[jbeamer]

Finally got a triple-boot system working with the following:

• OSX 10.6.1 (installed from retail 10.6 disk, and NBI 0.8.3)
• Windows 7 Ultimate
• Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04
• Chameleon v2.0-RC3, as included in NBI 0.8.3 RC3

I never used EasyBCD, as my goal has been to avoid seeing ugly bootloaders (Windows & Grub).

Major challenge in this was maintaining the hybrid-GPT-MBR structure, as each installer hoses the other installs.

My breakthrough was moving Ubuntu's grub install off the MBR and into the Ubuntu install partition, then gptsync'ing to get the MBR back. I then had 3 working installs, each of which function by setting the active MBR partition (using Win7's DISKPART). When the OSX partition is active, Chameleon takes over and shows all three choices.

To write a full guide I'd have to start from scratch -- I hope I have time to do this, but expect that it won't be anytime soon. Until then, here is a process as close as I can document. Mostly, I just want you to all know that it is possible.

My general process was similar to the several guides found in the guides section here, parts of this are lifted straight from those documents

I used:

• A 4G SD installation media of WIN7
• An 8G USB stick with Retail OSX Snow Leopard install disk restored on it, then patched with the latest NBM
• A 1G USB stick with the Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix image on it

Convert the drive to GPT and create partitions

• boot off the Win7 media
• once in the install, get a command prompt by hitting Shift-Fn-F10
• run diskpart.exe to convert the drive to GPT and partition the drive - 3 partitions, with empty space at end for Ubuntu

• list disk
• select disk (your hard drive, should be 0)
• clean
• convert GPT
• create partition EFI size=200
• create partition primary size=(size in mb for OSX - mine was 50000 MB, of a 160 GB HD)
• create partition primary size=(size in mb for Win7 - mine was 50000 MB, of a 160 GB HD)
• list partition (a * should appear on the third partition, that's where you will install Win7 later)
• format fs=ntfs quick
• exit

Install OSX

• Reboot off the patched OSX installation media
• Use Disk Utility (from the tools menu) to "Erase" the OSX partition to HFS+ (Mac OS Journaled File System), name it OSX
• Install OSX to this partition
• Once installed, this is a good time to update to 10.6.1 (through software update), and re-run NBI

Install Windows 7

• Boot from win 7 media
• Install on the NTFS drive

Windows has hosed the MacOS boot at this point, but keep going...

Install Ubuntu

• Boot from the Ubuntu media
• Choose the option to install on the unused portion of the disk
• Install will create two more partitions - a big one (mine was 50G), and a small (2G) swap partition at the end of the drive

At this point, Ubuntu has taken over and hosed the boot -- probably just Ubuntu and Windows work, booting through Grub

Fixing the boot process

Boot from the ubuntu install media, and install grub onto the grub partition, partition 4, or (hd0,3) in grub notation:

• open terminal (accessories, terminal)
• sudo grub
• find /boot/grub/stage1
• root (hd?,?) [from before, probably (hd0,3)
• setup (hd0,3)
• quit
• sudo apt-get install gptsync [it's not on the install image]
• sudo gptsync [recreates the hybrid mbr]

Reboot to win7 media to fix the windows install

• boot from your win7 install stick
• enter CMD by hitting SHIFT-FN-F10
• use diskpart to set the active partition back to windows partition (3)
  • diskpart.exe
  • select disk 0
  • select partition 3
  • active
  • quit
• in win7 install program, choose the repair option -- with the MBR restored (when we used gptsync) and windows as the active partition, it should find the install and repair it
• it wants to reboot, so i let it, and verified that windows was working
• reboot again from win7 install stick
• use diskpart to set active partition back to the osx partition
  • diskpart.exe
  • select disk 0
  • select partition 2
  • active
  • quit

That's it -- all 3 should now boot from Chameleon.

Note that upgrading (say to 10.6.1) and re-running NBI, may require that you jump through these hoops again.

I am interested to hear if this helps anyone out there.

-jb

[anguish]

Interesting. I can't tell if that looks easier than the method that I finally got working or not. I may try that when I finish cleaning off my stock drive to do a guide.

[jbeamer]

thanks anguish. I hope you do have a chance to try it out -- the latest Chameleon that Meklort has included really is a beautiful way to start up a machine.

My last piece is to replace the generic linux penguin with a nice Ubuntu logo.

-jb

[bmcclure937]

Awesome

I agree that using Chameleon as a unified bootloader is the best solution, although it does take a little trickery and work!! Glad you came up with this little guide

Also, changing the Chameleon theme is relatively easy and there is an entire theme section on the Chameleon forums. But beware that these themes may look "squished" and unproportional on a netbook screen

---------- Post added at 02:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:17 PM ----------

*NOTE* : moving to Dual Boot forum and making a sticky

[anguish]

It certainly is, which is why I was finally thrilled to get it working on my 10v this morning. Your route definitely looks easier, as mine was a bit more convoluted, I think. A couple of differences, for example, the partition was all done (initially) via Disk Utility, a format via the Win7 installer, and some partition changes using Ubuntu's partitioner. Never messed with GRUB either, other than to install it to the same drive the Ubuntu was installed to. But, I see a lot of the same fixing, except that I had to use the OS X fdisk utility after getting Ubuntu installed to do some fixing.

Hopefully I'll be able to get around to this next week, as my weekend looks pretty busy..

---------- Post added at 02:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:18 PM ----------

I should add, that the above methods jbeamer used should be able to work the same as Leopard. SL isn't in my playbook yet, and a lot of what I did is similar, but still different, from what jbeamer did.

[jbeamer]

Ran through again last night to work on a more complete guide -- one major update:

after the Ubuntu install, you definitely have to reinstall chameleon. I just set the active partition back to the mac partition, and use the mac boot stick to boot to it. Once I re-installed it was up as a triple boot again.

Anguish's note makes me think that I can skip the grub steps...

Hope to have it completely documented after one more run through; but the installs seem to take forever.

-jb

[anguish]

Yeah, the installs are brutal. I suspect that you could install each OS, then go back and install Chameleon, and the correct the various booting issues, specifically with Windows. If I had time this weekend, I'd work on it, but today I'm swamped (in about an hour), although tomorrow looks promising.

[bmcclure937]

Great works guys. I am looking forward to the solidified guide for "Triple Booting"

[Lazarpandar]

I was following this guide religiously until the command line command "sudo gptsync" It doesn't look like its doing anything at all, it gives me a couple of commands but says that a device wasn't specified.

commands are -q and -t, but sudo gptsync alone does nothing for me.

edit: After doing a little bit of research it looks like I'm supposed to put a location after gptsync, what location should I put in?

[anguish]

I can't help with that, but I'm getting ready to start working on a new guide here, and it doesn't involve gptsync. I've got some testing to do on it, but first thing is first, I need to get my old hard drive swapped back in. Not destroying my current triple boot setup.