The FAT32 is necessary for the Mac OS side for doing the Mac OS install. Set the format for the Linux partition as ext4 like normal, and the format for the Mac OS side as fat32. You can split the size of the partitions to your own liking at this point. Next create your partitions for Linux and Mac OS. The swap size should be pretty much equal to the amount of system ram you have. Next create a linux swap partition (I usually place this at the end of the drive). Start by creating two 512mb EFI's at the start of the drive. When Linux asks how to install, make sure you chose 'Something Else' so that you can manage your own partitions. So start by loading up your Linux OS install off of a thumb drive. In this case however, I decided it was easiest to have two different EFI partitions instead. I recommend manually creating your EFI partitions to around 512mb.

First of all, there is usually not enough space on a standard EFI to have both of the loaders installed. There were a couple of reasons for this when I attempted. The biggest struggle I ran in to was loading grub and clover on the same EFI. You can pretty much rearrange anything after the fact. This is why i also like gparted and GPT partitions. Disk utility is not able to resize things as well after the partition is made. Where as with Linux no matter what happens you can always live boot off of a thumb drive. If you chose disk utility route and in the future you are not able to boot in the mac os, then things might be a little more difficulty. I also felt this was safer as well since linux is a cinch to load in any situation. I have found apps like gparted in linux to be far superior to disk utility, so I personally chose this route. If you partition with disk utility in Mac OS, you will always have to use disk utility. If you partition with Linux, you will always have to use linux for any partition changes.

The first thing to decide I believe is what operating system is going to control your partitions. If you are planning to run all three partitions on one drive, you might have to adjust some things slightly. These tips will be more focused on using dual partition of Mac OS and Linux Mint on a single drive. So the Windows partition is on its own drive completely separate. I had originally used this computer as a dedicated gaming machine. I didnt follow any guides out there so I thought I would explain some of the process I learned while getting it to work.įirst of all, a quick explanation of my setup.

I recently went through the process of installing a multiboot system with Mac OS, Windows, and Linux Mint together. Building a CustoMac Hackintosh: Buyer's Guide

How to dual boot linux on mac