Update: Due to issues with Chameleon RC4 when upgrading Snow Leopard, this guide has been reverted back to Chameleon RC3.
**Post updated with Chameleon RC4 files**
Chameleon, the widely used bootloader among hackintosh users, is out with yet another update. This latest version ditches that ugly, white text/black background and upgrades to 100% sexy. In addition to aesthetic improvements, functionality was also added; you will now see a logo for each Operating System choice. Plus, non-bootable partitions are no longer displayed, along with the option to selectively hide partitions. RC4 mostly boasts behind the scenes updates, with the exception of the hidden partition option. You can see the official release notes here.
Now that you’ve been informed, download the file and follow the instructions below. Pay close attention as these instructions have changed from previous versions of Chameleon.
1. Make sure the untarred folder is on your desktop.
2. Open Terminal and type “diskutil list” w/o the quotes
3. Find the partition with OS X installed on it and remember its identifier ie. rdisk0s1
4. Type cd /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Desktop/Chameleon-2.0-RC3-r658-bin/i386 but replacing YOURUSERNAME with, you guessed it, your username.
5. Copy and paste the following commands into terminal but replacing the Xs in the second command with the numbers from step 3.
sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdiskX
sudo dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsX
sudo cp boot /
6. Reboot
***For those that had any custom settings in com.apple.boot.plist – this file will remain untouched so any boot flags or other stuff you may have added will still be used at boot***
If you found this guide useful then feel free to make a donation by clicking the link at the end of the Authors Mini-Biography. Any amount truly does help.
April 18th, 2009 at 2:49 PM
I can’t seem to find what you’re referring to. Do you have IM? If you do IM me at tompic823 so I can speak to you or just respond to this. But just to be safe keep your XxX download going until I can answer you
April 18th, 2009 at 2:33 PM
oh crap, does it really HAVE to be iPC? i’m like halfway thru downloading XxX, and i live in the sticks, and my dsl is 150k down and 50k up. yes, go ahead and laugh at my unimpressive teeny-weeny connection. it’s all we got out here. point being, from related posts i get the impression that XxX and iPC are pretty much the same. will this work?
April 18th, 2009 at 8:33 AM
Geoff- Glad to hear that you got your HDD issue fixed. Your Ubuntu issues are strange and almost want to know how they did what they did. You said you were gonna keep your old HDD as a Time Machine drive which is great although didn’t Dell request that you return the old HDD to them? They have always done this for me including requesting my old wireless IR Keyboard and Mouse which had been discontinued for at least 2 years.
April 17th, 2009 at 10:56 PM
hey guys, i’m sorry for skipping all over the place here, but i figured it would be best to keep the questions in the area they’re most related. i have a couple of questions about this new chamelion.
1. will THIS make the dsdt.aml thing easier? it sounded like it would, but i’m not gonna try until you guys tell me it’s not gonna blow this thing up. maybe with this dsdt_patcher thing i’ve found? i did already install the new chameleon for the purposes of question two:
2. i thought “great, now i can shrink my hackintosh partition, add an ntfs one and dualboot vista without a headache. sweet.” well, it obviously didn’t turn out that way. during installation, vista says “boo, i don’t like gpt,” which is this bootloader business that’s way over my head. do you guys know of a way to un-gpt the second partition? or if i were to come across an install of windows 7, will that be more tolerant? if need be can i move the apple partition to the second partition without losing data and install vista in the first?
sorry about the whole qustion two in fact being questions 2-94.
April 18th, 2009 at 9:16 AM
steve0suprem0- it would actually be more complicated to use the dsdt_patcher because that requires about 10 steps to get it working and its not 100% proven to work (it didn’t work for me and I tried three times).
For your GPT (GUID Partition Table) disk, you can’t unfortunately un-gpt one partition because GPT applies to the entire Drive, as does MBR (Master Boot Record). Vista allows you to install to a GPT Drive but only if you are using EFI instead of a BIOS (this EFI is different from the hackintosh EFI bootloader so removing Chameleon and installing EFI instead will not work). It does appear that Vista 64 bit ( The Disc must have Service Pack 1 though) will allow you to install onto a GPT disc, and then from within Windows you can convert the HDD into MBR which is universal among OS X, Linux, and Windows. If this does not work for you then the only option would be to completely erase your HDD and reformat it as MBR. Windows 7 has been known to be more tolerant in all Builds from 6081 and newer so you should also give that a try.
