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WinXP and OSX dual boot in MacBook Pro

nirlog.com — I downloaded the patch and followed the instructions. It's quite easy to install. I've posted the photos of major installation sequence and some problems I encountered.

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  • Killah_xxx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Thanks for this. But you should post this in the forum at "http://onmac.net", for the tutorials.
    • Nanx, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3Perfect tense sounds awkward in this case ;)
  • jasonbyron, on 10/12/2007, -28/+11I seen it on macbreak with leo leporte.
    kind of cool.
    • chaos86, on 10/12/2007, -31/+14past tense of "to see" = "saw"
    • kyrobeshay, on 10/12/2007, -18/+17Or I 'have' seen. It's no big deal. We understood his point. Stop trying to look well versed with the English language.
    • sinembarg0, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6He isn't trying to look versed. He's trying either to teach jasonbyron something, or to make fun of him for being a total moron. There's a reason we are required to take so much English in school. If you don't know English very well and its your primary language, how smart do you think that makes you look??
  • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12it's incredible how simple the hackers made it for us!
    • FazzMunkle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Kind of out of character for them. ;-)
    • Rggoalie3, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8@Fazz: I guess that depends on your definition of "hacker". Hackers made Linux, not everyone is out to break things.
  • mastercheif, on 10/12/2007, -24/+10How many times has this been on the front page?
    • st0ney, on 10/12/2007, -21/+8quite a bit
    • foxhoundadmin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3agreed. unless mac os x and windows xp are dual booting AT ONCE (running parallel--one on one core, one on the other) without emulation, then it's not news to me.

      tell me when they break the 20" imac.
    • subhuman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"agreed. unless mac os x and windows xp are dual booting AT ONCE (running parallel--one on one core, one on the other) without emulation, then it's not news to me.

      tell me when they break the 20" imac."

      Dual core running two systems? thats never been possible ever, not even win/linux on x86, so why would it ever be possible soon?

      And this patch does work for the imacs (according the source).
  • PiGuy, on 10/12/2007, -16/+7The number of diggs required to make an article reach the front page really needs to be increased.
    • bradbeattie, on 10/12/2007, -10/+5Actually, I'd love to see that option in our user preferences. "# of diggs requried for story to be on the front page: 100, 200, 400, 800". Something like that, y'know?
    • chaos86, on 10/12/2007, -6/+8actually its the diggs per minute in comparison to other stories, not the total diggs (or the top stories of all time would remain on the front page)
    • jguy584, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4^I think what digg does is once a story reaches x amount of diggs it goes to the front page.
      Then if it doesn't get y amount of diggs in z amount of time then it is taken off the frontpage.
      I think that this is an excellent way to do things
    • FunkyChicken, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10It's NOT the amount of diggs that drives a story to the Front Page. Apparently it's the rate at which a story is dugg combined with a whole bunch of other himminyhobbideegoo wrapped up with a sample of some other mysterious indicators into an algorithm that probably won't ever get explained.
  • Rice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Well, give me drivers!
  • archer75, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10I think the ONLY reason to put Windows XP on a Mac is for gaming. However without driver support at this point the entire thing is useless.
    • FazzMunkle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Yes? And? You expected drivers to be immediate in coming?
    • Shaft0rz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4i don't think it's just gaming for everyone. i work on a .NET app, but would love a mac. i don't need fancy video drivers to run visual studio. that's just one example, i'm sure there are a lot more...
    • zybch, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2But with intel on-board graphics on the mac mini, how good could any recent game possibly be?
    • archer75, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Well you have ATI graphics in the imac. So with drivers it would work for todays gaming.

