HP ProBook 4530s i5 Athros. Not getting Chimera options without my USB stick.

[jsloat]

After many many iterations likely using the wrong versions of software, I've finally had good success with ProBook Installer 6.1.4 to give me a working Mountain Lion with working Network, Audio, Sleep, etc.
Mine is HP Probook 4530S i5 2520M with Graphics 3000, Athros 9285. (My Bios says it's 68SRR F.40)
I loaded the AHCI patch.

I'm running Win 7 Professional 64-bit on 1 partition, planning to install Linux on another, and have a 376 Gb Partiion for Mtn Lion. (Was happy that I created a 4th 40 Gb partition and did Mtn Lion install/setup there with configuration there so that every time I botched the install on the Main Mtn Lion Partition, I could quickly CC-Clone a working setup to allow me to try again in about 10 minutes.

I've tried 6-7 versions of Chameleon (latest being r2255 with the ProBook Installer 6.1.4), and have tired messing with BIOS settings, but can never get to a Chameleon screen without the main Installer USB present. Tried the trick of booting into the installer USB and DD'ing a boot file onto the Mtn Lion Partition,
but that has so far resulted in an unbootable Mac Partition.)

When I boot (currently anyway) I see 4 "boot: done" msgs that last just a sec before it jumps into Windows.
If I quickly hit space, the only choice of OS I see in the Windows bootload is my Win 7 (probably because the Mac partitions are GUID and not MBR ?)

I've tried reading as many FAQs and posts as possible, but haven't found a resolution yet.
Any thoughts or information that might allow me to do top level boot partition selection without a
USB stick present (I'm worried it will snap off if it becomes "required equipment")

If there is some working alternative to Chimera that folks think would work, I'm game to try alternatives.

Thanks,
-Jay-

 

[philip_petev]

After many many iterations likely using the wrong versions of software, I've finally had good success with ProBook Installer 6.1.4 to give me a working Mountain Lion with working Network, Audio, Sleep, etc.
Mine is HP Probook 4530S i5 2520M with Graphics 3000, Athros 9285. (My Bios says it's 68SRR F.40)
I loaded the AHCI patch.

I'm running Win 7 Professional 64-bit on 1 partition, planning to install Linux on another, and have a 376 Gb Partiion for Mtn Lion. (Was happy that I created a 4th 40 Gb partition and did Mtn Lion install/setup there with configuration there so that every time I botched the install on the Main Mtn Lion Partition, I could quickly CC-Clone a working setup to allow me to try again in about 10 minutes.

I've tried 6-7 versions of Chameleon (latest being r2255 with the ProBook Installer 6.1.4), and have tired messing with BIOS settings, but can never get to a Chameleon screen without the main Installer USB present. Tried the trick of booting into the installer USB and DD'ing a boot file onto the Mtn Lion Partition,
but that has so far resulted in an unbootable Mac Partition.)

When I boot (currently anyway) I see 4 "boot: done" msgs that last just a sec before it jumps into Windows.
If I quickly hit space, the only choice of OS I see in the Windows bootload is my Win 7 (probably because the Mac partitions are GUID and not MBR ?)

I've tried reading as many FAQs and posts as possible, but haven't found a resolution yet.
Any thoughts or information that might allow me to do top level boot partition selection without a
USB stick present (I'm worried it will snap off if it becomes "required equipment")

If there is some working alternative to Chimera that folks think would work, I'm game to try alternatives.

Thanks,
-Jay-

Sounds like you have MBR partition table, is it MBR?

 

[jsloat]

Re: MBR, I think I must be mistaken about that. I created my 4 partitions using Disk Utility on the
Mac and set things there to GUID rather than MBR. Then I installed Win 7 which required reformatting it's partition only (presumably to NTFS). WHether that reset the Dist to MBR I can't say.
The USB Thumb Drive, per instructions was partitioned as MBR.

My /Extra folder currently contains a DSDT.aml file and a SSDT.aml file. Vaguely remember some threads about
there only being one .aml file so I'll try getting rid of one.

THere is also a "org.chameleon.Boot.plist (tried to attach a screen shot).
It has DropSSD Yes, Kernel = mach_kernel, UseKernelCache=yes, Wake=Yes

-Jay-

 

[philip_petev]

Re: MBR, I think I must be mistaken about that. I created my 4 partitions using Disk Utility on the
Mac and set things there to GUID rather than MBR. Then I installed Win 7 which required reformatting it's partition only (presumably to NTFS). WHether that reset the Dist to MBR I can't say.
The USB Thumb Drive, per instructions was partitioned as MBR.

