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Finally with the information and help from d3vi1, I was able to install Windows 7 under GUID partition (Macbook 5,2).

Nicely enabled AHCI and that was only my reason to do this mess.

Thanks to d3vi1 once again.

Well, this is rather nice :)
Could you explain your process of installation and configuration?
d3vi1, can we have some more insight on how to do this, which machines are supported, some test samples, …?

Also, did you have to delete OSX partition, or it can stay as it is?
 
Last edited:
From my experience:
The OSX partition can stay where it is. However, it needs to be the only partition on the drive, or Windows will complain about the disk having an MBR (when a drive has multiple partitions, Mac OS makes a GPT-MBR hybrid, which Windows doesn't like). I did manage to install W7 this way once, but I could never get the resulting installation to boot. I assume we need d3vi1's tool for that.
 
For those of you who have been invited to the beta program, who has been able to get it working?

I've been out of the loop for the past month, and I let d3vi1 know that I would not be able to test until my semester ended, so he removed me from the email list (at least I assume he did).

Last time I tried it, I had problems getting Windows to properly load the setup environment in EFI mode, even using the DUET EFI CD to boot into the Windows setup.

I was able to do everything else though, and I thought it was all pretty straight forward. Maybe I'm misunderstanding one of the steps.

Here's what I sent d3vi1 in an email of my steps performed, but I don't remember it all, as it was a while back.

I'm stuck from step 4 to step 8. I'm not sure how we're supposed to boot the USB drive. Here's the two ways I've tried to do it.

1st Way:
1) Select the "Windows" CD boot option for the DUET EFI in the Apple Boot selector. This brings up a menu driven system from booting from an EFI drive. I think the problem is that the Apple EFI forces BIOS Emulation on this.
2) I select your Shell_x64.efi image (renamed bootx64.efi in efi\microsoft\boot\).
3) In the new shell, I use the mm 001f0290 60 -PCI command. It doesn't report an error, so everything is good at this point.
4) In the shell, i type efi\microsoft\boot\bootmgfw.efi, and the setup loads, but at the drive configuration page, it says I have a MBR table. Keep in mind that I completely wiped the drive, and configured the drive with 2 partitions from the start. I think this is from the Apple BIOS emulations. Maybe you can correct me here.

2nd Way:
1) Boot from the partition label as EFI, which is also the DUET EFI disk.
2) This brings me into a shell. I find the disk where the Windows setup is located, and run the bootx64.efi to boot into the new shell.
3) I run the mm 001f0290 60 -PCI command, no errors, all good.
4) I then run the efi\microsoft\boot\bootmgfw.efi, and the setup begins to load, but just gets stuck right at the end of the loading pass. The CD spins up a few times, and the flash drive has activity for a bit, but after that, nothing happens. It just gets stuck there.

Any advice, or help? Did I do something wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Ryan
 
For those of you who have been invited to the beta program, who has been able to get it working?

I've been out of the loop for the past month, and I let d3vi1 know that I would not be able to test until my semester ended, so he removed me from the email list (at least I assume he did).

Last time I tried it, I had problems getting Windows to properly load the setup environment in EFI mode, even using the DUET EFI CD to boot into the Windows setup.

I was able to do everything else though, and I thought it was all pretty straight forward. Maybe I'm misunderstanding one of the steps.

Here's what I sent d3vi1 in an email of my steps performed, but I don't remember it all, as it was a while back.



Any advice, or help? Did I do something wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Ryan

Which version is your macbook and windows are you trying to install??
 
4) In the shell, i type efi\microsoft\boot\bootmgfw.efi, and the setup loads, but at the drive configuration page, it says I have a MBR table. Keep in mind that I completely wiped the drive, and configured the drive with 2 partitions from the start. I think this is from the Apple BIOS emulations. Maybe you can correct me here.
Did you setup the partitions using Mac OS, and did you format the second partition as FAT (or HFS, or whatever else) rather than blank space? If so: Disk Utility, for Bootcamp compatibility reasons, will create a GPT-MBR hybrid if you tell it to make more than one partition on the drive (not counting EFI partitions and blank space). Once this has happened, despite the presence of the GPT, Windows will detect it as an MBR disk and will refuse to install on it. There are two possible options:
1. Blank the HDD, don't install Mac OS or anything else to it, and set up from scratch using Windows. In this case, Windows will automatically build the GPT and EFI system partitions for you.
2. In Mac OS, format the HDD as two partitions, and select Blank Space for the type of the second. Windows should then allow you to create a new partition and install in that blank space.

