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Chameleon 2.0-RC2 is available with new features and less bugs

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Posted 25. July 2009


In this new release of Chameleon 2 we have fixed many annoying bugs and also added some cool new features like NVIDIA graphics card detection, automatic RAID booting, enabling HPET on motherboards without BIOS control, setting the built-in flag for ethernet cards, hiding non-bootable HFS partitions.


Article is written by Tamás KOSÁRSZKY.

About the new features (updated)

If you open the BootHelp.txt or type “?” at the boot prompt, you can get a list of the options what can be added to the com.apple.Boot.plist. The new options are disabled by default, so you need some config editing or you can even try them by specifying at the boot prompt.

New options

GraphicsEnabler will detect your NVIDIA graphics card and setup the necessary device-properties at runtime. These values injected to the IODeviceTree are needed to make the NVIDIA drives working properly. You also need to disable your hardwired device-properties key in your boot.plist (generated by EFIStudio for example) and remove other “enabler” kexts for your graphics card (NVEnabler, Natit, NVinject, etc).

EthernetBuiltIn scans the PCI bus for ethernet controllers and enables the “built-in” property for them. The same rules apply here as apply for the GraphicsEnabler regarding hardwired boot.plist device-properties or kexts.

ForceHPET can enable the HPET in your chipset even if your BIOS doesn’t have any control to turn it on.

There are two new options available to make your boot experience even more clean or traditional ;P If you disable Boot Banner, it won’t print the version and build info to the GUI, while enabling the Legacy Logo option will end up drawing the old grey apple logo instead of the one specified in the theme.

Apple software RAID support

With the RC2 version you no longer need to edit your boot.plist to add the RAID volume’s uuid for the kernel. Also we can display the RAID volume label properly.

Hiding non-bootable HFS filesystems from the boot menu

Now the booter inspects all HFS filesystems and will display only those who have SystemVersion.plist or ServerVersion.plist files under System/Library/CoreServices folder.

Fixed bugs

Without mentioning all changes, here is a brief list about the most annoying ones:

Chameleon will no longer reboots before getting to the menu if you use a @Hz frequency parameter in the “Graphics Mode” setting, we just simply ignore the refresh rate for the moment.
Fixed FireWire DMA mode issues by removing IODeviceTree/options node. Fixed loading of DSDT.aml file, now it can be loaded from any path like “rd(0,0)/Extra/DSDT.aml” for example. Removed obsolete “Boot Graphics” option to prevent starting xnu without a framebuffer.

You may do a diff in the sources between r431 and r640 to inspect all changes.

Download information

You can get the binaries here: Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640-bin.tar.gz

Installer package: Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640.pkg.zip

Sources: Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640-src.tar.gz

Note for real Mac users:

Chameleon is developed to boot Darwin/Mac OS X on PCs, it doesn’t work on Macs.
Please don’t install Chameleon to your system drive, we got many failure reports with unbootable Macs after installing Chameleon.

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Comments

  1. VultU · 25. July 2009, 22:34 · #

    Thank you guys!!!

    Great Work!

  2. Simon · 25. July 2009, 22:53 · #

    Cool!

  3. idSoftware · 25. July 2009, 23:16 · #

    Thank you guys, you rock!!!!

  4. bilben1 · 25. July 2009, 23:27 · #

    It is beautiful! Thank you so much! Using it to quad boot into MSI Wind with Leopard 10.5.7, snow Leopard, win7 and XP.

  5. 18seven · 26. July 2009, 00:06 · #

    Awesome, updated efi with package np, testing….

  6. Alvin · 26. July 2009, 00:46 · #

    It works. It now detects the PC 800 4GB. Time Machine still works. Thank you. I hope the next version would have drivers for the Palit 4870 Sonic (it’s a fast card and it’s a good standard for OSX86 because it has dual BIOS. Perfect for flash experimentations) and other cards with deep sleep and native DVI, HDMI and VGA ports without the need for ResX (I’m using the VGA for ResX which I’m thankful for but it’s better if it’s just simpler and direct DVI or HDMI. No need for additional softwares to install). Also include a read and write for NTFS hardisks.

    I think if we put all the drivers in the bootloader it’ll be much more convenient and things would be more centralized (you only have to go here to download it). Chameleon should be a standard (the best developer like Netkas are supporting it anyway. Thanks Netkas and the rest of the crew).

    Gbu.

  7. Istivi Jobis · 26. July 2009, 01:10 · #

    I hope the next version would have drivers for ATI cards….

  8. SomeOne · 26. July 2009, 01:22 · #

    When u Guys will finally add different OS Booting Password Protection?

  9. Kabyl · 26. July 2009, 01:23 · #

    Alvin,

    Thanks for the kind words, however, netkas has nothing to do with Chameleon.

    And he’s not supporting it when he releases binaries as PC_EFI, and not contribute back by releasing the changes.

  10. BarboneNet · 26. July 2009, 01:56 · #

    Hi, How can i boot with Chameleon 2 rc2 & my Apple Raid Software???

    thamks

  11. xevious · 26. July 2009, 02:21 · #

    Bugs in pkg installers when using MBR partition maps.

    Just installed a triple boot system with the partitions as follows:

    (MBR partition map)
    1 OS X (HFS+J)
    2 Linux Swap
    3 Linux Root (ext3)
    4 Windows (NTFS)

    I attempted to install Chameleon 2 RC1 from the pkg installer, and received an Error loading operating system message when I booted the system. A few minutes later RC2 came out so I tried the installer pkg and got the same results. I double checked /boot and it was updated by the installer pkg. I then downloaded the binaries and installed boot0 and boot1h manually and my system works.

  12. iztech · 26. July 2009, 04:43 · #

    Any chance of install for Nvidia ION chipset Atom 330 – stalls on logo

  13. Brian · 26. July 2009, 05:50 · #

    I’m not able to install. I receive an error near the end of the installation. I sent chameleon the error logs and hopefully I will get a reply soon. This sounds like a good release and I’m looking forward to getting it running.

