[Guide] Installing 10.9 Mavericks on older Macs. -HackerWayne

[gio64]

What happens when you bless the chameleon boot partition using the terminal (so that the machine automatically selects it on startup) and then edit Org.chameleon.Boot.plist to point to the Mavericks partition?

Edit: So, it's all working ok now?

Thanks for chiming in.
It is booting and working no problem again. I never did have any issues installing, running and what not (other than trying to get the old 3870 to show proper 23" Cinema Display resolution - that was a fail, but with a 5770 it's all good).

I did not retouch chameleon or Mavericks (that's my HD name) after installation.

My problem is this: I have a Windows partition on a hard drive, which is now out of the MacPro.

IF i place it back in: I hold option at startup, pick EFI Boot (or Mavericks, it doesn't matter) and now instead of booting Mavericks, it tries to boot Windows and crashes to a blue screen of death (with a lot of writing on it).

IF I hold option and select Windows as a startup disk, then it boots in Windows no problem and Windows works.

IF I remove the Windows disk again, EFI Boot will hang or not work, but if I boot off Lion and then re-bless the Startup Disk (shows up as EFI Boot when holding option down), then I am able to boot Mavericks again.

I read about it, I tried to go into Windows and either use DiskManagement or DiskPart to set the Mavericks partition as active, but it would not do that since the Mavericks partition is GUID.

I re-did everything trying to set the Mavericks partition to MBR, but the Mavericks installer will not install into MBR (at least the one I have).

I re-partitioned the drive again as GUID and repeated all the steps and I'm back in Mavericks.
Sorry for the long explanation.

 

[Mjsais]

Success

Peter,
Thank you for your help. Maverick is installed and appears to be working well. Tomorrow I will test the bootcamp partition (windows xp) which I only run under parallels.
Regards
Mjsais

 

[john7ric]

can I install mavericks in my mid 2007 maacbook?

really sorry for arriving late here, anyone please tell me if my macbook 2007 mid 13' can run Maverics using the new MLPF? Thanks in advance

 

[Hennesie2000]

Thanks for chiming in.
It is booting and working no problem again. I never did have any issues installing, running and what not (other than trying to get the old 3870 to show proper 23" Cinema Display resolution - that was a fail, but with a 5770 it's all good).

I did not retouch chameleon or Mavericks (that's my HD name) after installation.

My problem is this: I have a Windows partition on a hard drive, which is now out of the MacPro.

IF i place it back in: I hold option at startup, pick EFI Boot (or Mavericks, it doesn't matter) and now instead of booting Mavericks, it tries to boot Windows and crashes to a blue screen of death (with a lot of writing on it).

IF I hold option and select Windows as a startup disk, then it boots in Windows no problem and Windows works.

IF I remove the Windows disk again, EFI Boot will hang or not work, but if I boot off Lion and then re-bless the Startup Disk (shows up as EFI Boot when holding option down), then I am able to boot Mavericks again.

I read about it, I tried to go into Windows and either use DiskManagement or DiskPart to set the Mavericks partition as active, but it would not do that since the Mavericks partition is GUID.

I re-did everything trying to set the Mavericks partition to MBR, but the Mavericks installer will not install into MBR (at least the one I have).

I re-partitioned the drive again as GUID and repeated all the steps and I'm back in Mavericks.
Sorry for the long explanation.

Give this a try: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...-your-partition-active-using-fdisk-in-macosx/

------
I am working on using the gdisk command line tool to try and create a hybrid GPT/MBR disk so that I can install Windows without it complaining about the disk being formatted as a GPT.

 

[tripmusic]

Ok, I got Mavericks to boot on my 2,1 Mac Pro (x5355's) and I'm an idiot. Here's the rundown...