Hope that helped. :)
 
Here is some bug that I am experiencing after installing under EFI mode.

1. No Boot Camp Control Panel
---------------------------
Boot Camp
---------------------------
An error occurred while trying to access the startup disk settings.

You may not have privileges to change the startup disk. Make sure you have administrative privileges and try again.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

2. No Brightness buttons
Every single function works except this (F1, F2)
Is it just me or any other people experience this issue? (I used bootcamp 4.0 driver)


For all other people who is waiting for d3vi1's application, I did not had chance to use his program but d3vi1 helped me to install it without his application.


If you want to try without his application, get ready for these items.

1. Windows 8 on USB1
- min 8GB required and use UltraISO to make bootable USB.
- DO NOT USE Microsoft tool to create bootable USB since that tool will format your USB as NTFS which is not good for installing Windows 8

2. Extract "bootmgfw.efi" and put into USB1/EFI/Boot/
- you can extract bootmgfw.efi from source/install.wim -> Windows\Boot\EFI\
- extract bootmgfw.efi, put in USB1/EFI/Boot/, rename it to bootx64.efi

3. rEFIT on USB2
- http://refit.sourceforge.net/doc/c1s1_install.html

4. CLEAN disk WITHOUT ANY PARTITION
- somepeople confuse with clean disk as no data inside. disk has to be without any partition. If you want to wipe out all partitions, use diskutil(OSX) or diskpart(Win7). These utils are commandline based.

5. Bootup with USB2 (Option key during booting)

6. If you go into rEFIT menu, you will see item with efi/boot/bootx86.efi. This is EFI installation of Windows 8.

If you dont have problem with installing windows 8 after these step, you have chance to install Windows 7 as well (no safemode support tho)
 
I have the same problem with Bootcamp. It doesn't launch when you are in AHCI mode in BIOS or EFI boot.

(http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=126089&st=320

I'm pretty sure I read that it is the first panel which doesn't work and that we can bypass this panel in changing the panel the bootcamp app starts and it might be possible to activate/deactivate option ; I'm pretty sure Regedit is used to do that but I don't find the article.

Don't you think it's possible to log the Regedit change on "regular" bootcamp system ? For each option we could have the key to change.
But for the start panel I think we need Apple to make change ; even the pref panel on Mac OS X it's not capable to boot on the Windows partition : it launch the Bios Mode and fail.

For The Brightness buttons, I think it's a driver's problem : I experienced the same with Windows 7 beta but once nvidia has developped a complete drivers problems are gone. Have you tried another drivers for your graphic card (Intel/AMD/Nvidia) ?
 
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Regarding The partition sheme I have a question.

Is "diskpart (Windows) / select disk x / clean" is the same as "diskutil (MacOsX) / partition / 1 partition / Free Space for this partition".

I said that because with "diskpart" it seems there is nothing on disk BUT "diskutils" hide some partitions like "APPLE EFI". So I could we be sure it "clean" everithing.

I'm pretty sure there some informations about the configuration on "APPLE EFI" partition. You can try by launching MacOSX Lion installation and setup your Wifi and your keyboard, abort, reboot and re-launching the installation : Wifi and keyboard are configured. Now clean your disk with diskpart on Windows Install and you will have to setup up your Wifi and keyboard under MacOsX Installation.

BUT, I said pretty sure because I use SD card for installation and maybe it write on it but it would be very weird.

Thanks for your attention.
 
Which version is your macbook and windows are you trying to install??

17" Mid 2010 MacBook Pro (MacBookPro 6,1)

Windows 7 SP1 64-bit

Did you setup the partitions using Mac OS, and did you format the second partition as FAT (or HFS, or whatever else) rather than blank space? If so: Disk Utility, for Bootcamp compatibility reasons, will create a GPT-MBR hybrid if you tell it to make more than one partition on the drive (not counting EFI partitions and blank space). Once this has happened, despite the presence of the GPT, Windows will detect it as an MBR disk and will refuse to install on it. There are two possible options:
1. Blank the HDD, don't install Mac OS or anything else to it, and set up from scratch using Windows. In this case, Windows will automatically build the GPT and EFI system partitions for you.
2. In Mac OS, format the HDD as two partitions, and select Blank Space for the type of the second. Windows should then allow you to create a new partition and install in that blank space.

Hope that helped. :)

I wish I could remember how I setup the disk. I believe I started off by wiping the entire drive, but I used the Mac Installer, and created a 2 partition GPT disk, where one was the HFS, but the other I formatted at FAT32. This may very well be the problem.

