myHack 3.x - Feedback

[blackosx]

Hi Conti

 

Last night I had a quick play with myHack 3.0.

One word - Impressive!

 

The only issue I had was:

- After building the myHack bootable USB and running the OS X Installer, near the end when myHack kicks in and gives the option of using my own /Extra folder, the installer failed to load my /Extra folder because I use /Extra/10.8/Extensions and not /Extra/Extensions.

 

Here are a couple of other things I jotted down for reporting:

- The myHack disk image window needs to be taller as the 'Drag to applications directory to install…" text is cut off at the bottom.

- After installation /usr is visible in the Finder. Is that intentional?

 

Overall, fantastic.. That was the easiest setup I've ever done

When I get more time I'll let you know if there's anything else I notice.

 

Well done and thank you & everyone else for all the hard work.

 

EDIT:

I've edited the topic title from myHack 3.0 - Feedback to myHack 3.x - Feedback as this topic now refers to more than one version.

[Conti]

Appreciate the feedback blackosx, in regard to the /Extra/10.8/Extensions issue you mention - this isn't really ideal to use anymore - given the fact that myfix merges everything in /Extra/Extensions with /System/Library/Extensions you can simply use a different /Extra on each partition which will function independently across each partition/os version on that partition.

 

That said I may be able to add a bit of code to detect for /Extra/10.(6/7/8)/Extensions and migrate it to /Extra/Extensions.

 

I noticed the 'Drag to applications directory to install" text is cut off under my Snow Leopard test VM but it looks fine to me on Lion/ML - I'll see about tweaking it so that it will not get cut off though.

 

/usr being visible after running myHack was not intentional I believe it is a side effect of installing myfix and lspci under /usr - I will see if there is a way to correct this.

 

In case you are interested I've already began working on 3.1 thanks to some useful feedback from users - here is my running changelog of what has been done so far:

 

Bugfix: Correct issue with myhack OS X post install patch of OSInstall.pkg when myHack OS X Install Disk is created on a Snow Leopard system

Bugfix: lspcidrv.kext and RemovedExtras won't get moved to ExtraBackups when installing a new Extra

Disabled the Create OS X Installer option from myHack while running on an OS X Installer

Disabled Cancel buttons on myHack OS X post install dialogs

If cancel button is pressed on Extra file selection dialog, return to Generic Extra/Use Your Own menu instead of exiting myHack

Revised Snow Leopard installation source detection - Instead of looking in /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/ all volumes mounted in /Volumes are scanned

Disable kernelcache on OS X Installers

Enable kernelcache on user supplied extras instead of just the generic one

Removed log output for enabling ownership on devices

Removed pkgutil from bundled utilities

Removed strings from bundled utilities

Stripped ppc arch from bundled utilities

[blackosx]

Thanks for your quick reply.

 

I had the /Extra/10.8/Extensions for testing because I guess I'm just used to doing it that way, though I do boot using the kernelcache for my main installation. Once I adopt to using the myFix/myHack.kext combination then I will see the benefits.

 

And yes, I'm always interested in what's going on so thanks for sharing the list of changes you've already done in preparation for 3.1. I'll get round to connecting to your new IRC one of these days!

 

Keep up the innovation!

[blackosx]

Hi Conti

 

I saw you'd released myHack3.1 so I had to test it out and report on my previous feedback.

 

The only issue I had was:

- After building the myHack bootable USB and running the OS X Installer, near the end when myHack kicks in and gives the option of using my own /Extra folder, the installer failed to load my /Extra folder because I use /Extra/10.8/Extensions and not /Extra/Extensions.

I still get the same error when running myHack3.1 ?

Here's a screenshot.

 

The myHack disk image window needs to be taller as the 'Drag to applications directory to install…" text is cut off at the bottom.

This is now fixed.

 

- After installation /usr is visible in the Finder. Is that intentional?

Looking at the the newly installed ML DP3 volume (that I haven't booted yet) from Lion:

/usr is still showing in the Finder.

And any idea why I see the date 18th July 2011 ?

