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[Guide] Installing 10.9 Mavericks on older Macs. -HackerWayne
- Thread starter hackerwayne
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This is what HackerWayne said the other day...
"MVPF won't be supporting GMA 950 as we've pretty much gave up on it. OpenGL and OpenCL won't work on 950 so its pretty much useless. X3100 works but its buggy. Development on X1600 has completed. Stay tuned for more updates. Development on MLPF has been terminated temporarily as we're focusing on MVPF. For Mac Pros, we have a version of MVPF that does not require Chameleon to boot into Mavericks but you lose iMessage and FaceTime support. Mavericks has no changes to the filesystem, so. MBR will work but require a modified installer. Of course the installer will tell you its not compatible but that is false. (i didn't go thru everything, just skipped thru and read somewhere someones arguing about GPT n MBR, so hope this clears some stuffs up)"
Word of Warning in installing Mavericks & Chameleon Boot all on one (1) Hard Drive
Firstly, I must preface this warning with the old adage "Your Mileage May Vary". I felt it important however to relate some very disconcerting results when testing the stability of a successfully installed system that includes both Mavericks and Chameleon, both installed on HFS+/GUID partitions on the same hard drive.
iMessage becomes troublesome when doing so. When switching back to my two (2) hard drive system set-up (i.e. Mavericks and Boot/Installer each on there own separate hard drives), iMessages works perfectly like it always did.
The most significant aspect that I found however is that a deep system cache clean using Mavericks Cache Cleaner completely BRICKS the entire drive/system. Ironically, the Mavericks OS X system will still boot with the old "Windows" BOOT drive created/used in the original set-up. The unusable/unstable part is the BOOT partition created on a HFS+/GUID partition. Once the caches are cleaned, it immediately destroys the partition and it will not/never boot again. So unless your really cramped for space where it becomes absolutely necessary to do so, I would advise against using this method as it is NO WHERE NEAR AS STABLE as the traditional method with installing your BOOT drive separately from your OS X System.
Jabbawoks method maybe old, but the most brilliant aspect of it is that it is damn near infallible and solid as a rock. Besides, I always live by the motto that "If it ain't broke...don't fix it".
Firstly, I must preface this warning with the old adage "Your Mileage May Vary". I felt it important however to relate some very disconcerting results when testing the stability of a successfully installed system that includes both Mavericks and Chameleon, both installed on HFS+/GUID partitions on the same hard drive.
iMessage becomes troublesome when doing so. When switching back to my two (2) hard drive system set-up (i.e. Mavericks and Boot/Installer each on there own separate hard drives), iMessages works perfectly like it always did.
The most significant aspect that I found however is that a deep system cache clean using Mavericks Cache Cleaner completely BRICKS the entire drive/system. Ironically, the Mavericks OS X system will still boot with the old "Windows" BOOT drive created/used in the original set-up. The unusable/unstable part is the BOOT partition created on a HFS+/GUID partition. Once the caches are cleaned, it immediately destroys the partition and it will not/never boot again. So unless your really cramped for space where it becomes absolutely necessary to do so, I would advise against using this method as it is NO WHERE NEAR AS STABLE as the traditional method with installing your BOOT drive separately from your OS X System.
Jabbawoks method maybe old, but the most brilliant aspect of it is that it is damn near infallible and solid as a rock. Besides, I always live by the motto that "If it ain't broke...don't fix it".
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What issues are you having with iMessage? I have been using the single HDD method for over 2 weeks now and have not had any issues. Were you running the Cache Cleaner to try and troubleshoot iMessage? Perhaps there was an issue when you cloned your previous Mavericks install over instead of installing fresh on the GPT.
Installing Chameleon on a GPT should have absolutely zero effect on your Mavericks install. You are still running Mavericks on a GTP the same exact way it's just on a different HDD.
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I installed "fresh" and used migration assistant during my install so absolutely no cloning involved. I have run (and have done so a half dozen times) Mavericks Cache Cleaner on a supported mac with Mavericks installed and have had no issues whatsoever. And as I mentioned, the Mavericks OS X system with the now damaged/unusable Chameleon HFS+/GUID on the same hard drive will boot with the separate BOOT drive constructed originally using jabbawoks method.
