Hardware

Tri-Boot Build Part IV: The Bootloader

Technically, if you’re happy pressing F8 whenever you restart your computer, you’re done. But a boot loader works so much better.

Boot into Vista. Load the Kalyway Leopard DVD and browse for the chain0 file. Copy that file into your C: drive. The path should look like this: C:/chain0.

Now head to NeoSmart Technologies and download a copy of EasyBCD. This program will allow you to modify the Vista boot loader to allow easy booting of all three operating systems.

While you still have your browser open, navigate to netkas.org and pick up a copy of PC_EFI V8.0 from the link in comment #55.

Start up EasyBCD and click on Add/Remove Entries and pick Linux from the tabs. Choose GRUB (likely the boot loader on your Linux installation). Rename “NST Linux Loader” to whatever you want.

Now, still under Add/Remove Entries, select NeoGrub. Click Install NeoGrub, followed by Configure. This should take you to a text editor screen. Copy and paste the text below after the commented out area in the menu.lst file.

title Mac OS X
kernel (hd0,0)/NST/boot_v8

NOTE: You can change the title to whatever you want. It’s the title that will be displayed in the boot menu. Also, you may need to change the (hd0,0) section to your specific hard drive settings. The first 0 corresponds to the boot drive while the second 0 corresponds to the partition. If you need help figuring out which drive is which, please leave a comment below.

Save the menu.lst file and close EasyBCD.

Next, unzip your PC_EFI file. Inside of the new folder, look for the boot_v8 file. Copy that file to your C:/NST/ folder. The path of the boot_v8 file should be C:/NST/boot_v8.

Restart your computer, enter the BIOS, and make sure that your Vista disk is the default boot drive.

When the computer finally reboots, you will be presented with a screen that contains three booting options: Vista, Linux, and NeoGrub. If you want to boot into Vista, select “Vista”. For Linux, select “Linux”. And for OS X, select NeoGrub.

Once you select NeoGrub from the boot loader, you will have to select Mac OS X from the following screen. In some cases, OS X may fail to boot from the loader. If that happens, go back to NeoGrub, select Mac OS X again, and when the timer starts counting down, press any key, then type 81. This should resolve your problem.

NOTE: Once again, this step depends on your hardware configuration. For me, 81 was the number to enter. It may be 80, 82, or even 83 for you.

And that’s it. When you’re sure that everything boots normally, you’re all set.

This concludes the step by step portion of the comprehensive guide to building a rock solid triple booting machine. FAQs are next.

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