Triple Boot System

Hi. I was thinking of getting a new MacBook. However, I also like Windows (XP) and Ubuntu. would it be possible to install them both using BootCamp and have a triple boot system. That is to say, that at the OS selection screen when you hold control or whatever to select your OS, that there will be Windows, OSX, and Ubuntu available. I am to understand that there is a a specail installation for Ubuntu and that it can't be installed via BootCamp just straight-forward. But I just wanted to know if it's possible.

The boot selector built into the Intel MacBooks will only show one non-Mac partition per drive and it will always be labelled "Windows". There is a utility called Refit ( http://refit.sourceforge.net/ ) which replaces the Apple-provided boot selector with one which is capable of triple-booting. It doesn't remove or overwrite Apple's boot selector, so you can always go back to the original if need-be.
I believe you may also be able to dual-boot Linux and Mac OS... then use a boot selector under Linux (such as GRUB) to pick between Linux and Windows.

Similar Messages

Mac Pro - Using 3 drives for a triple-boot system

Hello
I am purchasing an 8-core Mac Pro today, and I want to start the ball rolling early on this endeavor, as it will probably take some discussion and research on my part.
I want to take my Mac Pro and install 2 more hard drives (for a total of 3) so that I can have a triple-boot system using OS X, Windows XP Pro, and Ubuntu Linux.
All of the tutorials I am coming across discuss installing on partitions. I'd like to install onto separate hard drives. What do I have to know in order to make this work?
- Should I use a 64-bit XP OS? Why or why not? (I'll have 4 GB of RAM)
- Any major issues with drivers in XP or Linux?
- Can I make a fourth hard drive mountable across all 3 other OS installations?
- Can I mount the other OS drives in my booted os? (For instance, if I boot into Linux, can I mount the XP drive and the OS X drive, or mount the Linux Drive and XP drive in OS X?)
Thanks for your input.
----------S

I'd like to install onto separate hard drives. What do I have to know in order to make this work?
The Boot Camp Assistant will allow you to prepare an entire drive for Windows so that's simple enough. If you want to do this yourself all you need to do is to change the partition map scheme for the desired drive to Master Boot Record and then let the Windows installer do the rest. Be aware that manually doing this will mean that Parallels will not find this drive as a Boot Camp drive if that's important to you.
Sorry, don't know anything about Linux.
Should I use a 64-bit XP OS? Why or why not? (I'll have 4 GB of RAM)
You can. Although there is currently no Apple driver support for x64 versions so you'll be on your won to source drivers. Personally I'd stick to the 32-bit version for now until Apple pulls its finger out and get 64-bit driver support.
Can I make a fourth hard drive mountable across all 3 other OS installations?
The simplest solution would be the use of FAT32 however Microsoft limits this to 32GB which is a right pain. You could always install a product like MacDrive into Windows to allow you access to your Mac partitions.
Can I mount the other OS drives in my booted os?
It depends on what you're looking for. NTFS partitions are mountable under Mac OS X but are read-only. Mac partitions are avaialable under Windows but requires a product like MacDrive.

Virtualization of Windows Partition on Triple Boot System

I have recently triple booted my Macbook using the following partitioning tables:
(hd0,0) /dev/sda1 - EFI
(hd0,1) /dev/sda2 - Storage (FAT32)
(hd0,2) /dev/sda3 - Ubuntu Linux (ext3) <- GRUB
(hd0,3) /dev/sda4 - Windows XP (FAT32)
(hd0,4) /dev/sda5 - Mac OS X (Mac OS Extended)
I used the Bootcamp drivers to get Windows XP working correctly, but I had to use rEFIt as my gui bootloader.
My desire is to also be able to virtualize my Windows XP of the /dev/sda4 partition inside Mac OS X using either VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop. I have tried the trial versions of both and both don't appear to handle my partitioning scheme very well. Parallels returns an error stating that I have a non-standard Bootcamp partition (due to "multiple" Bootcamp partitions; probably from my FAT32 storage partition). VMware Fusion just attempts to boot the storage partition and it returns the obvious error of "No Operating System".
Is there any work around to this? I would think that it should be an option to create a virtual machine from whichever partition you have an OS installed in, but that doesn't appear to be the case...
Thanks in advance!

The boot selector built into the Intel MacBooks will only show one non-Mac partition per drive and it will always be labelled "Windows". There is a utility called Refit ( http://refit.sourceforge.net/ ) which replaces the Apple-provided boot selector with one which is capable of triple-booting. It doesn't remove or overwrite Apple's boot selector, so you can always go back to the original if need-be.
I believe you may also be able to dual-boot Linux and Mac OS... then use a boot selector under Linux (such as GRUB) to pick between Linux and Windows.

Snow Leopard not booting after installation in rEFIt triple boot system

Hello,
I have a Core Duo Mac mini, on which I was successfully using a rEFIt triple boot configuration with
Leopard, Windows XP and Linux. After installing Snow Leopard on top of Leopard, Snow Leopard boots directly (without rEFIt showing up) the first time after installation. On the following reboots, rEFIt shows up but when selecting Mac OS, the system shows first the grey screen with the Apple icon, then it shows a grey screen with a "no access" icon and does not make any further progress. I reinstalled several times and at last I even removed rEFIt, but Snow Leopard won't boot anyway.
Can anybody help? Thanks

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
I'd post a bug report here:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=161917&atid=821764
They could probably help isolate your problem.

