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Triple Boot

I spent almost 2 days exploring different options of installing Ubuntu 10, Windows 7, and Snow Leopard side by side, and after many trials and errors I succeeded!!! The answer is rEFIt:

Hardware used:
Model Name: iMac
EMC: 2134; Model 7,1; 24"; mid-2007
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Drive 320 GB

Software needed:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard installation DVD
Ubuntu 10.04 x64 installation CD
Windows 7 x64 installation DVD
rEFIt
oscdimg.exe
Bootcamp Update 3.1

Following you will find steps I used to have everything installed.

***Note*** As of right now I still have issues with my peripherals while switching operating systems. Hopefully it will be solved soon, in the mean time I am going to find wired USB mouse with appropriate number of buttons ;-( (i.e. greater than 1).

Step 1: OS X - 10.6.3 - Snow Leopard
I started with a clean, minimal installation of Snow Leopard, without any additional partitions and formatted as Journaled HFS+. After completing initial setup I updated the system to the most current (10.6.3 as of 5/10/2010).

Partition preparation:
In Terminal use command diskutil list to identify your partitions. You should be presented with something like your GUID_partition_scheme identified as disk0 in addition to EFI and Apple_HFS partitions (disk0s1 and disk0s2).

Then I resized the largest existing partition and created additional 3 partitions: Windows 7, Ubuntu, and Linux swap.

sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 220G "MS-DOS FAT32" Windows 50G "MS-DOS FAT32" Linux 44G "MS-DOS FAT32" Swap 5G
Running diskutil list will show you:

rEFIt installation:
Obtain the most current rEFIt software from http://refit.sourceforge.net/ and install it on your computer, I used customized install with additional drivers for ext3 and others. After installation I ran this command to ensure that boot loader will appear at the startup:
/efi/refit/enable-always.sh

Your first step is complete. Restart your computer and refresh partitions in rEFIt bootloader.

Step 2: Ubuntu Linux - 10.04 - Lucid Lynx

Now that you are done enjoying your new bootloader and OS X it is time to put the Linux cd in and restart. From rEFIt select Linux CD icon and begin installation. You will be presented with options - go with custom disk setup, which will allow you to select from partitions you created earlier. Select Linux partition, mount it on / and format as ext3. Select swap partition and format as swap. Later you be presented with an advanced option to install GRUB in select partition. It is recommended (if not necessary) to install it on your Linux partition and NOT MBR partition.

That is pretty much it. Setup, run updates, enjoy. When prompted to restart - don't forget to refresh rEFIt partitions scheme and restart again.
I was able to install my wireless mighty mouse using pin 1111. But that messes it up in OS X. SO I need to try something different.

Step 3: Windows 7 - Ultimate Edition

Things are slightly more complicated here as installation DVD doesn't work properly, although Win7 - Beta installed just fine.

In order to continue using this method you will need access to windows based computer or, if you have an existing installation - use that instead.

Creating bootable Windows 7 DVD:
1. Download Vista SP1/2008/Windows 7 x64 ISO from MSDN (Microsoft), or grab your CD

2. Create 3 folders c:efi-iso c:efi-exe c:efi-dvd

3. Download oscdimg.exe from here and extract into c:efi-exe

4. Extract iso using 7-Zip or WinRAR (Or copy the contents of the DVD) into c:efi-dvd

5. Start up a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd)

6. Type: cd c:efi-exe

7. Type: oscdimg -n -m -b c:efi-dvdbootetfsboot.com c:efi-dvd c:efi-isowindows7.iso

Your new, bootable iso file will be created in EFI-ISO folder you created earlier. Burn it to DVD.

Installing Windows 7:
Place DVD in your Mac and restart. From rEFIt bootloader select Windows installation disc and begin installation. Select correct partition you created in step 1 for Windows and format it before continuing installation. The computer will have to be restarted after the first stage of installation and in rEFIt you will need to first refresh partitions, restart, then select booting Windows from a drive rather than installation disc. If it gets stuck on a gray screen - just give it a minute and then restart with power button. Worked for me. You may have to do that more than once. After that everything went smoothly. I completed the setup and run updates.

Installing Bootcamp drivers:
Another glitch here. Drivers from your Snow Leopard DVD will not install automatically on x64 system., and you cannot install 3.1 update without having Bootcamp 3.0 drivers installed. The way around it - command prompt again!
1. Insert your 10.6 DVD
2. Right-click on Start » Programs » Accessories » Command Prompt Select Run as Administrator
3. Type cd /d D: then press Enter
4. Type cd BootCampDriversApple then press Enter
If this doesn't pust you in the right place type in dir to see folders. Then use command cd (folder name) to navigate to Bootcamp/Drivers/Apple. One folder level at the time. Use dir in between if you want to see what is available.
5. Once in Apple folder type BootCamp64.msi then press Enter.
Installation will begin. Restart when asked, refresh rEFIt partition scheme, restart, boot into WIndows 7 and download and Bootcamp Update 3.1

You are done!

May. 10, 2010 10:41

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