Slightly adventurous Intel-based Mac owners seem to often be afraid or confused about installing Ubuntu along side OSX, but it is actually quite simple. There are some oddities that make it different from installing on a PC (but if it was the same, it wouldn’t be a Mac now would it?). Because of this, I am going to outline my easy install method that will leave you with a dual-boot system with OSX and Ubuntu (Those out there that want a Triple-Boot setup will require a bit more complication and I suggest just checking at ubuntuforums.org).
Intro / Setup
For the purposes of this article, I will be assuming that you have OSX Leopard (10.5) installed on your Mac (with some additional details for those with OSX < 10.5), and you would like to install Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex along side it. This should cover most users at the time of this writing.
Backup
You laugh now, but when you wipe out your disk, you will be sorry. Time Machine comes with Leopard and it is so easy to use it isn’t funny so most have no excuse.
Quick Summary Steps
If you just want a set of quick steps, here you go, otherwise read the entire article:
- Install rEFIt first and make sure it is working (you should get a boot chooser on startup…)
- Use Bootcamp or DiskUtility to create a partition at the end of the disc. Don’t worry about what format, just make it the size you want for Ubuntu and your swap partition.
- After that boot the Ubuntu LiveCD and start the partition editor (gparted) under System > Adminstration. Use gparted to delete the partition you just made in OSX. It should be the last partition on the disc and follows after the HFS+ partition (OSX). Deleting it will leave free space. Apply changes and exit.
- Start the Ubuntu Installer from the desktop icon. When prompted, choose to install to the “largest continuous free space”. This will let the installer create a root partition and a swap partition in the free space you made. On the last dialog of the installer, be sure to click the “Advanced” button and choose to install grub to /dev/sda3.
- Reboot when done with the install, and in the rEFIt menu, choose the partition tool. It will attempt to sync the partition tables on your disk. Then SHUTDOWN the computer (not reboot), and start it up. You should be able to boot to Ubuntu now. If it seems to freeze on the tux logo, completely shutdown again and try one more time.
Detailed Steps
Partitioning
The first thing we need to do is repartition your Mac’s hard drive. Of course, we would like to do this non-destructively (without wiping out the partition you have already). With Leopard, this is quite easy as Apple has provided a nifty little tool that will shrink your OSX partition and create a Windows partition in the freed space (which we can convert to Linux partitions later). BootCamp is probably the easiest way to accomplish what you need.
Leopard’s DiskUtility can also “add” partitions to the disc shrinking the OSX partition at the same time. It cannot create Linux partitions though, so if you choose this route, you should create “free space” or an “msdos” format partition for use to modify later.
At this point, we are really just allocating the space you want for Ubuntu. The actual Linux partitions will be created later during the installation.
For pre-Leopard OSX, there are not such nice tools. BootCamp does not run, and DiskUtility will only allow you to create more partitions if you wipe out all the current partitions. However, the underlying commandline utility still exists.
Let’s say you want to resize your OS X partition to 200GB and leave the rest of the disk free (for Ubuntu of course).
sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 200G
This is the actual tool that Boot Camp uses to resize partitions as well.
rEFIt
INSTALL rEFIt! I personally do not understand why some users would not want rEFIt installed if they are dual-booting, but there are those out there that do not want it and that is OK. You don’t HAVE to use it once you get Ubuntu up and running, but until then, INSTALL rEFIt! You will need it after installing to sync partitions, once you have done that and Ubuntu works, then you can uninstall it. You can even burn a rEFIt CD if you prefer. If you do not see the rEFIt boot menu when starting your Mac, it is not installed properly!
The Ubuntu LiveCD
You can download the Ubuntu Desktop Edition iso from ubuntu.com. (You can choose 32-bit or 64-bit, the choice is yours. If you want to see the pros and cons, you can check out the sticky.) An iso is an “image” of a CD-ROM. You do not burn an iso onto a CD like you do your pictures or music. Instead you burn the image in the file onto a disc. You can do this with DiskUtility or various Open Source Burning Apps. You should burn the cd as slow as you can to increase its “bootableness”.
Boot your Mac from the CD
Put the Ubuntu LiveCD in your Mac and reboot. When the rEFIt menu comes up You should get the option to boot from the Ubuntu CD. On the Ubuntu CD’s bootmenu, you will select the language for your keyboard then choose to boot “without making changes to your system”. Once booted, you have a nice little Ubuntu desktop with a full linux system available to you, including a nice open-source partitioning tool called gparted. You can start gparted by navigating to System > Adminstration > Partition Editor. If you chose to create an “msdos” style partition in the partitioning portion of this guide, or you used bootcamp to partition your hard drive, you should start gparted and select the partition you created and DELETE IT. It will be location after a special EFI partition (hidden in OSX), and an HFS+ partition (HFS+ is the filesystem that OSX uses). Deleting the new partition you created will leave “free space” on the disk for you to install Ubuntu in. Be sure to click “Apply” before exiting!
Start Installing
Back on the Ubuntu LiveCD desktop, start the installer by double-clicking on the “Install” icon. The installer will prompt you for how you would like to partition your hard disk. Since you have already resized your OSX partition, you can select “install to the largest continuous free space”. Also, on the last dialog of the installer, just before it actually starts installing, be sure to click the “Advanced” button and choose to install grub to /dev/sda3.
The system should now install and when finished, prompt you to reboot.
Fix the Partition Tables
There is a bug in the installers that causes a problem on Macs. It can be fixed with rEFIt. After rebooting and you see the rEFIt menu, select the “partition tool”. rEFIt will ask to sync your partition tables. Say ‘yes’ and let it do it’s magic. After it is done, SHUTDOWN your Mac (not reboot) and startup again. You should now be able to boot into Ubuntu. If you select the Linux Icon in rEFIt, and it freezes on the grey Tux logo, shutdown again and try one more time.
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