Can i create a disk image of my Imac 27 triple boot from disk utility: lion 10.8.3, win 7 and snow 10.6.8

I have created a well working triple boot system on my Imac 27, I7, 16GB, 3.4.Triple boot: Lion 10.8.3, Snow leopard 10.6.8 and windows 7.
They all work great. I would like to find the simplest way to make a image or a backup of the entire system.
I am thinking of creating a new image from disk utility image option.This from the main 2 To hitachi disk. The image option at the top should create a global image of the entire triple boot. I am not shure if this is possible. The differential/incremental option is not necesary. I can deal with that.
But, In case the disk utility option will not work, which software would aloud diferential/incremental backup for each partition
A software solution that would babkup all my partitions.
A single all in one image would be great but is that possible?
Any suggestion: please d'ont talk about vm solution or other subject like that. I am looking for a backup solution for my tripleboot...
Thanks
Luc

There are a few problems here, first Mountian Lion won't install on a 2006 MacBook, it diesn't meet the minimum specifications. http://support.apple.com/kb/SP654
Secondly you shouldn't install something purchased under one apple id onto another persons computer.

Arch, Windows 7 and PC-BSD Triple Boot

Hi Folks,
Thinking about setting up a triple boot system like the one described above. I have had numerous ideas for a partitioning scheme, but nothing seems neat because of the requirement that both Window and BSD need to be on a primary partition.
My basic requirements are:
Arch Linux
separate /boot (as I want to use BTRFS for root)
/root (BTRFS)
/swap (not essential for Arch, as I have 4 GB RAM)
(Is a home required, or can I have a tiny /home for .(config) files?)
PC-BSD
separate /boot (as I want to use ZFS)
/, /var, /usr (ZFS pool)
/swap (essential for ZFS as I have heard it is RAM hungry)
(Is a home required at all. First time with BSD, so not sure how it works)
Windows
1 large C: drive (Easy)
Shared storage drive
(recommendations for the most mutually compatible file system? It pains me to say, but FAT32?)
So, should I go with the GUID partition table so I can just make all of these, or is there some clever trickery? I was considering LVM to make my Arch root and small home, but that does not really solve the four primary partition limit on the MBR.
I should add, I have a working Windows 7 and Arch setup and my main reason for wanting a BSD is so that I have the full gamut of OSes for learning and experimentation. I like the idea of Windows 7, an Arch/BTRFS/Gnome and a BSD/ZFS/KDE...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Scott
Last edited by well.heeled.man (2011-07-31 00:14:11)

@well.heeled.man
from my own experience i would recommend you pure FreeBSD instead of PC-BSD (even tho they are the same in nature), the main problem is that pc-bsd is somehow not complete .. too many preinstalled stuff, ports witch is 1st thing to learn in FBSD is way too complicated with those jails.. and never the less fbsd + kde is not a good start - better use xfce at most
as for partitions well ...
I think FreeBSD/PC-BSD uses a single physical partition, logically sub-divided to allow for snapshots
yes that is true
as for zfs start learning by use files instead of partitions or harddrives unless you are ready to loose your data O.o
example
cybertorture@ego ~
> sudo zpool status
pool: tank
state: ONLINE
scan: resilvered 32,5K in 0h0m with 0 errors on Tue Aug 2 01:45:54 2011
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
tank ONLINE 0 0 0
/home/zfs ONLINE 0 0 0
/home/zfs1 ONLINE 0 0 0
/home/zfs2 ONLINE 0 0 0
/home/zfs3 ONLINE 0 0 0
/home/zfs-spare ONLINE 0 0 0
spares
/mnt/data/zfs-test AVAIL
errors: No known data errors
cybertorture@ego ~
> ll /home/zfs*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512M 2 авг 1,53 /home/zfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512M 2 авг 1,53 /home/zfs1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512M 2 авг 1,53 /home/zfs2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512M 2 авг 1,53 /home/zfs3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512M 2 авг 1,53 /home/zfs-spare
about GPT, any reason not to use msdos ? maybe you have 2.2+ GB harddive ?
edit: about partitions
sda1 ntfs - windowze
sda2 ext2 - boot (safe bet)
sda3 ufs - fbsd
sda4 - extended
sda5 btrfs - arch
sda6 ntfs - shared storage
Last edited by cybertorture (2011-08-02 00:39:51)