  14. Brian · 26. July 2009, 05:52 · #

    It looks like I have the same postupgrade failure with RC1. Maybe something is wrong with my system?

    Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this.

  15. Apex · 26. July 2009, 07:17 · #

    Thanks! NVidia Graphic autoproperty creation works great, but my Ethernet NIC is not recognised as internal when using EthernetBuiltIn=yes. Even if i add it manually via Deviceproperty as i did with RC1

    Anyone got EthernetBuiltIn working?

  16. Thomas · 26. July 2009, 10:21 · #

    @KABYL – maybe netkas doesn’t return his changes because you make it so difficult to do that – no svn access, and no instructions how to submit changes otherwise, either. I had a little fix once as well and when I asked in the forum there was no reply on how to submit it.

  17. Windu100 · 26. July 2009, 10:46 · #

    Hey, i have a msi wind u100 plus. I installed it on the only hard drive i have, and now it seems to be bypassing the normal startup options. I ONLY have 10.5.7 installed, but it will no longer boot. The user logon screen comes up with a blue screen. The computer is working, only you cannot see anything.

    HOW do i completely delete chameleon and all of its components off of my computer, therefore stoping it from overriding the previous startup? PLEASE email me at
    windu100h@gmail.com my computer is useless at the moment, (this is posted from a friends), i have no idea what to do. Sorry for being such an ID10T

  18. mark · 26. July 2009, 11:22 · #

    just notice
    feauture setting built-in is okey even if dsdt.aml contain this fix.
    But auto add nvidia efi string to plist(by installer?) not comfortable because user’s may have nvinject kext,dsdt other.
    I suggest disable by default feauture that can incorrectly override tweaked hack system,and users who want it, enable it exactly via plist.

  19. MiniHach · 26. July 2009, 17:02 · #

    Thanks! Now can boot my eSATA Windows 7 drive (previous version would not). Also appreciate the feature of just showing bootable partitions.
    Is the CD rescan feature supposed to let you boot from retail? If so, not working for me (SATA DVD Drive, AHCI).
    Works nice on a USB stick for keeping HDs vanilla. Appreciate also the SMBIOS injection- though it is of course not new, it is a useful feature others lack.
    Does not recognise my graphics card (built in NVidia 9300), so still have “I can has this model?” with NVKush.

  20. joe75 · 26. July 2009, 17:51 · #

    @Thomas.. netkas doesn’t give changes because he doesn’t want YOU or any one else to have them.. it has nothing to do with svn access

  21. Kabyl · 26. July 2009, 17:57 · #

    Thomas, no, we’re not making it difficult, and no, there are instructions, and if you check the forums, people have done it already, and still doing it. If you didn’t get a reply, doesn’t mean your question is not answered, or that the instructions are not there.

    It would probably be better if you posted a patch in the topic you created. What I mean is, people should use their common sense..

    When it comes to netkas, he has his site where he releases the binaries, should I, now, consider him an ignorant and tell him how to also include the changes? no, because he did release some changes, but not everything, and we all know about it, if you didn’t, now you do.

    Ok, enough of this, it’s not the place for it, I only replied to Alvin’s post (which, btw, was mostly off topic) so that people don’t get the wrong information/idea, and it wouldn’t be nice to just delete it.

  22. iNDi · 26. July 2009, 19:12 · #

    @MiniHach , you would have to remove any older injection method such as natit , nvinject etc to take advantage of the nvidia detection offered by Chameleon.

  23. maco · 26. July 2009, 19:56 · #

    This is an installer, but how can i burn it to be bootable? and where do i add my kexts?

    thanks

  24. griggel · 26. July 2009, 20:30 · #

    netkas DOES release sources now, so PEACE people

  25. Kabyl · 26. July 2009, 20:37 · #

    griggel, I thought I said enough of this?

    Well, no wonder you couldn’t but to flame, you don’t read and you have no idea what you’re talking about.

    More of this is not tolerated, so just don’t bother posting about it, it’s going to be deleted, to stay on topic, and keep things clean.

  26. AsereBLN · 26. July 2009, 23:20 · #

    Using Chameleon 2.0 RC2 now. But nVidia GFX detection and setting “built-in” for ethernet does not work for me. Found no doc about it and maybe I missed something to enable/use this new feature. First question: is this new feature done by installer or dynamically at boottime by Chameleon? Second: what about com.apple.Boot.plist? Should I delete it or should I delete only the device-properties section? I tried both and no one gave me full resolution GFX nor built-in ethernet.

    Any hints?

    GFX: nVidia 7300 GT 256MB
    MB: GA-EP45-DS3 (F9)

    EFiX Disassembled: see my blog.

  27. d00d · 27. July 2009, 01:18 · #

    I have Chameleon booting OS X on a RAID 0 pair of X25-Ms, and storage and backup partitions on a RAID 1 pair of Seagate 1.5TBs;

    [mac05:~] root# diskutil list
    /dev/disk0 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *74.5 Gi disk0 1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1 2: Apple_RAID 74.2 Gi disk0s2 3: Apple_Boot Boot OSX 128.0 Mi disk0s3
    /dev/disk1 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *74.5 Gi disk1 1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk1s1 2: Apple_RAID 74.2 Gi disk1s2 3: Apple_Boot Boot OSX 128.0 Mi disk1s3
    /dev/disk2 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: Apple_HFS mac05 *148.4 Gi disk2
    /dev/disk3 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.4 Ti disk3 1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk3s1 2: Apple_RAID 500.0 Gi disk3s2 3: Apple_Boot Boot OSX 128.0 Mi disk3s3 4: Apple_RAID 896.8 Gi disk3s4 5: Apple_Boot Boot OSX 128.0 Mi disk3s5
    /dev/disk4 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.4 Ti disk4 1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk4s1 2: Apple_RAID 500.0 Gi disk4s2 3: Apple_Boot Boot OSX 128.0 Mi disk4s3 4: Apple_RAID 896.8 Gi disk4s4 5: Apple_Boot Boot OSX 128.0 Mi disk4s5
    /dev/disk5 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: Apple_HFS storage *500.0 Gi disk5
    /dev/disk6 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: Apple_HFS backup *896.8 Gi disk6
    [mac05:~] root#

    With RC1 I get sixteen repeating sets of `EBIOS read error: Error 0×01’ and `Block -1364952312 Sectors 64’ lines before the Chameleon countdown timer. If I then press a key during the countdown timer I get eight sets of `EBIOS read error: Error 0×01’ and `Block -1364952310 Sectors 64’ lines, eight sets of `EBIOS read error: Error 0×01’ and `Block -1364950248 Sectors 64’ lines, and four sets of `EBIOS read error: Error 0×01’ and `Block -13649550224 Sectors 64’ lines before it freezes.