      I don't understand why ATI drivers would'nt work. Isn't the key here just to be able to emulate a bios to get windows to load? I don't know why that would take special drivers. But apparently it does.
    • drakino, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Drivers talk to the hardware, and the ATI cards inside the iMac/MacBook Pro have EFI/UGA and Mac specific firmware, while any existing drivers out there expect to talk to an ATI card with a BIOS/VGA and PC firmware. People have forced the drivers to load much like they did on the Mini, and it just simply doesn't work. There is enough differences in the firmware that have to be addressed some other way.
    • craterburnsu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@zybch

      I'm not positive about this, but here goes. Just because it's onbaord doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, it just depends on the purpose the onboard chip was made for, I'm sure if it was requested by someone any GPU could in theory be created as an onboard chip, it's just that to save money, generic boards don't want to put something that will jack up the price on a board, especially when they want it to be upgradable. So, It COULD be a good chip with accelerated graphics ect. Just depends on the manufacturer.. in this case I'm not sure if the Macs wanted a nice chip to share the load of After effects and other high end graphical or video programs, however anything is possible.
    • DCstewieG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@craterburnsu

      Sorry, that's way off. GPUs require a huge amount of memory bandwidth, and when it's an onboard chip it has to share with the rest of the system. In addition to bandwidth, it also uses main memory which 1) decreases the amount of memory available for the OS/app/game and 2) creates higher latency. You could have a blindingly fast onboard chip but it just wouldn't matter.
    • zybch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"I'm not positive about this, but here goes. Just because it's onbaord doesn't necessarily mean it's bad,"

      Yes it does :)
      the only good onboard video come with notebooks. All desktop onboard and ALL intel onboard stuff totally suck!
      There is absolutley no onboard video that can hold a candle to even the cheaper less-than-$100 cards.
    • archer75, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So if you wanted to upgrade the ATI card would you then have to get a mac specific version of the card?
    • craterburnsu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@DCstewieG

      Like i said i wasn't sure. Thanks for letting me know.
    • Jams, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Drakino beat me to the explanation by 10 hours :P
    • Jams, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This has actually fully convinced me to buy a mac. I've liked macs for ages, but could never do without my Windows box. Rather than run the two in parallel I can now buy a nice shiny iMac.
  • Amplix, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1but does it whine?
  • FazzMunkle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I remember back when I was first toying with Wine back in the early days of the project that Wine could use the actual libraries and could load Windows even or at least it's DLLs. Is this still true? Could this be an answer for transparent Windows XP through Mac OS X so one could play Windows games in Mac OS X? A partition for Windows XP for Wine would still be handy in the case.
  • jk_baller23, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5yay for WinXP on Macs natively. I'm a bit interested, but not completely interested until more drivers are patched. But, since it is so soon, I'm sure in time drivers will be patched and hopefully be completely native soon.

    Yes, WinXP for gaming, OS X for everything else. But, limited gfx drivers are holding us back.
  • corsairstw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Thanks for posting the link to the different drivers! This is especially helpful. The main important ones are working now: Sound, Ethernet, and Wireless. Access them here: http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Drivers
  • Jangles, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I suppose for gaming or a few programs here or there it is nice. But I would feel a little dirty running windows on my new mac :p
  • AlphaPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As long as I can play windows games on it and switch between them, I'm looking forward to it.
  • coldsteel, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5I bought my Mac to get away from the Windows crap and because its UNIX so why are all you Mac users so eager to do this? I'ts like putting a Honda engine into a Porsche - okay as a trick but whats the point?
    • alxdman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Saves me money by buying 1 machine instead of buying 2(Mac for all the goods, PC for the games.)
  • Cosmosis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Since this fellows website is a little sluggish (or perhaps will undergo the digg effect)...

    1000Mbps Level3/GBLX/Mzima Mirror here:

    http://mirror.root.vc/nirlog.com/2006/03/18/winxp-and-osx-dual-boot-in-macbook-pro/

    Want something mirrored? administrator[at]leetsauce.com
  • unitedstatians, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The people want this Microsoft and Apple don't grind against your prospects they have the power to proliferate your existence.

    i give mad props to the folks that are taking up this challenge, they are changing the way we will compute tomorrow.
  • jclay06, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I work at CompUSA and got in trouble from the Apple Rep. that we have by mentioning this to a customer that wanted VirtualPC for his Macbook Pro. It was really funny ... then I talked to another business rep. and he said that it is in fact legal, but (of course) Apple hates it.
    lol
  • MalDON, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Its funny how people who use windows are trying to get osx to run on their windows box, while mac users are, slash that, have installed windows on their macs. Kinda funny.
    • zybch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Its a difference between wanting to do something for the hell of it, and needing to do it out of neccessity.
      There isn't a lot of software you can't get for the PC so the effort isn't that big, strong, or neccessary.
      You can't say the same about mac, especially when you come to entertainment software.
    • MalDON, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yup, got a point there.
  • vaxguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Brilliant work, absolutely brilliant. Kudos to the people who managed to pull this off and make it so simple for everyone. Almost brought a tear to my eye, *sniff*