Triple Boot Catastrophe

Greetings All !
Ok... I got greedy.
Tried to set up a triple boot system and all got hosed.
Mac OS 10.4.10, WinXP (via BootCamp), and Ubuntu Linux
The grim details:
Mac mini C2D 2Gh 2GB (latest model)
External drives connected via Firewire 800 hub:
- Newertech miniStack v3 500GB
- acomdata miniPal 500GB
All went very well until I tried to INSTALL Ubuntu Linux from the install DVD.
(Ubuntu booted and ran very well from the "Live DVD" before the install)
Two volumes on the internal drive:
1 - OS X
2 - Win XP
About 5 volumes on the miniStack v3, including:
1 - OS X (for maintenance & repair)
2 - volume for additional OS, in this case Ubuntu
Tried to install ubuntu and that's when things went bad. Doesn't play nice with other OSes apparently.
Appears to have replaced Apple's boot loader with GRUB or something.
Now I can only boot the OS X on the internal drive.
If I try to boot WinXP on second internal volume, I get GRUB disk error. No joy.
WinXp shows up in Startup Disk and Option boot, but doesn't boot.
If I try to boot from Ubuntu DVD, get same error.
Doesn't recognize external drives during boot at all.
I think I can still boot from the Mac mini install disks. Don't see anything in Disk Utility or Disk Warrior that can fix it. Tried both.
Is there a simple fix for this or do I have to start all over (erase all, repartition, reload etc)?
Easy way to fix / replace (reinstall) BootCamp boot loader?
Anybody have any ideas?
At this point have to give props to Apple. This new mini C2D is nice. Runs my CAD app (Rhino3D) in WinXP beautifully. Graphics are fast. Runs everything very well. Just watch out in messy triple boot installs.
Thanks!

Reset the PRAM and NVRAM as described in http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Once that's finished, boot with the Restore disk and start over.

Is this the best way to Triple Boot?

Hi all, I have a had a pickle of a time setting up Leopard...with my triple boot setup.
I am curious if I went about it "properly"or if there is a better way.
Use instructions at your own peril if you wish. I am not responsible for errors or any problems you may have by using my instructions. This is my individual experience. *I am happy if this works for someone* struggling to set up a triple boot, but am posting this more so to see if there are any improvements to be made, or mistakes that need correcting to this method...
I had an Intel MBP (SR) with 3 partitions. Tiger, Vista and Ubuntu but when trying to install Leopard it said it would not install and I would have to change my drive to guid partition scheme.
So, through trial and error this is the only way I could get it to work.Keep in mind I started from scratch with vista and ubuntu, but did make a backup of my tiger drive.
1. BACK UP
2. Wipe everything and repartition internal disk to guid partition map and 1 partition. Install Leopard.
3. Use either disk utility or carbon copy cloner(my purchased copy of SuperDuper is still not able to do what CCC, a free program can do,apparently because they are trying to figure out time machine and are holding up a leopard compat. version, uuughh, but thats a different post...) to clone Leopard to external drive that is set up as GUID partition scheme.Make sure you are able to boot this external.
4. Wipe internal, repartition to 3 partitions using disk utility and MBR partition scheme in this order from top to bottom(in disk utility partition gui);
  a. Leopard partition: OSX extended journaled
  b. Vista partition: I think there is only one option: maybe Fat? Just make sure you select "windows" format (The vista installer will need to reformat this during install anyway)
  c. Ubuntu partition: "Free Space"
5. Then to install leopard, (which apparently won't install on a drive set up as MBR partition scheme, but that is what we formatted the internal drive as anyway) clone the external copy of leopard to the internal OSX partition we just made.
6. Then install vista by booting from install cd. During install you may have to reformat the Windows partition using the windows installer, but it should install fine after that.
7. Then Install ubuntu using live cd/dvd to the internal free space partition, splitting/ formatting the last partition using the ubuntu install/partition tool on the "manual"partition mode(make sure you are using the correct free space partition. I confirmed this by looking at the sizes of the partitions that showed up): "free space" into root and swap partitions if you want. I used ext2 for root
     *Side note:*If you have the same MBP as me you may have to change some setting when booting the live cd: Once the cd loads and you get to the preliminary menu window, press F6 to edit. A command will show up on the screen: You have to erase the last two words starting at "quiet" till end. Then write "allgenericide" in their space, keeping all of the command before quiet.  then press enter. It should then load to the ubuntu desktop where you can click on the install icon.(this took me a long time to figure out. I have also have to do this everytime I want boot into ubuntu, which stinks. Anyone know how to resolve this? (Linux masters?)
8. boot into osx and install rEFIt
Issues:
1. My Leopard partition is not showing up in OSX's startup disk pane in sys pref. but it is booting/ showing up as if it was, if having trouble, try holding option key during startup.
2. I have also had a few issues with rEFIt not starting up as default menu, but when holding option key at startup it will show up. Then gives me the option of OSX, Vista or Ubuntu once selected.
3. And the command thing with ubuntu at every startup I mentioned earlier.Is there a way to write allgenericide as a default or any other way to fix this?
If anyone has a better way of accomplishing this please let me know. I got to this point through a lot of trial and error and I'm not sure if there is a more stable/better way for a triple boot setup...
I would like for the Leopard partition to show up as the osx startup disk in the pref pane, but regardless it is still working.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems boot camp makes the drive into an MBR partition scheme anyway, so I'm curious what others who were already running dual or triple boot, boot camp systems had to do when upgrading their boot camp setups from tiger to leopard. Did it not allow you to install to the MBR partition scheme made by boot camp? Did you have to start from scratch as well?
Thank you in advance for your patience and support.

