Dual boot Ubuntu 64-bit and Mac OS on a Mac Pro

[Boo]

Now here is an example of the use of UUID and why they are cool.

The system:
Mac Pro 1508
2x Quad core Xeons
8GB RAM
2 x 750 GB SATA disks
Nvidia Gforce 7300
30" Cinema display.

Mac OS installed onto the first hard disk.

time to install Ubuntu 64-bit onto the second disk. (or mint)
Having a second disk saves a lot of problems when dual booting due to the EFI bios and GFS disk partitioning used with intel Mac's.

1. boot into Mac OS.

2. open the disk utility and select the second disk.
Select partition and then the options button.
Change the disk type from GFS to fdisk.
create 2 fat32 partitions, one for swap (9GB) and the rest for / (688GB). You may not have to do this (have no partitions) but from previous experience i did it any way.
once done close the disk utility tool.

3. insert ubuntu64 cd in DVD drive and reboot.

4. hold down the alt/option key to get the EFI boot device menu. If the system beep and you did not have you finger on the key... too slow try again.

5. choose the CD image to boot off (it is called windows since anything not mac is of course windows, or it is a juliet iso)
6. enter to install/run live.

7. start the installer off the desktop.
remember to choose the mac keyboard.
use a manual partition.
choose the second disk (sdb), set the small partition to be swap and the big one as / format ext3. continue.
at the final screen before install choose the advanced button and set to (hd1). continue install.

8. once installed do not reboot, continue using the live CD.

9. open gparted, set the / partition on the sdb to have a boot flag.

10. do not unmount the disk icon that appeared when opening gparted.

11. open a terminal and edit the menu.lst file replacing all instances of hd1,1 with hd0,1.
sudo vi /media/disk/boot/grub/menu.lst

NB. DO NOT change the UUID values to sd..

12. now you are done so reboot. and take out the cd.

13. hold down the alt/option key to get to the EFI boot device menu.
you now have 2 disks to choose from, mac and windows. choose the windows one which is really Ubuntu, i know isn't Apple crazy.

14. once booted you should really use grub-install to push grub onto (hd0) otherwise if you update the kernel the hd0,1 in menu.lst will change back to hd1,1 so you will have to boot off the live CD and fix again as in step 11.

15. you now have Ubuntu64 running, so update and install envy and the nvidia drivers to get the proper resolution.

cheers
Boo