[Updated] wildwillow's Haswell Build: GA-Z87X-OC - i7-4770K - HD4600+GT 640

[wildwillow]

Upgrade from OS X Mavericks to OS X Yosemite


As mentioned I would be upgrading my main Mavericks system to Yosemite.​

Before you begin back up all your files, Apps, pictures etc. Even better to clone your installation drive and make it bootable. Preferred software is Carbon Clone Copier (CCC) or SuperDuper. For me I use the OS X installer itself. By using disk utility and the restore function. Selecting my current installation as the source and the back up drive as the destination. You will need to make this bootable. It can be booted from the UniBeast drive or by running Chimera standalone available in the download section. Selecting your back up drive for the Chimera installation.

Once you have created your back up, either by cloning your drive or backing up its contents. Here are the steps I used to upgrade to OS X Yosemite.

1. Mandatory steps to make the upgrade installation successful. I used tonymacx86's guide here
Guide: Update OS X Mavericks to OS X Yosemite Using UniBeast and MultiBeast
Note that these steps must be completed before the install. Double check that those steps are undertaken. See How To Edit a .plist on how to edit your org.chameleon.Boot.plist.

2. Download OS X Yosemite from the Mac App store and follow Step 2: Create UniBeast once complete download and add MultiBeast - Yosemite 7.0.1 to the USB
2a. Before restarting make sure you have followed step 1.

3. Restart and choose your UniBeast installer by pressing F12 (hot Key to select your USB). Getting to the installer. Unlike a clean installation I did here #854. I had to add an extra boot flag as recommended by the installation guide which was maxmem=8192 as I have 16GB of memory installed. If you have 8GB type in maxmem=4096 at the Chimera boot screen.
So my bootflags for reaching the installer were

maxmem=8192 -v -x -f

Once at the installer DO NOT partition your SSD/HDD. Continue the installation by choosing your existing Mavericks drive as the Installation drive. Once the installer completes, restarts automatically, boot to your UniBeast installer this time selecting your existing Mavericks/new Yosemite installation drive. Note: Use the same bootflags as you did when you got to the installer the first time.

4. Complete the set up, simple instructions and reach the desktop. Now for MultiBeast.
I use both integrated and discrete graphics as stated in Post#1. So here is my basic configuration, if you only use discrete graphics then select IGEnabler=No, lets face it if you upgrading you know what you need to install. Also see How To Know What To Install With MultiBeast


5. Restart your system and select your new OS X Yosemite upgrade via your BIOS first boot priority.

These are exact instructions I used from the excellent guides for the upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite. Good luck and I hope it goes smoothly for you all. Remember to back up your system and important files. I can't stress this enough.

 

[utsi]

Glad your system after upgrading to Yosemite is running good for you. I don't use VMWare so I can't offer you any advice on this topic.

Yes I have tried Clover and it works well. Although I use Chimera on this build as the only thing that I would gain from using Clover at the moment would be iMessage that I don't use on this particular system. Its my work horse and having a MBP gives me that use if needed.

It turned out that it was Migration Assistant that had messed up my install, not VMWare. Experimented a little, and everything worked perfectly without any modifications when I installed Clover. I really believe that Clover is the future of Hackintosh! Setting it up as a boot alternative on the EFI partition of my Yosemite drive was really a breeze. Had I known I could install it and still keep Chameleon (risk free) I would have done it a long time ago. More people need to know about this! And as a bonus I can now boot using my 290x

 

[wildwillow]

It turned out that it was Migration Assistant that had messed up my install, not VMWare. Experimented a little, and everything worked perfectly without any modifications when I installed Clover. I really believe that Clover is the future of Hackintosh! Setting it up as a boot alternative on the EFI partition of my Yosemite drive was really a breeze. Had I known I could install it and still keep Chameleon (risk free) I would have done it a long time ago. More people need to know about this! And as a bonus I can now boot using my 290x

Pleased that you figured out your issue, yeah you can keep both. You could have installed Chimera to the EFI partition to get your 290x booting correctly. Good to try out new things imo. How is that card performing for you in Yosemite?

 

[utsi]

Pleased that you figured out your issue, yeah you can keep both. You could have installed Chimera to the EFI partition to get your 290x booting correctly. Good to try out new things imo. How is that card performing for you in Yosemite?