http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/TripleBoot_viaBootCampI would install Vista before installing Leopard.
That has worked better for me anyway.
And that may make Leopard the default.
In Vista, AppleControl is under /Windows/SysWOW64 if you ever need to get to it (there is also AppleOSSMgr and AppleTimeSrvc )
http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/TripleBoot_viaBootCamp

Tutorial - How to triple boot OSX, Linux and Windows 8.1 with a shared Data Partition without any third party Win / OSX softwares

This is not a question, but rather a personal guide that has proved to be running successfully.
I would like to thank numerous sources, including Christopher Murphy's suggestions at:
Re: Repairing Boot Camp after creating new partition
Before proceeding, there are certain concepts needs to know:
Why Boot Camp does NOT allow further partitioning of drives after Windows has installed?
Answer: Because the way Apple configures the Mac to be recognized as non UEFI capable system on Windows.
Quote from Christopher Murphy based on the above line:
However, Windows on Macs right now use CSM-BIOS mode in Mac firmware that presents BIOS to Windows rather than EFI. Windows thinks it's on a BIOS computer, and therefore mandates the use of MBR for boot disks, rather than GPT. So that's why we have this hybrid MBR+GPT approach on Mac with Windows on it. You inherit the limitations of MBR, which is four primary partitions.
So what does it means?
It means that OSX + EFI + Recovery HD + Boot Camp partition = 4 primary partitions and thus any attempt to modify the disk will render booting issues of either system.
For more info on GPT (GUID Partition Table disks VS Master Boot Record or MBR in short, you may visit: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535%28v=vs.85%29.a spx)
So, how to overcome it?
The general guideline is to install ALL GPT ready OS first then create a Data partition, before installing Windows (Which is again, NOT supported GPT due to EFI configuration by Apple where end-users are not able to modify it).
Interestingly, since Mac Pro 2013 Late supports only Windows 8 and above, thus it is not known if this CSM-BIOS applies to it or not.
Do take note that GPT disks in Windows can only be booted when the system meets the 2 requirements:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535%28v=vs.85%29.a spx#gpt_faq_win7_boot
1) Windows x64 version (Which is a must for newer Macs. If you cannot go to Boot Camp 5, then you need Windows 7 x86 or 32bit version)
2) UEFI system. However, Windows sees all Macs (With the possibility of Mac Pro 2013 Late is an exception. To be determined) as BIOS, or rather NON-UEFI system.
In short, booting on GPT disks is not possible for Mac in Windows.
Summary,
It is tested that a combination of the following will not work:
- OSX + Windows + Linux
- Windows + OSX + Linux
- Windows + Linux + OSX
Usually it can create the system un-bootable or OSX refused to install due to the system does not recognize such partitions and / or Disk Utility refused to format a free space. An example screen-shot is provided below:
The error message is shown as
Title: "Failed to erase volume" Message: "Failed to wipe volume, as an error occurred: MediaKit has reported that the device does not have enough free space to execute the requested operations."
The second thing is about the preparations we need.
1) 1X Windows 7 or 8 DVD or USB thumbdrive
1A) If you uses a DVD to install, you will need another thumbdrive to load the BootCamp drivers for Windows as well as may requires an external DVD drive for newer Macs
2) 1X Linux DVD of your choice. Personally I choose Fedora 20.
So ready? Let's go.
1. Using Disk Utility, shrink the OSX's partition size to what is needed. For me, I give OSX 150GB. Do NOT create any new partition.
Disk Utility should see something like below whereby only OSX partition is left with desired disk space. The remaining space are to be unused disk space for the moment.
Note: Click on the top most item that should start with the size of your HDD / SSD. Then clicked on "Partition" and specify the desired OSX size. Hit "Apply" after that.
2: Download Boot Camp drivers only via Boot Camp Assistant. The USB thumbdrive shall be used later after Linux's installation.
Boot Camp Assistant should see this:
I have only selected "Download latest Windows Support Files from Apple"
3. Insert Linux DVD, reboot Mac into EFI mode (The left most first "EFI mode").
Note 1: Before rebooting, please plugged in an Ethernet adapter because Wi-Fi drivers is not installed.
Note 2: For Thunderbolt adapters, it must be plugged in before reboot as hot-swapping is not supported under Linux. More on the tips at the end of this article.
Note 3: Press and hold "Option" after the screen turns black. Release Option key after you see the image as below:

