How to Install a Triple Boot Windows, Mac OS X, Unbuntu System – Hackintosh Made Easy
How to Setup a Triple-Boot Hackintosh With Windows, Mac OS X & Ubuntu the Easy Way
Hey all. Lately I have been messing around with a Triple-Boot system running Windows XP, Mac OS X and Ubuntu.
I have seen a lot of guides that make this sound like it is very hard to do. So I am writing this guide for all the lazy or unmotivated techies (like myself) that just want to do it the easy way.
This guide is going to assume you know the basics of installing OS software since you are trying to setup a triple boot installation in the first place.
Installing a Triple Boot System Running Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu
First you need to make sure you have your discs for each OS you plan to install. I’ll assume that you do since you are attempting this in the first place.
01. To start put your Windows disc into the system and start the installation.
02. Use the partition tool to setup “3” partitions since we are creating a triple boot system
(On my system I allotted 100gb for Windows, 25gb for Mac OS X and 25gb for Ubuntu.)
03. Proceed with the Windows installation.
04. Once the Windows installation is complete shut down the PC. (Setup drivers and updates after all your OS have been installed, incase something goes wrong.)
05. Next pop in your Mac OS (Hackintosh) disc and start the installation.
06. Once the setup has started go into “utilities” and select “disk utility”.
07. You should see the partitions you created. Your first partition will be Windows. Select your next free partition and set it to “Mac OS Extended (journaled)”.
08. Once the second partition is setup exit the disk utility and continue the Max OS installation.
(Mac OS “hackintosh” versions are very picky about your hardware. The easiest way to resolve an issue with the installation failing is to just download a different version of the installer. As I said, this is the lazy man’s route. We are not going to troubleshoot all the possible issues with hackintosh installs in this guide)
Recommend hackintosh installations for Intel are:
01. iATKOS
02. Kalyway
03. iPCIf you are using AMD, good luck. Check on the insanelymac forums for assistance.
I originally tried to install iATKOS on my Intel system and had a lot of problems. I then used Kalyway (10.5.2) and it worked like a charm the first time through.
I recommend having both of these installations for a lazy man’s trick to get this all setup.
09. Once your Mac OS installation is complete the system should reboot and go into Mac OS. If you are running Vista or Windows 7 you may need to boot back into your Windows installation disk and select the “startup repair” option, which will note a problem with the boot record and should give you the option to automatically repair it.
- (On Windows XP this step was unneeded.)
10. Now that you have Windows and Mac OS installed on your system, use the iATKOS install CD to install the Bootloader (Regardless of what disc you used to install Mac OS.)
11. Boot into iATKOS and select the “customize” option prior to the standard installation. This will allow you to uncheck components to be installed. Uncheck EVERYTHING except “Bootloader”.
12. Go into Bootloader and make sure it is set to “Chameleon 2.0” only.
13. Double check that nothing else is selected and proceed with the install. The install should take roughly 10 seconds. You will get an error that Mac OS was not installed. Right, it wasn’t, the Bootloader was.
14. Reboot your PC. When you see the Apple logo, hit enter. You will now be taken to a screen with a funky looking lizard. You should also see an option for Windows or Mac OS on this screen.
15. Now reboot the system and insert your Ubuntu installation disc and choose the Ubuntu install option (Not the Live CD option)
16. Fill out the information that is required for the installation. Make a note of any user names or passwords that you setup.
17. Once the Ubuntu partition screen comes up choose the bottom option of “Guided – use the largest continues free space”. This should utilize the last partition you created in Step #3 of this guide..
18. Right before the installation starts you should see an “options” button. This allows you to install the Ubuntu bootloader. You “DO” want to do this, BUT make sure it does not get installed to the MBR of the hard drive, which it is set to by default.
19. The drop down menu will allow you to choose to install it somewhere else on the disk. You should see your Windows partition, Mac partition and then a blank partition. Install the bootloader to this blank partition. (On my system this was sd4)
Ubuntu Install Note:
The first Master IDE hard disk is called hda.
SCSI, SATA and USB are referred to as sd.
Each primary partition is numbered 1 to 4.
Each logical partition is numbered from 5 upwards.
20. Now let the installation finish and once it is complete and the system reboots you should now see Windows, Mac OS X and Ubuntu in the Chameleon bootloader.
Congratulations. You have now setup your triple boot system without the need for any fancy terminal commands, binding patches into your hackintosh installation disk, or using third party partition programs to prepare your disk.
If this didn’t work for you there are plenty of in-depth guides with tedious information on various parts of this type of installation but I found my method to be the most straight forward, with the least amount of hassle.
Contrary to various forums on the internet you shouldn’t need to be an expert to get these OS setup so you can learn them and become an expert. We weren’t born knowing how to run.
Good luck, I will try my best to answer any questions people may have about this.
