Dual-boot: OS X and Linux

[radamanthus]

I'm planning to install Ubuntu Linux on my Mac Mini.
Why would I do that? Sadly, there are more tools for J2ME development in Linux than in OS X.
Other than that, I'm completely happy with OS X. And I'd rather do J2ME in Linux than in Windows XP.

My plan is to buy a USB enclosure and a 2.5" HDD and install Linux there.

A few questions for the experts out there:
Is this possible?
How do I choose which HDD to boot from?

Thanks in advance,
rad

[Myles]

Unless there's a different way of booting up Mac under Linux, choosing a startup disk is pretty simple. Go to system preferences then startup disk. You can choose which system disk to boot from.

[mgd]

The process might be similar to this. I'm not too sure though if accessing an OS via USB will slow it down. You could try making a separate partition just for ubuntu on your drive like this guy.

This reminds me of Junior Tan's Tiger presentation at Chubby China. He had to restart under Tiger since he had booted in Panther that day. His Startup Disk preference pane also revealed that he had X Serve on that drive.

[lamski]

Perhaps you can try this alternative: Get Java 1.5 for mac, Netbeans 4.1 and mobility pack (for J2ME development) it has mac versions. It has a superb editor (textual and visual) for MIDP development. It's all free! Try it out first and maybe you'll find you no longer need to install Linux. :yes:

Originally posted by radamanthus
I'm planning to install Ubuntu Linux on my Mac Mini.
Why would I do that? Sadly, there are more tools for J2ME development in Linux than in OS X.
Other than that, I'm completely happy with OS X. And I'd rather do J2ME in Linux than in Windows XP.

My plan is to buy a USB enclosure and a 2.5" HDD and install Linux there.

A few questions for the experts out there:
Is this possible?
How do I choose which HDD to boot from?

Thanks in advance,
rad

[piedad]

Eclipse.org also has a very good JAVA ide for the Mac. It compares pretty well with Netbeans, but is supported by multi vendor.

[Lakisalayaw1970]

Maybe you should try Fink (available in the Apple website, UNIX and Open Source Downloads). I wanted to put KDE 3.3 on my Panther and someone suggested Fink.

I would just go strictly OS X. If I needed to test on an X86, I would just get a cheap
test box (maybe an old PC). I have an easier time updating my system in Panther than any other os.

???

[Edited on 6.2.05 by Lakisalayaw1970]

[radamanthus]

Originally posted by lamski
Perhaps you can try this alternative: Get Java 1.5 for mac, Netbeans 4.1 and mobility pack (for J2ME development) it has mac versions. It has a superb editor (textual and visual) for MIDP development. It's all free! Try it out first and maybe you'll find you no longer need to install Linux. :yes:

I agree with you, I like Netbeans + mobility pack.

Netbeans+mobility pack (for J2ME development) and Eclipse+MyEclipse (for J2EE development) finally convinced me that I can make have a development workstation without Windows XP.

However the Nokia emulators - a must-have - don't support Mac OS X.

[Edited on 6.3.05 by radamanthus]

[radamanthus]

Originally posted by Myles
Unless there's a different way of booting up Mac under Linux, choosing a startup disk is pretty simple. Go to system preferences then startup disk. You can choose which system disk to boot from.

What if I want to go back to Mac OS X mode? I just disconnect the USB disk and if Mac doesn't find it, it boots from the HD?

[maclindows]

Im currently dual booting between Ubuntu and Tiger on my G3. The initial screen will be black with choices that asks you which boot method you want. "l" for Linux, "x" for Mac OS X, etc.
I also tried Fedora and it works the same.

Cheers