How do I manually install chameleon?

[macdanny]

I would like to manually install chameleon. I have a dell xps m1330 laptop and I have repeatedly installed chameleon to the root of the osx install and it's like there is no bootloader at all. I never see the screen where I can choose which partition to boot from. I can get into the install with my usb key which has syslinux on it and a initrd.img. I'm stumped. How do I verify or rewrite the MBR code on sector 0? Would error 35 below be causing my problem? Thank you in advance to anyone willing to help.

Danny

Last login: Wed Jun 17 10:37:41 on ttys000
dannys-xps-m1330-somemodel:~ Danny$ diskutil list
2009-06-17 10:51:44.248 diskutil[212:10b] _CFGetHostUUIDString: unable to determine UUID for host. Error: 35
2009-06-17 10:51:44.276 DiskManagementTool[213:10b] _CFGetHostUUIDString: unable to determine UUID for host. Error: 35
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *186.3 Gi   disk0
   1:                                                    78.4 Mi    disk0s1
   2:               Windows_NTFS RECOVERY                10.0 Gi    disk0s2
   3:               Windows_NTFS OS                      50.0 Gi    disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS X                48.8 Gi    disk0s5
   5:                 DOS_FAT_16                         77.4 Gi    disk0s6
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *1.9 Gi     disk1
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 LEXAR                   1.9 Gi     disk1s1
dannys-xps-m1330-somemodel:~ Danny$

[rocksteady]

Hello Danny + Welcome,

Please go through the official Docs + search/browse these forums (just 7 pages). If you get stuck on a particular step, feel free to edit your thread. Both your questions have been discussed extensively here in these forums.

[macdanny]

Thanks for your reply, I didn't get very far though. The first command failed.


Last login: Wed Jun 17 12:10:26 on ttys000
dannys-xps-m1330-somemodel:~ Danny$ diskutil list
2009-06-17 12:11:35.064 diskutil[501:10b] _CFGetHostUUIDString: unable to determine UUID for host. Error: 35
2009-06-17 12:11:35.200 DiskManagementTool[502:10b] _CFGetHostUUIDString: unable to determine UUID for host. Error: 35
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *186.3 Gi   disk0
   1:                                                    78.4 Mi    disk0s1
   2:               Windows_NTFS RECOVERY                10.0 Gi    disk0s2
   3:               Windows_NTFS OS                      50.0 Gi    disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS X                48.8 Gi    disk0s5
   5:                 DOS_FAT_16                         77.4 Gi    disk0s6
dannys-xps-m1330-somemodel:~ Danny$ sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0
fdisk: could not open MBR file boot0: No such file or directory
dannys-xps-m1330-somemodel:~ Danny$

[rocksteady]

search for UUID errors 

also posting a detailed description of your setup would help

[macdanny]

I saw the thread on UUID errors but do you think that is causing the problem? I installed pacifist and see the boot0 and boot1h files that the official docs say to install but when I followed the instructions it failed as noted in post above. The boot file is in the root folder (hidden) where it belongs. In order to run the command sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0 where does the file boot0 need to be? do I extract the files into a folder with pacifist then run the command from inside that folder? Thank you again for helping point me in the right direction. If error 35 isn't affecting chameleon I want to tackle that later so please advise.

[rocksteady]

OK, while you browse the forum, let us know the following:

Kind/Version of X (retail, distro, etc)?
Fresh Install or an existing one?
HD mode? SATA/IDE?
The contents of your com.apple.Boot.plist + /Extra/Extensions (from Chameleon's side, not the ones in Leopard's tree)

[macdanny]

You also asked for a detailed description of my setup. What does that entail exactly? I installed a retail dvd 10.5.6 that I imaged to a usb and modified osinstall.mpkg so I could install to a MBR partition. I used a thumb drive with syslinux and an initrd.img to boot and then swapped to the other usb stick that has the modded retail dvd on it. I have since upgraded to 10.5.7 and installed iLife 09 and done all software updates. As far as hardware goes, I'm installed on a dell xps m1330 laptop which has a core 2 duo processor so I'm running the vanilla kernel. I installed to an internal 7200 rpm sata 200 gig drive and the machine has 4 gigs of ddr2 or ddr3 ram. For Graphics I have the 128mb Nvidia GS 8400 and use nvinject.kext for that. I have sigmatel 9228 for sound and installed a pair of kexts for that. I used a pre made dell laptop installer to fix my trackpad and that's about it. If you need more details about anything please let me know. It is a fresh install.

[macdanny]

OOps I hit reply right as your last post was coming in. I added a kernel flag string below but that didn't seem to make a difference. I don't think I'm getting that far along in the boot process. Windows won't boot so I know something is in that mbr spot but I still don't get to the gui that shows the partitions. How do I attach a screenshot showing you the contents of my /extra/extensions folder? I see a place to upload a file, is that it? I've seen pics on insanelymac.com but am new to this forum. I'll give it a try. I notice there are now duplicates of kexts in there. Is that from reinstalling chameleon multiple times?


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
   <key>Kernel</key>
   <string>mach_kernel</string>
   <key>Kernel Flags</key>
   <string>rd=disk0s5</string>
</dict>
</plist>

[rocksteady]

Hmmm, I see that your /Extra folder resides in your Leopard partition and is messed up with duplicate kexts, if you just dragged them over they'll most likely have wrong permissions too. Kernel flags are messed too.

You also want to multiboot windows<-->X too, so better take 1 step @ a time:

Take a look here for a vanilla /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist and edit your current one accordingly.

This will involve a lengthy step by step process, are you familiar with the Terminal?

Can you boot to Windows ?

I guess that you previously installed Chameleon via the Installer.pkg, right?

Meanwhile, someone with a Dell laptop might give you any hardware-related tips

[macdanny]

I can make my plist vanilla again. I deleted the duplicate extensions. Now I have graduated to a blinking cursor instead of the "hit F1" screen I was getting. I can boot windows and osx by using the thumb drive, I just can't get a boot menu from the internal hd. I can use a terminal. I did install with the installer, not manually.

[tempolo]

they'll most likely have wrong permissions too.

The permissions in the Extra do not matter at all for booting, though! That's because the boot loader reads them blindly, ignoring any permissions.

[macdanny]

Thanks for the info about permissions tempolo. I have already repaired them a few times because I wasn't sure if I needed to or not.

[thorazine74]

It looks like your OS X partition is in a logical partition, judging from the layout you posted (I am guessing disk0s4 is the extended partition and disk0s5 and disk0s6 are logical partitions, not sure if thats correct), thats not supported to boot from there, at least with Chameleon, you need to put it in a primary partition.

[macdanny]

You are correct, slice 4 is extended and slices 5 and 6 are logical. I have an older version of chameleon on the usb thumb drive I used to install the os and to boot it currently. Do you know why an older version of chameleon works and the latest and greatest doesn't?

If possible I would like someone to help me downgrade to the last version of chameleon that boots from logical partitions....or enlighten me as to why it sees and boots from the thumb drive and not the internal hard drive.

I don't seem to have a copy of the old bootloader saved, can someone let me know what version to search for or post a link?

Would it be appropriate to ask someone to help me with using grub instead of chameleon on this forum? I don't want to disrespect the chameleon team on their "official" forum.

[Lord Anubis]

Would it be appropriate to ask someone to help me with using grub instead of chameleon on this forum? I don't want to disrespect the chameleon team on their "official" forum.

Not sure, but I think, "the best place is like home", in this case the Grub home place.

I am afraid that there will become to much noise.

Good Luck