I installed 10.9 on my supported MacBook Pro 4,1. I put the Mac Pro in TDM and used CCC to clone 10.9 over to the Mac Pro. I booted the MP with 10.6.8 and installed Chameleon to the 10.9 HD, but it didn't work and didn't show in the root of the Mavericks HD. So I added a small partition on the same HD and installed Chameleon again. I used Terminal and blessed the Chameleon boot partition. I wound up using MacEfiRom's bless line as Batman's didn't seem to work. I added the SMBios.plist & org.chameleon.Boot.plist to the Chameleon boot partition restarted and it worked. If it doesn't automatically boot with Chameleon then hold the option key and select efi. Once you boot the 64bit kernel you don't have to hold option down every time as Chameleon will continue to automatically boot

Some early observations:

The grey, Apple logo boot screen is at an incorrect resolution
Freezes after Restart (No Monitor)
No built in audio
About this Mac is showing a pic of the Mac Pro, but it says iMac Summer 2001
The system Report shows it correctly as a MP 3,1
My HD 4870 is showing 4800
I noticed that when I hold option on boot, the efi HD is not there anymore. Normal? Is it just for the initial boot into Chameleon?

So this is what I have so far... haven't had much time to play with it. This is all new territory for me. Hopefully this helps other noobs like myself. I would appreciate any help or comments. My goal is to run Pro Tools 11 (64bit) on this thing if it will be stable enough. If not, then I'll have to get rid of it.

You don't want to get rid of it... you take it apart, dust everything out, change the cpu's and tinker with things to get it to work the way you need it to. You become attached to it. It's your baby... your baby beast. This is why Mac users are reluctant to give up their '06 Mac Pro's

 

[RV-ABZ]

.

 

[Hennesie2000]

Ok, I got Mavericks to boot on my 2,1 Mac Pro (x5355's) and I'm an idiot. Here's the rundown...

I installed 10.9 on my supported MacBook Pro 4,1. I put the Mac Pro in TDM and used CCC to clone 10.9 over to the Mac Pro. I booted the MP with 10.6.8 and installed Chameleon to the 10.9 HD, but it didn't work and didn't show in the root of the Mavericks HD. So I added a small partition on the same HD and installed Chameleon again. I used Terminal and blessed the Chameleon boot partition. I wound up using MacEfiRom's bless line as Batman's didn't seem to work. I added the SMBios.plist & org.chameleon.Boot.plist to the Chameleon boot partition restarted and it worked. If it doesn't automatically boot with Chameleon then hold the option key and select efi. Once you boot the 64bit kernel you don't have to hold option down every time as Chameleon will continue to automatically boot

Some early observations:

The grey, Apple logo boot screen is at an incorrect resolution
Freezes after Restart (No Monitor)
No built in audio
About this Mac is showing a pic of the Mac Pro, but it says iMac Summer 2001
The system Report shows it correctly as a MP 3,1
My HD 4870 is showing 4800
I noticed that when I hold option on boot, the efi HD is not there anymore. Normal? Is it just for the initial boot into Chameleon?

So this is what I have so far... haven't had much time to play with it. This is all new territory for me. Hopefully this helps other noobs like myself. I would appreciate any help or comments. My goal is to run Pro Tools 11 (64bit) on this thing if it will be stable enough. If not, then I'll have to get rid of it.

You don't want to get rid of it... you take it apart, dust everything out, change the cpu's and tinker with things to get it to work the way you need it to. You become attached to it. It's your baby... your baby beast. This is why Mac users are reluctant to give up their '06 Mac Pro's

Sounds like your SMBios file is all mixed up. Either use the chameleon wizard to make one or google for the right values. That will correct everything in about this Mac. The apple logo boot screen may not be fixable if your card doesn't have the right VESA mode but you can try by adjusting the resolution settings in the org.chameleon.Boot.plist file.

 

[gio64]

Give this a try: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...-your-partition-active-using-fdisk-in-macosx/

------
I am working on using the gdisk command line tool to try and create a hybrid GPT/MBR disk so that I can install Windows without it complaining about the disk being formatted as a GPT.

I had tried that but I stupidly tried from being logged in Lion and didn't work.
I have done it using the recovery boot and worked. When I get off work I'll replace the HD with the one with Windows and we'll see how that goes.
Thank you again, I appreciate that you take the time to find stuff and respond.

 

[Hennesie2000]

I had tried that but I stupidly tried from being logged in Lion and didn't work.
I have done it using the recovery boot and worked. When I get off work I'll replace the HD with the one with Windows and we'll see how that goes.
Thank you again, I appreciate that you take the time to find stuff and respond.

Using gptsync I was able to create a hybrid MBR but it isn't the greatest tool and screwed up the partition. I need to play with gdisk more because it gives a lot more control over the process of creating the hybrid MBR.

When trying to get windows installed this time it gave me an error about there being too many partitions of this type... didn't specify which type and the issue might be that unlike my current install I only have 3 partitions (chameleon, mavericks, windows) this one had 4 (boot, mavericks installer, mavericks, windows). It wasn't complaining about the GPT so it's a step in the right direction.

 

[gpatpandp]

You will need to make sure that the SMBios file reflects a Mac Pro 3,1 or higher...

You will need to make sure that the SMBios file reflects a Mac Pro 3,1 or higher. If it is setup up as a 1,1 or 2,1 the installer will tell you that it cannot install Mavericks on this Mac. It will let you boot the installer but right after the language selection you will get that error. The SMBios from batmans guide will work.

Not true...I believe it mentioned previously that none of that chameleon wizard nor altering one's "extra" folder (besides the addition of a modules folder containing the FileNVRAM.dylib for iMessages/Facetime to work and quite honestly I do not know if this is absolutely necessary any longer in Mavericks as it was in Mountain Lion) nonsense is needed any longer. The SAME exact extra folder used to accomplish the unsupported Mac Pro 10.8 method will work untouched in Mavericks.

 

[Hennesie2000]

Not true...I believe it mentioned previously that none of that chameleon wizard nor altering one's "extra" folder (besides the addition of a modules folder containing the FileNVRAM.dylib for iMessages/Facetime to work and quite honestly I do not know if this is absolutely necessary any longer in Mavericks as it was in Mountain Lion) nonsense is needed any longer. The SAME exact extra folder used to accomplish the unsupported Mac Pro 10.8 method will work untouched in Mavericks.

You are confused with what I was talking about. You will need a SMBios.plist that reflects a Mac Pro 3,1 or some other supported in order to run the Mavericks installer. For my normal running of Mavericks I use use a SMBios.plist that shows my Mac Pro properly as a 1,1. You do need the FileNVRAM.dylib in order to get iMessage working.

 

[gpatpandp]

You are confused with what I was talking about. You will need a SMBios.plist that reflects a Mac Pro 3,1 or some other supported in order to run the Mavericks installer. For my normal running of Mavericks I use use a SMBios.plist that shows my Mac Pro properly as a 1,1. You do need the FileNVRAM.dylib in order to get iMessage working.

I wonder if your suggestion/finding is merely an alternative to jabbawoks guide where in the creation of the installer, there is the editing of the distribution file with flat package editor accordingly. I never adjusted my SMBios.plist but instead altered the OSInstall.mpkg. I also must add that I did stumble upon some difficulty in creating the installer for the 2nd Mavericks Gold Master that I never encountered with the 1st GM or for that matter any Mountain Lion release. I cannot remember the exact error message (something about the installation disk being damaged) or what I did to circumvent the issue though if my memory serves me correct, I found the issue was moving around the Mavericks installer .app and once I left it alone and used it on from the original origin of which it was installed I had no problem afterward.

 

[Hennesie2000]

I wonder if your suggestion/finding is merely an alternative to jabbawoks guide where in the creation of the installer, there is the editing of the distribution file with flat package editor accordingly. I never adjusted my SMBios.plist but instead altered the OSInstall.mpkg. I also must add that I did stumble upon some difficulty in creating the installer for the 2nd Mavericks Gold Master that I never encountered with the 1st GM or for that matter any Mountain Lion release. I cannot remember the exact error message (something about the installation disk being damaged) or what I did to circumvent the issue though if my memory serves me correct, I found the issue was moving around the Mavericks installer .app and once I left it alone and used it on from the original origin of which it was installed I had no problem afterward.