Cleaning caches are a necessity. If there are folks out there that don't need to do so or will avoid doing so in order to have the BOOT drive on a HFS+/GUID partition along side there Mavericks OS X system then so be it. I need this functionality and in performing this procedure, this set-up has proven to be far to unstable for me so I will stick with what is proven to remain completely stable when performing this procedure.
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I ran a deep clean using Mavericks Cache Cleaner without any issues... If your Mavericks install was correct then there is 100% no difference than running Chameleon from a second drive. Chameleon still has access to the file system in the same way. It's just like running the installer from a MBR or a GPT doesn't make a difference.
Cleaning caches are a necessity when there is an issue. In fact Mavericks Cache Cleaner specifically says that it is not a maintenance procedure but a troubleshooting procedure.
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Hence the reason I initiated my warning with "Your Milage May Vary". Fortunately I saved my original set-up and within seconds I was back up and running. It only stands to reason that anytime you run entirely separate processes simultaneously without any barrier between them you run the risk of something possibly becoming corrupted. The original method (OS X system and BOOT each on their on separate hard drives) negates this possibility entirely.
And again not to be redundant, but the issue IS NOT THE MAVERICKS OS X SYSTEM. Mavericks will still boot fine with a separate hard drive containing the Chameleon "Windows" BOOT.
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Did you install chameleon on to its own partition before or was it installed onto the same partition where Mavericks was installed? The only reason Chameleon was put on its own drive before was because the thought was that you could not boot it from a GPT and it had to be a MBR. That was obviously wrong, I think I made my point there.
Being on a separate drive it still has 100% access to your Mavericks install and could still corrupt it. I have had Windows do that to an OS X install when they were on separate HDD's which is why I immediately uninstall the Apple HFS drivers that install with Boot Camp on Windows and disable all drives not needed in Windows in the device manager.
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While your overall willingness to assist others within this forum is to be commended, frankly your kinda becoming a tad full of yourself in the sense that you seem to convey an attitude that it is either "your way or no way". Again while fully acknowledging and accepting that I am not the expert among all on these topics, I do however possess a measure of competency within this realm and have contributed significantly to troubleshooting issues within this very same forum.
I must say however that your statement: "Being on a separate drive it still has 100% access to your Mavericks install and could still corrupt it." is simply ludicrous and not true. I am not inventing what I have reported here today and I did not log in to intentionally thwart your accomplishment. Your point is made that Chameleon can be installed and boot from a HFS+/GUID. Unfortunately whether you like it or not, I have discovered an instability issue in setting up ones boot structure in this manner that did not exist for me when using the two (2) hard drive set-up. I hope this is helpful to those in a similar situation as myself.
Never once said you are inventing what you are saying and never once said my way or no way. You also cannot say that it is unstable. I might have been in your experience but that doesn't speak for everyone.
Please tell me how a second HDD installed in a computer does not have full access to another one without disabling one or changing the permissions.
Chameleon still modifies the system on boot just the same wether it is on another HDD or another partition.
Also you said it completely bricked your system which is 100% not true since you were still able to boot the Mavericks install which you said was bricked by using another chameleon install.
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Would you please go into more detail on how exactly it bricked your system? I've read the back and forth and I'm still unclear on how a simple cache cleaning could've screwed with the partition table. Without knowing more I can only guess that you had Chameleon installed inside your Mavericks partition. As long as Chameleon is kept in its own partition, preferably one set to not auto-mount, then any utility tool not designed with Chameleon in mind shouldn't screw things up.
Open separate thread on Chameleon
Hi guys,
Would it not make sense to open a separate thread with a guide to run Mavericks on Chameleon?
This would leave this thread on the Hackerwayne method.
By the way, has anyone heard of him lately? It's been awfully quiet on the MVPF method.
Have a great evening.
