Dual boot of MacOS on M1

[ced89]

Hi, I just found the golden solution for fully using my future MacBook, and finally switch to Apple for serious shhhstuff
I was focused on using the MacMini only for personal stuff, but now I get that I can potentially set up a dual boot with 2 different encrypted MacOS.

I think it's safe enough to have the partitions separated, and they will never mount the other one, which means there is no data exchage between them...
In any case, the usage would be development and other things, I won't be using it for obvious risky things like torrents etc.

Notes and doubts
- Does it work on M1?
- I don't want to have an older version of MacOS, I wanna have the same latest version on both partitions, for what I understood, I can install it from the recovery
- I would wipe out the OS as it comes to me, no point of risking something on the day one , any problem that I can face here?
- The backup on iCloud would be messed up ot does it take the computer name? Or hostname? I need to make sure do not mess up both backups on the cloud.
- Full disk encryption as mentioned above, no exchange of data.
- This solution will cost me a lot for sure, I think I'll go for a MacBook Pro... Even if the performance of the current Air M1 are incredible

I found this guide, is it reliable? How to dual-boot Mac: run two versions of macOS
Sorry but I can't test it

 

[ferrarr]

iCloud is part of your Apple ID, so if you want 2 separate iCloud backups I believe you would need 2 Apple IDs.

 

[MacInWin]

You can do that. Just note that M1 systems only run Big Sur, nothing earlier.

But why not just use one version of the OS and create two separate accounts? System security will keep the data from one away from the other. That is, User 1 won't be able to see, read or write to User 2 area. Given that you are the sole user, I sort of presume you would have the discipline to not try to crack the "other" user at any time. You can set up one backup to backup all user accounts at the same time. And you may be able to get away with one AppleID, if you don't turn on sync between the account and any other devices. Any software you install can be installed for ALL users, so you only need one paid copy of anything you install. You can even sync one or the other user to other devices, if you want, and not sync the other, so they stay separated. Using this two user approach, you only need to update the OS once for each update/upgrade. I would even go with a third user, left "virgin" with everything at default, just in case I needed a really clean account to see if an issue is related to something installed for one or the other user. That's what I have set up. My account and one clean one.

 

[krs]

You can do that. Just note that M1 systems only run Big Sur, nothing earlier.

But why not just use one version of the OS and create two separate accounts? System security will keep the data from one away from the other.

From the original post by the OP, I hadthe impression that the concern was malware that might be downloaded when doing "obvious risky things"
Would having two accounts, but one macOS installation, prevent malware inadvertently downloaded to one account be guaranteed not to affect the other account?
I don't know - probably depends where in the macOS that malware finds a home.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Why not use a virtual machine? It's early days for that with the M1 platform, though Parallels is out the door early with a working version. VMware should be ready to roll theirs out soon. There's an open source one called UTM that works now.

UTM: Run Virtual Machines on Your Apple Silicon M1 Mac (Updated)

Your shiny and speedy new Apple Silicon Mac is missing something – the ability to run virtual machines. While you might be spending most of your time in

eshop.macsales.com

 

[MacInWin]

From the original post by the OP, I hadthe impression that the concern was malware that might be downloaded when doing "obvious risky things"
Would having two accounts, but one macOS installation, prevent malware inadvertently downloaded to one account be guaranteed not to affect the other account?
I don't know - probably depends where in the macOS that malware finds a home.

Well, given the high security of Big Sur (the system drive is both read only to all users and encrypted), the risk of any significant problem from "risky" things is pretty small. A good recent backup will more than make up for that risk. And since the two drive solution requires two drives, the OP could have the two user solution, plus two independent backups of the drive before undertaking "risky" stuff. Easier to swap users, easier to manage. If the two drive solution is used, one would need four drives--two for the users and at least two for backups.

But the OP, from his other posts, seems determined to do things as he/she wants.

 

[ced89]

From the original post by the OP, I hadthe impression that the concern was malware that might be downloaded when doing "obvious risky things"
Would having two accounts, but one macOS installation, prevent malware inadvertently downloaded to one account be guaranteed not to affect the other account?
I don't know - probably depends where in the macOS that malware finds a home.

Dual boot is always safer, it's another layer of isolation, but I'm searching the compromise at this point as the other user suggested, I just need to find the breaking point .

 

[ced89]

Well, given the high security of Big Sur (the system drive is both read only to all users and encrypted), the risk of any significant problem from "risky" things is pretty small. A good recent backup will more than make up for that risk. And since the two drive solution requires two drives, the OP could have the two user solution, plus two independent backups of the drive before undertaking "risky" stuff. Easier to swap users, easier to manage. If the two drive solution is used, one would need four drives--two for the users and at least two for backups.

But the OP, from his other posts, seems determined to do things as he/she wants.

Thanks, I don't know why you propose 2 drives for each partition. I'm fine to have time machine once. Data are stored manually, even if the restore fails, I can always recover my data in other ways, I just need to set up the system/apps etc, it's a loss of time but not a big drama.

 

[ced89]

Why not use a virtual machine? It's early days for that with the M1 platform, though Parallels is out the door early with a working version. VMware should be ready to roll theirs out soon. There's an open source one called UTM that works now.

UTM: Run Virtual Machines on Your Apple Silicon M1 Mac (Updated)

Your shiny and speedy new Apple Silicon Mac is missing something – the ability to run virtual machines. While you might be spending most of your time in

eshop.macsales.com

I would use KVM, if it runs on M1, but I always had bad experience with Virtualization on laptops, also on MacOS... Mainly for temperatures, screen resize etc, really annoying stuff.
But I wasn't searching for Virtualization, even if it will resolve many other problems too .

 

[ced89]

You can do that. Just note that M1 systems only run Big Sur, nothing earlier.

But why not just use one version of the OS and create two separate accounts? System security will keep the data from one away from the other. That is, User 1 won't be able to see, read or write to User 2 area. Given that you are the sole user, I sort of presume you would have the discipline to not try to crack the "other" user at any time. You can set up one backup to backup all user accounts at the same time. And you may be able to get away with one AppleID, if you don't turn on sync between the account and any other devices. Any software you install can be installed for ALL users, so you only need one paid copy of anything you install. You can even sync one or the other user to other devices, if you want, and not sync the other, so they stay separated. Using this two user approach, you only need to update the OS once for each update/upgrade. I would even go with a third user, left "virgin" with everything at default, just in case I needed a really clean account to see if an issue is related to something installed for one or the other user. That's what I have set up. My account and one clean one.

I'm fine with BigSur only, unless it doesn't run certain softwares that I'm not aware of... Any idea about it? What could be the problem with BigSur only?

Good idea about the virgin user, I use the same for the browser

 

[MacInWin]

Thanks, I don't know why you propose 2 drives for each partition. I'm fine to have time machine once. Data are stored manually, even if the restore fails, I can always recover my data in other ways, I just need to set up the system/apps etc, it's a loss of time but not a big drama.

Two drives, one for booting and operating, one for backup. If you try putting both boot backups on one drive I think you'll have troubles down the road. So, separate drives for separate backups to keep save/risky separate.

 

[MacInWin]

I'm fine with BigSur only, unless it doesn't run certain softwares that I'm not aware of... Any idea about it? What could be the problem with BigSur only?

Good idea about the virgin user, I use the same for the browser

Doesn't matter what issues BS may have, you have zero choice if you get an M1 system. So you live with what you get. The same goes for the latest Intel Macs as well, so no difference. Macs cannot run systems older than what was installed at the factory.