BootCDMaker is simple utility to rapidly create Chameleon BootCD. This application use a mix of bash & osascript (AppleScript).

Using BootCDMaker is really easy and simple:

1. Grab your Mkext / smbios.plist / DSDT.aml / mach_kernel and drop them in "BootCD Contents" folder. (be sure to respect standard file syntax)
2. If you don't add you com.apple.boot.plist to "Extra Contents" it will be generated automatically.
3. BootCDMaker features :

- Automatic NVIDIA graphics injection
- Ethernet built-in injection
- EHCIacquire (USB2) fix
- UHCIreset (USB1.1) fix
- Skip the SSDT tables while relocating the DSDT table
- Use the legacy grey apple logo
- Custom kernel flags edition
- Custom device-properties edition
- Legacy mode : this will create an old fashioned boot cd, known as BOOT-132 CD, but powered by the latest release of chameleon. This should fix BIOS incompatibility with chameleon built in Eltorito loader.
- Mkext creation utility
- ISO Burning utility

6. BootCDMaker will automatically backup the previous BootCD.iso build to the "Desktop/BootCDMaker-Out/Previous-BootCD" folder.

What mode should you use :

Default : if you have a recent computer you should try this.
Legacy : if Default is not loading (hang at boot) try this.

Version history :

- "0.7" include the latest build of chameleon's cdboot (r658)

- "0.8" Added support for automatic custom kernel loading. Simply drop your kernel with other files. The kernel file must be named "mach_kernel" in order to be included automaticly in the boot.plist file. If not you will have to edit the plist yourself.

- "1" Added Legacy / Default options, selection of GraphicsEnabler and EthernetBultIn options et original ArtWorks. Also some code cleaning and optimizing.

- "1.1" Added Erase/Burning features, more chameleon options, code refactoring & optimizations, GUI enhancements. BootCDMaker is now fully compatible with 10.5 & 10.6.

- "1.1f" Added choice to Burn or Erase & Burn. Previous version was always erasing and then burning...

- "1.2" The app now supports spaces in path, BootCDMaker should now run from mostly everywhere. Added plist correction in case you remove DSDT, Kernel or smbios.plist from "Extra Contents" but leave the boot.plist. Added device-propeties edition and an options to remove chameleon GUI. Removing chameleon GUI should fix EBIOS errors for everyone, i hope

- "1.5" Now with COCOA GUI and a lot more options, bootloader updated to PCEFI v10.3.

- "1.6" EBIOS errors fixed, Disable CHameleon GUI has been removed. ISO should works fine from all type of media now. (Thanks to iNDi)

- "1.6.1" Fixed a bug who was preventing GraphicsEnabler to work properly, thx to stellarolla who has noticed that bug. BootCDMaker will also check if you've made a bad configuration to prevent GraphicsEnabler and or EthernetBuiltin injection to fail. I've also improved the legacy ISO part, no more EBIOS errors in this mode too. And now every features of the software should work fine with spaces in paths names.


Enjoy this little piece of software

Thanks to : zef, sonotone, JrCs

BootCDMaker_1.6 : http://darwinx86.org/software/darwinx86_software.html

If you don´t have a DSTD.aml what then?

If only you'd tried without adding your DSDT you'll know.

DSDT.aml / smbios.plist / mach_kernel are optionals since they are not necessary to run a retail DVD.

Only Extensions (kext or mkext) are required, if they are not included in the "Extra Contents" BootCDMaker will warn you that it's not possible to build the boot CD.

Cheers.

Trauma, i think you meant:


Going to give it a ride.. Thanks

Oups thx Azimutz... haha

Using this method, we could generate a boot DVD from a restored (already prepared) partition, to make a personalized install DVD for SL?

