Triple Boot: Vista, Ubuntu 7.04, and Mac OSX

okonisfree

Member
Hi, this is my first post and i would just like to say that this EasyBCD is a great tool, but I haven't used it yet because..

I need some clarification on if i can do this:

I have Vista installed and I have 1 hard drive with two partitions. C:\ (primary) and D:\ (logical) . both were 100GB. I shrinked D: so it would be 70GB now. and i have 30gb free space. i was planning to have 15gb for ubuntu and 15gb for osx. They are both logical btw.

Could I boot up in ubuntu and install it on half of the free space? Then could I go into easy bcd and add the drive that linux is in into the vista bootloader.

Then could I boot up into OSX installer and install it in the free 15 GB space? And do the same with it as linux?

Thanks,
Okonisfree:happy:
 
Hi Okonisfree, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies!

Yep, that should work. Just be sure to hit the button called "advanced" during Ubuntu setup that lets you choose what partition to install GRUB to. By default, it is set to the MBR of the drive, you need to change it to point to the partition that Ubuntu is installed to.
 
Hi Computer Guru,

So when installing OSX, I can choose not to wipe the hard drive and install it to a specific partition? Is that same with linux. So both of the times I install the OS, it always boots into vista (when i didn't use easybcd yet).

BTW, thanks for the quick response.
 
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Linux: yes.
OS X: I'm not too sure. I think it depends on how you're installing it/what source

(NeoSmart Technologies does not officially provide any support for the installation of OS X on a generic PC)
 
if not then i guess i won't risk it. I did read the pdf document but I got confused in installing osx after vista.

thanks though, now i will go and install ubuntu.. w00t, my first dual boot!
 
Yeah, it's best to stay away from that route unless you really know what you're doing. For one thing, it will remove your Vista bootloader from the MBR - you'll have to reinstall it from EasyBCD.

At any rate, Linux is something we do support (duh! :tongueout:), and we're right here to answer any questions you might have and make sure it ends up working! :smile:
 
ok lol i did remove my mbr. i installed linux and restarted my system. then it came up with the grub boot loader. so i didn't want that and i selected windows vista and booted it up. and with easybcd, i reinstalled the vista mbr and added ubuntu to the list. (I went to add/remove entries, selected the linux tab, and for type: GRUB, and for drive, i did partition 4 linux native -8gb)....btw, i had never booted into linux this whole time...

i saved it and restarted. then came the vista boot loader! yay, i thought. Then unfortunately, when I selected Ubuntu, it came up with this message. I don't know what exactly it was but it told me that it couldn't boot into it and it told me to insert a cd and press any key.

i now think i should just use grub but how would i go into vista safe mode from there?
 
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lol - if it restarts into the GRUB menu that means you skipped the step where you tell GRUB to not erase the Vista bootloader and to install to the bootsector instead.

No worries.

EasyBCD | Bootloader Management | Reinstall Vista Bootloader
EasyBCD | Add/Remove Entries | Linux | "GRUB isn't installed to the Bootsector" | Add Entry

Note that the grubless option is only available in the 1.61 beta builds.

(btw, I like your avatar! :lol:smile:
 
Thanks!

So it won't work in 1.6 right?

ok i will go and get 1.61

but if i do that, how does it detect where ubuntu is and where it should boot up?
 
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1.6 doesn't have a grubless-Linux option, 1.61 does... so I guess that's a yes :smile:

grubless-Linux is a NeoSmart/EasyBCD-exclusive option that we spent months developing. When you add a grubless-Linux entry in EasyBCD, an EasyBCD module called "NeoGrub" will search your hard drive for Ubuntu and attempt to identify the correct location of the kernel and other boot files to make things work.

Give it a shot, you'll (hopefully) be (pleasantly) surprised at how well it works :smile:
 
Sorry I replied so late but..

Success with dual booting Ubuntu 7.04 and Vista Ultimate! :smile:

Here's what I did to all who are interested:
1. I clean installed Vista Ultimate on my hard drive with C:\ (100gb) and D:\ (100gb)
2. Using Windows Disk Management (Right-click Computer>Manage>Disk Management), I shrunk drive D: to 65gb.
3. I shut down Vista.
4. Using the Ubuntu 7.04 cd, I booted into Linux.
5. I clicked Install icon on the desktop.
6.I follwed the instructions.
7. I made sure I wasn't overwriting Vista by manually choosing where to install Ubuntu.
8. I installed Ubuntu with overwriting the Vista bootloader.
9. The computer restarted into GRUB and I selected Vista (which automatically was there).
10. Using Easy BCD 1.61 in Vista, I restored the vista bootloader.
11. In the list of OSes, I added a Linux Grubless option.
12. Restarted Vista.
13. Vista bootloader came up, and what do you know, Ubuntu Linux (that's what I named the option) was there.
14. I selected that to find that it searched for Linux and found Ubuntu 7.04
15. I selected that and booted into Ubuntu!

Thanks!
 
Hey, good to hear back from you.

Glad to hear it works. You might want to upgrade in the future, EasyBCD 1.7 was released in the time you were gone, it has some grubless linux improvements.
 
Os X

Did you ever get the OS X installed?

I'm currently in the process of setting up a hard drive to have all three OS's except my Linux distro is FC8. Unfortunately my OS X DVD needs some modification before I can continue with my project. Currently I have 4 partitions (ntfs, HFS+, ext,swap) that seem to be working good at this point.

Mac OS X I believe writes its boot loader to the active partition. So if you install Mac OS X you need to set the partition that you will be installing os x on active, otherwise it will mess up any other OSs you have.

Once I finish my project I will let you know so that you can use the information I have found in order to install OS X.
 
Hi Keitaro, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

Good luck with your project, and we're loooking forward to seeing your results :smile:
 
can someone help me on triple booting vista, mac and mandriva linux??

i've check my desktop pc with cpu-z and it shows i have sse2, sse, sse3 and a lot more.so it means it does compatible with mac right??well here's my pc specs -

- Intel Core 2 Duo processor
-1GB of Ram
-Sis 191 Internet adapter
-ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro
-250 GB HDD

so would someone guide me??i've read lots of guide by googling but got confused because theyre so much of them.

thnxs in advance...
 
As it states in our Wiki:

NeoSmart Technologies does not provide any instructions whatsoever on getting OS X installed. EasyBCD only boots into OS X, nothing more, nothing less.

We only support how to get it working after it is installed. We do not support the install of OS X.
 
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