same thing happened. I'm not too worried about only having 10.5.2 anyway, it's fine, if I can get eveything working.

2. The natit.kext installs (drag and drop) no problems, but the frame buffer fix kext keeps saying it's not installed properly, so I can't get the proper 1280x800 res video. I do of course enter everything you said into terminal after installing .kexts and before rebooting:

sudo -s
(your password)
sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/
sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/
sudo rm /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
exit

Still stuck on default res with VESA. Have installed SwitchResX and entered custom res 1280x800 but says 'not installed' of course. FB prob is blocking I think.
And now I've just reinstalled Win 7 onto spare partition which has wiped the Darwin boot loader! Remind me again how to get Leo and Win 7 both on boot?? So I guess that's prob no 3! Any help much appreciated dude... :dumbo:

To repair Mac boot, you can anytime install rEFIT. Download and burn the ISO, boot from the rEFIT CD and install it on th Mac Partition, It boots Mac, Windows and Linux as well. Ok, what i did yesterday is, I installed Windows [a clean install] and before installing it at partition i created seperate partitions which were of course not formatted. I went ahead and installed Windows on the first partition. Then i used iATKOSv7 to install mac. Now now matter which OS you install first, Mac is installable anytime... During the installed i was shocked ti see no partitions where i would install Mac!! Ahh.. then i realised there are no Mac partitions on it yet. I opened Disk Utility and selected the second partition and chose erase option, then in the file system selected Mac Journaled File System and erased it. I closed Disk Utility and then in the option i could see the newly erased Mac partition. Then when the installation was complete, i installed Ubuntu 9.10 and then upon reboot, Grub2 showed me an option to boot Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. This is what is surprising. Now i wanted to test it, so i selected Mac OS X and it came up all the way as it should.... Well i would recommend you download iATKOSv7. I downloaded it and it worked out of the box on my PC, i just had to select the PS/2 drivers. How about giving it a try? I don't know what isn't letting you use Flawlessly. I know how frustrating it is. I have been with the same feeling for a year, before i could understand how to do it. Well atleast you know what to do. I just ran random commands as it would appear on other websites. And now i am here making this guide... :ohyeah: Well, i think iATKOSv7 is worth trying... :thumbup1:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rudra.J

To repair Mac boot, you can anytime install rEFIT. Download and burn the ISO, boot from the rEFIT CD and install it on th Mac Partition, It boots Mac, Windows and Linux as well. Ok, what i did yesterday is, I installed Windows [a clean install] and before installing it at partition i created seperate partitions which were of course not formatted. I went ahead and installed Windows on the first partition. Then i used iATKOSv7 to install mac. Now now matter which OS you install first, Mac is installable anytime... During the installed i was shocked ti see no partitions where i would install Mac!! Ahh.. then i realised there are no Mac partitions on it yet. I opened Disk Utility and selected the second partition and chose erase option, then in the file system selected Mac Journaled File System and erased it. I closed Disk Utility and then in the option i could see the newly erased Mac partition. Then when the installation was complete, i installed Ubuntu 9.10 and then upon reboot, Grub2 showed me an option to boot Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. This is what is surprising. Now i wanted to test it, so i selected Mac OS X and it came up all the way as it should.... Well i would recommend you download iATKOSv7. I downloaded it and it worked out of the box on my PC, i just had to select the PS/2 drivers. How about giving it a try? I don't know what isn't letting you use Flawlessly. I know how frustrating it is. I have been with the same feeling for a year, before i could understand how to do it. Well atleast you know what to do. I just ran random commands as it would appear on other websites. And now i am here making this guide... :ohyeah: Well, i think iATKOSv7 is worth trying... :thumbup1:

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Got iAtkos.. will try v soon... meanwhile... rEFIt is in .cdr format (for pc)... everywhere tells me that's a CorelDraw picture file! Well I went ahead and burnt it.. wasn't bootable. then I ISO'ed and burnt it using PowerISO, still not bootable. What am I doing wrong here? Do I need to simply alter the file extension to .iso before burning? the Mac .dmg versin i tried out installing in Leopard, installed fine, but didn't seem to alter the boot menu at all. ??? Would be good to get a PC-bootable version of rEFIt to address the basic problem I'm having of leopard install wiping Win, Win reinstall not wiping Leopard but wiping the Darwin boot loader. Well as I say I've got iATKOS v7 now, perhaps the Chameleon Boot Loader will magically solve allmy problems..
But advice on rEFIt appreciated (have a feeling I'm just being really dumb here... but why would they offer .cdr??? Bizarro):no: