It seems to be a common problem with the new Chameleon 2.0 RC1 Boot-loader that when you try to boot XP from a separate hard drive it gives you a blank screen and halts. For me I ran into it after using MACinized's "MacLoader" tutorial to boot Leopard from it's own drive. So to fix it I was told by Zef that XP has to be the first drive in the BIOS to boot properly. To fix this I figured out a small work around:

1. Use gParted or your favorite non-destructive partitioner to make/resize a small partition (I made a 1gig but I'm sure 100mb would work) on your Windows drive and format it to HFS+.
2. Install Chameleon 2.0 RC1 onto that partition.
3. Set the partition active (stolen from MACinized's post for time):

4. Reboot and set the Windows Drive as first boot in your BIOS.

When it reboots it should boot into Chameleon where you should choose your normal route to boot ( EX. choose macloader... or any other drive you use to boot Os X) and it *should* work. Of course, if Os X and Windows live on the same hard drive you shouldn't have much of a problem.

Sorry for such a crude tutorial, I'm pressed for time. I'll clean it up when I get a chance.

Awesome tutorial thanks. It saved me hours and hours of headaches.

Does this add an extra drive icon in chameleon and osx?

Sadly, yes. You can hide the partition though in Os X by editing your fstab. Unfortunately, as of right now there isn't a way to hide the partition in Chameleon.

i read somewhere that NTLDR needs to be on the main drive, from what you say does that mean the whole of XP or can we get away with just the boot files? my thinking here as a temporary solution is to create a small fat32 partition at the end of the main system drive, drop in the XP boot files and select that instead. hopefully that'd then act like a boot floppy and kick start the system? i've tried but i can't repartition. it stays forever stuck on 'remapping partition' or something similar. if someone could give this a go it'd be much appreciated. i like your idea LonelyTV but i'd rather leave windows to it's own devices on it's own drive.

bump

works awesome!! Thanks LonelyTV
ive tried other methods and like this best for desktop with retail !
(i have NOT tested in 1 disk MBR XP and OSX) INSTEAD 2 DISK SCENARIO

i used gparted live 4 and named rdisk0s2 BOOTMENU in xp drive and couldnt install chameleon2 to it unless re erasing it in osx disk util as fat32 then chamelon time!

port0 = one MBR for XP on first partition ntfs and 200Mb fat32 for BOOTMENU which is chameleonized 2 rc1
port1= one GUID type with 2 partitons for OSX and a backup clone also chameleonized but with HFS+ EFi option checked in chameleon installer
(in disk util choose partitioning and dropdown 2 partition) click advanced and make sure its GUID during setup from retail dvd

EDITED to clear up 2 HD's scenario
sataport0 MBR 2 partitions or 3 (your choice) NFTS and 200MB (fat32 to be formated by chameleon 2 RC1)
(fat32 200MB and active, but for xp format install set s1 ntfs active then after xp setup finished switch active to s2 BOOTMENU 200MB)| (rdisk0s3 fat32 BACKUP4ALL < Optional)

rebooted to OSX with special cd to 81 and installed chameleon 2 rc1 pkg to OSX AND BOOTMENU (did not check EFI format in customized for BOOTMENU in MBR port0 s2 but did check it for GUID OSX disk)

after xp setup i changed boot in bios to boot from guid disk in sata port 1 and also set active BOOTMENU !!

ntfs is on rdisk0s1 with xp sata port 0 on motherboard
now it boots it and lets me choose all osx GUID and xp boot.ini OK!

ps. Dont Delete Ntfs partition during XP setup! xp setup creates extended partition!! <BAD
(format only to keep it fooled into primary not extended!)
then change active partition to BOOTMENU then change bios back to GUID OSX disk in port 1 not 0 booting.

i have a fat32 rdisk0 s3 40GB at end of drive for backup purposes. (not relevant)
Chameleon 2 rc1 scans and finds xp ntfs. (set active second partition BOOTMENU)

i modded logo.png chameleon to reflect 18 hrs of smoking and breaking head (red eyes and a ciggar)
(hope i dont make anyone mad!! just looks like me after 2 days playing with this and that!)

