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[Guide] Boot from EFI partition, zero modification installs on Intel SSE2 or better...

munky

By munky,
in Tutorials (The Genius Bar)

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BladeRunner
BladeRunner
Posted
Posted
hum, I'm stumped.

Each time I try to create mkdir: /Volumes/EFI/.fseventsd is says file exists. and when i try

touch /Volumes/EFI/.fseventsd/no_log it says permission denied

 

Any help is welcome

 

Just to be sure, you are running the commands as root. Ccorrect? And, you have done a "ls -al " command to check the permissions on the .fseventsd directory. Correct?

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chasingcharlie
chasingcharlie
Posted
Posted

Extensions not loading; I've read through a lot of comments but didn't find an answer for this. I'm able to install from the Retail DVD and get it to boot. But, none of the extensions are loading.

1. Do I put the whole package (after it's unzipped) into that folder? Or just parts of it?

 

If anyone can help me, I would appreciate it.

 

thanks

 

charlie

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BladeRunner
BladeRunner
Posted
Posted
Extensions not loading; I've read through a lot of comments but didn't find an answer for this. I'm able to install from the Retail DVD and get it to boot. But, none of the extensions are loading.

1. Do I put the whole package (after it's unzipped) into that folder? Or just parts of it?

 

If anyone can help me, I would appreciate it.

 

thanks

 

charlie

 

What do you mean "none of the extensions are loading"? What package are you talking about unzipping?

 

If you mean none of your extra/modified extensions are loading I find that hard to believe. Some of them, at least the decrypter, must be loading or the system would panic. If by package you are referring to the EFI partition boot package from the first post, the instructions in that same post tell you where to put everything.

 

Could you be more specific about what you have done and what is not working?

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coconup
coconup
Posted
Posted

hello I have a question:

 

I'm actually dual booting vista and retail leopard on gpt using chameleon and the chain0 method (dunno if this worked for anybody else...). I made a mess with the leopard install when patching applehda and now I have to reinstall it. Is there any way to dual boot as I'm doing (with chain0) but using this efi partition?

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NovapaX
NovapaX
Posted
Posted

Well, it works for me...

 

Asus striker Extreme (nforce680i),

Core2quad Q6600,

realtek gigabit pci-card

PNY Quadro FX 3500 (EFI string in boot.plist on EFI partition)

 

Kernel: voodoo final release 1

Kexts on EFI:

- AppleNforceATA (version 1.0.3 I think)

- SMBIOSenabler

- dsmos.kext

- CPUPMdisabler.kext (i could leave this out because kernel has extension-blocking feature)

using latest version of bootloader partition from first post, and always carefully following the steps given in howto.

 

 

Boot partition is a vannilla 10.5.4 install updated with delta updater to 10.5.5

 

I only have 2 problems left:

1: BIG PROBLEM:

I've got a PNY Quadro FX 3500, and i'm using it with an EFI-string in boot.plist on the EFI-partition. (CI/QE works like a charm)

But, but when doing some copying over the network my mouse starts stuttering, beachball appaears, and the screen freezes (the first couple of seconds i can still move the mouse, but within 10 seconds it becomes uncontrollable)

log always says: VChannel(GL): Graphics channel timeout! or VChannel(GL): Graphics channel exeption!

(I also get these errors with drop-in releases (except for iAtkos v4i, but had no succes with using kexts from that install), but after days of searching for a solution and trying everything possible I'm asking here.) Maybe someone has got an idea.

 

2. smaller problem:

can't get my audio (AD1988B) to work from efi-partition. used different appleHDA versions&patchers and Azalia kexts, to no avail.

Any howto on creating my own efi-string or patched appleHDA, search didn't help me much.

 

edit: regarding audio, i found some useful info in here: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...7819&st=100

 

I started trying to get a good install since 10.5.0 was released, but always got the graphics channel problem.

Don't need step by step help, just a direction where to look for solutions.

 

any help greatly appreciated!

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therhymer
therhymer
Posted
Posted

This all looks great, thanks to all involved!, but I'm a bit new to this sort of hacking, so will wait for the new chameleon release...

 

I have a question tho: Can I convert my existing smooth running Kalyway based install to boot using this method? Or is a new install really required?

 

Yes I realise that I would then have some modified kexts in my system folder as well as on the EFI partition, the way I see it, if i can set this running to boot from EFI partition, then copy my modified kexts from my system to the efi partition, then I can update normally using system update, and my system will gradually revert to vanilla, while the modified stuff remains on the EFI partition.

 

Please let me know if I've misunderstood, or anything that would help me achieve this..

 

I'm already running an almost vanilla system,core2quad cpu P5W mob, just minimal additions for gfx card and using the darwin bootloader as per kalyway install..

