Announcing the release of theStevo 4.0 patch! After numerous delays, it is finally here and to the best of my knowledge working properly. Thanks to the Martin Luther King holiday I was finally able to finish it up.

I do not understand why, as a community, we are so concerned about ego. There is very little sharing of information regarding the production of data used. In my attempt to figure out how to modify the Leopard installer I have looked on the forums and requested help from the two main members who have already figured these problems out, all with no avail. Granted, in the end it is not a very difficult processes. However, with a lack of contiguous time to research and spending such time as I had chasing down some wrong leads, it was a long and drawn out journey.

It should not be this way. We should spend more time building hardware support and less time building our social standing. With this release, all development files and the process will be 'open sourced'. My goal is to provide a definitive guide, for this point in time, for people to develop their own installation discs based off of Kalyway's current installer (possibly applicable to iATKOS).

However, let me be perfectly clear that I have the utmost respect for Uphuck and Kalyway and they have the right to decide the information released regarding their works. I very much appreciate the fact that they work pro bono for the benefit of our community, I simply offer that there are more effective ways of interacting with the rest of the members. Note that I did not rename the disc, change the icons, or change any of the credit lines. They deserve our respect and thanks, both of them.

Please, don't go 'distro' happy with this. Diversity has a place, and so does consolidation. If a disc for your hardware doesn't exist, and you have thoroughly searched to verify that, create it. I do advise though, that you don't create discs just to put your name on something. Try to work with people that are working along the same line first. It helps newcomers understand what to use, making it easier to increase our numbers and therefore our chances of developing hardware support. I tried to talk to both Kalyway and Uphuck developers about 8237 support and have yet to see a response. Also, when you create your own disc you automatically get exponentially more questions that you may or may not be ready for. So, sometimes its best to collaborate and othertimes best to branch off.

About this version:

Q: Where is it?
A: Down by the BAY, where the watermelons grow...

Q: What can I apply the PPF to?
A: ONLY the Kalyway 10.5.1 Leopard installation disc.

Q: What about iATKOS?
A: Its about Leopard, not the install disc. Kalyway gives more diversity for use in other computers and I like it better, I will not be supporting iATKOS with this release. If it means enough to you, dive into creating a patch yourself; you have my material.

Q: But I HATE the orange background on finder!
A: View options -> background color -> change to white -> set as default.

Q: Is 4CoreDual-VSTA supported?
A: As far as I am aware you should be able to get a working SATA install with network and sound from this disc. HOWEVER, this version does not include UDMA support for the 4CoreDual-VSTA. I have received a kext file from a 4CoreDual-VSTA user (Thank you Lean) that has UDMA on SATA fully working and I will release an updated version that only 4CoreDual-VSTA users need download, however it will include 775Dual-VSTA support also. UDMA support can be achieve seperately from this install disc by replacing AppleVIAATA.kext or modifying it.

Q: Can I use EFI on the 775Dual-VSTA?
A: Yes, either GPT or MBR on their repective disk configurations.

Q: Why would I want to use GPT instead of MBR?
A: Slight performance gain. Makes you feel more like Steve Jobs. If you multi boot, its not worth it yet.

Q: Can I use the Vanilla kernel and do unmodified Apple updates?
A: No! Most likely that will never be available for this board. While conceivably possible through emulation calls, it would have to be specifically developed per non-vanilla-compatible board and will likely never be attempted.

Q: Does the network connection (VIA Rhine II) drop?
A: Possibly. I never had it happen until recently. Beats me what is up. Don't ask me yet, if I figure it out you'll see it somewhere.

Q: Wasn't this supposed to be theStevo 3.1?
A: Yeah, but I figured there was enough difference I should list it a whole new version, not just a new revision. Its based off a different disc, it doesn't require post patching, etc...

Q: What about support for the Dell E520, wasn't that apart of theStevo 3.0?
A: Indeed it was. However, Kalyway works 100% with a vanilla EFI install on the E520. Another reason for my preference of Kalyway. Simply put, it is my way of saying that I can verify to others that I had that type of computer and got Kalyway running 100%. With that in mind, this patch also 'supports' the Dell Dimension 8400 and possibly others to come.

The zip file contains a PPF that can be applied to Kalyway 10.5.1 with PPF-O-Matic. That is all that is necessary for creation of a working installer. The following guide is only for those who are curious how I did it.

The Guide:

Materials required:

1. ISO of the disc to modify
2. PackageMaker (From xCode or other sources)
3. Installed Iceberg
4. Working OS X install (Tiger or Leopard)

First, a brief overview of the concept of how the install works. Think of there being two distinct Operating Systems to modify. The first one is the live boot Operating System, rather like Ubuntu or Knoppix, that installs the Operating System that will reside on your hard drive and you will use. The live one is the easiest and most essential one to modify.

Step 1: the live install OS

If you have ever installed a kext by hand, this will be very familar.

1. Mount the ISO
   
   CODE
   sudo -s
     hdiutil attach -readwrite file/location.iso -owners on
2. Add the kext files to the mounted disc in /volumes/disc_name/system/library/extensions . You can drag and drop them in finder.
3. Set proper permissions.
   
