[GUIDE] Chameleon 2 RAID - More complete tutorial

[Denser]

Thanx for this! Working smooth with SL 10.6.1.

I simply made a restore to a usb disk, created a stripe with 2x 250gb and restored it back to the raid.

Then followed a guide which had me hanging at the boot1: error. I then did the fdisk part and it worked!

 

Hello everybody,

 

First, thanks for sharing your experience.

 

I'm trying to understand how to use my hdd in raid 0 mode. I will tell you how I consider to proceed :

- boot on my current SL partition

- use disk utility to create one partition in raid 0 mode. (I'm not sure but if the apple raid is a software raid, it's possible to convert only a part of the available space, isn't it ?).

- execute the two following command :

sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /rdiskX

sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /rdiskY

- reboot using my USB FlashDrive that allows me to select the drive to boot on

- select the current SL (non raid) partition

- create a new ghost (.dmg) with the content of that partition

- restore it to the raid partition

- reboot

- delete the non raid partition and create other raid 0 partitions with all the available space

 

Do you think, I'm in the right way or not ? (forgive me if I'm telling enormous mistakes with an awful english )

[digital_dreamer]

Hey there...

 

Thanks for the guide, it put me on the right track, but still no go on Snow...

 

I keep getting the "can't find mach_kernel" option after choosing Boot OSX on chameleon boot screen...

 

If I put the vanilla kernel there it panics on startup...

 

Anybody got passed this stage ?

Is "Boot OSX" the name of your RAID root volume?

"Boot OSX" is the default name given to each helper partition in the RAID set and neither of them should be mounted or selectable from the Chameleon boot screen. WRONG INFO! Sorry! Make sure the UUID used in your boot.plist contains the UUID to your RAID root volume, not helper partitions.

 

Hi, I'm trying to use this witn snow Leo but I just notice that even using the new chameleon R3 in the installer Looks like is not reading the ketxs from Stored_Kexts intead still reading the ones from Extensons

This "Extensions" folder you refer to is located where? Are you talking about the main S/L/E directory?

If you using the "Stored_Kexts" folder, I assume you are using a boot cache or mkext file. Having a "Extensions" folder in /Extra will only create confusion for Chameleon, if you have a mkext file there, too. So, either use the boot cache (mkext) or "Extensions", but not both at the same time.

 

MAJ

[digital_dreamer]

Anyone get RAID working with a EFI boot setup? Curious, as I have no RAID setup at all, but am trying to include support for it in my script.

 

Also, seeing all the "can't find mach_kernel" posts makes me wonder if the kernel should be copied to each helper partition, as well. I noticed a RAID tutorial in the aquamac forums that states copying the kernels over.

 

That aquamac post also included a screenshot of the helper partition and it had a folder called, "System", which also makes me wonder what else should get copied there on a OS install that may not be making it there if we're simply doing a clone to the RAID root volume. Anyone know?

 

That other tutorial also mentions using the boot.plist at "SystemConfiguration" for your boot-uuid! I thought that was odd, as the bootloader surely doesn't use it. Perhaps the RAID software can pick it up there?

 

best of wishes,

MAJ

[yamcha]

Has anyone successfully got raid to work with Snow Leopard? I'm having a lot of troubles, can anyone link me to a tutorial?? I've tried looking online only found a few tuts and they were for Leopard only and didn't work for me .. I have Snow Leopard installed Vanilla.. works fine with a single HD but with Raid it doesn't boot up it just hangs..

[BarboneNet]

Has anyone successfully got raid to work with Snow Leopard? I'm having a lot of troubles, can anyone link me to a tutorial?? I've tried looking online only found a few tuts and they were for Leopard only and didn't work for me .. I have Snow Leopard installed Vanilla.. works fine with a single HD but with Raid it doesn't boot up it just hangs..

you can follow the link on my signature....but is in Italian.

 

the translation is coming soon;)

[unixfragger]

Thanx for the good Tutorial! Works finne on my Hackintosh

 

Greetz Unixfragger

[acehigh]

Thank you for the tutorial.

I made my pc boot from raid 0 by creating an image of an already working install (SL 10.6.2) on a single hd, formatting the two disks in raid 0, restoring the image on the raid partition.

At this point, chameleon RC4 was able to boot from usb stick and see the volume.

