Configuring a macOS + Linux dual boot on an apple computer

General infos

  • Do not use rEFInd since it doesn’t seem to work properly
  • Do not use OpenCore Legacy Patcher (to get the latest version of macOS, whatever your hardware is), since it makes it impossible to clone a macOS + Linux dual boot (boot entries get corrupted when you create the ghost)
  • Create USB sticks with a macOS installer (from the “disks” app in macOS) and a Linux installer (with balenaEtcher). In the studio, we use Ubuntu Budgie

Installing your system

  • Boot while pressing “alt” at startup to boot from macOS installer
    • Erase hard drive, create GUID table, create APFS volume, name it “macOS”
    • Partition the rest of the disk for Linux, with an exFAT partition
    • Install macOS on APFS Volume
  • Auto-boot on macOS
    • Create a user
    • update macOS
    • check sound, wifi, ethernet
  • Reboot while pressing “alt” at startup to boot from Linux installer and partition your disc like that
    • fat32 (ext2 for budgie) - “boot” - 1GO
    • ext4 - “root” or “/” - 40% (160GO)
    • linux-swap - “swap” - 10GO
    • ext4 - “home” - what’s left
  • Auto-boot on Linux
    • create a user
    • in a terminal, execute “sudo apt update” (or “sudo apt-get update”)
    • then “sudo dpkg --configure -a”
    • then “sudo apt full-upgrade”
    • then install all the software you need on both OS

Cloning (ghosting) your system

  • Download clonezilla “alternate stable” zip
  • Format a USB drive from Linux (GUID partition table, with a 1GB FAT32 partition, and whatever other partitions you need, for the cloned image or any data). Prefer a USB drive that is big enough for your whole clone (macOS + Linux)
  • Copy clonezilla files on the FAT32 partition
  • Boot from clonezilla (pressing “alt” at startup)
  • “Disk to image” ⇒ “all partitions” ⇒ “beginner” ⇒ “check partition” ⇒ “check filesystem”

 

 

 

 

You should also read: