Project OS X Forums > Updating Theory

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realityiswhere

Feb 20 2009, 03:05 AM

Updating Theory.. aka "Why You're Doing The Stuff That You're Doing"

Leopard only.

The current practice and theory behind Updating OSx86 Leopard is based on the following.

There exists in the world of OS X certain kernel extensions which serve no practical purpose for "PC's" as they are more commonly referred to, notably "AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext", and to a lesser degree some other kexts such as "AppleRTC.kext".

These kexts can cause problems with OSx86 machines by most often causing a kernel panic, and so for legacy purposes, the way of getting around this was to run a small shell command:

CODE

sudo while sleep 1; do rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext; done

which just constantly checks for the above mentioned kext, and if it finds it, deletes it before it has a chance to be loaded by the OS.

This was a quick and dirty hack, but it worked.

Then somewhat more advanced methods were developed, still in use today, such as the use of a Disabler.kext (IntelCPUPowerManagementDisabler.kext and the like) and most recently the Voodoo kernel have built in disabling capabilities of these damaging kexts, and that is the currently accepted method.

If however, you have already installed the update and you've hosed/b0rked/otherwise maligned your system voil� the original words from Hagar:

QUOTE (Hagar Sep 20 2008 @ 12:58 PM)

Here's an alternative method, in case anyone's interested in trying it. You do so at your own risk, etc, I may well have made some mistakes on the way. tongue.gif

1: boot the install DVD & remove AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext as above to allow you to boot.

2: make sure you have chameleon installed, if not, get it from: http://tinyurl.com/5m66sf and install it to your os x drive

3: download "lifeboat 13" from http://www.mediafire.com/?mz2jwzwdzdy

4: in terminal type: sudo mv /boot /boot_old

5: unzip the contents of lifeboat 13 & drop the folder "Extra" and the file "boot" onto the root of your harddrive
'
6: reboot & run the downloaded update again.

What this does is place a decryptor & a disabler in /Extra/Extensions and a boot file that will load them on your harddrive. This in turn will help update-proof your system.
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If you already have chameleon installed, it is possible to shorten the whole process by putting the contents of lifeboat13 on a usb stick or similar accessible device and copy the files onto the root of your harddrive from terminal whilst booted from the DVD, ideally moving /boot somewhere safe in case of need.
________________________

All the above is derivative of the work of others and is to be used at your own risk. If you don't understand it fully, or any step fails, try something else.
Chameleon is by Zef, boot-132 is by DFE, the kexts are by their various authors whom I fail to remember (if it's yours & there is an issue, please PM me)

and you can find here my package installer version of his little tidbits, http://spotlight.hopto.org/lifeboat13.zip, very useful for preventing bad updates from occuring, also useful is coupling this method with prelinking your kernel beforehand.

Enjoy and good luck

[work in progress]

cyrusrayne

Feb 20 2009, 01:27 PM

QUOTE (realityiswhere @ Feb 20 2009, 04:05 AM)

This is a package originally provided by Hagar, which I have repackaged and placed into an executable .pkg, for the purpose of having extra protection before an update, based on the timeless original method

CODE

while sleep 1; do rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext; done

Why did I read that as rm -rf / ?

fassl

Feb 20 2009, 01:34 PM

Also mention to run that command as root

Hagar

Feb 20 2009, 04:14 PM

Just wondering why the netkas script is there at all, it's even more ancient than the venerable lifeboat & totally unrelated & unnecessry in this context.

lord_muad_dib

Feb 20 2009, 04:41 PM

voodoo kernel disables the kextload of such dangerous kexts on it's own now
vanilla kernel users can use disabler.kext and add an entry for each kext in the plist
not to mention that the dsdt patching should avoid such problems on it's own
afaik

Hagar

Feb 20 2009, 05:26 PM

QUOTE (lord_muad_dib @ Feb 20 2009, 05:41 PM)

I wasn't aware that voodoo kernel had integrated disblers, it seems a slightly odd choice, but I guess it saves a kext. How is dsdt patching these days? I recall when I tried it out it was rather hit-n-miss & certainly not noob-friendly.

I'm the first to agree lifeboat13 is outdated, and was a simplistic kludge in the first place, but I still believe the principle of keeping disablers & patched kexts outside /S/L/E is the way forwards.

And to round it off, I find I'm once again having a hard time keeping up with developments.. It seems I need a site like this one as much as anyone, lets get the information posted in a clear & understandable form so noobs like me can start getting into it.

fassl

Feb 20 2009, 06:56 PM

QUOTE (Hagar @ Feb 20 2009, 06:26 PM)

How is dsdt patching these days? I recall when I tried it out it was rather hit-n-miss & certainly not noob-friendly.

You can do many things through dsdt, even inject things to IOReg and get rid of injectors, and if you patch the HPET device in the DSDT you can use that bad kext without a panic or "package 0 didnt received a hpet". But this injection thingy isnt really that noob proof

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