Z
Hi guys,
Would it not make sense to open a separate thread with a guide to run Mavericks on Chameleon?
This would leave this thread on the Hackerwayne method.
By the way, has anyone heard of him lately? It's been awfully quiet on the MVPF method.
Have a great evening.
Z
There is not much to it and frankly I am not sure why my findings are so difficult to fathom. In mulling it over further, I suspect that a "deep" Mavericks Cache Clean might have done something to the boot cache of adjacent/attached HFS+/GUID partition with Chameleon installed on it and somehow damaged it. It is purely speculation however.
And yes, albeit a trivial distinction semantically, the entire system was not "bricked' just the BOOT/Chameleon partition was effected.
These are several things I do know
1.) I have had the Two (2) drive system (separate OS X system and BOOT/Installer on another) since the first release of OS X 10.8 and nothing ever adversely effected it...I reiterate nothing ever
2.) I have had the OS X 10.9 system partition and the Chameleon/BOOT partition on the same hard drive for three days and a simple cache clean rendered it useless
3.) What did I benefit from in having OS X 10.9 system partition and the Chameleon/BOOT partition on the same hard drive ? An open hard drive bay.
What do I personally risk for gaining an open hard drive bay ? My experience indicates a system that is far more easily broken by normal maintenance procedures.
This maybe an isolated case or may not be. It's an individuals choice and I choose the stability that I know that I can rely upon and have done so now for years. End of discussion.
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Considering the "hack" that I had figure out for a supposedly "SUPPORTED" MacBook Pro (yes that is correct...my MacBook Pro is a supported OS X 10.9 Mavericks Mac yet I still had to hack it in order for Mavericks to function properly on it), I could not agree with you more...
Please understand that I'm not trying to question your intentions, only figure out the underlying cause of the problem. I don't disagree with you trying to inform others to a possible scenario leading to a borked Chameleon booter but do try to see it from the other side. Hennesie200 has already stated that he's had no issues running a deep cache clean using Mavericks Cache Cleaner. Granted, I've never used or even heard of Mavericks Cache Cleaner until today so, if either of you wouldn't mind, could you please explain what this entails? When you say you bricked your system what exactly do you mean by that? Does Chameleon not even show at the boot selector anymore, does it throw an error once it's starting or does it go straight to a blank screen? You said yourself that this could be an isolated case or may not be, so why don't we try to discover which it is?
To illustrate my concern here is my Mac Pro hard drive setup:
Bay 1: This originally was my Lion install but is now my Chameleon/Mavericks install.
Bay 2: My Windows 7 x64 install. I'd thought about installing Chameleon to this hybrid disk but decided against it.(Seeing as I don't want Windows effecting OS X, the same goes for OS X effecting Windows. It's this reason that I disable the HFS drivers in Windows.)
Bay 3: Disk 1 of my media RAID.
Bay 4: Disk 2 of my media RAID.
The 2 additional on-board SATA are used for my external Time Machine RAID.
As you can see, I have a keen interest in making sure that Chameleon and Mavericks coexisting on a single drive continues to work flawlessly.
If you go to the Success ! 10.8 on unsupported macs forum (Waynes and ML4ALL original forum), just this morning I outlined the basic procedure for a OS X 10.8.5 64 bit mode install for my iMac with X1600 graphics. That would be a OS X 10.8.5 system that does not utilize MLPF. Feel free to inquire if you wish.
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Let us firstly all agree to one thing...there is no such thing as a flawless hack hence the nature of it being a hack. If one truly wants "flawless" they skedaddle on over to the Apple store and lay down several grand for the latest and greatest. Mind you that in itself will not achieve "flawless" though it gives you the right to dump your less then flawless onto a "genius" and demand they make it flawless. Whether it be Mavericks Cache, Cocktail, Onyx or any of the like they all have a feature known as cache cleaning. Clean cleaning generally wipes away/resets/erases stored information within various aspects of the computers functionality that the computer uses/stores so that it does not have to keep regenerating this information every time the machine is booted/used. This could be anything from the kext cache which the computer stores so that is saves time not having to reload and record all the kexts files it loads to say the internet cache which is also information regarding your internet activity that is stored/cached so that by doing so the computer again does not have to reload and save this information again and again.
