[tutorial] How to install OSX86 onto USB key

[torrentmasta]

Here is a total newbie guide to install OSX86 onto a USB thumb drive.

 

***It should be noted that a USB key should not be used as a full time OS, more of like a back to experiment. USB keys have a limited number of read and write cycles. If your count gets to zero your key could be rendered unusable.

 

USB wiki***

 

***requires a working installation of OSX to do this***

 

Requirements:

 

A USB thumb drive (i'm using a 8bg model)

A installation DVD

 

 

1. Insert your USB drive into your computer that is running OSX, it should appear on your desktop. Next, open a finder window and go to utilities, then open Disk Utility app. This is where we will format our USB drive. Select the USB drive from the right hand side, then choose options and select GUID Partition Table.

 

Next, select 1 partition, give it a name and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format type and then click apply.

 

2. Now our drive should be formatted. However, with thumb drives owners enabled is turned off. In order for OSX to install to a drive owners enabled must be yes. Right-click your drive on the desktop and get info. You will see that ignore ownership is checked off, you must unlock the lock, enter your password when it asks and de-select the ignore ownership, then lock it back up

 

Now your drive will show that owner enabled is yes.

 

3. Now it is time to install OSX onto your USB thumb drive. Normally if you insert your install DVD and double click the installer it asks you to reboot and boot from cd. There is a better way to do this that does not require to boot from disc or the need to reboot after completion. Now click menu and go to your utilities folder and open Terminal. Enter this command in the terminal shell:

 

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

 

This exposes the hidden files and folders on your OSX installation. This helps us because we can go to the OS installer package which does not need to boot from disc.

 

4. Now insert your disc, it should appear on your desktop (i'm using ideneb v1.3 10.5.5)

 

Now that you have exposed the hidden files on your OSX it should show a bunch of folders when you double click your disk

 

now we want to open the installer mpkg so that we dont need to restart. We go ideneb>system>installation>packages>OSInstall.mpkg

 

5. Now double click the OSInstall.mpkg, agree to the terms, now change install location and select your drive.

 

Now let it install, it will take a while so be patient. After it completes your should see this.

 

Now after the installation is completed, you should open a terminal window from your utilities folder and hide your hidden files again.

 

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

 

Now you should be able to plug this drive into your computer and change your bios to boot from usb and OSX86 should load up.

 

6. Certain applications in OSX require that a root user has been enabled. I noticed that it was not enabled and I couldn't use any sudo commands in terminal or using kexthelper for example. Open a finder window in your utilities folder and open directory utility, then click the file menu and select enable root user.

 

Hopefully this is helpful.

 

****Part 2: Replacing your kernel on your USB****

 

From day one using ideneb disc gave me problems. I tried it on a desktop computer, then a laptop and both had the same problem. The OS loads up fine and completes the installation. But when i tried to boot up the OS it would never load up, always giving a kernel panic. I thought to myself that ideneb loads a mach_kernel during install why not load that kernel at boot time to boot up the OS. I tried it and it worked no problem on both the desktop and the USB key install. This explains how to replace your kernel on your USB install.

 

first if you need the hidden files exposed on your USB key and the disc your copping the kernel from. Now click menu and go to your utilities folder and open Terminal. Enter this command in the terminal shell:

 

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

 

 

next i copied the kernel from the disc to my desktop. Then I changed the permissions on the kernel I want to copy and the kernel on the USB drive. Right-click mach_kernel from your USB drive and get info and right-click the mach_kernel from the desktop. Then unlock the lock and enter your password if you have one set. and then change the permissions on both mach_kernels to read & write for all three.

 

 

then i copied the kernel from the desktop to the USB drive

 

 

I then changed back the permissions on the mach_kernel from both locations.

 

Read & Write

Read

Read

 

 

This worked for both my desktop hackintosh and my USB key. As far as I know its the ToH:xnu kernel I am running from both hackintoshes now.

 

Good luck to all.

 

Torrentmasta

[krrr]

interesting.

[mschilling]

Cool! How much room do you have for your home folder once it's installed? I noticed that it looks like you manually cropped your screen shots. Try Command-Shift-4, then hit space bar, then mouse over the window you want a screen cap of and click once (the window getting capd gets highlighted). I love that feature, it even includes a nice soft drop shadow.

[SilverZero]

Any issues with making the drive bootable? I suppose there's a possibility I could make it bootable via GRUB. . . . I'll try this when I get home. Thanks!

[torrentmasta]

I ended up with like 900mb of free space on the drive after installation. The only thing i installed along with the OS was x11.

 

The drive itself was bootable without any problems because i used the ideneb disc. It installed chameleon on the disc.

[head]

i´m having it installed on my usb-key now.

 

planning on copying this to my internal harddrive on my akoya/wind. last time i had it running from the internal, then installed some kexts and got a grey apple-like error-screen at boot.

 

damn it takes long...oh yeah, and i did take a retail copy and integrated the modified boot132 version for my wind/akoya into it.

 

thanks for the tutorial!

[rockstarjoe]

The drive itself was bootable without any problems because i used the ideneb disc. It installed chameleon on the disc.

 

Awesome tutorial! I hope this isn't too far off topic, but I'm interested in just using my USB drive to boot my hard drive (with a retail install). Can I just install Chameleon on the USB drive and it will work to boot the system? Or do I need to do any additional steps? Thanks for any help.

 

(I've seen Stickpin's USB tutorial but I am interested in using Chameleon).

 

EDIT - I think this answers my question, yes? http://forum.insanelymac.com/lofiversion/i...hp/t130962.html

[torrentmasta]

It should be noted that a USB key should not be used as a full time OS, more of like a back to experiment. USB keys have a limited number of read and write cycles. If your count gets to zero your key could be rendered unusable.

 

USB wiki

 

***added to original post***

[mschilling]

I'm curious why these steps are needed to install onto the stick, rather than do a normal install just like a hdd. I did manage to install normally to my 16g stick, so is there an advantage to the above steps? Speed, etc.? The only problem that I had is that the installer did not want to install the files to the stick at first, which I remedied by pre installing chameleon onto the stick. Then the install went smoothly. I had the stick formatted as mbr, but I'm going to redo it with gpt next to see the diff. I had the installer copied to another stick (along with chameleon) so it was kinda cool to see both stick lights flashing away while installing without the usual noises of hdd and cds. chameleon sure lives up to its name, simply amazing software! btw, what happens when the stick wears out and runs out of read write cycles? has it actually happened to anyone yet? someone should try a cheap one, and torture test it until it fails estimating the number of read writes.