    At least with RC1 it can boot, but with RC2 the Chameleon countdown timer never shows, and it goes through all thirty six sets of ebios error lines before it freezes.

    This seems to be related to libsaio’s sys.c inability to cope with the Seagate 1.5TB drive, and fdisk reports negative geometry as well;

    [mac05:~] root# fdisk -e /dev/rdisk3
    fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory
    Enter ‘help’ for information
    fdisk: 1> p
    Disk: /dev/rdisk3 geometry: -5415437/4/63 [-1364690128 sectors]
    Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55 Starting Ending #: id cyl hd sec – cyl hd sec [ start – size]
    ———————————————————————————————————— 1: EE 1023 254 63 – 1023 254 63 [ 1 – -1364690129] <Unknown ID> 2: 00 0 0 0 – 0 0 0 [ 0 – 0] unused 3: 00 0 0 0 – 0 0 0 [ 0 – 0] unused 4: 00 0 0 0 – 0 0 0 [ 0 – 0] unused
    fdisk: 1> q
    [mac05:~] root#

    There’s a similar Solaris problem here;

    http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=86669&tstart=0

  28. Grako · 27. July 2009, 05:34 · #

    Awesome! Great Work! Thanks a lot guys…it works for me, anybody knows how to disable non-bootable drives from showing at bootscreen…any help would be appreciated! thanks again…more power to the chameleon team!!!

  29. ac3bcn · 27. July 2009, 10:40 · #

    One question here? If i’ve insatalled RC1, to install RC2 can I override only the boot file, or I’ve to do a full installation of the RC2?
    Thanks.

  30. Kabyl · 27. July 2009, 11:23 · #

    ac3bcn, from RC1 to RC2, just replace /boot

  31. ac3bcn · 27. July 2009, 11:56 · #

    Thanks Kabyl, I’ll try later.

  32. fassl · 27. July 2009, 13:52 · #

    @ASEREBLN: its created dynamically at boottime, If you have a device-properties string in the Boot.plist already it will use that one. So to use the feature you have to delete the device-properties string in your Boot.plist.

  33. imacken · 27. July 2009, 20:43 · #

    Won’t install.
    Just get error ‘install step failed: run postupgrade script for standard.’
    Any ideas?

  34. Kabyl · 27. July 2009, 21:32 · #

    imacken, and everyone getting installer errors,

    open Console, select “Console Messages”, and use pastbin.com to post the full installer logs.

  35. excos · 27. July 2009, 22:03 · #

    very very cool. Thanks.

  36. Lord Anubis · 27. July 2009, 22:41 · #

    Hi, Just curious about what exactly the changes are between rc1 and rc2. When will they be available?

    Also is the firewire security problem solved?

    There was a pointer to the forum, please give us there information about releases, code suplying etc.

    BTW, I think you ment pastebin.com

    Greetz

  37. zef · 28. July 2009, 02:35 · #

    @Lord Anubis:

    Just updated the post with new info about the features, fixed bugs.

  38. Zapp · 28. July 2009, 09:53 · #

    I installed the new RC2 but my themes from RC1 is not working now? Any how I can fix it?

  39. Nick · 28. July 2009, 10:15 · #

    I get the wrong resolution from the boot loader after installing the rc2 and the theme that I originally set are gone but the com.apple.boot.plist is giving the right values for both the theme and resolution what should I do?

  40. Safa · 28. July 2009, 11:09 · #

    new build do not installed at GPT hybrid disks! Renamed DSDT not loaded from extra. And I’m not possible disable graphic mode – GUI = no, I upset by the new version((

  41. Logy Laps · 28. July 2009, 11:26 · #

    To anyone getting the ‘install step failed: run postupgrade script for standard’ error message:
    open terminal, run ‘rm -rf /.Chameleon’ (without quotes, ofcource). fixed the problem for me.

  42. zef · 28. July 2009, 11:38 · #

    Guys,

    Can you post your detailed bug report on the forums please?
    We need your partition layout, where the bootloader is located, your boot.plist. We can’t do anything with “wrong resolution”, “theme doesn’t work” and “upset by the new version” statements ;)

    Peace,
    zef

  43. Proxim · 28. July 2009, 17:14 · #

    Work Great but I think there is a bug with the new “GraphicsEnabler” thing.
    Now i can’t change color profile with my screen. Color profile is included in files when i save them (ex: with aperçu) but when i choose a color profile the color of the screen does not change anymore.

    Moreover The “display calibrator assitant” does not affect color either.

    I’am using Nvidia 8800gts 320 on Gigabyte P35DS4

  44. gugadj · 28. July 2009, 17:41 · #

    snow leopard ….works???

  45. JLO · 28. July 2009, 20:38 · #

    Won’t install to a USB stick, keeps hanging on Installing Core – Writing Package Receipt.
    I have the JAS 10.5.6 on the USB stick and have installed the No-EFI Darwin bootloader using OSX86Tools.
    Any workarounds?

  46. rocksteady · 28. July 2009, 21:51 · #

    Quick thank-u note to all involved. Just found some time to try r640, lotsa things look cleaner + boots faster on my hack.

  47. chimp · 28. July 2009, 22:58 · #

    please, since instalation of RC2 my custom AppleSMBIOS that made my hack be reconized as iMac doesn’t work anymore, and it’s being recognized as MacPro2,1. Please, how can I make it go back? thanks.