The Extra folder I ended up pointing myHack to from within the OS X installer is dated 24th Feb 2012.

 

 

I notice /usr does not have root ownership ?

Here's the directory list from Terminal.

ls -al /Volumes/ML3
total 16608
drwxr-xr-x  29 root  admin     1054  5 May 06:34 .
drwxrwxrwt@ 17 root  admin      578  5 May 06:36 ..
-rwxr-xr-x   1 nick  admin    12292  5 May 08:05 .DS_Store
-rw-r--r--   1 root  staff      388  5 May 06:18 .OSInstallMessages
drwx------   5 root  staff      170  5 May 06:14 .Spotlight-V100
d-wx-wx-wt   3 root  staff      102  5 May 06:35 .Trashes
----------   1 root  admin        0 31 Mar 20:02 .file
drwx------   3 root  staff      102  5 May 06:35 .fseventsd
drwxr-xr-x@  2 root  wheel       68 31 Mar 20:51 .vol
drwxrwxr-x+ 34 root  admin     1156  5 May 06:31 Applications
drwxr-xr-x   8 root  wheel      272 18 Jul  2011 Extra
drwxr-xr-x+ 57 root  wheel     1938  5 May 06:29 Library
drwxr-xr-x@  2 root  wheel       68 31 Mar 20:02 Network
drwxr-xr-x+  4 root  wheel      136  5 May 06:24 System
drwxr-xr-x   4 root  admin      136  5 May 06:24 Users
drwxrwxrwt@  2 root  admin       68 31 Mar 20:51 Volumes
drwxr-xr-x@ 39 root  wheel     1326  5 May 06:19 bin
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root  admin   274752  5 May 06:32 boot
drwxrwxr-t@  2 root  admin       68 31 Mar 20:02 cores
dr-xr-xr-x@  2 root  wheel       68 31 Mar 20:02 dev
lrwxr-xr-x@  1 root  wheel       11  5 May 06:19 etc -> private/etc
-rw-r--r--@  1 root  wheel  8190504  9 Apr 05:23 mach_kernel
drwxr-xr-x@  6 root  wheel      204  5 May 06:29 private
drwxr-xr-x@ 62 root  wheel     2108  5 May 06:26 sbin
lrwxr-xr-x@  1 root  wheel       11  5 May 06:19 tmp -> private/tmp
drwxr-xr-x  12 nick  admin      408 18 Jul  2011 usr
lrwxr-xr-x@  1 root  wheel       11  5 May 06:19 var -> private/var

ls -al /Volumes/ML3/usr
total 24
drwxr-xr-x   12 nick  admin    408 18 Jul  2011 .
drwxr-xr-x   29 root  admin   1054  5 May 06:34 ..
-rwxr-xr-x    1 nick  admin   6148 23 Jul  2011 .DS_Store
drwxr-xr-x    5 root  wheel    170 31 Mar 23:02 X11
lrwxr-xr-x    1 root  wheel      3  5 May 06:28 X11R6 -> X11
drwxr-xr-x  968 nick  admin  32912  5 May 06:36 bin
drwxr-xr-x  243 root  wheel   8262  5 May 06:25 lib
drwxr-xr-x  137 root  wheel   4658  5 May 06:34 libexec
drwxr-xr-x    4 nick  admin    136 18 Jul  2011 local
drwxr-xr-x  267 root  wheel   9078  5 May 06:31 sbin
drwxr-xr-x   47 root  wheel   1598  5 May 06:26 share
drwxr-xr-x    4 root  wheel    136  5 May 06:19 standalone

ls -al /Volumes/ML3/usr/local
total 16
drwxr-xr-x   4 nick  admin   136 18 Jul  2011 .
drwxr-xr-x  12 nick  admin   408 18 Jul  2011 ..
-rwxr-xr-x   1 nick  admin  6148 23 Mar 09:25 .DS_Store
drwxr-xr-x   3 nick  admin   102 23 Mar 09:25 share

ls -al /Volumes/ML3/usr/local/share/
total 376
drwxr-xr-x  3 nick  admin     102 23 Mar 09:25 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 nick  admin     136 18 Jul  2011 ..
-rwxrwxrwx  1 nick  admin  190157 23 Mar 09:24 pci.ids.gz

 

If you need any more info then let me know.

