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iMessage, FileNVRAM, and RAID0: A Missing Piece of the Puzzle (SUCCESS)

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After many hours of trying all sorts of voodoo, I have finally, RELIABLY, gotten iMessage working on my Hackintosh—and I think I've figured out a piece of the puzzle that I have not read anywhere else during my research.

Simply, there is an incompatibility between how the FileNVRAM fix works, and how OS X RAID 0 needs to use the Boot OS X partition and kernelcache. While iMessage CAN WORK on a system that is booting from an OS X RAID volume, I have deduced that you cannot SET IT UP from scratch while booted from RAID.

I noticed that when putting the FileNVRAM dynlib into Extra/Modules on the Boot OS X partition, successive boots never actually CREATED the NVRAM file in Extra on the Boot OS X partition. It did, however, create it in Extra on the main data volume. But then this would never get loaded on subsequent boots, since booting from RAID looks to the Boot OS X partition. You can copy it over, but it won't help. I think there needs to be continuous access/communication.

Additionally, it seems that FileNVRAM needs to boot with usekernelcache=no in order to work, however RAID boot currently needs usekernelcache=yes in order to work. Not compatible. :(

I fixed it by cloning my RAID volume to a single drive, booting into that, then following all the voodoo here:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/110471-how-fix-imessage.html

It was simple getting iMessage working when booted to the single drive by following the detailed instructions on that post, however trust me... following all that stuff while booted in RAID does NOT work. In fact, I followed all those instructions while booted in RAID (no go), and then just cloned it to a single drive and it worked.

It's important to note that there were some slight changes needed to get my RAID volume booted in USB (i.e., different chameleon.plist boot args, but most everyone here knows that, of course... important is changing usekernelcache to NO, and removing the UUID identifier to boot from the RAID).

I then cloned the working single drive back to the RAID, recopied the created FileNVRAM file back to the Boot OS X partitions on the RAID, and booted the RAID.

iMessage and iCloud now work. :)

BUT, if you ever get disconnected or logout or whatever, you will have to go back through these steps.

I am of the opinion that FileNVRAM dynlib needs to be fixed so that it can run from/access/whatever the Boot OS X partition. No doubt, Chimera (and Chameleon) need to be changed too? Uncertain. But I am very certain that there is some incompatibility surrounding FileNVRAM, RAID, and using the kernel cache.

Thoughts??
 
BTW, when booted into RAID volume, you can confirm FileNVRAM is not working, by using the terminal commands to set and read variables. Any variables you write will not stick after reboot. Which is kind of the purpose of NVRAM. :)

Would it be possible to keep the Boot OS X partition mounted (set a flag?), and just hard link the NVRAM file from the main volume to the one on the Boot OS X partition??
 
hi am not a professinel, but how you explein that when you delete the nvram file facetime work properly but not imessage ? and when you run with the nvram both dont work..
 
hi am not a professinel, but how you explein that when you delete the nvram file facetime work properly but not imessage ? and when you run with the nvram both dont work..

Hmmm. I can't really explain that, because it hasn't been my experience. For me, NVRAM must be running to get iMessage to log in. That login will "stick" without NVRAM (which is why I can then boot into my RAID that has the "logged in install" cloned to it), but NVRAM is required to get it to take in the first place.

Not sure about FaceTime, though, because I don't have a camera hooked up to my Hackintosh.

Maybe I will hook one up and fiddle around with it...
 
I just hooked up an old firewire camera and FaceTime recognized it just fine. It let me sign in, however it then sits waiting at "Verifying" forever, similar to what iMessage did (spins forever when I clicked "Enable account").

I am just cloning to my USB drive now, and will try my method again (boot to single-drive USB, see if FaceTime logs in successfully, then clone back to RAID and reboot). Will update back here in a few minutes. The cloning process doesn't take very long because there is very little that changes. Most of the time is spent comparing the two clone sets. :)
 
I just hooked up an old firewire camera and FaceTime recognized it just fine. It let me sign in, however it then sits waiting at "Verifying" forever, similar to what iMessage did (spins forever when I clicked "Enable account").

I am just cloning to my USB drive now, and will try my method again (boot to single-drive USB, see if FaceTime logs in successfully, then clone back to RAID and reboot). Will update back here in a few minutes. The cloning process doesn't take very long because there is very little that changes. Most of the time is spent comparing the two clone sets. :)

hope it will help the devs to find a final solution.
 
Success.

Booted to the single-drive, and FaceTime connected just fine.

Cloned back to the RAID and rebooted.

FaceTime works. :)

Only caveat is that if I log out or get disconnected, I have to go through the same rigamarole. :-\

However, the login sticks forever, through all reboots, unless you manually disconnect, or the Apple server goes down or something weird.
 
Thank you Stradivari2,
I have spent hours on all the "fixes" trying to get iMessage and Facetime to work. I have a RAID0 striped set up with 2 x 128GB Samsung 840 Pro SSDs.
I would like to fix my system, however I do not have a spare disk to clone to. Would i need to purchase a 256GB SSD to clone my current RAID to to boot into and make the fix or should it be a 128GB SSD?
Sorry for bothering you with such a simple question, I am just new to RAID so am unsure if I will need a large SSD to clone my 2 x 128gb to.

my System:
i7 3930K
Sabretooth X79
32GB Corsair 1866
EVGA GTX 760 2GB
3 x Samsung 840 pro 128GB SATA III (2 in RAID for OS 10.9, 1 for Windows 8.1)
2 x 2TB Seagate Barracuda (1 for MAC Data, 1 for Windows Data)
 
Thank you Stradivari2,
I have spent hours on all the "fixes" trying to get iMessage and Facetime to work. I have a RAID0 striped set up with 2 x 128GB Samsung 840 Pro SSDs.
I would like to fix my system, however I do not have a spare disk to clone to. Would i need to purchase a 256GB SSD to clone my current RAID to to boot into and make the fix or should it be a 128GB SSD?
Sorry for bothering you with such a simple question, I am just new to RAID so am unsure if I will need a large SSD to clone my 2 x 128gb to.

my System:
i7 3930K
Sabretooth X79
32GB Corsair 1866
EVGA GTX 760 2GB
3 x Samsung 840 pro 128GB SATA III (2 in RAID for OS 10.9, 1 for Windows 8.1)
2 x 2TB Seagate Barracuda (1 for MAC Data, 1 for Windows Data)

Of course, the size of your single drive will depend totally on the size of your cloned volume. To future proof the solution, best choice would be to get a 256 GB drive, in case the size of your cloned system grows over time. The clone does not need to be a SSD, though. Any cheap USB solution will work, but of course will be slower should you need to redo the process in the future.

However, why don't you just use one of those 2 TB drives? Use carbon copy cloner (Bombich Software) to clone your RAID to the Mac data drive (place your data into a folder on the 2 TB drive, and set the options in CCC when doing the clone to make sure that folder is not touched). Assuming the 2 TB is on a controller that you can boot from, it should work. Then when you clone back to the RAID, just deselect the data folder.

Good luck!! If you have tried everything else, I guarantee you it is the RAID giving you trouble. :)
 
So.... any luck?!
 
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