This process allows you to install windows on Mac from a Windows ISO file installed on a USB drive using Apple Boot Assistant. Could come handy if you have an older Mac and do not have a Cd drive. The new apple superdrive is not compatible with many of the older Macs (stupid I know). Took me while to find this, someone here might find it useful. It works. Although I did install Windows 7 and not 8. Of course you could also use it to install windows on a Mac to replace Apple OS, but not sure why anyone would do that other than just for kicks. The section is copied from the web.
"For all those who are having trouble, here is what I did and I got it to work on a late 2010 Macbook Air (which officially cannot boot from a USB drive and does not support Windows 8).
First, edit the plist of Boot Camp Assistant.
Go to Applications/Utilities
Right click Boot Camp Assistant and view package contents
Find Info.plist in the Contents folder and edit it in Text Edit (it will make you duplicate the file first)
Before you do anything, make a backup of Info.plist or the whole Boot Camp Assitant app so that you can go back if necessary. Rename it something like "Info old.plist" or "Original Boot Camp Assistant."
You want to edit FOUR things:
Add your model to DARequiredROMVersions
Delete the word "Pre" from UEFIModels and add your model
Delete the word "Pre" from USBBootSupportedModels and add your model
Remove your model from Win7OnlyModels (if its there)
To add your model to these lines, just copy and paste an exsiting row and replace the data between the two <string> tags with your model code. You can find the right codes to use for the plist by going to Apple Menu > About This Mac > More Info > System Report. Use the "Boot ROM Version" and "Model Identifier" as appropriate in the plist.
Once you make these changes, save the file and replace the old Info.plist with your new one. It will ask you to type your password.
The last step is to do a code sign. Boot Camp Assitant will not run if it's been edited. You need to resign it. Open Terminal (use spotlight to find it) and type this:
sudo codesign -fs - /Applications/Utilities/Boot\ Camp\ Assistant.app
It will probably ask for your password. Then it will say you need to download a developer tool from Apple. Agree to download it. (You don't need to install the whole X-Code, if it asks.) Once its been installed (its automatic), you need to go BACK to Terminal and run that command again. This time it will work.
After you've done that - open your hacked Boot Camp Assitant (it should run now) and have it make the Windows installation drive for you. Have the Windows ISO handy, and plug in a flash drive thats about 4-8 GB or more. The entire flash drive will be erased. This process can take a while. When its done, restart your mac and hold the option key. The USB drive that Boot Camp made for you will be there for you to install windows from. Its a yellow disk icon labeled EFI Boot.
I did this on a Late 2010 Macbook Air, which offically does not have a true version of UEFI. It worked anyway. This does the job. I think it might be because I edited the UEFI line in the plist and then had Boot Camp make the USB drive for me.
MikeB wrote:This process allows you to install windows on Mac from a Windows ISO file installed on a USB drive using Apple Boot Assistant. Could come handy if you have an older Mac and do not have a Cd drive. The new apple superdrive is not compatible with many of the older Macs (stupid I know). Took me while to find this, someone here might find it useful. It works. Although I did install Windows 7 and not 8. Of course you could also use it to install windows on a Mac to replace Apple OS, but not sure why anyone would do that other than just for kicks. The section is copied from the web.
"For all those who are having trouble, here is what I did and I got it to work on a late 2010 Macbook Air (which officially cannot boot from a USB drive and does not support Windows 8).
First, edit the plist of Boot Camp Assistant.
Go to Applications/Utilities
Right click Boot Camp Assistant and view package contents
Find Info.plist in the Contents folder and edit it in Text Edit (it will make you duplicate the file first)
Before you do anything, make a backup of Info.plist or the whole Boot Camp Assitant app so that you can go back if necessary. Rename it something like "Info old.plist" or "Original Boot Camp Assistant."
You want to edit FOUR things:
Add your model to DARequiredROMVersions
Delete the word "Pre" from UEFIModels and add your model
Delete the word "Pre" from USBBootSupportedModels and add your model
Remove your model from Win7OnlyModels (if its there)
To add your model to these lines, just copy and paste an exsiting row and replace the data between the two <string> tags with your model code. You can find the right codes to use for the plist by going to Apple Menu > About This Mac > More Info > System Report. Use the "Boot ROM Version" and "Model Identifier" as appropriate in the plist.
Once you make these changes, save the file and replace the old Info.plist with your new one. It will ask you to type your password.
The last step is to do a code sign. Boot Camp Assitant will not run if it's been edited. You need to resign it. Open Terminal (use spotlight to find it) and type this:
sudo codesign -fs - /Applications/Utilities/Boot\ Camp\ Assistant.app
It will probably ask for your password. Then it will say you need to download a developer tool from Apple. Agree to download it. (You don't need to install the whole X-Code, if it asks.) Once its been installed (its automatic), you need to go BACK to Terminal and run that command again. This time it will work.
After you've done that - open your hacked Boot Camp Assitant (it should run now) and have it make the Windows installation drive for you. Have the Windows ISO handy, and plug in a flash drive thats about 4-8 GB or more. The entire flash drive will be erased. This process can take a while. When its done, restart your mac and hold the option key. The USB drive that Boot Camp made for you will be there for you to install windows from. Its a yellow disk icon labeled EFI Boot.
