[pwborders]

Ok I just wanted to let everyone know that it is possible to have OSX, XP and Ubuntu all on a a single ssd with triple boot working fine. I can't take credit for any of this as all the information was in various posts by people that have been working on this much longer than I. Specifically see these topics for many of the details.


HowTo: Install OS X on the Mini9 (Boot132) Official Thread

howto-install-os-x-on-the-mini9-boot132-official-thread-t1106.html

How-To: Mac OS X DellEFI Installation

how-to-mac-os-x-dellefi-installation-t3925.html

Woooohoooooo dual booting os x & xp on the runcore!

woooohoooooo-dual-booting-os-x-&-xp-on-the-runcore%C7%83-t1699.html

Installing Win XP Pro via UFD (Universal Flash Device)

http://www.scartech.net/2008/08/22/inst ... sh-device/

How to install Grub from a live Ubuntu cd

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351

Install Ubuntu from a USB stick

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Insta ... omUSBStick

GParted Live on USB

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/liveusb.php

Gparted Live on CD

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

I just thought I would pass along some of the catches that I noticed while I was doing the installs while they are still fresh in my mind.

The biggest issue to remember, and the one I think that cause most people grief, is that each install is going to want to change the master boot record (MBR) and that is how you lose something after installing the next thing. Also, because of this problem the order of installing is important. I recommend XP first, then Ubuntu with OSX last. If everything works right you will end up being able to press ESC at the darwin boot message and pick which OS to boot after the final OSX step is done, with OSX as the default.

One thing to note, I installed everything from USB flash drives instead of my external DVD. I could do it via DVD and it would have saved me an issue during the XP install but I get tired of swapping DVD's. I used the "How-To: Mac OS X DellEFI Installation" guide above to make a single flash drive with Boot132 Version 8.01 and the OSX Install DVD on it. Then using guides from the internet I made an XP install flash drive and an Ubuntu install flash drive.

Second note is that I created a GParted flash disk to use to do all my partitioning. I tried using the OSX install and Disk Utility but had some problems which may be related to the changes made to it to allow it to install to a MBR partitioned drive. So using the GParted boot flash drive I made four partitions, 1 - EFI (32MB), 2 - OSX (26GB), 3 - XP (24GB), 4 - Ubuntu (~9GB). ALso there is a choice on GParted to show the device information (View / Device Information) that even though I had repartitioned with GParted it still showed the disklabel as gpt. So if yours doesn't show msdos use the Device / Set Disklabel choice and pick msdos.


So the overview of the steps involved:

A. Create necessary media, DVD's and flash drives
B. Using Gparted partition the SSD
c. Install XP
D. Instal Ubuntu
E. Change the Boot partition with Gparted
F. Install OSX
G. Enjoy!

I just redid the whole thing using DVDs and it took about 3 hours total.

Now on to the details.

A. Create necessary media, DVDs and flash drives

1. Create a GParted flash drive or CD.

GParted Live on USB

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/liveusb.php

Gparted Live on CD

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

2. Create an install Windows XP flash drive skip if using a DVD.

Installing Win XP Pro via UFD (Universal Flash Device)

http://www.scartech.net/2008/08/22/inst ... sh-device/

Edit the boot ini on the above flash drive to look like this

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional P1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional P2" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional P3" /fastdetect

See this post, thanks to defasuarus:

woooohoooooo-dual-booting-os-x-&-xp-on-the-runcore%C7%83-t1699s50.html#p31707

3. Create an install OSX flash drive

Follow section B to create a usb flash disk with OSX and the 132Boot with DellEFI.

How-To: Mac OS X DellEFI Installation

how-to-mac-os-x-dellefi-installation-t3925.html

Next you have to modify on file on the OSX partition of the flash drive to allow you to install to an MBR partitioned drive.

