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Author Topic: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)  (Read 6739 times)

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strungout420

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Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« on: October 24, 2011, 04:05:05 AM »
[Cross-post from Insanelymac]
I have a GB GA-EX58-UD5 that has been running Snow Leopard flawlessly since 10.6.1... With the release of Lion and iOS5, I decided to follow the upgrade path found here. All went very well! I was psyched how easy it actually went down, and how everything continued to work.

Then I got brave (or stupid, not really sure which). I decided to download and install SleepEnabler.kext.10.7.X that has been released through this Google Code page. I installed it with KextHelper and after about three seconds, it KP'd and that was it for a few days.

I ended up restoring from a Time Machine backup (from an external drive) not realizing that it would mess up my bootloader (at the time Chameleon RC4). So after playing around for a few hours, I decided to try and save my Lion disk by installing Snow Leopard again on a separate, internal HD. That went well. Now I could boot from the SL disk and select either SL or Lion and it would boot into either. No problems...

But here's my problem: my Chameleon bootloader (Chameleon 2) is now my Snow Leopard drive (which I want to use for something else). I tried to install Chameleon 2 onto my Lion drive, copy over the entire Extra folder (Extensions.mkext, smbios.plist, org.chameleon.Boot.plist, Themes folder and modules folder), and then let the system boot from that drive directly.... Chameleon loads, and I can select either disk, but when Lion tried to load, the white and great Apple logo comes up, the spinner does it's thing, and then I get the "DO NOT" strikethrough-circle symbol...

So I don't get it. What's different between the two drives and installations of Chameleon?

Thanks for reading this, if you did. If not...

TL;DR I have a Chameleon 2 bootloader on two separate disk drives (one Snow Leopard [for recovery], One Lion [for my main system]), with identical /Extra folders on the root of both drives, and only one disk actually boots properly.

Could it be that Chameleon needs to be on the first disk in the system?
« Last Edit: November 02, 2011, 03:38:31 AM by strungout420 »
Intel Core i7 930 - 2.83 Ghz | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | 12 GB RAM | Dual 500 GB HD | Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 | Retail OSX Lion 10.7.2

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: Dual Drive Issue
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2011, 07:54:06 PM »
Chameleon can be on any drive you want, it does not have to be installed on the same drive that you want it to boot.

If you boot in verbose mode with -v and leave it for a while you will most likely see "Still Waiting For Root Device".

Many people are having this issue after updating to Lion, for more information visit the Lion post installation subforum over on InsanelyMac. It's not a Chameleon issue.

10.9.5 - ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - i5 3570K - GTX 660 - Chameleon 2.3 svn-r2xxx
How to...
Install Chameleon: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649
Make your own Chameleon boot CD: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,484.msg2131.html#msg2131

strungout420

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2011, 03:43:18 AM »
So after a few nights of having to work on other projects, I decided to come back to this issue. After doing some more research, I happened to find this thread (again, admittedly... I used this for Snow Leopard BITD). The HackInstaller script on this page is fantastic.

I believe the issue I was having was related to not rebuilding the kext cache before trying to boot from the drive. If you read through the first post in that thread, it walks through how the HackInstaller script works, and it will solve (most of) the bootloader issues. At least it did for me.

The only other issue I am experencing ATM is that the Chameleon Bootloader isn't graphical. It defaults to a Darwin bootloader page where I have to select what drive I want to boot from.

If I can get it to work the way Chameleon is intended to work (so I can press the power button and walk away for a minute) I'd be a much happier camper...
Intel Core i7 930 - 2.83 Ghz | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | 12 GB RAM | Dual 500 GB HD | Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 | Retail OSX Lion 10.7.2

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2011, 04:55:05 AM »
You need a Themes folder in /Extra with a valid theme in it and Chameleon configured to load that theme.

Read boothelp.txt (follow link in my signature) to learn how to use themes with Chameleon.
10.9.5 - ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - i5 3570K - GTX 660 - Chameleon 2.3 svn-r2xxx
How to...
Install Chameleon: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649
Make your own Chameleon boot CD: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,484.msg2131.html#msg2131

strungout420

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2011, 02:47:40 AM »
Thank you, but this is not my issue. I am pretty good with Themes (although, I haven't created one yet) and I've changed them out before.

The /Extra folder does have a Themes folder, which holds the Bullet them that is specified in the Theme Key in my org.chameleon.Boot.plist... And even if I switch themes, I'm still brought to this screen at bootup:



OSX Lion is installed on my main drive (0,2). The Lion drive that appears there was for testing and will soon be formatted and used for Time Machine.

What else can I check or look at to determine why I'm booting to that and not a GUI?
« Last Edit: November 03, 2011, 04:16:29 AM by Gringo Vermelho »
Intel Core i7 930 - 2.83 Ghz | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | 12 GB RAM | Dual 500 GB HD | Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 | Retail OSX Lion 10.7.2

strungout420

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #5 on: November 03, 2011, 02:50:29 AM »
Oh! I've read it helps to paste the contents of my org.chameleon.Boot.plist... true?

