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I own a 2015 Macbook Air running Mojave. I plan to triple boot Mac, Windows 10, and Linux (specifically Manjaro EDIT: but Ubuntu's fine) by installing them (Windows and Linux) on an external SSD and booting from there. Preferably, I don't want to use rEFind or similar, as I don't want to make any (major) changes to my Mac.

The resources I found online are mostly incomplete or outdated. I would really appreciate it if anyone could provide a complete, comprehensive guide to do this in 2019, or at least provide of basic set of steps/links I could follow so the operating systems don't end up screwing each other over.

EDIT: I'll throw in a link to help: here

Basically, I mainly want to know about how to do this part:

Use more than one EFI partition. A drive can have more than one EFI partition. Additional EFI partitions do not have to reside at the beginning of the drive.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT 2: I think I've finally hit the jackpot here. It's perfect for what I want to do.

Basically, although it's a bit outdated, it covers all the boot file config stuff. It uses rEFInd, but installs it on the external drive so only a few are actually made to my internal SSD.

For anyone seeing this in 2022 or something, I'm happy if this helps!

Troll Z. Or
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    It would be nice if we could see the partitions of your computer. I don't know a lot about Mac and Apple products but i think if you can easily acess to the BIOS then it should be ok to start any Linux distro in LiveCD. You need to download the .iso file and burn it into a USB with software like Etcher. It then depend of your partitions. Make a defragmentation of your Windows 10 partition first it's already installed. Do a backup to another drive. – Jeryosh Aug 23 '19 at 20:53
  • Thanks. I'm a noob at this, but I'm pretty sure Mac boots using EFI or something... I got the usb part down, but I've seen threads saying to install Windows first (which I'm also okay with) as it can break Linux and stuff. To clarify, what I'm not sure about is how to get both of them working together and recognized by my computer. Basically, I want to know the proper way to triple boot, as discussed in here: link – Troll Z. Or Aug 23 '19 at 21:11
  • Sorry i did not mean that you have to install Windows 10 before Linux. I think installing Linux before might be better. I was saying "Make a defragmentation of your Windows 10 partition IF it's already installed." For the EFI boot loader it would be easier to install GRUB 2 during the installation of Linux. I don't know the current state of your partitioning. But i think there is at least 1 partition fo the Mac EFI boot and 1 partition for the data of Mojave OS. I don't know the storage capability of your drive. – Jeryosh Aug 23 '19 at 21:31
  • Don't worry, I don't have anything partitioned yet other than what's default :) For the second part, do you mean I have to repartition my internal drive to allow Windows to be boot from GRUB or something? – Troll Z. Or Aug 23 '19 at 21:34
  • If your personal data are stocked in another drive, you might want to resize your Mojave partition divided by 3 to let place for Linux and Windows. The Linux EFI bootloader partition should take 512MB and if you want to install Manjaro with swap (in case your RAM is full) you need to have a partition of the same size of your RAM. – Jeryosh Aug 23 '19 at 21:37
  • Oh, the reason I am using an external SSD is because my internal one is too small (only 128GB). What I plan to do is install Windows and Linux on the external drive so my internal one isn't affected. The details of most of this is covered in the link I gave, but I am still unsure about the whole process/solution. – Troll Z. Or Aug 23 '19 at 21:39
  • Ok i see. Is the external drive is empty ? – Jeryosh Aug 23 '19 at 21:42
  • Yes. Hopefully someone writes an answer now :) – Troll Z. Or Aug 23 '19 at 21:43
  • Windows does not install to external drives. You can use rEFInd on external drive. I have a tiny flash drive with just rEFInd for emergency boot. https://askubuntu.com/questions/904135/modified-mac-bootloader-after-installing-ubuntu-on-external-hdd – oldfred Aug 23 '19 at 22:39

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To install Windows 10 and Linux on a empty external drive (with EFI):

With the bootable USB start your Linux distribution and start the Gparted software.

On the external drive (and make sure it's the right drive and not something else !) reformate the partition table to GPT

make a fat32 partition of 512MiB with the flag "esp"

make a Linux swap partition of the size of your RAM. (Usefull for hibernation. If you want a smaller partition make it at least 2GiB in case your RAM would be full.)

Make a ext4 partition wich leave the half of the disk empty for windows 10. This partition will be used to install Linux.

Before running the installer of Linux, install Windows 10 first to avoid boot problems.

Boot to windows 10 with a bootable USB.

When it ask for installation select "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)"

You should see the empty part of the drive. Select it and click on "Next"

Windows 10 will be installed.

Reboot to Linux bootable USB

Then run the installer of your ditro. When it ask for installation, select the option named something like "custom partitions" or "something else". Make sure it use the fat32 esp partition for /boot/efi (GRUB 2 will be installed here), the Linux swap partition for the swap and the ext4 partition for / (Linux).

Linux will be installed.

Add a comment to this post if you have questions :)

Jeryosh
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  • Thank you so much! (I would upvote if I have the reputation to) Do you know if my will be able to boot into linux/windows through the boot menu (by holding down option)? Some sources suggest either using something like rEFInd or changing the boot configuration (in Volumes/EFI/EFI or something?) to allow this. Also, do you know if installing Windows will mess anything up? (ex. here) I'm a bit confused about this part as people seem to have different views :) – Troll Z. Or Aug 23 '19 at 22:39
  • By changing the boot order in the BIOS you should be able to boot to GRUB (linux bootloarder). It is true than Windows 10 might make GRUB disappear making it hard to boot to Linux. With a deb distro like Ubuntu in LiveCD you can fix that with boot-repair. But for others Linux distro you need to download the .iso of boot repair (742.4 MB). I will edit my post and specifying to install Windows 10 first. – Jeryosh Aug 24 '19 at 08:52
  • This solution can also be used: https://askubuntu.com/a/766028/842312 – Jeryosh Aug 24 '19 at 09:04