You are correct that it is just another method than Jabbawok's guide but my preference is to not modify the installer in any way. I keep two SMBios.plist in my Extra folder. One name "SMBios 1,1.plist" and one named "SMBios.plist 3,1". Whatever one I want to use I just remove the model identifier in the file name.

----------

I had tried that but I stupidly tried from being logged in Lion and didn't work.
I have done it using the recovery boot and worked. When I get off work I'll replace the HD with the one with Windows and we'll see how that goes.
Thank you again, I appreciate that you take the time to find stuff and respond.

When trying to install Windows I got stuck booting to the Windows install DVD. I was able to set an active partition there using the recovery tools and the CMD prompt.

diskpart.exe
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
select partition 3
active

Obviously the numbers maybe different for you but partition 3 is where I have Mavericks installed. Restarted and Chameleon came right up and I booted into Mavericks. Now to figure out what is going on with the "too many partitions error" when trying to install windows.

 

[wwanthony]

OK…I need some advice.

My Setup:

- MacPro 1,1 upgraded to MacPro 1,2 firmware
- 16GB ram
- HD5770
- 2.66 Quad-Cores
- Currently running 10.7.5 (Lion)

I read the thread from beginning to end and no worries.

I would like the end state to be 4 2TB HDs paired as Raid 0. So I would end up with 2 4TB logical drives (1 for Mavericks and stuff, 1 for Time Machine).

I have a supported MacBook Pro running Mavericks to support the installation. I also have a 2 drive external case.

I know that others have installed Mavericks on the same partition as Chameleon, which is what I would like to do. What about partition sizes and MacOS installs? Other thought? Thanks in advance…..

 

[gpatpandp]

I know that others have installed Mavericks on the same partition as Chameleon, which is what I would like to do. What about partition sizes and MacOS installs? Other thought? Thanks in advance…..

Unless there is another technique I am not aware of, it is not possible to install any boot loader on the exact same partition as OS X (on a "REAL" Apple Mac computer I mean). In the case of Chameleon, you can have each your BOOT partition and your OS X partition on the same hard drive though you would need format each partition in Master Boot Record (MBR) and install Mavericks on another hard drive formatted in GUID and then clone your install onto the MBR partition you designated for OS X. As Clover will install on a FAT 32 partition, you can install OS X from scratch on the same Hard Drive as Clover however my experiment in using Clover versus Chameleon resulted in loss of functionality on my Mac Pro compared to using Chameleon so in the end is just was not worth it.

 

[wwanthony]

Unless there is another technique I am not aware of, it is not possible to install any boot loader on the exact same partition as OS X (on a "REAL" Apple Mac computer I mean). In the case of Chameleon, you can have each your BOOT partition and your OS X partition on the same hard drive though you would need format each partition in Master Boot Record (MBR) and install Mavericks on another hard drive formatted in GUID and then clone your install onto the MBR partition you designated for OS X. As Clover will install on a FAT 32 partition, you can install OS X from scratch on the same Hard Drive as Clover however my experiment in using Clover versus Chameleon resulted in loss of functionality on my Mac Pro compared to using Chameleon so in the end is just was not worth it.

Thanks for the input. I guess I should have said same hard drive, not same partition. What tool do you use to clone? Thanks

 

[Hennesie2000]

OK…I need some advice.

My Setup:

- MacPro 1,1 upgraded to MacPro 1,2 firmware
- 16GB ram
- HD5770
- 2.66 Quad-Cores
- Currently running 10.7.5 (Lion)

I read the thread from beginning to end and no worries.

I would like the end state to be 4 2TB HDs paired as Raid 0. So I would end up with 2 4TB logical drives (1 for Mavericks and stuff, 1 for Time Machine).

I have a supported MacBook Pro running Mavericks to support the installation. I also have a 2 drive external case.

I know that others have installed Mavericks on the same partition as Chameleon, which is what I would like to do. What about partition sizes and MacOS installs? Other thought? Thanks in advance…..