No,

you can use INSTAHackintosh to achieve that. ( http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=128285 )

Snow Not supported in current version, BUT WILL BE supported in V2.0
Coming soon to an Apple store near you ;)

edit: Nice script by the way

Hail Legacy works fine for me, the legacy iso. Default way doesn't like my drive.. all "default solutions" till today give me instant reboots. So far i only tested booting 10.5.4 retail DVD and 10.5.8 on HD, both worked without problems, though booting the DVD had some weird messages while booting but, everything was fine after boot.
So this is a perfectly fine also as rescue booter!
Nice work Trauma.. damn thing even talks to me Just a suggestion:

it would be nice if the output was made to the app's folder, instead of desktop.
And the log output to Terminal instead of Console but, this one is just me being picky

And i'd like to add some comment to this statement on first post:


Well, Trauma removed "Known issues" so, i remove my comment

Hey Azimutz,

about that :



You are totally right, i just didn't took the time to explain the whole thing in details. Thanks to you to recall in detail this things.

About that your requests : i will think about that, but for now i'm more focussed on improve some behaviors of the application. According to another user observation, I've revisited the behavior of GraphicsEnabler and EthernetBultIn options to make it more adaptive to different cases.

Actually if boot.plist already exist in "Extra Contents" it will not ask you to set those two options. The idea was to not modify custom boot.plist, and only ask the questions when auto generating the boot.plist.

Now BootCDMaker will ask the questions in all cases, and will really setup the plist file to "yes" or "no" in all cases. So even if the value have been already setup it will overwrite the plist with the new setup. If the value don't exist or if the plist itself don't exist, it will works too.

Changes are implemented, as soon it will be tested roughly i will release the new version of BootCDMaker.

Cheers.

This is actually really convient and easy to use. If I'm correct in saying this, this could be used to create a bootcd to install SL on an AMD machine with the right kernel.

I tried this and put in all the kexts that works on my current SL installations plus DSDT and device properties for com.Apple.Boot.plist but I don't get past the grey background and spinning beach ball. I never had this spinning beach ball phenom so I don't know what I miss.
Someone help please.

I have been trying to create a USB Boot Drive to boot up SL installation DVD. A combination of files had been tried including Chameleon 2 RC1, RC2, RC3 and PC EFI 10.1. The resulting drive will boot the DVD on either one of my machines but never both.

So, I created a BootCD by adding:
1. a dsdt.aml with only RTC fix
2. fakesmc.kext, NullCPUPowerManagement.kext and OpenHaltRestart.kext to the Extensions folder
Options of "Default," "GraphicsEnabler" and "EthernetBuiltIn" are selected.

The resulting BootCD lets me boot up SL installation DVD on both my machines with the correct screen resolutions

Thanks Trauma!

PS: burning the .iso with Disk Utility gives "EBIOS read error" during boot-up. Toast Titanium solves it.

Trauma, no problem.. just thought it was good to mention that. This info doesn't show on Leo's man pages.
Yeah.. take care of important stuff first, that's a priority.. my suggestion is not.
Boot.plist stuff worked fine.. i did placed my boot.plist on Extra Contents and left out path to dsdt, smbios and kernel on purpose. Everything was added correctly. In fact that helped me on solving a doubt i had about Chameleon on this matter
Will check updates..

Take care..

---------------------------------------------


Totally correct i have to use patched kernel.

----------------------------------------------


Follow di524up's example.. start with minimal stuff, like the essential. The important thing is to boot the installer.. graphics, network, etc are not important for install process.
Given the problems people mention, i'd say that's either graphics or decrypter problem. Can't be perms in this case.
Also don't forget to try Legacy iso.

-----------------------------------------------


USB is giving lots of problems on certain mobos.. now there's this solution but there's also the "restore" to HD method, people seem to be "avoiding" these days. I have an almost permanent 10GB Mac OS X Install DVD partition. I just boot it with the same files as i boot Snow (i doubt that it will ever see again a Leo install restored on it ). All boot files are now (with Chameleon rc3) located on on my main Snow partition (disk1s2 Guid), no Extra folder on other bootable partitions, only patched kernel. Works perfect!

