Installing ubuntu on mac

[Erik Bågfors]

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:13:58 +0000, John Levin <john at technolalia.org> wrote:
> 
> On 11 Nov 2004, at 10:42, Erik Bågfors wrote:
> 
> > Hi
> >
> > I'm just about to install ubuntu on a imac and I'm not at all used to
> > mac's.  When reading the howto on the wiki it talks about a NewWorld
> > boot partition, but says nothing about what that is. I googled alittle
> > and found something about that it had to be 800K and have a specific
> > type.
> 
> What sort of imac do you have?

A G4, the one which has half a football as a computer box :)
http://www.thekev.org/desktops/1024x768/imac.jpg

 
> >
> > Now, I also want to have MacOS on it.
> 
> Which Mac OS - OS 9 or OS X?
 
X of course. 
 
> > So, I assume I have to do
> > something like this?
> >
> > * Boot ubuntu cd,
> > * Partition disk, create four partitions, the newworld boot partition
> > 800K first, the MacOS partition, the linux partion, and the linux swap
> > partition.
> > * Boot the MacOS cd and install that
> > * Boot the ubuntu cd and install that
> >
> > Is this correct?
> 
> No, I don't think so - but I'm not absolutely sure.
> What I did - and it worked for me - was:
> 1: Repartition the hd with OS X disc utility - running from the install
> cd. Split the hd into two partitions; one for OS X (HFS+) and one free
> space.
> 2: Reinstall OS X.
> 3: Once OS X was running fine, boot from the Ubuntu CD
> 4: The partitioner will give a very different view of the hd - on an
> imac, there was something like 11 partitions - a lot of micro
> partitions installed by OS X for booting, and a small blank partition
> near the beginning of the drive. This is what you install the Yaboot
> bootloader on.

So you didn't have to create a new world boot partition? Is the howto lying?

> (NB: for dual-booting on an ibook (g4), there was only 5 partitions -
> presumably these boot differently to g3 imacs)
> 
> 5: Partition the free space as you wish for Ubuntu (remember a swap
> partition).
> 6: Let Ubuntu get on with installing
> 
> I think there's a good reason for having OS X first on the partition,
> but have read contradictory things about that. Also, you may want to
> leave some free space for a partition to be shared by OS X and Ubuntu -
> good for transferring files etc. But I haven't worked out the best way
> of doing this yet.

Naahhh.. I have network for that. :)

> >
> > I really think the install instructions are lacking but I'm sure it
> > get's better soon, I'll keep track of what I do and add to the wiki.
> >
> 
> Yeah, the instructions are inadequate. I want to improve them, but
> frankly, got bogged down in trying to understand everything that's
> going on.
> 
> > Regards,
> > Erik
> 
> John
> 
> PS: Could you send me your machine details and the partitioning
> version? I'm trying to collate some data on this. Thanks.

Sure, I'll do that once linux is up and running on it.

/Erik