Ubuntu install on Apple Mac Intel hardware

You will totally reformat the MacBook and reinstall OSX and Ubuntu. This will allow you to dual boot OS X and Ubuntu. I setup about 50GB for OS X and 120 GB for Ubuntu.

Boot off Mac OS X version 10.5.2 CD.

Start Disk Utility.

Reformat and repartition with 2 partitions. Set first partition to 50 GB formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Case-Sensitive) aka HFSX. Set second partition to UNUSED. Click OPTIONS button to open a dialog; select "GPTFormat (GUID Partitioning Table)". This is standard for booting OSX off x86 hardware. Do not use "MBRFormat" or "APMFormat". I know it's tempting...

Install OSX on first partition (50 GB, HFSX).

Boot into OS X. Use "System Preferences" to start "Software Update". Install all necessary updates.

Install rEFIt. Reboot.

You probably won't see the rEFIt menu the first time. Reboot again. It always seems to come up the second time.

This time you should see the rEFIt menu with two or three options "OS X", "Legacy Windows", "Ubuntu CD". You will also see a few small options "Partition Tool", shutdown, and restart.

Use "Partition Tool". This does one thing -- it makes sure the MBR and GPT maps are in sync. It will analyze and decide if a sync is necessary. It will ask if you want to write changes to disk. Say YES.

Boot "Ubuntu Live CD".

Go through install process, but at the step called "Prepare disk space" you should check the radio button for Manual to partition manually.

Device          | Type | Mount point | Format? | Size      | Used
---------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/sda        |      |             |         |           | 
    free space  |      |             |         | 0 MB      |
    /dev/sda1   |  efi |             |         | 209 MB    | 209 MB
    /dev/sda2   | hfsx |             |         | 42815 MB  | 9476 MB
    free space  |      |             |         | 277047 MB |

Select the big free space partition (in this case the last free space sized 277047 MB) then click "New partition" to start creating new partitions in the free space. Create a 4 GB (4000 MB) use as "swap area" (no mount point) then create a partition used as "Ext3 journaling file system" with all remaining space and set Mount point as "/". After doing that you should see something like this (exact numbers will vary):

Device          | Type | Mount point | Format? | Size      | Used
---------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/sda        |      |             |         |           | 
    free space  |      |             |         | 0 MB      |
    /dev/sda1   |  efi |             |         | 209 MB    | 209 MB
    /dev/sda2   | hfsx |             |         | 42815 MB  | 9476 MB
    /dev/sda3   | swap |             |         | 4000 MB   | unknown
    /dev/sda4   | ext3 | /           |  X      | 273047 MB | unknown
    free space  |      |             |         | 0 MB      |

Click "Forward" to continue through the install process, but do not continue past the last step -- step 9 or step 7 called "Ready to install". The step number can vary. At the last step you will see the final "Install" button and you will see an "Advanced..." button. Click "Advanced...". Check 'Install Boot Loader'. There will be a drop-down menu for "Device for boot loader installation". By default it will probably say "(hd0)" which is the main drive. DO NOT PUT THE BOOTLOADER ON THE MAIN DRIVE OR THE FIRST PARTITION. Put the Boot Loader on the main 'ext3' partition you last created (in this case it would be "/dev/sda4").

Go thorough the rest of the install process. At the end you will reboot as normal.

The rEFIt menu should come up. Choose the one in the lower-left, "Partition Tool" again to sync the MBR and GPT. It will ask if you want to write changes to disk. Say YES.

Now shutdown and reboot. When rEFIt comes back up it should show both "OS X" and Linux boot options. Linux should boot normally.

old notes -- ignore these

Open terminal, "sudo gparted" to start graphical

Reboot computer while holding down the option key (alt key). I had to do this twice. The first time it showed the Mac HD. I selected that then rebooted and after that it came back with the rEFIt menu.

Reboot with Ubuntu 8.10 live CD. The boot option screen might show the disk as "Windows". Apple bastards...

You will probably see a partition "/dev/sda1" that says "fat32" type. It may also say "EFI GPT". You want to leave that partition!

Delete the "hfs+" partition.

Create a partition with a size of 150 GB (150000 MB); set use as "ext3"; and set Mount point as "/".

Create a partition with a size of 4 GB (4000 MB) and set use as "swap area",

Create a partition with the remaining space and set use as "do not use the partition".

The system will start to install.