Multiboot : OSX 10.5.2 / XP SP3 / Linux

This howto will guide you through installing 3 or more operating systems onto your pc using the Lilo or Grub bootloader.This howto will also use 20GB of the HDD as a shared disk (FAT32) Wich every OS can read/write to and from

This howto assumes you have a basic knowledge of linux/fdisk etc.If you dont know cli , you better stop reading from here.

You will need :

  • PC compatibe with OSX 10.5.2 (check osx86project.org to find out)
  • Kalyway Leopard 10.5.2 DVD
  • A empty HDD.
  • XP SP2/SP3 CD/DVD
  • Linux distro (i choose backtrack3)
  • CD/DVD with drivers you will need *

* this is to make it easy on yourself , and discards the need of searching for drivers afterwards :)

HOWTO :

  1. Put the XP cd into your drive and boot.
  2. Create 2 partitions of 20GB , leave the rest of the free space untouched.
  3. Format and install XP to the first Partition.
  4. After install has completed, remove XP CD and put in Kalyway 10.5.2 Leopard DVD
  5. reboot
  6. In Kalyway from the top menu open DiskUtility
  7. Choose the 2nd 20gb partition and choose ERASE on the right side, choose Journaled FS
  8. Select your install options via the installer and install to the 2nd 20GB partition
  9. Remove Leopard DVD and put in Linux CD (in my case backtrack3 with LILO)
  10. Open Terminal
  11. fdisk -e /dev/sda (assuming you have just one HDD and its SATA)
  12. p (this wil list the partitions)
  13. As you can see you should have 2 partitions now (/dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 ) (Windows / OSX )
  14. Now we are going to make ou shared disk. press n (add a new partition)
  15. choose p (primary)
  16. choose 3 (3th primary partition)
  17. choose +20000M (this will make the partition (shared) 20 GB)
  18. Now we need a partition for our linux
  19. n (to add a new partition)
  20. p
  21. all free space
  22. n (to add new partition)
  23. e (extended)
  24. +100M (/boot)
  25. n
  26. e
  27. +1024M (swap)
  28. n
  29. e
  30. all available space (/)
  31. Install the linux to the 3 partitions you just made for it (/boot swap /)
  32. Your last install (being linux in this case) will install the linux bootloader (LiLO/GRUB)
  33. Now you can simply add the partitions into the bootloader config  and boot into all 3 os
  34. format the 3th 20GB partition to FAT32 (Now the disk will be available in all 3 os)

 

Now you have succesfully installed 3 operating systems into 1 pc

Good luck and Have Fun !