Trying to understand Chameleon

[René Kåbis]

Greetings.

 

I understand that Chameleon is some sort of boot loader, which emulates the user interface of Apple’s EFI, and allows users to choose what item they want to boot from. What I don’t understand is how to properly install this, or more fundamentally, what *order* I should conduct the installation.

 

My logical assumption is that there must be some sort of installer available (which I haven’t found yet) that will allow Chameleon to be installed on a totally blank hard drive, and from there (because it emulates Apple’s EFI interface) it will allow the user to install a completely normal and unmodified Installation DVD of OSX onto the hard drive (whether this OSX installation “takes” will then depend on the supportability of the hardware… KEXT’s may need to be added to the OSX DVD if critical hardware is not supported by Apple).

 

At least, this is my logical assumption. Since it is a boot loader, and since non-Apple machines cannot recognize the Mac OSX DVD’s as bootable, my assumption is that it needs to exist on the hard drive before the OSX install DVD is even loaded into the DVD-ROM drive. Please tell me if this assumption is correct or not.

 

 

I am also rather confused as to the instructions involved with making use of Chameleon. There are many articles that describe the usage of Chameleon in terms of already having a running hackintosh system on the computer that Chameleon is destined for. But if the system already has a perfectly functional version of OSX on it, why would there be a need for Chameleon, unless it is to boot into other operating systems on the same box?

 

I am also confused as to whether or not all Operating Systems need to be installed before or after Chameleon. If it is a boot loader, wouldn’t it need to go on the computer first, so that secondary installs (such as OSX, Linux, XP 64-bit or Win7) play nicely with it?

 

And finally, I need to know if Chameleon completely eliminates any need to customize OSX (aside from KEXT’s which define the hardware), and if it allows people to accept updates from Apple with impunity (as in, they don’t have to worry if an update will break the OSX installation).

 

TIA.

 

PS, if anyone knows of a really good guide to installing OSX on a Toshiba M300 (Futureshop branded), I would greatly appreciate it. I haven’t been able to find anything yet.

[smcpipint]

Since it is a boot loader, and since non-Apple machines cannot recognize the Mac OSX DVD’s as bootable, my assumption is that it needs to exist on the hard drive before the OSX install DVD is even loaded into the DVD-ROM drive. Please tell me if this assumption is correct or not.

 

Not. It needs to be running in memory. So, e.g., you can boot via Boot-132, which can be on a CD or thumbdrive (which effectively get Chameleon into memory), then use Chameleon to "boot" a retail DVD

 

I am also rather confused as to the instructions involved with making use of Chameleon. There are many articles that describe the usage of Chameleon in terms of already having a running hackintosh system on the computer that Chameleon is destined for. But if the system already has a perfectly functional version of OSX on it, why would there be a need for Chameleon, unless it is to boot into other operating systems on the same box?

 

I am also confused as to whether or not all Operating Systems need to be installed before or after Chameleon. If it is a boot loader, wouldn’t it need to go on the computer first, so that secondary installs (such as OSX, Linux, XP 64-bit or Win7) play nicely with it?

 

Chameleon need to be on the boot drive. But that can be a CD or thumbdrive or whatever - you can then use that to boot the HD you have OS X on

 

And finally, I need to know if Chameleon completely eliminates any need to customize OSX (aside from KEXT’s which define the hardware), and if it allows people to accept updates from Apple with impunity (as in, they don’t have to worry if an update will break the OSX installation).

 

No, many OS X updates overwrite kexts, etc. Depending on how they're being loaded (e.g., there are ways to put kexts into hidden partitions), you may be more safe or less safe, but there's really no such thing as "completely eliminates"