xp virus users friendly as they can format ntfs and install. then switch bios to boot from guid osx with chameleon EFI. (both drives Chameleonized.. xp mbr drive dont name hfs+ EFI instead BOOTMENU !!! or u cant see it in osx to modify it unless u doo a few tricks in terminal ;-)

now my 2 cent:
to help someone reimage their xp remotely. i use ubcd4win.com with teamviewer portable and make image of xp to the backup4all partition with driveimagexml

waiting for this type of fix for months finaly!! chameleon2 ROCKS!

Prior steps: vanilla 10.5.4 retail instahackintosh with DFE bootloader custom dvd made while booted to kalyway 10.5.2 for d945gcnL, after install booted dfe132 or grub-dfe.iso cd. typed 81 and pres enter then boots to setup registration then run chameleon2 pkg to make hd bootable and also the BOOTMENU PARTITION IN MBR DISK finaly i found my sextant and can navigate through the rough seas of os x 86 retail %100 perfect! 10.5.6 on D945GCNL and other ICH chipset pc's
(when u install itunes 8.1 update.. mouse glitch confirmed i have G84 8600gt 256) there's 2 fixes for this i have tested 1: and works ( dont forget to clear extensions cache and repair permissions with osx86tools then reboot.
1: Remove /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUpstreamUserClient.kext
2: install older codecs from quicktimes from dvd with pacifist? (will test in future)

Thanx Great Guide!!! but I'm having an issue with GRUB, my setup is as follows, I configure OSX to use MBR partitioning
Partirion 1: Boot 1Gig
Partition 2: Vista 250 Gig
Partition 3: Ubuntu 200Gig
Partition 4: Ubuntu Swap 8Gig
Partition 5: OSX 400Gig
I installed Vista 1st, then Ubuntu 2nd, & lastly OSX, installed Chameleon 2.0 RC1 on Boot partition, but everytime I reboot, I get GRUB boot loader. I've tried GPARTED to set Boot partion as active/boot, but no go. Can't seem to make the Boot partition work. If I boot from Chameleon boot CD everthing works fine, I'm able to select Vista, ubuntu & OSX. I know there maybe a simple solution, but it's evading me, any help would be much appreciated!

Hrm, I've never had much luck with Grub. However, Try using Os X's fdisk to set it to active. That MIGHT work. I don't know. What is it doing when you select something to boot? Does any of your OS's boot?

Do you know how to get Chameleon 2.0 working with XP, Windows 7 on a MBR partition?

On XP I get the following error:


On Windows 7 all I get is a blinking cursor

I hope somebody can help me resolve these problems

All the best

NSCXP2005

LOVE the Image!!!!!!

Stealing it for my avatar!

I dont mind, its for anyone.. im not an Applet Lawyer!
i was going to make the cigar bigger and put an apple logo with apple inside hanging from the twig

ive reproduced method on ga31m-es2l and works same. bios boot from osx in sata port 1 not 0. xp is in port 0
i switched satas and xp wont boot.. .reboots to bootmenu.
so point is.. sata 0 partitions: NTFS labeled XP, HFS+ Labeled BOOTMENU.
sata port 1. OSX GUID, OSX RESTORE (for disk util reimaging OSX in case updates break something)

i copy partitions in disk utility.. restore .. source.. drag OSX to it. and destination OSXRESTORE. (both boot from chameleon in OSX drive and xp drive chameleon)

just load the CD to your drive and let the drive be the first priority in your BIOS and it will run automatically..

_________________________________
Art Framed, Posters, Art Prints

How is this a simple one liner in your very useful tutorial? In leopard disk util. won't go near the windows (NTFS) drive, nor the HFS+ partition I've created on it, can I install chameleon from the Windows side? or is there something else I should do?

Thanks for the help here already though, it's pretty much the last thing bugging me before I have 100% awesome.

