Chameleon slow boot problem

[Mr.Blue]

Hello guys. I used ML and Yosemite for a long time and finally decided to upgrade to El Capitan. I always had problems with clover (used with El Cap. too) and I wasn't able to boot with clover. Just once, It was on Mavericks but only used it once because my gpu and usb ports weren't working (damn 1156). 

So I am stucked with Chameleon. I have used it to boot SL, Lion, ML and Yosemite with no problem. I created usb stick with classic vanilla method and installed chameleon and installed it on my second hdd (gpt). Installed everything and rebooted. Everything was fine, except one thing. Booting is very slow and it isn't the grey apple screen. The problem is Chameleon's boot screen. I removed theme but it is stil so slow. I tought it may be about hdd and I installed bootloader on my Segate hdd but It was still slow (booting from usb stick is not slow btw.) I used like this for a month but I am bored because bios+chameleon stage takes 1 minutes and then there is grey apple boot screen it takes ~30 seconds.

 

Booting video:

http://sendvid.com/l52q9ltt

[Mr.Blue]

Main branch Chameleon cannot boot El Capitan. You have to switch to Enoch. Latest release r2795 works perfectly.

I already use it.

[Mr.Blue]

Then maybe you're booting without cache all the time. Please attach your boot plist + kernel plist so that we have a look. Where are your add-on kexts? If in /E/E, they'll only be injected, if you want them cached, they must go to /L/E (or /S/L/E). The former is a little slower than the latter.

 

You can however keep your add-on kexts for safeguard in /E/E and they'll only be loaded if you use Enoch boot option KernelBooter_kexts=Yes.

 

Sample kernel.plist and o.c.B.plist files - adjust as required:

kernel.plist.zip org.chameleon.Boot.plist.zip

Here you go.

I only have 2 usb rollback kexts in /E/E and they must be placed there. If I install hem to S/L/E, I get boot stuck.

Have you watched the video? It loads something after boot0:done because waits for a while, then drive selection comes and the long wait starts.

org.chameleon.Boot.plist.zip

kernel.plist.zip

[Mr.Blue]

To me, it's running slow from the very beginning. Do you have SpeedStep enabled in BIOS?

 

I've also noticed the boot options PCIRootUID=0 npci=0x2000. What are the reasons for using these, knowing that the 1st one is useless (0 is default value). I see that you use IGPEnabler=Yes too and that's not an Enoch option afaik... Lastly, what's your device properties string for (I've not converted it to see)?

 

What are those "USB rollbacks" you've mentioned?

 

Regarding the boot screen (you mention Chameleon boot screen vs. Apple gray screen), that's a matter of boot loader theme. You clearly don't have a Themes folder in your /Extra folder. That'd take care of it but it's purely cosmetic.

I don't have that option. I just have quick boot option but it doesn't change anything.

I use 0 because of my gpu. When I dont use this string, booting stucks at bluetoothhcicontroller bla bla bla.. this is same since lion. If I use 1, after gray Apple screen, screen turns off and there is no way to open it.

npci=0x2000 is for PCI Configuration Begin problem. I tried with 3000 and this time it stucked at PCI Configuration End.

IGPEnabler is about audio I guess. I simply select alc888b current from post installation tool and It works including front panel + mic out.

I have to use these kexts because of problematic LGA1156 mobo. That is why I can't use clover. If I delete them, my keyboard and mouse stop working. I have wireless mouse it works without these kexts but keyboard doesnt. I also tried clover with wireless mouse but it didn't work.

I removed theme to speed up booting but it didn't work.

[Mr.Blue]

I guess the default DSDT has a non-zero PCI root value in that case, hence you being stuck at Bluetooth... that's typical of graphics not initialising. You're obviously using an Arrandale-based (i3) CPU, but do you use an add-on graphics card or the integrated 1st gen Intel HD? Could you post your DSDT, and if you're not using a patched one, extract the raw table from BIOS?

 

Post your full system specs, that always helps.