To answer your last question about moving partitions,
April 17th, 2009 at 10:26 PM
Actually lol i have no idea what the issue was anymore other than that there is no way it was a hard drive issue but i will not complain at a brand new hard drive considering the usual lifespan of dells hard drives. I also had thought they shipped the 1525s with ubuntu, because i knew that the 1420 and minis did but he told me they did not lol. The odd thing was when i had the “broken” HDD in it would not boot anything, it just showed a blinking underscore. No cds, or hdd or usb drives would boot. However when i swapped the hard drives it would boot everything. No idea what it was but i simply took the new HDD and installed mac on it, and am using the other “broken” HDD as time machine since even before i formatted it i could access the files on it. I think it must have been some sort of a corrupt Ubuntu install. Anyways i decided that windows is lame anyways so i gave up on it, and will just run mac on my main hard drive and Ubuntu off a thumb drive for programming. The best part lol was that he tried to tell me it was because i didnt have a solid state drive. Which seemed a little ridiculus considering ubuntu is probably the 4th most widespread OS after Vista, OSX and XP and only about 2% of the population uses solid state.
April 17th, 2009 at 8:28 PM
Yeah Thomas is right something is wrong with them. Cant be Chameleon. Could it be something like not being primary partition or something?
I currently triple boot OSX,Vista and Ubuntu and its all workin fine.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:00 PM
pcmanfan- I dual boot Windows 7, Windows Vista, and OS X just fine without any issues. OS X is set as active and I can select either of the OS’s from the Chameleon bootloader and they all boot great. As for your question on uninstalling Chameleon from OS X, no you cannot. If you uninstall the bootloader from OS X then you will not be able to boot into it. And the reason that you are getting the boot corruption errors on your Windows partitions is because there is somethign wrong with them because Chameleon would not cause such errors.
April 17th, 2009 at 9:16 AM
Anyone try this with Tripple boot yet – Visa, 7 and Os X – on the same drive? I currently have 4 Partitions – Vista, 7, Os X, shared storage – respectively. I’ve installed Chameleon v2RC1 on Os X patition, after make it an active Partition, it recognized all my boot partitions and I could boot to OS X. However I wont be able to boot into either Vista or Seven. Matter of fact, i’m getting a boot corruption error message when I tried to boot into Visa or Seven. Anyone know any other solution for setting up Tripple boot loader? BTW, since it doesn’t work properly- is there a way to uninstall Chameleon from Os X? Thanks
April 15th, 2009 at 7:48 PM
This is only more proof to show that when Dell has no idea of what the true problem is, they make something up. First things first, you actually have the option of purchasing the 1525 now with Ubuntu installed on it instead of Windows for $30 less so that is complete bullshit about Ubuntu messing up your HDD. I have also run Ubuntu on this laptop and I have had absolutely no issues. Second, the HDD being problematic, which it most likely isn’t, would have no effect on your capability of booting a CD/DVD. The only thing that would stop you from booting a DVD is if there is a problem with the DVD itself or the DVD Drive, but definitely not the Hard Drive. Just to do a little problem solving over on our end… what exactly do you mean you cannot boot CD’s. Do you get an error message or do you just not see the option in the Boot Menu.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:05 PM
Sorry i accidently erased a line. Dell support specifically said it was my hard drive that was the problem, and once i put in a different drive it would start to boot cds.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:04 PM
So i guess this is not strictly related but this is the only place i could think to post. I tried doing a triple boot, with windows, mac and Ubuntu. The windows and mac i have been running succesfully for quite a while, but getting the triple boot to work was not going so well. When i got all three installed (ubuntu last the other two worked before this) my hard drive would no longer boot anything including CDs. I talked to dell support and they informed me that the 1525 is made strictly for Vista and that ubuntu interfaces in a damaging way. They are sending me a new one (i neglected to inform them i had a WD replacement already), but i just wondered if Ubuntu actually did this or if this is just a bunch of bologna because it seems a little odd for an OS to fry a hard drive.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:06 AM
I dont think its possible for Chameleon on a real mac without damaging your system so I guess you will have to wait. I would design one but i want Photoshop and im too lazy to download it and crack it.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:14 AM
Ill research Chameleon on a real mac when I get home from school today and if it’s doable then I’ll give it a shot. For theme ideas, how does changing the background to the green grass background sound (if the file isn’t too big for the bootloader to handle)
Update: It appears that Chameleon will work on a real mac although it hasn’t been widely tested and could cause some major issues, so I think I’m gonna stay away from it. Guess I’m waiting 3 days for the desktop to be fixed before I can start to develop.
April 15th, 2009 at 5:56 AM
I was actually wondering the same thing. I had an idea for a theme but I cant try out cause the laptop is getting fixed by Dell right now, the desktop just broke and will be getting a new PSU in three days, and the real mac which I’m on right now is sloooooow as hell. Besides, I dont even think you can run chameleon on a real mac cause it kindda defeats the purpose. If anyone knows for a fact that you can run it on a real mac then let me know so that I can get started on the theme.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:42 PM
Has anyone got some themes they made themselves to share? I need a nice background picture and im not sure what to put.