I did this on a Late 2010 Macbook Air, which offically does not have a true version of UEFI. It worked anyway. This does the job. I think it might be because I edited the UEFI line in the plist and then had Boot Camp make the USB drive for me.
Ok, GOT to ask this. "Why?"
Windows is not the answer. Windows? is the question. NO is the answer.
--Linus Torvalds
What is next? Going out and buying a new Mercedes AMG and then "installing" dog crap all over the interior?
Question is what do you mean by older Mac, I suppose you mean older Intel Mac.
Here's my story:
I wanted to have a triple boot (OSX, Linux and Windows).
I realized later that the best you can do is dual boot (don't ask me why, I was unable to create more than 1 non-Mac partition)
Boot camp is piece of s... (I don't mean software), Win8 + Mavericks is a no-go (only supports up to Win7).
I managed to install Ubuntu alongside OSX, but it had problems with touchpad making it unusable (otherwise it worked well).
In the end after a couple of sighs I managed to go back to normal (plus I accidentally deleted recovery partition).
Now I can run both Linux and Windows on Mac without any problems. Solution?
Virtual machines of course.
I don't know if there's a possibility to run VirtualBox on Mac, I'm using Parallels desktop now and I'm very happy with it (it's commercial though and will cost you a couple of bucks).
There is also VMWare Fusion but from my experience it plain sucks (their GPU drivers are a joke),
VMWare marketing guys would disagree and shame Parallels whenever they can.
mar wrote:[...]I don't know if there's a possibility to run VirtualBox on Mac, I'm using Parallels desktop now and I'm very happy with it (it's commercial though and will cost you a couple of bucks).[...]
VirtualBox runs well on Mac, I've used that solution for years. Now I've preferred to buy a modern Intel i7 machine, to run Windows, instead of the VirtualBox. The performance of a true machine is greater than any virtualized solution (almost for compiling software, that is my principal needing).
stegemma wrote:VirtualBox runs well on Mac, I've used that solution for years. Now I've preferred to buy a modern Intel i7 machine, to run Windows, instead of the VirtualBox. The performance of a true machine is greater than any virtualized solution (almost for compiling software, that is my principal needing).
That's interesting. Since modern CPUs support hardware virtualization, I've noticed that my engine runs faster compiled with gcc
in a VM than native engine compiled with Microsoft compiler (VMWare running Linux on Windows).
The only problem is of course memory (VM can only use up to half what you have) and disk I/O is also slower.
Another advantage is I don't have to reboot when I want to switch OS and I can pause the VM at anytime and do something else.
mar wrote:[[...]
That's interesting. Since modern CPUs support hardware virtualization, I've noticed that my engine runs faster compiled with gcc
in a VM than native engine compiled with Microsoft compiler (VMWare running Linux on Windows).
The only problem is of course memory (VM can only use up to half what you have) and disk I/O is also slower.
Another advantage is I don't have to reboot when I want to switch OS and I can pause the VM at anytime and do something else.
The software can runs faster on a virtual machine, if the host has a stronger hardware. The slow-down i've noticed was for compiling big software, that does intensive disk access. Despite from that, the virtual machine solution is greater than dual-boot, if you need to switch often form an OS to another or keep two or more OS opened at the same time (to test a client-server application, for sample).
A mixed approach could help: I connect to Windows 10 with remote desktop from the Mac, I run Xp/Linux in VirtualBox on the Mac to test some software and keep another Windows 7 machine just to backup the principal one and run genetic tuning of Satana (or let it play on FICS). More mixed: I use a standard PC keyboard connected to the Mac to use all of the 3 machines... but with the Apple magic mouse
I should point out that it is more then possible to triple boot OSX, linux and windows. I did it before on my 2007 macbook pro, but I couldn't guide you how. It was a long time ago. But it was indeed quite a Tower of Hanoi puzzle. I'm pretty sure I removed the recovery partition once a newer OSX wanted to install it. But now that all the OSs can boot off of UEFI, it might not be necessary to deal with MBR limitations. I remember I made sure the linux swap was off the MBR primary partition list at the time..
Problem with Virtualization is you have the overhead of two OSs at once, which can very well be a problem.
I suggest that getting a separate machine to run a different operating system is less expensive overall when compared to dual hosting of any kind. Why? Because of the value of your time when your time is needed to configure, install, and maintain a dual boot or virtualization scheme.
If your primary development system is a Mac, or a Linux box, then buy an inexpensive (US$200) new Windows notebook and connect with it on the LAN.
If your primary development system is a Windows box, or a Linux box, then buy an inexpensive (US$200) used older iMac or Mac mini and connect with it on the LAN.
That's actually pretty good advice. For me it was more of a learning experience and asking the question, "Is this possible?". I copied the xp license key off the dinning room computer and was off to the races. But someone who isn't doing this for the sake of experimenting, it's a lot of work, plus booting back and forth is a real pain. (especially as OSX 10.10 takes a day and a half to boot up if you don't have an SSD) That's why I work with wine so much for the little amounts of windows I can't get away with. (doesn't have the overhead of visualization, and I don't mind tinkering)
But all practicality's sake a separate linux or windows box is not that much money.