Never had problems with Disk Utility but, i now have those damn EBIOS errors when i boot with my external USB drive ON.
No problem with USB sticks or USB card reader.

Nice going on the minimal setup ;)

A permanent 10GB Mac OS X Install DVD partition?
How do you prevent it from automounting? I find that quite annoying.

you edit the FSTAB, and inserting a line with your device
like this

Thanks di524up to point that out, interesting found !

Kind of permanent.. it doesn't take much to remove or add it.. it's the last partition on the HD and i still have plenty of unallocated space resize, remove, add partitions on a Guid HD it's a snap. We can even rezise the system we are booted on.

Well, sometimes Finder does open it at startup but, that's very rare on Snow.. 2 or 3 times like since 10a394 came out. Does it more on Leo..
I really haven't done any to prevent it and don't feel the need to. Try WinstonAce's suggestion. If it happened to many times to me, i'd be annoyed to

I downloaded the file from the link in the first post today. I tried generating the bootcd with mixed results.

I found that the kernel I supplied was always placed in the ramdisk Extra folder. However, if it was named anything other than "mach_kernel" it was not entered in the Boot.plist with the required rd(0,0) prefix. e.g., mach_kernel was listed as rd(0,0)/mach_kernel but mach_kernel.432 was just listed as mach_kernel.

If I supplied no Boot.plist I would be asked about the GraphicsEnabler and EtnernetBuiltIn options, but if I supplied any Boot.plist I was not asked and they were not supplied. The result is that if I want kernel flags like "arch=i386 -v" I don't get the injection options and if I want the injection options I can't set kernel flags.

I also noticed that the Extensions folder and Extensions.mkext were both present in the Preboot/Extra folder. If the Extensions.mkext file is provided, there is no need for the Extensions folder.

Quoted form the first post :





That's fixed and it will be released soon I had minor compatibility problems with 10.5, that's fixed now.



This is not a big issue, and can't the /Etensions folder be usefull to boot with -f flag ?

None of the suggestions or examples here work for me (grey screen hang). I am always able to boot using disk method with just 1 kext- fakesmc or dsmos. My board is Asus P5Q pro and it has been very vanilla friendly and I have never been stuck at grey screen before so I don't know what causes it. I even put in NVInject just to hope...The thing is I don't have any error show up on verbose mode.
Some body has to be getting what I am getting. Please share.

I saw the comment about the kernel. I don't understand it. You can recognize a kernel with a regular expression like "mach_kernel*". You already have the code to add the rd(0,0) to a file named "mach_kernel". Why not apply it to files named "mach_kernel*"?



How could that be? Is the ram disk writable during boot? I don't think so.

Hum.. be careful with the E/E folder guys. I don't know about the pre boot but, on my HD install, if i leave the Extensions folder together with Extensions.mkext, the folder is loaded instead of the mkext. And if i leave it "empty", it's still the folder that loads.. not pretty
I never use both, just left it there to make more tests later and just deleted the kexts.. again, not pretty.. took me a bit to figure out the problem, so used i am to delete Extensions folder.

Anyway, i got a better one to share with you guys.. it seems Trauma must be doing some magic on the app voodoo, or something...
Well, while the DVD is loading i get these yellow messages (long time no see) about aicpmanagement.kext not loading and more surprisingly, also messages about no HPET available, that i never had. I found this very strange and decided to try boot without Disabler.. got this feeling.. and the damn thing just boots no kp and still the yellow messages.
Trauma, what have you done, mate?!? i want my kp back
I'm not kidding on this...!!

Hey,

Ok, Extensions folder removing after mkext packing done. I also added few things to the app :

1. BootCDMaker now can erase|burn the ISO instantly after its creation.
2. Extensions folder cleanup after mkext packing.
3. Few plist options added : DropSSDT, EHCIacquire,UHCIreset, Kernel Flags, Legacy Logo

I've fixed Applescript errors when using from 10.5, and clean up a bit the code (again).

