EasyBCD chainloading Clover to boot Mac OS X?

sambul12

Distinguished Member
Can soneone suggest how to chainload Clover with EasyBCD? Many folks use Windows as 1st OS, and install MAC X as their 2nd OS from Clover based or similar Mac OS installation USB Flash, then add Clover bootloader to it.

Is it possible to chainload Clover from EasyBCD to boot Mac OS X? Any suggestions & workarounds? Clover has certain advantages compare to Chameleon, Chimera or similar Mac bootloaders - it supports UEFI and BIOS boot, and newest graphics cards.

If EasyBCD can't chainload Clover now, do you plan to add such support in the near future given the fact Clover is mainstream Mac bootloader now?
 
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Since no-one is handing over suggestions here, that must be me. :grinning: It was reported earlier, and tested again with EasyBCD 2.3b and Yosemite 10.10.3 that despite EasyBCD allows to add Mac OS X entry to Windows 7/8.1 Boot Menu, the entry fails to boot Yosemite seeking mach_kernel that doesn't exist in that OS. EasyBCD also presumes, Chameleon bootloader is installed in Mac OS. But now Clover bootloader becomes mainstream for Hackintosh fans. So how would you boot Mac OS from Windows Boot Menu with Clover?

CHAINLOAD CLOVER FROM WINDOWS BOOTLOADER WITH EASYBCD

Until EasyBCD offers such feature, we need to find a workaround, assuming you already have Windows Multiboot Menu setup with EasyBCD to boot various OSs from one or several hard drives. And its in fact quite easy to add working Mac OS entry to such menu:
  • install Mac OS from a Clover based USB Flash on a separate hard drive or HFS+ formatted partition on an MBR or GPT disk. It can be the same HDD that holds your main Windows NTFS formatted C:\ partition
  • boot to Mac OS via Clover from the USB Flash, and install latest Clover.pkg as main bootloader. If your disk is MBR type and doesn't have FAT32 formatted EFI partition, Clover EFI folder will be added to its Mac volume's root, and the disk MBR config will change making Clover your main bootloader
  • reboot to Windows via Clover, open C:/boot/BCD with EasyBCD, select BCD Backup/Repair - Install Vista/7 bootloader to MBR - Write MBR
  • click Add New Entry - Mac - EFI - Add Entry. Click Edit Boot Menu to rename & move the new Mac OS entry how you wish, then exit EasyBCD. Now Windows Bootloader is default again
  • download latest Clover Bootable ISO , unpack with 7zip, rename to nst_mac.iso and copy to C:\NST, where EasyBCD stores its files, thus replacing the file already there
  • select Shift - Restart in Windows Shutdown Options, choose Mac OS from boot menu as next OS to boot. The PC will reboot, and you"ll see Clover chainloaded by EasyBCD actually booting your newly installed MAC from Windows Boot Menu. Lets hope it'll boot with default settings. If not, you'll need to follow Clover Tutorials to add some kexts (Mac drivers) and edit its config to match your Hackintosh hardware
  • Note: its not mandatory to install Clover to Mac OS and mess up with default Windows Bootloader. Instead you can install Paragon HFS+ to your Windows volume, mount Mac OS volume in Windows Explorer, and copy EFI folder to its root from mounted Clover.iso. Alternatively, to preserve file permissions, you can boot to Mac OS, mount Clover.iso in Finder, open Terminal and enter command:
    sudo cp -R /Volumes/Clover.iso/EFI /
  • Profit :smile:
 
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Hi najeebanwer,

The solution you linked above is more narrow in scope as it requires a 2-nd GPT disk with EFI partition, despite Clover can boot Mac OSX from an MBR formatted disk too. Its not simpler though, especially if you use Mac OSX regularly and on top use Win 8+ Bootloader as main, since it requires a user to boot to Windows Bootloader, then reboot to Grub4DOS, then start Clover from it and boot Mac OSX - and that's precisely what EasyBCD allows to avoid, offering direct faster launch of Clover instead. In other words, you don't need EasyBCD to use Grub4DOS as your primary bootloader. But I'm glad it works for you. :wink:
 
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Hi sambul12,
Thanks for your reply. I agree that the linked solution only works for the narrow scope of a second hard disk with Clover & Mac OS X installed (although, I haven't tried it but you could also potentially use Grub4DOS to boot Clover from a partition on the same disk as Windows). The only thing I would point out is since Grub4DOS only has one entry and no timeout specified, the system will immediately launch Clover when you select the entry in the Windows bootloader, so there is no separate Grub4DOS screen to deal with.

