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Tri-booting Windows/Ubuntu/Mac OS X

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:32 am
by jayshields
Alright.

After trying Ubuntu for a while I've decided to stick with Windows as my main operating system. This is because I cannot play my wma's in Ubuntu at full quality, and I have about 400 wma's, and I still can't find a decent program to quickly convert them to mp3 (on Windows). I also struggled to find an add-on/plug-in for XMMS which lets me minimise to task bar/notification area (meaning I have to maximise the program everytime I want to skip a track). Another obvious gripe is gaming support.

Anyways, I liked my jouney with Ubuntu, and I'll keep it installed just incase. Getting onto the topic now...

I read a guide on how to natively run Mac OS X Panther on a PC. I was never really bothered about trying OS X (because I'd have to buy a Mac), but this means I can try it for free (yeah, it's most probably illegal).

So, I think I'm going to buy a new HDD so that I have 3. Put Windows on the new one, leave Ubuntu on my 80gb one in it's 40gb partition, make the remaining 40gb partition into a FAT32 so I can interchange files between Ubuntu and Windows, and try install OS X on my remaining (currently) Windows 40gb HDD.

Couple of things I wouldn't mind some feedback on:
- Does anyone think this is possible? If so, he mentions you have to go into safe mode each time you boot, but doesn't think it causes any visibile restrictions, is he right? Is this actually worth me attempting to do any of this?
- Has anyone had any past experiences with a HDD ghosting application? I'll need to ghost my existing Windows HDD onto my new HDD and then dramatically increase the partition size (40gb -> 250gb). Also, the HDD interface will change from IDE to SATA2, will this cause any problems (in Windows/in general)? I've decided to obtain Norton Ghost (as it's the only one I've heard of before), is it any good?

That's basically it. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

PS. The torrent he mentions in the guide actually exists, I'm downloading it now (28%, but only ~20kb/s), but it's not 6gb, it's only 1.28gb.
PPS. I haven't posted the guide link because it might be seen as warez, as it indrectly links to the torrent needed.

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:36 am
by feyd
Winamp has a transcoding plug-in that can convert from wma to mp3 fairly quickly.

Yes, running OS X on a PC is illegal, so it's best you leave that discussion for somewhere that isn't on the public areas of the forum.

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:41 am
by Chris Corbyn
It's not easy, but PM me and I'll give you the instructions because I had this set up before.

Essentially you set up your Linux/Windows dual boot then leave room (AT LEAST 6GB) for the deadmoo image. Boot into Linux then essentially do this.

The deamoo image is a full disk image, you only want the main partition from it, not the entire image. So start GNU parted, then "copy" partition 1 from deadmoo to your real hard disk. It will throw warning about HFS+ being unsafe to copy around but do it anyway. You should then be able to mount that partition as HFS+ and view the files.

Now you need to edit GRUB's config to boot that paritition with chainloader +1.

PM me for some more descriptive instructions :)

I won't respond for a couple of hours because I'm heading home now.

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:55 am
by Kieran Huggins
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

Amazing audio format converter: even the CBC uses it!

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:39 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Psstt... Not sure where it is now but I could swear (in my early days when I used xmms) I found a plugin which let you use windows' winamp plugins in xmms. I used it for MP3Pro support. It was buggy though.

Did you try MPlayer? That can play just about anything. AmaroK and Banshee are "nice looking" players too.

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:03 pm
by Jenk
As you are using Ubuntu, which uses Gnome, I'd suggest the app called "Listen, just listen", or "Exaile" of which there is probably a (an?) rpm package made for each.

AmaroK is almost identical, with the exception it is based on KDE, not Gnome :)

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:11 pm
by jayshields
Listen and Exaile look a bit bulky for me, I like the Winamp type of look; subtle.

Haven't tried MPlayer or AmaroK yet, probably something I should do...

What about the HDD ghosting? Can you literally just copy whole Windows installs across to new drives with no problems?

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:26 pm
by Jenk
don't pay attention to the screenshots .. none of that is necessary. For example.. all common funcitonality is bound to windows key+<a button>

Such as play is win+x. I don't even have to open a window, providing it's running in systray.

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 12:57 am
by Chris Corbyn
jayshields wrote:Listen and Exaile look a bit bulky for me, I like the Winamp type of look; subtle.

Haven't tried MPlayer or AmaroK yet, probably something I should do...

What about the HDD ghosting? Can you literally just copy whole Windows installs across to new drives with no problems?
You can yes... I wouldn't do it between new machines though. You'll want to run fixboot from the recovery console if the partition is not in the same physical place on the disk though.