  48. Juergen · 28. July 2009, 23:06 · #

    Installed With Boot 132 on Thinkpad T61 10.5.7
    Works fine and boots fine with boot-132 CD in less than 10 sec.

    But with Chameleon it will not boot at all?
    I installed Standard Boot Loader, no kext?

    Any Idea

  49. theStevo · 28. July 2009, 23:34 · #

    Hey Chameleon team, thanks for your continued service to the community. My best to Kabyl, Zef, and FASSL.

    Anyway, I was wondering, does this solve the Boot1 error on ICH8R (specifically on Dell E520/XPS410/Dimension 9200)? I’m away from that box at the moment, so pardon the flakiness of the question, but that has been a problem on Chameleon (and Netkas) bootloaders since 1.0.11. And, when I don’t run in raid, half of the time the system won’t load the SATA driver for ATA mode. No rhyme nor reason, sometimes it goes and sometimes not. I just have to keep rebooting until it does. Does anyone understand these problems? I’ve read that some others are having them.

    Anyway, that’s just one box, thanks so much for your work and for the source :)

  50. bulletproof · 28. July 2009, 23:35 · #

    AWESOME!!! Thanks!!!

  51. Ze0ne · 29. July 2009, 13:40 · #

    Thanks!

  52. genzai · 30. July 2009, 02:15 · #

    Amazing work again guys.
    The graphics and TM injection are killer features. Love seeing things get more and more advanced. I’ll be making another donation.

    One question I have is about the JMicronATAInjector.kext that is installed into /Extra folder with this version. Can someone explain what it does? I have been searching but cant find the info. I thought maybe its a replacement for the patched kext that fix 4gb support but I’m not sure.

    Thanks,
    g\

  53. emato · 30. July 2009, 02:51 · #

    Hi guys, thanks a lot for all your efforts. I’m very happy with the way this is evolving, nice features :D.

    Small problem, I can’t use it on my athlon64, it’s all working fine except for qe/ci. Even if I turn it off in the com.boot.plist and put my efi string back it won’t take it. So I’m back to RC1 for now.
    Do you need any extra info so you can track the problem?
    GeForce 8400 GS 256mb ID 06e4

  54. AP · 30. July 2009, 07:26 · #

    Wow.

    Installed 10.5.6 with Boot-132 on a ThinkPad T61 (GMA X3100 + Atheros WiFi). Upgraded via Software Update to 10.5.7. Installed Chameleon.

    It is now a MacBook. Flawless. I’m in awe. My hat off to you.

  55. Crystal Clear · 30. July 2009, 09:16 · #

    I stand corrected. You do care about this community.
    …and I could have calibrated those words differently.

    Thanks (for caring).

  56. bmttinman · 30. July 2009, 17:11 · #

    Can not get it to work on EP45T-UD3P with ATI4850. Goes to blank screen or does not load to EFI. I have tried both EFI installs and have tried just plain with no custom

  57. Apex · 30. July 2009, 19:06 · #

    @ ASEREBLN

    Same here, no auto detection of GFX or setting EthernetBuilIn on GA-EP45-DS3. I removed all EFI Strings and enabled the Features -> no go

  58. rayap · 1. August 2009, 07:26 · #

    Could not work on EP45-DS4P with ATI4850 too. KP or with -x garbled lined black & white screen.

  59. Karl · 2. August 2009, 07:05 · #

    Hi there. Just tried installing on a 16GB CF card+reader – got message ‘this installation failed’ but no further hints as to why. Anyone managed this?

  60. Matt · 2. August 2009, 16:37 · #

    do you have a guide on how to change the boot screen to loading screen? thanks

  61. NoSmokingBandit · 2. August 2009, 19:53 · #

    Makes me proud to see my Bullet theme in there! Thanks a ton, you guys are just awesome. I wish i could contribute more.

  62. George Barton · 5. August 2009, 04:32 · #

    RC1 worked pretty well for me. RC2 ignores my default partition setting in Boot.plist and defaults to the first partiton.

  63. beta · 5. August 2009, 23:49 · #

    When will it be Snow ready? :)

  64. masteryous · 6. August 2009, 06:17 · #

    Hey – all the new features work as advertised… wow, great job.

    Umm I do have a small nit – not sure if this is the best place to report a bug…

    Ok, I have an HP dv9700t with a GeForce 8400M GS. And just about everything works with some kexts/other modding, including sleep. I used to use NVdarwin to inject. I tried GraphicsEnabler in Chameleon RC 2 and it works & detects my vid card, heck even CI/QE works. Nice work there. However, I can’t resume from sleep, as the video doesn’t come back and this causes everything else to hang up too. So I went back to NVdarwin and sleep works again. Hope this helps someone track something down (unless I’m doing something wrong).

    Anyway this is NOT a big deal nor a major complaint and the RC2 release is great. Congrats.

  65. Famicom · 6. August 2009, 08:24 · #

    I got the 1.0.149 version of osx86tools but it’s still not working for me =(

    I press run script and get the terminal. It asks for my password but I don’t have one so I just press enter. Then I type 4 and nothing happens.

    What am I doing wrong?

  66. Famicom · 6. August 2009, 08:30 · #

    I have evertyhing mixed up.
    I think I might have screwed up bigtime. I just installed chameleon on my MBP. I thought it was a tool that I needed to on install on the computer I was using to make a bootable USB to OSX on a netbook.

    So let me get this straight, I have to install Chameleon on to the USB ?

  67. Jingu · 6. August 2009, 20:39 · #

    Doesn’t seem to work with GPT/MBR hybrid hard drives.

    I have a ICH7MDH SATA RAID controller (device id: 0×27c68086) but the disks are not set up as a RAID array, so 2 seperate hard disks.

    1st Partition: Leopard
    2nd Partition: Windows 7

    Installed chameleon with EFI script EFI-boot-i386

    No matter what I’ve been doing for a week, I still get the boot1: error and never see the Chameleon loader

  68. tmongkol · 7. August 2009, 09:47 · #

    Thank for your work.

    I got sound assertion when I used Chameleon 2 RC2 for Leo and Snow. Go back to use RC1 for Leo and Snow + netkas’ boot v10.