Also, does anyone have the DUET EFI ISO that was created by d3vi1? The link in his email no longer works.
 
17" Mid 2010 MacBook Pro (MacBookPro 6,1)

Windows 7 SP1 64-bit



I wish I could remember how I setup the disk. I believe I started off by wiping the entire drive, but I used the Mac Installer, and created a 2 partition GPT disk, where one was the HFS, but the other I formatted at FAT32. This may very well be the problem.

Also, does anyone have the DUET EFI ISO that was created by d3vi1? The link in his email no longer works.

You will not see any screen on windows 7 due to reasons on other posts.

Try windows 8 first and see if you not getting any BCD error.

If not, you can make AutoUnattend.xml for Windows 7 to install.
 
For The Brightness buttons, I think it's a driver's problem : I experienced the same with Windows 7 beta but once nvidia has developped a complete drivers problems are gone. Have you tried another drivers for your graphic card (Intel/AMD/Nvidia) ?

I used bootcamp 4 driver first.
Since it didnt work, I also tried "285.62-notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql" which is most recent driver from nvidia, but still fail.

Regarding The partition sheme I have a question.

Is "diskpart (Windows) / select disk x / clean" is the same as "diskutil (MacOsX) / partition / 1 partition / Free Space for this partition".

I said that because with "diskpart" it seems there is nothing on disk BUT "diskutils" hide some partitions like "APPLE EFI". So I could we be sure it "clean" everithing.

honestly, I never tried diskutil.
I always hook the harddrive to comp with usb under windows.
diskpart and clean is soo much easier to me :D
 
You will not see any screen on windows 7 due to reasons on other posts.

Try windows 8 first and see if you not getting any BCD error.

If not, you can make AutoUnattend.xml for Windows 7 to install.

Can you share your autounattend.xml? I can get windows 8 to install without issue, but I can't seem to get the autounattend.xml right for windows 7. The setup definitely - it creates the partitions, but nothing seems to happen after that. Thanks@
 
Just a comment, and simple way of installing windows without bootcamp.

1st. use bootcamp to partition windows 7
2nd. when installing windows 7 click custom install, format bootcamp
3rd. install on that partition
4th. use MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 7.0 to delete all partitions besides windows AND THE 200MB PARTITION. Resize windows as big as you want.
now you have windows on a mac with no drivers.

update Nvidia, is the only driver i know of.

if you ever have problems then reset the nvram and install mac os X.
Windows ftw...
 
1. Windows 8 on USB1
- min 8GB required and use UltraISO to make bootable USB.
- DO NOT USE Microsoft tool to create bootable USB since that tool will format your USB as NTFS which is not good for installing Windows 8

2. Extract "bootmgfw.efi" and put into USB1/EFI/Boot/
- you can extract bootmgfw.efi from source/install.wim -> Windows\Boot\EFI\
- extract bootmgfw.efi, put in USB1/EFI/Boot/, rename it to bootx64.efi

3. rEFIT on USB2
- http://refit.sourceforge.net/doc/c1s1_install.html

4. CLEAN disk WITHOUT ANY PARTITION
- somepeople confuse with clean disk as no data inside. disk has to be without any partition. If you want to wipe out all partitions, use diskutil(OSX) or diskpart(Win7). These utils are commandline based.

5. Bootup with USB2 (Option key during booting)

6. If you go into rEFIT menu, you will see item with efi/boot/bootx86.efi. This is EFI installation of Windows 8.

If you dont have problem with installing windows 8 after these step, you have chance to install Windows 7 as well (no safemode support tho)

Alright, I'm attempting this now on my MBP5,5, but I'm confused. I got Windows 8 installed fine, but where do I go from here and how do I get a working W7 installation? Assuming I can do that, is there anything special I need to make graphics drivers work?
 
Alright, I'm attempting this now on my MBP5,5, but I'm confused. I got Windows 8 installed fine, but where do I go from here and how do I get a working W7 installation? Assuming I can do that, is there anything special I need to make graphics drivers work?

According to d3vi1, some macbook will have problem with DCB which I never had.

This is only process to determine if your macbook will produce DCB error or not.
 
Ah, got it. MBP5,5 had no problems. Tried the same thing on MBP8,2 and got an error. Any theories as to why that happens?
 
I think all that needs to be done (assuming you can install Windows 8 via EFI) is to integrate the Nvidia drivers (or ATI I guess - it's Nvidia on my Macook Pro 5,3) into the Windows 7 image (via 7lite or something) and do an autounattend.xml to get it to install automatically.

