Author Topic: TUT: Create Chameleon USB from Windows  (Read 64327 times)

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ceckin

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TUT: Create Chameleon USB from Windows
« on: August 19, 2011, 08:38:29 PM »
This is a methd to create a booting usb from windows, without the need of installers or anything else.

1) Things you need:
Attatched bootsector files (this files are taken from chameleonb build, they are respectivly - Mbr.bin - boot0 and bs32.bin - boot1f32).
Preferably latest build of chameleon. Download the tar.gz file and unpack with 7z.

2) Preperation:
BACKUP ANYTHING IMPORTANT ON THE FLASH DRIVE.
- You have to have a some form of partition on your USB, so windows can assign a letter to it. If its empty format in FAT32
- Unpack the bootsector arhive and run through CMD this command:
"makeusb X:" (WHERE X IS THE LETTER ASSIGNED TO YOUR USB)
- Unplug the drive and put it back in
- Now you should have a fresh (empty) partition. All you have to do is unpack the trunk build you downloaded in the root of the USB drive.
- You should copy boot from /usr/standalone/boot to the root folder of your USB. So that there are atleast 2 folders - Extra/usr and 1 file - boot (not extension).
- You're set, now create your config files/put your extensions/adapt your themes

PROS:
Every modern pc/mac can read FAT32
You can use the USB drive for files (it may sound weird, but compared to HFS+ the devices that support it are much more)
You don't Mac for creating the bootloader

CONS:
FAT32 is slow, atleast slowER compared to HFS+

Credits: To the person that the BS archive in the first place. I don't know who is the author, this method is modified version of the XPC bootloader tutorial.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2012, 12:16:12 AM by Gringo Vermelho »

knipple

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Re: TUT: Create Chameleon USB from Windows
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2011, 07:57:00 PM »
Can you please go into more detail about this procedure?  Also, I'm getting an error whenever I enter makeusb that it isn't a command either internal or external.

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: TUT: Create Chameleon USB from Windows
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2011, 11:16:12 PM »
This happens because makeusb is not a Windows command. Makeusb is a batch file that's included in the archive you have extracted and you need to "be" in that folder in order to run the batch file. In the same way that, in the Windows Explorer, you need to "be" in a folder in order to open/run something inside that folder.

Click the Windows Start Button and type cmd in the search.
cmd.exe should appear at the top. Right click it, then click "Run as administrator".
An "elevated command prompt" window appears.
Assuming you've extracted Chameleon_BS to your desktop, navigate to that folder by typing:
cd /users/[your account name]/Desktop/chameleon_BS
Now type makeusb [flash drive driveletter]:

You should see this:
Code: [Select]
Format G: ...
Create boot sector ...
Read DBR: successful!
Patching FAT32 BPB: successful!
Write DBR: successful!
Write MBR: successful!
Done.
RePlug device before using it!

C:\Users\[you]\Desktop\Chameleon_BS

btw this really works, and on my hardware almost out of the box. I could boot my 10.6.3 retail DVD restored to HDD with it, only adding fakesmc.kext (latest version available at the OSX Project forums) to /Extra/Extensions. Thanks ceckin. btw you should add that the command prompt must be elevated. I could not get it to work from a normal command prompt.

It is not necessary to unpack the whole archive to the root of the USB drive, just the file 'boot' will do.
Extra/usr is not necessary and I don't think Chameleon will even look inside that folder.
See screenshot of a Chameleon folder hierarchy below - note that the files shown are from my personal configuration that works with my hardware. The screenshot is just to show what it might look like.

Important:

OS X property lists are UTF-8 formatted XML files. On Windows, use a proper XML editor like Notepad++ to edit smbios.plist and org.chameleon.Boot.plist:
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ (get the minimalist version)
Do not use regular Notepad or Wordpad. They will mess up the formatting big time and Chameleon will not be able to read your plists. I have attached a clean org.chameleon.Boot.plist and my own MacPro3,1 smbios.plist.

I copied my Chameleon HDD installation's Extra folder to the flash drive and as expected it boots right into 10.6.8 without a hitch.
 
« Last Edit: May 29, 2012, 04:49:16 AM 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

Neolo

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Re: TUT: Create Chameleon USB from Windows
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2012, 12:12:48 PM »
UsbBs32.bin Not found WTF?

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: TUT: Create Chameleon USB from Windows
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2012, 09:07:56 PM »
It works fine if you follow the instructions.

If you want help please provide more information.
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