  69. Jonas · 7. August 2009, 16:11 · #

    I’m with a new PC in my hands and i bought OSX, i would like to install it on the machine.

    Is there a tutorial/README on how to use Chamaleon?
    (The installer is only for apple computers, and my since i’m waiting for my macbook to arrive i would like to know if i can use the binaries and “build” everyting needed from say ubuntu (live?)).

    I’m relatively new to all MAC things related and if someone can give me some pointers i would apreciate.

    Thank very much.

  70. andy · 7. August 2009, 16:36 · #

    would be very nice if Chameleon would boot RAID modes, it doesn’t have to boot windows in RAID however would be nice if I didn’t have to go back and force into bios changing AHCI to RAID so I can boot into Windows. i.e before chameleon install I was able to boot OSX fine with hdds set as raid from bios , after chameleon I was forced to change to AHCI otherwise it wouldn’t boot at all.

    One more thingy, can you give a few hints how to repair hardware profile info – ‘There was an error while gathering this information.’ .

    Thank you gentlemen, happy to have you.

  71. paul · 8. August 2009, 19:14 · #

    sounds like i might be selling my efix.

  72. Dennis · 9. August 2009, 00:42 · #

    I’m gonna sell my EFI-X… worst product/customer service ever!
    I’ve put Chameleon on a USB stick and with a little tweaking it’s working even beter for me.

    Thanks

  73. vinegar · 9. August 2009, 21:03 · #

    so i tried this with a vanilla install using two evga 9800 GT 512mb cards and it resulted in quartz extreme reading “not supported” and core image going software-only. i had previously been using EFI-string only, and did remove it as instructed with graphicsenabled. no deal.

  74. nameless2k · 9. August 2009, 21:42 · #

    standing work, guys. Your Chameleon Project is really awesome. Keep up the good work!!! Cheers from Berlin…

  75. Edward Cooper · 10. August 2009, 20:02 · #

    I’ve got a problem whereby the bootloader fails to start, freezes on the loading cursor “/”, when we have an older FAT USB Hard drive connected. I assume something about it is upsetting Chameleon – there is no OS loaded on this drive.

    Thanks

    Ed

  76. Bob · 10. August 2009, 20:42 · #

    I have a Point of View GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB and it isn’t getting detected by Chameleon RC2. I get 1024×768 with no QE/CI :(

    I also tried to use EFIStudio and I get a black screen with a mouse cursor I can move but nothing else.

    Any ideas?

  77. snowman · 11. August 2009, 02:01 · #

    What’s the word on Snow Leopard? Has anyone been able to install the Developer Release on a compatible PC? Will Chameleon make it boot?
    thanks

  78. sleepy · 11. August 2009, 03:14 · #

    When “Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver” in the Security Preference Pane is enabled, it doesn’t ask for password as it should. This may seem like a minor Hackintosh issue, but it can be annoying on a work computer. It means that you have to shut down your computer when you go to lunch, etc. Any ideas on this?

  79. ncs12 · 11. August 2009, 05:30 · #

    Ok so I have an issue. I am trying to install on an HP laptop. The laptop has two drives, the first contains Vista and Windows 7, and the second now has a retail install of OSX. Obviously the first disk is MBR and the second disk is GPT. My problem arises because I went to install Chameleon on my second drive and when I rebooted and went into my BIOS options to select to boot from the second drive, there is no option to boot from this second drive. Is there a way to install Chameleon on the first drive with Windows and MBR and have it boot OSX on the second GPT disk?

  80. RobRu · 11. August 2009, 20:36 · #

    I am running a multi-boot system on the same drive. I have Win7, Vista, and WinXP, and OSX 10.5.7 installed on the same 500GB drive. The Win7, Vista, and WinXP are primary partitions, the OSX is a extended partition. I have been using Windows BCD to boot the different OS’s. I used EasyBCD 2.0 to setup the MAC BCD sections.

    I have a strange problem.. I installed Chameleon 2.0-RC2 as per included readme. When I use EasyBCD to setup my OSX boot (MBR) : \NST\nst_mac.mbr I get a Boot1: error. When I do a (EFI) : \NST\nst_mac.efi then OSX boots but it comes up as Chameleon 1 ?

    I don’t understand how that is happening since I did not install Chameleon 1 but Chameleon 2.0-RC2.

    Thank you in advance, Rob.

  81. MacDude · 12. August 2009, 09:39 · #

    I can’t get chameleon 2.0-RC2 bootloader to work with my GA-P35-DS4.. did i do something wrong?. i have tried both mode AHCI and IDE

    the only version that work was 1.0.11

    thank in Advance!

  82. MacDude · 12. August 2009, 09:51 · #

    oh yeah!, one more thing. all my Hard drives and DVD-ROM are SATA

  83. Doddler · 13. August 2009, 09:20 · #

    No luck here, only works with Chameleon 1.0.11 on an Aopen ex915 (SATA) HFS+

  84. MacNoob · 13. August 2009, 12:29 · #

    I would like to switch from using the old “Munky EFI bootloader method” http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=127330) to Chameleon. Is it possible? It’s not a straight download/install is it?

  85. Liesil · 13. August 2009, 18:44 · #

    Is it possible to add or remove partitions that Chameleon reads? I have searched plenty of forums and have only found instructions on how to set up the default partition. For example, I have a few hard drives that serve as just data and backup drives and do not want them appearing on the bootscreen. Any suggestions? Is this possible?

  86. eAlex79 · 14. August 2009, 20:52 · #

    Using Chameleon 2.0 rc2 my Atheros WLan works again in 10.5.8!! (didn’t work w/ 10.5.6 or higher!)

    I don’t get why, but:

    THANK YOU!

