LinuxQuestions.org
Visit Jeremy's Blog.
Home Forums Tutorials Articles Register
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - General
User Name
Password
Linux - General This Linux forum is for general Linux questions and discussion.
If it is Linux Related and doesn't seem to fit in any other forum then this is the place.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 02-04-2011, 10:10 PM   #1
Seph64
Member
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Distribution: Gentoo, FreeBSD, LFS
Posts: 298
Blog Entries: 21

Rep: Reputation: 30
Replacing OSX with Linux? No I do not wish to Triple boot OSX, Linux and Windows.


I couldn't think of a better place to put this...

Anyway, since my Mac is a MacMini, it has an incridibly limiting Hard Drive space of 160GB. It does not go as far as it used to. I want to install Linux on this machine, but... I need to keep Windows for certain games (that does manage to play well on this machine), but I have no interest (at the moment) of keeping OSX installed.

I can't simply resize the Windows partition, as because I need the space for Games.

Is it possible to just remove OSX and install Linux instead?

Any help is appreciated.

And sorry if a question like this was asked before, I couldn't think of a better search line aside from "replacing OSX with Linux", and that didn't seem to turn up any good results.
 
Old 02-05-2011, 12:01 AM   #2
Kenny_Strawn
Senior Member
 
Registered: Feb 2010
Location: /usa/ca/orange_county/lake_forest
Distribution: ArchBang, Google Android 2.1 + Motoblur (on Motortola Flipside), Google Chrome OS (on Cr-48)
Posts: 1,791
Blog Entries: 62

Rep: Reputation: 56
Assuming you have Ubuntu 10.10, you can boot the CD in Live mode, launch GParted, format the whole drive in NTFS, install Windows, and then partition the drive (this time with the installer) and install Linux. Shouldn't be too hard to do, but you *MUST* install Windows before Linux, as if you install Linux first Windows will erase GRUB from your MBR.
 
Old 02-05-2011, 02:19 AM   #3
silvyus_06
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2010
Distribution: Ubuntu 10.04 , Linux Mint Debian Edition , Microsoft Windows 7
Posts: 390

Rep: Reputation: 50
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kenny_Strawn View Post
Assuming you have Ubuntu 10.10, you can boot the CD in Live mode, launch GParted, format the whole drive in NTFS, install Windows, and then partition the drive (this time with the installer) and install Linux. Shouldn't be too hard to do, but you *MUST* install Windows before Linux, as if you install Linux first Windows will erase GRUB from your MBR.
i think i just don't get it... why resize the windows partition TWICE when you can give it a size from the beginning(say 50GB) and leave the free space for linux to be partitioned as ext or whatever choice of fs (btrfs?? )

also i don't think the OP wants to do that..

i think that, from gparted live cd , if he figures out what is his mac os parittion delete it then install linux on the free space ( though i have strong beliefs erasing mac os is going to screw boot camp??)
 
Old 02-05-2011, 02:32 AM   #4
Seph64
Member
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Distribution: Gentoo, FreeBSD, LFS
Posts: 298

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 21

Rep: Reputation: 30
Quote:
Originally Posted by silvyus_06 View Post
i think that, from gparted live cd , if he figures out what is his mac os parittion delete it then install linux on the free space ( though i have strong beliefs erasing mac os is going to screw boot camp??)
This is what I am afraid of. Well actually, I am afraid that if I erase the OSX Partition that the system will become unbootable until I reinstall OSX.

I use rEFIt as the Bootmanager.

Last edited by Seph64; 02-05-2011 at 02:35 AM.
 
Old 02-05-2011, 10:18 AM   #5
FredGSanford
Senior Member
 
Registered: Nov 2005
Location: USA
Distribution: Mageia 7 - Debian 10 - Artix Linux
Posts: 1,142
Blog Entries: 5

Rep: Reputation: 207Reputation: 207Reputation: 207
Check out the Mac Mini forum, these guys are pretty helpful for this type of situation. I do have a Mini but never put another OS on it since I only have a 40gb drive and it's my HTPC setup.
 