April 12th, 2009 at 12:27 PM
Hey Thomas. Thank you.
I did it the easy way.
I´m on a 1525 with Kalyway 10.5.4
PRetty soon, I´ll be on XxX 10.5.6
Thanks again.
April 11th, 2009 at 6:24 PM
Lol Because i live in Australia i have to talk to indians. I tried it before and it said Online chat full or somethin like that. But i guess ill try again.
April 11th, 2009 at 12:28 AM
Lmfao. Im only 14 and I have no problem talkign to them because I know more than them (I’m not calling myself smart, just calling them DUMB). What you can do is just do their online chat. Its like an IM but on their site. Try it out.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:03 PM
I couldnt get Ubuntu to show up on the Chameleon bootloder.
It was really annoying then in the end i relaised it was cos I didnt like change the partitions to active or “boot” on Gparted.
But i learned a lot from all of this and like my next goal is to fix THAT FREKIN NOISE WHEN THE BLOODY LAPTOP BOOTS. I wanna call Dell but im too scared cos im 11 and they are like 30? Its really scary.
PS: Sorry for talking bout my life lol…Its called Nathan-Fatigue
-Nathan
April 10th, 2009 at 6:45 PM
What were you not able to do because multi booting is actually a lot simpler than people think. Just set your OS X partition to active and it should be good.
April 10th, 2009 at 5:44 PM
After many hours and staying up last night til bout 2:30 I FINALLY GOT MY TRIPLE BOOT WORKING!!! I followed a DellMini9 method but it worked just the same on My Inspiron 1525. And now this bootloader is PURE SEXY! It looks so cool with the 3 OS’s
-Nathan
April 6th, 2009 at 11:25 PM
OOO. this looks real sexy with my new dual boot that only works because thomas is a beast and helped me with the entire installation.
April 4th, 2009 at 6:38 PM
Well What I Did…
I was getting very angry cos everyone on Insanelymac and other places were saying that this folder /Extra/Themes was the folder that you edit the chameleon graphics.
So i got my nice friend “Terminal” Then i typed in “find /Extra/Themes” w/o Quotes.
Then a whole load of text came up. It said stuff such as: “/Extra/Themes/Default/progress_bar.png”
I remembered that graphic from a theme i had downloaded so i saw the folder default. So now i typed in ” Default ” w/o Quotes in spotlight and their it was. Easy to edit and i love it. Hope this helps -Nathan
April 4th, 2009 at 9:49 AM
Do you mind posting how you did it so that others can benefit from the info.
April 4th, 2009 at 6:52 AM
Got it :P
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:30 PM
Hey i used the installer and now how do i add those themes and stuff to the bootloader? How do i get to this /Extra/Themes folder thing?
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:57 PM
It should see your Linux partition. I’d sift around for more new Chameleon instructions on how to add your Linux install to the list. I know it’s possible.
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:07 PM
OMG Its totally awesome.
Only thing thats not good it dosent recognise my linux partition.
Its purely sexy and recognises my Vista.
I really love this new chameleon.
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:44 PM
I would be glad to to test it for you. Instructions on what to do would be great. Also, IM me at tompic823…
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:30 PM
So…
In regards to dumping my latest theme creation above, I can’t test it completely as I only have the one drive, the one OS X partition, etc., so I don’t get all the other cool options to boot different volumes and/or partitions. All that functionality should be in place and work correctly, I just need someone who has such a configuration to test it for me.
Anyone?
‘Preshness.
– Wolfer
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:29 PM
Richard,
I wouldn’t think so, since you have no filesystem (at present) on which it needs to live. I guess you could create a small filesystem (HFS+) to which you could install the bootloader and configure it to deal with the others — of course, making that small one that active.
I would bet it could be done. I know you can’t boot XP if it doesn’t reside on the same physical drive as OS X or the bootloader partition, however, seem Vista and Win7 don’t have this problem.
Would take some experimenting. . .
– Wolfer
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:14 PM
Theme goodness. Woohoo! Now here’s a question: Can I use Chameleon to boot my Windows Vista and Windows XP dual boot desktop without Mac OS X? Right now I’m using Acronis OS Selector and it’s pretty bloated. What are the Chameleon limitations as a bootloader for non-Mac OS X hackbooks and hackintoshes?
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:59 PM
The video is TOTALLY relevant! You gots to be doing the crip walk through the office just so peeps know you’re not one to be f#$ked with!
And speaking of f#$in’ with… Here’s my attempt at a theme. Hey, it matches my desktop, so whatever.