I can't comment on the Raid0 setup but you can do the install and everything from the Mac Pro using your 10.7.5 install. Here is a quick rundown on the process. Partition a new disk with 3 partitions all HFS+ and as a GPT. The first partition will be 1GB and that is where you will install Chameleon. The second partition is 8GB and that is where you will setup the installer. And the 3rd partition will be where you install Mavericks.

To setup the installer follow the instructions for creating a USB thumb drive installer here: http://osxdaily.com/2013/06/12/make-boot-os-x-mavericks-usb-install-drive/

Once the installer is setup and Chameleon is setup up, bless the Chameleon boot and restart. On restart Chameleon should come up and you will select the Installer partition. The installer will boot and you will proceed as usual. After the installer reboots, chameleon will come back up and you will choose the partition where you just installed Mavericks. Continue setting it up and you are done.

----------

Unless there is another technique I am not aware of, it is not possible to install any boot loader on the exact same partition as OS X (on a "REAL" Apple Mac computer I mean). In the case of Chameleon, you can have each your BOOT partition and your OS X partition on the same hard drive though you would need format each partition in Master Boot Record (MBR) and install Mavericks on another hard drive formatted in GUID and then clone your install onto the MBR partition you designated for OS X. As Clover will install on a FAT 32 partition, you can install OS X from scratch on the same Hard Drive as Clover however my experiment in using Clover versus Chameleon resulted in loss of functionality on my Mac Pro compared to using Chameleon so in the end is just was not worth it.

This is wrong... you can install Chameleon on a GUID right along with Mavericks. I have done what I posted right above this numerous times now. Jabbawok's guide is good to follow but it is old at this point. There is no need for a 2nd boot drive and no need to copy the mach_kernel into the installer partition.

 

[Treksdot]

This is wrong... you can install Chameleon on a GUID right along with Mavericks. I have done what I posted right above this numerous times now. Jabbawok's guide is good to follow but it is old at this point. There is no need for a 2nd boot drive and no need to copy the mach_kernel into the installer partition.

This is really starting to bug me. I spent another couple of hours yesterday trying in vain to get Chameleon to load off a pure GPT disk but it flatly refuses to. At this point I'm pretty sure that what you're doing is loading Chameleon onto a GPT/MBR hybrid disk without realizing it. All the instructions I've googled mention loading a required file into the MBR boot sector. When I installed Chameleon into the EFI partition or into its own dedicated 1GB partition at the top it ends in the same story: a black screen with a frozen colon/underscore in the top left corner. What I ended up doing to get Chameleon and Mavericks on the same drive was formatting as MBR with two partitions and then restoring a fresh Mavericks install onto the second partition. This setup works fine but all the ignorable ACL errors in Disk Utility causes permissions repair to take much longer than it should.

 

[Hennesie2000]

This is really starting to bug me. I spent another couple of hours yesterday trying in vain to get Chameleon to load off a pure GPT disk but it flatly refuses to. At this point I'm pretty sure that what you're doing is loading Chameleon onto a GPT/MBR hybrid disk without realizing it. All the instructions I've googled mention loading a required file into the MBR boot sector. When I installed Chameleon into the EFI partition or into its own dedicated 1GB partition at the top it ends in the same story: a black screen with a frozen colon/underscore in the top left corner. What I ended up doing to get Chameleon and Mavericks on the same drive was formatting as MBR with two partitions and then restoring a fresh Mavericks install onto the second partition. This setup works fine but all the ignorable ACL errors in Disk Utility causes permissions repair to take much longer than it should.

It is not a hybrid MBR. I am positive I have been messing with trying to create a hybrid MBR so I am able to dual boot windows. I will post a screen shot of my gdisk print out. As you can see it is a standard GPT. I have not done anything other than format the disk as GUID with the 3 partitions and install the necessary stuff. If I were to try and install windows as it stands I would get an error saying I can't because it is a GPT disk.

Using gdisk I can create a hybrid MBR that would allow me to install windows. That is what I am currently trying to do since I can't remember how I did it with my main hard drive that is a hybrid MBR because it is one disk with chameleon, mavericks and windows 7. However I installed chameleon, OS X directly on that disk and never had to restore an OS to it. I installed windows after those two were set up.

