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

[Hennesie2000]

So I downloaded the Chameleon Bundle.zip...
There is a file Chameleon 2.2 rev2247.pkg and a file named Chameleon Wizard.
Launching the Chameleon 2.2 rev2247.pkg the first screen says "DO NOT INSTALL TO AN APPLE MACINTOSH COMPUTER". At this point I stopped, do I ignore this and continue on?
Your instructions state "2. Unzip the package and use the Chameleon installer to install it onto the 1GB "Startup Disk" partition." When you mention install it onto the 1GB partition, are you talking about a drag and drop this install into the 1GB partition or running the Chameleon 2.2 rev2247.pkg and installing it onto the 1GB partition????
There is a newer version Chameleon-2.2svn-r2266, should I be using the newer installer or the old one in the Chameleon Bundle.zip??
Sorry I'm not clear on some of the instructions and don't want to screw this up.

Ignore the warning. It is a pkg so you are double clicking it to launch the installer and installing it on the "Startup Disk" partition. You can use the rev.2247 one in the zip file. If you choose to you can update it later using the Chameleon Wizard.

Also updated the PDF to mention that the HDD should be formatted with the partitions as HFS+ on a GPT.

 

[2close2call]

At the onset and just for the record, I am fairly savvy regarding procedures such as these, did not have any issues with the original Mountain Lion method set-up. Although I downloaded he ".pdf" it really did not offer any further instructions from the way this procedure was described when introduced last week. Understanding it and following the appropriate steps are not a problem for me. Though as what I am experiencing has not been addressed in either a forum question or on the .pdf "how to" and as it continues to occur sporadically/erratically since applying this a week ago, I thought I would make mention of it.

Basically the weirdness that is happening for me is that my "all on one hard drive/Chameleon, Mavericks, Install, all formatted in HFS+/GPT will suddenly stall during boot and I will get this following error message "EBIOS Read Error: Controller or device error Block 0x0 Sectors 0" and the only way I can get it to boot again is to return OS X 10.7.5 Lion Hard Drive back into my Mac Pro. Once Lion is present again, Chameleon boots up fine including the "all on one hard drive/Chameleon, Mavericks, Install, all formatted in HFS+/GPT. Once I remove the separate OS X Lion 10.7.5 Hard Drive, the error as reported returns when attempting to boot just the Chameleon, Mavericks, Install, all formatted in HFS+/GPT drive alone.

When returning the "two drive" traditional/original set-up back into my Mac Pro and booting the Chameleon 'Windows"drive all returns to normal and my Mac Pro is happy once again.

I bit of googling shows this same issue appear a fair amount in the Hackintosh realm. The problem seems to stem from various external devices plugged in specifically of the SATA variety. In that I have a blu-ray optical drive plugged into a SATA logic board port out of curiosity, has anyone also with a SATA device plugged into a logic board port tried this procedure as of yet ?

 

[Hennesie2000]

I bit of googling shows this same issue appear a fair amount in the Hackintosh realm. The problem seems to stem from various external devices plugged in specifically of the SATA variety. In that I have a blu-ray optical drive plugged into a SATA logic board port out of curiosity, has anyone also with a SATA device plugged into a logic board port tried this procedure as of yet ?

I also did some reading around on the osX86 forums and other Hackintosh forums there seems to be several causes for this. Some people report that it is a simple as a USB device that is connected during the boot such as an external HDD. Others are having issues when there is a RAID1 setup present with the boot drive. I actually have a Pioneer BDR-206 drive in bay 2 connected to the SATA port on my logic board. The only thing I had to do with the BDR drive was install the SATA.dylib into the modules folder because I was having issues with it disconnecting while running Mavericks. That can be installed very easily using the Chameleon Wizard.

If you have a RAID1 setup try adding this to your org.chameleon.Boot.plist

<key>Scan Single Drive</key>
<string>Yes</string>

 

[2close2call]

I also did some reading around on the osX86 forums and other Hackintosh forums there seems to be several causes for this. Some people report that it is a simple as a USB device that is connected during the boot such as an external HDD. Others are having issues when there is a RAID1 setup present with the boot drive. I actually have a Pioneer BDR-206 drive in bay 2 connected to the SATA port on my logic board. The only thing I had to do with the BDR drive was install the SATA.dylib into the modules folder because I was having issues with it disconnecting while running Mavericks. That can be installed very easily using the Chameleon Wizard.

