Looking to use OS X, Windows, and Linux, how do I do this?

[9007938]

I plan on having OS X as my primary OS, using Windows primarily via Boot Camp for gaming (occasionally using a virtualization program to use it within OS X), and I'm also interested in booting Linux (most likely Ubuntu).

I'm interested in running it both natively like Windows via Boot Camp (if possible) as well as in a virtualized Window. I was checking out VMWare but it appeared that you could only use that for Windows? And Boot Camp also appears to only be for Windows? Any advice on how I can pull this off? Thanks.

 

[johngardiner]

Hey Shadow,
I have the exact setup you're looking for. First I installed Windows XP through boot camp on a 50gb partition on my Macbook Pro. After a while I wanted to try running it virtually so I installed VMWare and gave it a shot. VMWare can use a bootcamp partition you already have, instead of creating a virtual file to run the OS off of. Windows runs great inside it and you can customize how much system power you want to put towards it. Then I noticed I could install any OS on VMWare (you can have as many as you want), so I downloaded ubuntu and fired it up. Installed in about 10 minutes and I was up and running. Because it's running virtually through OSX it uses there wireless connection and whatnot that's already established so there are no need for drivers. It, like windows, runs great through VMWare. Mac's are certainly the best option for running 3 os's!

 

[9007938]

Thanks for the info! And you make it sound like you can only run Linux via virtualization and you can't boot into it the same way you can boot into OS X or Windows, is this correct? Thanks!

EDIT: And if you can boot directly into Linux, how, and where would I get drivers? Thanks.

 

[dual64bit]

You can run Linux native. It's a little touchy with the drivers, especially the video card. Which model of hardware do you have from Apple?

The trick to your plan would be to get all 3 to boot native and virtual.

I know VMWare and Parallels allow you to run your Windows Boot camp within Mac OS X.

So we know:

- You can boot native into Mac OS X
- You can boot native into Windows
- You can boot native into Linux (Ubuntu)
- You can run Windows bootcamp inside of Mac OS X via Parallels (or VMWare)

I am not sure if you would be able to startup your Linux that is installed using VMWare or Parallels, you may have to have two seperate installs of Ubuntu.

Hit up the Ubuntu forums for the drivers, I've gotten it to work on my MBP (Intel). Also got SUSE running on my PISMO and PowerBook.

Here is information I used to get Ubuntu on my MBP:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro

 

[9007938]

Thanks for the info. And I plan on purchasing a maxed out iMac soon with the Nvidia card.