using external HD with Mac?

[gm04030276]

I have a macbook pro (one of the original ones before they made them better and cheeper!) and i have it dual boot OSX and windows through bootcamp.

I want to be able to install kubuntu on an external drive and get it to boot from it.
I have tried installing kubuntu on the external drive through the alternate cd and I installed rEFIt so I could boot from the external drive but when I select it and hit enter, it just goes into windows from the internal drive

one thing however, when it asked me where to install GRUB, i always told it to try the external drive (sdb2 which was the root partition on the ext drive), should i try letting it install on the hd0 partition? i assumed this was the mac partition and didn't really want to mess it up since that comp is my main one!

Thanks

[jankushka]

Re: using external HD with Mac?

don't know mac.
i assume the ext drive is on usb.
can't you change the boot sequence so that usb is checked first?
that's all you should need, really...
otherwise i don't know.
hth

[gm04030276]

Re: using external HD with Mac?

The drive is on usb.

This is the beauty of mac, there is no booting order as such well not like there is on a system with a bios, macs use an EFI instead which is better supposedly and because of that i can hold the option (alt) key on boot and get a list of devices i can boot from. The ext drive with linux shows up but because of either bootcamp or just the fact that it is an intel mac, when i tell it to boot from the external drive it just goes to the partition on the internal drive with windows on it.
so this is where we use rEFIt which is basically a better version of the option (alt) on boot menu and it has allowed me to boot from the external disk but i had to use LILO instead of GRUB but the system is taking forever to boot and i mean forever, like longer the longest windows boot you have ever seen!
its about 15 mins into boot now and is sitting with

*running local bnoot scripts (/etc/rc.local) [ OK ]
on screen and its just sitting there.

at the very least i am closer than i have been with the last 4 or 5 attempts (lost count) but still not working right, and i really want this to work!


ok so just after posting this, i hit enter a few times and was meet with a login prompt so i am now logged in but can't get kde running, i tried 'startx' but i am getting a fatal server error atm, it would seem something may be wrong in my config files so i shall check them and report back

[jankushka]

Re: using external HD with Mac?

i see.
forgive my total ignorance.
i haven't got a clue...sorry.

[gm04030276]

Re: using external HD with Mac?

no worries! i got it working now though! you'll never tell from the internet but i am insanely happy at the moment! so for all you mac users out there...it can be done, boot your mac from an external usb drive!!

i mainly followed this guys instructions:
http://www.revis.co.uk/site/?q=node/142
but you need to know that you have to use the LILO bootloader, just let it install on the first partition it finds (should be on your external drive) and then be very patient while it boots, then when it seems nothings happening, hit enter a few times to get the boot prompt up, log in as normal and follow the site aboves few commands on getting that ati hardware to work, then type 'startx' and volia! you have a linux desktop on your mac from an external drive!!!!! woohoo!

finally run linux on my decently fast computer (although linux makes all my computer seem fast, my 1.8GHz athlon box boots faster than my 2.16GHz core duo mac!)

whey for mac fully booting into all OS's (well now we have to try solaris!)