Old 02-05-2011, 05:02 PM   #6
jefro
Moderator
 
Registered: Mar 2008
Posts: 22,001

Rep: Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629
If you have windows you can easily run a Virtual Machine on it.
 
Old 02-06-2011, 10:19 AM   #7
Seph64
Member
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Distribution: Gentoo, FreeBSD, LFS
Posts: 298

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 21

Rep: Reputation: 30
lol @ VM response.

Thanks, but I don't like Virtual Machines.

Anyway, I got Slackware installed and running.

I just need to get the internet working (better).

I've had Domain Lookup problems in the past, and I have them now.

It takes a real long time (a minute at the least) for the browser (or anything that has to lookup domain names) to lookup a domain when I browse the net. I have no idea why this problem exists or how to solve it. It didn't matter if it's Ubuntu, Gentoo, or well, Slackware. However, OSX and Windows have no trouble with domain lookup what so ever, so that makes me worry.

At first I thought it was because it was trying to use the router for DNS lookup (it'd go through the router then go through the ISP, etc), but I tried using the ISP's DNS lookup address directly, and it still takes forever. So there must be something else that is making the process take a long time.

The Router is actually a DSL gateway provided by QWest. It's an Actiontec GT701-WG Wireless... Whatever it is I should call it. It only has 1 wired ethernet port, which is connected to a hub which all none wireless computers are connected to.

This being a Mac Mini, I'd like to get Wireless working.

lspci reports:
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 05)

as my wireless network device.

Any help getting the DNS lookup issue resolved or configuring my system for wifi (I've setup the Wireless Network on the Actiontec device to use WEP, if that matters) will be much appreciated.
 
Old 02-06-2011, 11:49 AM   #8
silvyus_06
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2010
Distribution: Ubuntu 10.04 , Linux Mint Debian Edition , Microsoft Windows 7
Posts: 390

Rep: Reputation: 50
how much space left do u have in your OSX partition? you could resize it to the maxmum and levae the space to others
 
Old 02-06-2011, 02:20 PM   #9
Seph64
Member
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Distribution: Gentoo, FreeBSD, LFS
Posts: 298

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 21

Rep: Reputation: 30
From my last response to this thread:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seph64 View Post
>>Anyway, I got Slackware installed and running.<<
Ahem...

Anyway, it is funny. After I started using Google Chrome, I hardly noticed an issue with domain lookup. I do not know what to make of that.

Although, I still would like to get wifi working. I'll try searching again.
 
Old 02-06-2011, 02:30 PM   #10
jefro
Moderator
 
Registered: Mar 2008
Posts: 22,001

Rep: Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629Reputation: 3629
Three ways to get wifi working. One is default kernel support, two is add on drivers and three is using windows drivers under ndiswrapper.
 
Old 02-06-2011, 02:35 PM   #11
Seph64
Member
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Distribution: Gentoo, FreeBSD, LFS
Posts: 298

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 21

Rep: Reputation: 30
Yeah, I think I got the drivers installed. But that's where the majority of "bad tutorials" I found on the subject end. Oh well, gonna look some more.

Last edited by Seph64; 02-06-2011 at 03:20 PM.
 
  


Reply



Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Difference between Windows,Linux and MAC OSX Drivers TigerLinux Linux - General 3 11-10-2010 09:02 AM
LXer: If Windows, Linux and OSX Opened Cafes... LXer Syndicated Linux News 0 11-07-2009 06:00 PM
Can I dual boot Linux and OSX? BlahBlah_X Linux - Newbie 3 01-31-2007 01:24 PM
runing a windows/osx screensaver on linux bnj Linux - General 3 03-10-2006 02:39 AM
Dual Boot OSX and Linux? luminousnerd Linux - Hardware 4 05-11-2005 07:13 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - General

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:58 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration