hello,
i will explain my solution.
i just succeed in installing on a Mac Book Pro (late 2011) and triple boot the following OS:
- Mac OS X.12.4 (Sierra)
- Windows 10
- Linux Debian 8
there was many issues and when i tried this a few years ago, i was only able to dual-boot Mac OS X and Linux Fedora
or Mac OS X and Windows.
Specific problems with the Mac Book Pro (late 2011) were those:
- first, even if i discover it at last EFI on Mac Book Pro (late 2011) is buggy, it is an EFI V1.* (1.6 exactly) and EFI V1.* are buggy on those Macs, EFI is OK starting to 2.0 (to be verified....) so any attemp of installing a Windows 10 that supports GPT unfortunately will not works, the problem is different with previous versions of windows that use only MBR partition schemes.
- by default Apple use now EFI and GUID partition table and Bootcamp when installing Windows creates an hybrid MBR which have a lot of concerns, the main problem is that with this schema you cannot add a reliable supplementary partition: if you shrink the windows partition under windows utilities you will get only an extended windows partition not usable under Linux because seen only from windows,even mac disk utility does not see it, at the opposite if you shrink the mac os X partition and install Linux on it you will lost any possibility then to boot Windows as the Hybrid MBR will be corrupted by Linux when installing is boot loader (GRUB).
for those reasons,on this Mac any attempt of using the GPT disk will fail, i have tried perheaps all the possibilities,doing more than a dozen of installs, all fails at some point or it was impossible to boot one of the three OS.
The only solution i find was to fallback to a MBR partition scheme.
(before this i have try many bootcamp config, the good thing from those failed install is to keep the Apple driver that bootcamp create from Windows 7 or 8 DVD image,because they will be compatible with Windows 10 ,REALLY USEFUL do not forget to try this and to do it and keep this on an USB stick as bootcamp ask it, this is the best and only thing you can do with bootcamp with this three os install and you will use it later when starting windows,there is a setup file on the USB stick)
If your disk for any reason is already in Master Boot Record it's ok, mine was using GUID partition table so i had to convert it in MBR.
First doing anything back up your data, a good choice it to use Time Capsule which is a free Apple tools , completely free if you back up your datas with an external disk.
A simple solution to move from GPT to MBR is then to reformat the whole Mac OS X disk with choosing MBR scheme instead of GPT or APT (Apple Partition table).
If you use this solution you will need to restore your Mac OS X from the backup with Time Capsule or to reinstall it from scratch. Doing this involves to boot from recovery mode by the network, by using the cmd-R key at boot time.
I said by the network because if you want to install Linux and Windows you will have to remove the Apple Recovery partition! to free one more entry in the MBR table, remember that you have only 4 entry in this table,they will be used like this:
- Mac OS X
- Windows reserved (Yes Windows 10 needs this extra partition)
- Windows system
- Linux (which will be an extended partition as we needs many more partitions for swap,boot,etc)
here is what i get at final on my system:
macbookpro-3c075448dc3e:Utilities mattei$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0
1: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 289.6 GB disk0s1
2: Windows_NTFS Réservé au système 524.3 MB disk0s2
3: Windows_NTFS BOOTCAMP 73.4 GB disk0s3
4: Linux 1.1 GB disk0s5
5: Linux 53.7 GB disk0s6
6: Linux_Swap 8.3 GB disk0s7
7: Linux 73.2 GB disk0s8
so we have just the place for those three OS, no more recovery for Mac OS X or other things, it's useles by the network, note that the fourth partition is an extended one and the partition 5,6,7 are not primary partitions.
When sizing and formatting your Mac OS X partition do not use all the space,keep places for Windows and Linux.
Another solution,which is the one i used is to convert the GPT to MBR.
Do not do this before backing up your data and if your not familiar with disk partition tools under Linux.
I assume you know Linux and already used the command line shells.
Boot your Linux DVD or CD in rescue mode,any distribution have this, in CentOS 7 it is under the menu Troubleshooting at boot, it exist also under Debian.
There is some explanation on how to convert GPT to MBR here.
I can add that for doing that you have to boot in rescue mode, choose to get a shell prompt and then launch gdisk (not fdisk !!!, gdisk is for GPT,fdisk for MBR):
for example:
gdisk
then enter the device name: /dev/sda
type p to print partition, at this point you should have just a Mac OS X shrinked partition nothing else .