It's steel need some more tests before next release.



Well it easier to rename the kernel file to the "supported" name as it's to implement it. I'll think about that but using wildcards in a bash script isn't easy as that.

And if i change the code on this feature, i think i will use a file selection popup or a text input dialog.



If id did i swear it was conscienceless I'll think about this strange legacy behavior. It might be related to the ramdisk loading.

Cheers guys.

I'm sure you didn't do it on purpose the voodoo man here is me..
I forgot to use kexts/kernel according to retail version, 10.5.4.. was using 5.8 ones i need osx86 vacations!!
I still have some errors about not finding library/startupitems (folder is there) and mDNSResponder. Nothing serious.
Will take a better look next round...

Stay safe..

Here's a quick question I have, but could this be used to boot up a usb drive with the sl image mounted? I don't have a dual layer dvd burner sadly, and I have a 32 gb usb drive.

vbetts,

Basically yes, restore the dmg to your USB key and the CD will boot it. you can also install chameleon alongside SL on the USB key.

Regarding BootCDMaker i've just updated the software to release 1.1, nices new features on the menu
First post updated.

Bye.

i get an EBIOS error 0x09 with both legacy and default mode... help much appreciated. the disc is clean and i just verified the md5 sum once again so im fairly sure its not the disc.

I just finished testing the new version 1.1. I placed the following files in "Extra Contents" and ran the app.

It asked about the various Boot.plist options and also if I wanted custom kernel options. A few seconds later I had a bootCD.iso file. I checked the content of the Preboot.dmg file and everything looked good. I burned the CD using Disk utility and restarted the system. I got a never ending list of bios errors.

I rebooted the system and used Toast 10 to burn another CD. When I restarted the system this new CD loaded without any Bios Errors. Swapped the CD with the SL install DVD, pressed F5 and It continued the boot to the OS X Installer without any problem.

I must admit, this is very easy to sue once you have the required set of support kext identified.

I have no idea why burning the CD with disk utility would result in bios errors and Toast would not. Strange.

i used toast and i still got the error. in fact for some reason i cannot use disk utility, mac refuses to support my drive.

Disk Utility is made to support drives Apple use on their machines so, it's not surprising that it doesn't support (or gives troubles with) other drives, specially IDE drives. My SATA drive works fine but, it shows all the time on DU "Burn Support: Unsupported" (though on System Profiler shows "Burn Support: Yes (Generic Drive Support)"). The tendency here is to get worse.. On Snow, most of the IDE support was dumped so, people with IDE drives are going to have troubles.

Toast uses his own drivers to control burners, mount images, etc.. it doesn't use any of the system resources. If you guys still have troubles with discs burned with Toast, suspect of your driver!
It's "probably" not BootCDMaker's fault.
All i can suggest is, use SATA drives in AHCI mode as much as you can! For CD/DVD drives try using another controller if you mobo has one (jmicro, etc..). Else look/wait for patched drivers or use USB to restore the OS X installer image (maybe that works).

I wouldn't use the word "fault". I don't know if the bios errors are an artifact of the way the iso is created or not. Still, I do have other preboot disks burned under SnowLeo using disk utility and they don't experience the bios errors. I plan to make another test where the BootCDmaker app burns the CD directly and see if that makes a difference.

Both my HDD and DVD drive are SATA drives. However the only SATA option I have is IDE/ICH5. That's why I need to use a patched copy of AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext

Edit Update: I just finished running a test where I allowed the BootCDmaker app to initiate the burn process. I first inserted a blank CD-R disk and it kept being ejected. Next, I inserted a used DVD-RW disk and it was accepted, erased and burned. when I rebooted the system using that BootCD there were NO bios errors.

Therefore, one can conclude that the bios errors are either related to non re-writable media or the way the burn process is initiated - or the phases of the moon

Worked perfect for me on my Gigabyte GA-EG31M-S2 motherboard.

