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Today I tried to triple boot my MacBook Pro (running macOS Mojave) with Windows 10 (using BootCamp) and Linux Mint 19.2.
I followed this tutorial:
https://robpickering.com/triple-boot-macbook-pro-macos-windows-10-linux/
and also did plenty of reading around to be prepared.
I followed all the steps:
- Used BootCamp to install Windows 10.
- Shrunk the Windows 10 partition from Windows Disk Management to make space for the Linux install.
- Used Etcher to create a bootable live USB flash drive.
- Downloaded and installed rEFInd using the exact instructions provided on the above link.
- Rebooted into the live USB Linux.
- When I was in Linux, I couldn't install it because it would only recognise the USB drive, not the internal drive.
So I did some research – https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=261825&hilit=macbook+pro – and decided it would save time and be easier to just try installing Ubuntu instead.
However, at this point, the real problem began. My MacBook Pro now takes AGES to boot up, at least several minutes and it runs super hot while doing so. Then after finally reaching the rEFInd page, I try to boot into macOS (I have the USB drive unplugged so only macOS and Windows show up). But, when I reach the login page, the computer pretty much freezes and I have to force shutdown.
I tried resetting PRAM/NVRAM using command + alt + P +R but that didn't seem to work. I looked at this link:
https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/discussion/general/thread/bc570433/
and after eventually getting into macOS Recovery Mode, I followed these steps:
sudo mkdir /Volumes/esp
sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/esp
sudo bless --mount /Volumes/esp --setBoot \
--file /Volumes/esp/EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi --verbose
sudo umount /Volumes/esp
But that didn't seem to work either.
I would like to try to re/uninstall rEFInd, but I can't even login anymore.
Any ideas on what to do?
AkThao
Posted 2019-09-17T18:29:11.540
Reputation: 43
2"Shrunk the Windows 10 partition from Windows Disk Management" That was your first serious mistake. Golden Rule: Never touch the partitioning from inside Win, it has no clue how it's being fooled into thinking it's in charge & will do untold damage to the Mac's disk formatting. I honestly don't know what else you did to break it, but I'd go with nuke & pave, recover from backups. – Tetsujin – 2019-09-17T18:46:20.960
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There are a few guys on the Apple.se site who really know what they're talking about with multi-boot partitioning - David Anderson is one of them - https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/310451/triple-boot-macos-high-sierra-ubuntu-and-windows-without-refind
– Tetsujin – 2019-09-17T18:49:23.393Thanks a lot, I should have known not to touch Windows! It looks like I'm going to have to restore the system anyway, I can't have it being unusable.
Would it be enough to boot into Recovery Mode and just use the Restore from Time Machine Backup option? AFAIK, that doesn't remove the BootCamp partition, it just fixes the macOS partition. But will it at least reset the system to before this issue began, or do I have to do the macOS Reinstall option? – AkThao – 2019-09-17T18:57:10.683
2You can try [& it would be worth a quick go] - but I wouldn't hold out too much hope. The damage that Win's disk management can cause is often not a simple fix. The other thing of course is that not only the base partitioning is messed, but Win & nix don't even know what APFS is let alone how to deal with it. – Tetsujin – 2019-09-17T19:10:59.823
Okay I'll give it a go anyway, but if it doesn't work, what would you recommend I do? Is there some sort of factory reset functionality? – AkThao – 2019-09-17T19:30:36.223
2If you can boot from Time Machine, you can reformat from there, otherwise cmd/opt/shift/R at boot will take you to Internet Recovery from where you can erase & then install the current OS [or highest your machine can run] – Tetsujin – 2019-09-18T06:26:32.537
Update: I did the nuke and pave operation and it worked, I got rid of the Windows and Linux partitions and did a clean reinstall of Mojave. For some reason, the Restore From Time Machine option wasn't working, the external drive wasn't showing up, so I've had to manually set up the computer back to its original settings. But I'm glad it's working properly again, thanks again for your help @Tetsujin! – AkThao – 2019-09-18T13:19:59.173