Chimera 1.5 Update: Sandy Bridge HD 3000 Onboard Graphics Support

Today MacMan updated Chimera to version 1.5.0. 

Chimera v1.5 Changes:

• Intel HD 3000 Onboard Graphics now supported with full acceleration via GraphicsEnabler!
• No DSDT edits or kext edits necessary
• Multiple connectors available with MacBookPro8,x or MacMini5,x smbios.plist.

• /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist is now depreciated
• /Extra/org.chameleon.Boot.plist MUST be used
• Chimera installer automatically renames this file
• Added GraphicsEnabler auto-detection for 12 additional AMD 6000 cards
• Supports both 10.7.x Lion and 10.6.x Snow Leopard
• Based on Chameleon 2.0 source

Chimera 1.5 is recommended for all systems. There is a standalone installer, available at tonymacx86.com/downloads. For bug reporting, feature requests, and general feedback please use the Chimera forum.

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

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OS X Lion USB Thumb Drives Start Arriving

Announced and on sale this past Tuesday, Apple's new OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive has shipped, and is beginning to be delivered. It is OS X Lion 10.7 Build 11A511s, and almost identical to the InstallESD.dmg inside the Lion App. Simple DVD/USB creation instructions for this were published back in June by TUAW.

Until now, a clean 10.7 install required the $29 Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD then the $29 OS X Lion Upgrade App, for a total of $60. The USB drive is $69, and allows users to skip 10.6 altogether. It also allows a complete network-free install of 10.7 without the need for a Mac App Store account.

The OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive will soon be the recommended installation media for custom builds, but we need a bit of time to test it first, and develop a direct method to boot it. Until then, the xMove + MultiBeast method will work with it. Stay tuned for further development.

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

Related Posts: 

OS X Lion Installation USB Drive Now Available

xMove + MultiBeast: Install OS X 10.7 Lion

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Mac OS X 10.7.1 Update

Today Apple released Mac OS X 10.7.1 the 1st major update to Mac OS X Lion. To update for any supported CPU, we recommend that you download the entire standalone installer.

Download the Mac OS X 10.7.1 Update

Be sure to back up any important data, and if possible clone your hard drive before applying the update. Testing is underway. Report your results in the forum here. 

What we know about 10.7.1 so far...

• 11.1.0 Darwin kernel
• New Graphics Drivers
• If you use edited kexts, most likely you'll have to make the edits again- or restore backups.
• The update will replace your AppleHDA.kext. 
• If you use ALC8xxHDA for audio, you will have to reinstall AppleHDA Rollback using MultiBeast. If you're using VoodooHDA, you will not need to make any modifications.
• If you use Sleepenabler.kext, remove before updating.

This post will be updated.

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OS X Lion Installation USB Drive Now Available

Today Apple released OS X Lion as a standalone installation USB drive. It's available online for $69. This marks the first time Apple has released Lion as a full offline installation of 10.7 that is not tied to any Mac App Store account. Earlier this month, Apple put out a free Lion Recovery Assistant tool, allowing Mac users to create an official USB Recovery drive, however it still requires internet access and a hefty download for each install.

Although we haven't actually laid hands on the drive itself, Apple has posted this:

When you install OS X Lion using the USB thumb drive, you will not be able to reinstall OS X Lion from Lion Recovery. You will need to use the USB thumb drive to reinstall OS X Lion.

This remark leads us to believe that the layout and contents of the USB will be much like the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Retail DVD. We will be updating iBoot which to allow a simple DVD or USB swap similar to the original iBoot + MultiBeast method. This guide will be available in the coming days. Stay tuned!

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

Related Posts: 
xMove + MultiBeast: Install OS X 10.7 Lion

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Increasing Disk Performance: SATA 6Gb/s PCI Express Cards Confirmed Working in OS X

We've confirmed that standard SATA 6Gb/s PCI Express Card adapters using the ASMedia ASM1061 (Asmedia 1061 SATA Host Controller) are working natively in OS X (10.6.8 and 10.7). So if your motherboard only has SATA 3Gb/s ports, you can now expand your system with faster 6Gb/s internal ports! Special thanks to notshy for the testing and info!

This year marked the first widespread distribution of SATA 6Gb/s. In fact, most 2011 H67/P67/Z68 motherboards are packing SATA 6Gb/s ports by default alongside the industry prevalent SATA 3Gb/s ports. This allows for double the data transfer speeds. 

Syba 2 Port SATA 6Gb/s PCI-Express x1 Card

Amazon Newegg

OCZ Vertex 3 SATA 6Gb/s MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) 

120 GB Amazon Newegg

240 GB Amazon Newegg

Corsair Force Series 3 SATA 6Gb/s Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) 

120 GB Amazon Newegg

240 GB Amazon Newegg

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 6Gb/s Internal Hard Drive 

1 TB Amazon Newegg
2 TB  Amazon Newegg
3 TB  Amazon Newegg

Please note due to a bootloader issue, drives larger than 1 TB cannot be used as a OS X system drive. Let us know in the comments how SATA 6Gb/s is working for you! Good luck!

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

Related Posts: 

Building a Sandy Bridge CustoMac: Recommended Builds for OS X

Building a CustoMac: 3 Upated LGA 1156 Builds for OS X

Building a CustoMac: CustoMac Pro 2010

Building a CustoMac: CustoMac Mini

Fully Compatible NVIDIA Graphics Cards

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

xMove Demo - OS X Lion Retail Installation Video

Related Posts: 

xMove + MultiBeast: Install OS X 10.7 Lion

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!