Safe install alongside Mac OS X?

Q&A
1

I am trying to do a bare metal install an a late(2011) model Macbook pro. I am using rEFInd.
I am able to get to the installation screen but it will not allow me to choose safe install.
I have created a separate partition on my hard drive(300GB) for the install, I am not sure why the installation program is not seeing it as free space to install itself. Has anyone else tried this?

2

Try giving it unpartitioned space, instead of an existing (empty) partition.

3

Thanks for the suggestion. I have not found a way in OS X to “create” unpartitioned space on the drive. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am running High Sierra and it seems that when you delete a partition it expands the larger partition to occupy that space. I am sure there is a to create unallocated free space but I have yet to find it.

4

With the Live booting image, you can open a root shell and use (e.g.) cfdisk to remove the unused partition.

5

thanks I will try that :slight_smile:

6

Hi @kfrank. I don’t know how far you reached using rEFInd. I want to offer you another alternative, running Clear Linux OS in Parallels, for which @kdale just created a new PR. It’s pretty neat.

7

Thanks that worked :slight_smile:
What I did was
1, create a (CL)partition on my HD using Mac disk utility
2. booted my mac from the USB drive containing the CL installer
3. got to a root shell ran cfdisk
4. deleted the (CL partition)
5. that successfully created the “free space” I needed so that safe installation was enabled in the installer.
6. Proceeded to do a safe install alongside MAC OS X successfully.
Thank you again for your help.