Hello everyone. This week I decided to install Ubuntu on my mac and I thought I might use it to add to the numerous tutorials online.
1) The first thing to do is download it. I have an Intel mac so I used the i386 version of 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope).
2) When you have downloaded the .iso file burn it to a CD using burning software of your choice (I used disk utility but it doesn’t really matter). N.B. The slower the writing speed the better the readability of the disk.
3) Once you have done that download rEFIt which will let you use Mac OS X and Ubuntu as a dual boot and install it.
4) Now you have to partition the HDD using disk utility or Boot Camp. It doesn’t matter what format you make it because you will delete it later.
5) Insert the Ubuntu CD and reboot the computer. The rEFIt boot chooser should load up. Click on the linux icon and boot up Ubuntu using the Live CD option.
6) Look under System > Administration and you should find the partition editor gparted. Use this to delete the partition you just made and apply changes. This will leave the space for Ubuntu to be installed in.
7) Start the Ubuntu Installer from the desktop icon. When prompted, choose to install to the “largest continuous free space”. This will let the installer create a root partition and a swap partition in the free space you made. On the last dialog of the installer, be sure to click the “Advanced” button and choose to install grub to /dev/sda3.
Finally… Reboot when done with the install, and in the rEFIt menu, choose the partition tool. It will attempt to sync the partition tables on your disk. Then shutdown the computer (not reboot), and start it up. You should be able to boot to Ubuntu now when you click on the tux icon.
So there you are. But if you are willing to spend a bit of money you may want to purchase Parallels so you can run two operating systems simultaneously.