For the unfortunate part that did not make it on time to edit the images:
9. Install the Windows Support software from your CD/USB drive to gain full functionality of your computer. Reboot and go to Windows again.
Note 1: You may choose to eject disc at this point of time. For Apple SuperDrive users, you will need to wait until the drivers (i.e. Boot Camp support files) is installed and rebooted before ejecting is reasonably possible (As I failed to figured out how to right click without the drivers)
Note 2: Unlike Windows 7 on KBase article TS4599 Keyboard/trackpad inoperative, black screen, or alert messages when installing Windows 7, USB stick can be plugged in after the Windows installation is done. This is because Windows 7 (And probably Windows 7 with SP1 DVD) does not have a built in USB 3 drivers when it was released back in 2009 where USB3 has not arrived then.
Note 3: Due to TPM, Bitlocker is not supported without the use of thumbdrives.
10. Using Disk Management to determine the given drive letter for the DATA partition (DO NOT DELETE and RECREATE partition or else you can goodbye to booting Linux and OSX). Disk Management will not allow you to format it as exFAT / FAT32 in graphical way.
Note: You may remove or modify some of the disk letters in Disk Management. However, do NOT remove / modfify the drive letter for the partition with 200MB size in HFS. This is because it will disallow booting of Linux and neither could Windows nor OSX can do anything EXCEPT to reinstall Linux only.
11. Open Command Prompt in Administrator Mode (Important!!), and key in the following command:
format F: /FS:exFAT
Give this volume a label after it has successfully formatted before hitting "Enter" again.
Note: Mine Data partition was assigned as F drive. Please make necessary adjustment to "F:" should your Data partition is assigned to other letters.
12. After that, Setup your Data partition structure as you like.
Tip: Minimally create the important folders such as:
- Music
- Documents
- Movie (Videos)
- Downloads
- Pictures
All these folders are commonly used by the 3 OSes. I do NOT recommend changing of /home (OSX and / or Linux) and / or user home directory (Windows) either partially or as a whole.
This is because of compatibility issue.
On a side note, iTunes Media Library used in OSX and Windows are NOT able to be use interchangably due to hard-coded path used.
13. Useful troubleshooting in Fedora / Linux:
With references to these:
http://chaidarun.com/fedora-mbp
http://anderson.the-silvas.com/2014/02/14/fedora-20-on-a-macbook-pro-13-late-201 3-retina-display/
http://unencumberedbyfacts.com/2013/08/16/linux-on-a-macbook-pro-101/
I would like to highlight a few important points:
1) Wi-Fi driver:
http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration
Note 1: The sound driver should be installed at Out of Box Experience. However, the Wi-Fi is not.
Note 2: Install both free and non-free repository. By the way, some other software like VLC can only be found after the Free Repository is installed.
Search for "akmod-wl" in Gnome-Package-Installer in order to install Wi-Fi drivers
Note 3: For those who do not have Ethernet adapters and their Mac does NOT have a built-in Ethernet port, it is recommended to get one. This is because Fedora 20 does not have a good support for iPhone USB tethering. Unsure for Andriod / Blackberry / Windows Phone users.
2) Grub Menu:
It will show several options to boot into OSX, even of the capability to boot into x86 or x64 mode. However, neither of them is bootable except Linux and the rescue.
Hence, it is recommended to remove the items by hand in this file:
/boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg
Command to be used:
"sudo gedit /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg"
Parts to be removed:
- For any extra kernels, delete the target entry by locating the line "menuentry" under "/etc/grub.d/10_linux" sector to one line above the next "menuentry".
It is recommended to keep one main kernel, and one recovery at the minimal.
- For other OS, delete all the entry (Since neither it can works) under "/etc/grub.d/30_os-prober" sector without removing the lines starts with ###.
Auto Mount exFAT partition:
- After installing extra packages for exFAT support (Since it is not supported by Fedora 20 from a default installation), you may wish to edit "/etc/fstab" in order to mount the exFAT partition during boot time.
Command to be used:
"sudo gedit /etc/fstab"
Add the following line in gedit:
UUID=702D-912D /run/media/Samuel/DATA exfat defaults 1 2
Note 1: For DATA partition, OSX & Boot Camp partition, Fedora defaults mounts under: "/run/medua/<Username with case sensitive>/<Partition Label Name>"
Note 2: UUID is unique ID. You can find out the UUID by:
Step 1: First determine the DATA partition number:
"sudo gdisk /dev/sda"
Step 2: Determine the UUID of this partition number:
"sudo blkid /dev/sda8"
Reference 1: http://manpages.courier-mta.org/htmlman5/fstab.5.html
Reference 2: http://liquidat.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/short-tip-get-uuid-of-hard-disks/
3) Overheating CPU
Solution is to issue the following command in Linux terminal: su -c "echo -n 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo"
4) System resumes immediately after suspend
Solution is to issue the following command in Linux terminal: su -c "echo XHC1 > /proc/acpi/wakeup"
5) What does not works well out of box:
- Both GNOME and KDE's fonts are too small to be readable for out of box experience. Additional configuration is a need. (Some of the info can be found on "More Tips" later)
- Thunderbolt hotplugging is NOT supported under Windows and Linux so far. Neither FaceTime HD camera works as well.
- The red light in Headphone jack is always on. I do not have luck in switching off the light without losing the sound.
Note 1: It is determined that the module "snd_hda_intel" is used by both cards (HDMI and normal output)
Note 2: It is also known that blacklisting it can switch off the redlight at the price of muting the system.
Note: Based on this article, http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1574
A Mac (Except Mac Pro) needs servicing when there is a red light while the system fails to detect internal speakers. However, this article does NOT applies to this issue.
5A) More Tips:
Install gnome-tweak-tool for more customization
Search for: "gnome-package" to install:
Install Gnome Package Installer for advanced package repository
Install Gnome Package Updater for advanced updates to be install (Whereby Fedora's App Store alike might not show the relevant updates)
14. Verify if disk is still GPT:
Use Gdisk to determine if the disk is pure GPT:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1742682
Command: sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda (The entire hard drive)
You should see the MBR is "Protective" instead of anything else.
15. Congrats, the system is ready for triple boot. (I forgot to eject my Windows DVD when the photo was taken)
Note 1: You cannot set the default startup disk in Linux due to the lack of Boot Camp Control Panel in Linux.
Neither is changing startup disk recommended in Windows due to the inability to display correctly.
For me, I click "Cancel" whenever I am on this tab (Feel free to make other Boot Camp adjustments in other tabs).
Only OSX I know that can show the startup disk options correctly.
Note 2: For some reason, OSX likes to auto mount the EFI partition everytime it boots up. It is not known to have any issue for ejecting other disks or mounting disks via Disk Utility.
Note 3: It is not determined if any Firmware or System upgrades will cause issues. It is only known that all 3 OS's regular updates should not be an issue.
System Updates excludes Mac OSX 10.9.3 updates to OSX 10.9.4 type as I had done it on a OSX 10.9.4 Mac or Windows 8.1 to Windows 8.1 Update 1 since my Windows DVD comes with Update 1.
System Upgrades refers to OSX Mavericks to Yosemite, Fedora 20 to Fedora 21, Windows 8.1 Update 1 to Windows 8.2 / Windows 9 for that matter.
Note 4: Reset SMC and / or PRAM will NOT affect your ability to boot any of the OS (OSX, Recovery HD, Fedora & Windows 8)
Yup, that is it!