To install the boot loader I simply added to chameleon README your suggestion to copy boot.plist, /Extra in each boot partition, and I removed them from the raid one.

Thank you again.

[lithium06]

nathan7 - thank you so much for this guide. I have my system on 10.5.8 runnin on raid0 wd blue 500GB. it's soo much snappier and boots up faster with raid. i love it. thanks so much for the help

[Windows04]

Hi I used your guide and it works very well, however I have one problem:

 

When I boot into Chameleon, there is a countdown to boot into my RAID, so far so good . But when I press a button to go into the menu and select manually, the RAID drive is gone from the menu. So I can only boot into windows or linux, the mac drive just doesn't show up in the menu :s. Is there a way to fix this?

[JaE-V]

you need to add in the process of copying your kernel and dsdt.aml file to the boot partitions then it'll boot like a charm...i used the files from RC4

[neil43]

Nathan I just used your guide and it works great as is. Of course I add my way of doing things... but the main thing is that it works (so well that I have archived off a copy to my file server for later reference).

 

Thanks, neil

[dinner_plate]

I just successfully used SuperDuper to clone a working Snow Leopard install to a pair of Apple software raid0 SSDs.

 

Once my clone backup was bootable, I installed Chameleon RC4 to the two RAID slices. I then used Netkas' EFI v10.6 to replace both boot files, which means I do not need graphics strings for my 8600GT.

 

With my working DSDT (no sleep) I only use fakesmc.kext and OpenHaltRestart.kext (and a modified Airport family kext for native 64-bit Atheros airport.)

 

Thanks.

[disconap]

Hi--first off, thank you, I've been working on trying to get my RAID off the ground for the past 8 hours and you're the only one with a guide that actually works! That said...

 

So I can boot 10.6.3 (specs/install method below) with my RAID now, but with my 1gb Sparkle GeForce 9800gt reading as a 16mb generic gpu (of course with no goodies, and so lo res it's hard to even look at the screen) and my RAM, which is 1333mHz, is reading/performing at 667 mhz. Everything else, including the processor identifying as an i7, seems perfectly normal. I've tried moving kexts around, copying over various boot files, editing the boot.plist (but the string that used to work seems to do nothing, though I did FINALLY get it to recognize the -v instruction)... Any ideas?

 

Oh, and every time I tried something I would go back to "pure"; i.e., destroy the RAID entirely, rebuild it, and reclone the source drive (which still boots fine, btw).

 

Specs--

 

i7 860 2.8gHz quadcore

GA-P55A-UD3 mobo

Sparkle GeForce 9800 GT 1gb

4X4gb OCZ PC3 10666 DDR3 RAM

4X32gb OCZ Vertex Turbo ssds (currently gimpy striped RAID

500gb stable 10.6.3 install (clone source)

 

Install method: [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] + [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]

 

EDIT--just noticed that the source boots fine if it boots directly from BIOS; if it goes into the RAID's Chameleon, I have the same video and RAM problems...

[FKA]

Anyone get RAID working with a EFI boot setup? Curious, as I have no RAID setup at all, but am trying to include support for it in my script.

 

Hi digital_dreamer

 

I've just flashed EFI BIOS to my mobo and are currently booting SW RAID.

Previously running standard AMI BIOS with SW RAID and no problems.

 

With EFI BIOS I can't seem to get rid of the UUID 35 Errors.

I've tried with the RAID ID, UUID and with nothing under kernel flags in boot.plist.

 

diskutil umount disk1s3
2010-07-26 03:52:06.862 diskutil[363:903] _CFGetHostUUIDString: unable to determine UUID for host. Error: 35
Volume Mac RAID Boot 1 on disk1s3 unmounted

 

Have you a similar experience, if so did you find a fix?

 

Kind Regards

D

[digital_dreamer]

FormerlyKnownAs,

That UUID error is due to not creating a Platform UUID for your system. You should install the PlatformUUID.kext and make sure it contains a UUID in the plist.

 

BTW, my script will work with AppleRAID setups (Extra and EFI) and take care of the platform UUID automatically. If no UUID is present in the PlatformUUID.kext, one will be created. Once the system has a valid platform UUID assigned to to, those errors will go away completely.

 

MAJ

[FKA]

Cheers MAJ

 

I just haven't needed the platforumUUID.kext with standard AMi BIOS.

Using "rd=uuid boot-uuid=888888888888888****************" as Nathan's guide shows has removed the errors.

