[geeks] Ubuntu partition on Bootcamp Mac?

[Mark]

On 28 Jul 2007, at 07:19, Jon Gilbert wrote:

> On Jul 27, 2007, at 9:15 PM, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
>
>> You might have better luck running it inside of VMware Fusion.  It's
>> really good stuff.
>
> No, the main reason I want to install Ubuntu is for enhanced OpenGL
> performance. I want to boot into Ubuntu without having it wrapped in
> a virtual machine, which is sure to limit 3D and network performance.
>
> Is it possible to make a partition for Ubuntu, just like I have
> partitions for Windows Vista and Mac OS X? And when I boot, to choose
> between them?
>
> I know on PC's, you can have multiple OS's installed, and choose
> which to boot into. But how do you do this on a Mac? Or can you not
> do it? (Please say it's it's possible, for if it's not, that would
> be... ultra lame.)

This might prove helpful, but it's a wee bit convoluted! I think it's  
out of date now anyway, but still:

http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Triple_Boot_via_BootCamp

AFAIK Ubuntu Feisty has direct support for Intel Macs and will boot  
an install ok without Bootcamp, tho i t might be useful to dry run it  
on and external USB drive or a memory stick or something first.

If you do use a separate drive, heed this. Something I only realised  
recently is the format of  your hard drive is critical as only 1 type  
of drive partition table is supported for native booting on Intel  
(GUID Partition Table). If the drive hasn't got one (i.e. it's a  
PowerPC disk or a Master Boot Record type PC disk) then it won't boot  
from it. This is why Apple prefer you to piggyback your Windows  
partition onto your OS X disk - it's easier than setting up a new  
drive and making sure it has a GUID Map etc...

I never got Windows to work on a separate disk (Bootcamp 1.2.2 and XP  
SP2). I wasn't aware of the above though so maybe that is why. I also  
ran into the old 'SATA and 2 disk drives' bug in  the XP installer  
which I doubt Vista suffers with.

I also found a neat firmware-based boot utility that was way better  
than Apple's own boot selection screen, called rEFIt. It's a great  
piece of work, and has some interesting (but potentially highly  
destructive - you were warned!!) utilities built into it for managing  
disk partitions.

-- 
Mark Benson

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