Voodooprojects
Chameleon => General Discussion => Topic started by: Xeikon on January 13, 2011, 02:55:46 PM
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Hello: Thanks for your help !
I have a problem that I think can be related to Chameleon.When my External HD (Iomega, USB2, 1TB, 3.5") is ON when booting my Hackintosh (specifications at the end of this post), Chameleon will take like 30 seconds to appear after some slightly blinks black screens, then after I receive 2 or 4 of these errors on the screen:
- EBIOS read error: Device timeout
- Block 0x0 Sectors 0
PLEASE NOTICE that when I turn OFF the external HD, none of theses errors appear and Chameleon appears instantly.
The external HD is never listed on the Chameleon boot list (I don´t really need it to appear)
After choosing the drive to boot up from Chameleon, everything loads and works great then after. Full Mac OS 10.6.5. No problems at all with my Mac.
[Possible Solution?] I have set my BIOS to use AHCI. I red about some EHCI and UHCI fixes in the guide "Using Chameleon 2RC.rtf". I don´t really know if this have something to do with the problem, but it really called my attention since the External HD uses a USB port. All my USB ports work OK. I have a USB keyboard & Mouse and they work OK since boot up or chameleon boot screen. I just ask, just in case it has something to do with the problem or there can be a Chameleon Fix in its configuration.
I want to get rid of the waiting and errors before Chameleon appears when my Ext HD is connected.
I wonder what can be wrong ????
Thank you so much !!!!
Xeikon
My hardware:
GA-X58A-UD3R Rev 2.0
Intel i7 920 - 2.67 GHz
4 GB G.Skill - PCIII 10700 (667 MHz)
Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce GTX 460
HD1: 500 GB Win7 x64
HD2: 250 GB Mac OS 10.6.5
ExtHD: 1TB Iomega
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It is a common problem of any Chameleon version/revision.
Booting from CD I can't boot HDD.
Booting from HDD I didn't see CD.
Booting from CD if Chameleon on HDD is broken is not possible.
There is cross influence of boot1h and gBIOSdev between different devices. Must be excluded/corrected.
Here is the test
make
make image
write the image on CD. Only boot, no any system.
Boot from the CD.
You see a list of partitions to boot
hd(2,1) Chameleon_CD....
hd(0,2) Windows
hd(0,3) MacHD
Choose MacHD and press enter....
KP attempting to read rdisk1s2 >:(
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@Xeikon - I see you're desperate for an answer to your problem, but posting here, in the Theme Park (http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,1505.msg9328.html#msg9328) and PM'ing me can be considered rude and impatient. If the answer to a posted question hasn't been answered before and somebody knows the answer then it will come 'in time', but you have to remember that the help given here is purely voluntary and in people's spare time.
Now, personally, I don't have an external USB 1TB HDD to test your problem so I can't give you an answer and as you can see from Slice's kind answer it's a known issue under certain circumstances. There have been many posts in this forum about the EBIOS Read Error so my first port of call will be to look in those.
Here's a few to start you off:
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php?topic=760.0
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php?topic=606.0
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php?topic=329.0
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php?topic=909.0
If the above doesn't help then please be patient and somebody else more knowledgable may step in and help you.
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@Blackosx: I am truly sorry. I didn´t mean to be rude... but indeed I was. I didn´t know the best way to get some help. From now on I will wait and take a little time to get an answer.
Thanks for your help.
Xeikon
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Hi Xeikon - It's no longer an issue, just as long as you understand that multiple postings are frowned upon. :)
Did any of the links I showed you previously help with your problem?
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Thanks Blackosx ! Well, when checking the links, I read that there can be some possible issues, but I really don´t think they are the main cause of the problem. This are for example:
- Bad disk or partition: The external disk is the newest disk on my system. It is not partitioned. 1 TB NTFS Partition. Maybe Chameleon doesn´t deal well recognizing large partitions ?? I don´t think so.
- The number of the disk where the Chameleon booting files are. Maybe the number of the disk, for example: "Disk 0", "Disk 1" etc... Does Chameleon have problems with it ?? My disk is not in a RAID.
I do not understand the rest of the 2 last links... It is heavy stuff for my knowledge.
I think that the problem is related to the USB connection or the AHCI set on the BIOS. May be there´s a fix to place on the configuration boot file for Chameleon. For that... I will read a little bit further.
Thanks again.
Xeikon
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It is a common problem of any Chameleon version/revision.
Booting from CD I can't boot HDD.
Booting from HDD I didn't see CD.
Booting from CD if Chameleon on HDD is broken is not possible.
1 & 3 works fine for me, always has. All drives attached to Intel ICH10R in AHCI mode.
Maybe it doesn't work for you because your CD/DVD drive is not attached to the same drive controller as your hard drives.
