Edit OSInstall.mpkg for MBR Install

There is an improved version of this technique by modbin

The Retail DVD includes a check which prevents you from installing on an MBR partition. As MBR can have advantages for multi-booting, removing this check can be useful, here's how:

You will need:
A working os x machine
a copy of OSInstall.mpkg from /System/Installation/Packages on the retail DVD
a copy of Flat Package Editor If you have xcode installed, this is in /Developer/Applications/Utilities/Packagemaker.app/Contents/Resources

open OSInstall.mpkg in Flat Package Editor:

Picture_31.png ( 23.41K ) Number of downloads: 636

drag the file "distribution" somewhere (Desktop will do)
open "distribution" in a text editor, what you see should begin with:

CODE

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<installer-gui-script minSpecVersion='1'>

    <options
        eraseOptionAvailable='true'
        hostArchitectures='ppc,i386'
        allow-external-scripts='yes'
    />

the line marked here in red is the one to remove, so:

CODE

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<installer-gui-script minSpecVersion='1'>

    <options
        hostArchitectures='ppc,i386'
        allow-external-scripts='yes'
    />

and save.
drag the edited "distribution" back into Flat Package Editor
delete the existing "distribution" and Save.

Flat_Package_Editor.zip ( 98.65K ) Number of downloads: 1358

OSInstall.mpkg_mbrfixed.zip ( 804.19K ) Number of downloads: 826

Perhaps you should explain in more detail what this allows for, "for MBR" really isn't that explanatory

Yeah, I don't understand the difference, when I install using MBR partition scheme it works fine. GPT works just as good (better IMO with the ability to modify the partition maps).

Looks like many people didn't try a retail install.
What this does is, enable you to install on MBR partitioned disks by removing the check (?) for GPT. (anyone with a better, in-deapth explanation?)

No Kabyl, I know what it does, but that doesn't mean everyone else does.

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