Installing OS X Mavericks, Linux Mint Debian 201413 64-bit Mate, and Windows

[Crashackintoss]

For a boot drive, I would definitely recommend the new Samsung 850 Pro from the reviews I have seen - it will be available 7/21 at Newegg.

Way back in 10.6 Snow Leopard days I wrote a guide - http://www.tonymacx86.com/snow-leop...multibooting-novice-updated-3-12-see-log.html
You can still use the guide if you substitute UniBeast for iBoot+retail DVD in the OS X install phase. Or you could follow http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/96000-guide-dual-booting-mountain-lion-windows-8-a.html and then install Linux. Be very careful installing Linux. Make absolutely sure Grub2 gets installed either to the root ( / ) or to /boot if you create that partition. If you let it install to the HDD MBR you will need to either purge grub2 and install it correctly or start all over.

Consider moving your OSX Users and your Windows Users to a separate drive from the boot drive, and keeping all your files off of the boot drive, so if you have to re-install you do not lose anything.

Can I do JBOD for the Boot drives to increase my drive capacity like RAID 0 or is it less fault taulerant or about the same?

 

[Going Bald]

Can I do JBOD for the Boot drives to increase my drive capacity like RAID 0 or is it less fault taulerant or about the same?

OS X will not recognize a JBOD as a valid array, just as it will not recognize any RAID not set up with OS X Disk Utility as valid.

 

[Crashackintoss]

For a boot drive, I would definitely recommend the new Samsung 850 Pro from the reviews I have seen - it will be available 7/21 at Newegg.

Way back in 10.6 Snow Leopard days I wrote a guide - http://www.tonymacx86.com/snow-leop...multibooting-novice-updated-3-12-see-log.html
You can still use the guide if you substitute UniBeast for iBoot+retail DVD in the OS X install phase. Or you could follow http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/96000-guide-dual-booting-mountain-lion-windows-8-a.html and then install Linux. Be very careful installing Linux. Make absolutely sure Grub2 gets installed either to the root ( / ) or to /boot if you create that partition. If you let it install to the HDD MBR you will need to either purge grub2 and install it correctly or start all over.

Consider moving your OSX Users and your Windows Users to a separate drive from the boot drive, and keeping all your files off of the boot drive, so if you have to re-install you do not lose anything.

I experimenting with this on a Dell Optiplex 755 to possibly get some experience with this and I did as you said, but the the grub or grub 2 menu did not show up on boot. Instead the system booted to Windows 8.1 64-bit, so what should I do now. Should I reinstall grub or use BCD edit to fix this? Also I realize this is not supported hardware, but i'm still working out a situation with getting the memory for the build I originally specified because my order got messed up and now after having no chance of getting the right memory from Amazon I decided to just get a refund and order from another retailer. Another thing is that OS X is not being installed on the Optiplex 755, so just Windows 8.1 and Linux Mint Debian 201403 Mate 64-bit are being installed.

 

[Going Bald]

I experimenting with this on a Dell Optiplex 755 to possibly get some experience with this and I did as you said, but the the grub or grub 2 menu did not show up on boot. Another thing is that OS X is not being installed on the Optiplex 755, so just Windows 8.1 and Linux Mint Debian 201403 Mate 64-bit are being installed.

Installing Grub2 to the root or /boot is so the Chimera boot loader can see it. If you are installing only Win8 and Linux, then you have a choice - you can add Linux to the Win8 BCD or you can install Grub2 normally to the HDD MBR and use Grub to chain the Win8 boot files. If you use the UniBeast installer to boot the system does it show both the Win8 and the Linux icons to select to boot?

 

[Crashackintoss]

Installing Grub2 to the root or /boot is so the Chimera boot loader can see it. If you are installing only Win8 and Linux, then you have a choice - you can add Linux to the Win8 BCD or you can install Grub2 normally to the HDD MBR and use Grub to chain the Win8 boot files. If you use the UniBeast installer to boot the system does it show both the Win8 and the Linux icons to select to boot?

I purged grub from the / partition with the following command and reinstalled it with the one after that. Then went into Windows 8.1 cmd to try and edit the BCD because just reinstalling grub didn't work with the final command. I think I see my mistake though because I'm supposed to Update grub before exiting chroot enviroment unless there is something else I'm supposed to do. After all I'm not using a UEFI/EFI system. Instead I'm using legacy and I don't have a /boot partition because I'm using Windows with this multi boot system:


apt-get purge grub grub-pc grub-common


apt-get install grub-common grub-pc


bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

 

[Going Bald]

I purged grub from the / partition with the following command and reinstalled it with the one after that. Then went into Windows 8.1 cmd to try and edit the BCD because just reinstalling grub didn't work with the final command. I think I see my mistake though because I'm supposed to Update grub before exiting chroot enviroment unless there is something else I'm supposed to do. After all I'm not using a UEFI/EFI system. Instead I'm using legacy and I don't have a /boot partition because I'm using Windows with this multi boot system:


apt-get purge grub grub-pc grub-common


apt-get install grub-common grub-pc


bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

purge grub - apt-get purge grub grub-pc grub-common

install grub - apt-get install grub-common grub-pc :

You don't want to use this as it installs grub to the HDD MBR, screwing up Chimera. What you want to use is - grub-install /dev/sda3 --force where sda3 is your Linux root partition.

