Debian on MacBook Pro in Triple Boot setup

kamransoomro84 · 03-12-2008, 04:44 AM

Hi,

I've installed Debian on my new MacBook Pro along with Windows and Mac OS X. The installation proceed like a charm. Atleast as much a charm as described here. So now I see Mac OS X, Windows and Linux in the rEFIt menu. However, if I choose to boot into Linux, it boots into Windows. Windows boots into Windows too. Anyone have any idea what the problem might be? Thanks.

budword · 03-12-2008, 05:17 AM

Looks like your bootloader is pointing at the wrong partition for Linux. I'm not familiar with that bootloader though. Is there a way to edit it to point to the correct linux partition ?

David

kamransoomro84 · 03-12-2008, 05:31 AM

I've been looking for it, but haven't been able to find it yet. Can anyone tell me where I can find it? Thanks!

budword · 03-12-2008, 07:47 AM

I haven't owned a mac since the 90's, so I know nothing about whatever funky bootloader you are using. If you get desperate, you could try putting a grub install on there, which would boot linux, windows and OSX for you. I don't think it would screw anything up, but like I said, I don't know a damn thing about your funky bootloader, and I know nothing recent about macs, so, use at your own risk. Supergrub bootdisk will build and install grub for you, with all the correct entries. Use at your own risk though.

http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/?section=download

Good luck, let us know what you decide to do and how it worked out, as it might help someone else someday.

David

kamransoomro84 · 03-12-2008, 07:52 AM

Well, every tutorial I've seen on the internet so far on how to set up triple booting has used rEFIt as the boot loader. I'm assuming that there's a valid reason behind that. In any case I could probably try installing lilo in the MBR. Actually even with rEFIt, you have to install lilo on your linux partition that you're using. It shouldn't be too hard to reinstall rEFIt if it doesn't work. However, I'll do some googling and see what I decide. Thanks for trying, though

hkoster1 · 03-12-2008, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamransoomro84

Well, every tutorial I've seen on the internet so far on how to set up triple booting has used rEFIt as the boot loader. I'm assuming that there's a valid reason behind that. In any case I could probably try installing lilo in the MBR. Actually even with rEFIt, you have to install lilo on your linux partition that you're using. It shouldn't be too hard to reinstall rEFIt if it doesn't work. However, I'll do some googling and see what I decide. Thanks for trying, though

Did you remember to resynch the MBR and GUID partition tables in the rEFIt menu?

kamransoomro84 · 03-12-2008, 08:20 PM

Yup. And I finally figured out the problem. So my partition table looks something like this:

* /dev/sda1 -> Mac OS X
* /dev/sda3 -> Linux swap
* /dev/sda4 -> Windows
* /dev/sda5 -> Miscellaneous partition
* /dev/sda6 -> Linux /
* /dev/sda7 -> /home

So what was happening was that rEFIt was erroneously detecting my swap partition as my Linux partition and pointing to it. Since there was no bootloader in /dev/sda3, it was going to the next bootloader, loading Windows. Installing Lilo in /dev/sda3 instead of /dev/sda6 should have solved the problem. Unfortunately, I figured this out only after I repartitioned and made /dev/sda3 my Linux / partition

Anyway, Debian is working now. Thanks