Setting up Mac OS X on a PC carries its own inherent risks; despite the fact that Hackintoshes are generally very stable, there's always a chance that your computer will fail to start, for whatever reason. In these cases, your best option may be to temporarily boot Mac OS X with the help of a boot USB drive. From there, you can fix whatever problem your Hackintosh is experiencing. Your Mac OS X installer USB drive can act as backup boot USB drive, but if you don't have yours anymore, you're not out of luck-- you can still create a makeshift boot USB drive on Windows instead.
Requirements
Hackintoshes generally use Chameleon or Chimera bootloader (they're really the same thing) to boot Mac OS X. If you own a real Mac, you can just download the PKG installer for Chameleon bootloader and install it onto a USB drive in a single click. However, on Windows, the process is more complicated. In this guide, we will be manually writing the necessarily bootloader files from Chameleon onto a USB drive through a series of command-line tools in Windows. Here's what you'll need:
Don't forget to include the space between cd and Users.
Replace 'Username' with your Windows username (include the quotation marks). In the screenshot below, I've replaced my Windows username with a blank line. This command changes the folder that the Command Prompt is working on (cd stands for 'change directory'). Now, everything you type into the Command Prompt will apply to the files in the Chameleon_BS folder. This assumes that you put the Chameleon_BS folder on the desktop-- if you put it somewhere else, you may edit the command appropriately. Next, enter the following command:
makeusb Letter:
Replace 'Letter' with the actual letter of your USB drive (don't include the quotation marks). In the screenshot below, the letter of my USB drive is 'O'. This command sets up the USB drive so that it'll be ready to boot Mac OS X.
Once the Command Prompt finishes working (it'll probably only take a few seconds), eject your USB drive from your computer. Then, plug the USB drive in again; this is necessary to get Windows to recognize your newly set-up USB drive properly.
3. Copy the boot files onto the USB drive
Finally, you'll need to copy several extra boot files onto the USB drive. Download the 'boot' file and 'Extra' folder; these are necessary files for the Mac OS X startup process.
DOWNLOAD: 'boot' file
DOWNLOAD: 'Extra' folder
The 'Extra' folder will be stored inside a ZIP file. Double-click on the ZIP file to open it. Copy the 'Extra' folder into your USB drive. Next, download and copy the 'boot' file onto your USB drive as well.
This completes the setup process. Now you should have a working Chameleon boot USB drive that can help start Mac OS X on most PCs. Congratulations!
NOTE: When attempting to boot Mac OS X with the help of a boot USB drive, make sure that USB drives are set to first priority in your computer's BIOS (Step 4 of our standard Mountain Lion installation guide).
SOURCE: [GUIDE]Creating a Chameleon Bootable USB from Windows
This page was last modified on 31 January 2010, at 13:21.
This page has been accessed 16,815 times.
Chameleon is THE boot loader when it comes to Hackintosh. What’s really nice about it is that it supports loading custom kexts for OS X and supports for custom theme (it’s a boot loader with nice icons). Clover: Clover is a much more advanced bootloader than Chameleon. First of all install windows 8.1, while in the install phase, Partition 2 disks, 1. After installing OSX and then a bootloader (Chameleon or legacy Clover) on a separate GUID hard drive, you can still give the original Windows drive first boot. 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. Chameleon is an open-source project created on May 25, 2008 based on Apple’s Boot-132 which aims to create a Darwin/XNU bootloader able to boot OS X on ordinary x86 and x86_64 computers. Chameleon’s source code is organized using the SVN ( Subversion control system ) and maintained by the Voodoo team.
I can proceed without installing GRUB, but then it tells me I have to manually install the boot loader. A long Google session has failed to come up with any instructions to do this that I can understand.
Requirements
Hackintoshes generally use Chameleon or Chimera bootloader (they're really the same thing) to boot Mac OS X. If you own a real Mac, you can just download the PKG installer for Chameleon bootloader and install it onto a USB drive in a single click. However, on Windows, the process is more complicated. In this guide, we will be manually writing the necessarily bootloader files from Chameleon onto a USB drive through a series of command-line tools in Windows. Here's what you'll need:
- An empty USB drive - This USB drive can be any size; it doesn't really matter, since the Hackintosh bootloader will only take up a few megabytes. We'll be erasing this drive, so make sure you back up any files that you have on it.
