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Author Topic: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.2 to an EFI/GPT drive  (Read 153951 times)

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jbreher

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #15 on: June 23, 2010, 07:42:32 PM »
Thanks for your reply, Gringo.

OK, so my assumption about themes seems justified. I'll ignore them for the time being.

It sounds as if you concur with my assessment that Migration Assistant somehow trashed my bootloader. Or at least that something trashed it.

It also sound as if you concur that I *can* replace whatever bootloader I had with Chameleon installed on the EFI partition.

I should probably reveal here that a medium-term goal for this system (which is being repurposed) is to update it to Snow Leopard. If I can update this system to retail, I would like to.

If I am planning to get to retail, it would simplify my life if I boot from the EFI partition, no?

So I think my question is still valid - assuming I want to boot from the EFI partition, can I just cp -R the /Extra from my iPC distro to the EFI partition? Assuming the iPC install used to work (you'll just have to take my word for this), will just this step cover all the 'magic OSx86' stuff that needs to be done?
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P / Intel Celeron Dual Core E1400 2.0 GHz / 800 MHz FSB / ASUS EN8400GS Silent/HTP/512M PCIe x16
4GiB (2x2) G.Skill DDR2-10666, PC2-8500, 2048MB x 2, CL-5-5-5-15 2.0~2.1V DRAM / 750 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA HDD ST3750330AS / hp dvd1170i SATA DL DVD
EFI (empty) / iPC 10.5.6 / Win 7 pro x64
... oh yeah, and an i7 17" MBP

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #16 on: June 23, 2010, 11:01:14 PM »
Your iPC distro install doesn't have a /extra folder....or, if it has, there's nothing in it, unless you put something there yourself. Anyway whatever is there, it is not enough to boot and install retail OS X.

I don't know what happened to your installation but if you can boot it from the bootloader on the iPC DVD then all you need to do is reinstall Chameleon.

You should install it to the same place that it was before, ie not the EFI partition.
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

jbreher

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #17 on: June 24, 2010, 08:48:08 AM »
hmm...

I followed your procedure to install to the EFI partition, copied my existing /Extra over to the EFI partition, removed the iPC DVD, did a Restart and.... booted!

In the interest of full disclosure, I also added a package of kext files and such (supposedly compiled for my mobo) to a randomly named subdir of /Volumes/EFI/Extra. I have no idea whether or not this is relevant. However, a casual scan of /var/log/system.log would seem to suggest that none of these additional files were used. Or if so, they weren't very chatty about it.

So with the goal of upgrading to SL retail in mind, is there a clear way to get from here to there? If I indeed need to identify and move all the scattered kexts to /Volumes/EFI/Extra, is there some tool that will help me identify what they are?
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P / Intel Celeron Dual Core E1400 2.0 GHz / 800 MHz FSB / ASUS EN8400GS Silent/HTP/512M PCIe x16
4GiB (2x2) G.Skill DDR2-10666, PC2-8500, 2048MB x 2, CL-5-5-5-15 2.0~2.1V DRAM / 750 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA HDD ST3750330AS / hp dvd1170i SATA DL DVD
EFI (empty) / iPC 10.5.6 / Win 7 pro x64
... oh yeah, and an i7 17" MBP

Blackosx

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #18 on: June 24, 2010, 09:17:07 AM »
I should probably reveal here that a medium-term goal for this system (which is being repurposed) is to update it to Snow Leopard. If I can update this system to retail, I would like to.
Hi jbreher

Well done with your dedication to understanding your machine and the iPC install but after reading this I can't help thinking that as you have already backed up your data to your Mac with Migration assistant and your goal is to get a retail Snow Leopard install on your GA-EP45-UD3P then why not just wipe the HDD and start again with a retail DVD?

Providing of course that your CPU is supported (I think it has SSE3), I guess you will find a guide dedicated to installing 10.6 on your motherboard on InsanelyMac somewhere.

If, of course, I have spoken out of turn and it's not something you want to do then I apologise for butting in. :)
Regards
« Last Edit: June 24, 2010, 09:24:52 AM by Blackosx »
10.10.5 / 10.11 GM1 | Asus Maximum IV Gene-Z | i7-2600 3.40GHz | 4GB | Radeon 5770 1GB

jbreher

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #19 on: June 25, 2010, 06:28:16 AM »
No, Blackosx, you've not spoken out of turn. As a clueless noob thrashing about, I welcome any alternate views.

I guess I thought it would be easier to migrate this system than to start from scratch. If I am off base in this assumption, please let me know.

Here's one of the wild cards - I don't really have a backup of this system. Migration Assistant has failed me in this area. Running it not only rendered this particular disk unbootable*, but went so far as to make the destination disk's filesystem unusable and unrepairable. You may want to read the second clause of that last sentence twice. Unrepairable, as in Disk Utility > Repair Disk says that it fixes invalid file volume count and invalid volume directory count --- but than an immediate rerun of verify disk finds the exact same problems. Yes, after several hours of 2nd level Apple TS, it was baffling them too. Long story short, I was unable to migrate all the stuff I want to keep from the iPC hack to the MBP.