After installing and booting into SL, I copied my dsdt.aml and extras folder to SL and it booted without the boot cd.

I did some additional testing with disk utility burning the bootCD. When I used a DVD media, either -R or -RW the system boots without any ebios read errors. If I used a CD media and the BootCDmaker iso I got an endless string of ebios read errors. I don't currently have any CD-RW media so I couldn't test that.

I also created a preboot CD using the Chameleon boot-132 package. With that one I got 3 or 4 ebios read errors on a CD media but then the Chameleon boot prompt came up and it worked. That could be because it uses a different cdboot module or there may be some differences in the command used to create the iso file. For reference, the command used to create the boot-132 iso is:

Only Trauma! could say if there is any difference there.

Well that's actually the exact same command to create the ISO file. What i can see is the "cdboot" used by "the Chameleon boot-132 package" is older than the one i've included in the app.

Thanks guys to look after this EBIOS errors source, i hope we will find a solution soon. But it's look like symptoms are really differents from one case to another. That's wired. I'll try to burn the iso on a CD here, cause i never had a single EBIOS error here (i'm using a DVD-RW).

About the burning feature of BootCDMaker, it can in fact only burn RW media for now. Don't worry i'll fix this soon.

Just a quick stop by...

Trauma.. Burn feature with CD-RW (that's all i've been using), only erases the media, even when it's erased

Gave it a try on Leo, had to use it from the Desktop folder, or it will not run (check attached pic).
I'm just mentioning this because, my Home folder is on a different partition.. on Snow it's set as Home on my account and the app works fine. Check the path to the app on the pic.
On Leo, the Home folder is on the same volume as system.

Still no ebios errors.

Thanks for the easy to use app and to zef, sonotone, JrCs, Trauma for all of your had work on this.

This does not work on my system, just keeps rebooting right after the cd boots.

Ok i've fixed the issue about burning feature. Now you have the choice to Erase/Burn or Burn.

@ Azymutz: I was unable to reproduce this bug. I've executed the app from other devices, 10.5 and 10.6 and from various places. It's always work as long as there no spaces in the file path. Unfortunately i didn't fixed this yet.

@ BladeRunner : I've burned the same ISO to a CD and a DVD, and you were right there is EBIOS errors when using a CD, where all work fine on a DVD.

About the differences of errors number between BootCDMaker ISO's and the "the Chameleon boot-132 package" : i'm pretty sure this caused by the fact BootCDMaker ISO's use a custom theme. The is far much data to load from the drive than if you use the embedded theme of chameleon.

According this conclusions : errors are generated by the media type and the amount of blocks the loader have to read.

I hope we will find a fix soon.

Cheers.

By all means, let's keep the custom theme. I like it much better than the default one. The boot prompt instructions are a great idea.

Trauma.. and all..
Well, i haven't much to add.
Decided to partition HD, make clean Snow install (was still running updated one), refresh Home folder, get rid of HD installed booter, etc...
Perfect boot, perfect install, no glitches on Snow retail, using CD-RW. After reading you guys posts, i guess there's no need for me to try DVD-RW. Using DVD-RW is a nice alternative to CD-RW.. they always seem to me, to work better under OS X.

About the app failing to launch, let it roll.. if no one else reports it I can't try it at the moment because i removed Leo and i still didn't decided if i'm gonna restore it again.. probably. If i do, i'll try again.
As you can see in the pic, i have no spaces in the path.. i rarely use them to avoid problems.

As a side note, i'm still surprised by that voodoo stuff.. aicpm.kext wasn't panicing. The fact that i forgot to use matching version kexts, had nothing to do with it. Using matching kexts only gave me a cleaner boot. The hpet/aicpm messages only show when i use fakesmc but, even using appledecript and no disabler the installer still booted
Will give it a try later.

Now, going to set up the rest of the stuff on my HD..
See ya..