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=8c9a7d089d95bcdca0f2f20c509059d9e04e75f6e8ebb871
The background can easily be replaced to match your own pimp-a$$ desktop image, but keep it small ~ >300KB.
You can rename the directory once you stick it under /Extra/Themes if desired as well. Just make sure that your com.apple.Boot.plist is pointing to the correct dir. name — but, you all know this already, so…
(See! Now you guys have turned me all ghetto! I’m gonna have to go smack my co-worker for the fun of it! )
Peace, out!
– Wolfer
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Learn how to crip walk. Completely unrelated to this site! Impress your friends, make the cops laugh, and get shot in this easy to follow video:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4wkayyeYYk
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:44 AM
LONG BEACH CRIPS! I got’cha Dave.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:23 AM
Damn Skippy, Duders! My bootloader is no where NEAR pimp enough! I want the thing to look exactly like a real Mac — even before the “real” boot screen. And Richard, you are right. . . text mode certainly does not get the chicks! They like pretty, shiny things.
Help! I’m close, but I need someone with some real artistic talent. Also, I need to find out where all these text strings are coming from, so I can either kill or mod them depending on my design ideas. Haven’t played THAT much yet, but they’re not in the PLIST. Thing is, they change between ‘Default’ and ‘Twilight’ — those two themes included with the new Chameleon — so they’re capable of being changed (font and prose) somewhere?! Just need to find it…
Meantime, I heading to the LBC and continuing to configure themes that are straight out of Compton! (Sure a ton of peeps aren’t even going to know what this means. . . oh well. . .)
Later.
– Wolfer
April 1st, 2009 at 5:29 PM
I love how it looks now although I will test any themes out if you would like.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:19 PM
Welcome to another edition of Pimp My Bootloader. Dave called us up and had a real problem — his bootloader wasn’t hot enough to pick up chicks. He was riding on text mode. That’s okay, Dave. ‘Cause we’re gonna pimp your bootloader. Let’s head to the West Coast!
Seriously though. Graphical user customizations would be amazing.
April 1st, 2009 at 4:57 PM
Okay… now that a few have gotten rollin’ with 2.0 RC1, it’s time to come up with some “community” Themes for our /Extra folder. I’ve started on a couple and have a new one in place of the ‘Default’ already. It’s looking great!
But, I’d love to see some more head through this thread that we could all try out. If and when I create something that all of you might think is ‘worthy’, I’ll post it.
Everyone else, do the same… (This said, a small tutorial on how they work, what attributes need added to the Boot.plist, etc. might also help as the doc for the bootloader was a bit thin, if you know what I mean.
Peace.
– Wolfer
April 1st, 2009 at 3:37 PM
Thanks for the status update G. I will incorporate the new download into the post.
April 1st, 2009 at 2:41 PM
Sex-EEEEEE :)
April 1st, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Quick update!
They updated the chameleon page with the installer
http://chameleon.osx86.hu/articles/chameleon-20rc1-is-out
Just a quick link to chameleon because so that they can get some recognition and maybe some donations.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:17 AM
So Hawered , or anyone else that has tried Chameleon, what do you think abou the sexy?
March 31st, 2009 at 11:49 PM
Okay I fixed it. Here is what happened.
On the second Step I never placed an ‘r’ in front of my disk like ‘rdisk0s1′ I just said disk0s1. I assumed we didn’t need an ‘r’.
That is what threw me off.
Thanks.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:59 PM
dd: /dev/disk0s1: Resource busy
^^^ That is what I get after I type “sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0″ into terminal.
Now the hackintosh wont boot. Can’t load Chameleon so it just boots over and over again.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:48 PM
Oh! I always though it would erase then partition.. lol
March 31st, 2009 at 10:46 PM
You can do it with Disk Utility, or a GParted Live CD, or any partition program really. You can even use your Mac OS X installation disc to create it with Disk Utility without even installing Mac.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:25 PM
Richard How do you go along making a new partition out of unused disk space??
March 31st, 2009 at 8:50 PM
It runs smooth! I had shrunk my primary HFS+ partition, installed Windows Vista on a 40GB chunk and in the mix corrupted my old Chameleon bootloader. I followed these same instructions and returned stronger than ever on the new Chameleon. It even detected my Windows (NTFS) automatically and gave me a sexy Vista icon for it.
And it seems to be stable, as stable as boot loader can get. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up the final release version.
March 31st, 2009 at 8:18 PM
Haha ok. Richard and I both have it running and it amazingly stable to go right ahead and install it.
March 31st, 2009 at 6:24 PM
Darn, Thomas. You’re quick. . . Beat me to the post! Anyhow. . . I’ll be experimenting myself with this as soon as I can. Can’t wait as it looks VERY impressive. Expect one hell of a thread to come out of this post/topic.
– Dave