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BadAxe2: Installing Leopard Retail DVD on a Raid Array


K.I.S.S.
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Even on original Macs, RAID Arrays are said to be non-bootable.

But we can do it in a simple way on a BadAxe2...

 

We need:

- Leopard already installed, with EFI and gfstrings working (support system)

- Two extra blank HDs

- Leopard Retail install DVD (or a .dmg image)

- pc_efi_v80

 

1) Boot from existing Leopard and open Disk Utility.

Choose <RAID>, type a name for your array, choose Raid's type (mirroring, etc) and drag and drop the two blank HDs.

Just click <Create> and wait...

Close Disk Utility.

 

2) Now, install pc_efi_v80 and reboot.

(Once we will boot with EFI emulation from support system, perhaps this is a unnecessary step. I'll try later without it)

 

3) Mount Retail DVD

 

4) Open Terminal

 

First of all, type diskutil list to to discover the disk id of your RAID array. In my case, with 3HDs, raid is disk3. You will need this later!

 

Let's install now! (thanks to zzak)

 

Type

 

cd /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/Packages (enter)

 

open osinstall.mpkg (enter)

You will see the Installer's pop-up window , choose RAID partition, customize and install.

 

Wait less then 10 min.

 

Do not reboot yet!!!

 

5) Installing kexts:

Go to the raid system's /System/Library/Extensions folder and:

- delete appleEFIRuntime.kext

- copy, paste and replace dsmos.kext , appleSMBIOS.kext and IONetworkingFamily.kext (from your previous support system)

 

Repair permissions and reboot.

 

6)On the first sceen of Darwin boot, press any key to open Boot Options.

Then type rd=diskX (X is the disk id, previously obtained on item 4) (thanks to PascalW)

 

I hope you enjoy! :)

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Sorry, but I only copy kexts from a normal iATKOS vanilla installation on GUID partition! The only string added was those for my 7600GT. Both (iATKOS and RAID) are fully working, except Sleep, with these simple kexts...

I'm really surprised with this so simple way to get RAID working & booting!

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Nice Tutorial! Thanks.

 

Now, but what if you have a REAL-HARDWARE-RAID Controller and want to boot from that? ;)

 

I currently own my third RAID-controller (all HighPoint). On my first controller i needed to clone my whole boot-disk with CopyCatX to the RAID 0-HDs on the controller. This was the only way it worked and was bootable, but i lost capacity because the clone from Drive was Smaller then the Clone to Drive

 

On my new one (a RR3520) i just had to install EFI to the RAID 0 (2 x WD Raptor), after that i copied my old bootdisk with SuperDuper to the Raptors and set the RAID-Controller as the boot Device in BIOS! Thats all and it worked flawlessly! All Disk-Benches for my RAID Arrays are 600+, nearly 700 with the Raptors (1 x RAID 0 with 2 HDs, 1 x RAID 5 with 5 HDs).

 

So, if you have a real RAID-Card then try foryourself, it may work too...!

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Intel 82801GH (inside 975X Express chipset) IS A REAL-HARDWARE-CONTROLLER!

OK, if we consider the message "This system does not contain any supported hardware RAID devices", the System is looking for it on PCI-E bus, not inside the chipset. But it works!

You may set your controller as the boot device in Bios, but not the 82801GH. Them, we must have the EFI boot outside the RAID Array.

However, I think that using a PCI-E controller you can also install and boot the system as stated above, but this is unnecessary.

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Intel 82801GH (inside 975X Express chipset) IS A REAL-HARDWARE-CONTROLLER!

OK, if we consider the message "This system does not contain any supported hardware RAID devices", the System is looking for it on PCI-E bus, not inside the chipset. But it works!

You may set your controller as the boot device in Bios, but not the 82801GH. Them, we must have the EFI boot outside the RAID Array.

However, I think that using a PCI-E controller you can also install and boot the system as stated above, but this is unnecessary.

 

Wait, I'm confused - I thought your tutorial was on how to setup Software RAID?