    Gotta get myself an Intel Mac ASAP =P
  • bernardbarney, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2A friend of mine who works at Apple told me about this project. The project was to offer 30,000 affordable iBook laptops to schools for $4,000,000. The laptops are available for Elementary, Middle, and High Schools. They are transported on a cart with around 40 laptops connected to a charging power surge, a printer, and 54 Mbps Wireless 802.11g Router. Here is the link to the project: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jul/27broward.html

    They should have waited for the MacBook, but good for them to teach kids about a better alternative to Windows.
  • nato64, on 10/12/2007, -12/+7The only reasoning I can come up with for booting Windows on a Mac is "because I can". Otherwise, WHY WHY WHY would anyone do this? I want to throw up every time I see a picture of windows on a MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, etc. I understand the switcher aspect. But isn't this whole thing a little to complex for a switcher? And at the same time, I think someone that's gonna switch over should go all the way. Business? That's the only other reason I can come up with. Maybe you need a Windows computer for work or something but want a mac for home. Makes sense. But still, how big of a minority are these people? Stupid. If you're buying a Mac, BUY A MAC and don't put Windows on it for God's sake.
    • zybch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Thats fine if you want to only be able to run a tiny proportion of the available software. For those of us who want or need to run the vast majority of software (which is of course non-mac) putting XP on a mac is the best thing to do unless you want to have multiple PCs.
    • ayeaye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sadly, most major businesses out there uses Windows
      Sadly, thats not going to change no matter how much you want it to change
      So, live with it. Window's is always going to be around. People will install windows on Macs because it's the smart thing to do. Why use 2 machines when you can use one? I use both Windows and Mac. I would rather use Windows, but I have to deal with macs because I am an Apple Technician.
    • smokeyghetto, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Nice comment, I agree.
  • t2048, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18WHY do people keep asking WHY people want to run XP on the macbook?

    BECAUSE HAVING BOTH OPERATING SYSTEMS ON ONE MACHINE MEANS THEY CAN RUN ALL OF THE WINDOWS-ONLY AND OSX-ONLY SOFTWARE ON THE SAME MACHINE.

    QUIT ASKING WHY.
  • giveaphuk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3anyone got battlefield 2 2 run smoothly on a macbook via xp ? only reason i would consider installing xp when i can do everything in X .
  • Wubbie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Gaming with Windows would be very fun...

    And Mac with everything else, of course...

    But, what if your windows machine contracts a virus... Headaches all over again >.
  • Hatuey, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Interesting, but I'll wait!
  • DonWilson, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12Real computer users use each of the popular operating systems because each has their benefits, unlike OS fanboys that descriminate other OSes because they think theirs is superior.
    • iobuffa, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5ho ho ho! Score 1 for donwilson. He torched you guys. TORCHED!
    • smokeyghetto, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I agree with you, but.....

      I happen to feel that mac is superior if you are a home user like most individuals. If you are a developer or a very experienced user than you know how to care for your computers.

      The average computer user who goes to a big box store and buys a computer for their family is usually on the phone with support within the first five days. Why? Because something is f%#cked up and they need help.

      Most of us dont need this type of help and are fans because we feel empathy for those who will be dissapointed and frustrated as to why they cant operate their windows machine.

      Apple is elegant and intuitive, while Micosoft is clumbsy and tastless.

      Next time you go to a computer store, look at all the junk that fills the shelves. All of this stuff is aftermarket components. Microsoft decided to focus on the OS and let others take care of the hardware.

      Apple has focused on both and that is why Mac osx is smooth.