Trauma, has anyone reported success with using bootcdmaker to make a working boot cd for a Intel D945GCLF system?

I've been trying to get a working setup for this, keep running into a lot of weird problems. my most recent attempt tried to boot, but I immediately got a KP about the atom cpu being a unrecognized cpu. I used one of the other chameleon based boot methods with a 8 GB flash drive, so I had the nullcpumangement kext and openhalt and fakesmc kexts,

I'm at work right now so I won't get to try this out until later on this evening. I'm hoping this will work.

just to be on the safe side, is there a recommended app to use to create the smbios.plist / DSDT.aml files for the D945GCLF or should I go without them?

I'm trying to learn as much as possible about this whole process, when I built my hackintosh leopard had been out for quite some time and the boot-132 method was so easy to use that I didn't have to do much more than just burn the iso image I downloaded and then use it to install Leopard.

Thanks for any info you can send me way

Thank you very much, Trauma

I could make a Snow BootCD for my EP35-DS3P without resetting CMOS when BootCDMaker was working on SL only. Burning BootCD.iso on Windows 7. I tested to install a retail DVD of SL for a few times. It went OK. How? I knew DSDT. aml's working because I patched DSDT with an nVidia injector of 8800GT. After finished installation, I did some the following steps;
- reinserted the BootCD and booted the installed partition and went on the procedure
- installed Chameleon 2.0 RC2 r640.pkg or higher if available
- installed required kexts of PC-OS X in /Extra/Extensions; smbios.plist, com.apple.Boot.plist, and DSDT.aml w/ fixing CMOS resetting into /Extra
- removed everything in /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup
- used Kext Utility for repairing permissions and building mkexts
- opened Disk Utility for Repair Disk Permissions again
- then restarted
- enjoy the OS.

For EP45-UD3R:
- took EP35-DS3P's BootCD.iso to be mounted in Leo 10.5.8.
- copied /Extra to Desktop (not the same as in Preboot.dmg)
- opened Preboot.dmg
- opened /Extra
- replaced DSDT.aml & smbios.plist for EP45-UD3R
- pasted HD4870 1 GB GFX string in com.apple.Boot.plist and saved it
- copied /Extra to a flash drive
working on Windows Vista
- used MagicISO open an EP35-DS3P's BootCD.iso
- deleted /Extra and added /Extra from a flash drive
- saved it with a new name and burnt CD-RW
- restarted the modified BootCD and went on to install SL
- everything went OK.

Now, I can install a retail DVD of SL or use it for booting after restoring backup dmg.

Next time I will learn how to create iso by using command.

Hy, your tool is very great!

Thank's!

But my retail install wont work correct - at the end of the setup the installer brings a error - "osx couldn't be started corectly"

I had this problem everytime when i use chameleon bootfile, with the PCIEFI from netkas is all ok!

Is there any way to change from chameleon to pcefi`


Thank's, elvnox

elvnox.. that's just the installer saying that, it can't set the boot partition. The installation is fine

After the dvd boots it says

init
file size:xx
reading sectors:xx
loading..............
done_

Am I supposed to do something?
I tried to swap the disk and do all the keys on the keyboard, but nothing at all...
Sorry.. Is someone know something, my DVDs are not RW, and I don't have many left...

I had success with this:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=183751

And follow my bios setup at post #137

caiowa

Try the "Legacy" mode. And prefer a DVD-RW media.

Thank you, merci beaucoup, I will try that.

I tried this and it didn't work for me. I verified that my bios settings were correct.

I'll try it again when I have the time. I'm in the middle college Final Exams so I don't have a lot of free time at the moment.

This works beautifully on a Rampage II Extreme, Core i7 920 setup.
I am stoked that I was able to find this application.

You are DA MAN!!!!!!!!!!

This is going to save me tons of time in my future endeavors trying to perfect my Snow Leopard installation.

Thanks

JN