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How to get rid of crappy MacOSX?

S

sluthy

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 13, 2002
181
1
Bundaberg, Qld. Australia
Well, not really, but it got your attention :D

I've been wanting to try Linux out on either my Mac or the family's PC. The PC has more distros and hardware and all, but the rest of the family uses it too much to get some experimentation time done on it.

How easy is it to install - and uninstall - a dual-boot system with Panther and Linux (I'm thinking SUSE or Ubuntu)? Is partitioning a pain, or can it dynamically spare some room from the HFS+ partition? Just in case I try it, and don't like it, and want to go back to the exact way it was.
 
Well, ...

... honeyboney, I am a regular Florida citizen, so next time I´ll shoot-first-then-question you because of offensive harm to my psyche you´ve done.

Just kiddin´, I guess, ;-).

Well, it´s plain simple: Insert OSX install DVD/CD, format the drive (and use the "zero overwrite" option to avoid bad sectors), create two partitions (HFS+ for OSX, UFS for Linux), then on one do make the OSX installation, on the other do make the Linux derivate.

So, each time you´ll restart your mac just presss the ALT/OPTION key, so you can choose the system option of your need. You really can´t make it more easy.

What you shouldn´t do is to put both systems on the same partition, that will definitely cause and bring two non-running systems.
 
Cant comment on the dual boot side of things with the OSX but what i can tell you is that Ubuntu on i386 is superb!!!!! For me it is much better than Suse.

If you get in quickly Ubuntu will also send you (for free!) copies of Ubuntu for i386 / PPC. Have a look on their website.... The latest release of Ubuntu (Breezy Badger) came out just the other day too so they are like VERY up to date.....

If you do decide to try Ubuntu check out the "Ubuntu guide" it's basically a walkthrough for getting everything up and running real fast !! http://ubuntuguide.org/

MrFrosty
 
Well, I was kind of hoping that I could do it without reformatting the entire drive. Most x86 distros can automatically shrink the free space in NTFS partitions to make room for the new one, I thought PPC ones could do similar with the HFS partitions (have 5-odd GB spare). If not, I might not bother with it. I've currently got Fedora Core 4 on the PC to mess around with, and I'm not a huge fan of it.
 
I installed Novell Linux Desktop on my daughter's game PC and uninstalled in about 2 days. It sucked for me, I'm not really too familiar with Terminal or how to install software or drivers on to it. I was hoping it would be more user friendly, but realized it is not.
And the UI was not what I was expecting. It sorta looks like cartoons. Movies played but the quality was lower and no sound. I could hear the start up chime, but not cds or dvds.
I just decided I didn't have time for all the learning I was going to have to do. Linux has a looooooong way to make it to regular household.

m2c
 
sluthy said:
I've been wanting to try Linux out on either my Mac or the family's PC. The PC has more distros and hardware and all, but the rest of the family uses it too much to get some experimentation time done on it.
Click to expand...

Easy. You don't say what kind of mac you have, but if its recent (not TOO recent), odds are its supported by Yellow Dog Linux.

I believe the installer walks you through partitioning and setting up dual booting. Its not easy...you'll probably need to read quite a bit to get exactly the set up you want. But its not rocket science either.
 
sluthy said:
Well, I was kind of hoping that I could do it without reformatting the entire drive. Most x86 distros can automatically shrink the free space in NTFS partitions to make room for the new one, I thought PPC ones could do similar with the HFS partitions (have 5-odd GB spare). If not, I might not bother with it. I've currently got Fedora Core 4 on the PC to mess around with, and I'm not a huge fan of it.
Click to expand...
You can use iPartition to partition your drive without losing/reformatting everything, if it works properly.

**EDIT**
Only 5 gigs free? OSX requires a lot of free disk space for virtual memory, I wouldn't suggest going any lower than where you are now.
 
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