Question about bootcamp

davidtbaron said:

ok i want to know if there is an option or a hack that when i turn on my imac it will always show boot menu then i can choose mac or windows.

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You can achieve what you want by installing a third party boot loader like rEFIt (http://refit.sf.net).

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davidtbaron said:

Yeah i saw that but i was hoping you could change something in the bootcamp
to do this without 3rd party software. Like a command line hack or some thing

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Unfortunately, no.

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Not exactly what you're looking for, but you can change the bootcamp options to boot to Windows by default so you don't need to use the bootloader unless you want to boot into mac os.

vistadude said:

Not exactly what you're looking for, but you can change the bootcamp options to boot to Windows by default so you don't need to use the bootloader unless you want to boot into mac os.

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And you can use BootChamp http://www.kainjow.com/ and the Boot Camp System Tray icon to simplify a manually reboot into the other OS if you know in advance.

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Set up an Open Firmware password using your original install disk and select a password that's short, since all you really want to do is arrive at the disk-selection window.

This keeps you from having to be around to monitor your start-up chime, but only gets you part way to where you want to be since you will still be forced to have some input into getting to the disk screen.

Here's what you need:

From Terminal,

sudo nvram boot-command="multi-boot"

to change it back:

From Terminal,

sudo nvram boot-command="mac-boot"

Valdemar said:

sudo nvram boot-command="multi-boot"

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You sure that works on Intel Macs? http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1958595 EDIT: Also https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/396466/

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balamw said:

You sure that works on Intel Macs? http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1958595 EDIT: Also https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/396466/

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Click to expand...

I haven't tried it on my MacPro, but I have tried it on an old Quicksilver (PowerPC running 10.5) and it works there. Otherwise there's always:

http://www.apple.com/education/resources/bootpicker/

Which makes you wait a little longer than necessary, but it works on my MacPro.

The Intel boxes don't use OpenFirmware so many of the things that worked on PPC systems just won't on Intel/EFI boxes.

Valdemar said:

Otherwise there's always:
http://www.apple.com/education/resources/bootpicker/
Which makes you wait a little longer than necessary, but it works on my MacPro.

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I always forget about Bootpicker, but it is roughly in the same category as rEFIt (third party utility) and rEFIt is generally more flexible.

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Nope, didn't work on my MacPro. I'll read up on the links you provided.

There's always bootpicker or fiddling with my original post regarding the firmware password. It seems that to get to the disk screen without automatically booting to the blessed system folder, one needs to change an option, but I can't seem to make it work. Here are the options for the firmware password:

sudo nvram security-mode="none" // no firmware password
sudo nvram security-mode="command" // standard password mode
sudo nvram security-mode="full" // no booting until typing in password

nvram -p // print screen for settings

I'm not able to make the "full" mode stick. Any suggestions?

balamw said:

it is roughly in the same category as rEFIt (third party utility) and rEFIt is generally more flexible.

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Click to expand...

rEFIt looks interesting. I think I'll give it a try. Thanks!