Dual Boot MacBook

[nedavis001]

I would like to set up a dual boot of fedora 14 and OSX on my MacBook. I tried partitioning my hard drive using Boot Camp on OSX but Boot Camp formats the partition such that a Unix-like system cannot use it. I have seen a couple of guides out there and all of them are pretty complicated. Maybe the issue is with my terminology. What I want is the ability at start up to pick between independent OSX and Fedora systems. Is this dual booting? If so, is there a good guide out there I could use to accomplish that? If my terminology is incorrect please feel free to correct me though I would still like to know if there is a way to accomplish it.

Thanks.

By the way I run a standard MacBook purchased in 2007.
OS 10.5.8
Intel Core 2 Duo
111G hard drive

and I would like to create a Fedora 14 KDE system.

[CSchwangler]

Have you tried rEFIT?

http://refit.sourceforge.net/doc/

And here is a guide on how to use it:

http://www.cenolan.com/2008/11/insta...ra-10-macbook/

[nedavis001]

I have not tried rEFIT yet. I tried boot camp and the hard drive partitioning available with debian at install. The partition wasn't formatted correctly and GRUB wouldn't boot properly respectively. I was going to wait until Fedora 14 came out anyway so since I had a few days I thought I'd see what hits I got on the forum.

I am a little hesitant to use non-native mac programs to format the hard drive. That probably seems silly as I'm looking to partition it in the first place.

thanks for the post. I'll try it out in the next couple days and let you know how it goes.

[CSchwangler]

I am a little hesitant to use non-native mac programs to format the hard drive. That probably seems silly as I'm looking to partition it in the first place.

Make backups of your valuable data before you attempt any such changes. It pays off in case anything goes wrong.

In case you are hesitant about rEFIT, it has become the de-facto standard for multi-booting on Apple Mac systems. However, I would suggest you read more info about rEFIT on the web.

[sonoran]

My girlfriend dual-boots arch linux and osx on her aluminum macbook. She used the arch wiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBook
I'm sure there are differences between arch and fedora, but you might find some useful information there.

[nedavis001]

rEFIt works like a charm. I was able to create a partitioned drive and the boot menu is easy to use.

[nedavis001]

so I may have spoken too soon. I have tried about half a dozen times to install Fedora 14 using the instructions given and every time I got the same result: the install seems to go fine then when I try to reboot it I get an error message "no bootable device -- insert boot disk then press any key." I've wiped the hard drive every time between instal attempts and re-installed OSX cleanly every time. Really not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[bernardbizda]

so I may have spoken too soon. I have tried about half a dozen times to install Fedora 14 using the instructions given and every time I got the same result: the install seems to go fine then when I try to reboot it I get an error message "no bootable device -- insert boot disk then press any key." I've wiped the hard drive every time between instal attempts and re-installed OSX cleanly every time. Really not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Maybe you forget to sync GPT table after install?

[nedavis001]

Maybe you forget to sync GPT table after install?

If it's not done automatically or a part of the guided instal on the installation media I almost certainly did not sync GPT as I don't know what that means.

[bernardbizda]

AFAIR MacOSX is using GPT partition table to boot, grub is probably still using master boot record, so refit is making a hybrid of GPT-MBR to boot both systems. But every time you make a new partition on your laptop and install there a new OS you have to manually synchronize GPT and MBR in refit. To do so please follow the instructions:
* during the first boot just after installation choose sync tool from refit (icon is somewhere in bottom row)
* restart your laptop once again
* boot Fedora

HTH,
Krzysztof

[nedavis001]

It worked! thanks so much. You have no idea how frustrated I was getting. And to think it was that easy to fix. Thank you again.