I ended up deleting the extended partition and installing Chameleon on a primary partition on my XP drive. Works flawlessly, minus the defaulting to the boot partition option (as in being highlighted first), but that's something I can live with.

Thanks all!

I'm in a bit of a bind.. I've installed OSX retail on a 2nd hard drive using boot-132 and upgraded to 10.5.7 fine.

Now I'm trying to install Chameleon on my first hard drive which has Windows XP installed. I have Chameleon installed in an extended partition and I'm not on how to set that as active - can anyone help out?

Here's my partition layout:

HD1: (MBR)
1 -- Windows XP
2 -- Data
3 -- Backup
4 -- Extended Partition
----- 1. Backup 2
----- 2. Boot [chameleon installed here]
HD2: (GUID)
1 -- OSX

My specs:
Abit IP35Pro, Q6600, GeForce 8800GTS 512mb (g92), 4GB RAM


Additional Problem: -- FIXED
I keep getting a couple of errors that state "Unable to determine UUID for host. Error: 35" when I run the DISKUTIL command. Any help on how to get rid of it?

time machine fix. its al over here. efi strings for network devices.. then reinstall chameleon 2 to replace older boot.com.plist


btw use gparted to set active. and also ceate the 200 MB fat32 part.. so u can install chameleon to it.

sata port 0 XP drive :
|=ntfs(format only in xp. NO delete and create!)|=fat32_200MB(aka EFI BOOTMENU)|=fat32 spare backup part any size)|

sata port 1 OSX drive:
2 partitions in disk util of osx GUID in advanced! |=OSX(or any of choice no spaces)|=OSXRESTORE(or any name)|

ps.. after xp install u need gparted live to set BOOTMENU in XP drive as active.

hope this helps.. i installed osx with minor discomfort but comes out good time after time! if the osx is scrapped the chameleon still loads from the xp drive the xp os!

If I'm following this thread right, LatinMcGyver75 recommends installing Chameleon 2RC1 on both disks - XP and OSX. But, LonelyTV recommends installing Chameleon only on the XP disk (I've seen this recommended elsewhere). What's the difference between these approaches - what's the benefit of installing on both disks? Also, may the HFS+ partition on the XP disk be located anywhere on the disk, e.g., the last partition? Thank you -

i use sata port 1 as main booting chameleon. and in xp is as a backup in case i delete whole osx GUiD disk i can boot from sata port 0 then.

the main change in my style to LonelyTV is he uses sata port 0 XP disk to boot in bios. i do port 1 GUID disk. either disk is bootable by itself.

EDIT: also i put XP in first partition of mbr disk then fat32 200mb that i reformat as hfs+in osx diskutil and Labeled as BOOTMENU.

This method got me a non-working Vista and XP. 

I used GNU Partition Editor to add a 100mb partition in front of two 250gb partitions on a SATA drive.  The process of resizing the first partition took all day.


Got 100mb partition formatted with HFS+ and installed Chameleon 2.

Reboot gets me Chameleon's list of things to boot.  Selecting OSX off a second drive (80gb IDE) did work, but selecting the first windows partition got me "Can't find <windows root> system/hal.dll" and selecting the second windows partition got me a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left.

I think the problem may have been putting the 100mb partition in front of the other two, because I think that makes windows think the 100mb is drive C, then Vista thinks its partition is now drive D and it can't find anything, and XP thinks it's on drive E and can't find anything.  So if this method is going to work at all, put the 100mb partition LAST.  I didn't want to wait another 8 hours to repartition again so I didn't test if it would work putting it last.

Luckily I had a Clonezilla copy of things from before the mess so I just restored that.  After trying lots of other methods, I was able to get all three OSes to triple boot using EasyBCD 2.0 beta build 63 with the Vista boot loader and a trick of pointing EasyBCD to Chameleon 2's "boot" file as described on page 4 of this thread: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...2582&st=160  I think that method is much cleaner than making another partition.

Thanks for the guide as well followed it to a "T" with my 3 HD setup -

I keep getting "can't find mach kernal" when trying to start XP - any ideas

Same issue here

something wrong "?"