    :D lol

  87. beta992 · 15. August 2009, 00:20 · #

    @genzai: no, you still need to install jMicronATA.kext from darwin-ata. (Google-it)

    To all people with ‘GPU-injector’ problems here: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.darwinx86.org%2Fguides%2Finstaller-configurer%2Fchameleon%2F154-chameleon-v2-acte-vi-linjection-graphique&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=

    Thanks for your (hard) work Chameleon. :)

    (Hope that you will/can support Snow a.k.a. 64-bit soon)

  88. Kabyl · 15. August 2009, 01:56 · #

    beta992, people are using Chameleon to boot snow since RC1.

  89. beta992 · 15. August 2009, 22:52 · #

    Really? .. aha, but with netkas’s boot file? (Or not?)

  90. Kabyl · 16. August 2009, 10:33 · #

    pc_efi v10(.1) is based on RC1 which already can load a 64bit xnu kernel, but there is an issue when loading KEXTs (MKEXTs can be loaded just fine) which is why people needed to create the cache in the first reboot, so pc_efi v10+ handles that, but it’s still a dirty hack (from reports I heard), the changes made to pc_efi v10+ were not all released by netkas, that includes this “hack”.

    The current internal svn handles it fine now, and will be in the next release :)

    Hope that explained it well.

  91. tmongkol · 16. August 2009, 12:09 · #

    Using RC2-r640’s boot, I got sound assertions when I ran 64 bit SL 10A432. It’s not appearing when I ran 32 bit SL. or, If I replaced with netkas’s v10 boot, I got no sound assertions in 64 bit mode.

    As installing, I installed RC2-r640 & didn’t select to install Extras/Kexts and it showed Failed info. However, before I restarted, I got to delete .Chameleon (hidden folder). Then, I restarted and it worked fine.

    I love smbios.plist, it is more compatible. However, I got to set my system as MacPro only; otherwise, I will get short popping sound before normal sound. Does anyone know about this cause?

    Thank you for your work again.

    Spec: EP45-UD3R, E8400, ATI HD4870 (using efi string)

  92. thorias · 17. August 2009, 01:57 · #

    I have everything working and running 100% I just make a donation, keep up the good work guys!!!

    Spec: GA-EP45C-DS3R, quand core, nvidia 9800GT

  93. mitchde · 17. August 2009, 20:56 · #

    THANKS KABYL beeing here :
    Q: What exact is the problem with 10.1 / 10.2 boot : loading kext/mext from /Extra or also /S/L/E ?
    Q: I have seen that Chameleon (since beginning) installs also an modded fdisk.
    Whats when OS X 10.5 gets updated (with new fdisk) or fdisk on Snow .
    What excat is the reason of this special fdisk. Needed with 10.5.9+ or an “old” thing needed at beginning of 10.5 ?
    Thanks

  94. Brandon · 18. August 2009, 04:49 · #

    My system boots fine using the Boot-132 disk. Using this version of Chameleon makes it hang at “/usr/sbin/ocspd65: starting”. Based on my research, this boots right before the graphics driver, so the problem probably lies there. This is a clean, retail install with no additional graphics driver, besides anything Chameleon may be injecting. Any idea how this may be resolved? I have an Inspiron 1520 with a Nvidia 8600M GT (256MB RAM).

  95. SKN · 18. August 2009, 06:53 · #

    Thank you for this new version!
    Please consider to implement in the future a feature to hide partitions in the boot selector.
    Keep up the great work!

  96. Guido Rosso · 19. August 2009, 20:46 · #

    The GraphicsEnabler doesn’t seem to be working for me. I was previously using an efi-x chip which died, could there be any left over settings from that anywhere that are affecting this?

  97. Kabyl · 20. August 2009, 00:41 · #

    Guido Rosso,
    It’s probably a bug in the DSDT which you can check using gfxutil:

    gfxutil -f display

    It should start with “PciRoot(0×0)”, if it’s “PciRoot(0×1)” then it can be fixed with a DSDT edit by changing the _UID of the PCI0 (this is the common name for it) device from 1 to 0:

    Device (PCI0) { … Name (_UID, Zero) … }

  98. beta992 · 20. August 2009, 13:05 · #

    Hi Kabyl

    Could you please answer a question from mitchde?

    Hope you have time. :)

    Thanks!

  99. Kabyl · 20. August 2009, 15:01 · #

    beta992, did you actually understand his question(s)?

  100. d00d · 21. August 2009, 17:42 · #

    @sleepy: that is solved by UUID.kext.

  101. LatinMcgyver75 · 21. August 2009, 19:42 · #

    i have 2 drives on G31M-ES2L EHCI XP on first partition port0 of mobo and 200mb HFS+ after it and instaled standard chameleon 2 rc2 on it and on boot xp is highlighted and says cant find mach_kernel. i highlight osx next to it on port1 guid vanilla retail install then go back to XP and it boots xp. thats definitely a bug introduced in detecting os x and not xp to eliminate unbootables.

  102. Megabytes · 22. August 2009, 16:08 · #

    I have a Hackintosh built around a GA-EP45C-DS3R motherboard.

    My system version is 10.5.7. And even everything seems to work great, the PCI slots do not work. I have a BELKIN (Broadcom chipset) PCI Wireless card which is supposed to work out of the box, but is not even recognised. I have tried other OSX Compatible PCI devices, but they are not detected. On my previous motherboard (GA-EP45-DS3R) which i had replaced for this more modern version due to a hardware fault, i had the same problem, But never needed to fix it. I have tried both PCI-Express slots with my graphics card and they work. I am pretty sure it has something to do with a kernel or some extension that needs deleting or replacing. If anybody has had a problem like this before please let me know how to solve it. I am desperate to see the my PCI Wireless card appear as an airport device on my screen.

    Please help.
    Thanks
    Megabytes

  103. Third · 23. August 2009, 00:49 · #

    I have a problem with the installer. I get “run postupgrade script for Standard” and when i write on the terminal this : rm -rf /.Chameleon, i have a permission denied for each files. Plz help me (srry for my english)

  104. beta992 · 23. August 2009, 12:31 · #

    @third: open up terminal, type sudo -s, try again

  105. Cheezmen · 23. August 2009, 14:58 · #

    Since Snow Leopard is dropping support for a lot of ichX IDE controllers, could you fix the boot1 error when setting the sata mode to raid?

