Author Topic: A Question About Mkext files  (Read 2960 times)

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Terc

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A Question About Mkext files
« on: June 16, 2009, 05:26:54 PM »
::UPDATE::
It seems like there was some confusion about my question.
The short question:
If you have an mkext in your /Extra folder, and are using the -f option at boot, should you instead be using extensions in the /Extra/Extensions folder without the -f option since mkexts are ignored when using -f

So, I've noticed that many people with my board (EP45-UD3R) and other similar boards with alc889a audio have resorted to using an mkext and a kextstore folder in /Extra while using -f in their com.apple.Boot.plist file to get audio to load correctly.

It seems to me as though life would be much simpler if they were to simply place the kexts that are in kextstore into their /Extra/Extensions folder and never created an mkext or a -f in their boot.plist.  I am using this method right now and it is working just fine.

I noticed no significant difference in boot times between the two methods, and mine allows for a cleaner boot.plist as well as less effort because the /Extra/mkext is not constantly needing updates.

Am I missing something, or is my method really just better all around?

I'm looking for the best practice here, not for confirmation that my way works.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2009, 07:04:05 PM by Terc »

rzooff

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Re: A Question About Mkext files
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2009, 07:52:00 PM »
1. mkext is faster a way to load kexts.
2. some kext doesn't work if they are in Extensions folder, but works well when they are in mkext file.

But if all that You need works, so then in Your particular case, only difference is boot time (rather not a big difference). So do what You prefer :)
« Last Edit: June 16, 2009, 10:59:39 PM by rzooff »
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MacOS X 10 10.5.8 (Retail) + Chameleon 2 | Toshiba L40-R17 |

rocksteady

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Re: A Question About Mkext files
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2009, 10:25:51 PM »
I'll second rzoof, if all you need for your hack runs fine, you're golden

(Not all hacks are built alike)
Stop bitching, start coding or documenting or both..

P5Q-EM : Q6600 : 8GB RAM : 8800GT : SATA Drives

Terc

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Re: A Question About Mkext files
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2009, 10:51:36 PM »
My question was really specifically addressing the combination of using an mkext along with the -f option in the com.apple.boot.plist file.

My understanding is that -f forces the mkext to be rebuilt, and so a combination of an mkext and the -f option would not give any speed advantage, or may even take longer since all of the extensions would be read in, not just the extensions in the /Extra folder.

BTW, which kexts have problems loading when not in an mkext?
« Last Edit: June 17, 2009, 07:00:03 PM by Terc »

zarac

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Re: A Question About Mkext files
« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2009, 08:20:28 PM »
on my system legacyapplehda and/or hdaenabler SOMETIMES don't load properly from /Extra/Extensions/ (about every other boot)
however they load properly every time from Extensions.mkext located in /Extra/

thorazine74

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Re: A Question About Mkext files
« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2009, 08:11:04 PM »
I think the -f flag does not affect chameleon extensions, its a kernel flag after all right so it would only affect the extensions loaded by the kernel (in S/L/E), not the ones loaded by chameleon, so the extensions.mkext in Extra never gets rebuilt automatically even with -f
I'm not using any mkext right now to test it but I think chameleon always loads the extensions.mkext from Extra if present no matter what kernel flags you use, and it will still try to load the extensions from extra too but those are normally duplicated.
Mac OS X 10.5.6 Retail (Updated to 10.5.7) with Chameleon 2.0 RC1+BootIt NextGen 1.86 (MBR Single Drive)
Gigabyte 73PVM-S2H + C2D + 2 Gb
2 SATA HD (AppleAHCIport.kext) + 1 PATA DVD+RW (DarwinATAPort.kext)
Realtek ALC889 (VoodooHDA.kext)
Geforce 8600GTS (EFI String) PS/2 M & KB: VoodooPS2.kext

Terc

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Re: A Question About Mkext files
« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2009, 08:16:29 PM »
Thanks guys, I appreciate the help.
This is working for me now, but I have had one reboot where sound didn't load.
I think I'll stick with my method, but until I work out a way to get the extensions loaded up 100% of the time, I don't think I'll be recommending this method.