It is not necessary to edit the Windows boot manager unless you want to select Windows to boot and then select Linux from the Windows boot list - which you set in an incorrect path unless you installed grub to the EFI partition you show. Which would be incorrect - it has to go in / or /boot for Chimera to see it.
If you chain off of Win8 bootloader, is a waste of time as the win8 bootloader has to run a lot of stuff loading the Win8 GUI before you select OS, then it reboots to the other OS if you did not boot the default Win8. You can go in and change this to give you a list, like Win7, if you want.

Have you tried EasyBCD2.2? You can use this to add Linux to the Win8 BCD and you can also set Linux as the default OS in the Win8 c:\ properties if you want.

 

[Crashackintoss]

purge grub - apt-get purge grub grub-pc grub-common

install grub - apt-get install grub-common grub-pc :

You don't want to use this as it installs grub to the HDD MBR, screwing up Chimera. What you want to use is - grub-install /dev/sda3 --force where sda3 is your Linux root partition.

It is not necessary to edit the Windows boot manager unless you want to select Windows to boot and then select Linux from the Windows boot list - which you set in an incorrect path unless you installed grub to the EFI partition you show. Which would be incorrect - it has to go in / or /boot for Chimera to see it.
If you chain off of Win8 bootloader, is a waste of time as the win8 bootloader has to run a lot of stuff loading the Win8 GUI before you select OS, then it reboots to the other OS if you did not boot the default Win8. You can go in and change this to give you a list, like Win7, if you want.

Have you tried EasyBCD2.2? You can use this to add Linux to the Win8 BCD and you can also set Linux as the default OS in the Win8 c:\ properties if you want.

No I haven't tried EasyBCD2.2. Are you saying that even if I'm not installing Mac OS X that I still might need chimera as a bootloader to get the two Operating Systems to boot without using BCD. If so then I still need to install grub to the /boot or / partition, like you said before then right. Also if I set the boot manager to the incorrect path considering I don't have EFI and was just pissing around because I couldn't find a solution as to how do it for legacy do I need to purge it now and how would I do it. Could you give me an example of how to purge it from the boot manager by showing a similar command.

 

[Going Bald]

No I haven't tried EasyBCD2.2. Are you saying that even if I'm not installing Mac OS X that I still might need chimera as a bootloader to get the two Operating Systems to boot without using BCD. If so then I still need to install grub to the /boot or / partition, like you said before then right. Also if I set the boot manager to the incorrect path considering I don't have EFI and was just pissing around because I couldn't find a solution as to how do it for legacy do I need to purge it now and how would I do it. Could you give me an example of how to purge it from the boot manager by showing a similar command.

Win8 boot loader will boot Win8 only unless you add a second OS to the BCD.
Grub can be used to boot both Linux and Win8 by chaining the Win8 BCD. Grub can also be used to chain OS X Chameleon or Chimera.
Chimera/Chameleon can be used to boot all OSs - OS X, Win8/8.1 and Linux distributions. It is, therefore, the easiest to use.

The only requirements are that Win8/8.1 be installed in Legacy mode on MBR and that Grub2 be installed to the linux root partition or to a /boot partition.

I don't see any way to make it plainer or less confusing.

 

[Crashackintoss]

I don't know if I want to use Windows anymore because 10 took over my labtop and wouldn't let me resize my partitions and 8 or 8.1 are real pain to get to dual boot with Linux. However, does 7 even support UEFI and if not Which one should I use if I plan to use UEFI? Maybe I need to virtualize this on a VM first to see, which verson of Windows will still support UEFI and allow me to easily dual boot to Linux. Then worry about OS X.

 

[Going Bald]

I don't know if I want to use Windows anymore because 10 took over my labtop and wouldn't let me resize my partitions and 8 or 8.1 are real pain to get to dual boot with Linux. However, does 7 even support UEFI and if not Which one should I use if I plan to use UEFI? Maybe I need to virtualize this on a VM first to see, which verson of Windows will still support UEFI and allow me to easily dual boot to Linux. Then worry about OS X.

Windows 7 can be installed UEFI.