How To Dual Boot Ubuntu and Mac OS X

How To Dual Boot Ubuntu and Mac OS X

Today, i will show you how to install dual boot  ubuntu and mac os x.

Whilst I don’t guarantee that it will work for you (although in all honesty it should), be sure to make a back up of anything vital before attempting this. Seriously, do it.

Ready? Let’s begin..

 

1. 
   

   Install rEFIt

   Unlike a typical PC where the GRUB boot-loader is used to present your dual-boot options, to how to dual boot ubuntu Intel Mac users need to install something extra: ‘rEFIt’.

   

1. Download the rEFIt-0.14.dmg disk image and ‘mount’ it (double-click on it)
2. Inside the ‘rEFIt’ filesystem/folder double-click on the “rEFIt.mpkg” package.
3. Follow the instructions, select your Mac OS X installation volume as the destination volume for the install
2. 
   

   Resize the disk in OS X

   • See Disk Utility in OS X
   • Choose your main hard-drive from the left hand pane
   • Choose  ‘Partition‘ tab
   • Click the ‘+‘ sign to the bottom of the harddrive window and create a new partition by dragging the slider. You can also specify a partition size directly in the size box
   • For ‘Format‘ choose ‘Free Space’ (this will help us easily identify the partition later on)
   • Apply

   
   

   
3. 
   

   Reboot with a LiveCD in the tray (and connect a wired keyboard and mouse)

   Once you’re all set you just need to pop your LiveCD into the disk drive and reboot.
   
   Press the ‘C’ after the start ‘chimes’ sound to boot from the Live CD.
   
   
4. 
   

   Install to your created partition

   
   If you’re an iMac user using bluetooth peripherals do be aware that these will not work out of the box in Ubuntu, so have a wired keyboard and mouse to hand.
   
   Proceed to install Ubuntu on the ‘free space’ partition you created earlier. Ubuntu may prompt you to install it on freespace (double check the size) or, if it doesn’t or you just want to be super-cautious choose the ‘Advanced’ option from the partition screen. From here select (check the box under ‘format’) ‘free space‘ and choose the ‘EXT4′ filesystem when asked, and mount point should be set as ‘/’.
   
   The above looks a bit crazy, but once you’re in the partition editor of the LiveCD it’s straightforward.
   
   I should also add that I don’t usually bother adding Swap space but you may wish to.
   

   5.

   
   

   Reboot

   Once all is done you just need to reboot your Mac and select ‘Linux’ from the REFit bootloader when it appears.
   
   If you’re using a bluetooth keyboard you will need to press a button on your keyboard and wait a second before you are able to select boot entries with rEFIt
   
    
   
   Thanks to omgubuntu for article about How To Dual Boot Ubuntu and Mac OS X