My /Extra folder currently contains a DSDT.aml file and a SSDT.aml file. Vaguely remember some threads about
there only being one .aml file so I'll try getting rid of one.

THere is also a "org.chameleon.Boot.plist (tried to attach a screen shot).
It has DropSSD Yes, Kernel = mach_kernel, UseKernelCache=yes, Wake=Yes

-Jay-

When you created those partitions in Disk Utility, did you explicitly set the partition map to GUID, just like it's written in the UniBeast tutorial?

 

[RehabMan]

When I boot (currently anyway) I see 4 "boot: done" msgs that last just a sec before it jumps into Windows.
If I quickly hit space, the only choice of OS I see in the Windows bootload is my Win 7 (probably because the Mac partitions are GUID and not MBR ?)

It is a little hard to tell from your description, but maybe you have a 4k/AF drive and are experiencing the boot0 (instead of boot0 error, if you install Windows first, you get startup into Windows).

See: http://www.tonymacx86.com/25-boot0-error-official-guide.html

 

[jsloat]

Yes, I followed directions in Unibeast Tutorial and got vanilla Mtn Lion installed fine.

Almost anything I would try to install with MultiBeast (Step 4) corrupted my install so it couldn't boot
even with USB stick insalled (Don't know if that has to do with certain NOOB'ness like not knowing what
motherboard is in my HP ProBook 4530a i5, and I'm very foggy about DSDT vs. DSDT-Free options.
Sure felt like I didn't have a MultiBeast that was designed for a LapTop as any single thing I would install,
would result in inability to boot afterwards)

My Hard Drive is a 7200 Sata 750 Gb formatted as 4 partitions (FAT32 Win7, FAT32 Linux, Mac OS Extended Journeled with a GUID option. After that I installed Win7 (which formatted just the Win7 partition and probably changed it to MBR? Then I installed Mac Mtn Lion (about 15-20 times, after I'd try stuff and have it lock up).

WHen I manually did a Terminal "dd" insall of booth on the drive, the boot behavior without the USB stick
installed, changed, but the Mac Partition wouldn't boot (just hangs with a frozen mouse ptr). My instinct is
that I could get somewhere with this technique, but that my "boot" file wasn't compatible somehow. Would happily try that again if I had more confidence that the boot file was compatible.

-Jay-

 

[jsloat]

Don't know what the 4K/EF drive means. I have a 2.5 Western Digital 750 Gb 7200 rpm SATA is about all I know. No partitions are larger than 375 Gb.

I'll read and re-read the link you provided to see if there's something there that could help.

Thanks,

I feel like I'm "dangerously close" as they say.

-Jay-

 

[RehabMan]

Don't know what the 4K/EF drive means. I have a 2.5 Western Digital 750 Gb 7200 rpm SATA is about all I know. No partitions are larger than 375 Gb.

It very likely is AF. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format

 

[RehabMan]

Yes, I followed directions in Unibeast Tutorial and got vanilla Mtn Lion installed fine.

Almost anything I would try to install with MultiBeast (Step 4) corrupted my install so it couldn't boot
even with USB stick insalled (Don't know if that has to do with certain NOOB'ness like not knowing what
motherboard is in my HP ProBook 4530a i5, and I'm very foggy about DSDT vs. DSDT-Free options.
Sure felt like I didn't have a MultiBeast that was designed for a LapTop as any single thing I would install,
would result in inability to boot afterwards)

We do not use Multibeast with the ProBook. Steps 1-3 should be read as "review." (eg. stuff you already did, but in our case we use the ProBook Installer instead of Multibeast).

 

[jsloat]

HP ProBook 4530s i5 Athros: Success!! Now able to use Choose OS's to boot into from Chimera without USB stick.

So I re-read instructions, and tried doing a manual install =(using "dd" from /usr/sandalone/i386/boot1h to my Mac partition) and now, Without the USB Unibeast Stick installed, it boots straight into my Mac Partition.

Was about to ask if there was any way to boot into Win 7 if I wanted to but I discovered pressing "space bar" at the chimera startup, lets me choose now, and it works !!

Thanks for the excellent software and support and tips guys !!

Best,
-Jay- (aka "Happy Camper")