Follow the directions here:

Woooohoooooo dual booting os x & xp on the runcore!

woooohoooooo-dual-booting-os-x-&-xp-on-the-runcore%C7%83-t1699.html


B. Using Gparted partition the SSD.

1. Boot with the Gparted flash drive or CD.

the default choices all work so just press enter for each question

3. Once Gparted is up it should be showing the SSD (/dev/hda) and its current partitions.

4. First choose Device / Create Partition Table

Make sure it says MSDOS as the devicelabel, if not change it with Advanced

Click Apply

5. Now create your partitions in whatever sizes you want.

The first partition must be the EFI partition and can be made 8MB and choose UNFORMATTED as the type

The second partition is for OSX, whatever size you want, choose UNFORMATTED as the type

The third partition is for Windows XP, whatever size, choose NTFS as the type

The fourth partition is for Ubuntu, Whatever is left, choose EXT2 or EXT3 as the type

The types don't matter as you will be reformatting later but they do help keep XP from getting confused

5. Apply the changes

6. Now set the XP partition as BOOT

Select the XP partition ( number three above)

Select Partition / Manage Flags

Click on Boot

7. Shutdow the Gparted image.

c. Install XP

1. Start the XP install

If you are using the flash drive select the second choice, Text Mode

You should see the third partition labeled as C: is you set the BOOT flag correctly above

Select the third partition as where to install XP

Do a quick format in NTFS ( or Fat32 if you wish)

2. Continue on with a normal XP install

If you are using the DVD it will work just like any other computer

If you are using the flash drive you will need to be careful to boot off of the flash drive

until you have completed the install choosing the GUI Mode choice and selecting P3 choice to

boot off of partition three

3. When the install is done you will have a functional XP install

D. Instal Ubuntu

1. Start the install from either the flash drive or the CD

2. At Step 4 be sure and select Manual Partitioning

Select the fourth partition, set it to your choice of filesystems, check the format box and use / as the mount point

3. At Step 7 Select the Advanced button and set grub to install to /dev/sda4

If you do this you wont' be able to boot into Ubuntu until you get OSX installed

If you do not change this you will be booting Ubuntu with XP as a menu choice but you will have to come

back and fix grub later

4. On reboot you will be back in XP if you made the change above, that is perfectly ok for now

E. Change the Boot partition with Gparted

1. Boot with the Gparted flash drive or CD

2. Set the OSX partition as Boot

Choose the OSX partition (partition two)

Select Partition / Manage Flags

CLick on Boot

3. Shutdown the Gparted Image

F. Install OSX

1. Boot with the OSX / Boot 132 flash drive to the OSX installer

Select the OSX partition to start

2. Prepare the partition for installation

Run Disk Utility

Select the second partition

Choose Erase from the tabs

Set to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Set the Label

Click on Erase

3. Install OSx

1. Follow the instructions here

HowTo: Install OS X on the Mini9 (Boot132) Official Thread

howto-install-os-x-on-the-mini9-boot132-official-thread-t1106.html

2. Note that when I rebooted I had to enter 81 as the drive as 80 was the OSX / DellEFI flash drive

F. Enjoy!

1. On the first reboot after installing OSX you should be able to press any key during the 3 second count and

see all three bootable partitions. Pick which ever and you should be there.


Now I am just waiting for Chameleon so that I can have a nice graphical boot menu.


Pete B

[mech]

nice 1 Pete. Gonna mess around with this later on because I'm still relying on my OSX for work on the mini. Do you have any comments about using Grub as the default loader and not Darwin?

I tried this but Darwin/OSX never came up as an option when I listed OSX as an option. Tried all sorts of variations, and none worked. I guess my mistake was that OSX was installed first? Looking forward to your full guide. If I go through this, I'll probably make a video instruction. Need the comp for now

mech

[pwborders]

Thanks mech for the kind words. I am just starting to become familiar with the osx boot process but since I think we are using the pc_efi boot method this might work:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... opic=85508

I think I am going to image by drive and do a reinstall of everything just to see how it works so I can make a step by step guide. I may have to get another of these little fellows, they are so fun to experiment with.

Pete B.

[mechdrew]

Nice work, I'm going to have to check this out soon.