Within these utilities there are varying degrees of how extensive one can clear/clean the cache. In this specific case I selected the most extensive cache cleaning and Mavericks Cache Cleaner performed the operation and the rest, as you have read, is history.
After the cache was cleaned, I restarted and held down the option key at boot. All three drives (Mavericks OS X system, Installer, and EFI BOOT) appeared as expected. Toggled over to the EFI Boot partition (chameleon) pressed return/enter and the screen turned white with no further progress. Did a hard shut down then inserted/installed my Chameleon BOOT completely separate MBR formatted Hard Drive. Booted my Mac Pro, Boot menu again appears, this time toggled onto the "Windows" partition (Chameleon installed on an MBR) and the same 10.9 OS X system that will no longer boot when attempting to do so with Chameleon installed in the HFS+/GUID partition now boots fine. And there you have it.
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Out of curiosity do you have UseKernelCache set to Yes on your GPT Chameleon install? Best guess is that MCC cleared the kernel cache without rebuilding it and Chameleon was configured to use it. When you restarted Chameleon couldn't find it and simply stalled. Falling back on your MBR Chameleon install likely didn't have that flag set so it booted fine. Did said boot seem to take longer than usual? From what I can gather about MCC it never actually touched your Chameleon partition or the boot loader files it installs.
Nope do not use it (kernel cache). The org.chameleon.Boot.plist is same I have used for years:
<key>Default Partition</key>
<string>hd(1,2)</string>
<key>GUI</key>
<string>No</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1680x1050x32</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Quiet Boot</key>
<string>No</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>2</string>
Sorry my findings have caused you worry concerning your set-up. Having just moved your system over from Lion it would appear that you are somewhat new to all this. I have been at this for years, have quite a few self developed/formulated hacks (real macs and hackintosh) under my belt, and have learned to trust my judgement. My advise to you would be to both make a good back-up and to also acquire a spare hard drive and have a Chameleon BOOT hard drive formatted in MBR just in case.
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Why not bless the Chameleon install and not boot into EFI mode anymore, instead boot into Legacy mode? I use a PC graphics card so I don't have the menu when holding option but my Mac Pro boots staight into Chameleon and then I can choose Mavericks or Windows from there. No need to hold option anymore.
Not to worry, my concern isn't so much over my setup but being presented with a problem and wanting to figure out the why. I don't mean to offend you after you went through the trouble of stating your bona fides but how are you sure MCC caused your problem? If all you did was clear out the cache files then what it did wouldn't cause what you described. Since you don't use the kernel cache flag it sounds like something else screwed with the partition tables and the reboot triggered by MCC merely exposed the problem. You could even wipe your entire Mavericks installation and Chameleon wouldn't care. As for my setup I think I'm fairly safe. On top of the drives I already have in it I also still have my Lion disk, which I don't plan on reformatting until I'm damn certain this Mavericks configuration will be a reliable workhorse, the MBR formatted disk I used for the Chameleon/Mavericks Installer and another disk setup for recovery purposes. Once I can relocate it I plan on using my USB stick as a backup Chameleon booter.
P.S. I am interested to know why you bother setting Quiet Boot to No as that is the default behavior.
Hi! I am on a MacBook4,1 and I have been having issues with Chameleon. I boot up and I get "No bootable device". Suggestions?
"No bootable device" insinuates that chameleon is not finding your mac kernel. You will need to find out the boot order of how chameleon is reading the drive the mac kernel/OS X system is located on (i.e. 0,1 0,2 1,2 etc) and adjust your org.chameleon.Boot.plist accordingly.
The much larger issue you will face is whether or not chameleon will load your unsupported graphic kexts. I have tried countless times (in vain) to get both Clover and Chameleon to load the ATI X1600 unsupported kexts and never once has either of these boot loaders accomplished this.
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