Does anyone know of a bootloader that can load a customized DSDT table at boot? I know that this can be done using chameleon bootloader, but then you have to have Mac OS X installed. I want to load a customized DSDT.aml at boot everytime I start my computer {before it boots into Windows XP or Windows 7}. Any recommended bootloaders would be great {Google was not my friend with this}...
Yes, you do not need to have Mac OS X installed to use Chameleon, but you will need an EFI or "System Reserved" partition. I do not think chameleon will install on a Primary partition that is formatted as NTFS such as the Windows 7 partition. {I don't really know, I haven't tried it yet but that is what I think}. I have tried using Chameleon with Mac OS X installed to another hard drive. I used Lizzard.app to modify Chameleon's boot settings and have found that it does indeed load the custom DSDT.aml before booting over to Windows's bootmgr. This poses a problem because either Windows doesn't work or Mac doesn't work. I need to load two different DSDTs for each. Unfortunately Andy's BIOS tools doesn't want to patch my BIOS - it gives an error message (I have the MSI P35 Platinum / P35 Neo2FR - the same thing as they are both MS-7345, uses the same BIOS and the board even looks EXACTLY the same). The 2nd reason I don't want to use Andy's BIOS tool is that I don't always want to use the system with this specific DSDT. I want to use a different DSDT when booting to Windows than what I would use when booting to Mac OS X or Linux. If I can even just find a bootloader that can load a DSDT for windows only, then it would be great {I have two physical hard drives}. It does not seem to me that such a tool exists at the moment {other than Chameleon}.
Hi, yes - you were right in your first post. You can install Chameleon to a Windows partition, but then as you said: No loading of the DSDT table would happen. It would just boot directly into Windows by loading "bootmgr" or in the case of Windows XP - "ntldr". Even when you boot into Mac OS X - it would still not load the custom DSDT because it is installed to a windows partition. The opposite is also true. When you install it to a Mac OS X partition - it would ALWAYS load the DSDT, which is also not what I want. I only want it to load the custom DSDT when I boot into Mac OS X otherwise Windows would not work as Windows will not handle the hardware correctly and cause BSOD very easily. Whether I use the Windows installer, as per the link you posted (which is a very, very old version of Chameleon and does not even have the graphics enabler and advanced C states for my CPU yet) or the Mac installer - I am screwed anyways. I have found a way to do this anyhow - it is not the best way and most certainly not the preferred method of doing it, but it works: 1.) I downloaded the latest version of Chameleon 2.1 svn. 2.) I then created a bootable ISO with it and configured it just the way I want to properly boot into Mac OS X and load my custom DSDT.aml with all the options I want in the plist files. 3.) As said - the ISO is bootable and will always load my own DSDT. I copied this ISO to my hard drive - to the bootable Windows partition. 4.) I then downloaded EasyBCD, installed it and configured it to have an option in the menu for booting "Windows 7", "Windows XP" and "Mac OS X". The "Mac OS X" option is configured to boot directly into the ISO - a damn nice feature and very handy to use. Then it would immediately boot into Chameleon (which loads the DSDT which is also in the ISO), which is in the ISO and from there (Chameleon which had just loaded my own DSDT) I just choose the mac partition.