Arch Linux

Redrazor39

Member

Registered: 2008-12-23

Posts: 108

To install and preserve Mac bootloader, would I skip last step?

I would like to install Arch Linux on a 24" iMac, but I want to preserve the mac bootloader so that when I turn the computer on it automatically defaults to Mac OS X with no visible changes, but holding the option key during boot allows me to choose my Arch linux partition. How exactly would I go about doing this?

Could I create the free space with Boot Camp and then just skip the "Install Bootloader" step in the Arch installation process? Is that all there is to it or do I have to do something else? Has anyone tried doing this before?

Distro-jumper

Member

Registered: 2008-01-23

Posts: 30

Re: To install and preserve Mac bootloader, would I skip last step?

Hopefully someone will correct me, but I don't think that the osx bootloader will recognize nor boot a linux partition. This is the purpose of using the yaboot bootloader, it will recognize and boot linux or osx partitions. Mac OS X can easily be set as the default boot partition if you want. So, I would recommend installing yaboot, that's what I've been using for four or five years now with both linux and osx.