Dual boot Mac OS X and Arch: Arch installer cannot find CD drive?

Hi, everyone! A friend convinced me to install Arch about a month ago on my desktop and I've loved it so much that I want to dual boot Mac OS X and Arch on my Macbook Pro 7.1.
So I have a Macbook Pro 7.1. I have partitioned the drive in Mac OS X and installed rEFIt. I have the Arch x86_64 disk which I know works because I installed Arch on another computer.
When I boot from CD I get the familiar Arch screen with options "Boot Arch Linux, existing OS... etc." I click boot Arch, and it starts to load. However, it says "Waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_201005 ... ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds... Falling back to interactive prompt. /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off."
After searching around the forums, some people said they had similar problems attempting to install via USB. I used "cat /proc/scsi/scsi" and my CD drive does not show up in ramfs.. What can I do to install this amazing OS on my MB Pro 7.1?
Thank you for your time!

Solved! sledgehammer and MrE (sorry, I can't spell it) in IRC helped me out. I had to download a newer iso that offers better Mac hardware support. 2010-12 iso

Similar Messages

Dual Booting Mac OS X and Arch, rEFInd fails to open initrd file

I gave up on trying to solo boot Arch on a MacBook(1,1), and I'm dual booting. I have Arch installed on its own partition, and rEFInd is installed and configured through Mac OS X. I followed the wiki's instructions on moving the initramfs files and creating refind_linux.conf in Arch's folder on the EFI partition, and when I reboot, Arch appears as a boot option! This is good news! However, when I select it, the following happens:
rEFInd - Booting OS
Starting vmlinuz-arch.efi
Using load options 'root=/dev/sda4 ro rootfstype=ext4 systemd.unit=multi-user.target initrd=\EFI\arch\initramfs-arch.img'
Failed to open initrd file: EFI\arch\initramfs-img
My question is, do I need to install refind-efi on the Arch partition, even though I've installed rEFInd on Mac OS X?
Also, do I need to install GRUB in Arch, even though I've [attempted to] used EFISTUB to link rEFInd with Arch?
Thanks in advance for your help.

I got 32-bit UEFI to work on my macbook, and I found it to be rather straight forward. But 32-bit UEFI is not incredibly common, and I wanted to have a 64-bit system so that I could potentially chroot into my other computer's disk if necessary. So that is why I ended up using bios compatibility on my macbook.
Edit: Oh yeah, and yes, using MBR only is also another way in which you can use bios compatibility mode. Basically you just need to have a MBR with more than one protective partition, and I think you need to have one partition marked as bootable in the MBR. It has been a while since I got all that macbook stuff working though, so the info is a bit stale in my head.
Last edited by WonderWoofy (2013-06-09 20:31:17)

Dual boot Windows 7 (64) and Arch Linux (64) problems

Hello:
I am new to Arch Linux and just finished installing the 64bit on my laptop. It had a prebuilt Windows 7 (64) installed which I kept but split the hdd from 160Gb to 80Gb and 80Gb. I installed Arch there and set 4 partitions, all of them as Logical - a 64 MB ext2 /boot partition; a 512 MB swap partition; a 15 GB root partition; and the rest as my /home partition. My partitions look like this:
Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 160041885696 bytes, 160.0 GB
Heads: 255 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders: 19457
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
sda1 Primary Unknown (27) 12889.02
sda2 Boot Primary NTFS 106.93
sda3 Primary NTFS [] 73915.11*
sda5 Logical Linux ext2 65.81*
sda6 Logical Linux 509.97*
sda7 Logical Linux ext2 15002.92*
sda8 Logical Linux ext2 57549.55*
The install was succesful(this was running from the core install cd) and I installed GRUB to my /boot but when I restarted it loaded Windows 7. I have used Knoppix USB disc to boot and see my Arch Linux install files and edited the /boot/gur/menu.lst file.
In Windows I installed EasyBCD 1.7.2 and tried to get NeoGrub bootloader working as a dual boot. I tried getting rid of the boot flag for Windows with cfdisk and setting it to my (Logical) sda5. That did not work. So far the only way I have booted into my Arch Linux install has been by going to the Live CD, choosing "Boot from Existing Linux Install" and editing the command files there.
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img
My goal is to get a dual boot working for Windows 7 and Arch Linux 64 and continue installing the Xorg and KDE to Arch. I just don't know what the problem is here. I don't mind reinstalling Arch if something went wrong, but I would like to keep my Windows running in order and add Arch on.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I ran the LiveCD and chose "Install to MBR hd0". I ended up with this:
setup hd(0,1)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists.....yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/iso9660_stage1_5" exists.....yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/iso9660_stage1_5 (hd0,1)".....failed(this is not fatal)
Running "embed /boot/grub/iso9660_stage1_5 (hd16)".....failed(this is not fatal)
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0,1) /boot/grub/stage2 p (hd0,1) boot/grub/menu.lst".....failed
Error 31: File is not sector aligned
My entry for Windows into the menu.lst looks like this:
# (0) Arch Linux x64
title Arch Linux x64
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/3841273c-d91e-41d6-9dbf-716a15d03a01 ro
initrd /kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux x64
title Arch Linux x64 Fallback
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/3841273c-d91e-41d6-9dbf-716a15d03a01 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img
# (2) Windows 7
title Windows 7
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