*(I have since found that Migration Assistant explicitly writes to the source disk. Seems stupid to me, but then again, Steve's richer than I -- so who am I to argue?)

Accordingly, I need to preserve some of the data currently on the iPC hack boot & system disk.

cpu-x reports SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 EM64T

While I consider myself a hack noob, I am fairly well-versed in the PC boot process in general. As an example, about a decade ago, it was your truly that discovered that Win XP on NTFS's insistence on a known volume serial number in the 'code' area of the MBR was what broke Ranish Partition Manager at the rollout of XP Beta.

So with these additional considerations known, do you have a course of action you would suggest? Is there any way I can do an 'upgrade retail install' over my current iPC, and end up with a usable system?
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P / Intel Celeron Dual Core E1400 2.0 GHz / 800 MHz FSB / ASUS EN8400GS Silent/HTP/512M PCIe x16
4GiB (2x2) G.Skill DDR2-10666, PC2-8500, 2048MB x 2, CL-5-5-5-15 2.0~2.1V DRAM / 750 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA HDD ST3750330AS / hp dvd1170i SATA DL DVD
EFI (empty) / iPC 10.5.6 / Win 7 pro x64
... oh yeah, and an i7 17" MBP

Blackosx

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #20 on: June 25, 2010, 03:04:03 PM »
Hi jbreher

To answer your question of if you can an 'upgrade retail install' over my current iPC, and end up with a usable system? then I think that maybe you can and it will be okay. But I can't guarantee it, so you do so at your own risk.

However, I can see you are definitely not a computer noob so I can't see why building a fresh retail install would be a problem for you and I recommend it as it might prove to be far quicker than trying to upgrade your iPC system to Snow Leopard. Then maybe I am biased as ever since I started using a retail install, I've never looked at a distro again. Especially as I, and you, have common hardware which should run retail without too much difficulty. And Gringo mentioned earlier the benefits of a retail install in that you know what's been added to the system to get it running, so any future problems should be easy to rectify.

And as you can now boot your iPC install after installing Chameleon to the EFI partition then surely any data can be backed up? either put on to DVD, copied to external drive or copied across a network? and applications can be re-installed.

I can only speak from personal use of Macs but after using them for 14 years, I have never used Migration Assistant (or any previous incarnation of that piece of software). When I build a new system I like the fact that it's fresh and I can set it up as I want, adding back only the apps and data that I need and it also give me the chance to archive off any of those files that have been sitting around unused for ages.

Anyway, I'm sure you've already though about everything I've just said but I've said it anyway and I wish you good luck with whichever route your choose ;)

Lastly, Sorry Gringo for taking this thread OT.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2010, 03:05:56 PM by Blackosx »
10.10.5 / 10.11 GM1 | Asus Maximum IV Gene-Z | i7-2600 3.40GHz | 4GB | Radeon 5770 1GB

jbreher

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #21 on: July 02, 2010, 01:52:50 AM »
OK, I have a new plan then.

I got a new 1TB HDD. I'll take my other HDD out, put this new one in, and do a full retail install upon this new HDD. I'll configure it with Chameleon on the EFI partition.

Once this is working, I'll add the old drive to the system, and copy stuff from it as I detect the need.

I assume once retail is installed, and booting from EFI, I can do Apple OS updates?

Can I use BootCamp? Or would it be better just to install Win 7 on the other drive, once I copy needed stuff from it?

Thanks!
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P / Intel Celeron Dual Core E1400 2.0 GHz / 800 MHz FSB / ASUS EN8400GS Silent/HTP/512M PCIe x16
4GiB (2x2) G.Skill DDR2-10666, PC2-8500, 2048MB x 2, CL-5-5-5-15 2.0~2.1V DRAM / 750 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA HDD ST3750330AS / hp dvd1170i SATA DL DVD
EFI (empty) / iPC 10.5.6 / Win 7 pro x64
... oh yeah, and an i7 17" MBP

Blackosx

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #22 on: July 02, 2010, 03:01:09 PM »
Hi jbreher

Good choice to get the new HDD and go for a new build and hopefully you will find it great once it's all up and running. I guess now you just need to follow an install guide to get your system running, you'll then know what files have been installed where and if anything is needed to watch out for when applying Apple updates, as yes, you will be able to use them.

Bootcamp won't work with a hackintosh, but then as you have a PC already you don't need it. I personally choose to put Windows 7 on a secondary partition after OS X rather than a different HDD, and as you have a 1TB drive then go ahead an split it up. You might find it useful to read this thread about sleep and hibernation of Windows7 when dual booting.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2010, 03:05:26 PM by Blackosx »
10.10.5 / 10.11 GM1 | Asus Maximum IV Gene-Z | i7-2600 3.40GHz | 4GB | Radeon 5770 1GB

jbreher

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #23 on: July 09, 2010, 06:04:57 AM »
Well, I tried to follow the lifehacker guide:

http://lifehacker.com/5360150/install-snow-leopard-on-your-hackintosh-pc-no-hacking-required

I got as far as booting off the flash drive. However, after selecting English for the install, I get the message "Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer".

