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Author Topic: Problem with themes  (Read 9714 times)

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tdtran1025

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Problem with themes
« on: December 07, 2009, 11:40:39 PM »
Before last week when I had to reinstall Snow I was able to modify and change theme at will by renaming any theme to Default. I used the installer package for RC3. But after the installation of Chameleon 2 RC3 package, evreything I could try dose not not change to the default theme. I checked the Extra/Themes/Default and all the new elements were in there but the boot screen was still a plain one.
Did I miss something? This is the first time I encountered something of this nature. Please help because I am still a novice at Chameleon. The proof is I still have to rely on package installer to get the job done.
Also I noticed that since then I would not be able to affect the change when replacing new Boot file either. My install is completely Vanilla with only 1 kext change for patched AppleHDA.
Please be easy on me.

Moderator EDIT: blackosx changed icon of this post to a question mark to make non-theme posts stand out in root theme park page.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2010, 05:32:10 PM by Blackosx »

Blackosx

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Re: Problem with themes
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2009, 11:06:04 AM »
Just to make sure the booter will use the Default theme folder, check to see if you have added...

<key>Theme</key>
<string>theme name</string>

in to your com.apple.Boot.plist. If you have then remove it.
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rocksteady

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Re: Problem with themes
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2009, 11:50:41 AM »
As Blackosx already hinted make sure that the syntax in your com.apple.Boot.plist is OK. When asking for help it's also essential to post it here as well (even better take screencshots of your /Extra folder (and its contents)

FYI, you don't have to rename each theme (and then replace each theme's files with another). You can have as many as you like (just make sure they're made for Chameleon) and change the corresponding Theme_Name <key> in your com.apple.Boot.plist

Visual reference below:

/Extra/Themes folder containing just 2 Themes:







Your control centre, the /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist file, that lets you configure Chameleon:



So on an imaginary /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist file:

Code: [Select]
...
<key>Theme</key>
<string>Default</string>
...
will load the Default theme

while

Code: [Select]
...
<key>Theme</key>
<string>Graphite_Simple</string>
...

will load the Graphite_Simple theme
« Last Edit: January 19, 2010, 04:55:06 AM by rocksteady »
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tdtran1025

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Re: Problem with themes
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2009, 08:53:03 PM »
Thank you very much gentle for being easy on me as I was the first-time poster.
I tried to mimic what Rocksteady had on the screen. This time I took a snap shot of one screen similar to that of Rocksteady and I also include my Boot.plist text.
I noticed that you are able to create an EFI partition (as I once was able to do and display) but I can't display my EFI partitions any more. I have individual disks, each containing its own OS (Mac, Windows) and even on Windows 7 the disk is format with GUID. I wonder if this has anything to do my EFI partitions not showing up.
But anyway, the problem is still the same.
Thanks again

Blackosx

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Re: Problem with themes
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2009, 10:39:09 PM »
Thanks for posting your com.apple.Boot.plist and how many options have you added?

Let's rewind for a minute and just start off with a simple one (I have populated it with relevant data from your file), and you can add booter options back in later if you need them.
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>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1024x768x32</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string></string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>5</string>
<key>Default Partition</key>
<string>hd(2,2)</string>
        <key>Theme</key>
<string>Blackosx_3D_Theme_640x480</string>
</dict>
</plist>

As for why you can't get the theme to load, I'm not sure as your folder structure looks okay.

You say that whatever you try, the default theme always appears?
Well the boot file has the default theme built in, so to test if the built in theme is being loaded and not the Default theme from the Themes folder then try this...

Backup your current device_hfsplus.png from the /Themes/Default folder and replace it with the attached one from my Christmas theme (unzip it first of course). Then when you boot, see what the device icon for HFS+ looks like. If it's the default version then you know the built in theme is being used.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2009, 11:51:30 PM by Blackosx »
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rocksteady

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Re: Problem with themes
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2009, 11:00:30 AM »
tdtran,

Always take small steps when testing/changing settings. Leave the EFI portion out for a minute until you sort your current installation (ignore things that fit my needs in my screenshots). Looks like you could do with some cleaning of your files but lets focus on your theme issues first. It'd also be wise to disconnect the rest of your HDs while troubleshooting your Mac OS X installation.

Please test what Blackosx suggests and let us know how it goes (usually just one of our seasoned members helps/guides newcomers to avoid confusion)

 If you decide to stick around, please get a signature with your hack's specs. If you find out that your woes are not (only) related to Themes, search the General Discussion section for a thread similar to what you're facing or start a new one. There's nothing personal with beginners, we just won't let our free time/kindness be abused.

Welcome to our forum
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tdtran1025

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Re: Problem with themes
« Reply #6 on: December 11, 2009, 10:33:16 PM »
Blackosx, Rocksteady,

On first order let me express my gratitude for the kind response from both of you gentleman (I never had this treatment in other crowded different forums.)
I tried all things you suggested- but still no go.
About my folder structures: I have 1 hidden Chameleon folder and 1 shown Extra folder. The hidden Chameleon folder has Extensions and Themes folder, albeit the Extensions folder contains only a few scant kexts pertaining to ICHx for Intel. I moved the everything from Blackosx Christmas theme folder into the hidden Default theme folder and also the com.Apple.Boot.plist into this folder in hope that it might make a switch but still the standard theme comes up every time I boot. What I don't understand is I have already eliminated all the components of the standard theme and why are they showing up every time. I am completely at wit's end now gentleman.
Help to shed some light on me please. I have included screen shots of my folder structures.
Thank you.

tdtran1025

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Re: Problem with themes
« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2009, 12:42:01 AM »
Hi again Blackosx and Rocksteady,
I spent half a day searching and researching my problem and I finally get to the bottom of it and it's quite an crash course education for me. All along the these few months even before 10.6, I always relied on some package installer to do the Chameleon installations for me for fear (or laziness) of the command lines. Most of current Chameleon package installers including the late RC3-r658 contains EFI formatting syntax only applicable to 10.5 and Snow Leopard is deaf to all that. No wonder I have been having problems with the installers. To make the matter worse, the accumulation of all the changes I have made to the EFI partitions just stayed there and it manifested all the rubbish (depending on its priorities) during bootup with excessive hang time.
Well I learned today how to reformat the EFI partition in Snow and start fresh with the manual installation from the ground up with various .plists to control different boot aspects. It worked like I had expected it to work.
Now I can control themes like I as dreamed of doing.

Blackosx

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Re: Problem with themes
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2009, 02:31:04 PM »
Well I learned today how to reformat the EFI partition in Snow and start fresh with the manual installation from the ground up with various .plists to control different boot aspects. It worked like I had expected it to work.
Now I can control themes like I as dreamed of doing.
Well done tdtran1025. Good to hear you have solved the problem. Thanks for reporting back :)
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rocksteady

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Re: Problem with themes
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2009, 02:06:44 PM »
Now I can control themes like I as dreamed of doing.
That's a wonderful feeling isn't it ?

It's one of the reasons why we encourage members to do their own research (instead of spoon-feeding them) and always check the basics.

The command to format the EFI partition as HFS changed in 10.6 and brought some head-scratching to most of us too.

Glad you nailed it, have fun
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