[allankelly]

Hi, I've written up my triple-boot XP/Ubuntu/MacOSX Snow Leopard install. I hope it saves you time and hassle!

I describe how to use a USB install with GUID partitioning and then copy that install to a HDD MBR partition. Then setup Chameleon for a smooth triple-boot menu...

Click here to read the entire tutorial

[DenisM]

Yipee ! all working - triple boot XP/Ubuntu/OSX

Success at last . I'd never have got there if not for your input ( JW and Bkeeper) .

I redid this part of Alan's system:

• sudo vi /boot/grub/grub.cfg
• Now delete the Windows section. Just search for Windows and remove.
• :w! It's a read-only file. Force write.
• :q
• We now have the Grub menu we want
• Install it to the Partition
• grub-install /dev/sda3
• Grub will now offer loads of bad advice along the lines of "this is a BAD IDEA". How un-UNIX of it. Ignore it.

I may have originally got the sda no. wrong .... ?

On boot up - Grub menu was being presented, not chameleon , and it listed OSX as well as XP/Ubuntu.

Anyway - It's now working
Chameleon comes up - grey screen - one item OSX HDD -> left shift presents the others XP & Ubuntu - all three work

I'm really impressed at the effort of all concerned - to get a Mac OS working on what is a 'foreign' platform is some feat by those who put the code together.

I'll stand back, in awe, while you all take a bow

DenisM

[jwc10]

How did you copy OS X from the flash drive to the hard drive partition? I would recommend using Carbon Copy Cloner rather than Allan's parted cp method. Also, I would rerun Netbook Installer with the hard drive partition as the target after copying, and finally, I'd use the super latest version of Netbook Installer. There's a link to it in the **OFFICIAL** Mac OS X 10.6.4 Update Thread in the General Mac OS X Discussion forum.

Good luck!

[DenisM]

I used Allan's parted cp method to get OS X to the HD partition.

Like I say it's all functioning now.

I di have one issue with it locking if it hibernated. I've stopped it from hibernating now.

However I do need to do the OS_X software update.

Is it safe to simply run it from within Os_X ?

I'll read all the data on updating.

Thanks

[DenisM]

I decided to update to 10.6.4, having read all the thread on updating ....

Oh dear ! OS X tells me I have only 5.8 Gig left out of 16Gig and that's is not enough to update.

How did that happen ? I used Allen's method of installing on a USB and then copying onto the OS X 40 gig partition. Gparted reports the OS X partition as 40Gig but apparently OS X sees it as only 16Gig usable.

Disk Utility reports:
Capacity 41.94Gig
Available 5.58Gig
Used 10.08Gig

Is that not inconsistent ?

It looks like Allens' method has retained the 16Gig capacity of the USB stick from which I installed as the max available size of the OS X partition on the HDD.

Is there any way to force OS X to see the full 40Gig as available for use?

@ jwc10: Maybe I should restart using your advice ?



EDIT: I've just reread this thread from beginning and realise that B33Keeper had a similaer issue. How do you resolve that ?
I looked at Carbon Copy Cloner and cannot figure out how I would use *it* to resize the truant partition.
Is it suggested that I delete the partition and restart ? I do want to keep the triple boot aspect .

D.

[jwc10]

Denis: The problem with Allan's cp method is that it copies the flash drive bit for bit. That means that if you have a 16 GB flash drive, you get a 16 GB OSX system on the hard drive, even if your partition is bigger than that, as you've seen. (It took me a day or two of frustration to figure this out!) Using Carbon Copy Cloner to copy from the flash to the hard drive got me around this problem. It won't resize the partition once you've copied using another method, you have to use it to do the copying in the first place. I don't think you'll have to delete anything, just use CCC to overwrite the MacOS partition.

Also, be aware that there's a compatibility issue with the very latest version of Snow Leopard, so that you have to run the latest version of Netbook Installer (see link in my previous post.)

Good luck!

[DenisM]

I don't think you'll have to delete anything, just use CCC to overwrite the MacOS partition.

I've got ccc and i'm a little unclear as to what I should do.

Do I;
A:
backup the existing Hard Drive install partition to (some drive) then restore it back to the OSX partition it came from, and in the process overwrite all files and make the full partition available ?
Can't be that - no USB copy involved.

OR
B:
Boot from the 16Gig USB OSX OR Hard Drive OSX and
backup the 16Gig installed bootable USB directly to the OSX partition on the hard drive (as a form of reverse restore) ?

But it does not offer the Hard Drive partition as a target

Puzzled .

Would you have the patience to spell it out for me please ?

Right now I have Alan's partition scheme;
1. XP
2. OSX - in a 30 partition, thinking it's 16
3. Ubuntu
4. FAT32Shared
5. LInux Swap

Also
16Gig USB bootable with OS X installed

DenisM

[jwc10]

Boot from the USB stick. Make sure you are actually booting from the USB stick by getting the list of boot options during start up. The default seems to be the HDD partition, even if you've started the computer from the stick. (I was confused by that until I renamed either the stick or the partition and realized what was going on.) Then run CCC, the partition should be available as one the the options in the "Target" list. Use the USB stick as the "Source".

Hope that works.

[DenisM]

I did already rename the 16G USb stick as usbosxUSB while the HD is named usbosx, so I have no issue identifying them.

I booted from the 16G USB stick and when I run CCC, it offers all partitions in the source list. But in the target list it offers only WIn_XP, WIn-D(the shared one) and usbosxUSB (the 16gig stick).

It does not offer the internal drive partition on which OS X is installed (the one I wish to overwrite)

The save task, clone buttons are greyed out (presumably until a valid choice is made).
It says "you cannot copy a volume to itself" when I select usbosxUSB as target -a test - just as a confirmation that I have not confused the volume names)

There is something flaky about the OS X partition

Maybe I should use disk utility to erase the existing OS X on the hard drive and try CCC again?

D.

[jwc10]

Originally Posted by DenisM

Maybe I should use disk utility to erase the existing OS X on the hard drive and try CCC again?

D.

That should work. You still have a functional OS X on the USB stick, so it can't hurt.

[DenisM]

The good news first : It installed in the partition and can see all the full partition.

I tried to resize the osx partition , as an experiment. I suceeded in shrinking it to about 10Gig -and it seemed reasonable that I could now resize it upwards to hopefully 40Gig (the partition size allocated) . No way ! It refused point blamk to allow a resizing upwards. -worst off than I was, since it would not now boot to a full system - it came up with the background only and would only respond to a shutdown/restart command -obviuosly too little space.

I used Gparted to delete the (now only 10G) partition and the unallocated space I had created by resizing. I created a new 40Gig partition in their place and formatted it as HFS+ as required.

I also remembered to set boot flag in the OS X partition to boot from it.

I then booted from the 16G USB osx. download CCC and used it to clone to the partition on the HDD. This time, obviously it was offered in the target list.

It took three hours to clone. On reboot it gave boot error0.
I rebooted from USB, ran check and disk permissions.SET the Boot Flag to boot again !! In the cloning, it does not set the flag ??

I also reran NBI

On reboot, everything works.........

Now to look at software update..........
I'm having a sense on deja vu.

Thanks again for all your help.

In view of Allan's guide limitation on the copy on of OS X maybe Allan would revise his guide to point to CCC - a great product.

I'll come back and report the software update result later. Right now I'm going to enjoy my mini

Denis