How to Install & Configure Chameleon 2.0 RC1 for OSX86 and Boot 132 Systems.

How to Install Chameleon 2.0 RC1.

1 April 2009 by Vinay 20 Comments

As we know Chameleon 2.0 first GUI bootloader is now available in the wild check here. Latest Chameleon has many new features like themes, UI, EFI support and many more. If you are looking for installing and testing the all new chameleon you are, remember it’s a RC release not a final release. Last night i have digging the forums and collected some useful information for you. Please go through the process twice o thrice before doing anything. It may have some issues right now so before starting please take backup of your important Files and Kexts. If you wish to have your system load the Chameleon bootloader from the MBR and wish to keep all files on your Leopard partition use this method. This assumes your install is on /dev/disk0s1

1. Extract the Chameleon archive and open a Terminal window there.

2. Use sudo -s to assume root privileges.

3. Install boot0 to the MBR:

fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0

4. Install boot1h to the bootsector of your OS X partition:

dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk0s2

5. Copy the ‘boot’ file to your root partition:

cp boot /

6. Make sure your OS X partition is flagged as active.

7. Copy Themes and smbios.plist to your Extra folder:

cp -R smbios.plist Themes /Extra

7. Finally add any kexts you wish to /Extra/Extensions like you usually would.

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Installation guide for to EFI Partition.

If you’ve been using Munky’s EFI partition booting method or wish to keep Chameleon in it’s own partition out of the way you can use the EFI partition as OS X makes no use of this. This assumes you are using one disk which is GPT formatted with OS X on /dev/disk0s2.

1. Extract the Chameleon archive and open a Terminal window there.

2. Use sudo -s to own root privileges.

3. Mount the EFI partition:

mkdir /Volumes/EFI &amp;&amp; mount_hfs /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/EFI

4. Install boot0 to the MBR:

fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0

5. Install boot1h to the bootsector of your EFI partition:

dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk0s1

6. Copy the ‘boot’ file to your root partition:

cp boot /Volumes/EFI

7. Make sure your EFI partition is flagged as active.

8. Copy Themes and smbios.plist to your Extra folder:

cp -R smbios.plist Themes /Volumes/EFI/Extra

9. Copy any kexts to /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions and your com.apple. Boot.plist to /Volumes/EFI/Extra and DSDT.aml to /Volumes/EFI/DSDT.aml

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Install Chameleon 2.0 RC1 on a USB stick. [ Guide by JASON ]

Open Terminal and Type

sudo -s

Enter your password and Type

diskutil list

Make note of the /dev/diskX where your USB stick is located (ex. mine is /dev/disk7)

Keep terminal open and open Disk Utility (fyi, you can most likely create an MBR partioning scheme with diskutil, I just don’t know how)

click on your USB stick and click “Partition”
click the ‘+’
click Options and choose MBR
Name it whatever you want (I named mine EFIUSB)
Click Apply
Go back to terminal

Type “diskutil list” and make sure your USB device is still listed the same as it was before (“disk 7” in my example)

Type the following string

diskutil eraseVolume “HFS+” “EFIUSB” /dev/diskXs1

Where ‘X’ is the number of your USB drive you got before

cd to your Chameleon/i386 directory

Run the following commands:

./fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdiskX         (where X is your disk – loads the stage 0 bootloader)

dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXs1          (where X is your disk – loads the stage 1 bootloader)

cp boot /Volumes/EFIUSB                 (copies the Chameleon ‘boot’ file over to your usb)

mkdir /Volumes/EFIUSB/Extra          (makes the Extra directory on the USB stick)

Now from here, you can copy your Extensions.mkext, com.apple.Boot.plist, smbios.plist, & Themes directory using Finder over to your /Volumes/EFIUSB/Extra directory

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For adding theme add the following strings to Boot.plist

<key>Theme</key>

<string>THEME_NAME</string>

For default boot partition add this to Boot.plist

<key>Default Partition</key>

<string>hd(x,y)</string>

whereas x is your hdd number and y is your partition number (you will get this info in Disk Utility and in Terminal with: diskutil list)

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For Changing timeout and resolution of Chameleon.

Set the resolution of Chameleon width, height, depth and refresh rate (for VESA 3.0 only)

Graphics Mode1024x768x32@75

Change the timeout before the default partition boots. Where X is the timeout in seconds

TimeoutX

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20 Comments »

oli said:

Hi,

I’m looking at your Guide to GUID efi, when you say ” This assumes you are using one disk which is GPT formatted with OS X on /dev/disk0s1.” On a GPT formated drive disk0s1 would be the EFI partition so OS X would most likely be installed in /dev/disk0s2 if in the first partition of the drive..

nice guide
Oli

# 8 April 2009 at 12:35 am

Vinay Prashar said:

@ Oli thanx for pointing the error

# 10 April 2009 at 4:38 pm

NSCXP2005 said:

I am currently having problems with Chameleon v2 as it wont boot XP without a error message & when trying to boot Windows 7 I get a flashing cursor.

It works fine before I install Chameleon v2 is there any way to get it working and keep the functionality it had before?

The following error I get on XP is:
[code]
Invalid BOOT.INI file
Booting from C:\Windows\
NTDETECT Failed[/code]

I am currently using EasyBCD for Windows 7 to boot and that allows me to boot XP & OSX. I would love to use this new loader as it is loads better than the text version.