    Many dell owner’s with crippled bios’ only allowing IDE or RAID would appreciate it.

    NB RAID mode works fine on bootloaders based on chameleon 1.0.11 and boot think 2.2 (boot think only works if it is installed to an ntfs partition)

  106. Third · 23. August 2009, 18:17 · #

    Thanks beta992, but i have the same problem : permission denied :/.

  107. beta992 · 26. August 2009, 14:13 · #

    @third: are you sure you’re admin? (http://uphuck.ggrn.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4723)

    try: sudo su
    rm -rf /.Chameleon

  108. BugsB · 27. August 2009, 04:51 · #

    Chameleon is obviously ignoring the timeout in the boot.plist, which is very sad, awkward and inconvenient.

    I need the possibility to choose different kernels via boot loader (NOT hard-coded into the boot.plist!), like before at the Darwin boot prompt.

    How can I do that with the graphical Chameleon? This is a really necessary feature.

    Thank you,
    Bugs

  109. Kabyl · 27. August 2009, 05:53 · #

    BugsB, you just type it and it will be shown at the bottom of the screen.

  110. BugsB · 27. August 2009, 06:24 · #

    hi Kabyl, good to hear from you :)!

    I do not get what you mean by ‘just type it’ – you mean, in the GUI without any obvious text field, I can type the name of the kernel to boot? Then what – press enter?

    The time-out itself is totally secondary, I only mentioned it because I was hoping it would throw me back down to the darwin boot prompt (or any other way to boot a different kernel).

    Can you clarify a bit more?

  111. Kabyl · 27. August 2009, 07:19 · #

    Yes, just start typing :)

    And you can use Tab to switch b/w GUI and text mode.

  112. BugsB · 27. August 2009, 08:48 · #

    awesome! Thanks for helping out once more! Maybe that could be documented better in a readme that comes along with it, but maybe I am blind ..

  113. george205 · 27. August 2009, 17:09 · #

    Hello! I was wandering if it is possible to make a build-in CPUID mask option inside chameleon, so all AMD cpus will appear as Intel to the os. I believe that something like that will give the ability to amd users to boot vanilla kernel but after all I’m not a programmer. So I would like to have your opinion about this.

  114. Kabyl · 27. August 2009, 18:57 · #

    george205,
    Even if that is possible, it’s not a good idea, as there are checks for the cpuid to enable CPU features and to access registers and MSRs unique to each family or model.

  115. george205 · 27. August 2009, 21:24 · #

    Hello again! Thanks for your quick response Kabyl! I believe that you don’t have to change the values of all the MSR’s.It seems pointless to me,and could be rather messy for a system. I think that you only have to patch the Vendor:(Authenticamd to Genuineintel) and the brand string:[example: Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ Processor 8214 to Dual-Core Intel® Xeon®
    processor 5130-or something like that]. All the other MSR’s which provide informations about the supported commands and other cpu’s features should remain intacted(unpatched). I’m sure that people who are developing the voodoo kernel know exactly what needs patching.

  116. The Jack of Clubs · 28. August 2009, 06:59 · #

    is there a way to disable the automatic boot count down timer? i would like it if it didnt just jump into os x. if i disable the timer i would call my laptop a perfect system dual booting windows 7 rtm and os x (hopefully snow leopard soon).

  117. The Jack of Clubs · 28. August 2009, 10:26 · #

    never mind! i figured it out! :D i found the “help” under the partition drop down and started researching chameleons options. my laptop kicks serious donkey right now. i kinda wish i would display in 1024×600 instead of 800×600 (i think) but whatever. thats something to tinker with another day.

  118. Insanedave · 28. August 2009, 15:44 · #

    Sorry Im totally new here. Do you need to already have osx on your pc in order to install chamelion? How can I get osx on there if I dont yet have it on there? Appreciate the help Thanks!

  119. beta992 · 28. August 2009, 22:02 · #

    @Insanedave: if you are totally new to hackintosh, please find the information you need at Google. (hint osx86)

    Chameleon can be installed to a usb/cd with your kexts (aka your drivers), than you can boot your Leopard/Snow DVD and installed on your pc. After, install Chameleon and so on..

  120. pack · 29. August 2009, 04:03 · #

    installed rc2 and I get no quartz extreme I unchecked graphics enabler during install and just planned on using boot.plist. went back to rc1 and I get quartz extreme. any ideas?

    thanks

  121. electronicslut · 30. August 2009, 21:30 · #

    I’ve realized that Chameleon does abide by Timeout if the key and string is put in /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist however adding it has some nasty side effects on KalyWay osx 10.5.2. It shows the pretty blue status bar but afterwords starts spitting out some nasty errors and vmware restarts the OSX image.

    Chameleon does seem to make everything boot faster, so I will deal with the manual hitting of <enter> for now, but maybe something worth looking into as it seems to be taking a different path once the timeout completes in comparison to just overriding timeout with <enter>.

    Thanks for the hard work!

  122. smile · 31. August 2009, 00:59 · #

    After upgrading to rc2, my nvidia 8400 gt is not being detected. It was added with efi tools – how can I make the card visible in rc2?

    thanks

  123. mf · 31. August 2009, 01:52 · #

    thanks for all the hard work guys keep it up :)

  124. thomas · 31. August 2009, 10:09 · #

    When im trying to run the Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640.pkg
    I get this msg: com.apple.installer.pagecontroller error 1

    Any clue?

  125. swoosch · 31. August 2009, 12:44 · #

    Running 10.5.8 on a HP6910p and everything works ok…BUT when i install r640 the fsb changes from 800 to 724MHz resulting in a 1,81GHz cpu instead of orig. 2,0GHz.

    Question: where can i change the fsb speed in r640 ?

    Regards /R

  126. Gandalfke · 31. August 2009, 13:15 · #

    It works great and yes with Snow Leopard to!
    Thanks guys! You did all a great job for the community.

  127. dan · 31. August 2009, 15:20 · #

    Thomas, I had the same prob…unzip using the archive utility in os x, that seems to solve the problem…

    THOMAS · 31. AUGUST 2009, 10:09 · #

    When im trying to run the Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640.pkg
    I get this msg: com.apple.installer.pagecontroller error 1
    Any clue?

