Dual Boot Configuration
You should be now on the Mac OS X desktop, very happy to see Mac running natively and at full speed. Now let’s get that dual boot menu configured so that we can choose which OS to boot from each time we turn on our laptop.
Use this picture gallery as a reference for this section
The first thing we need to do is to enable root account and here is how:
Open Finder, click on Applications, double click on Utilities and run the Terminal application.
Type:
passwd root
(Enter your account password)
(It will prompt to enter a second time, do it again)
su
(Enter your password)
pico /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
(add the following after the line that reads <string>Yes</string> and before the line that read</dict>)
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>10</string>
<key>Quiet Boot</key>
<string>No</string>
(Press ctrl-o to save, and then press ctrl-x to quit)
exit
exit
Close the Terminal and Restart or Shutdown
From now on every time you boot the PC will boot by default to OSX after 10 seconds or if you press any key during that time it will show you a dual boot menu from where you can choose which OS to boot from. Enjoy the power of dual booting! It is not a menu as pretty as the one BootCamp provides but it does the same job, all without the need for additional software
September 27, 2006 at 3:04 pm
Hi im having a problem i have installed the mac os software but it always boots on windows xp i cant go to the installed mac os. Is there a fix for this
thanks allot
greets,
Jelle
September 27, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Jelle, you said you have mac os x installed, but did you follow my exact guidelines on this page (http://gsbd41316.wordpress.com/2006/08/01/pre-configuration/) ? Take a look at the lines that read “Select Partition 2″ and “Set Active”. These are the ones that make Mac boot up, by setting its partition to primary (Active). Check the explanations for each line at the bottom of that page and let me know if that helped.
September 27, 2006 at 3:51 pm
k im on this atm but my cmd isnt letting me use the commands
September 27, 2006 at 4:33 pm
i found the problem and solved it had to reboot after using pqmagic thanks for the help and the great guide
October 7, 2006 at 12:48 pm
I did the dual boot with acronis OS Selector, very simple and very usufull.
The only thing is that need a FAT32 partition, 10MB is enough.
October 7, 2006 at 1:42 pm
I know the Acronis OS Selector is another working solution for many out there, but for me it did not work and I prefer to stay away from it. The reason of why I posted the method above is because why pay or spent a lot of time downloading additional software when you can have a working solution which is already inside the OS and easy to set up. Anyways, if Acronis is what you want to try instead and you know how to do it feel free to do it and thanks for confirming once more it works =)