Hi,

I am about to buy a MacBook and want to install Linux (almost any distro is fine... thou I prefer not to have Ubuntu). I know that Linux can be installed easily and runs well since the MacBooks are x86. What I am concerned is that, will I be able to boot to Mac OS X after installing Linux. How can I do this?

Installation on a MacBook is one of the features of Fedora Core 6. I'm sure other distributions are planning to accomodate the machine as well.

My understanding of the implementation is that you tell BootCamp that you are installing Windows, but then proceed with the Linux installation. BootCamp then allows you to select which OS you will boot.

Alternatively, if you primarily use OSX and occassionally use Linux, you can run Linux under Parallels. Since this is virtualization (not emulation, as the CPU is x86), performance is very good. The only thing to plan for in that case is sufficient RAM to run both OSX and Linux at the same time (1GB+).

Is there a way to do an install without boot camp or does EFI cause problems? I thought some distros worked with EFI instead of BIOS.

My understanding is that Gentoo and Ubuntu have EFI support via ELILO, but most distributions are going the BootCamp route. There are other issues (a new format partition table on the HD), which need to be addressed when installing on the MacBook.

It comes down to a question of how much you want to fiddle with a distribution to get it installed.

My suggestion? Use Parallels for now. By the end of the year, everyone will have figured out how to do this smoothly, and then you can switch to a dual-boot configuration.

Thanks, I hadn't heard of parallels before, but looking at the web page it sounds pretty good.

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Apple_MacBook
http://gentoo-wiki.com/Gentoo_MacOSX..._Pro_Dual_boot

Grub has has EFI support through a patch, so you can select either LILO or Grub.