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View Full Version : Next Chameleon bootloader to have a fully customizable GUI


Voyn1x
02-05-2009, 03:26 PM
http://infinitemac.com/images/news/chameleon3.pngSome new features from the next version of Chameleon have been previewed on the Chameleon blog:

"Finally, we’re getting there. I have no doubts about the most demanding feature is should be a graphical user interface for the boot loader. We have reached to a stage where I can show you something really cool. Yes, we have a fully customizable GUI.

How do you mean customizable?

You can replace all the images, the icons, the funny chameleon artwork, the fonts. Also you can set the background color, the transparency levels, the dimensons, positions of certain user interface elements. The image resource files can be either embedded into the booter or can be loaded at runtime by using a special .plist style configuration file.

Doesn’t embedding the images makes the boot loader too large?

With the current set of icons, images, fonts embedded, the booter size is about 300k. Without embedding the resources you will get about a 110k large booter. The maximum size of the booter is 392704 bytes (383.5k).

What image formats are supported?

The booter has built-in support for true color 24 bit PNG images with 8 bit transparency layer. We wanted to offer a high quality lossless image format which can be created, edited with many graphics applications across all platforms.

What if I still prefer the text mode interface?

We can’t switch between text mode and graphical mode at the moment after the booter has been started, but you still have a Boot.plist option to disable the GUI. This way you get the well known text based Darwin boot menu.

Ok, this is all fine. Can I see something?

Sure! Click below on the pictures in the gallery to see these shots in full size.

Can I have it now?

No. Please don’t ask for it as you will get it when it’s released.

What’s next? Do i have to wait for next christmas ;-)?

We’re still fighting with issues and polishing the code but freezed the features. So instead of staying quiet, we’re going to reveal other features in the next post on this week."


Source: http://chameleon.osx86.hu
(http://chameleon.osx86.hu/articles/introducing-new-features-added-to-next-version-of-chameleon-part-1)
Hit the link above for images :cool:

aquanutz
02-05-2009, 03:36 PM
That is great news! Hopefully this will come out in the very near future. :)

Taisto
02-05-2009, 04:35 PM
hmm, to be honest - it looks very cool. good work :) hope to see it hitting my machine soon.

naquaada
02-05-2009, 11:33 PM
I hope it will also work with an MBR bootblock, I don't like GUID so much. I had a lot of harddisks with a blinking cursor after formatting it with GUID, I never got them to boot with MBR again.

oneshot
02-06-2009, 03:29 AM
sooo is chameleon just to costomise OSX? It also looks like its another distro?? Im confused...does anyone ellse have any more info on it?

cmdshft
02-06-2009, 03:32 AM
It's a bootloader.

oneshot
02-06-2009, 05:29 AM
ohhhh so its just a screen before you boot your computer?

cmdshft
02-06-2009, 05:33 AM
Yeah, that's one way to put it.

fassl
02-06-2009, 05:10 PM
I hope it will also work with an MBR bootblock, I don't like GUID so much. I had a lot of harddisks with a blinking cursor after formatting it with GUID, I never got them to boot with MBR again.

Sure it works on MBR too.

erick2red
02-06-2009, 08:24 PM
i saw on the pictures u can boot linux, how do i do that?

CamDean
02-22-2009, 09:54 PM
Thanks for all the work making my system look better even the startup

demigod
04-01-2009, 08:36 AM
It's Out check out this link http://chameleon.osx86.hu/articles/chameleon-20rc1-is-out

it works great ..

Taisto
04-01-2009, 01:28 PM
Tried already, doesnt work for me ( Freezes at prompt ) Had to restore previous version.

Updated : It works now. Made second attempt and bum, everything ok :)

zephyroth
04-01-2009, 11:46 PM
It works fine for me. :)

milanca
04-04-2009, 12:32 PM
I still use v11 with dsdt override. I will try this one maybe when the final is out, not to mess with rel.candidate. I heard that some ones have instant reboots and things like that.

cmdshft
04-05-2009, 03:14 PM
Works fine for me. (http://www.hara.ipwn.me/blog/?p=150)

I even managed to get it working on a USB flash drive (http://www.hara.ipwn.me/blog/?p=176) as a backup booter in case something goes haywire with my hard drives.

Chameleon 2.0 kicks ass.

oneshot
04-14-2009, 11:12 AM
Worked for me =)

Only problem is that my linux partition isn't showing up under it. Windows and OSX show up fine though =D

blast9999
04-15-2009, 11:01 PM
I have my Linux (ubuntu 8.10-32) showing up alongside W7 and mac. I formatted its partition as EXT3, and installed GRUB onto the part that has ubuntu on it. Maybe you need to reinstall you linux?

erick2red
04-16-2009, 02:30 PM
Worked for me =)

Only problem is that my linux partition isn't showing up under it. Windows and OSX show up fine though =D
you need to install grub on your root linux partition

NebKiwi
04-26-2009, 02:12 PM
Yeah, Chameleon 2.0 is pretty damn good, got a slightly weird bug with it though, If I set the CDROM as the first boot device, and then load up chameleon, all the drives are multiplied by two :/ so, I have Mac HD, Mac HD, Backup, Backup etc.. set HDD as first boot device and its back to normal, mighty odd. :(

andyvand
04-27-2009, 06:59 PM
you need to install grub on your root linux partition
Yes I agree... install grub on e.g. /dev/hda2 or /dev/sda2 rather than /dev/hda or /dev/sda
That works for me...

erick2red
04-28-2009, 08:17 PM
Yeah, it look great the damn thing, but could someone tell me how can i set the options.
And how check if it did it. I added to com.apple.Boot.plist in /Extra, but there's no way to know if there is.

Edited: Yes, i found it, you can set the options by adding it to the com.apple.Boot.plist in /Extra folder.

SaCleoCheater
05-03-2009, 01:40 PM
Yeah, Chameleon 2.0 is pretty damn good, got a slightly weird bug with it though, If I set the CDROM as the first boot device, and then load up chameleon, all the drives are multiplied by two :/ so, I have Mac HD, Mac HD, Backup, Backup etc.. set HDD as first boot device and its back to normal, mighty odd. :(

All working good from this end.. I love it :)

But very soon, there will be a better boot loader....

jakx86
12-21-2009, 11:14 PM
Hello, I'm new to Chameleon. Just got this installed as part of iAtKos distro. I have Ubuntu and Mac on my system. How can I use the GUI Support to configure my boot options?
Any documentation or links would be appriciated.

Thanks!

derekreid
12-22-2009, 04:25 AM
Here you go: http://chameleon.osx86.hu/