OnMac triple boots Mac from Boot Camp

Lest you think the team at OnMac.net (you know, the crowd that brought us the original Windows-on-Mac bootloader) would pack it in now that Apple has moved into their turf with Boot Camp, they've come back with a new hack that allows Boot Camp to be used to triple boot your Mac. That's right: no longer are you limited to a mere two operating systems when you start your Mac. Now, you can have a choice of OS X, Windows XP and the Linux distro of your choice (they went with gentoo). Their solution for this turns out to be fairly straightforward: rather than attempting to hack Boot Camp, they've chained the lilo bootloader to run off of the Windows loader. So, Boot Camp still shows you just two options -- OS X and Windows XP -- but if you choose Windows, you then get a second set of choices, which lets you pick Linux or XP. Now that this is done, we're waiting for someone to go to four: we really want to be able to boot into OS/2 Warp, and we suspect the solution is just around the corner.

[supercool @ Apr 17th 2006 12:50PM]

Nice!

[daschupa @ Apr 17th 2006 1:09PM]

hmm, the image looks like 2.5 boots to me (the second hard drive is split in half)

This is definitely cool...I mean if you really need all those. An inventive trick though.

[Ben @ Apr 17th 2006 1:15PM]

/wants windows 95

[Charles Garcia @ Apr 17th 2006 1:24PM]

why would anyone want to boot into Warp? I haven't used that OS since like 1995 and it was one of the most painful experiences I ever had... Ugh I remember my IBM APTIVA fondly.

[enzo @ Apr 17th 2006 1:44PM]

but can I upgrade slow hardware?

[Scott @ Apr 17th 2006 1:46PM]

This seems like a sign of the Apocalypse! I don't think these OS's can get along. The OS war will be faught on the one machine. Wno will stand when the dust has settled? Perhaps DOS?

[Tim Buckingham @ Apr 17th 2006 1:49PM]

Uhmmm, if they have LILO, you can technically boot into however many OSes you want. I believe the limitation was only in Boot Camp, and since we have LILO now, it's no longer limited.

[Richard @ Apr 17th 2006 2:03PM]

Charles:

WOOOOOSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Evilsmevil @ Apr 17th 2006 2:13PM]

If they have managed to get LILO working then that opens up the possibility to boot into as many OS's as you want. Just configure them to run from LILO. Basically you now can boot an unlimited number of installations. Very tidy :D

[MakeMyDay @ Apr 17th 2006 2:13PM]

Seriously WHO CARES? The Mac's are now generic PCs. They have Intel CPU's , Intel Chipsets , ATI Graphics Cards and are made by ASUS. The only thing that they have different is the OS.

It was OBVIOUS from the start that you would be able to boot whatever boots on a "normal" PC , because guess what! Macs ARE normal PCs now.

Jeesh enough with the stupid Apple "news" engadget.

[deadmoo @ Apr 17th 2006 2:22PM]

Why lilo? Would GRUB work also?

[Evilsmevil @ Apr 17th 2006 2:31PM]

@MakemyDay,

Actually the new intel macs use a different method of booting up (extensible firmware interface rather than the standard 'vanila' pc makers' BIOS) So the fact that they have managed to hack these different boot loaders/managers is news worthy.

@ deadmoo

Not sure about grub, although if they have LILO working then it should be an easy swap to get GRUB working (the two work in an almost identical way).

[Charles Garcia @ Apr 17th 2006 2:36PM]

Richard your evil... (cries)

[oedipus @ Apr 17th 2006 3:16PM]

This is fine, but it's not complete until I am able to boot CP/M. Why can't someone just make THE computer instead of A computer? If everyone had THE computer running THE operating system--vice A operating system--we wouldn't have all these OS wars.

[bullfroghrr @ Apr 17th 2006 3:59PM]

again why not try to boot osx on a faster cheaper pc

[immer_ohne_gott @ Apr 17th 2006 4:25PM]

#12 Theoretically, GRUB should work just fine. You would have to install your linux distro off of the partition the windows install was on (IE, tell disk druid to resize the Win part, and use the rest of the free space). In this scenario, the NT bootloader will chain off of GRUB, allowing both to boot (the standard dual-boot win/linux scheme)...the only question is whether Boot-Camp will recognize GRUB. Can't see why it wouldn't....

[Jeremy @ Apr 17th 2006 4:35PM]

3. I'm not at all surprised. Is there anything you can't do with a Mac now?? ;)

Posted at 1:14PM on Apr 17th 2006 by Jan Alberts 0 stars Right click with a default mouse/touch pad.

[mike @ Apr 17th 2006 4:57PM]

as if an OS X user has EVER lusted after Linux screenshots lol..

Linux is about getting away from WIndows. It's a moot point on a Mac. You will never see a MBP running LInux in public.

[nickfawwaz3 @ Jan 19th 2008 2:46AM]

compiz fusion... my eyes think its delicious!

[marcin @ Apr 17th 2006 5:09PM]

Damn put grub on it and you can choose from 100+ OS's
No big deal!!!!

[kibets @ Apr 17th 2006 5:24PM]

Was this the big announcement we were supposed to hear on Apple's 30th? ZZzzzzz... who cares...

[Chris Bell @ Apr 17th 2006 6:56PM]

"ZZzzzzz... who cares... "

Then why did you bother to post?

Gee, I think I will go to a golf tournament and then yell out, "hey everyone, golf is incredibly boring!"

[Nugs @ Apr 17th 2006 8:17PM]

So, when can we boot the "generic" OS X off Boot Camp?

[Camperton @ Apr 17th 2006 8:55PM]

"The only thing that they have different is the OS"

... and that's the most important part.

[tayeb Badaoui @ Apr 18th 2006 3:38AM]

Ive heard that onces you get boot camp installed and you go to pc there is no way back. to mac.

tbadaoui

[Geir E @ Apr 18th 2006 4:27AM]

I used Os/2 from 2.1 to 4 and really loved it. Was such a smooth and painfree experience compared to the windows 95->ME pain they were experiencing. But I wouldn't dream of using it now in '06 - for that Os X and linux have came too far.

[yils @ Apr 18th 2006 7:04AM]

This multiple boot thing is pretty cool.
I like how you only have to press a button to switch
between the mac OS and windows xp/vista.
Any way to get this almost-instant switch between two
operating systems to work on a PC?

[carsten @ Apr 18th 2006 5:09PM]

why warp? not that i am against warp; i used to be editor-in-chief of EDM/2, but it seems to me that there are some much more interesting choices, namely BeOS or NeXTSTEP :) how recursive would that be!

[Balls @ Apr 20th 2006 4:06AM]

Apple has turned into a shitty company with shitty practices against it's customers. Having failed in a war with it's competitors it has turned on it's customers. It is the computing equivalent of Calvin Klein. I will never purchase another product from the company that is everything that they used to complain Microsoft were. The only benefit to macs are that they have failed miserably to be anything but pretty and will therefore never be targeted by techno terroristas

[Brad @ Jan 20th 2007 4:19PM]

Hey, what Gentoo or Debian distro should i get if i want to run this?