- Chameleon boot sector files - A collection of command-line tools that you'll need to create a boot USB drive in Windows.
- 'boot' file - The main boot file that Chameleon bootloader will need to start Mac OS X. This file was extracted from the newest version of Chameleon bootloader (as of July 1st, 2013), and can boot any version of Mac OS X, including OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
- 'Extra' folder - A collection of additional kexts and configuration files necessary to get Chameleon bootloader working properly with Mac OS X. This folder should allow most standard Hackintosh setups to boot properly, though you can add your own specific kext files if you wish.
This step is technically optional, but doing it reduces your chances of errors. Start Windows and plug your USB drive into your computer. Open Windows Explorer (a.k.a. 'My Computer'), and check the letter of your USB drive. Remember this for later-- in the screenshot below, my USB drive (named 'Whatever') has the letter 'O'.
Next, type 'partition' into the Start Menu. Click on the first result, which should open Window's built-in 'Disk Management' program. From here, find the letter of your USB drive, right-click on it, and click 'Format' to erase it.
When asked, format the USB drive with the 'FAT32' file system. This should only take a few seconds.
2. Run the command-line program
Now we're going to set up the boot USB drive from the Windows Command Prompt. For this, you'll need several 'boot-sector' files, downloadable below:
DOWNLOAD: Chameleon boot sector files
The Chameleon boot sector files will be stored inside a single ZIP file. Double-click on the ZIP file to open it. Click the 'Extract all files' button in Windows Explorer, extract all of the files onto the Windows desktop (or some other random place where you can find the files later). The files should be extracted in a folder called 'Chameleon_BS'.
Next, type 'Command Prompt' into the Start Menu. Right click on the first result, and click 'Run as administrator'-- doing this should open the Windows Command Prompt.
In the Command Prompt, enter the following command:
In the Command Prompt, enter the following command:
Replace 'Username' with your Windows username (include the quotation marks). In the screenshot below, I've replaced my Windows username with a blank line. This command changes the folder that the Command Prompt is working on (cd stands for 'change directory'). Now, everything you type into the Command Prompt will apply to the files in the Chameleon_BS folder. This assumes that you put the Chameleon_BS folder on the desktop-- if you put it somewhere else, you may edit the command appropriately. Next, enter the following command:
makeusb Letter:
Replace 'Letter' with the actual letter of your USB drive (don't include the quotation marks). In the screenshot below, the letter of my USB drive is 'O'. This command sets up the USB drive so that it'll be ready to boot Mac OS X.
Once the Command Prompt finishes working (it'll probably only take a few seconds), eject your USB drive from your computer. Then, plug the USB drive in again; this is necessary to get Windows to recognize your newly set-up USB drive properly.
3. Copy the boot files onto the USB drive
Finally, you'll need to copy several extra boot files onto the USB drive. Download the 'boot' file and 'Extra' folder; these are necessary files for the Mac OS X startup process.
DOWNLOAD: 'boot' file
DOWNLOAD: 'Extra' folder
The 'Extra' folder will be stored inside a ZIP file. Double-click on the ZIP file to open it. Copy the 'Extra' folder into your USB drive. Next, download and copy the 'boot' file onto your USB drive as well.
This completes the setup process. Now you should have a working Chameleon boot USB drive that can help start Mac OS X on most PCs. Congratulations!
NOTE: When attempting to boot Mac OS X with the help of a boot USB drive, make sure that USB drives are set to first priority in your computer's BIOS (Step 4 of our standard Mountain Lion installation guide).
SOURCE: [GUIDE]Creating a Chameleon Bootable USB from Windows
< User:Outragedtony
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Note: Chameleon 2 has not been finally released, and this document is not part of the official Chameleon Documentation. Information is still incomplete, subject to change and written for current RC4. To comment and help improving this guide, please use only this post.
This guide explains how to create CD's and USB drives booting Chameleon 2 with different operating systems. Basic understanding about how Chameleon works is expected. Before creating the boot media, collect the configuration files, kext's and other customizations you will need and organize these files as Chameleon expects them. In short, you should have one Chameleon root folder containing the stage2 bootloader file and the Extra/... folder with all the other stuff inside. Download Chameleon 2 from here. Also, check out the utilities to create BootCDs made by Chameleon Users (under #References).