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@K.I.S.S.: If you configure your RAID with diskutil then you surely have software-raid, all computations are offload to the cpu. It's not that bad, its sure better then nothing but from what i have read most of the cheaper pci-controllers didn't have much electronics to handle the load and therefore use more or less cpu-power to handle RAID-Managment, especially for RAID 5 or other computation-heavy RAIDlevels which are often not possible with software-raid or cheap raid-controllers which are built in todays motherboards. But, alas, i'm not an expert, but that's what i learned from reading so far...

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I was really confused about what happened... OK, it's a Software Raid!

The built in controllers on BadAxe can run Raid 0, 1, 5 and 10, but not in OS X, ...yet!

 

 

About my first post, I've re-tested without install pc_efi (item 2): it's really an unnecessary step.

 

Now, the question is how to boot without type "rd=disk4" every time...

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I was really confused about what happened... OK, it's a Software Raid!

The built in controllers on BadAxe can run Raid 0, 1, 5 and 10, but not in OS X, ...yet!

About my first post, I've re-tested without install pc_efi (item 2): it's really an unnecessary step.

 

Now, the question is how to boot without type "rd=disk4" every time...

 

I haven't had any luck with getting my Software RAID sets to boot using my own methods, so you're in new territory here captain! :D

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It's unnecessaire install pc_efi on the raid array, but you should have EFI fully working outside the array, on the first HD.

But, every time you boot, must press any key yo open options and then type rd=diskX

 

This forces the minimum of 3 HDs. Remembering that Raid 0 has double chances to fail, it would be a good idea to use it as Time Machine disk also.

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Now, really on "new territory"!

 

After configure RAID and installed Leopard (by DVD retail) as above, I didn't change kexts...

 

... and Leopard boots stable and fully working without nothing changed!!! No dsmos.kext added, no appleEFIRuntime.kext deleted, no appleSMBIOS.kext or IONetworkingFamily.kext changed

- Video card natively recognized without string edition

- and Time Machine fully working after 10.5.1 update

(Only Sigmatel audio needs patch.)

 

Really on "new territory"???

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aliab:

 

I don't have mbr disks.

I need Darwin bootloader on a GUID disk to boot system on a software raid array.

I can install pc_efi and bootloader on raid array, but I can't boot it from Bios.

 

The question is:

how to add an option to bootloader adressing to another disk ?

 

or

 

how to boot a software raid array without an auxiliar GUID disc ?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some news about Software Raid & minimal files support systems

 

After software raid installation, with diskutil list, we can see an unmounted partition labeled "Boot OSX" on each disk of the array. When mounted, this small partition (128MB only) reveals the needed files to boot raid:

 

com.apple.boot.s

>Library---Preferences---SystemConfiguration---com.apple.boot.plist

>mach_kernel

>System---Library---CoreServices---Extensions.mkext

 

System --- Library ---CoreServices --- SystemVersion.plist.new

 

As unmounted at boot time, Boot OSX cann't be accessed by Bios. So...

 

1- With Disk Utility, create a partition with only 1GB on the first HD of raid array and another with the remaining space. Create only one partition on each remaining HD.

Drag and drop the partitions to create raid. Reserve the 1GB one... Reboot!

 

2- Install pc_efi_v8 (for BadAxe2, v8 + v7.4) on 1GB part. and make it bootable.

 

3- Install Leopard from any bootable DVD to RAID partition or from the System already installed.

(Tested with iAtkos v1.0i, Retail DVD and Zephyroth 10.5.2 AMD EFI)

 

4- Reboot to the old System and, at Darwin Boot, type rd=diskX (where X is the id of Raid). Complete the installation.

 

5- Reboot again to the old System and copy/create these files and folders to 1GB partition:

 

---Library---Preferences---SystemConfiguration---com.apple.Boot.plist

--mach_kernel

--System---Library---Extensions.mkext

 

6- Edit com.apple.Boot.plist: before the last <dict> , insert

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>boot-uuid=xxx</string> (where xxx is the UUID of your RAID)

 

7- Reboot to the 1GB partition and RAID System will be working!

 

Thanks to Taruga, Netkas and Zephyroth!

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry if this is a stupid question... but is this possible with MBR?

 

There doesnt' happen to be a way to use Windows on the same HD's would there? I am thinking of building a SFF hackintosh with dual booting, so I will only have 2 internal HDs to play with =/

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