Clear Complete Instructions to Dual-Boot 12.04 on OSX Lion

Question

Honestly, google-surfing this question leads to so many half-answers and multi-part communications that it is both scary and frustrating to try to navigate them.

The question here is simple: What are the clear and complete step-by-step instructions that you used to dual-boot 12.04 on your OSX Lion (entrapped) Apple computer. Did you use rEFIt, rEFIind, a special .iso of 12.04? What?

Obviously, there is a preference for safer, easier, and more reversible methods. I can probably assure that the best answer will get plenty of views.

Solution

There are many ways to skin that cat. FWIW, I've got a lengthy but thorough description of how I set up my OS X/Ubuntu dual-boot here; however, my system is an older 32-bit computer that's incapable of running OS X 10.7. AFAIK, nothing about 10.7 would require changes to the procedure, although using certain features (such as whole-partition encryption) might need a tweak or two. In brief, I carefully partitioned the disk and installed in BIOS mode. I then installed an EFI boot loader to replace the BIOS-mode GRUB. There are a lot of details and pitfalls to be avoided, though; that's why my Web page on the subject is close to 6,000 words in length.

An important caveat is that there are many different Mac models, and some installation methods will work better on some models than on others. Furthermore, what works changes with time, as drivers and support programs are upgraded. Thus, if you read that Procedure A didn't work well on Model 1 in 2010, that may not be true today, or on Model 2.

Comments

[Alvar]

Have you read the Ubuntu wiki on this topic? It has all your answers. Select your model and click on the link.

[Eliah Kagan]

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.