Hardware

Tri-Boot Build Part III: The Installation

Alright, so you’ve got your computer built, and I assume is starts up as it should. You may want to consider running Memtest to make sure your RAM is working properly before you proceed–or you can just jump right in to tweaking the BIOS settings.

Even if you just bought your parts, you need to upgrade your BIOS. If you’re following this guide perfectly and are using the P5W DH Deluxe, you can pick up the latest BIOS at Asus’s site. Follow the instructions in your manual to update the BIOS.

We begin with Vista. It’s the clunkiest of the 3 operating systems, and is more likely to break the other two if installed last, so it’s a good candidate for the first OS, just to get it out of the way.

Leave the BIOS settings at factory default and you shouldn’t have any problems.

Choose the drive you want to install Vista on and follow the instructions on the screen. The Vista installation is pretty straightforward and should be done in around a half hour.

Once Vista boots up properly, you have two options. This is the point where my guide diverges from others you may have seen online. There will be no partitioning of drives here, as this guide is designed for multi-drive use.

If you haven’t already, disable Vista’s UAC.

Take the Vista DVD out of your drive and replace it with the Kalyway Leopard DVD you burned earlier.

Restart your computer and boot to the BIOS. You’ll need to tweak a few settings to get Leopard to work properly.

Use these pictures as a guide to help you determine which BIOS settings to use:

Save and exit. The machine will restart.

Boot to the Leopard DVD. When the blank screen disappears, you should see the OS X installer show up on your screen.

Once you have control over your mouse, head up to the menu bar and select Utilities, then Disk Utility.

Format the drive you want to install Leopard on with the option MAC OS X Journaled Extended.

Quit the Disk Utility and press the Customize button before you continue on to installation.

On the customization menu, make sure the following options are checked (if you are following along with this build as written):

• Vanilla_Kernel ACPIPlatform
• Vanilla_Kernel
• Vanilla_ACPI_fix
• NVINJECT_gfnvidia_desktop
• HDA_ALC882 (p5w_dh)
• Realtek_wifi_1.4.5_UI
• BOOT_efi_guid

Click install and go make yourself a sandwich or something in the meantime. The installation will take about a half hour.

Follow the on screen instructions and you’ll be at the desktop in no time. Once you’ve got 10.5.1 up and running, you’ll need to visit the same site where you found the Kalyway Leopard disc image and download two more files.

• kalyway_hack_10.5.2ComboUpdate
• 10.5.2 kernel vanilla and patched !

Install the ComboUpdate file. Reboot to OS X.

Install the 10.5.2 kernel file. If you chose the Vanilla Kernel earlier during the install, choose Vanilla Kernel when prompted. Reboot to OS X. And you’re done with OS X for now.

The last step of installation is to install Linux.

I’m going to assume you have another drive ready for Linux, so go ahead and pull out the Kalyway disk and pop the Linux CD or DVD into your drive.

Just like with Windows, assuming you’re using a Live CD, just follow the onscreen instructions and you should be fine. If you happen to have a problem, you can consult the Ubuntu Forums for Ubuntu (and related distros) advice or various other help sites set up for other distros.

Once the install is finished, press F8 (for the P5W DH Deluxe) during the BIOS tests to bring up a boot drive selection screen. This is a stopgap because we don’t have a boot loader that can handle each OS in place yet. Select the drive that holds the OS you want to boot to and repeat to check that each is still working fine.

• Intro
• Part I: The Parts
• Part II: The Build
• Part III: The Installation
• Part IV: The Bootloader
• Part V: FAQ