The Chameleon Boot CD allows you to install Mac OS X from a retail DVD (not as in 'automagic', but as a tool). After Chameleon is booted, eject the CD, insert the retail OS X DVD and press F5 to rescan the optical drive. Make sure to have Chameleon's 'cdboot' stage2 in Chameleon's root folder (instead of 'boot' which is used for HD-installation), and set the 'Rescan' and 'Instant Menu' keys to 'yes' in com.apple.Boot.plist. The CD can also boot operating systems on the hard drive, an essential asset if you somehow screwed up your installation.
[edit]Mac OS X
Note: Unsure if this is right. Could someone with mac os x varify/fix this? Also it's overkill to create a hybrid iso, since you wan't use it in a 'real' mac.
1. Make the Chameleon root folder on your Dekstop:
2. Copy stage2 cdboot into /newiso folder, and add the other configuration files into /newiso/Extra
3. Open a Terminal and create the preboot image (also mounts it to your Desktop):
4. Add the kexts to /Extra/Extensions within the Preboot image
5. Unmount the Preboot Volume
6. Create a bootable iso:
3. Burn Chameleon.iso .
[edit]Windows
Note: Editing .plist files under Linux has its caveats. See #Edit .plist files with Windows for more information.
1. Get the open-source burning tool InfraRecorder
2. Select Data CD and add the Chameleon files (cdboot & Extra folder)
3. Go to File -> Project Properties -> Boot
4. Add Chameleon's 'cdboot' stage2 and set Emulation Type to 'None'
5. Burn the CD
[edit]Linux
1. Use mkisofs to create a bootable iso. Run the following command from the level containing Chameleon's root folder (newiso):
2. Burn chameleon.iso
Note: Missing paragraphs: install Chameleon to USB with Windows/Mac. Windows should be the same as Linux if you can get working dd binaries.
Chameleon USB keys can not boot the retail OS X DVD, but they come in handy as rescue tool to boot into a borked installation. Similarly, if you want to play safe, use them to test new kexts and other customizations for compatibility before applying them to your main chameleon installation. For USB drives, the stage2 loaders for HD's must be used ('boot' instead of 'cdboot') in the Chameleon root directory.
[edit]Linux
Warning: dd and mkfs do not go well with typos. Only use them when you know what will happen, and double-check your commands. Do not use dd when intoxicated.
For simplicity, this example uses a single Fat32 formatted partition and MBR. If you experience problems, try with HFS+ partition and/or GPT layout (remember to use boot1h stage1 loader for HFS+ partitions). A great tool for creating GPT partition tables under linux is gdisk.
0. Partition your media, and make sure it is not mounted
1. Format the Usb stick to F32:
2. Install Chameleon's stage0 boot loader to the usb device:
3. Install Chameleon's stage1 f32 boot loader to the usb partition:
4. Mount the partition:
5. Copy the contents of Chameleon's root folder:
6. Unmount the Usb stick:
[edit]Edit .plist files with Windows
UNIX and Mac OS X use the line feed (LF) character to mark the end of a line of text, Windows uses the carriage return (CR) character. Because .plist files must have linefeed characters at the end of every line to be readable by Mac OS X, editing these files with Windows tools can result in headaches. Use Wordpad instead of Notepad, and to be extra sure convert them with dos2unix after editing.
[edit]Sample com.apple.Boot.plist
[edit]USB key as kext testing ground
Using Chameleon-USB keys to test new kexts is a great way to save yourself trouble. Start with the most minimal set of modifications that will let you install OSx, and then work your way up: Always keep your last working 'main' configuration in sync with the Chameleon USB key, add one kext at a time onto it, and use it to boot into the installed system. If all goes well, add the kext to the main Chameleon install on the HD and move to the next one. That way, you should minimize major panic attacks. Always keep a spare, working ChameleonBoot media (and if this happens to be a CD, LABEL IT).
[edit]Official Chameleon Documentation
[edit]User contributed Content
- Documenatation for Chameleon2 RC by Distemperus
- Howto: Installing OSX without access to a Mac by r0m30
- Lizard, Chameleon management and boot cd creation app by sonotone
- BootCDMaker by Trauma
Retrieved from 'http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php?title=User:Outragedtony/Creating_Chameleon_Boot_Media&oldid=48241'
Installing Chameleon Boot Loader
This page was last modified on 31 January 2010, at 13:21.
This page has been accessed 16,815 times.