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How to Prepare a Hack for the OS X Yosemite


Allan
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Most of us are counting the time to have on hands the final release of OS X Yosemite, which will bring significant changes in their appearance and stability.

 

 

 

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Now, the most important thing before you install and use the new OS X, is you check if your current Hack will be compatible with OS X Yosemite without major issues, and prevent some possible Extress.

 

Basics.

 

Well, if you currently use OS X Mavericks, it's likely that you can use the Yosemite. But not everything is perfect. Something you should be aware of, is the fact that some components like Video, WiFi, USB kexts, or for port activation of your graphic card like HDMI, VGA or DVI.

 

In the most of cases, we only use HDMI, which requires a patch at AppleIntelFramebufferCapri kext, you can use without issues Mavericks' kexts in Yosemite, but it may happen, just as happened to me, some video crashes and artifacts at your display.

 

What you can do now is to keep a backup of the used methods and their respective patches at a Pendrive, or store it at your cloud account using DropBox, iCloud etc ...

 

Average.

 

Always keep a backup of your working kexts and/or plugins.

 

Backup your DSDT, SSDT and any other custom ACPI table you have. If you use Chameleon, also make sure you have a backup of the Extra folder with its contents, like org.chameleon.Boot.plist and FileNVRAM.

 

Now, for those who uses Clover in UEFI mode, will be pretty easy. As Clover uses the EFI partition to store its files and this partition is independent from the partition where OS X is installed, if you do not re-partition your drive, you have nothing to worry about.

 

So, be careful while installing OS X 10.10. Never change the partition layout of your HDD, for example, change it from GPT to MBR, by doing this your EFI partition will be deleted.

 

Advanced.

 

If you are unsure about something, or did not like Yosemite and wants to return to the Mavericks, make a full backup of OS X. Do not think that Hack things are like real Macs, and that at any issue you can use Time Machine to revert things back.

 

Use tools that will fit your needs and save you time.

An excellent tool is the CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner - 30 days of use) or SuperDuper which is free.

 

 

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The advantage of CCC is that you can save the bootloader, then, just restore it to an external HDD/Pendrive and install it normally.

 

SuperDuper only backup OS X and not the bootloader. But this is not a problem, because onceOS X was restored, download and install the Bootloader does not take 3 minutes.

 

Now one tip that will allow you a quality support is: Never use methods of other forums, even more those we don’t give support, as Tonymac, Niresh and others.

 

Understand that we don’t hate them, but think logically: If you like to use their tools, the best thing shouldn't ask for support at their forums? And vice-versa with respect to us.

 

Another tip that can help you a lot, always be patient. Look, we all use a new OS X, where the problems will probably be solved differently. So, don’t expect the developers or Staff members use a magic wand to fix the problems, they also need to study new ways, and when they are available, we put in the best way for you.

 

Well this are the tips that I bring to you. And I await with much anxiety the next Keynote.

 

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Just a comment on this

If you are unsure about something, or did not like Yosemite and wants to return to the Mavericks, make a full backup of OS X. Do not think that Hack things are like real Macs, and that at any issue you can use Time Machine to revert things back.

Personally, i never used other backup solutions than Time machine, and it worked like a charm for me so far, if any problem i can either revert specific kexts, apps or whatever.  And if necessary, i can restore a full backup when booting to the installer. 

The only positive thing about CCC is that it stores the bootloader which is good. But in my case i use Clover (chameleon is only there as a last resort, if i really mess with clover).

 

And last thing, time machine full restore is not working when using Mavericks installer to restore a yosemite backup (many folders not restored), the option is not yet available in Yosemite GM Installer but i'm expecting no issues once the final version is released.

My 2 cents

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Well it is done :) I did it just via pressing "update" from within Mavericks, but I took care of a few things.

Steps I made in case anyone want's to know:

 

 

 

1. Make sure to have the actual Clover and FakeSMC. After that I tried booting Mavericks. Same DSDT etc on my EFI partition. I made myself a Fusion-Drive some months ago so updating to latest clover was copying the files manually after mounting EFI.

 

2. Backed up my old S/L/E Directory, just in case. I do this since 10.4.8 or so, because you never know what old .kexts you might use.

 

3. Started the update, reboot, after a while stuck. Reboot in Safe Mode, black screen. Booted again into -f -v. Again, black screen but still HD activity. Pressed a few times enter just in case for a menu that I wasn't able to see. Patience is key, let the machine do the stuff, even if 'blind' - keep an eye on the HDD light.

4. Suddenly a reboot, then booted to GUI. Everything is fine, I am home again :D

 

 

 

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