HT3986 i made a dual boot of windows 7 and mac os x lion in my macbook pro .i installed microsoft support software also. now, can i install windows updates? do i turn on the automatic updating of updates?

i made a dual boot of windows 7 and mac os x lion in my macbook pro .i installed m icrosoft support software also. now, can i install windows updates? do i turn on the automatic updating of updates?

yes you need the updates and patches.
Only some of the drivers that Windows will automatically install at times
and always make sure to insure it is using restore points
do all the maintenance andsuch as normal
use MS Security Essentials for AV is really top notch
Clean disk space
Use WinClone new program to inisure you have a restore image

I kept a dual boot of windows 7 and mac os x lion in macbook pro. so, should i keep antivirus for windows 7? which is prescribable between bit defender(bd) and microsoft security essentials(mse)?does bd and mse un-installs easily?

i kept a dual boot of windows 7 and mac os x lion in macbook pro. so, should i keep antivirus for windows 7? which is prescribable between bit defender(bd) and microsoft security essentials(mse)?does bd and mse un-installs easily?

lower your font size unless you have difficulty
MS Security Essentials is excellent
Then again maybe time to investigate Windows 8 RP (which uses Defender)

I made a dual boot of windows 7 and mac os x lion in my macbook pro .i installed m icrosoft support software also. now, can i install windows updates? do i turn on the automatic updating of updates? does hot fix of microsoft helps in stop freezing?

i made a dual boot of windows 7 and mac os x lion in my macbook pro .i installed m icrosoft support software also. now, can i install windows updates? do i turn on the automatic updating of updates? does hot fix of microsoft i.e, " support.microsoft.com/kb/979491" helps in stop freezing in dual boot mechanism?

Windows has a software updater built into Windows and when you install the Boot Camp drivers then it will install an Apple software updater also. I believe Windows is set to automatically download and install your updates as does the Apple software Updater. They both will update the individual files it needs to periodically.
"Microsoft updates" and "Windows updates" are basically the same thing in Windows. Are you talking about the "Windows support software" when downloading from Boot Camp Assistant? Apple installs a software updater for it's Boot Camp drivers in Windows 7 so you can do it manually or automatically.
The "Hot Fix" your referring to is only for certain motherboards built from other Windows only computer manufacturers and does NOT pertain to any Apple computers.
If you have a problem with your computer then it's best to ask a specific question so we can help better.

How can I dual-boot Mac OSX and Linux Mint?

Hey guys, I was wondering if it is possible to dual-boot both OS's similar to OS X and Windows 7/8...but first I'm wondering if it will void my MacBook Air Warranty (w/ AppleCare) as ultimately it wouldn't be worth it then!
Thanks!
-Stu

Which CD are you trying to use?
Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) originally came on DVD.
A media exchange program initially was available:
http://images.apple.com/macosx/pdf/TigerMediaExchangeFormv5.pdf
So maybe you did an exchange for CDs?
You may find this article helpful:
http://weblog.techdad.net/2006/11/12/dual-boot-mac-osx-and-ubuntu/

How do create I dual-boot Mac?

