I want to dual boot my Macbook Pro with Linux Mint. I have heard that there are issues using Lion with dual booting Linux? I was wondering if anyone could explain to me how to dual boot with Linux.
Thanks for the help!
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
Running a Linux installer will destroy the partition table of the boot drive. Use a virtualization environment such as VirtualBox.
Hello I run OSX Lion just fine with the "Commodore OS Vision" (Mint 10 based) on my late 2011, Macbook Pro.
the rEFIt bootloader works just fine on harddrives 500gb or lower, on my 750gb drive it doesn't seem to install correctly... I am waiting for a patch
I run everything Natively for best performance... I am not fond of virtualzation.
Here are the steps needed for installing Mint Linux 🙂
First within OSX use the disk utility to shrink the main OSX partition. (Usually called Macintosh HD)
Add 2 new partitions with the sizes you wish to designate for a "root partition" and "swap partition".
Format them both with the FAT filesystem.
Next download and burn the iso for Mini Linux, throw it into your drive.
Reboot holding down the "C" key to boot to SuperDrive/CD, the install should be pretty straight forward.
The only part I would like to warn you about is DO NOT resize or change the partitions using the Linux tools.
You can reformat partitions, change filesystem types, etc. just don't resize them or create new partitions without using the OSX disk utility, other wise you will have to sync your GPT and MBR tables using gptsync.
I hope this helps!
-Alex
Oh one last thing!
And once the Mint install is finished, to boot to the OS, just hold the option key while booting...
you should see 2 different drives appear one named "Machintosh" and the other named "Windows".
The "Windows" option will boot linux... yeah I know... odd.
🙂 Best of Luck!
Running Linux Mint on 2011 Macbook pro with OS X Lion