How to triple boot (MacOSX / Win7 / Linux) a MacBook Pro (Retina, late 2013) with Refind

ok it's not a question, it's an howto.
You do it at your own risk. No failure reported so far, but I'm not responsible for anything.
If you try to multiboot your MacBook Pro (MBP hereafter) you may face a new complexity. With on partition, Bootcamp does a pretty amazing job installing windows. But when you want to partition your disk in your own way, Bootcamp may fail to install windows and another third OS. You may also want to have a share partition between your OSes, hence have multiple partitions. Most of this tuto should also work for Windows 8 and for other Macbooks.
Problem 1 : Bootcamp does it with one partition that it divides in two and allow to setup Win7. Not all time though since some user reportidely have problems to get USB 3 support and the keyboard and mouse are non working during the install / setup phase.
Problem 2 : Windows 7 is not able to install itself to a GPT partition and needs an Hybrid MBR. Bootcamp does this, but just for a Dual OS setup. So to make the magic happen in a multi OS environment, you'll have to do want bootcamp does, manually.
Step 1 : Download the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant from Apple and flash it to a USB stick. (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433)
Step 2 : Reboot, holding the option key (aka CMD, left of spacebar) down, to trigger the boot menu options. Start the usb drive with OS X recovery and enter the partition tool. Create 3 to 4 partitions, suiting your tastes. Just put windows partition first and I recommend to put the partition sharing data across OSes second, MacOS 3rd and Linux Last for example. MacOS and Linux are fine with pretty much every setup, Windows need the 1° usable partition.
Step 3 : Migrate your Macos using the same tool (google it for details) or Reinstall MacOS from the recovery partition. (more about migration here, but there are better tuto on this)
Step 4 : Start your MacOS and create a bootcamp USB stick with the bootcamp tool. You need an ISO from Win7 (or Win 8) and a drive of at least 4 GB. Bootcamp will most likely complain about the fact that it will not be able to install 7 due to the fact that you don't have only one partition, ignore and proceed to the Bootcamp USB stick setup.
Step 5 : Adding the USB3 support to your Win7 installation. Plug your newly created Win7 USB stick to a computer running Windows. In the sources directory, copy the boot.vim on your disk drive and add the drivers that Bootcamp added to your USB stick, in the $WinPEDriver$ directory and follow these instructions to add them to your boot.vim image. Follow carefully every step, it does works. Add the drivers you feel like, commit and copy back your boot.vim image, patched, to your USB stick, in the sources directory.
Step 6 : In your MacOSX, install the GPT fdisk partition tool. You just have to unzip the archive. Win7 is unable to install to a GPT disk, so you will have to create a (dirty) Hybrid MBR. From a terminal, launch GPT fdisk. Carefull here, the Win7 is most likely not the 1st but the 2nd or 3rd because there is an UEFI partition before. Just check before adding them if in doubt, by striking p. Then key in r then h then the number of the partitions you want to add to this hybrid MBR (the Win7 & the Shared one). Accept the type 07 for this partition and type y, n & finally w. (more details here for the fans)
Step 7 : Reboot, keep the CMD key down to trigger the boot option menu. Reboot on the USB stick, install Win7. If it doesn't understand the partition made for it, format it, if needed, from the 7 installer, delete and recreate it.
Step 8 : Install your favorite Linux distro with a USB stick generator. (see here & here). No complex part, except that Grub will most likely scratch your nice Hybrid MBR, rendering Win7 inaccessible. No problem, reboot in MacOS and redo step 6, this will revive your win7.
Step 9 : It's cosmetic but keeping CMD key down to boot is not so practical. ReFind does it just great. Setup is super easy, just kick install.sh from a shell in MacOS. Fine tune decoration and some stuffs later on from the config file.
Step 10 (optionnal) : You want it all, without switching between OSes? Having Windows app running within MacOS is easy, with most native hardware acceleration preserved, using Parallels desktop. It also works with a "simple" Bootcamp Windows setup.
Enjoy your mighty triple boot MBP.