    • j_bellone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So what you're trying to say are that those some people wouldn't be on the phone with Apple? You're wrong. Apple rushes their hardware (you see how many iPods they release in a single year) and have horrible QA and Support. The iPod hardware is horrible, and mine has personally been in the shop 3 times already in the year that I've had it.
  • ster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1so many installation links but no benchmarks?

    i can't wait to try it out for myself, actually.
  • themulf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1oops
  • themulf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Im going to repeat t2048's post, on why. YES there are people in this world whom do more than play games and change the desktop image of their computer. Programmers, artist, video production, engineers, various people whom this would help immensely.
  • digitalbuzz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As a field tech, I have to lug around one of those ubiquitous Dell D600s since the software I support mainly is on Dell Servers. But I'm also a Mac Admin and a Graphic Designer by edjimacation. There are times I need to work on a Mac but can't and there's no way I'm going to bring two laptops on the road with me. This dual-boot would be ideal for my line of work.

    and the games would be a nice bennie.
  • wilsonics, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I personally can't wait to get my dirty little hands on a MacBook pro.....mmmmmm. I still need windows because i'm a cisco tech, and need the windows apps because cisco refuses to write any of their support apps for osx, hell they barely support anything other than IE...suckage. When i come home, i just want my computer to *just ***** work.* Anyone with me on that one?
    • ayeaye, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Nope. Window's works fine when you know how to use it. IF you really are a cisco tech then you should really know how to work windows.

      Buying Apple just because "it works" is a pretty sad excuse. Apple does not always work. It's Apple's marketing that makes you think "Apples work"

      I know this because I have to fix Apple computers all the time.
    • j_bellone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thank you! Someone with a brain ^^ and knows how it really is.
  • diggnationdevon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Someone please get Vista dual-booted on the Intel-Macs. More important than XP.
  • Killah_xxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why is Vista more important than XP?
    Vista is still in beta, and some of the drivers are broke. The point where Vista is better than XP, is the extended GUI system.
  • pabster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The irony of the situation :D

    For years Windows fanboys dreamed of installing that elusive OS X on their rigs.

    Now they can.

    For years Mac fanboys dreamed of installing Windows (natively) on their Macs. Now they can too!

    I'm the former, in case you are wondering.
  • t94xr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I prefer buying a PC lappy and installing OSX on that, using the OSX install CD once it's been cracked.
  • GME4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You should have formatted the xp drive as FAT32 not NTFS --- OSX can only read NTFS. You can't write to an NTFS drive from OSX. You can read, & write to a FAT32 drive from OSX though...
    • JDex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0FAT32 is actually not a very good idea... at least if you work with very large files or large drive partitions. One of the workflow kinks that early adopters will struggle with most likely.
  • hollywoodone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Does anyone know how games run on these Macs running XP? (mostly imac)
    would love this because I could use OSX most of the time but use Windows to play CS 1.6, the only thing I see it useful for.
    • JDex, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Until the driver issues are worked out... there's no good gaming.
      But... when that's all worked out, there is no reason that it won't run exactly as well as the same hardware without the Apple name, so games will run really well.
  • thelastknowngod, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2this is really cool but i cant help but wonder.... why would anyone want to do this? the whole point of getting a mac is so that you dont have to deal with windows anymore.
    • Dakk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Two answers:

      1. Games
      2. Lies about needing to do something else
    • j_bellone, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13. OS X is a gimmick. Windows runs better if you know how to use it.
  • originalcrush, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2any thoughts if whine noise will still be present when running Windows XP?
    • xenon221, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've been hearing that it's not. Supposedly, xp doesn't take the new CPU to the lowest depths of power management yet.
  • anagami, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1And people buy Apple computers only for Mac OS X...
  • your_mom, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1how does ye handle the right click? USB mouse?
    • sparkmonkeyz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You know that macs still have a right click right, and im not talkin bout ctrl click, the mighty mouse (which sux) has a right click.
  • Mond, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1jesus... people can you stop beating a dead horse... why put xp on mac... blah blah... can we get some original comments please?
    • sparkmonkeyz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1OMG!! You put it on so you can have all of the awsomeness of a mac for what you'd mostly use it for, but if you want to do something that you cant on a mac, like play BF2, you know you dont have to switch computers. Especially nice when you are on the go and dont want to lug around two laptops.
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