Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bootcamp and resolved

Help get Stagge Llee kicked in the face, Thai style.

Stagger Lee — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:21:46 -0800

Kickboxing classes in Thailand? I'm looking for really good week long muay thai seminar in Thailand, for a beginner with previous fighting experience in other styles.

In a perfect world it would be resort style with food and accommodations included, and intensive training for the week. Credible, highly qualified trainers are a must of course, otherwise what's the point in going to Thailand for it?

The goal is to learn the basics of kickboxing, do some real sparring, and have fun. Money isn't an issue yet, those details can be sorted out later.

I've googled this, but can't tell the good and credible from the pointless wastes of time and money. I see that there was a previous post on this, but it's old and didn't tell me much.

What sound driver do I need and why didn't Apple include it?

dougrayrankin — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 04:46:39 -0800

How can I get the sound to work on my MacBook Pro (2010 6,2 model) when I use Windows 7 (64 bit) via BootCamp? It's a driver issue. I've installed the drivers from the install CD, updated BootCamp itself to the latest version, but Windows seems intent on installing drivers for "Intel HD Audio". The drivers appear to function as when I'm playing an mp3, I see the levels rise and fall etc, but not a peep comes out of the speakers.

I've been googling and downloading and installing any damn driver for any MacBook Pro I can, hoping one of them will bloody stick but no... nothing.

Does anyone even have a definitive answer as to exactly what soundcard Apple saw fit to use? If I at least knew that I could find the drivers from another laptop manufacturer who uses the same...

Hope me. :-(

IE6 on a Mac?

bonsai forest — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:12:35 -0800

What is the best way to run IE6, 7, 8, and 9 on a 2010 iMac for web design and testing purposes? I'm designing websites and I had been using a screencap service (litmus) to see how the sites looked in IE, but this is getting too expensive, and the free screencap services too slow. Plus I want to ensure consistent functionality, not just appearance.

At this point, I can't afford buying a PC to test sites, and I don't really want an extra computer around anyway, so I was thinking from preliminary research that my best bet would be Parallels + Windows 7, and I would only be using Parallels to run different versions of IE.

Questions:
1. Are there any web designers / developers using this solution to test sites in IE that can offer some feedback?
2. Is there a better way to achieve my aims? Bootcamp?
3. Once I have the setup I described, will it run the earlier versions of IE just as IE6 would run on an older pre-windows 7 machine?

Anything else I should be considering for this kind of testing?

Thanks!

Windows on a Mac in the real world?

autocol — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:13:10 -0800

I can't choose between Mac and Windows so I guess I should use both... Are you happy using windows on your Mac machine? I've been a windows user since forever. There are a couple of applications which I need to use regularly (MYOB - an accounting package, and Inventor - a 3D CAD design package) which are Windows only.

I've spent the last six months using a 13" Macbook Pro, and while there are facets about it I love (screen, trackpad, gestures, build quality, editing music in Logic) there are also things I dislike (using Excel and Word in particular is truly awful on a Mac).

So, now that I need to set up a new home office (and give the Macbook back to its rightful owner, my Mum!) I need to decide what to buy. If I bought a machine just to run my business it would be a PC, but I don't want to lose the good things that I like about the Mac (especially running Logic).

So, if I buy a Mac, will I be happy running windows alongside it with either Boot Camp or Parallels (or both)?

It seems fine in theory, but what's your experience in practice?

Write on MacHD from XP?

Lorin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 11:42:22 -0800

Is it possible to write to Macintosh HD from within a Windows XP boot camp partition? I've set read/write permission in OSX to all/all but I still receive errors writing to MacHD from XP. I didn't anticipate how much I'd be using XP and now I'm running short on disk space. Hopefully there's a way to get out of reformatting / resizing and reinstalling. I do have a portable drive, but I'd prefer not to use it.

What games can I run in XP on my MacBook Pro?

raygan — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:58:50 -0800

I'm a hard core Mac nerd who's a total Windows novice. Can you explain the weird RAM and graphics memory totals I'm seeing in Windows XP (SP3) on my MacBook Pro, and give me some idea of what I can actually expect when it comes to performance in games? I'm on a late-model MacBook Pro 13" (2.53ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GForce 9400M). I'm running XP primarily to try some of the Windows-only games I've missed out on in two decades of being a Mac fanboy.