About 2 - if you want to boot from DVDs or CDs that are intended to be bootable on a real Mac (such as a retail install DVD), you must use a Chameleon boot CD. Otherwise, just boot from CD/DVD via your BIOS' boot menu, you don't really need Chameleon for that.
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I am not reading the forum as whole yet so I dunno if the problem of mixing hard drives in Chameleon is discussed.
You may not agree with me and not understand what I want to say. Just perform my test. I got KP.
hd(2,1) Chameleon_CD....
hd(0,2) Windows
hd(0,3) MacHD
Choose MacHD and press enter....
KP attempting to read rdisk1s2
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*ahem* Let me summarize and maybe clear up things a bit (and see if I got everything correctly)...
@Blackosx: I agree with your diagnosis.
@Slice: While what you are pointing out is probably an issue, this does not look like it's the problem here.
Xeikon, when you say "It is not partitioned. 1 TB NTFS Partition.", what do you mean? How did you create the Filesystem? (The point I'm after is whether the USB drive actually _has_ a partition table (e.g. NTFS = diskXs1), or does just start with the NTFS header (NTFS = diskX)).
According to the last link Blackosx posted Chameleon does not deal well with "odd" partition tables, and having none certainly qualifies as "odd".
Your delays are coming from Chameleon -- boot0 in this case -- (fruitlessly) trying to find the boot1 code on all partitions the BIOS offers.
Since your BIOS seems to put the external disk first, it is searched first. Another one of those posts says that there may be some difficulties with big drives (the INT13 stuff) resulting in the read errors, which may also be an issue.
My first advice would be to try and swap the boot order around in your BIOS, such that the internal disk always goes first. This should abbreviate the long search boot0 conducts.
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Hello R007:
Thanks for your help !!!! I meant the HD is not partitioned in two or more several partitions. In fact, the HD has only one NTFS partition. I got confused with that. When obviously saying "partition" in any sense would mean "partitioning: The act of dividing one thing in two or more parts", in this case also meant the structure of a HD. Sorry for not explaining myself better.
My MB BIOS has a three priority order list for devices TYPES to boot from. Right now it looks like this:
First: HD
Second: Disable (can be set to be a CD-DVD or another device type)
Third: Disable (can be set to be a CD-DVD or another device type)
I always leave this list like that for the system to boot up faster.
Then, it also has a priority list for HD´s to boot from. Right now it looks like this:
1: SCSI-1: 250 GB HD (2 Partitions: (GUID): 1 MAC and 1 FAT32)
2: SCSI-0: 500 GB HD (3 Partitions: 2 NTFS and 1 FAT32)
3: USB-HDD0: Iomega External HD (1 Partition NTFS - 1 TB)
4: Bootable Add-In Cards
As you can see the External HD is located at the third position on the list.
I don´t know for sure, but I think Chameleon looks first for USB-HDD0, USB-HDD1, USB-HDD2 an on and on... AND then it looks for HD0, HD1, HD2 and on and on. Correct me if I am wrong please since I am just assuming it.
The problem is that I can not get the External HD out of the "HD boot priority list"
I think, there should be a configuration file where to set Chameleon to look for a specific and exactly limited drives to boot from and not to be looking for any more devices. Does this exists ??? I read that there is a way to set Chameleon to look only ONE drive. But this would not work for me, since I boot Mac from one physical HD and Windows 7 from another different physical HD.
Thanks for your help !!
Xeikon
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@Slice: While what you are pointing out is probably an issue, this does not look like it's the problem here.
I don't think my report is out of the problem.
I think, there should be a configuration file where to set Chameleon to look for a specific and exactly limited drives to boot from and not to be looking for any more devices. Does this exists I read that there is a way to set Chameleon to look only ONE drive. But this would not work for me, since I boot Mac from one physical HD and Windows 7 from another different physical HD.
The problem arises when Chameleon see more then one drive. It is a HUGE BUG!
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The problem arises when Chameleon see more then one drive. It is a HUGE BUG!
From your posts I gathered that the issue you are pointing towards is the kernel panic you are getting.
Xeikon's delays are occuring way before the kernel is even handed control.
And while you may be right that both problems are related to chemeleon's handling of more than one physical drive (come to think of it, I've had issues when trying to boot my internal drive from a chameleon situated on USB), please do berate me for "not understanding what you say" when I could not parse "the mixing of hard drives" (I was thinking along the lines of "Will It Blend" ;) ).
Slice -- I really think you are doing a good job for chameleon, discovering all sorts of bugs and there is some good stuff in your branch, if you'd just be a little more verbose, I think people would understand you better.
As for you, Xeikon, well, not much else you can do really, besides waiting for the bug to be fixed. BTW: What version of Chameleon are you using? (Maybe I overlooked it when skimming the topic again...)