Just ordered a Retina MacBook Pro11,2 (mid-2014 15", 2.2GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, OSX 10.9.4 Pre-installed - Build 13E28) and have the exact same issue. The first thing I did when i booted it for the first time was enable FileValut2 and encrypt the disk. Though I failed to notice this behavior prior to encrypting the disk, the stuttering/lag happens without fail every time I have logged in from a cold boot, locked screen or sleep. Additionally I have noticed the same stuttering behavior when switching tabs on various built-in OSX applications such as the tabs on the About This Mac > More Info.... (System Information) dialog for example, and similarly other dialogs that experience this behavior of resizing when switching tabs. I was running no other software than About This Mac > More Info ... (System Information) and OSX 10.9.4 itself. The issue happens without fail with and without a USB mouse plugged in.
I am really glad to have found this thread and with such recent posts. I'd love to find out that this is just a software bug that will be fixed when OSX 10.10 "Yosemite" is released. If not, I hope the cause of this bug is determined soon so I can still exchange or have it repaired.
Migflono and Matthew, would you be able to post your hardware specs for comparison?

Installing Linux as triple-boot?

I don't know if this is the right forum for this question, but it looks like the best fit.
I have a Mac Pro that runs Mac OS X 10.6.7 and Windows 7 64-bit as a dual-boot system using Boot Camp. This is set up with 2 partitions of a single 1TB hard drive (each OS gets 500GB). Because I am taking a Linux class soon, I have to install Linux. What I want to do is add a second physical hard drive and install Linux on that one, turning my dual-boot configuration into a Mac/Windows/Linux triple-boot configuration. Is this possible? If so, how do I do it?
On a side note, would it be possible to partition hard drive #2 the way I did hard drive #1 (drive #2 is also a 1TB drive) and use the second half for Time Machine? That way, I would have 500GB each for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Time Machine.

install refit,create new partrtion,install linux.That's all it takes

I want to triple boot Have Snow Leopard and XP on separate drives and I want Windows 7 on another drive, can it be done by temporarily removing the xp drive and installing windows 7 on another internal drive?

I want to triple boot my Mac Pro I have Snow Leopard and XP on separate drives (osx on drive 1, xp on drive 2) and I want Windows 7 on another drive (drive 4, drive 3 is used by osx for storage), can it be done by temporarily removing the xp drive and installing windows 7 on drive 4?
I realise bootcamp only allows 2 operating systems and refit could change the size of my current xp drive to accomodate W7, that is not an option here for various reasons one being the drive is pretty much at capacity with only about 30gig free (I work with video so that free space fluctautes quite a bit). I have a brand new drive 4 with 1TB set aside ready for W7 but I'm unsure how to go ahead?
any help or advice would be really appreciated, thanks

Boot Camp is used to support Windows on the same drive.
You can have a different OS on every drive.
You could have Windows 7, Vista, and XP all on one drive if you so choose.
I recommend not putting Windows and OS X on the same dirve when talking about Mac Pro - unless you just need something small and lite.
Remove all your other drives while you install Windows 7.
You could even relocate XP - if you need it even - or recover the hard drive space.
You should always keep 30% free for Mac OS; same for data/media drives.
Considering 1.5TB WD Black $110.... and you want OS X to be on a fast high performance drive as well.

How to downgrade to/emulate/triple boot OS X 10.8?

I don't know if this belongs to OS X 10.9 or not but I will post it here.
I have got an old program I need to use using my OS X 10.9.3 macbook pro and it kept crashing. I believe it's something to do with OS X 10.9.3. so I want to emulate OS X 10.8 in VMWare Fusion (Yes I think it's "legal"),triple boot OS X 10.9.3,10.8.4 and Windows 7 (got custom windows 7 dual boot without bootcamp already) or downgrade to OS X 10.8 (I prefer emulation over downgrade, since I got the new iTwerks).
BTW it says check if it's compatible or something.
BTW partition table:
EFI|OSX10.9|Windows7
Edited to add triple boot as an alternative for me
Edited to add something

You can run Mountain Lion in a virtualization solution, providing the underlying operating system is OS X on Apple hardware. As you are on Mavericks, I would use the most recent VMware Fusion version. Adding compatible memory to your Mac will not void your warranty.
If you previously purchased Mountain Lion from the OS X App Store, and the same Apple ID is associated with your MacBook Pro, then you can download Mountain Lion installer again. You will likely need to create a USB stick installer and aim Fusion at it.

Mac Pro 2010 triple boot (Snow Leopard + Windows + Yosemite)?