If you have a RAID1 setup try adding this to your org.chameleon.Boot.plist

<key>Scan Single Drive</key>
<string>Yes</string>

No RAID set-up present...you also use a SATA port so that can't be it...this is very odd and like I mentioned in my first post it has been a constant/can't pinpoint nor move beyond it ever since attempting this for this first time last week.

 

[Hennesie2000]

No RAID set-up present...you also use a SATA port so that can't be it...this is very odd and like I mentioned in my first post it has been a constant/can't pinpoint nor move beyond it ever since attempting this for this first time last week.

Disconnect everything external except the monitor, keyboard and mouse. I have a USB 3.0 Sata dock that if it's turned on, I don't get any errors but the boot just never happens (stays a black screen till I turn it off). This was true though before my chameleon setup. Once I turn it off the boot continues as planned.

 

[Treksdot]

No RAID set-up present...you also use a SATA port so that can't be it...this is very odd and like I mentioned in my first post it has been a constant/can't pinpoint nor move beyond it ever since attempting this for this first time last week.

What is the history of the drive in question because it sounds like a hardware failure?

 

[GergNotwen]

Video Install Issue

@Hennesie2000
Followed the install as best I could from the PDF. Bootedup with the Chameleon startup disk, no problems, video out on my Cinema monitor OK. Selected Installer and screen went black for 25 minutes or so. I could here disk activity so I left it alone, came back and I had the Mavericks installer up on the monitor, resolution just fine. Rebooted and Chameleon starts up no problem. Selected Mavericks partition and screen goes black again. In 10 minutes or so I hear the speaker say "press return for english" so I press return. Let it run, screen still black. Again the speaker tells me about voiceover options but no video. After another 30 minutes I hear no disk activity so I gave up and rebooted back to Lion.
Here's what the video PCI card shows in the detailed report. It shows two Radion 5770 cards one with a driver installed and the other without. The other "scsi" card is a two port eSata card for external drives. I am not using these external drives for this installation. Any thoughts on video and lack thereof?

 

[Treksdot]

@Hennesie2000
Followed the install as best I could from the PDF. Bootedup with the Chameleon startup disk, no problems, video out on my Cinema monitor OK. Selected Installer and screen went black for 25 minutes or so. I could here disk activity so I left it alone, came back and I had the Mavericks installer up on the monitor, resolution just fine. Rebooted and Chameleon starts up no problem. Selected Mavericks partition and screen goes black again. In 10 minutes or so I hear the speaker say "press return for english" so I press return. Let it run, screen still black. Again the speaker tells me about voiceover options but no video. After another 30 minutes I hear no disk activity so I gave up and rebooted back to Lion.
Here's what the video PCI card shows in the detailed report. It shows two Radion 5770 cards one with a driver installed and the other without. The other "scsi" card is a two port eSata card for external drives. I am not using these external drives for this installation. Any thoughts on video and lack thereof?

What is GraphicsEnabler set to in your org.chameleon.Boot.plist? And just for clarity is this a stock 5770, PC card or flashed?

 

[GergNotwen]

What is GraphicsEnabler set to in your org.chameleon.Boot.plist? And just for clarity is this a stock 5770, PC card or flashed?

Stock card as far as I can tell, not reflashed. Card displays boot screens normally whereas from what I gather the reflashed cards do not. As far as what the org.chameleon.Boot.plist graphics enabler setting I have no idea. I used the default stuff from the "Chameleon Bundle" download. What value should I be looking for specifically??

----------

file looks like this
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Default Partition</key>
<string>Mavericks</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1280x800x32</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>5</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Monitor resolution used under Lion OS is 2560 x 1600. Should I change the values?? Should it be 64 instead of 32?

----------

BTW, I recommend ditching the bluetooth mouse until this whole process is done and you can get Mavericks up. I don't think it is recognized intially...

 

[GergNotwen]

Graphics Card Details

ATI Radeon HD 5770 Specs...

 

[Treksdot]

Stock card as far as I can tell, not reflashed. Card displays boot screens normally whereas from what I gather the reflashed cards do not. As far as what the org.chameleon.Boot.plist graphics enabler setting I have no idea. I used the default stuff from the "Chameleon Bundle" download. What value should I be looking for specifically??