Here is an after screen shot using gdisk to create a hybrid MBR along with the whole process of creating the hybrid. NOTE: I also used disk utility to split the OS X partition in two and create a FAT32 Windows partition:

 

[Treksdot]

It is not a hybrid MBR. I am positive I have been messing with trying to create a hybrid MBR so I am able to dual boot windows. I will post a screen shot of my gdisk print out. As you can see it is a standard GPT. I have not done anything other than format the disk as GUID with the 3 partitions and install the necessary stuff. If I were to try and install windows as it stands I would get an error saying I can't because it is a GPT disk.

Some quick questions then:

1. Which version of Chameleon are you using?
2. Are you using Chemelon Wizard or the Chamaelon package to install Chameleon?
3. When installing Chameleon which options are you using?
4. When blessing the boot drive are you doing it from a pre-10.8 OS X install or some other way?

Thank you.

 

[gpatpandp]

This is wrong... you can install Chameleon on a GUID right along with Mavericks. I have done what I posted right above this numerous times now. Jabbawok's guide is good to follow but it is old at this point. There is no need for a 2nd boot drive and no need to copy the mach_kernel into the installer partition.

Not certain what kind of procedure you are enabling in doing so however just to know for my own purposes, I booted to a spare Lion hard drive, went into terminal and created a 650 MB hfs+ BOOT partition on my Mavericks Hard Drive, downloaded and installed the latest 2.2v r2266 Chameleon package, blessed it with the sudo command and it is NOT booting my Mavericks partition on the same Hard Drive.

 

[Hennesie2000]

Some quick questions then:

1. Which version of Chameleon are you using?
2. Are you using Chemelon Wizard or the Chamaelon package to install Chameleon?
3. When installing Chameleon which options are you using?
4. When blessing the boot drive are you doing it from a pre-10.8 OS X install or some other way?

Thank you.

1. v2.2 rev2247 (you can update it to 2266 if you want to using the Wizard)
2. pkg
3. there aren't any options in the pkg installer, just setting it to install on the boot partition
4. I am using the command (sudo bless -folder /Volumes/Boot -file /Volumes/Boot/boot -setBoot -legacy) it only works while EFI booted in 10.7.5.

You cannot use the -legacy command if you are already in booted in legacy. However if you are already in legacy (10.8 or 10.9) just shutdown and pull all hard drives but the one you just setup. It will boot to Chameleon and let you select the installer to start installing Mavericks. Like I said I have done this probably 20 times now experimenting with getting Windows on the same disk. Each time I start with a newly formatted disk as GPT.

 

[gpatpandp]

Some quick questions then:

1. Which version of Chameleon are you using?
2. Are you using Chemelon Wizard or the Chamaelon package to install Chameleon?
3. When installing Chameleon which options are you using?
4. When blessing the boot drive are you doing it from a pre-10.8 OS X install or some other way?

Thank you.

Just so you know, and while I will never profess to being anywhere near an expert on these subjects, I have been "around the block" a few times within these forums and have never heard of Chameleon booting on an hfs+ guid partition on a real Mac before. Since Hennesie2000 has mentioned it earlier today as a possibility, I have been attempting to replicate it and it doesn't work for me. Would be a nice trick however I do not think I will spend any further time on it as I am not feeling a dire need to want to get it all on one hard drive anyway.

 

[Hennesie2000]

Not certain what kind of procedure you are enabling in doing so however just to know for my own purposes, I booted to a spare Lion hard drive, went into terminal and created a 650 MB hfs+ BOOT partition on my Mavericks Hard Drive, downloaded and installed the latest 2.2v r2266 Chameleon package, blessed it with the sudo command and it is NOT booting my Mavericks partition on the same Hard Drive.

It might a situation where I am starting from scratch instead of adding a boot partition.

 

[gpatpandp]

It might a situation where I am starting from scratch instead of adding a boot partition.

While little idiosyncrasies like that might be the difference...it really shouldn't matter. If I were to want to install and boot with Clover again, adding a partition within terminal works every time so I doubt it.