 

EDIT: so reading thru the instructions again it seems the main reason that it is best practice to do a clean install is to make sure there are no other bootloaders on the disk.

 

If I were to do the install by copying my current system from another disk, using superduper, onto a recently repartitioned disk would that work to ensure that no bootloader is installed? and the go ahead as per the instructions?

 

alternatively, how could I delete the darwin bootloader currently being used by my kalyway install before going ahead with this project?

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og-phantom
og-phantom
Posted
Posted
This all looks great, thanks to all involved!, but I'm a bit new to this sort of hacking, so will wait for the new chameleon release...

 

I have a question tho: Can I convert my existing smooth running Kalyway based install to boot using this method? Or is a new install really required?

 

Yes I realise that I would then have some modified kexts in my system folder as well as on the EFI partition, the way I see it, if i can set this running to boot from EFI partition, then copy my modified kexts from my system to the efi partition, then I can update normally using system update, and my system will gradually revert to vanilla, while the modified stuff remains on the EFI partition.

 

Please let me know if I've misunderstood, or anything that would help me achieve this..

 

I'm already running an almost vanilla system,core2quad cpu P5W mob, just minimal additions for gfx card and using the darwin bootloader as per kalyway install..

 

EDIT: so reading thru the instructions again it seems the main reason that it is best practice to do a clean install is to make sure there are no other bootloaders on the disk.

 

If I were to do the install by copying my current system from another disk, using superduper, onto a recently repartitioned disk would that work to ensure that no bootloader is installed? and the go ahead as per the instructions?

 

alternatively, how could I delete the darwin bootloader currently being used by my kalyway install before going ahead with this project?

If you have another HD you can install to, you can do the install from within kalyway. I used a iDeneb install to do a retail install. Then went from the instructions from there. Worked so good that I got rid of iDeneb and now am using my EFI/Retail install only! The only non-vanilla kext i have in s/l/e is my kext for audio (targua patched hda).

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therhymer
therhymer
Posted
Posted

I really don't understand bootloaders enought to have confidence in what I'm doing... since they seem to be the definitive difference between a hack and a real mac I'd like to read up on it.

 

is there a guide anywhere which explains what each stage0 stage1 stage2 etc bootloader does, where it is located, if its scope is disk wide or partition specific, how to delete or replace them etc etc??

 

BTW why does the audio kext have to be in s/l/e, why can it not load from the EFI partition like other modified kexts?

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og-phantom
og-phantom
Posted
Posted
I really don't understand bootloaders enought to have confidence in what I'm doing... since they seem to be the definitive difference between a hack and a real mac I'd like to read up on it.

 

is there a guide anywhere which explains what each stage0 stage1 stage2 etc bootloader does, where it is located, if its scope is disk wide or partition specific, how to delete or replace them etc etc??

 

BTW why does the audio kext have to be in s/l/e, why can it not load from the EFI partition like other modified kexts?

 

To find out about boot-loaders, do a google search for Chameleon or DFE 132. I haven't searched myself, but I am sure what you are looking for is out there. I have a basic understanding of how boot-loaders work, I don't want to give out any bad info, so see what you can come up with, with google. Someone may chime in and be able to provide details that I can't. As far as I am able to figure out, the audio kexts require other kexts that are not loaded till after the EFI partition hands off to the main for boot (I am sure I am overly simplifying it). I have seen that some are able to do "plist only" audio kexts in their EFI/Extensions, but I am not one of the lucky ones that have figured that out. 1 non-vanilla kext in my s/l/e is not bad in my book. Hope this helps somewhat...

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hecker
hecker
Posted
Posted

Hey you guys,

 

after reinstalling OS X from scratch (due to a damaged partition table) I am no longer able to boot from my EFI partition. Booting from the Boot-132 CD still works fine, though.

 

My current system disk is "disk3s2" and my EFI partition is "disk3s1". I re-created it according to munky's description and copied the kexts and kernel (voodoo) from my backup up EFI folder.

When I enter the following at the darwin prompt (my boot device is shown correctly as (0,2) Leopard):

bt(0,0)/mach_kernel.voodoo -legacy -v boot-uuid=<my_leopard_uuid>

I can see some files being loaded and then it stops and shows a bunch of "Property" fields (please see attachment).

 

I have tried entering bt(0,1), bt(2,0), bt(3,0) and a bunch of other combinations but the thing just refuses to boot simply reloading the darwin boot prompt.

 

Could someone please clarify what the "bt" parameter actually stands for?

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

Thanks,

 

- hecker

 

PS: My previous disk (although it's still the same physical unit) was labeled disk2 (thus disk2s2 and disk2s1 were my Leo and EFI partitions).

