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Guide: Multi Booting Legacy on Separate Drives

Going Bald

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Multi Booting with Sierra, Windows 10 and Linux Ubuntu on Legacy BIOS hardware is as easy as doing it on UEFI hardware.

What you need to start:
IMG_0303.JPG
Note that the Sierra USB installer must have Clover installed Legacy mode. This is easily accomplished with UniBeast:
Build UniBeast USB.png
You can install the operating systems in any order. Say you want to install Sierra, then Win10 and add Ubuntu later.

Procedure goes like this:
For Sierra:
1. Connect Sierra drive-to-be, boot with UniBeast USB and install Sierra.
2. Run MultiBeast post install and select Quick Start - Legacy, your networking and audio kexts, build and install.
3. Edit config.plist for your hardware.
4. Shutdown, disconnect drive

For Windows:
1. Connect Windows drive-to-be, boot with the Windows installer.
2. At the install screen, if using an old drive with files/operating system, etc. on it, starting at the bottom of the partition list, delete all partitions on the drive until you get to this:
IMG_0310.JPG Clicking on new gets you this:
IMG_0311.JPG You can select how much room on the drive is to be for your Win10 installation - default is the entire drive. Clicking on Apply will get you a screen announcing the Windows installer will create partitions as needed and clicking on OK will get you this:

IMG_0312.JPG At this point you can click on Next and the installer will give you a clean Legacy boot installation with the boot files in the System Reserved partition, which you will probably want to hide with Clover, so why bother to allow it to create it in the first place? If you select the Partition 2 and click Delete
IMG_0313.JPG you wind up with this:
IMG_0314.JPG and now you can select the System Reserved partition and click Extend and it gives you a screen to select how much of the free space to include in the System reserved partition. Selecting the default of the entire rest of the drive gets you this:
IMG_0315.JPG so now click on Next and the installation will begin.
Once you have installed and are at the desktop there is one thing left to do: rename the drive so it shows as Win10 on the Sierra desktop rather than Untitled, so open Windows Explorer, right click on the C drive and select Properties:
IMG_0317.JPG Then type the name you want to show on the desktop of Sierra in the empty box next to the hard drive icon in the upper left of the general tab:
IMG_0318.JPG Click Apply and OK
You can now finish your Win10 installation by installing whatever Security Suite suites your fancy (personally, I use the AV that come with Win10 and a paid-for license from Malwarebytes) and all of your 3rd party apps if you have any.

When you get done, you can shutdown, reconnect the Sierra drive, boot to BIOS and make the Sierra drive first in drive boot order, save&exit and continue boot.
Screen Shot 2017-01-22 at 12.22.27 PM.png
upload_2017-1-22_12-51-17.png
 

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Adding Ubuntu or other Linux distribution to the mix is also fairly easy. The only things to keep in mind are that you need to install Grub to the root of your Linux install and that for some reason Clover will not see the Ubuntu root if it is formatted EXT4, so format it EXt3 instead.
Using the automatic installation will always install grub to the MBR, so at the install screen select Something Else and set up your partitions manually, making sure the install for grub is the root partition.

And that is all there is to it.

IMG_0304.JPG IMG_0305.JPG IMG_0306.JPG IMG_0307.JPG IMG_0308.JPG

The Internal icon Boot Clover from EFI is caused by installing Clover to the ESP. If you want to eliminate this icon rather than having to hide it with Clover Configurator, then do not use MultiBeast to install Clover - instead, install Clover with the download from SourceForge or compile it yourself and install it to the root of Sierra (this is default install point for Clover anyway).
 
Adding Ubuntu or other Linux distribution to the mix is also fairly easy. ...
Using the automatic installation will always install grub to the MBR, so at the install screen select Something Else and set up your partitions manually, making sure the install for grub is the root partition.

'GRUB to the MBR'? (which MBR? on which drive?) or ESP?

There are Linux distros, like SuSE Leap 42.2, iirc, maybe NetRunner, if I don't, that will try to install GRUB to the ESP/Root drive, regardless of what drive you select under "Something Else". Extreme caution is therefore warranted.
 
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Adding Ubuntu or other Linux distribution to the mix is also fairly easy. The only things to keep in mind are that you need to install Grub to the root of your Linux install and that for some reason Clover will not see the Ubuntu root if it is formatted EXT4, so format it EXt3 instead.
Using the automatic installation will always install grub to the MBR, so at the install screen select Something Else and set up your partitions manually, making sure the install for grub is the root partition.

Thank You for this Guide,
Just yesterday I started installing a Linux distribution in a triple boot system with Sierra MacOS and Windows 10 on three separate HDDs, and I have two questions to ask about it:
- Could this method be suitable also if the linux HDD has a GPT partition table (to have the possibility to handle more than 4 primary partitions)?
- After the installation, will the Linux HDD bootable independently by changing the BIOS boot order?

Edit: either with GPT or with MBR partition table (formatted partitions ext3) and installing Grub in the root partition the Clover bootloader locates the partition but Linux does not start (black screen). What could be the problem?

Thanks in advance
 
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Thank You for this Guide,
Just yesterday I started installing a Linux distribution in a triple boot system with Sierra MacOS and Windows 10 on three separate HDDs, and I have two questions to ask about it:
- Could this method be suitable also if the linux HDD has a GPT partition table (to have the possibility to handle more than 4 primary partitions)?
- After the installation, will the Linux HDD bootable independently by changing the BIOS boot order?

Edit: both GPT partition table and MBR partition table (formatted partitions ext3) and installing Grub in the root partition the Clover bootloader locates the partition but Linux does not start (black screen). What could be the problem?

Thanks in advance
In order to install Linux an a GPT formatted drive you must install it UEFI mode. I doubt this is possible on a BIOS based system, but since I have never tried it I will not swear it cannot be done.
 
In order to install Linux an a GPT formatted drive you must install it UEFI mode. I doubt this is possible on a BIOS based system, but since I have never tried it I will not swear it cannot be done.

Just this afternoon I tried (linux mint 18.1) either with GPT or with MBR partition table (formatted partitions ext3) and installing Grub in the root partition. The Clover bootloader locates the partition but Linux does not start (black screen), what could be the problem?

p.s. it's possible to install Linux in HDD with GPT partition table in a Bios system creating an "unformatted" or "cleared" partition (1-2mb) with flag "bios_grub" and installing Grub in the linux dedicated HDD "/dev/sdx" (tried yesterday)
 
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Just this afternoon I tried (linux mint 18.1) either with GPT or with MBR partition table (formatted partitions ext3) and installing Grub in the root partition. The Clover bootloader locates the partition but Linux does not start (black screen), what could be the problem?

p.s. it's possible to install Linux in HDD with GPT partition table in a Bios system creating an "unformatted" or "cleared" partition (1-2mb) with flag "bios_grub" and installing Grub in the linux dedicated HDD "/dev/sdx" (tried yesterday but Clover did not recognize any Linux HDD or partition)
If using Clover as boot loader did you make this entry?
screen-shot-2016-07-31-at-2-31-11-pm-png.205207
 
Edited config.plist now:
<key>Scan</key>
<dict>
<key>Entries</key>
<true/>
<key>Legacy</key>
<string>First</string>
<key>Linux</key>
<true/>
<key>Tool</key>
<true/>
</dict>
but linux does not boot.
I have created the MBR partition table and formatted partition with Gparted linux utility ("/", "/home", "swap"), It could be a problem?
 
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Did you install grub at the root on your linux partition ?
 
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