EFI and Updates?

[dutchiee (=]

Hey,

 

ok atm i am acquiring Kalyways installer and hoping that it works. I have the flat image installed right now but it is kinda slow... Anywayz onto my topic. I read about people updating to 10.5.1 etc via the software update without having to backup the original kernel or anything like that.

 

I searched google for EFI and found out a bit, but what im curious is to what it actually does. Like does it allow me to use software update and update my whole system as if it were a real mac? or does it change the boot loader etc. I shall use this guide to install as i have a P35-DQ6 : http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=78016 .

 

could someone please explain ?

 

Cheers

[sg]

basically it emulates efi and installs a new boot loader. as a result you can use all the default kexts that come with leopard and the default kernel. so that makes upgrading to 10.5.1 and so on easy.

 

the only kext you'll need to install is the supplied AppleSMBIOS and whatever driver for your sound/video card (natit) etc.

[dutchiee (=]

ahh makes sence.

 

thanks for explainin sg i am assuming i would need my hdd set to AHCI as usual? anywayz thanks alot.

i hope it goes well.

[sg]

some ppl claim you have to, but i've been able able to run it in non-ahci mode without anything special (i change back and forth in my bios and it boots/works perfectly).

 

pc efi doesnt modify your bios in any way, it simply installs a different boot loader. the other nice thing is you can use a standard mac partition format (GUID) instad of the MBR one that we've been using this entire time (but it will work with MBR too if you want to stay with it).

[Hagar]

Just a note once again... to clarify that pc-efi is a hack of the darwin bootloader which feeds os x some of the info it expects from real EFI firmware, nothing more.

 

The idea thet "EFI enables online updates" is a popular myth.

 

In fact pc-efi allows *certain hardware running core architecture intel cpus* to run unmodified kernels & kexts, which in turn means that online updates can be used *on those machines* without hosing your install.

 

Additionally, pc-efi has been made to include data for certain graphics cards so they can run the apple drivers without using natit, nvinject or similar, and also makes it possible to boot a PC with OS X from a GUID partition, which wasn't previously possible.

 

I know this may seem like hairsplitting, but I have seen *a lot* of people recently who have misunderstood this and ended up with unbootable installs as a result.

[dutchiee (=]

yeah umm maybe one of you's could help me. i followed the guide i posted earlier and i just cannot get it to boot. I mean the dvd runs fine and i can format it with GUID and then select the packages i want and all. But right at the last minute the install fails even though i let leopard check the dvd installation. It has a problem with removing the temporary folder "/Volumes/iHack Pro/BaseSystem.pkg.136ezdh1hM ".

 

I have gottin the install to work without failing but when i reboot to the hard drive i installed it on all i get is a flashing _ . i have had this before with ubuntu and the older mac osx's when i had the partition type set to GUID and i did install the EFI boot loader as GUID. is there anything i should try? i thinkt the EFI boot loader is making my hd not bootable for leopard.

 

i will probably start a new post but if you's know what i could do that would be a great help. i am assuming it is the EFI boot loader v8 doing it. But people including all of them in the guide i posted earlier had easy success with Kalyway and the mobo P35-DQ6.