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WE HIT IT !!!.... I think we have an understanding !!! Although I believe Chameleon is a wonderful nice product, I think we have a BUG. I think Chameleon has in its powerful behavior the task to read all possible types of boot devices and all possible kind of operation systems to boot from. This particular mix with USB external and internal SATA HD´s is poison for it. What amaze me, is that I am not the only one with this problem.
ABOUT my Chameleon version, this is what it says on the loader screen:
Darwin / x86 boot v. 5.0.132 - Chameleon v 2.0 - RC4_ PCEFI-10.5_ Asere BLN r
Build date: 2010-02-12 01::05:22
4094 memory
DO I have the right version ??? Should I wait for a fixed version ??? What do you think should be my action ???
Thank you all so much for you wonderful help and time spent on this topic.
Xeikon
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You should definitely install the latest version of Chameleon.
AsereBLN is no longer in development (your version is almost a year old) and the author has disappeared from the scene. Chameleon 2.0 RC5 can do everything that AsereBLN 1.1.9 could do, and much more.
If your drive is GUID partitioned you can use my guide and files from here:
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649.0.html
Note, you don't have to install Chameleon to your EFI partition, you can install it to your system partition as well if you want to, just change the diskxsy commands where necessary. Obviously you should install it to the same place where your present bootloader is installed to so that it will get completely replaced. It is your job to know where that is.
zip and attach your com.apple.Boot.plist, it probably has some AsereBLN specific settings that will have to be changed to work with Chameleon 2.0 RC5.
Slice:
I have two hard drives, one with Windows 7 and one with Snow Leopard, I can boot both with my Chameleon boot CD, no crashes or kernel panics. If I plug in an USB flash drive it will list that as well. So for me it works fine.
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For you it works fine. So the problem doesn't exist?
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For you it works fine. So the problem doesn't exist?
I did not say or even imply anything like that.
Knowing that it works on my configuration and not on yours is useful information don't you think?
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Rather no then yes.
I am searching any info/confirmation of the bug. It looks like no one ever encountered it or just ignores the problem.
I saw the problem with many other versions of Chameleon, even with 1.0.11.
Previous one with NawcomCD. What is Chameleon there?
When I boot with it I see GUI with a list of drives where I can choose a partition to load. No! It's impossible! Only CD.
The task is follow: during installation I have broken boot0 or boot1. To restore installation I want to boot from CD and then load good system from HDD. I have many bad experiences.
Good experience I have with bootable USB stick. It works on Dell notebook.
Some problem with it presents while booting Samsung notebook. USB bus is not responded during 1-3 minutes. But booting the same chameleon from HDD I see USB is fine. Why? Just different gBIOSdev.
And I still can't understand how to do bvChain to be correct while booting from CD.
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You should definitely install the latest version of Chameleon.
AsereBLN is no longer in development (your version is almost a year old) and the author has disappeared from the scene. Chameleon 2.0 RC5 can do everything that AsereBLN 1.1.9 could do, and much more.
If your drive is GUID partitioned you can use my guide and files from here:
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649.0.html
Note, you don't have to install Chameleon to your EFI partition, you can install it to your system partition as well if you want to, just change the diskxsy commands where necessary. Obviously you should install it to the same place where your present bootloader is installed to so that it will get completely replaced. It is your job to know where that is.
zip and attach your com.apple.Boot.plist, it probably has some AsereBLN specific settings that will have to be changed to work with Chameleon 2.0 RC5.
Slice:
I have two hard drives, one with Windows 7 and one with Snow Leopard, I can boot both with my Chameleon boot CD, no crashes or kernel panics. If I plug in an USB flash drive it will list that as well. So for me it works fine.
May be I am the BUG !! and all this is just happening because I have an old version of Chameleon. Please let me take a good look at you guide and install the latest version of Chameleon. I am not fast with those situations. I would try to make a back up first. Thank you so much for your help.
Xeikon
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If you have everything working it is usually just a matter of replacing the "boot" file on your boot partitions root directory ("/"). YMMV.
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Replacing just /boot will only make matters worse. Xeikon is using a version of Chameleon that is over a year old, he must do a full installation.
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@Gribgo Bermelho: I took a look at your guide and sincerely found it a little difficult for my knowledge of Chameleon. Please, note that, your guide looks very nice and very detailed. Is just that my knowledge is not up to it. Do I have to reinstall all the OS again ?? Or... would you please tell what part of your guide applies to my case. I don´t know why I have the felling that not the complete guide applies to upgrading Chameleon.
Thank you very much,
Xeikon
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No, you don't have to reinstall everything. Just Chameleon.
Please be more specific, I can't guess what you need to know.
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Hello Gringo: I think I will have to start your guide at the point where says:
"Now you can copy the extra, themes and extensions folders, your DSDT.aml, your com.apple.Boot.plist, your smbios.plist and of course your extensions to it. ........."
Since I already have a running, active, EFI HD. Please correct me if I am wrong.