  128. BuildSmart · 1. September 2009, 03:26 · #

    Hey zef/kabyl.

    I see there are issues with the nvidia detection code.

    I have the following, DX38BT, DX48BT2, D5400XS, all using nVidia 7300GS and all exhibit the same issue.

    It apepars the generated device-properties is either invalid or corrupt.

    I have a dump of the device-properties that is invalid and the device is located at “PciRoot(0×0)/Pci(0×1,0×0)/Pci(0×0,0×0)/Pci(0×0,0×0)/Pci(0×0,0×0)”, how can I help you resolve this?

  129. Kabyl · 1. September 2009, 06:43 · #

    Hi BuildSmart,
    You can provide us with an ioreg dump (having GraphicsEnabler=Yes); using IORegistryExplorer, Save from the File menu.

  130. hackintosh · 2. September 2009, 03:58 · #

    trying to dual boot snow leopard and windows 7

    HD1: 1 Partition MBR
    1:Windows 7: Windows 7 Ultimate

    HD2: 3 Partitions GUID
    1:Snow Leopard: Snow Leopard
    2:Cham: Chameleon 2 RC1
    3:Data: …..

    I am fully able to boot to windows when i change the primary boot device to my first hd, then my pc boots to windows directly but if i change it back it goes to chameleon and from there i cant boot windows 7.

    Chameleon cant boot Windows 7 (error: BOOTMGR NOT FOUND). How can i fix it?

  131. Chameleon 2.0 · 2. September 2009, 09:00 · #

    IMPORTANT
    Chameleon 2.0 can’t boot Snow Leopard, so Netkas developed PCEFI 10 that adds the support to Snow Leopard, so the new boot file of chameleon is with PCEFI 10.
    Please UpdateChameleon 2.0 !

  132. beta990 · 2. September 2009, 13:12 · #

    @Chameleon 2.0:
    Totally wrong man.

    Like Kabyle says, you first need to make a mkext file, then it boots Snow Leopard without any problems. (even in 64-bit mode = 64-bit kernel + kexts)
    In the new Chameleon release, this problem should be solved.

  133. redlyon · 2. September 2009, 15:15 · #

    Hi, is possible to make visible the DVD drive into the chameleon’s window?

    and if possible, what should we do?

    thanks.

  134. sidster · 2. September 2009, 17:00 · #

    Is there a step by step way to do this. I have 10.5.8 using ipc dvd as a boot loader with chameleon 1.1 I want to install snow leopard however I have no clue how to get the Chameleon 2 boot loader to work. I have tried the simple mac install and gotten errors when trying to get it to work.

    boot0: error
    boot1: error

    When I took the same USB drive to a different computer I would bet the chameleon screen but would not be able to boot into ntfs. no bootmgr.

    Long story short I really want to upgrade my hacken-tosh and I was hoping someone could help me understand the chameleon bootloader.

    Thanks,
    Sidster

  135. Merefield · 5. September 2009, 15:41 · #

    Getting blank (powersave mode) screen after boot sequence. Might be down to my GTX295? How do I resolve that?

  136. Dick Moore · 5. September 2009, 20:28 · #

    I screwed up and ran the pkg file and installed on my Leopard boot disk. How do I uninstall? Can’t shut down until I have done this!

    I just need the uncompressed files to make a USB bootloader/installer dongle — what Chameleon download should I use?

  137. iWerdna · 5. September 2009, 20:28 · #

    is it possible to make a bootable usb stick using chameleon and use it to install off of a retail dvd?

    i have not found any options in chameleon for boot from dvd… any help would be greatly appreciated!

    iWerdna

  138. tkv · 5. September 2009, 21:46 · #

    there’s this: http://aserebln.blogspot.com/ for making a stick. I have not tried it yet. Also see the partitioning info around step #10 on that screen.

    You’ll have to scroll past a bunch of ranting about EFIX to get there. Best just to scroll to the bottom of the page and start there, but remember to check out the partitioning stuff around step 10 first.

    ——what I’d love to see:
    A basic, pre-built dmg file somewhere to just slam on to a USB stick. Then packages of mobo specific extensions, which one would install on the stick. Seems that would be easy enough to do if anyone has the energy. Would make it very simple to get going.

    my 2 cents worth

  139. Dick Moore · 5. September 2009, 22:58 · #

    Hi — found the Voodoo forum, read the *readme*s which I never got to see in the installation process, then used Pacifist to re-install the standard bootloader and all seems to be well.

    But, I still need to know how to just get the files I need for the USB dongle onto the desktop — I suppose Pacifist is also the way to do this?? I’m with TKV here — his idea is a good one!!

  140. tkv · 6. September 2009, 01:48 · #

    well, apparently one can “just” grab Chameleon 2 and throw it on a stick… except for me that gets me to the boot screen, and as soon as I hit the OSX button I get “can’t find mach_kernel”. Despite several hours of playing with it, (reformat stick a zillion different ways) I can’t get past that.

  141. Nik · 6. September 2009, 11:11 · #

    Hello, folks! I was trying to install Mac OSX; but en route there, I accidentally did :

    sudo dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk2s2

    where rdisk2s2 was not what I intended; I intended rdisk3s1. Now that partition isn’t see on Windows nor Mac. On Windows, it prompts me to format it which I say no to each time. Is there anything that you think might work to get back this partition? what does DD do anyway?

    Thank You!

  142. insm0d · 28. October 2009, 16:18 · #

    Am I correct in thinking that I could use GNU/Linux to prepare the boot loader?

    I am familiar with fdisk and dd, but I’m not sure if one should use OSX’s native tools…

  143. stifflers · 2. November 2009, 14:39 · #

    hi guys, tried to install the latest release candidate to my usb stick. theres kalyway on it. try to boot it with chameleon.
    my problem: chameleon says, the installation process failed. after 90 % i would say. no other information… only it fails… yes, the stick has enough free space. any ideas?

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