Tri boot with OS X, Win and Linux and alternatives on MacBook Pro mid-2012

[istme1]

hi there,

which is the best way to solve a tri boot with OSX High Sierra, win and linux.
a) the operating systems installed internal hdd drive
b) the operating systems installed internal on SSD not M2 (not sure if both are treated as ssd)
c) both cases either with HighSierra or Catalina Sonoma (if is possible and better long term option)

Which is the best possible choice, without many installation or compatibility issues and troubleshooting of the below triboot choices please. Is it compulsory to install windows via ie bootcamp option or not.

1. OSX High Sierra with OSX Catalina via opencore and linux.
2. OSX High Sierra with OSX Catalina via opencore and win.

I am stuck with making a triboot system on macbook pro mid 2012 because i do something wrong with the formating procedure especially but also not sure if my mid 2012 can support such options.

thanks

 

[Snowlover]

Definitely go with internal ssd over hdd. Save the old hdd for use as an external drive in an enclosure.
Also, for Catalina, you would be better off using dosdude's catalina patcher as it is much simpler to use than open core.

macOS Catalina Patcher

Which os are you currently running on the 2012 mbp?
Do you want 2 macos and either window or linux, or do you want macos with windows and linux?
Which version of windows would you want to run?

 

[istme1]

dear Snowlover thanks for your reply back to me. i was desperate for at least a hint on what to do with my issue.
I run high sierra latest ver on the mid 2012. This was an internal hdd 250GB which i removed and i use it on a usb 2 enclosure to boot if needed as i want to see what to do with my 1TB internal hdd and my 500GB internal SSD.

I thought as the 1TB is larger to do the triple install there but i must install HS journalled as it is not ssd and noticed disk utility does not allow me to make ie APFS partitions for ie patched catalina or i do something wrong. I thought would be nice to use the SSD as scratch disk free disk with access for all macos apps.

On the SSD i have high sierra also.
I have to make a correction (edited my first post also). I was thinking of sonoma instead of catalina (dosdude does not have sonoma patcher) this is why i mentioned opencore above. I think of sonoma as a better long term keeper on my ssd or hdd so i dont have to do many updates and use some more modern software on it if needed. Only for this reason. Not sure if catalina can have long support in future.

i think opencore is more complex for me but also possibly causes issues at startup after i installed it on my SSD with HS on it so i could make a sonoma installer on usb a bit faster than installing it on the 250GB hdd. Will check the DD solution asap !

I need 2 macos. definitely high sierra as i have most of my apps there for long time for image-video.
the other must be higher macos so i can solve possibly app issues that wont work under HS.
The HS on the ssd is installed in GUID APFS though.

The other OS i was thinking of linux to use some mobile phone repair software. WIN 7 or 10 last choice. I totally hate to see running on the mac and ofcourse have to work under continuous program updates, defender threat brainwashing and other stress crap installed on this win GUI. I have one dental webcamera program and does not work on the mac (I tried win in VirtualBox and cannot save screen capture).

If you thinkg is better to do the triple on SSD, i am not sure if 500GB will be enough for this experiment. if it can be done which is the right order of install. should i do HS first then catalina patched or reverse then ie linux.
I dont know a lot about linux so if you suggest a version i could go for it. Not sure also what requirements are needed from linux installers and if APFS GUID or journalled is prefered for this system or i need to do other tricks to make things work.

I would like also to make a triple bootable usb if possible with these installers for emergency usage in future.

Should i also go apfs container for all or partitions etc. would be nice to have ie on hdd or ssd some space for common programm access for all OS's, unless you advise use a separate disk for such option
thanks again for the reply back

 

[Snowlover]

I suggested using the ssd because your experience with it will be much more pleasant to use(faster interface) than hdd. Also, using apfs is not great on hdds, and wears them out prematurely because of the way it works. You can use the 1tb hdd as an external drive for data, the ssd for os and applications .
I have no first hand experience with open core, so I am afraid I can't be any help with installing Sonoma.

If you want HS + Catalina + linux , I would do them in that order.

You already have HS on apfs, so use disk utility to create a new volume for Catalina in the same container.
Then use dosdudes catalina patcher to create the Catalina installer on usb stick and use this to install to the new volume you just created. Follow the directions from dosdude. HS and Catalina will share the 500gb space on the ssd.

Next you need to go back into disk utility and partition the drive for linux.(Some distros have the option to "install along side of " your os. I have never tried this, and don't know if choosing this will forgo you having to partition the drive for linux.) Make sure you have view set to "show all devices". Select the top entry(should say xxx ssd), select partition, click the + button, select the size you want (1/3 of 500? or less), and select format MS-DOS (FAT).

You will then download your selected linux distro ( a lot of people like mint for linux beginners, also consider mxlinux, zorin),and burn it to a usb flash drive (balena etcher usually works well for this) . You can try various distros live off the usb to see which one you like before installing.
Boot off the flash drive , enter the installer, choose something else (or similar) and choose the FAT partition to install to, format to ext4, set mount point and install. This video will walk you thru this .

It's been along time since I have installed linux, so I hope this info is accurate .

Hopefully the wifi will work out of the box, but that is another topic.
Good luck

Edited for clarity.

 

[schnaps]

On MBP13 2012 16/2048 Sonoma - worked well, except for the lack of acceleration in virtual machines.
In Ventura on MBP 2012 all everyday software works well!
Now I have on this machine a Mojave, OCLP + Ventura (main OS), Bootcamp_Windows11, OCLP + Sonoma, Debian installed.

Warning: Installing High Sierra and BigSur and the latest OS at the same time is a bad idea, there is some kind of conflict of file system formats. For old software, you can install Mojave or Sierra or more oldest OS.

To avoid problems with Bootcamp, it is advisable to create several partitions after the bootcamp partition before installing Windows, which you can then modify and use as you wish.

Windows11 - does not make much sense, but if you need it, first install Windows10 in bootcamp, and then upgrade it to Windows11. How to disable blotware that interferes with work on an old computer is another question.

Linux is easy to install at any time, in any free partition.
Also is possible to install Linux from a virtual machine, passing it a real partition.
And it is possible to use the same instance of Linux both through a reboot and through a virtual machine.
If Linux is needed for programming, then it is not really needed as a partition on the disk, since it works great in virtual machines.

 

[schnaps]

istme1 >> i am not sure if 500GB will be enough for this experiment.

Not necessary to install the same software in each OS.
It possible create symlinks directly to the application in the Applications directory on the partition with another OS with one OS. And use the same application from different OS.
The only exception is for applications that do not start.

The same with music, documents, virtual machines, large files.
All this can also be moved from the user's home directory to a common directory, and used simultaneously from everywhere.

With this approach, small partitions are enough for the each OS.