Extra Folder And Its Components

In every Hackintosh partition, there’s always an “Extra” folder in the root of the partition. It’s a good practice to understand how the components inside the Extra folder work so we can customize our own components. In all my Hackintosh PCs, the Extra folder consists of: dsdt.aml, smbios.plist, org.chameleon.Boot.plist (for chameleon version 11xx which is used for most of the hackintosh these days), Extensions folder, Themes folder, RemovedExtensions (when I use myHack to remove problematic extensions).

extra folder

Extensions folder: inside includes all the kexts we want the Hackintosh to load to work with the system, for vanilla installation, put custom kexts in here to test out and use with our particular hardware.

Extensions folder

RemovedExtensions Folder

RemovedExtensions Folder

Themes folder is to display custom background and icons for Chameleon boot screen. Create your own background with correct resolutions and put it in the Default folder inside Themes.

Themes_Default Folder

The 3 files:

org.chameleon.Boot.plist: This one has all the flags you want Chameleon boot loader to boot with for your system hardware.

When I have time, I’ll go into flags details on org.chameleon.Boot.plist or Google them. These are the one I use and they’re seem efficient.

edit org.chameleon.Boot.plist

smbios.plist: This one tells the OS what hardware set it’s running, it’s important to know your hardware and how close it is to the real Mac hardware version.

smbiosplist

dsdt.aml: This is to tell the OS what hardware and software in our hardware system. Don’t use the wrong edited ones, you can’t boot from having it if it’s not compatible with your hardware.

How do we create our own Extra folder for our specific hackintosh?

It’s depends upon which installer you use: Unibeast or myHack, the only difference will be their Extensions folder inside the Extra folder. So whatever you use to Hackintosh your computer, the SMBios.plist and org.chameleon.Boot.plist are the 2 files you need to customize for your Hackintosh. These are examples for my 3 systems: Lenovo HD3000 0116:8086, i5 2500k 0116:8086 P8Z68 and H61M (z68 and HM65 chipset) and I use myHack installer to install Lion and Mountain Lion.

Lenovo G770 Extra folder: I have dsdt.aml patched with NO HDEF (for voodooHDA not to crash-kernel panic) when AppleHDA.kext is in the extension folder and 1 with HDEF. My SMBios.plist is Macbook pro 8,1. You need to create your own serial number for iCloud registration (5Gb free with Apple),

Lenovo Extra Folder     Macbook pro 8,1 SMBios.plist

Lenovo Boot.plist with device properties for 0116:8086     Lenovo E/Extensions folder

So, when we create myHack Lion or Mountain Lion installer, if we modify the Extra folder with our Extra folder, we don’t have to do anything after the installation, just boot straight to the new Lion or Mountain Lion partition and we’re in business- 1 stop installing. We will have Sleep, Voodoo battery, full QE/CI/CL.

myHack installer Extra folder

myHack USB ML installer     myHack Extra folder

If you want to be safe, create the Extra folder with all the kexts and dsdt.aml you want, copy to the Installer name it like ExtraML, just add the SMBios.plist mac book pro 8,1 to myHack Extra folder (this is a must for booting), then when myHack installer ask for Extra folder, point to this ExtraML folder in the installer. I did enough times to confidently replace myHack Extra folder with my Extra.

Here are the files if you need for your Lenovo, make sure it’s the same one: SMBios.plist, org.chameleon.Boot.plist, dsdt.aml (patched with everything: backlit slider, tears, artifacts),voodoobattery.kext (2), sleepenabler.kext (lion), sleepenabler.kext (Mountain lion) they are different.

If you need to create Extra folder for desktop Z68 or HM65 chipsets, all you need is the different org.chameleon.Boot.plist with PciRoot=1 and no device-properties for HD3000. Don’t use dsdt.aml from Lenovo. All other kexts are the same for both Laptop and Desktop.



1 Comment

  • Hello.
    i have reading your post , and i have plan to installing my G770 ,

    i am trying download some files for [Extra folder], but i can’t,

    can you help me, and send me [Extra folder] files ??

    thanks.

    Eric. C

    my email: aphoneman@gmail.com

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