PC cards that have been EFI flashed will display an Apple logo at boot just like the stock cards, it is the non-flashed PC cards that result in a black screen until desktop. At the time you took that screenshot were you running Lion normally or booted via Chameleon? If you bought your 5770 second hand then you're most certainly running a flashed 5770. The entry with the missing driver indicates HDMI audio.

Monitor resolution used under Lion OS is 2560 x 1600. Should I change the values?? Should it be 64 instead of 32?

It won't hurt if you want to set it to your monitors native resolution.(2560x1600x32) Do go ahead and modify your plist so GraphicsEnabler is set to No. After the installation is completed you can switch it back to Yes.

BTW, I recommend ditching the bluetooth mouse until this whole process is done and you can get Mavericks up. I don't think it is recognized initially...

Not sure who this was directed at but Bluetooth is initialized just fine when running the installer. Third party software won't be loaded, obviously, but any BT mouse will still be recognized as a valid input device.

 

[enpointe]

I have put together a pretty detailed guide to installing everything using one HDD and only using the Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1. If anyone with a spare HDD would like to give it a try and let me know if there is anything I have overlooked in the guide, it would be appreciated. I would need you to follow the guide exactly as it is written starting in OS X 10.7.5 without Chameleon present. I can PM you with a link to a PDF.

I'd love to be one of your testers for the upgrade process you've written. I've got a 2006 Mac Pro running 10.7.5 that's been upgraded to 2.1 BIOS and I've upgraded the CPU to 2 x 2.66 Quad Intel Xeon. Sorry I can't PM you as I'm too new.

I experienced on computers but I've never used Chameleon before and I'm having trouble finding a guide that makes sense and I'd love to upgrade my system to Mavericks.

 

[tripmusic]

That means you need to edit your org.chameleon.Boot.plist and set "Default Partition" to the correct partition. The next time you reboot pay attention to the number listed after your Mavericks install. Nominally this would be 0,3 but make sure what it is in your case and edit the plist accordingly.

View attachment org.chameleon.Boot.plist.zip

I tried to spot it in verbose mode... couldn't really catch it. 0,3 worked and 2,5 also. I stuck with the latter. I have 4 HDD's... 1 of them has two 10.9 partitions and the Chameleon boot on it. Regardless, is it my understanding that Chameleon does not automatically show all of your available start-up disks and you must manually use the left/right arrow keys to show them? It's not freezing now at boot anyways.

Well I lied... I still get a hard freeze after waking from sleep. Not sure if it's just a coincidence, but it seems like it freezes only after in sleep mode for an extended time. If I put it to sleep and wake within 5 mins or so it doesn't seem to freeze. Are you certain the darkwake does not influence this in some way?

 

[Hennesie2000]

I'd love to be one of your testers for the upgrade process you've written. I've got a 2006 Mac Pro running 10.7.5 that's been upgraded to 2.1 BIOS and I've upgraded the CPU to 2 x 2.66 Quad Intel Xeon. Sorry I can't PM you as I'm too new.

I experienced on computers but I've never used Chameleon before and I'm having trouble finding a guide that makes sense and I'd love to upgrade my system to Mavericks.

There is a link on page 24.

 

[Treksdot]

I tried to spot it in verbose mode... couldn't really catch it. 0,3 worked and 2,5 also. I stuck with the latter. Regardless, is it my understanding that Chameleon does not automatically show all of your available start-up disks and you must manually use the left/right arrow keys to show them? It's not freezing now at boot anyways.

Here's the normal startup routine for a properly blessed Chameleon and a correctly set default partition:

1. At power on you will hear the normal chime that indicates a successful POST and the screen will activate, displaying as white.
2. When the firmware hands the system off to the boot loader the monitor will switch to standby mode as it awaits something to do.
3. Once Chameleon takes over the screen will activate again and you will be starting at a black screen for a few seconds.
4. Some short lines of self-check results will flash in rapid succession in the upper left hand of the screen followed by the standard Chameleon text prompt.
5. Without input from the user Chameleon will immediately timeout and proceed to starting the mach_kernel.
6. The standard gray Apple logo on a sea of white will now appear as Darwin sets up.
7. After Darwin has prepared the user environment you will then be shown either the login prompt or the desktop.

For my Mac Pro the average time from power on to desktop is about 90 seconds. I would like to hear from others what their times are.