I have recently installed Lion OS but have found that some Power Pc programmes don't work with Lion. I still want to use these applications. Is it possible to set up a dual-boot mac keeping Lion but also having Snow Leopard as well so I can use these apps, and how is this done?
Any help welcome
thanks

I have done the same thing as you are talking about without problems.
Have a look here for instructions on how to do it (btw, it assumes you have the white SL install disk).
http://www.maciverse.com/installing-snow-leopard-onto-an-external-hard-drive.htm l

Dual boot 10.3.9 and 10.5?

I have a 12-inch powerbook G4, and I'm still using OS 10.3.9 because my Pro Tools hardware and software don't support more recent versions of OSX. I'm starting to feel behind the times though, and I'd love to be able to use 10.5. Can I have both 10.3 and 10.5 on my computer? I'd like to use 10.5 for everyday things and then go back to 10.3 just on occasions when I need to use Pro Tools.
Is this feasible? How would I go about doing it? Do I need install discs for both versions of OSX? I have a pretty big external drive that I can use to store the data i have on my laptop while I work this out...
Thanks --
Joe

You can dual boot. I'd suggest getting an external Firewire (not USB) drive. There are two reasons for this:
1 - Firewire is noticeably faster (yes... I know USB 2.0 is faster in theory... but USB 2.0 has a lot of overhead that Firewire doesn't have. If you go google for comparisons between Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 you'll find that Firewire consistently outperforms by a wide margin. How wide of a margin depends on the type of test (e.g. was it one really really big file being transferred vs. lots of very tiny files, etc.)
2 - I think I recall that the PowerBooks can only 'boot' from external drives if they are Firewire. You might have to check on this... but I think you may find that booting from external USB is only supported on the newer Intel macs.
You can format and install the OS of your choice on the external drive. I know the modern Macs prefer that the drive be formatted with 'GUID' partition scheme. Older ones used APM (Apple Partition Map).
Once you've done that, when powering on your Mac remember to hold the 'Option' key down. This will cause the Mac to display all bootable devices (rather than just booting off the default device). You can then select the device (use the arrow keys to highlight the drive of your choice) and hit the enter key and it'll begin booting.
Although you have a laptop, I'd suggest that you get an external drive enclosure intended for desktops. That's because these have (a) their own power supply -- so they're not drawing power fro the Firewire bus, but more importantly (b) because they almost always have their own ventilation and fan. The portable external laptop drives are generally in small, sealed, fanless cases. That's fine for occasional disk use, but when running an OS off the drive it'll be under very heavy use and may get quite hot -- causing premature failure. Oh... reason (c) is that you generally pay a premium for the 'portable' design factor. Desktop external drive & enclosures are usually cheaper!
I own a Maxtor OneTouch III Turbo -- but I'm very disappointed that Maxtor/Seagate has still NOT released a working driver for Leopard (I have to boot Tiger to be able to change the raid configuration) after all these months -- and are silent as to the status. It's NOT ok for a backup drive company to not have a working driver for a major OS update and then remain silent about it to their customers.
I also own three 'MiniStack v2' drives from Other World Computing (macsales.com) and have been extremely happy with those.
If performance is a big concern you may wish to purchase an external drive enclosure that supports "RAID 0" (striping).
Regards,
Tim

Dual boot Win7 pre-loaded and XP

I have a T510 that came pre-loaded with Win7 Professional. I'd like to dual boot with XP that I have loaded on a different hard drive on the same T510.
I do have the recovery disks. I can't do a fresh install of XP because it have over 300 programs installed. Is there some way to run the recovery disks with Win7 Pro to not format the XP partition. Can I make the XP partition read only and then run the recovery disks?
Maybe someone knows of a way to install the recovery disks, then ( I know how to move Win7 and make a partition before Win7 then restore XP to the hard drive) then repair Win7 so it has the correct drive letters.
Thanks,
Docfxit

