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Triple Boot?

T

TheYankees1903

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 23, 2008
150
0
I have an unibody Macbook Pro with Mac OS X Leopard installed on it... I then used Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows XP...

I would now like to install Ubuntu through a third bootable partition that I can either boot up into directly or run via VM Ware Fusion 2... How would I go about doing this?

I also want to create a 32 GB FAT32 partition called "Data" or "Flash Drive" to be able to transfer the data between the other 3 partitions...

How would I go about doing all of this?

Please Advise,
TheYankees1903 :apple:
 
You should be able to do this without much of a problem. Have Ubuntu set up the MBR as it wants. Then, when you boot, you should have two options: OS X and the "drive" the MBR resides on. Boot from the MBR drive and GRUB should load without issue. For there, you can do as you see fit.

As for booting with Fusion, I cant help you there. I am not sure if Fusion can handle mutilple bootcamp partitions. Would recommend heading to VMWare's support forum and ask there.

On a side note: I don't know why you would set up a 32GB partition just to share data. You should have next to no problem mounting the partitions in each OS. You won't be able to write to the HFS+ parition from Windows or Ubuntu, but you will be able to read of the drive. NTFS-3G for OS X and Linux will allow you access to your WinXP partition. EXT2 IFS for Windows will allow you to access your Ubuntu partition and OS X can mount ext3 file systems (through command line). I would suggest giving these methods a try instead of doing that.
 
gumbyx84 said:
You should be able to do this without much of a problem. Have Ubuntu set up the MBR as it wants. Then, when you boot, you should have two options: OS X and the "drive" the MBR resides on. Boot from the MBR drive and GRUB should load without issue. For there, you can do as you see fit.

As for booting with Fusion, I cant help you there. I am not sure if Fusion can handle mutilple bootcamp partitions. Would recommend heading to VMWare's support forum and ask there.

On a side note: I don't know why you would set up a 32GB partition just to share data. You should have next to no problem mounting the partitions in each OS. You won't be able to write to the HFS+ parition from Windows or Ubuntu, but you will be able to read of the drive. NTFS-3G for OS X and Linux will allow you access to your WinXP partition. EXT2 IFS for Windows will allow you to access your Ubuntu partition and OS X can mount ext3 file systems (through command line). I would suggest giving these methods a try instead of doing that.
Click to expand...

First of all allow me to thank you for all of your help... I really do appreciate it... I'm sorry (I consider myself fairly well versed with all tech) but I do not know what MBR is. Also I already have Windows XP installed via Boot Camp...

I just simply do not understand how to install how to install Ubuntu (wether it is via Boot Camp or some other method so that I can directly boot into it)... How would I go about doing this?

Also I know it sounds wacky but I really have reasons why I NEED this Data partition... How would I go about making it?

To sum it up... How do I make a bootable (preferably via Boot Camp) Ubuntu partition and how do I make the Data partition? Without making my already installed Windows XP Boot Camp partition unbootable...

Please Advise,
TheYankees1903 :apple:
 
TheYankees1903 said:
Guys... Please Help! I am desperate!

PLEASE HELP,
TheYankees1903 :apple:
Click to expand...

Boot Camp only supports Windows XP and Windows Vista, you will have to partition your disk yourself, then boot into Ubuntu as a Live CD, and click on the Install icon on the desktop and select the partition you created to install on.
 
ElectroGhandi said:
Boot Camp only supports Windows XP and Windows Vista, you will have to partition your disk yourself, then boot into Ubuntu as a Live CD, and click on the Install icon on the desktop and select the partition you created to install on.
Click to expand...

Okay... I understand that... my only question is how do I partition my disk without ruining my Windows XP install... when I try partitioning my hard drive in Disk Utility by selecting my Leopard Disk and hitting the little "+" button and making a second partition... I get a notice saying what I am doing may ruin my XP Boot Camp partition or make it unbootable...

How do I partition my disk now?

Please advise,
TheYankees1903 :apple:
 
TheYankees1903 said:
I have an unibody Macbook Pro with Mac OS X Leopard installed on it... I then used Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows XP...

I would now like to install Ubuntu through a third bootable partition that I can either boot up into directly or run via VM Ware Fusion 2... How would I go about doing this?

I also want to create a 32 GB FAT32 partition called "Data" or "Flash Drive" to be able to transfer the data between the other 3 partitions...

How would I go about doing all of this?

Please Advise,
TheYankees1903 :apple:
Click to expand...

I have been running Ubuntu for 3 years as a virtual machine of my first gen MacBook using Parallels without so much as a hiccup.

I also use Free BSD using VMware, so creating a bootable partition is not necessary.

Just use Parallels or VMware to install Ubuntu 8.10 and make sure you allow for sufficient hard drive space or you may find yourself limited in the future.
 
rtheb said:
I have been running Ubuntu for 3 years as a virtual machine of my first gen MacBook using Parallels without so much as a hiccup.

I also use Free BSD using VMware, so creating a bootable partition is not necessary.

Just use Parallels or VMware to install Ubuntu 8.10 and make sure you allow for sufficient hard drive space or you may find yourself limited in the future.
Click to expand...

I really do appreciate all the advise but I will be using my Ubuntu partition for many things including downloading... With this in mind... I want to make it so that I can boot directly into Ubuntu...

Any idea how I can partition my Hard Drive without ruining my Windows Partition's ability to boot up?

Please Advise,
TheYankees1903 :apple:
 
Well...

Well... I really do appreciate the advice but does anyone have a method that they have personally used?

I do not feel comfortable taking a shot in the dark...

Thank You,
TheYankees1903 :apple:
 
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