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Anyone tried to install Ubuntu dual-booting on Mac OS X Lion 10.7? I know it is doable with Leopard and Snow Leopard.

I heard that the Ubuntu installer will write the first 446 bytes from the beginning of the HDD, and that it is a little bit risky for the bootloader.

So it would be great if anyone here can confirm that it is working fine.

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How do you want to install Ubuntu? Dual-boot (Mac on one partition, Ubuntu on another) or virtually (e.g. VirtualBox)? – iglvzx Dec 16 '11 at 22:48
Dual-boot , but I just need someone to confirm me that he did it with mac lion, I don't wanna take any risk and that's why I'm asking this , thanks in advance – Eki Eqbal Dec 16 '11 at 22:56

migrated from stackoverflow.com Dec 16 '11 at 22:40

4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

As far as I'm aware, you are not able to install Ubuntu via boot camp on Lion... However, you can install a Windows Machine then boot camp that to run Ubuntu.

But personally, I'd just run it in a virtual machine (as @Johnsyweb has said).

I may be wrong regarding the Ubuntu bootcamp however, I've done some research and can't find a way either.

Answer:

Have you considered something similar to this? http://lifehacker.com/5531037/how-to-triple+boot-your-mac-with-windows-and-linux-no-boot-camp-required . Hope this solves/helps towards accomplishing this. Bootcamp into Windows, then dual booting the Windows Machine?

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it's not that i'm not able to install it, I just wanna confirmation that it's working on mac 10.7 lion , since some of my friends told me that it could be risky with the loader somehow. thanks for trying to help anyways – Eki Eqbal Dec 16 '11 at 23:04
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Oh, I must have misread the question... May I ask the need to use all resources of your computer for Ubuntu? Would it not be easier/safer to run it in a VM and use a high end specification on the VM? – Joe S Dec 16 '11 at 23:08
you might be right, but I'm not fully aware of VM, please correct me here if i'm wrong, but in VM, we will specify as for example the amount of memory to be used and that kind of stuff, in VM we will run let's say Ubuntue from within mac right ? I want to use ubuntu OS to make a stress testing so I will need all the resources, do you recommend to use VM in this case ? Thanks alot for your welling to help Joe Safe – Eki Eqbal Dec 16 '11 at 23:22
Yes you are correct. To do stress testing and/or when you need all the resources a VM wouldn't really help. Have you considered something similar to this? lifehacker.com/5531037/… Hope this solves/helps towards accomplishing this. – Joe S Dec 16 '11 at 23:32
ya thanks, that help, but again , it's about Snow Leopard not Lion which I can't find one result for someone who tried it, and I don't wanna take the risk, thanks again :) – Eki Eqbal Dec 16 '11 at 23:40
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up vote 2 down vote

I think I found the answer here , If you are using OS X Lion which comes with Bootcamp 4.0 you will need to use the Disk Utility instead of Boot Camp. Boot Camp 4.0 will only allow you to resize to install Windows 7. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MactelSupportTeam/AppleIntelInstallation

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up vote 1 down vote

I use VirtualBox and it works very nicely.

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Ya i know about the virtualbox , but how i'm interested to install it and run it with boot using all the computer resources – Eki Eqbal Dec 16 '11 at 22:46
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@Eki Eqbal You don't. What you want is to install it on <whatever mac you have>. The procedure is called dual booting and you can have either Mac OS or Ubuntu running. – AndrejaKo Dec 16 '11 at 22:49
Well then you're not running it on Lion ;-) I've not created a dual boot machine in years, VMs are the way forward. – Johnsyweb Dec 16 '11 at 23:07
It's clear hes asking if anyone has successfully installed ubuntu besides OSX Lion on a Mac, dual booting. – tzippy Oct 27 '12 at 10:49
up vote 1 down vote
  1. allocate desired amount of free space from disk utility
  2. get gparted or equivalent, burn it, insert it and reboot
  3. create your ext4 partition and swap
  4. insert ubuntu installation disc then reboot, install ubuntu alongside mac osx.
  5. eventually get refit for an automatic dualboot everytime you turn on the computer.

This worked with Lucid on Lion.

However, you better should get vmware fusion (or virtualbox) and emulate the ubuntu os, as mac computers are not made for this kind of things and you might get conflicts or unexpected dependencies.

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