Originally Posted by pwborders

I think I am going to image by drive and do a reinstall of everything just to see how it works so I can make a step by step guide. I may have to get another of these little fellows, they are so fun to experiment with.

I know what you mean, I've been wanting to get another one, but tinkering isn't a good enough reason for me. But I have found that by either installing or imaging my SSD to a flash drive (8 GB, by the way) I can tinker all I want, still have a usable Mac drive, and then when I get tired of tinkering I just image it back to the SSD. You may want to consider that (I mean installation on flash drive.)

[bamf]

Originally Posted by mechdrew

Nice work, I'm going to have to check this out soon.

I know what you mean, I've been wanting to get another one, but tinkering isn't a good enough reason for me. But I have found that by either installing or imaging my SSD to a flash drive (8 GB, by the way) I can tinker all I want, still have a usable Mac drive, and then when I get tired of tinkering I just image it back to the SSD. You may want to consider that (I mean installation on flash drive.)

I'm the same way. I keep toying with buying a second one so that I can have something to tinker with. Maybe I should just try to get a few more of the STEC SSD's. Hmmm...

[RichTJ99]

Great guide! Now I just need to wait for my Runcore 32 to show up.

[oldskoolboarder]

Great to see a detailed DellEFI version.

One question from newbie. Can I just 'eliminate' the ubuntu steps if I want a dual boot? I assume so but wanted to check. Don't have much use for Linux and if I did I may just rely on wubi.

[jhoff80]

Wouldn't it be much easier to just use the Vista bootloader and then use EasyBCD to add XP, Linux and OS X to it?

Here's how to add the Vista bootloader for XP: http://neosmart.net/blog/2007/how-to-in ... p-machine/

I'd personally do it XP first, then OS X, then Linux, use the Windows repair CD to bring back the XP bootloader, and then use the instructions I gave to give you the Vista bootloader, and remove the Vista entry, then add the entries for the OSes you have installed.

I don't actually have my Mini yet, but I might end up doing something similar myself when a few months down the road I pick up a Runcore drive (though I've considered quad-boot, Win7, XP, OSX, and Ubuntu).

[pwborders]

Originally Posted by oldskoolboarder

Great to see a detailed DellEFI version.

One question from newbie. Can I just 'eliminate' the ubuntu steps if I want a dual boot? I assume so but wanted to check. Don't have much use for Linux and if I did I may just rely on wubi.

That should be no problem. Leave out the Ubuntu partition and don't install Ubuntu and you should be good to go.

Pete B.

[pwborders]

Originally Posted by jhoff80

Wouldn't it be much easier to just use the Vista bootloader and then use EasyBCD to add XP, Linux and OS X to it?

Here's how to add the Vista bootloader for XP: http://neosmart.net/blog/2007/how-to-in ... p-machine/

I'd personally do it XP first, then OS X, then Linux, use the Windows repair CD to bring back the XP bootloader, and then use the instructions I gave to give you the Vista bootloader, and remove the Vista entry, then add the entries for the OSes you have installed.

I don't actually have my Mini yet, but I might end up doing something similar myself when a few months down the road I pick up a Runcore drive (though I've considered quad-boot, Win7, XP, OSX, and Ubuntu).

You can do it almost any way around you want. Darwin (OSX) will boot them all, so will GRUB (Linux) and even the standard windows XP boot loader with some work.

I just wanted the easiest and most straight forward way to do it and that seemed pretty easy to me since it doesn't involve any extra software or fixing anything after the fact. If you do things in the order I did everything just works. My directions may look very long and drawn out but I am just overly detailed. Basically all I did was install each OS in turn, the order is what makes everything work out of the box.

As long as you are careful about what is in the MBR and that the partitions have whatever they need you can switch between boot loaders at will pretty much.

Once you get your Mini you should do up an account of installing with the EasyBCD loader.

I was just looking at the link you gave and there is one issue with EasyBCD, it requires files from Vista. If someone doesn't have a legal copy of Vista this won't work for them. Hopefully someone will find a way to make the boot loader work with out the Vista files.

Pete B.