After some googling, it appears that the problem is with the particular DVD I used to create the install USB stick. I had naively assumed that the DVD that came with my MBP was a "Retail DVD". The hive mind possibly tells me that this install DVD is good ONLY for my particular model of MBP -- it does not have kexts and whatnot for other macs, and is therefore unsuitable for building a hack. Does this sound correct to you?

If so, I guess it's back to the Apple store... At least my old iPC install is still running.

Q: What does putting Win 7 on another partition, rather than another drive, gain you?

Assuming I:
-  pull all drives except a fresh one,
- and install Win 7 on this drive,
- then reinstall my drive with iPC and Chameleon on it, and
- make the iPC/Chameleon the boot drive
Will Chameleon recognize the presence of the Win 7 boot sector, and allow me to chain load it?
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P / Intel Celeron Dual Core E1400 2.0 GHz / 800 MHz FSB / ASUS EN8400GS Silent/HTP/512M PCIe x16
4GiB (2x2) G.Skill DDR2-10666, PC2-8500, 2048MB x 2, CL-5-5-5-15 2.0~2.1V DRAM / 750 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA HDD ST3750330AS / hp dvd1170i SATA DL DVD
EFI (empty) / iPC 10.5.6 / Win 7 pro x64
... oh yeah, and an i7 17" MBP

Blackosx

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #24 on: July 09, 2010, 08:07:44 AM »
Hi jbreher

Yes, you will need a retail OS X installation DVD and not a restore DVD that comes with a Mac.

From my experience, using Chameleon to boot Windows on a separate HDD will work just fine but you might have problems with Windows sleeping/hibernating.

Disk A = Chameleon
Disk B = Windows
Results in Windows failing to sleep (and I guess also hibernate but I haven't tried that to confirm).

Disk A = Chameleon
Disk A = Windows
Results in Windows sleeping and hibernating just fine. Though the installation of Chameleon will need to utilise the latest boot0hfs file written to the MBR with fdisk440. See this post for more details.

I can't really explain the technical side of why having Windows on a separate HDD has these results, but that's what happens for me.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2010, 08:14:01 AM by Blackosx »
10.10.5 / 10.11 GM1 | Asus Maximum IV Gene-Z | i7-2600 3.40GHz | 4GB | Radeon 5770 1GB

dino7777

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #25 on: September 27, 2010, 12:23:46 AM »
Hello,

somehow my boot EFI always becomes visible and gets auto mounted by Finder?!?

As I have tried this method a few times before, my EFI gets mounted immediately when creating /Volumes/EFI and mount_hfs EFI (sure I have erased it before with newfs_hfs).

So I get a warning within fdisk, when setting boot flag, thats says Device could not be accessed exclusively.

I am loosing head, cant figure out why its getting auto mounted all the time.

Even my Ubuntu linux mounts the partition and its mark as type ef, where all other hfs+ partitions have type ee.

Any hint how to get this thing not auto mounted.

Cheers


Gringo Vermelho

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #26 on: October 15, 2010, 09:00:46 AM »
AFAIK the only way to really fix this issue is to re-partition and format the whole drive and then initialize the EFI partition correctly, as stated in the guide.

You could add the EFI partition to fstab but that's just a workaround.
I have never done this myself so I don't have the information first hand but I've seen posts explaining how to do it on InsanelyMac.

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

stillingen

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #27 on: November 20, 2010, 01:34:46 PM »
Hi.

I´ve used the RC2 installer to install Chameleon on my OSX partition, not using EFI.
Is there a way to upgrade from RC2 to RC4/RC5 on my OSX partition, or is the only way to manually install RC4 / RC5 on EFI, and then moving all my Extra stuff from my OSX partition? I´ve seen mentioned, upgrading only requires replacing ./boot, but that goes for EFI installs I suppose, and not when install on OSX partition?


« Last Edit: November 20, 2010, 01:37:44 PM by stillingen »

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #28 on: November 21, 2010, 09:09:43 PM »
If your drive is GUID partitioned you can follow the guide, change the destinations (diskXsX) accordingly if you want to install Chameleon to your system partition rather than your EFI partition.

If your drive is MBR formatted, find an MBR installation guide and follow that, or you can use iFabio's 2.0 RC5 installer. Find it at InsanelyMac.

If you're upgrading from pre-RC5 it's probably not a good idea to just replace /boot.

I explained in the guide how you can tell whether your drive is GUID or MBR.
« Last Edit: November 22, 2010, 03:26:50 PM 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

stillingen

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Re: [How-to] manually install Chameleon 2.0 to an EFI/GPT drive
« Reply #29 on: November 22, 2010, 09:59:32 PM »
Thank you. My disk is GUID, so I did the manual install, which went fine  ;D
I still have issues with read / write speed to my new 2TB disks, being the reason for upgrading.