I also have faced with CMOS reset since Mavericks but I solve this with a little patch of AppleRTC which can be done via terminal. Yes I use first gen Intel i3 CPU. I have ATi HD 4350 GPU but only way to get it working is editing the 4600 kext so system recognizes it as ATi 4600. Everything works pretty fine except Chess and satellite view of Apple and Google maps. But if I use Parallels to visit Google Maps on satellite view or street view, It works like native OS X app without GPU crash. That is weird.

I use patched DSDT I guess because post-installation tool seems like patched DSDT for audio.

I use iMac 14,2 as SMBIOS because it is one of the bioses which doesn't have USB port restriction.

I got a system report using system profiler. If that is not enough, I can get a report from Windows too.

Seems like IGPEnabler is for Integrated Graphics. Since I don't use Integrated Graphics, I guess I can delete the string but I'm afraid to delete it 

DSDT.aml.zip

iMac Report.zip

[Mr.Blue]

 Yeurk, just as I thought... Lord Voldemort all over...     That's  what you should be afraid of.

 

You do not seem to have graphics acceleration working or working properly. Open DVD Player and look at the supported features in Help menu. Everything should be supported. Without acceleration, you won't even be able to launch the app. I'm not sure that (old) card ever got supported under OS X.

DVDPlayer_features.jpg

 

PCI root is set  to 1 in patched DSDT:

       Device (PCI0)
       {
            Name (_HID, EisaId ("PNP0A03"))
            Name (_ADR, Zero)
            Name (_UID, One)                           /* PCI root value */
            Name (_BBN, Zero)
[...]

You can change that to 0 to begin with.

 

You have a SATA-1 HDD (running off a SATA-II controller), sop that'll clearly not be the fastest disk access of all...

 

My advice: restart with a proper installation and stay away from the Devil. Good luck!

DVD Player says A valid DVD drive could not be found. I don't have a DVD or CD player Also there are only two options in Help menu.

 

I got some screen shots from OpenGL Extensions Viewer.

 

 

All of the system effects work. Ripple effect was working on Lion and ML. But some screensavers don't work. When I try to run tests in GL Viewer, I dont get any error until GL 4.0. When it tries to execute it, screen freezes but mouse still moves (like Chess). What about Parallels part? Like I said, Gmaps works without crash on Parallels.

Device (PCI0)
        {
            Name (_HID, EisaId ("PNP0A03"))
            Name (_ADR, Zero)
            Name (_UID, Zero)
            Name (_BBN, Zero)

So it should look like this right?

 

I use IDE to SATA converter but it is not those cheap ones. I get 50-55 mbs write and 60-70 mbs write. I get same results for another disk (it is not ide, it is native Sata) but it is a bit high than the one I use for Mac.

[Mr.Blue]

Yes, well, that ATI card is not fully supported... Maybe you should fallback on the integrated GPU for better graphics performance and experience.

 

Re: DSDT, yes that's what you would change to set PCI root to 0. Why do you use a ISE to SATA converter? Intel 5 Series chipset has built-in SATA controller afaik. Doesn't your motherboard have a built-in SATA controller and ports? Your motherboard would normally support PCIe 2.0 too, so you could install one of those cheap PCIe SATA controllers and get full SATA-III speed, especially on a SSD.

I searched for gpu a lot but couldn't find a real solution. So I'm using Parallels if I need to open a 3d web site or app. I read the topic about i3 Arrandale graphics and tried it when I was on Yosemite. My desktop has same dev id with Arrandale but mine is Clarkdale (desktop) so kexts didn't work and I got kernel panics and had to reinstall OS X.

Now I can boot without PCIRootUID=0 thanks for the tip.

I found an old IDE HDD but I don't have a native IDE port. My mobo has 6 SATA ports. My SATA HDD is connected via SATA directly. I couldn't find PCI cards in stores near me and I don't usually buy things online.

So do you think slow boot is about hdd speed? But I can't figure out why Apple screen's booting time is normal but Chameleon takes long time.