Regards,
Najeeb Anwer
 
I haven't tried it but you could also potentially use Grub4DOS to boot Clover from a partition on the same disk as Windows... There is no separate Grub4DOS screen to deal with.
Do you want to try? Look through Clover Installation options, and follow the one allowing that. Then let us know which option works for you.

Grub4Dos was added to EasyBCD to expand its range of booting options via standard G4D means. While its possible to have only one entry in its menu, usually it contains quite a few entries, mostly service images and unusual & test entries. :wink:

Also keep in mind, my above solution is just a workaround. I'm sure, EasyBCD author can use a much smaller nst_mac.iso to boot Chameleon or Clover (whatever bootloader is installed) from an HFS formatted volume.
 
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I'm open to suggestions on replacing the current Mac bootloader mechanism in EasyBCD, it's just been hard to find something that "just works" for the majority of the users better than the current Chameleon.
 
Hi mqudsi,

Unfortunately, Chameleon Mac bootloader option in EasyBCD 2.3 no longer works, since starting from Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.x , the file mach_kernel in root dir was replaced by the file kernel in /System/Library/Kernels/ . At present Chameleon and Clover cover majority of Hakintosh fans needs, so if its possible to combine the ability to boot both in a small nst_mac.iso with upfront autocheck of what bootloader is installed on an HFS or EFI volume, it may look like an ideal solution. :smile:
 
What I mean, would it be enough to just find and mount HFS and EFI volumes from nst_mac.iso, check whether Chameleon or Clover is installed on one of them, and then transfer boot control to it?
 
Thanks, sambul!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that would require Chameleon/Clover to be installed in the first place, right? The old EasyBCD/Chameleon solution (previously) didn't require any additional installation by the user... Is there a cleaner all-in-one option?
 
Do you want to try? Look through Clover Installation options, and follow the one allowing that. Then let us know which option works for you.

Grub4Dos was added to EasyBCD to expand its range of booting options via standard G4D means. While its possible to have only one entry in its menu, usually it contains quite a few entries, mostly service images and unusual & test entries. :wink:

Also keep in mind, my above solution is just a workaround. I'm sure, EasyBCD author can use a much smaller nst_mac.iso to boot Chameleon or Clover (whatever bootloader is installed) from an HFS formatted volume.

Hi sambul12,
After considering my options for booting Windows and OS X from the same disk on my laptop (Dell XPS M1340), I decided to go with a pure GPT formatted disk. Installed OS X and Clover and then installed Windows in EFI mode using Clover as the bootloader. I also upgraded my disk to a SSD in the process. So, the result is a really fast boot; no hybrid GPT formatted disk; and all this on a legacy BIOS machine. I love it!

Regards,
Najeeb Anwer
 
Is there a cleaner all-in-one option?
Hi,
There may be, but I'm not aware of one. The issue is obviously complicated by the fact that we're talking about booting Hackintosh here, thus requiring extra kexts and fine tuned bootloader settings catered to particular user hardware. If you prefer to stay with Chameleon for now due to lack of the unified approach, it needs to be fixed since mach_kernel is no longer used in Mac OS X.
 
I decided to go with a pure GPT formatted disk. Installed OS X and Clover and then installed Windows in EFI mode using Clover as the bootloader.

This is a viable approach, I use it on one of PCs. However, many users install Windows first as their main OS, then add Mac OS, Linux, service ISOs and VHDs later, and use them only on occasion. Some users have several drives of different types installed on their PCs, or booted from USB. So they prefer to keep HDD with Windows and its Bootloader as main to avoid switching often boot options in BIOS. That's were EasyBCD comes handy. :smile:
 
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