Author Topic: Instant reboot (Chameleon 2.0 RC4 r684 on thumb drive; Acer Aspire One ZG5)  (Read 8487 times)

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LGoosens

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Hello everyone,

since this is my first post to the forums, please point me in the right direction if I have missed anything, or am somehow in violation of the rules. :)

  • My goal is to do a vanilla install of Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard on an Acer Aspire One ZG5 netbook (the "Linux" model with 16GB SSD). This will be my first Hackintosh. A very similar model is listed on the Compatibility Chart on MyMacNetbook.
  • Since this model doesn't have an optical drive, I will be installing from a USB thumb drive.
  • I have chosen to install Chameleon 2.0 RC4 r684 to the EFI partition on the thumb drive. Besides the EFI partition, there is a "Mac OS X Install DVD" volume that was restored to the thumb drive from disk image using these instructions (I have the retail version B.T.W.).
  • Since the installer mentioned in that tutorial didn't seem to work out for me - it had the very same problem I still have now - I decided to go the other route and installed everything manually, as was suggested on these forums. That's also when I chose to install to the EFI partition rather than the "Mac OS X Install DVD" volume.
  • I have put the DSDT.aml, smbios.plist, com.apple.boot.plist, and Kernel Extensions that should work for the Aspire One ZG5 - according to aforementioned tutorial - in the right folders on the EFI partition.
  • In my com.apple.boot.plist, I am using the -v (verbose) kernel flag and have set the Wait property to y, to be able to see what's happening.
Whatever I try, the following keeps happening:
The Chameleon boot loader screen displays fine, and recognises the "Mac OS X Install DVD" volume.
It proceeds to load the com.apple.boot.plist, Kernel Extensions, DSDT.aml and smbios.plist just fine, and displays the "Press any key to continue..." prompt.

When I do so: instant reboot. Every single time. :o :-\
This loop quickly gets tiresome.

What could be the problem? Does anyone have a clue? Have I been doing something wrong?
My best guess would be that either the files from the tutorial aren't the right ones for my hardware - there are several slightly different models of the Acer Aspire One ZG5 around - or that something is off with the thumb drive's partitioning. One thing that seems to support this, is that the thumb drive's EFI partition, for some reason, gets mounted when the it is plugged into a Macintosh (EDIT: the reason for this is in this how-to; basically a terminal command changed in OS X Snow Leopard). But how to tell what's the actual cause of the problem?

Thanks in advance for any help, guys/gals!

- Lennart Goosens
« Last Edit: August 27, 2012, 02:29:09 AM by LGoosens »

Gringo Vermelho

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2.0 rc4 is several years old, we can't support that anymore.
Please install the latest version and try again.
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

LGoosens

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Thank you for pointing that out! :) Although I knew that RC4 was from late 2009, I concluded that it had to be at least the latest STABLE (enough) release or something, because it is the only release listed under "Latest Releases" on http://chameleon.osx86.hu/ . Also, the latest news post there is about the release of RC4.

I find that a bit confusing... :o

Then, is this the version I should get instead?
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,2137.0.html

- Lennart Goosens

Gringo Vermelho

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The website hasn't been updated in ages. Everything happens here now:
http://forge.voodooprojects.org/p/chameleon/source/changes/HEAD/

Chameleon 2.0 (your link) is over a year old.

Follow the link in my signature, grab the recent version of Chameleon 2.1 attached there and follow the guide.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2012, 03:35:10 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

LGoosens

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Ah, I see.

Now, I followed your guide.
(Although I must admit to not using the supplied fdisk440, but rather the system's fdisk, because I created the EFI partition on a PowerPC G4 (with 10.4 Tiger installed) this time, while the supplied fdisk440 is apparently x86 only. However, I'd read on this forum that - at least in earlier versions - the modified fdisk is supposedly to maintain Windows compatibility, and I won't be installing Windows, so I'm hoping that's not a problem. If it is, please tell me, and I will find an Intel Mac again.)

However, the exact same problem remains. In addition, it now complains that it can't find my "SSDT.aml", just after it has read my DSDT.aml.
So, what do I do now? Is there anything I can go about differently?

Thanks in advance!

- Lennart Goosens

Gringo Vermelho

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The message about SSDT.aml is normal, it's just a status message. Even if you have 5 SSDT tables in /Extra, it will say that it can't find a 6th.

Not sure, I guess it's fine to use PPC fdisk for this purpose.

I don't know what's wrong, except as far as I know, an install DVD doesn't have an EFI partition. Maybe something breaks when you make one.
Try installing Chameleon to a separate flash drive, or a hard drive partition. You could also make a boot CD, follow the other link in my sig.
Restore the DVD to the flash drive again and don't modify it after restoring.

« Last Edit: August 27, 2012, 06:40:50 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

LGoosens

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Ok, thanks for the information.

Well, the tutorial I started out with didn't tell me to install Chameleon to the EFI partition of the USB flash drive, but when that went wrong and I decided to go the manual route, I decided upon EFI primarily because it would change a variable and that change might just solve it.
The EFI partition on the flash drive was automatically created when the drive was GUID partition table formatted, in compliance with the specification, but left empty by Disk Utility.

Since the first time I ran into the problem, I had used the RC4 pkg installer to install Chameleon to the "Mac OS X Install DVD" volume directly, I don't think it is likely that the EFI partition is causing the problem. However, doing this with a separate thumb drive won't hurt (a boot-dvd won't do without an optical drive I'm afraid... :lol:). So I'll try your second thumb drive suggestion anyway. :)

It won't hurt  to leave the EFI partition on the current thumb drive intact, will it? As long as I make sure to actually boot from the second thumb drive, I reckon I should be good.

- Lennart Goosens
« Last Edit: August 27, 2012, 02:45:49 PM by LGoosens »

Gringo Vermelho

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If you do that, nothing changes and there's no point.

Don't format the flash drive that you will be restoring to and don't select a partition on it when restoring. Select the whole drive, this way it will be wiped and will end up an 1:1 clone of the install DVD.
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

LGoosens

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Well then, since just using a separate USB thumb drive to boot from without altering anything to the thumb drive containing the DVD image did not work out, as you predicted, I tried deleting the EFI partition on the thumb drive containing the image using iPartition. I then moved the partition containing the image (the only one left) to the start of the drive, but still no go.

If you do that, nothing changes and there's no point.

Don't format the flash drive that you will be restoring to and don't select a partition on it when restoring. Select the whole drive, this way it will be wiped and will end up an 1:1 clone of the install DVD.

What you say appears plausible, and I'm willing to try. In 10.4 Tiger, however, I can't pick a whole drive for a destination (in the supplied screenshot I tried dragging and dropping the drive in the "Destination" field, but that doesn't work (and the cursor doesn't change into a green circle with a "+" in it either)).

So either it IS possible in newer OS X versions, or I misunderstood and you mean that there is somehow a difference in whether you select the DRIVE or the VOLUME in the left-hand sidebar, before clicking the "Restore" tab... Which is it? I honestly don't remember (for sure) which one I chose before clicking the "Restore" tab last time (that was on a friend's Snow Leopard B. T. W.).
« Last Edit: August 28, 2012, 01:25:47 AM by LGoosens »

Gringo Vermelho

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So either it IS possible in newer OS X versions

It is, I can do this in 10.7.4.

But I have to take back my dumb suggestion...it shouldn't matter at all if there are any other partitions on the flash drive. I used to have my Snow Leopard install DVD restored to a hard drive partition on a drive with several other partitions and that worked just fine. So it should work fine on a flash drive too.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2012, 05:39:13 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