Working on trying to figure out what needs to be done for the autounattend.xml now - its tricky when you can't see exactly whats failing though. I know I can get it to create the partitions (I can see that afterwards when I reboot into the Windows 8 setup disk), but it doesn't format the windows partition so of course it doesn't get any further than that.
 
For those of you who have been invited to the beta program, who has been able to get it working?
.......
Ryan

Tried several times, had some email exchange and gave up on it in the end - I could no longer spent time on experimenting, had to get the machine into production.
 
There are people posting wrong information regarding this issue.

Let me clear few things.

1. You need to setup proper pci register to get accelerated graphic card working.
This part has not covered very much in other threads since not so many people came this far. This is nothing to do with AutoUnattend.xml, or Integrating driver.

2. This is nothing to do with Bootcamp.
Bootcamp is BIOS emulation. This post is about EFI!!!
Stop confusing people.



So, at this moment, there are two option to bring EFI.

1. Wait for d3vi1's application.
I dont know how long would it takes to done but theoretically, with his application, you dont have to worry about anything except installing.

2. Manually installing.
This requires AutoUnattend.xml, integrated driver for video, proper pci register value(you set it during boot in efi shell with 'mm' command)

----------

I think all that needs to be done (assuming you can install Windows 8 via EFI) is to integrate the Nvidia drivers (or ATI I guess - it's Nvidia on my Macook Pro 5,3) into the Windows 7 image (via 7lite or something) and do an autounattend.xml to get it to install automatically.

Working on trying to figure out what needs to be done for the autounattend.xml now - its tricky when you can't see exactly whats failing though. I know I can get it to create the partitions (I can see that afterwards when I reboot into the Windows 8 setup disk), but it doesn't format the windows partition so of course it doesn't get any further than that.

Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SetupUILanguage>
                <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US </UILanguage>
            <UserLocale>en-US </UserLocale>
            <InputLocale>en-US</InputLocale>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<DiskConfiguration>
			   <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
			   <Disk wcm:action="add">
				  <DiskID>0</DiskID>
				  <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
				  <CreatePartitions>
					 <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
						<Order>1</Order>
						<Type>EFI</Type>
						<Size>100</Size>
					 </CreatePartition>
					 <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
						<Order>2</Order>
						<Type>MSR</Type>
						<Size>128</Size>
					 </CreatePartition>
					 <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
						<Order>3</Order>
						<Type>Primary</Type>
						<Extend>true</Extend>
					 </CreatePartition>
				  </CreatePartitions>
				  <ModifyPartitions>
					 <ModifyPartition>
						<Order>1</Order>
						<PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
						<Label>System</Label>
						<Format>FAT32</Format> 
					 </ModifyPartition>
					 <ModifyPartition>
						<Order>2</Order>
						<PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
						<Letter>C</Letter>
						<Format>NTFS</Format>
						<Label>Windows</Label>
					 </ModifyPartition>
				  </ModifyPartitions>
			   </Disk>
			</DiskConfiguration>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallFrom>
                        <MetaData wcm:action="add">
                            <Key>/IMAGE/INDEX</Key>
                            <Value>4</Value>
                        </MetaData>
                    </InstallFrom>
					<InstallTo>
						<DiskID>0</DiskID> 
						<PartitionID>3</PartitionID> 
					</InstallTo>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>
            <UserData>
                <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
            </UserData>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <AutoLogon>
                <Enabled>true</Enabled>
                <LogonCount>1</LogonCount>
                <Username>Administrator</Username>
            </AutoLogon>
            <OOBE>
                <SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
            </OOBE>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:i:/sources/install_windows 7 ultimatek.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Also, I suggest you to integrate graphic driver to install.wim.
Plus, you need to know how to set proper pci register for your graphic card.
 
Plus, you need to know how to set proper pci register for your graphic card.

So why don't we make a database ; seems to be easy regarding the number of graphic card in mac world !

Plus maybe it would be useful to D3vi1.
 
Here is some bug that I am experiencing after installing under EFI mode.

1. No Boot Camp Control Panel
---------------------------
Boot Camp
---------------------------
An error occurred while trying to access the startup disk settings.

You may not have privileges to change the startup disk. Make sure you have administrative privileges and try again.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

2. No Brightness buttons
Every single function works except this (F1, F2)
Is it just me or any other people experience this issue? (I used bootcamp 4.0 driver)


For all other people who is waiting for d3vi1's application, I did not had chance to use his program but d3vi1 helped me to install it without his application.