   CODE
   chown -R root:wheel /volumes/disc_name/system/library/extensions
     chmod -R 755 /volumes/disc_name/system/library/extensions

Now, that is all you will need to boot from the disc and have it recognize your hardware. The kexts you added will NOT be transfered to the hard drive but the OS X files will. If you are adding a kext for your ATA controller, the system will not boot after the install. However, you can add these kexts back manually with only using the disc (no need for access from a separate installation) by booting from the disc again and copying the kexts you added to the hard drive using the terminal. We won't discuss that, because step two exists to make that unnecessary.

Step 2: the installed OS

This is the more complicated of the two steps. It involves creating an installer package that will ultimately place the kexts in the extensions folder.

Part A: Creating the installer package

For the purposes of this guide we will use Iceberg to create the install packages. The reason being that it is more flexible to use and easier to create the packages needed for installation. PackageMaker in xCode seems very slick, but it likes to create mpkgs with separate pkgs for each file and it seemed to me that it created problems with the installation.

1. If you are adding kext files that do not have versions by the same name in the extensions folder already (like VIARhine.kext, Apple doesn't have that by default), then you can drag and drop these extensions into the /system/library/extensions folder inside the files section of your installer project.
2. If you are adding kext files that do have versions by the same name in the extensions folder already (like AppleHDA.kext), then create a folder inside of /system/library/tempfile in the file section and drag and drop your extensions into there.
3. Add a postflight script in the scripts section of the project like 'postkextmove' given in the development folder. Modify 'postkextmove' as per the name of your folder you created in tempfile and the name of your kext. Tip: use TextWrangler for editing that file.
4. In the settings section change the project to requiring root authentication and requiring logout.
5. Take note of the package name and identifier, change them to be what you wish.
6. Build package
7. The ISO should be mounted as readwrite as describe above, then copy the built package into /system/installation/packages of the ISO.
8. Fix permissions on /system/installation/packages of the ISO.
   
   CODE
   chown -R root:wheel /volumes/disc_name/system/installation/packages
     chmod -R 755 /volumes/disc_name/system/installation/packages

The concept: Many things are happening during the install. OSInstall.mpkg calls the install processes of all selected .pkgs and then finishes its own processes at the end. When we start adding more and more packages in addition to the ones that Apple gives us by default, it increases the possibility that any changes directly written into the /system/library/extensions will be overwritten before the installation is over. Therefore we create a folder inside of tempfile, which itself is a creation of Kalyway for the same purpose, so that we can install the kext files and then move them into place at the end of OSInstall's run through a postflight in the package we create. Regardless of when the main install is done inside of OSInstall's run, the postflights are all executed at the end in the same order that the installs were executed. The installer puts the kexts in tempfile/thestevo then the other installers run. At the end of OSInstall.mpkg the postflights start to run and our installer first removes the existing files from /system/library/extensions and copies our installed ones from tempfile/thestevo. Removing the existing ones is necessary because cp will not overwrite files with root:wheel ownership.

Part B: Add to Install Checklist

This requires editing OSInstall.mpkg. The way I did it will be as follows, I'm sure there is an easier way, but I didn't use it. Feel free to let me know if it should be different.

1. Copy OSInstall.mpkg to some place to work with it (e.g. desktop)
2. Open OSInstall.mpkg in Flat Package Editor (Inside of PackageMaker, will show up on 'Open with' list after you launch it once through the menu command inside PackageMaker)
3. Copy 'Distribution' from inside Flat Package Editor to some place to work with it.
4. Open 'Distribution' in TextWrangler.
5. Use the find command to find every instance of SSE2. Copy every line, or set of lines, pertaining to SSE2 and modify the references as per what you set the package settings to before you built it.
6. Double check to make sure that every SSE2 reference has a corresponding one for your package and that it has been properly changed to match what your installer package settings are.
7. Save the file and fix the permissions. Chown and Chmod it like before.
8. Delete the 'Distribution' file that is inside of the Flat Package Editor.
9. Copy the 'Distribution' that you edited into Flat Package Editor.
10. Save OSInstall.mpkg in the Flat Package Editor.
11. Copy OSInstall.mpkg into the /system/installation/packages folder of the ISO.
12. Fix permissions on /system/installation/packages of the ISO.
    
    CODE
    chown -R root:wheel /volumes/disc_name/system/installation/packages
      chmod -R 755 /volumes/disc_name/system/installation/packages

Concept: SSE2 is an item that is on the main level of the packages list. This process simply duplicates the entries and uses them as a template to fill your own information into. It helps ensure that everything is correctly entered.

Samples of all changes can be seen by the files in the 'Development' folder. This guide will be refined, input welcomed.

</Guide>

* MD5s are in a file inside the 'Development' folder.
* Please seed!
* Please report if it works! A simple 'It works' helps me know what to think when somebody tells me it didn't work. I need to know whether my patch is bad or their setup is wrong. If I don't get feedback, I can't help others.

Remember to drop by the 775Dual-VSTA wiki! Its newly revised and unlocked so that others can make changes too!