Docfxit wrote:
That's a good idea. I might end up doing this. The problem I have is I can't get all the Lenovo setup/programs that come with the restore disk to load. I know I can get some of them loaded with System Update.
What setup/programs will you be missing? I run a vanilla WIn 7 Pro 64 on my T400 and used TVSU to pull down everything that I need.
It may be that some multimedia stuff will be missing, but grab the installers for them from your Lenovo Win 7 setup before wiping it or removing that drive. Probably in C:\SWTOOLS (at least they were there in the old days. I don't have a Lenovo '7 load to examine.)
I'd probably do something like this, since I can't resist messing with a multiboot machine: clone the XP install to a large HD - or use the one you have if it 's big enough. Shrink the XP C: partition with your favorite tool. Fire up a MS '7 install DVD and install into the free space. I'm told you can use the Win 7 activation code that came w/your machine, but you may have to call MS.
Install TVSU for Win 7 and let it pull down the rest. Come to think of it, that's what I did with my XP T61.
Z.
The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
English Community Deutsche Community Comunidad en Español Русскоязычное Сообщество

Dual booting between Solaris 8 and 10

Hi,
We mostly use Solaris 8 for testing which means I can't uninstall it. How would I be able to dual boot both Solaris 8 and 10 on a SUN SPARC machine? Is there a boot loader available like grub?
Please help.
Thanks alot!
Till later,
Joseph.

SPARC doesn't need a split boot loader like BIOS/x86. The OBP can directly load from any slice. So 'boot disk:a' would boot from slice 0 and 'boot disk:g' would boot from slice 6.
Darren

Boot from DVD but cannot find hard drive now

just updated to 10.7.3, then cannot boot from hard drive. I boot from DVD and cannot find hard drive now

Did the 10.7.3 update complete the installation process?
Some updates, when being installed and applied can restart (but not fully start up) the machine a couple of times.
I'd restart your machine and give it a few uninterrupted minutes to see if it boots up normally. Depending on the specs of your iMac, the remapping of app shortcuts etc can take a little while to complete (but not an excessive amount of time).
It is unlikely the update caused your hard drive to fail.
If your iMac doesn't boot up, restart and boot into the recovery partition of Lion by holding down both the cmd & R keys while booting. This will run Lion Recovery which will allow you to repair your Hard Drive, reinstall or install a fresh copy of Lion (network access is required).
If this fails, boot from the recovery DVD and launch Disk Utility from the Tools option in the toolbar and see if your hard drive is listed in Disk Utility. If your hard drive is not listed, there is a hard drive problem and you'll need to speak to Apple Tech Support to arrange a repair.
Hope this helps

Can't reinstall osx lion from internet, and display a message"cannot find installation information ,please contact applecare, what should i do?

hello
I can't reinstall osx lion from internet, and display a message"cannot find installation information ,please contact applecare, what should i do?
thanks

I'm no Lion expert, but I believe you can boot from the Recovery partition by pressing the Command and R keys on startup, then reinstall.

I updated to 7.0.1 and my search function cannot find anything now

I updated to 7.0.1 and my search function cannot find anything now

Searching the email. When i type in the keywords, it looks like it's searching, but the results are always the same - nothing found. I've used this function many times daily, I have an enormous amount of emails saved. Thanks...

I am trying to update my iPad 1 to the 5.1 version so I hooked it up ajd I click update and it just says cannot find a server please check your network settings or try again later what should I do

I am trying to update my iPad 1 to the 5.1 version so I hooked it up ajd I click update and it just says cannot find a server please check your network settings or try again later what should I do

See
iOS 5: Updating your device to iOS 5 or Later
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4972
If you are currently running an iOS lower than 5.0, connect to your computer & click on the "Update your device using iTunes".
Tip - You may need to disable your firewall and anitvirus software temporarily. Then download and install the iOS update. Be sure and backup your iPad before the iOS update.
 Cheers, Tom

Dual boot Mac OS X and Arch: Arch installer cannot find CD drive?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for