 

Regards

[Conti]

If you are still getting that error on OS X post install you must still have myHack 3.0 on your OS X install disk - here is a log output from myHack 3.1 using the extra directory you sent me yesterday by email:

 

 

And here is the result on the myHack OS X Install Disk (Which previously had a generic extra installed thus the lspcidrv.kext and RemovedExtensions directory):

 

 

As you can see this is definitely the 10.6 extensions you had in your Extra.

 

Here is the results when I use an old one of my own Extra's for my i7 build - without any 10.x subdirectories - immediately after using yours, I haven't touched the Extra on the myHack OS X Install Disk by hand inbetween:

 

 

And here is the result on the myHack OS X Install Disk:

 

 

Everything merged correctly once again.

 

 

Now as far as why the permissions and dates are getting a little screwy it has to do with the way I am merging things from inside the myHack bundle, if you explore myHack.app/Contents/Resources/ you'll see what is going on - there are several options in terms of how I can correct it, the first was to set all the permissions correctly inside of the bundle prior to distribution of the myHack.app - however those permissions are not always preserved correctly when users unpack and install myHack. Another is to transfer each file individually rather than merging directory trees - this is inconvenant to say the least. Another would be to preserve permissions and dates on the origin file, I have to look into it more.

 

As it is not a critical issue but mostly cosmetic I pushed it back a little - I am going to see about doing something with that in the next release but I wanted to get 3.1 out asap.

[blackosx]

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

If you are still getting that error on OS X post install you must still have myHack 3.0 on your OS X install disk

Hmm... I replaced /Applications/myHack3.0 with myHack3.1 and my target installer USB was erased in Disk Utility before running myHack.

 

And here is the result on the myHack OS X Install Disk (Which previously had a generic extra installed thus the lspcidrv.kext and RemovedExtensions directory):

Running myHack3.1 again now and choosing to just install the Extra, I see everything works as you describe.

 

 

I will wipe my USB flash drive and re-run myHack 3.1 to create a new OS X 10.8 installer, and then wipe the ML3 partition on my HDD and run the new USB 10.8 installer to it and see what happens at the end this time. I'll report back a bit later.

 

Now as far as why the permissions and dates are getting a little screwy it has to do with the way I am merging things from inside the myHack bundle, if you explore myHack.app/Contents/Resources/ you'll see what is going on

Yes. I see now. Thanks for the explanation.

 

As it is not a critical issue but mostly cosmetic I pushed it back a little - I am going to see about doing something with that in the next release but I wanted to get 3.1 out asap.

No problem. I just thought I'd mention it.

[Conti]

As it is not a critical issue but mostly cosmetic I pushed it back a little - I am going to see about doing something with that in the next release but I wanted to get 3.1 out asap.

No problem. I just thought I'd mention it.

 

I'm glad you did, as a bit of a perfectionist myself, anything that can polish things off and improve the overall experience is something I'm always interested in.

[blackosx]

I will wipe my USB flash drive and re-run myHack 3.1 to create a new OS X 10.8 installer, and then wipe the ML3 partition on my HDD and run the new USB 10.8 installer to it and see what happens at the end this time. I'll report back a bit later.

Hi Conti

 

I've re-run the whole process and documented each step.

I'm still seeing the 'Invalid Extra' error so I continued the install process by selecting 'Use Generic One.

 

Here's the documented steps in pics:

EDIT: Link removed as Conti's seen it.

 

What am I doing wrong?

[Conti]

That is odd, I downloaded the zip file you linked to, I will review it after dinner.

 

// Edit - come to think of it, I think I know why this is failing during OS X post install - it's defining the OS Version of the target during target selection, but that code doesn't execute in OS X post install, I will fix it after dinner and post a build for you to test.

[blackosx]

Ah.. okay. Good to know it wasn't something stupid I was doing here. lol

I'll keep my eye out for a build and test it as soon as possible for you.