Apple Macbook Pro - Triple Boot (Snow Leopard, Windows 7, Lucid Lynx)

Why isn't Windows 7 named after a breed of kitty? Oh yeah... Microsoft...

ANYWAY, whilst not nearly as impressive as the Compaq Presario c500 Triple Boot (see the video this one is a response to) it's still an extremely effective setup. I had just finished setting up Compiz for Ubuntu so I went a little crazy with it...

Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Everything just works. Obviously, as it's the OS this computer was made for. Touchpad left and right four-finger gestures were remapped to Spaces via BetterTouchTool. The Fn key is also remapped to Command using KeyRemap4Macbook because I'm a stubborn fool.

Windows 7
Lotsa things work. Two fingered scrolling, backlit keyboard, sound. The ambient light sensor doesn't, however, which is rather annoying, and the Fn key cannot be remapped. The Apple Bootcamp drivers really help make you feel more at home in the Windows world, so I would suggest you update those if you haven't already. I really wouldn't even have Windows installed if I didn't have to keep making these Pokéhax.

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx
It /looks/ nice, but it shares the same tragic flaw with Windows of not being able to use multitouch gestures. (If someone knows how, please share your knowledge). Ambient light sensor doesn't work, and the backlit keyboard, sound, and video effects all work after some setup. Wireless works after downloading the automagic update while wired to the Internet.

They were installed in the order they are booted in: Mac OS X preinstalled, Windows installed via Bootcamp on Mac OS X and Ubuntu installed via Wubi on Windows.

The "160 GB" hard drive is divided into only two partitions: An HFS+ one of 126.57 GB and an NTFS one of 33.13 GB. Ubuntu is installed onto the NTFS partition and takes up 7 GB of space on it. Of those GB, Mac OS X can read and write from both partition, Windows 7 can read the HFS+ one, but only read and write to the NTFS one, and Ubuntu can read and write to both. What a strange coincidence that the two Unix OSes do more... WEIRD.

BOOT TIMES! (excluding bootloaders):
Mac OS X - 40 seconds
Windows 7 - 41 seconds (hehe, time it; it's true!)
Ubuntu - 27 seconds

I also suspect that the Mac OS X boot has slowed down as I've been using it for a year and Ubuntu was installed a week ago. Windows is scarcely used though, so I don't know what its excuse is.

The way I understand this working is that the Macbook first loads the EFI boot stuff and then either boots to Mac OS X or, if I hold down alt, will bring up a menu to select between OS X and Windows. If I select Windows, it then emulates a BIOS and brings up the Windows boot menu which has Windows and Ubuntu as entries. When Windows is selected, it boots Windows, when Ubuntu is selected, it loads GRUB, (the third bootloader, for those keeping track.) GRUB then shows all three boot options. I could disable it if I wanted to as it's unnecessary because it arrives so late in the boot sequence, but I'm currently keeping it around. GRUB cannot be installed directly to the Macbook Pro, however, due to the EFI thing. rEFIt is an option that I briefly considered, but chose to forgo, as this method was efficient enough and is the "legitimate" way. rEFIt is more of a hack. I also lost my Snow Leopard disc, so I don't want to try anything too risky.

What's also funny about this compared to the Compaq Presario Triple Boot, is that everything has leveled up a level: The computer itself went from HP to Apple, each of the three OSes received one update, (Leopard to Snow, Vista to 7, 9 to 10), and also all three of them from 32 to 64 bit, and even the camera itself went from a regular Flip camcorder to the HD one built into the Droid.

Well, that's all I got AND YES I AM WORKING ON THAT STUPID INTERACTIVE ADVENTURE. I ALSO HAVE A COLLABORATION VIDEO SCRIPTED THAT I WILL HACKIMATE SOON. SHEESH. IT'S SUMMER MORE HAX WILL BE HERE SOON.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• apple
• macbook
• pro
• dual
• boot
• triple
• ubuntu
• windows
• mac
• os
• lucid
• lynx
• snow
• leopard
• microsoft
• grub

[bumr055]

I'm surprised how long it took to boot lucid lynx. Mine goes from off to desktop in about 30 seconds and my computers crap.. loading ubuntu screen only flashes for a second then goes strait to login. Celeron(R) 2.93GHz(no dual core this and that.)

Thought macbook pros were suppose to be fast.

[VGMoose]

@bumr055 Ubuntu boots in 27 seconds, as is written in the description. My boot menu configuration might increase the time that Ubuntu *appears* to take to boot.

[vetacoth]

@AIMERdaYA just plug in an ethernet cable to your computer.

[Julianray91]

It's a chick doing this boot video. Not a guy. Well by the looks of it. I saw nail polish on her finger nails.

[jsambuev]

Can you make a tutorial?

[8DLULWUT]

i never get thumbs up....... :'(

[AlMERdaYa]

i have a toshiba satellite, i can triple boot in ubuntu alianware 7 and osx.. i cannot get any internet acces on mac.. it seems to just be a prblem with my settings, im not familiar with the apple os at all, any one know what i ceed to do?

[DICEMAN60]

I have the same thing but my original OS is windows 7 that I am running on my Studio XPS 16. I use ubuntu for speed. 7 for special apps and programs and gaming. OSX is also good for speed and I use it with my ipod.

[marvindingdong]

hey, please write me how you do this. if i install refit and reboot 2 times. then i cant see an menu and my snow leopard dont boot anymore. Please help me, and forgive my bad english but im german.

[Macintosh3745]

if i got a mac it would be osx vista and ubuntu 9.10