Follow the instructions of the links above in the section named:
on the Rod Smith web site, he is the maintainer of gdisk and no one else know better that than him.
I will just add at this point that you have to understand what you are doing !!! there is no cooking book here! to follow, if you do not understand chances are big that you will fail.First read ! and after do...and you will learn a lot of interesting things.
You have to enter in gdisk in the submenu Recovery and transformation options (expert only) by hitting 'r'.
i will just quote this from Rod Smith web site:
"The most useful commands are likely to be r, l, and o, which convert a partition to primary form, convert a partition to logical form, or omit the partition from the final table, respectively. You may also need to use t to change the MBR type code for some partitions, particularly if you're converting Linux filesystem partitions that had been identified using the Microsoft Basic Data GPT type code. These partitions will be given 0x07 type codes by default."
I will add just a few tips: the option to convert from GPT to MBR is:
"convert GPT into MBR and exit", in fact it does not exit just after , so do not stress, until you did not use 'write to disk' by hitting 'w' you can escape. Take the time to print the partition tables.
Also i did not saw the "omit" the partition option,that's a problem because gdisk will convert also the EFI partition to MBR table, which is not usefull and i had to delete later in fdisk, so convert GPT to MBR.
You will have to manually remove the EFI partition on the MBR, this times using fdisk,as it is the first partition,Mac OS X is the second use the option 'fix partition order' in the submenu 'extra functionality' of fdisk under Linux,
also check the bootable flag even if apple seems to overpass them.
you will have to reboot to Linux a few times,when inserting a DVD or CD Linux in the Mac and holding the 'alt' key,
you could be promped EFI boot, never use this mode now as you have MBR this will conflic and confuse a lot the booted OS, also never or avoid (i can remember the gravity) using apple or windows disk utility for repairing he disk, just for display,it could break things,also never use bootcamp assistant,think it's like "crossing the streams" in ghosbusters😉.
At this point you have Mac OS X on a MBR disk, there is different options, i boot under linux in recovery mode from DVD/CD and create an empty Linux partition and let the remaining size for Windows or i also create an NTFS partition, i do not remember well the order, but try to avoid Windows 10 doing itself the full partition ,it will already add is extra partition and will use two of them.
So boot with Windows 10 DVD and start a custom install BUT do not boot the DVD in EFI boot ,the result would be Windows saying that you have an MBR disk on an EFI capable system: conflict! also remember that the opposite was impossible having EFI and GPT and install Windows due to buggy EFI on this Mac (Late 2011).
So at boot you should be proposed Mac OS X,Windows CD icon, and Windows CD icon labeled EFI,avoid EFI now !
boot from Windows CD icon NOT labeled EFI.
Doing this Apple firmware will emulate a BIOS computer compatible with MBR and Windows 10 is also compatible with that (MBR was first used on PC before Mac) even if compatible with valid EFI firmware.
So intall Windows and reboot ,Windows 10 will ba available hitting holding alt key at startup.
Let windows configure and update itself but as soon as you get to the desktop insert the USB stick create with bootcamp in previous failed installs and search a setup.exe file that run , you have to browse and try them,they are 2 or 3 and some will refuse to install but one (i can rember where) run perfectly and will install all the drivers, for camera, wifi, buetooth,SD card etc.... it is possible that windows update find also the good driver if this solution does not work.
At this point we have Mac OS X and Windows 10 installed using 1partition for MAc os X and 2 for Windows 10, we stil have a remaining partition for Linux.
Boot again you CD/DVD Linux but not in recovery but normal install, again do not boot it from the EFI DVD boot use normal one. Install Linux on the last extended partition (that will contain /boot,/,/home,swap,etc),it should install a boot loader (grub) with Windows menu entry (recovery partition but it boot windows normal mode) and for Linux. Those boot options will be available at Mac startup holding down the alt key and choosing Windows , it will boot the Linux Grub boot loader displaying then Linux and Windows 10 boot options.
Note: at the time i wrote this tutorial, CentOS 7.3 does not configure Grub for Windows 10, leaving me with an useless Windows system,i install Debian 8 and it does it perfect,automatic.
Damien