Here's what it looks like:

Code: [Select]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1920x1080x32</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string></string>
<key>Theme</key>
<string>bullet</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>2</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Intel Core i7 930 - 2.83 Ghz | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | 12 GB RAM | Dual 500 GB HD | Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 | Retail OSX Lion 10.7.2

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #6 on: November 03, 2011, 04:16:02 AM »
Unless you're using case-sensitive HFS+J and your theme folder is named Bullet with a capital b I don't see anything wrong.
Make sure that there are no conflicting settings in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist and that you don't have duplicate Extra folders somewhere with a boot.plist inside.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2011, 04:19:12 AM by Gringo Vermelho »
10.9.5 - ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - i5 3570K - GTX 660 - Chameleon 2.3 svn-r2xxx
How to...
Install Chameleon: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649
Make your own Chameleon boot CD: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,484.msg2131.html#msg2131

strungout420

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2011, 05:39:16 PM »
I will check the other .plist when I get home tonight, but until then, what should I expect to see in com.apple.Boot.plist?

And how does that and the Chameleon plist work together, if it all?
Intel Core i7 930 - 2.83 Ghz | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | 12 GB RAM | Dual 500 GB HD | Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 | Retail OSX Lion 10.7.2

strungout420

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #8 on: November 04, 2011, 12:26:01 AM »
Ok, my com.apple.Boot.plist in the Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ folder only has the following:

Code: [Select]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string></string>
</dict>
</plist>

Since I assume this means there are no conflicts with com.chameleon.Boot.plist, I'm almost out of options.

Is it possible that this is caused by still having Chameleon installed on two physically separate hard disk drives? My BIOS is set to boot from my Lion drive, but my Snow Leopard drive still has Chameleon on it... Could this be the cause?
Intel Core i7 930 - 2.83 Ghz | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | 12 GB RAM | Dual 500 GB HD | Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 | Retail OSX Lion 10.7.2

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #9 on: November 04, 2011, 06:05:59 AM »
I don't know.. if there's an Extra folder on the other drive, try deleting it or at least remove its boot.plist.

IIRC Chameleon supports something like /Extra/10.6 and /Extra/10.7, this way you can have a separate extra folder for each version of OS X on the same Chameleon installation. I have never used it myself and I'm not sure if it's "10.x" or "10x" or what the syntax is. Hopefully someone else knows.   
10.9.5 - ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - i5 3570K - GTX 660 - Chameleon 2.3 svn-r2xxx
How to...
Install Chameleon: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649
Make your own Chameleon boot CD: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,484.msg2131.html#msg2131

strungout420

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #10 on: November 04, 2011, 01:06:51 PM »
I actually ended up reformatting the secondary drive so I could utilize it for something else. When rebooted, I got the same behavior... It defaulted to the non-GUI version...

Could it be the version I'm using?
Intel Core i7 930 - 2.83 Ghz | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | 12 GB RAM | Dual 500 GB HD | Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 | Retail OSX Lion 10.7.2

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #11 on: November 04, 2011, 07:59:37 PM »
I am out of ideas...I've been using themes with Chameleon since they were introduced and I've never had this issue.
10.9.5 - ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - i5 3570K - GTX 660 - Chameleon 2.3 svn-r2xxx
How to...
Install Chameleon: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649
Make your own Chameleon boot CD: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,484.msg2131.html#msg2131

Blackosx

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2011, 10:25:35 PM »
@strungout420

I've had this strange anomaly once before and never worked out why it occurred.

I would suggest building yourself a bootable USB flash drive and testing it to make sure you can boot your system with it. Only when you have that safely tucked away, I would re-install Chameleon to your HDD.

To create the bootable USB flash drive, and then the re-install to your HDD, either do it manually using the steps shown here or use the latest package installer from http://builds.voodooprojects.org/builds/Xcode4.1/ and point it to your destination. Then once Chameleon is installed, add your /Extra folder before rebooting.

See if that sorts your issue.
10.10.5 / 10.11 GM1 | Asus Maximum IV Gene-Z | i7-2600 3.40GHz | 4GB | Radeon 5770 1GB

strungout420

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Re: Dual Drive Issue (SOLVED)
« Reply #13 on: November 16, 2011, 05:20:01 AM »
To create the bootable USB flash drive, and then the re-install to your HDD, either do it manually using the steps shown here or use the latest package installer from http://builds.voodooprojects.org/builds/Xcode4.1/ and point it to your destination. Then once Chameleon is installed, add your /Extra folder before rebooting.

So I tried creating a USB boot disk two ways... First using tonymacx86's MultiBeast, and then using HackInstaller (found here). Multibeast made it so my system wouldn't even boot through the POST. I froze when it started scanning the drives, so I abandoned that procedure and tried HackInstaller.

HackInstaller is nice because it lets you build your own .plists and DSDT.aml files... so I went through all of that, and tested out my newly created USB boot disk...

Only to get "Can't find mach_kernel" at the Chameleon screen... So I copied a mach_kernel file to the root of the USB drive, but again the same issue...

So now I'm at a loss. I don't want to to test out any theories on my main disk, because right now it boots, and I have no other method of getting into Lion (and no other partitions with which to play on).

Any idea why it can't find the mach_kernel? I've confirmed it's on the partition that I'm trying to boot...
Intel Core i7 930 - 2.83 Ghz | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | 12 GB RAM | Dual 500 GB HD | Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 | Retail OSX Lion 10.7.2