 

Any idea why, using the EFI BIOS, that I need patformUUID.kext?

 

 

EDIT - Doh! I switched from AsereBLN Booter with auto generation of system ID back to chameleon trunk !

Will add system ID to boot.plist.

I'd forgotten to add my LAN to the EFI DSDT !

 

 

Cheers

D.

[digital_dreamer]

Hey, FormerlyKnownAs,

Ah, so using that kernel flag, rd=uuid boot-uuid=UUID_HERE, works okay now?

Plus, you were using the AsereBLN bootloader, which adds a SystemID, which, in turn, adds a Platform UUID. Gotcha.

And, Time Machine needs the Ethernet defined as "Built-In," which you were doing in DSDT. Gotcha.

 

There's a bit of ground to cover, isn't there?

 

MAJ

[olegus]

Hi.

 

Thank you for the guide. I have similar setup: SSD drive as boot drive, main os on RAID0 called mirror and one more drive called alt_boot for experiments.

My SSD drive is marked as active and I have copy of boot on all volumes, plus regular stuff with copy of boot1h using dd to all mirror members.

I am using Carbon Copy to clone mirror to alt_boot. Issue is that because I have raid volume UUID in plist file on my boot disk under /extra/com.apple.boot.plist it will not boot to anything else. Not specifying UUID will result in no booting at all.

Issue is that even if I select to boot to alt_boot, it is still booting to mirror volume.

 

I might have messed it up somehow....

Any ideas would be helpful.

[future_former]

I followed every step in this guide exactly and just managed it to load chameleon from my RAID disk. I also followd all steps in aquamac's guide here:

 

Aquamac's Guide for RAID0

 

but chameleon can't see any RAID-partitions, so I can't boot into my OS.

 

 

what am I doing wrong ? have a look at my "Boot OSX":

 

any help would be great !!!

 

 

future_former

[FKA]

I followed every step in this guide exactly and just managed it to load chameleon from my RAID disk. I also followd all steps in aquamac's guide here:

 

Aquamac's Guide for RAID0

 

but chameleon can't see any RAID-partitions, so I can't boot into my OS.

 

 

what am I doing wrong ? :censored2: have a look at my "Boot OSX":

 

any help would be great !!!

 

 

future_former

No Idea what you've done wrong but mach_kernel shouldn't be there I don't think.

 

Also have to tried renaming the boot partitions as per the guide?

 

You DO NOT need to do this part at the very start of the guide:

"diskutil eraseVolume "HFS+" "EFI" /dev/disk2s1

diskutil eraseVolume "HFS+" "EFI" /dev/disk3s1"

 

Great guide but me, being dyslexic, have been a little confused with that part at the start of the guide. and it leaves you with un-unmountable EFI partitions.

 

Maybe best to just start again and go go through bit by bit. It's easy to miss something or mess something up.

 

D

[FKA]

Hey, FormerlyKnownAs,

Ah, so using that kernel flag, rd=uuid boot-uuid=UUID_HERE, works okay now?

Plus, you were using the AsereBLN bootloader, which adds a SystemID, which, in turn, adds a Platform UUID. Gotcha.

And, Time Machine needs the Ethernet defined as "Built-In," which you were doing in DSDT. Gotcha.

 

There's a bit of ground to cover, isn't there?

 

MAJ

 

A bit belated, but just read this.

 

My problem was I'd switched to UEFI BIOS and it contained no system UUID for chameleon to read, so chameleon was taking UUID from Mac address.

As I'd forgotten to to add LAN to DSDT it wasn't seen as internal and so UUID couldn't be taken fron it's MAC address...

 

..... I think ??!

D

[felixity]

Thank you so much your guide is so thorough and I got my RAID0 booting!!

[FKA]

Thank you so much your guide is so thorough and I got my RAID0 booting!!

 

Good isn't it ...

[iPerplexity]

Ive tried following this guide from the beginning excpt I dont satisfy one of the assumptions. I didnt have an already running image of OSX. I installed onto raid 1 from scratch using [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url].

 

Should this make much of a difference?

 

 

 

Also, the state of my system right now, is it will boot to Chameleon menu to select volume to boot and apon selection it reboots.

 

 

 

Any help?

[cr4nky]

Thank you so much!

 

I had to do some workarounds for my build but in the end it worked

 

cr4nky