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Booting OS X via grub2, _without_ installing clover to a physical disk


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Hi All!

First, apologies in case this tutorial looks shabby to you; I would be glad to edit it as per your feedback. Now for the actual tutorial!

 

I actually first used this trick to install W7 in Legacy mode to a GPT dsk; MS sure would say installing W7 on a GPT requires UEFI, but the i came across this http://reboot.pro/topic/19516-hack-bootmgr-to-boot-windows-in-bios-to-gpt/page-2?do=findComment&comment=184489

 

Credits then must go to first smart one who came up with the idea, wzyboy

 

This tutorial is aimed towards those users who already have grub2 as their bootloader and don't want to bother install CLOVER alongside it ; sure it is possible through some sorta chainloading thing, but being a total newbie in this matter, I found an arguably much easier, less intrusive way to boot an OS X installation through grub2, and then, with memdisk mojo, through CLOVER. Note please, that this method requires you either have access to an already working OS X installation, or have somewhat working knowledge of dd. So, to sum up, the prerequisites are:

 

Access to working OS X (if it is an OS X just installed on your disk, then you most probably could only boot it throu the media you installed it with)

CLOVER installer

syslinux https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/Testing/

grub2 as the bootloader ;)

 

boot into your OS X; open "Disk Utility", and click on "New Image"; choose a name, like "dmgboot"; its size should be big enough to hold CLOVER; I prodigally chose 120MB; the Format should be "Mac OS X Extended (Journled)"; Encryption must be "None"; Partitions must be "GUID"; "IMAGE FORMAT" must be "read/write";

 

 

 

When you are set, click "Create" and create it!

When created, it must actually be mounted if it already is not (but if it is, you obviously needn't mount it :D )

 

Now, run the CLOVER installer; when asked where to install the bootloader, chose the actual mount point of the dmg that you have created and mounted

when done with the installation, unmount dmg; REMEMBER WHERE IT IS ON YOUR DISK! I would actually recommend you to copy the dmg to / like so :

sudo cp <your dmg> /

 

now, "sudo make" the syslinux you just downloaded; you need the "memdisk" there :)

when done, locate the memdisk; in my case, it's under /syslinux/bios/memdisk/memdisk

 

Now restart! BUT before that, you must know what the "address" of you partition is; in my case, it was the 12th partition on my first dsk, i.e, (hd0,gpt12)

 

in the grub menu, hit 'c'; you'll enter a command-like env.

there, type:

 

linux16 <path to the memdisk>

initrd16 <your OS X partition addr>/path/to/the/dmg/you/just/created

boot

 

for example, mine is:

 

linux16 /syslinux/bios/memdisk/memdisk

initrd16 (hd0,gpt12)/dmgboot.dmg

boot

 

Then, Whoa! the os x will boot!

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Ok fine, but also you can simply : 1) extract boot from clover 2) copy boot file to OSX partition 3) add to Grub2 the menu item to boot osx

 

menuentry "OS X" {

insmod hfsplus

set root='(hd0,gpt12)'

chainloader /boot

}

Thanks :) I was so excited about the trick working for W7 that I thought it might be as hard for os x; thanks a lot pard (for proving me wrong  :wink_anim:  )

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  • 8 months later...

@pippox0

Please help. I have a similar case (laptot Sony Vaio, GPT disk 750GB, EFI partition on /dev/sda3, Windows 10 on /dev/sda5, Ubuntu on /dev/sda7+8+9 and El Capitan on /dev/sda10).

I have copied manually CLOVER folder from the Install USB onto the EFI partition and tried to chainload it from GRUB 2. I have also tried all kinds of alternative methods but...no luck!

Your solution seems promising but HOW do you EXTRACT boot from Clover? I have not seen any such file in CLOVER folder.

 

PS I can boot into El Capitan fine if I boot from USB clover.

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  • 2 months later...

Ok fine, but also you can simply : 1) extract boot from clover 2) copy boot file to OSX partition 3) add to Grub2 the menu item to boot osx

 

menuentry "OS X" {

insmod hfsplus

set root='(hd0,gpt12)'

chainloader /boot

}

Can you explain the process please ?

Thank you very much

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  • 2 years later...
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