Well I lied... I still get a hard freeze after waking from sleep. Not sure if it's just a coincidence, but it seems like it freezes only after in sleep mode for an extended time. If I put it to sleep and wake within 5 mins or so it doesn't seem to freeze. Are you certain the darkwake does not influence this in some way?

When the system has been in sleep mode for an extended period it switches to hibernation. It is when waking from hibernation that you will experience the lockup. Darkwake has to do with power management while the system is sleeping to allow for certain tasks to complete while still appearing to be asleep. This normally causes problems with hackintosh rigs and I'm still looking into this issue myself. Please run the following command in Terminal and paste the results in your next post.

pmset -g assertions

 

[Hennesie2000]

For my Mac Pro the average time from power on to desktop is about 90 seconds. I would like to hear from others what their times are.

From chime to desktop I am right around 73-75 seconds. Tried both with an without a GUI. Also, I pressed enter twice quickly to skip past the Chameleon 5sec timeout wait. I suppose it could be a second or two faster with silent boot turned on but I need that screen to go to Windows if I want.

 

[Treksdot]

From chime to desktop I am right around 73-75 seconds. Tried both with an without a GUI. Also, I pressed enter twice quickly to skip past the Chameleon 5sec timeout wait. I suppose it could be a second or two faster with silent boot turned on but I need that screen to go to Windows if I want.

This is with your SSHD correct?

 

[Hennesie2000]

This is with your SSHD correct?

Yes, a Seagate 1TB SSHD

 

[tripmusic]

Here's the normal startup routine for a properly blessed Chameleon and a correctly set default partition:

1. At power on you will hear the normal chime that indicates a successful POST and the screen will activate, displaying as white.
2. When the firmware hands the system off to the boot loader the monitor will switch to standby mode as it awaits something to do.
3. Once Chameleon takes over the screen will activate again and you will be starting at a black screen for a few seconds.
4. Some short lines of self-check results will flash in rapid succession in the upper left hand of the screen followed by the standard Chameleon text prompt.
5. Without input from the user Chameleon will immediately timeout and proceed to starting the mach_kernel.
6. The standard gray Apple logo on a sea of white will now appear as Darwin sets up.
7. After Darwin has prepared the user environment you will then be shown either the login prompt or the desktop.

For my Mac Pro the average time from power on to desktop is about 90 seconds. I would like to hear from others what their times are.



When the system has been in sleep mode for an extended period it switches to hibernation. It is when waking from hibernation that you will experience the lockup. Darkwake has to do with power management while the system is sleeping to allow for certain tasks to complete while still appearing to be asleep. This normally causes problems with hackintosh rigs and I'm still looking into this issue myself. Please run the following command in Terminal and paste the results in your next post.

pmset -g assertions

Hmm... I thought I posted earlier? Damn internet has been horrible the past few days... even mobile. From power on to login takes about 75 secs & without hitting return during the timeout. That's without external FW booting and I don't have PCI cards.

View attachment Terminal Saved Output.zip

 

[Treksdot]

Hmm... I thought I posted earlier? Damn internet has been horrible the past few days... even mobile. From power on to login takes about 75 secs & without hitting return during the timeout. That's without external FW booting and I don't have PCI cards.

View attachment 446091

Oh no, this is relating to something different. I also looked over your updated plist and everything looks fine now. Thanks for sharing.

 

[tripmusic]

Oh no, this is relating to something different. I also looked over your updated plist and everything looks fine now. Thanks for sharing.

Thank You for all your help. I learned a few things along the way

 

[GergNotwen]

PC cards that have been EFI flashed will display an Apple logo at boot just like the stock cards, it is the non-flashed PC cards that result in a black screen until desktop. At the time you took that screenshot were you running Lion normally or booted via Chameleon? If you bought your 5770 second hand then you're most certainly running a flashed 5770. The entry with the missing driver indicates HDMI audio.



It won't hurt if you want to set it to your monitors native resolution.(2560x1600x32) Do go ahead and modify your plist so GraphicsEnabler is set to No. After the installation is completed you can switch it back to Yes.



Not sure who this was directed at but Bluetooth is initialized just fine when running the installer. Third party software won't be loaded, obviously, but any BT mouse will still be recognized as a valid input device.