If you want to try without his application, get ready for these items.

1. Windows 8 on USB1
- min 8GB required and use UltraISO to make bootable USB.
- DO NOT USE Microsoft tool to create bootable USB since that tool will format your USB as NTFS which is not good for installing Windows 8

2. Extract "bootmgfw.efi" and put into USB1/EFI/Boot/
- you can extract bootmgfw.efi from source/install.wim -> Windows\Boot\EFI\
- extract bootmgfw.efi, put in USB1/EFI/Boot/, rename it to bootx64.efi

3. rEFIT on USB2
- http://refit.sourceforge.net/doc/c1s1_install.html

4. CLEAN disk WITHOUT ANY PARTITION
- somepeople confuse with clean disk as no data inside. disk has to be without any partition. If you want to wipe out all partitions, use diskutil(OSX) or diskpart(Win7). These utils are commandline based.

5. Bootup with USB2 (Option key during booting)

6. If you go into rEFIT menu, you will see item with efi/boot/bootx86.efi. This is EFI installation of Windows 8.

If you dont have problem with installing windows 8 after these step, you have chance to install Windows 7 as well (no safemode support tho)

Windows 8 does not install properly under EFI. I do get the BCD problem. I try to replace the BCD file with the template, but I'm unable to understand the directions on how to change the BCD to point it to the correct files.
 
So why don't we make a database ; seems to be easy regarding the number of graphic card in mac world !

Plus maybe it would be useful to D3vi1.

I thought about that too but its kinda useless...

According to d3vi1, there are some macbook that requires to run option rom.
So, even it is same macbook, if option rom of VGA is different, we need different database.

To find proper pci register, I am not really sure how to do it tho...
d3vi1 helped me with this part in depth but I lost the conversation with him...

----------

Windows 8 does not install properly under EFI. I do get the BCD problem. I try to replace the BCD file with the template, but I'm unable to understand the directions on how to change the BCD to point it to the correct files.

Your best luck is wait for d3vi1's program :(
 
---------------------------
Boot Camp
---------------------------
An error occurred while trying to access the startup disk settings.

You may not have privileges to change the startup disk. Make sure you have administrative privileges and try again.

Insert a bootable CD in and it will work.
The error comes from no detectable OS instances in the startup disk tab. The Control Panel doesn't know how to react to GPT-only partition tables.
Unfortunately startup disk is the least important tab of the control panel.
Personally, I'm curious how it works, since in CSM Windows doesn't have access to the EFI Variable Services. Somehow, Apple knows how to access the EFI from the CSM.

----------

Regarding the BCD issue, on my systems there is no issue on MBP5,3, but it fails on MBP6,2. My guess is that it tries to access RS->QueryVariableInfo and it is partly implemented on MBP5,3 and not on others.
From what I can understand MBP5,X are the only ones that don't have the BCD issue.
I've managed to finish porting my program to GCC from a virtualized MSVC which should be of great help.

----------

According to d3vi1, there are some macbook that requires to run option rom.
So, even it is same macbook, if option rom of VGA is different, we need different database.
Or if it's a different monitor or an external one connected.

I've ported my program to GCC so that I can include the SciTech x86 emulator since in most implementations that I've seen (CoreBoot, SeaBios, XOrg, etc.) for using the VGA services, they use the x86emu.

x86emu is an impressive piece of software but too complex for me to port it by myself to MSVC. It was written for the Wacom compiler, but later maintained in the CoreBoot and XOrg trees for GCC.
 
Insert a bootable CD in and it will work.
The error comes from no detectable OS instances in the startup disk tab. The Control Panel doesn't know how to react to GPT-only partition tables.
Unfortunately startup disk is the least important tab of the control panel.
Personally, I'm curious how it works, since in CSM Windows doesn't have access to the EFI Variable Services. Somehow, Apple knows how to access the EFI from the CSM.

----------

Regarding the BCD issue, on my systems there is no issue on MBP5,3, but it fails on MBP6,2. My guess is that it tries to access RS->QueryVariableInfo and it is partly implemented on MBP5,3 and not on others.
From what I can understand MBP5,X are the only ones that don't have the BCD issue.
I've managed to finish porting my program to GCC from a virtualized MSVC which should be of great help.

I sent you an email earlier this week regarding getting back on the test team. I was going to try to go back and do it all again, but the DUET EFI link you provided in your emails is gone. Was there anything special with it? Can I just make my own? Can you relink to it?

Thanks,
Ryan
 
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