Vostro 200 unable to update to Yosemite

[vance]

This forum has been a godsend.  It made it so easy with myHack 3.3.1 to install Mavericks on a Vostro 200.  Then I tried to upgrade to Yosemite.  That hasn't been so simple.  I have a standard Vostro 200 with the BIOS unlocked so I could select AHCI.  It has an NVidia GeForce 315 (10DE:0A22) & 5G RAM & under Mavericks, as Herve said everything works perfectly.  I downloaded Yosemite from the App Store & when I try to upgrade it comes up to the 1st reboot in less than 5 minutes but with the reboot nothing happens!  It's as if I did a standard reboot & I can continue on with Mavericks without any problems but of course the object was to upgrade to Yosemite & even though I've given it hours to continue with the upgrade it doesn't.  I have a feeling the problem is with the version of the Chameleon bootloader that myHack 3.3.1 installed & some research here led me to Chameleon svn r2401 as what I need.  This was in a forum post by Herve.  I have looked high & low for the PKG of that version to no avail.  The closest I came to that version is r2404 & I downloaded it but I don't want to brick this install.  I do have a Clonezilla image though so it wouldn't be the end.

 

Is the bootloader the problem & what do I need to do?

[Jake Lo]

You can't just run Yosemite.app to upgrade with myHack like a real Mac. You'll need to create a new installer with myHack for Yosemite. Use the same Extra folder, reboot with the Yosemite install and install on top of Mavericks, don't format.

[vance]

Just to make sure I'm clear on this.  I thought that myHack 3.3.1 was made for Mountain Lion & Mavericks & prior & because of this I thought it wouldn't work to use Yosemite with it.  So, I just do another boot jump drive using the same procedure as I used for Mavericks but feed it the InstallESD.dmg file from Yosemite & pass by the Disk Utility as I go through the install procedure?  Can I start out with myHack 3.3.1 & Yosemite & not install Mavericks if I want to?

 

Thanks for the reply!

[Jake Lo]

You're right, myHack does not support Yosemite. It's been a while since I used it and forgot about that. Try my Yosemite guide here to create the boot jump drive manually. As for bootpack, use your current files (Extra folder).

 

If you don't have any data or app to retain, then yes, go start with Yosemite, no need to install Mavericks first.

[vance]

Sorry Jake, that link takes me to a forum post about a refined Alps Touchpad driver.  I've already tried 1 of your guides that made sense to me with the Vostro 200 bootpack named Dell Latitude E6xxx/E7xxx Yosemite Install Guide.  My research in the forum led me to this guide.  That guide uses Chameleon-2.3svn-r2437 & for some reason, with the boot jump drive created, when I tried to use it on the Vostro 200 halfway through the POST the computer would lock up.  After it had locked up the only way to get the computer to come back was to drain the power on the motherboard (unplug the power from the power supply & press & hold the power button on the front of the computer for a few seconds).  It would then boot normally into Mavericks until I tried to use the boot jump drive again.  Is that maybe the guide you were trying to point me to?  If so, I'm guessing I need to use another boot loader.  What do you think?

 

Thanks so much for helping me out!

[Bronxteck]

did you try our bootpack from here http://www.osxlatitude.com/edp/compatibility/

[vance]

Yes, that's the one that Herve came up with which works on all OSs from Snow Leopard up to Yosemite.  I understand there's some caveats if using it on Yosemite but that's the one I used for Mavericks & as I said in my 1st post it gave me 100% results.  Everything worked as it should.  I think my only problem is, when Herve went to Yosemite I think he stopped using myHack 3.3.1 & used something else.  In another of his posts in another Vostro 200 forum he mentioned Chameleon r2401 but I haven't been able to find that one & I'm not even sure that's what he used instead of myHack 3.3.1 for the boot loader for Yosemite

 

Thanks for your query though!  Keep the questions & hopefully answers coming.

[Bronxteck]

yeah the my hack app itself will not work but I think the terminal commands still do. like myfix /q /t /. and yes my hack's version of chameleon would also be outdated for the newer os's. also the older chameleon could not update directly from the App Store app. you had to make a new installer usb. now enoch branch might allow updating directly but I myself have not tried it. I use clover, clover will update from the app store directly.

[vance]

I need to provide you all with an update.  Using information I found elsewhere in the forum I was finally able to figure out how to do it.  The topic that supplied me with the answers I needed was Some questions about installing OS X on Dell Vostro 200.  With information in this post & by using Jake Lo's guide Dell Latitude E6xxx/E7xxx Yosemite Install Guide I was able to install Yosemite on the drive & get Chameleon installed so it boots up on its own.  The secret ingredient was partitioning the jump drive to FAT rather than GUID before I created the installer jump drive.  Apparently the Vostro 200 couldn't recognize the jump drive partitioned with GUID but the internal SATA hard drives have no problem with this.  I still have to move the KEXTs into place from /Extra/Extensions to /System/Library/Extensions & get them all working as well as they were working in Mavericks in addition to moving the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext back into /S/L/E.  As a result of the HPET kernel panic I had to move it out of the /S/L/E on the jump drive so it needs to be reincorporated into the OS.  I now have hope though because of you kind folks in this forum.  Thanks so much!