I'm really only using my Yosemite for surfing, downloading and as a media server, so haven't tested my 290x's performance yet. I'll be happy to run some tests. Which benchmarking program do you prefer?

The whole EFI partition is new to me, having the boot loader there seems like the best place. Clover seems to handle more thrash in the S/L/E folder. If I had to live without Clover, how would I go about to get my a little bit messed up system working again under Chameleon, would it be to delete S/L/E and do a new unibeast installation over the current one?

The only thing I'm missing with Clover is the ability to boot legacy Windows, but I can live with hitting F12 the few times I want to game. From what I understand booting a legacy Win7 from UEFI Clover is not straight forward.

 

[wildwillow]

I'm really only using my Yosemite for surfing, downloading and as a media server, so haven't tested my 290x's performance yet. I'll be happy to run some tests. Which benchmarking program do you prefer?

Thanks I have read mixed reports on performance and multi-monitors support with the 290x. Wondering how is was performing in Yosemite. At some point I will be upgrading my GFX card.

whole EFI partition is new to me, having the boot loader there seems like the best place. Clover seems to handle more thrash in the S/L/E folder. If I had to live without Clover, how would I go about to get my a little bit messed up system working again under Chameleon, would it be to delete S/L/E and do a new unibeast installation over the current one?

You could still boot from Chameleon/Chimera depending on what you've deleted out of /S/L/E using the legacy boot option for your hard drive. If you deleted out of that folder you could just run MultiBeast again.

 

[utsi]

Thanks I have read mixed reports on performance and multi-monitors support with the 290x. Wondering how is was performing in Yosemite. At some point I will be upgrading my GFX card.



You could still boot from Chameleon/Chimera depending on what you've deleted out of /S/L/E using the legacy boot option for your hard drive. If you deleted out of that folder you could just run MultiBeast again.

I'm running a single monitor setup, but to check out how the hack would react I plugged in my Sony HMZ-T1 to the HDMI-output from the 290x while the thing was running. It did not like it. "No signal" from my HMZ and black screen on my main monitor. The picture did not return when I powered off the HMZ and not when I power cycled my main monitor. No luck booting with both powered on either. That could of course have something to do with the unusual Sony product. Anyway, would not recommend 290x unless you are running on water. I have 2 of them, but heard the latest nvidia give you much more bang for the buck.

Anyway, single monitor performance seems good, ran Ungine Valley with everything maxed out glitch free. Running at 120Hz by the way.

 

[wildwillow]

I'm running a single monitor setup, but to check out how the hack would react I plugged in my Sony HMZ-T1 to the HDMI-output from the 290x while the thing was running. It did not like it. "No signal" from my HMZ and black screen on my main monitor. The picture did not return when I powered off the HMZ and not when I power cycled my main monitor. No luck booting with both powered on either. That could of course have something to do with the unusual Sony product. Anyway, would not recommend 290x unless you are running on water. I have 2 of them, but heard the latest nvidia give you much more bang for the buck.

Anyway, single monitor performance seems good, ran Ungine Valley with everything maxed out glitch free. Running at 120Hz by the way.

Wow, thanks utsi,

I didn't expect you to go through all that trouble. I use dual monitors on my Z87X so that's something I will keep in mind for when I upgrade. At least for your single monitor use its working well. I have read that edit's to the framebuffer is needed to connect more monitors. But don't do that if your system runs as you like with a single screen. Thanks again utsi.

 

[utsi]

Wow, thanks utsi,

I didn't expect you to go through all that trouble. I use dual monitors on my Z87X so that's something I will keep in mind for when I upgrade. At least for your single monitor use its working well. I have read that edit's to the framebuffer is needed to connect more monitors. But don't do that if your system runs as you like with a single screen. Thanks again utsi.

Don't mention it, I did it because I was curious That framebuffer editing looks a little bit too much for my taste. Think I'll wait until someone has an easier solution.

 

[wildwillow]

Don't mention it, I did it because I was curious That framebuffer editing looks a little bit too much for my taste. Think I'll wait until someone has an easier solution.

Wise words. And if you don't need to then its totally pointless.

 

[randylubin]

Thanks for creating the upgrade guide!

I'm getting a "can't find; mach_kernel" error when trying to boot from my USB. I made sure to double check step one and it doesn't look like I screwed anything up...

EDIT - FIXED

I wasn't booting and instead choose the USB through Chimera - this is wrong... hit F12 like the instructions say...