PD: Off-Topic: Where are you from ???
Thanks
Xeikon
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You might wanna use the Guide from http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=164809. However i just recommend changing the first command to ./fdisk440 -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0 if you have a dual boot with windows. However you would have to cd to the i386 folder of the chameleon binaries.
@Gringo Sorry for hijacking and providing another guide.
-Zane
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That's okay Zane, the more the merrier, but note that external links are kind of against the rules on this forum. That's why I wrote the guide here in the first place. Or rather copied and pasted and changed some words. :)
Anyway, no matter which guide he chooses to follow, he still have to know first whether his drive is GUID or MBR and to which partition his present version of Chameleon is installed so that he can overwrite it with the new one. None of these guides can tell him that.
Xeicon: I am originally from northern Europe but I live in Brazil for 5 years now.
I can't see into your computer - that might be where you have to start from, but I can't confirm that for you from where I am!
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Well, the list of HDs is like this... as you see the HD containing the MAC OSX is GUID
bash-3.2# diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *250.1 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS MAC 151.8 GB disk0s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data MACBOX 98.0 GB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk1
1: Windows_NTFS Untitled 107.4 GB disk1s1
2: Windows_FAT_32 BOX 64 197.0 GB disk1s3
3: Windows_NTFS CAJA 2 195.7 GB disk1s5
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2
1: Windows_NTFS Iomega HDD 1.0 TB disk2s1
@All people who is helping me: The two guides, kindly refereed to me, say that I should make the disk bootable and make the specific partition active. In my case, all that, is already happening. I wonder why do I have to make all the disk & partition bootable & active. There is a way to just intall Chameleon and the copy in it my personalized plist and files? ?????
Thank you all !!! very much
Xeikon
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Right. No, if you already have Chameleon installed to the EFI partition on your disk0, just follow this to the letter:
Install boot0 to the MBR:
./fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0
Install boot1h to the bootsector of the EFI partition:
dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk0s1
Then, copy the file ‘boot’ to it:
cp boot /Volumes/EFI
That's all as far as upgrading goes.
The rest is configuration via plists, other files and such, specific to your system.
However, I don't know if Chameleon is installed to your EFI partition or to your system partition.
It is your job to know that.
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That's okay Zane, the more the merrier, but note that external links are kind of against the rules on this forum. That's why I wrote the guide here in the first place. Or rather copied and pasted and changed some words. :)
Anyway, no matter which guide he chooses to follow, he still have to know first whether his drive is GUID or MBR and to which partition his present version of Chameleon is installed so that he can overwrite it with the new one. None of these guides can tell him that.
Xeicon: I am originally from northern Europe but I live in Brazil for 5 years now.
I can't see into your computer - that might be where you have to start from, but I can't confirm that for you from where I am!
Oops. I shall refrain from posting external links then. I just sometimes find that that guide is easier to "comprehend" for beginners.
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Hello Gringo: Thanks for the steps and guide. Looking at your guide, I see that you are activating the disks to boot correctly. What I really don´t know is how to to look into the EFI partition to see if chameleon is there as a boot system. I can see into the System partition /extra folder and there are the configuration files. But I don´t know how to check into the EFI (200 MB or so partition). I really understood, that you said "it´s your job to know that", but I really don´t know how to do it.
Thanks for your help.
Xeikon
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That's simple, just try mounting it. Commands are in the guide. If you can't mount it then it hasn't been initialized and there's nothing on it. Another way to quickly check where Chameleon is installed is to look for the file "boot". If it's at the root of your system drive, then that's where Chameleon is installed. Note that this might be a hidden file and you will not be able to see it in the Finder, unless you enable hidden files:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE (run the command again but with FALSE to disable view hidden files)
However, since you have an Extra folder at root I think it's safe to assume that Chameleon is installed to your system partition.
Zane: Feel free to rewrite the installation guide you linked to and post it here in the General forum....make it even more no0b friendly if you feel like it. Don't forget to credit the original author. You can link to the files in my guide (i386 folder and default theme), I try to keep them updated when I can.
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Gringo, I see in your signature "Chameleon RC5 rev7xxx". But look, since rev 654 the only change is bdmesg became 32/64.
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I am from the future.
..
(I know it's wrong, I gave up trying to figure out what rev I'm actually running. And now I don't have to edit my sig until 10.6.7 comes out).
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Hello,
I seem to have a similar problem to this one.
I have a HP Probook 4330s. I recently bought an external WD Mypassport usb HDD and installed MacOsX there (didn't want to mess my internal drive partitions because it's a business laptop).
Before Chameleon, the dreaded EBIOS errors appear for 30 seconds, then Chameleon loads and I can boot into MacOsX normally. I have tried almost everything noted here. Is there something I am missing and could try doing? I have done everything that can be done inside MacOs X (permissions repair, Boot/Kernel cache rebuilt etc. )
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.