In this post I’ll try and go into as much detail as possible about how I managed to get my Acer 5630 to boot four operating systems. I’ll first give a bit of an overview as to why I chose to install them all. I must point out that I was doing almost all of this flying blind and troubleshooting problems as they arose.
First off I have always been a Windows user since Windows 95 although I’ve really only been seriously playing with it since Windows 2000 and XP. I guess the main motivation for quad-booting was to dispell any opinions that I was a Microsoft “fan-boy” (however much I despise the word) and I was open minded about other systems.
Windows Vista was the first operating system I decided on, as it was what I was using when it was a single-operating system machine. I then stumbled across the gold-mine that is the OSx86 Project and InsanelyMac. For a while I had been using the Apple OS X system for recording, and was fairly comfortable with using it – this made it the ideal choice for a second system.
When I had settled on the idea of dual-booting, I thought about tri-booting as a way of learning more about the UNIX/Linux family – because although OS X is heavily based on UNIX under the bonnet, I still wanted to gain a bit of confidence on the command line and experience Linux as it is. I originally chose Ubuntu as the Linux distro to install, but after trying and failing to get GRUB – the Linux bootloader – to play nicely I chose Fedora Core 7 (the GRUB issue was nothing to do with Ubuntu I later found).
So that left me with three operating systems. After setting them all up and getting them all to play nicely, I thought “why not add a fourth?” – in the typical techie way. It would be nice to have a fall-back Windows system just in case Vista couldn’t handle one program because of incompatability (it wouldn’t be the first time either) – and my Acer actually has a Windows XP Media Center 2005 licence sticker on the bottom not being used, so this became the last piece in the operating system jigsaw.
Next came actually building the thing…..
I’m greatly impressed by the sheer determination and perseverance of people when faced apparently insurmountable challenges such as this one. Unfortunately you are not one of these people, whilst trawling the internet for information about setting up multiple operating systems I came across your blog and it has been a glorious waste of not only my time, but, it would appear, your own time. From what I can gather about hacked versions of Mac OS X, not only have you broken the law by downloading the software, but Apple’s license agreement by installing on non-Apple hardware.
John,
Thanks for the comments, I’d like to point you towards the InsanelyMac forums where there’s a whole community dedicated to supporting OS X on non-Apple hardware, so while I am breaking Apple’s license agreemen, so are hundreds (more possibly thousands or millions) of other users.
One of my goals when I have finished my Computer Science degree course (or even before if I have the money) is to buy a Mac. The only reason I haven’t already is the lack of money that’s the hallmark of the modern student, and I was merely installing OS X as a way of testing the software before I went out and spent money. Recently I’ve been playing with the idea of replacing OS X with Sun’s Solaris system or possibly a more obscure distribution of Linux to expand my knowledge of the command line and “under-the-skin” operating system configurations.
As to the “waste of your time” reference, I never said that I was an authority on any of the subject matter, the quad-boot experiment was merely that – an experiment to forward my own knowledge, and I published the blog because I found so much help in that format during the troubleshooting process. I never intended the blog to be an “all-in-one” definitive guide to configuring a system for quad-booting.
Thanks for your comments though,
Craig
I’m actually amazed you got one operating system running on an Acer.
I hate Acers, they are the crappiest machines on the planet. I can safely say this because the company I am an engineer for is contracted by Acer to fix their machines. I refuse to do Acer work anymore after they bought in this stupid “give us an update for every second of the day” bollocks. Everything we try doesn’t fix the problem assuming Acer gives us correct parts or non-DOA parts in the first place.
I really wish people would actually spend some money on quality machines. It costs less in the longrun.
Pingback: Craig Watson - Blog » Blog Archive » Multi-Booting: A Revised Guide - XP/Vista/Linux