 

FIXED/SOLUTION: Just in case you run into this problem which apparently no-one here knew about: The problem was caused by a corrupt com.apple.Boot.plist file in the EFI boot partition. Replacing it with the system's boot file fixed it.

post-46589-1228942306_thumb.jpg

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damarsman
damarsman
Posted
Posted
Hey you guys,

 

after reinstalling OS X from scratch (due to a damaged partition table) I am no longer able to boot from my EFI partition. Booting from the Boot-132 CD still works fine, though.

 

My current system disk is "disk3s2" and my EFI partition is "disk3s1". I re-created it according to munky's description and copied the kexts and kernel (voodoo) from my backup up EFI folder.

When I enter the following at the darwin prompt (my boot device is shown correctly as (0,2) Leopard):

bt(0,0)/mach_kernel.voodoo -legacy -v boot-uuid=<my_leopard_uuid>

I can see some files being loaded and then it stops and shows a bunch of "Property" fields (please see attachment).

 

I have tried entering bt(0,1), bt(2,0), bt(3,0) and a bunch of other combinations but the thing just refuses to boot simply reloading the darwin boot prompt.

 

Could someone please clarify what the "bt" parameter actually stands for?

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

Thanks,

 

- hecker

 

PS: My previous disk (although it's still the same physical unit) was labeled disk2 (thus disk2s2 and disk2s1 were my Leo and EFI partitions).

 

Boot with your boot132 CD instead and then reinstall EFI partition with bootloader and put your kexts in.

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hecker
hecker
Posted
Posted
Boot with your boot132 CD instead and then reinstall EFI partition with bootloader and put your kexts in.

Yes, thanks. I already did that, as you can see in my previous post.

 

I guess the drive might still have some sort of weird partition table problem. I'll try re-partitioning it again tomorrow.

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beagio
beagio
Posted
Posted

first off, i doff my cap to mucky and everyone else who has worked on this. this is a brilliant solution that i;m really enjoying testing.

 

once slight prob tho. since i've started testing this method i've been looking into SMBios options that allow me to use Apple's vanilla SMBios. up untill now i've used netkas's SMBios. problem is, no matter which one i use, "about This Mac" crashes. is there a kext that affects this that i'm missing? i thought it was just the SMBios.

 

this is what i'm using in my extensions folder on my EFI partition so far.

 

Extensions-20081211-111030.jpg

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HBP
HBP
Posted
Posted
first off, i doff my cap to mucky and everyone else who has worked on this. this is a brilliant solution that i;m really enjoying testing.

 

once slight prob tho. since i've started testing this method i've been looking into SMBios options that allow me to use Apple's vanilla SMBios. up untill now i've used netkas's SMBios. problem is, no matter which one i use, "about This Mac" crashes. is there a kext that affects this that i'm missing? i thought it was just the SMBios.

 

this is what i'm using in my extensions folder on my EFI partition so far.

 

Extensions-20081211-111030.jpg

 

 

I highly recommend using AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext attached, I don't remember what forum entry or version it is, But it solved the issue for me.

 

let me know if it Helps you as well.

 

HBP

 

lol, forgot to Add the File, sry about that

AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext.zip

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beagio
beagio
Posted
Posted

right, i've tried "AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext" but it dosn't seem to make a difference. in fact, my 2.something Core2Duo is now being reported as 3Ghz.

 

also, by pure fluke, i've discovered something interesting. i booted up with out an SMBios enabler by mistake just to find that my system worked. in fact, i got the same result as using the AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext. i don't know is this has something to do with the DSDT file, as i'm not totally sure what it does. the only reason i generated one was because i was under the impression that the latest munky boot loader required one.

 

/veiled attempt at pretending he knows what he's doing...

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og-phantom
og-phantom
Posted
Posted
right, i've tried "AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext" but it dosn't seem to make a difference. in fact, my 2.something Core2Duo is now being reported as 3Ghz.

 

also, by pure fluke, i've discovered something interesting. i booted up with out an SMBios enabler by mistake just to find that my system worked. in fact, i got the same result as using the AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext. i don't know is this has something to do with the DSDT file, as i'm not totally sure what it does. the only reason i generated one was because i was under the impression that the latest munky boot loader required one.

 

/veiled attempt at pretending he knows what he's doing...

 

Try this one;

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=129930

 

Make sure you open the kext and modify the Info.Plist for your ram speed (change DDR to DDR2 if that's what you have), double check that "root" is in there and drop it in, update.sh and reboot. Works for me, should for you also.

 

For your "About this Mac", use this eddiec app;

AboutThisMac.zip

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