Hello All,
This is my first question here, I'm usually trying to find the answer myself, but this time I wasn't able to find anything clear enough to me. So I hope that someone can give me clear and easy to understand answer. I must also tell that my English isn't perfect, but should be more than good enough for communication. :-)
I have Mac Pro 2010, 4 core CPU 3.2 GHz, 6 GB RAM, ATI 5870.
HD Bay 1: WD Black 1 TB - Boot Snow Leopard 10.6.8
(Just to add: I am happy because when I bought my Mac it came with 10.6. I am happy with it, it's stable, and I want to keep it as it is)
HD Bay 2: WD Black 1 TB - Boot Windows 7 x64 (bootcamp, full drive)
(I am very happy how it works, so I want to keep it as is)
HD Bay 3: WD Green 2 TB - for all kind of data storage
HD Bay 4: Was empty until yesterday, but now I have another WD Black 1 TB to put it in - still not formatted.
I would like to install Yosemite on that new drive (first I was thinking about Maverick, but then I saw that some new applications will not run, like Final Cut Pro X, new MS Office, still in beta, plus I would like to use iMessage, etc.), and keep everything else as it is now - absolutelly untouched.
• Is it safe to do it, or I can make some mistake and lose Snow Leo and/or Windows?
• Is position of the drives important? Should I, for example, put new drive in a Bay 3, and move data disk to Bay 4, or it doesn't matter?
• When I download it from App Store, and when installation starts automatically, do I have an option to select to keep untouched everything I have now?
(I don't want even to collect any data from Snow Leopard, like mail settings, bookmarks, applications installed - absolutely nothing, it should run as a totally new comp and without any interaction with Snow Leopard, except ordinary hard disk access, like any other hard drive)
• Will my bootcamp drive be safe, I will still be able to boot from it?
I was also thinking about this:
I saw that it is possible to make bootable USB flash drive with installation. If I do that, and if I phisically unplug all other drives except a new one, then do installation, shut it down, and plug back all other drives, will everything work? Will I have triple boot when I press option key during start-up? Does all this makes sense at all to you?
Finally, does anyone have some experience with Mac Pro 2010 + ATI 5870 with Yosemite? Is it smooth, no problems with graphics or some other things?
I will really appreciate some answer about all this.
Cheers!

Some tips about Yosemite and Core Storage from MacIntouch Reader Reports on Yosemite:
Ric Ford [MacInTouch]
Yosemite's changes have led to questions and confusion about disk formatting and partitioning issues, backward compatibility, and dual-booting Mac OS X 10.6 and Yosemite. Below are a few notes on these issues from an email discussion (questions, tips and clarifications are welcome).
Core Storage changes debuted in OS X 10.7 Lion, with Apple's new FileVault 2 whole-disk encryption and hidden Recovery Partition.
Generally, running OS X 10.7 and up shouldn't corrupt or convert the HFS+ partitions used by pre-OS X 10.7 systems (still supported in later OS X versions). There are, however, a few special cases to beware, and this is where things get confusing. Here are some specific issues:
1) FileVault 2 encryption and "Fusion" drives both depend on Core Storage, so applying those to any partition will render it inaccessible by pre-OS X 10.7 systems.
2) Yosemite's installation process silently converts a partition to Core Storage, incompatible with Mac OS X 10.6 and earlier. Ars Technica's review describes this issue.
3) Running Disk Utility's "repair" function in Yosemite against a Mac OS X 10.6 (HFS+) partition has caused problems in some cases, such as making the Mac OS X 10.6 partition unbootable.
(A search for Core Storage on MacInTouch will turn up more discussion and tips.)
See also:
Core Storage [Wikipedia]
OS X Mountain Lion Core Technologies Overview (PDF) [Apple]
OS X 10.10 Yosemite: Installation [Ars Technica]
File system changes in Lion [Ars Technica]
Can't remove Core Storage from hard drive [Apple Discussions]
How To: Disable CoreStorage on Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) [Symantec]
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/yosemite/index.html#d16apr2015

[SOLVED] Triple Boot on Macbook 5,5 kills my arch install

I am currently trying to get a triple boot working on my mid 2009 macbook pro. I have 3 seperate partitions set up so that i can just launch the OS's with rEFInd.
Problem is.. as soon as I get all of them installed and up and running. I will try to boot cycle all of them to make sure everything is working as planned.
i boot OSX, everything is good
i boot Windows 7, again good to go.
as soon as i boot arch AFTER windows it kills the install it seems. the system will lock up at
starting version 217
/dev/sda6: recovering journal
/dev/sda6 clean, XXXXXX/xxxxxx files, XXXXXX/xxxxxx blocks
I am not quite sure how to find a log or anything since i cannot even boot into the system.
it ONLY happens after I boot into windows.
Already tested my ram per someone elses advice. everything turned out ok with that
the arch install works great if i only boot osx or arch.
I am not using bootcamp
i could chroot in and look for the log im just not sure where it would be.
i will gladly post that as well if i can get the location
Last edited by BoomZooka (2014-12-08 07:07:01)

ended up finally figuring out the issue
Figured out I couldnt see what was going on was, because I had a kernel parameter set as quiet for some reason. So it was not showing me anything which led me to run across a blog online that described system lockups at boot.
Added this to the kernel boot parameters in my grub.cfg on the linux line. After I did that everything booted like normal.
nomodeset reboot=pci
credits to http://dreamtimecircles.com/2013/10/06/arch/

Triple Boot System

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