Ok, here's the latest. I have been using the full sized DVI port on the 5770 card up until this point. Keep in mind the screen for installation of Mavericks displays perfectly until the computer reboots to finish the install. At this point the OS knows that there is no video out so it starts the audio control option and training playing through the speaker...

I broke out my DVI to mini-DVI apple adapter and plugged it in to one of the other ports in the back of the 5770 card (BTW this card has one full sized DVI port and two mini DVI ports) and lo and behold, video output is displayed on my monitor when using the mini-DVI adapter!

I finished the Mavericks installation now I could see what was going on. Graphic quality is still very low and when checking the the displays system preferences "scaled" button I see only 1280 x 800 and 1024 x 640 as options. The monitor and card seem to only be displaying 1280 x 800. My typical resolution for this monitor is 2560 x 1600.

The values in the org.chameleon.Boot.plist are as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Default Partition</key>
<string>Mavericks</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1280x800x32</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>5</string>
</dict>
</plist>

What does changing the GraphicEnabler to "NO" actually do? Should the 1280x800x32 Graphics Mode values be changed? Is there a way to provide different resolutions for the Apple Cinema Display?

I'm getting closer here...

 

[Hennesie2000]

Ok, here's the latest. I have been using the full sized DVI port on the 5770 card up until this point. Keep in mind the screen for installation of Mavericks displays perfectly until the computer reboots to finish the install. At this point the OS knows that there is no video out so it starts the audio control option and training playing through the speaker...

I broke out my DVI to mini-DVI apple adapter and plugged it in to one of the other ports in the back of the 5770 card (BTW this card has one full sized DVI port and two mini DVI ports) and lo and behold, video output is displayed on my monitor when using the mini-DVI adapter!

I finished the Mavericks installation now I could see what was going on. Graphic quality is still very low and when checking the the displays system preferences "scaled" button I see only 1280 x 800 and 1024 x 640 as options. The monitor and card seem to only be displaying 1280 x 800. My typical resolution for this monitor is 2560 x 1600.

The values in the org.chameleon.Boot.plist are as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Default Partition</key>
<string>Mavericks</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1280x800x32</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>5</string>
</dict>
</plist>

What does changing the GraphicEnabler to "NO" actually do? Should the 1280x800x32 Graphics Mode values be changed? Is there a way to provide different resolutions for the Apple Cinema Display?

I'm getting closer here...

Change the graphics value to 2560x1600x32. It is currently set to 1280x800 because that is a pretty standard VESA mode for non flashed PC Cards.

To determine whether or not you need graphic enabler turned on or not, bring up dashboard and place a new widget if you get a nice clean ripple effect with it set to "No" then you are good to go. If not then you are not getting proper graphics acceleration so set it to "Yes" reboot and try again. On non flashed PC Cards it has to be set to yes or it will KP on boot. If when set to off it won't boot just type in "GraphicsEnabler=Yes" without the quotes a the chameleon boot screen.

 

[krh67]

Already Running 10.8.5 on unsupported MAc. Need help upgrading to 10.9

Hi All:

I've read the posts but wanted to get a clearer idea of how to just upgrade to 10.9 on an unsupported mac pro system already running Mountain Lion.

I have a Mac Pro 1,1 that I upgraded to Mountain Lion over a year ago using chameleon.

I had to change my chameleon files (to Mac Pro 3,1) to allow download of the OS X 10.9 Installer from Apps.

I would like to just do an upgrade on my Mountain Lion Disk since I already have Chameleon loaded and working perfectly.

Can you simplify some instructions for my setup, for those that have done it...

Thanks.

 

[Hennesie2000]

Hi All:

I've read the posts but wanted to get a clearer idea of how to just upgrade to 10.9 on an unsupported mac pro system already running Mountain Lion.

I have a Mac Pro 1,1 that I upgraded to Mountain Lion over a year ago using chameleon.

I had to change my chameleon files (to Mac Pro 3,1) to allow download of the OS X 10.9 Installer from Apps.

I would like to just do an upgrade on my Mountain Lion Disk since I already have Chameleon loaded and working perfectly.

Can you simplify some instructions for my setup, for those that have done it...

Thanks.

I believe you can just create a bootable installer on an internal HDD from the Install OS X app. Then boot up the installer using chameleon (as a 3,1 Mac). Then proceed with the upgrade as usual.