Darwin quirks

D

dvdivx

Member
Currently when I try to boot to Mac OS easybcd boots like this.
1.Vista Memory test

2.EasyBCD choices

Windows XP
Windows Vista
Ubuntu (via GRUB)
Mac OS (via Darwin bootloader)

Every choice except Mac OS will boot into it's listed operating system. Mac OS will boot to a seperate choice where by default it will just go back to Vista. You have to hit a key then select the partion, which will then boot.

Is there a setting to change the default partition it goes to so I don't have to fool around with this second choice. I DO NOT WANT TO USE GRUB. If I did I would just use GAG or the GRUB that came with Ubuntu. Fedora had the best grub screen but wouldn't load the MacOS so I'm using EasyBCD. Grub will NOT correctly load the MacOS (at least not for me).
 
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There are various other threads around that state the current issues some are having with EasyBCD and the use of Mac OS X. A fix well be applied to a new version of EasyBCD when it becomes known. If GRUB won't load OS X, it is most likely that you are pointing to the wrong drive/partition.

Try utilizing the edit option when booting OS X using GRUB to adjust x and y in (hdx,y) until you can successfully chainload Darwin and boot OS X. Then change your menu.lst to permanately reflect the changes. The logical layout of partitions and hard disks change depending on the bootloader you are using and OS you are trying to boot.

Some previous threads for reference on the matter:

http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?p=18237#post18237
http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1935
http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1599
 
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Chain0 never worked in linux or windows xp for me. Always got a chain error with it. EasyBCD is the only thing allowing me to multiboot OSX, linux, Vista and XP.
 
Use "chainloader +1" in your menu.lst file and see if that helps. It gives me no issues and I can easily bounce back and forth because of it from my external drive containing my Linux distros and Vista's bootmgr on my laptop's internal drive.
 
Generic OSX.Works great using nst_mac.mbr except for the annoyance of a second choice.

If I use macbook and change the boot.efi to nst_mac.efi in the NST root folder then use it I get errors.
I get an error message from Vista's boot loader that windows failed to start and to "repair my computer" with the windows dvd. Selected entry could not be loaded application missing or currupt.
 
Well the answer then would be to find the file that contains Darwin's boot entries (Like boot.ini for legacy Windows) It's probally at the root of your OS X partition. I can't tell you what it is cause I have never played around with a Mac.
 
From what I can tell it would be editing the nst_mac.mbr itself. It seems both the neogrub.mbr and nst_mac.mbr are listed as real-mode boot sectors and located in the NST folder on the root of the boot drive. The only thing else in the folder is the menu.lst file for Neogrub. nst_mac.mbr has no equivalent.
 
You can't edit the Darwin bootmenu, it's one of the many instances where Apple's absolute reluctance to allow end users and developers any measure of control over the OS has hurt development on their platform. While most people are quick to bash Microsoft over having hard-to-modify OS options, OS X and the rest of Apple's software is a lot worse.

Basically, there is no way you can modify the options in Darwin because Apple doesn't want you to.
 
Well, consider the second choice a good thing then... if you accidently go to the menu and wanted to boot Vista, you just use it. I can safely agree with CG because it is hard to find anything about the topic in searches and little information that does show seems to be inaccurate. (Most of anything refers to EasyBCD as the solution :smile: ...) It's just a price you haft to pay for using multiple OSes on a mahcine.
 
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