A couple of questions about the bootloader and Boot Camp/virtualization tools

Hey everyone,

I'll be getting a Mac whenever their refreshed, and intend to at least experiment a bit with booting multiple OSs. I'm currently a Linux user, know my way around GRUB and have several distros available to choose from when I boot up (also had Windows for some time, but I just have no need to use it).

From my understanding, Boot Camp is just a utility to help a user partition and install Windows without messing things up in the process. It also installs device drivers, and here's my first question: Don't Apple PCs share pretty much all hardware with non-Apple PCs nowadays? Wouldn't Windows run with generic drivers (or maybe just fetch them from the manufacturer's website after installation) on a Mac?

What is available for a Mac in terms of bootloaders/managers? I've read about rEFIt and the default Apple boot manager, are those easy enough to set up to boot from a Linux partition, for instance? Maybe from a partition on an external drive?

And finally, will virtualization tools such as Parallels, VMWare Fusion and Virtualbox allow me to use an existing partition (instead of creating a virtual disk)?

Cheers

From my understanding, Boot Camp is just a utility to help a user partition and install Windows without messing things up in the process. It also installs device drivers, and here's my first question: Don't Apple PCs share pretty much all hardware with non-Apple PCs nowadays? Wouldn't Windows run with generic drivers (or maybe just fetch them from the manufacturer's website after installation) on a Mac?

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You're correct about the function of Boot Camp. However, while Apple computers do share many of the same components that other PCs do, there still are many components that are proprietary. Also keep in mind that while a typical PC still employs a BIOS, Macs use EFI.

After installing drivers which are supplied by Apple, sometimes it's possible to go to a hardware manufacturer's web site and download later versions. I have done that myself with good results. That's only possible though with non-proprietary hardware. (nVidia, ATI, etc.)

What is available for a Mac in terms of bootloaders/managers? I've read about rEFIt and the default Apple boot manager, are those easy enough to set up to boot from a Linux partition, for instance? Maybe from a partition on an external drive?

Click to expand...

In my opinion, rEFIt is the best - at least that I have found and used. Setting up a Linux dual boot is not something that Boot Camp has been designed for. Although someone who knows their way around, can do it easy enough. Triple booting is another matter and will almost always require the use of rEFIt.

Booting from an external partition is not supported by Boot Camp. Some folks have done it using rEFIt but it requires more work and experimentation.

And finally, will virtualization tools such as Parallels, VMWare Fusion and Virtualbox allow me to use an existing partition (instead of creating a virtual disk)?

Click to expand...

Only Parallels and Fusion allow the virtualization of an existing Boot Camp partition. It is not supported by VirtualBox.

Thank you very much for the quick and informative answer, I appreciate it

Not all non-Apple PCs still use BIOS. I recall that at least some Lenovo Thinkpads do. So why does Boot Camp have to provide a BIOS-compatibilty mode?

So we have to depend on Apple for some of the drivers, and those can only be attained through Boot Camp, is that correct? In terms of Linux, is it safe to assume that most of those have open source equivalents? I wouldn't imagine that Apple would write drivers for Linux, so that seems to be the only way to have Linux running on a Mac: non-Apple, community drivers. Is that correct?

What about other bootloaders, like GRUB and LILO? Do they support HFS+ filesystems? Is there anything that makes them unpractical?

Is it possible to boot from a Linux live CD/USB? How is Linux installation usually done?

Do Parallels and Fusion provide that functionality for non-Windows OSs?

Cheers

Not all non-Apple PCs still use BIOS. I recall that at least some Lenovo Thinkpads do. So why does Boot Camp have to provide a BIOS-compatibilty mode?

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To my knowledge Windows (even Windows 7) require a working BIOS in order to boot. I know that for years Intel has been pushing EFI but as of yet, MS has not bought into it. Perhaps there are mods that will allow Windows to boot from an EFI PC? Some Thinkpads may have been modded, that I don't know.

So we have to depend on Apple for some of the drivers, and those can only be attained through Boot Camp, is that correct? In terms of Linux, is it safe to assume that most of those have open source equivalents? I wouldn't imagine that Apple would write drivers for Linux, so that seems to be the only way to have Linux running on a Mac: non-Apple, community drivers. Is that correct?

Click to expand...

Basically correct. Apple drivers for proprietary hardware are not available anywhere else except from Apple. Newer Macs can only run Windows 7. As soon as the Boot Camp assistant is started, you'll receive a message that a driver image needs to be downloaded from Apple and burned to disk or thumb drive.

Apple does not support Linux but as you point out, there are many open source drivers that work well. The Ubuntu forums are a great place to obtain info about that.

What about other bootloaders, like GRUB and LILO? Do they support HFS+ filesystems? Is there anything that makes them unpractical?

Is it possible to boot from a Linux live CD/USB? How is Linux installation usually done?

Do Parallels and Fusion provide that functionality for non-Windows OSs?

Click to expand...

Neither GRUB nor LILO support the HFS+ file system. However, when installing Linux in a dual or triple boot configuration, GRUB or LILO must be used to boot the Linux file system. And yes, you can boot a Linux live CD on a Mac.

Linux installation, triple or dual boot is a bit complex. I'll refer you to a link from the Ubuntu forums. Go here.

And finally, yes Parallels, Fusion, and even VirtualBox run Linux distros rather well. Fusion has many ready made pre-virtualized images that can be downloaded including Ubuntu and many others.

Personally, if I ever setup another triple boot scenario on either of my Macs I would use my copy of VMWare Fusion. A lot easier than using rEFIt but just not as elegant or pretty.

I suggest Boot Picker tool which allows you chose which OS to boot from when booting from the Mac OS X disc (and no auto login enabled) from Mac Update site so you can select MAC OS, Windows or Linux:
Download BootPicker for Mac - Startup OS chooser for your Intel Mac. MacUpdate.com