Injecting kexts into the iBoot CD (via the Preboot.dmg ramdisk)

Injecting kexts into the iBoot CD (via the Preboot.dmg ramdisk)

I recently attempted to install Mac OS X Snow Leopard on my Desktop Computer (hi ModBot), a Sony PCV-RS320. It is currently running Leopard 10.5.8 (I'm actually posting from it right now).

However, iBoot appears to lack a kext for the ICHx IDE chipset inside this computer, which causes it to hang at the "Still waiting for root device" screen.

So, I tried injecting kexts into the iBoot disc, by taking Preboot.dmg apart and extracting/repacking Extensions.mkext.

However, I seem to have run into a few speed bumps:

• Disk Utility claims the iBoot disc uses the... Apple Partition Map? I set my own iBoot DMG to Apple Partition Map as a result, but I... honestly don't think that's correct.
• What causes the "not authentic" message when using kextcache?
• I have found a copy of AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext on Preboot's Extensions.mkext... why isn't this working?

And here are the specs, in case if anyone is interested:

• Intel Pentium 4 HT @ 2.60GHz
• 2.6GB RAM
• Samsung IDE 120GB HDD
• Pioneer DVD-RW Drive (IDE)
• ASUS CD-ROM Drive (IDE)
• AC'97 Audio (install AppleAC97Audio, makes it run flawlessly.)
• Intel 82865G (No QE/CI, but it runs faster than Windows on this thing)

As you can see, the CPU only supports x86 (32-bit), so I cannot go any higher than Snow Leopard (using arch=i386).

I have 2 other computers both running 10.8.1 flawlessly. I'll write guides for both later.
One is aXw-001, a custom-built from 2011, and the other is a Sony laptop, the VAIO VPCF2390X ("F Series" late-2011).

Is there any way to inject kexts into iBoot? (Preboot.dmg)

snow leopard needs sata drives and ahci ,hpet 64bit mode in bios to work

Is there any way to inject kexts into iBoot? (Preboot.dmg)

That's for certain motherboards.

My issue is just that it's missing the kext for the Intel ICH* IDE controller.

Try this method to create the iBoot USB, and then make changes to the necessary files.

http://txcom2003.wordpress.com/2011...boot-usb-flash-drive-instead-of-using-grub-2/

sjvintage said:

Try this method to create the iBoot USB, and then make changes to the necessary files.

http://txcom2003.wordpress.com/2011...boot-usb-flash-drive-instead-of-using-grub-2/

Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm just now running into an new problem.

iBoot appears to use its own specially modified Chameleon that utilizes Preboot.dmg. Installing Chimera from MultiBeast doesn't get you the Preboot.dmg-loadable one.

I just need to copy the Chameleon install from iBoot to the USB drive. (I'm assuming Chameleon stores itself inside MBR boot sector).

I'll try some things and edit this post if one of them work.

Simply running dd if=/dev/disk3 of=/dev/disk1 (where disk3 is iBoot, and disk1 is my USB drive) doesn't seem to work, either. Weird...

Then why don't you just try installing EasyBeast to a freshly formatted USB (GPT, Mac OS X Journaled), and install your necessary kexts to the /Extra/Extension folder in the USB, and boot with that? I still use a USB to boot my SL macs, granted it has UserDSDT installed to it with my system-specific DSDT, kexts, boot.plist.

Starting with Lion and above, because of kernel cache, this method is not preferred. But it works very well for SL.

sjvintage said:

Then why don't you just try installing EasyBeast to a freshly formatted USB (GPT, Mac OS X Journaled), and install your necessary kexts to the /Extra/Extension folder in the USB, and boot with that? I still use a USB to boot my SL macs, granted it has UserDSDT installed to it with my system-specific DSDT, kexts, boot.plist.

Starting with Lion and above, because of kernel cache, this method is not preferred. But it works very well for SL.

Click to expand...

I actually ended up using a completely different method, one where I installed the AnVAL loader to USB, then cp -R'd the contents of iBoot onto an USB flash drive.

And it worked. One problem.

It... doesn't seem to want to detect the SL DVD. Or any disc, for that matter. This is not a compatibility issue with iBoot and this computer, since if I load iBoot from a CD, it'll detect.

I'll look into this some more... another way I can do this is to write the SL installer to a separate partition on the hard drive, and have my Frankenstein-iBoot (which I named aXw-iBoot) boot from that.

...Actually, I'm going to try that now.

Edit: And by "write the installer," I meant using Disk Utility to restore the DVD to an 8GB partition on the hard disk.

Edit 2: The whole "iBoot USB not detecting DVD" thing could just be a side-effect of me using PLoP (a small boot disc that makes any computer able to boot from USB). After all, PLoP doesn't support USB keyboards either. Just a guess, I'll confirm this later.

You can always burn the SL DVD to a USB too. If anything, it'll install faster...