rebuild

This weekend I had decided I would add another partition to my MacBook Pro, to install Windows on. I had recently started running Ubuntu as my main OS and figured it would be good to get that “other OS” on there as there always seems to be some need for it.

Kind of like the item you know is cursed in the D&D adventure but you pick it up anyway, knowing fully that the DM is going to put you in a situation where you have to use it and then *BAMF* you are the opposite gender.

I do Macs spiffy repartition at the command line and then list them out as my final setup. At this point the rugrats swarm around my legs, bite my ankles and I have to take some time out to go tie them firmly back down. Once I sit down again I back up a couple commands to list out my partitions, only I don’t hit list Instead I hit the repartition command again which goes through and Bjorks my system. I felt a million bit cry out as though they’d just been crushed. I’d just installed OSX 10.5 a week or so ago and I had a fresh backup, thus my data loss was minimal. I decided this was a good time to do the install the way I really wanted, which was a small OSX and small Win partition and big Ubuntu partition since I was using it as my main OS.

When I had finished getting this to work Kate had asked how I would relate the story to my friends at work, to which I of course replied that I would tell them “I rebuilt my system this weekend.” She pointed out that comment sounded very techy, but it didn’t relate the true story. The true story was that I spent the better part of two days going through a few FAQs on proper triple boot install procedures, to which I initially tried my own twists and ended in about three more messed up system installs. In the end on the fourth try I finally got it to work by

1. Partioning my disk first ( Mac Install disk, command line, Leopard 40G – Linux 60G – Windows 50G )
2. Install OSX like normal on second partition (the first is EFI)
3. Add rEFIt into OSX
4. Install Ubuntu on third partition.
5. During Ubuntu install tell it to format the fourth partition as FAT so windows will recognize it.
6. Tell it to install grub on (hda0,2) under the advanced button on the last Ubuntu screen.
7. Install windows on the last partition.

I didn’t go with a swap partition in Ubuntu as I’ve got 3G of RAM and I wanted to see how well things would run without it.

In the end I my MacBook Pro is rebuilt and I’m typing this entry from Firefox under Ubuntu Gutsy. I’ve also got all the compiz goodies enabled as well as my hardware working pretty well due to these instructions.

Thanks go out to Kate for putting up with my obsessive, “this damn computer will not get the best of me”, attitude this weekend.