I hope somebody can help me fix this problem.

All the best

NSCXP2005

# 12 April 2009 at 2:56 pm

Helob said:

Thanks for the Tutorial on install of Chameleon 2.0 RC1.
I have a IPC 10.5.6 install on a MBR partition disk at rdisk0s1
Follow your first set of instructions and manage to boot with the default Chameleon 2.0 loader theme.
Questions:
1. In step7 “Copy Themes & smbios….Extra folder”. Are you refering to the Extra folder at the root (/) directory?

2. In Step8 ” Finally add any kexts….to /Extra/Extensions….” Can’t find Extensions folder in /Extra.

3. How to change theme from default to others in the theme folder?

4. Should there be another com.apple.boot.plist other than the one in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration. Which com.apple.boot.plist file to edit to make changes to Chameleon 2.0 bootup?

Thanks and have a nice day.

# 22 April 2009 at 12:09 pm

Harbinger said:

Vinay–

Thanks for the guide–it fills in a lot of missing info for getting Chameleon to run with an MBR install.

One question, though. In step 7 you say:
“Copy Themes and smbios.plist to your Extra folder:
cp -R smbios.plist Themes /Extra”

The smbios.plist file is not a part of the latest Chameleon RC1 file; at least, it wasn’t in the package. (I entered a command in the finder to show all files, so I should have seen it.) So where does it come from, or where can it be gotten from?

# 27 April 2009 at 9:14 pm

leon said:

Hi,

A small correction: in MBR partition, (step 4) you should use:
dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk0s1

Thanks for the guide.

# 28 April 2009 at 2:03 pm

Lux said:

What i have not understood up to now is, what is the /Extra/Extensions Folder for? Up to now i installed all my personal Kexts to /System/Library/Extensions.

Can i install them INSTEAD into /Extra/Extensions? If yes, what will happen, if 2 different Extension with the same name will exist in the both folders? Which will be loaded?

Nevertheless i spend a lot of time with my OSX86 installation, i still have not stumbled upon this theme. May be the way to work with this, has changed over the time. But when i search for myself in the net, i never know, is this way to act still the modern way, or may be an way which is still out of time. sometimes the result is a wild mix…

# 30 April 2009 at 1:55 pm

superpimp said:

@NSCXP2005

I’m having the same problem. Chameleon doesn’t seem to work with windows 7 (I’m using RC1 x64). I keep getting a flashing cursor. The only possible way is via EasyBCD or manually boot into the OSx86 partition with UBCD but thats quite a hassle.

If anyone has got it figured out, please help us out.

# 12 May 2009 at 3:24 pm

Detroitbg said:

I had Windows 7 installed on the first partition and iDeneb v1.3 on the forth partition (same HDD) working just fine with Chameleon v1.0.3 (or 1.3) if I’m not mistaken.
After standard installation of Chameleon 2.0 I receive a black screen with blinking cursor!
After reinstalling Mac OS I installed Chameleon 2.0 removing the extra .kexts from the installation and everything works just fine!

# 22 May 2009 at 1:25 pm

DrZaphod said:

This may be a bit stupid question; But how do I make a partition flag as active? Do I use the bless command or what?

bless –device /dev/disk0s1?

# 20 June 2009 at 5:58 am

konteudos.info said:

here chameleon 2 in action

http://konteudos.info/?p=740

best regards

# 23 June 2009 at 7:24 pm

drowelf said:

Ok, got RC1 installed on a usb and it boots to the menu just fine, but of course there’s no com.apple.Boot.plist. I tried copying the one from my \L\P\S folder (the generic really short one), but it’s saying that it can’t find mach_kernel. I’m assuming that I need to give it a path to the kernel since it’s trying to find it on my usb drive or something. How do I format this? If it’s easier to just paste your com.apple.Boot.plist here (assuming you’re also running the bootloader from USB), that might be the bootstraping I need to make progress.
Thanks

# 27 June 2009 at 12:21 pm

konteudos.info said:

I made a video instaling chameleon 2 to a usb stick , if you want to see it

http://konteudos.info/?p=1761

regards

# 18 July 2009 at 5:04 pm

iwanna_ihack said:

I am having the same problem with the mach_kernel… I have installed Chameleon RC3 to the EFI partition but when I try and boot to the Leopard install disc/usb drive I get the error. I can’t even install OS X yet

# 20 November 2009 at 4:03 pm

MANOJ said:

Hi
After many try , I’hv Succeeded to install mac osx 86 ,10.4.6,
but dvd , usb,not working, no audio, video driver.
System config. amd4800+, m2n mx-se plus motherboard,1gb ram,250gb sata, lg dvd r/w,

I Install voodoo karnel, with setbelt.kext
AppleNForceATA nForce Drivers. usb patchfix, efi alternetbootloder

What should i do?
Please help me.

# 25 January 2010 at 11:57 am

nono said:

“For default boot partition add this to Boot.plist”

its not : com.apple.Boot.plist ?? be clear plzz

# 1 March 2010 at 10:41 pm

Keith said:

OK I AM COMPLETLY LOST ON HOW TO INSTALL CHAMELEON 2 ON MY USB ITS A 4 GB CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS IN A SIMPLER WAY
EMAIL ME PLEASEEEEEEE :’(
keithwicker@hotmail.com

# 8 March 2010 at 3:39 pm