I'm trying to assess what I'll actually be able to run. What has me confused is that the numbers I'm seeing in System Properties and the NVIDIA Control Panel don't match up with what I thought I had installed.

System Properties (in My Computer in XP) is telling me that I have 2.72GB of RAM, when I have 4GB installed, and the NVIDIA control panel is telling me that I have 512MB of graphics memory, when I thought the 9400M just borrowed system memory for graphics. What's going on here? Even taking the 512MB into account there's still something like 0.7 gigs of RAM unaccounted for.

I guess my main question is how do I take these (slightly confusing) numbers and compare them rationally to games system requirements? What can I realistically expect to run? For example, the most advanced game I've tried running so far has been Mass Effect, which surprised me by running just crackerjack once I turned the screen resolution down a notch. Am I going to be able to play Mass Effect 2? Am I going to be able to handle Left 4 Dead? Any other recommendations for games I'll be able to play here that I can't find for my PS3?

Bonus Question: Are there any Windows tricks I should know about to squeeze extra performance out of a machine like this? I'm not hoping to run Crysis here, just looking to get some cool stuff from Steam.

Is 64-bit Win7/BootCamp worth some effort?

Zonker — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:25:04 -0800

Is 64-bit Win7 possible/worth the hassle on a somewhat elderly Macbook Pro? My late '06 Macbook Pro (version 2,2) won't boot the 64-bit Windows 7 installer (it hangs at "Select CD-Rom Boot Type"), but the 32-bit version installs fine through Boot Camp. It looks like there's a hack (here) that would allow me to boot the 64-bit version by burning it to DVD in a slightly different way.

Is the 64-bit version worth the effort? Is there a significant difference in compatibility with Parallels Desktop between the 32- and 64-bit versions? Any other considerations I should have in mind?

Setting up a Linux-Mac OS X Dual Boot?

WCityMike — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:27:00 -0800

I would like to make my Intel iMac dual boot a Linux variant. I'd appreciate any help you could provide me. Specific questions inside. First, I'd appreciate it if you could explain the difference to me between a window manager and a Linux operating system. For example, there is GNOME and KDE, and my understanding is that these are window managers -- and there is Ubuntu and Red Hat, which are operating systems, yes? What does a window manager do that an operating system doesn't? I'm so used to seeing operating systems that are integrated with their window managers (i.e. Mac OS X and Windows) that I'm not sure I understand where one ends and the other begins. What window managers would you recommend? What variant of Linux would you recommend? I'm leaning towards Ubuntu, since I've heard it referred to the most on Lifehacker.

Second, I must admit, I'm slightly nervous. Even though this is moderately major surgery on my Mac, I'd appreciate any reassurance you can give. I do backup, but my backup drive isn't large enough to backup everything; right now it's got everything but my music backed up, and for obvious reasons, I'd rather not lose all my music. (A large chunk of it is backed up on DVD, but most definitely not all.) My understanding is that Apple's Boot Camp application can alter the partitions on my hard drive without erasing what's there already ... even if I'm not installing Windows.

As that relates, the instructions I am planning to work off of are both here and here. I'm wondering if there is a "Complete Idiot's Guide to Setting Up a Dual-Boot on Your Mac with Linux" website that is even simpler ... or if you guys have "dumb-dumb" instructions to follow. I can follow these directions fine, but if I would just like to lower the chance of me doing something stupid while setting this up. (BTW, I can anticipate someone saying, "Linux isn't for dummies, and if you're concerned about it being over your head, you shouldn't attempt this dual boot." To which I'd reply that I'm purposefully underestimating my skills here because I'd rather more safely follow idiot-level instructions than somewhat perilously follow moderate-level instructions. But my request for idiot-level instructions shouldn't be interpreted to mean that I am an idiot.)

Finally, any advice as to Linux variant? Or window manager? Or applications? (Preferably with linkage?) Or general anecdotes about what to do as a Linux beginner?

Why am I doing this? Well, I have pretty much tweaked everything I want to tweak on my Mac, and I would like a new operating system to play around with, and Windows XP might have some interest for me, but it's $190 on Amazon for even just the Home Edition, which is about $190 more than Linux.