Mac OSX Lion full Install guide

Short review:

OSX Lion or just simply Lion, is Snow Leopard in lion's skin. I wrote a while back, how I don't want to upgrade my hack, and I sill didn't (in OSX Lion install problems). Apple decided to go for iOS look and feel in few programs. Mail, iCal, FaceTime, PhotoBooth look like they are ported directly from iPad. The new way to lunch apps on mac is Launchpad, which is GREAT! Really I didn't think I will say this but, they nailed it! It really speeds things up! I don't really get Mission Control which is just a minor improvement to Expose, but Launchpad is nice!

Let's think about it for a bit. The new Safari 5.1 introduced with Lion can be installed on Snow Leopard. Why? Because it is nice to have a secure and up to date browser on all systems. Wait! Wouldn't it be nice to have Lauchpad on every Snow Leopard running Mac, without the need of upgrading? As I said Lion is just like Snow Leopard with some minor tweaks here and there plus few apps in iOS look.

As we speak people are porting FrontRow back to Lion because they miss it! So why not port back? Would you upgrade to Lion if you would get Launchpad in next update??? 
I don't believe Apple will ever do that, so let's update!

!!!!Before we continue, please back up your data: most important for this installation is your Extra folder. Back it UP!!!!

OSX Lion update procedure:

1. Download Lion from the App Store

Problems downloading or verifying: modify boot.plist

<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
<string>Yes</string>

If you still have problems using App Store it is probably related to your Hackintosh Identifier like iMac 9,1 or MacBook 9,1. Those Identifiers don't exist and that's why using AppStore is failing! 

Use Lizard app or osx86 tools to quickly modify your data.

2. Make a copy of Install OSX Lion if you don't want to download it again.
If you have more then one system to install you can save yourself some time here. Just copy it from Application Folder, where it will be after download, to Application Folder on another mac or hack. 

Or use this guide to burn a bootable install DVD:


3. Start the OSX Lion Installer

If you don't get any errors like: "This disk cannot be used to start up your computer" you will have to reinstall Chameleon or in worst case scenario do a fresh Snow Leopard install. 





4. After install is finished start, restart your computer and boot back into Snow Leopard
At the boot screen in Chameleon (yes u have it installed to run Snow Leopard) choose, Snow Leopard partition. If you don't remember seeing this boot screen you will have to change /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist to something like this:


<key>Timeout</key>
<string>10</string>


Add it to your Boot.plist or change 0 string to a value you like.



5. After booting to Snow Leopard open Disk Utility and create a new partition for Lion Installer. It should be big enough for all OSX Lion install files. Lets Make it 8GB!

Partition:

HFS Journaled or Mac OS Extended Journaled with GUID partition table.
Don't forget to go into options and check if GUID is enabled.

6. Open xMove from tonymacx86 and run it. All this program does is copying all the files OSX Lion Installer unpacked on your Snow Leopard partition to your newly created partition. 

WARNING: DO NOT choose existing Snow Leopard as the Destination.
(thanks Zinzan) 

7. Install Chameleon 2.0 on your 8GB Partition and your Snow Leopard drive so that Lion Installer can boot and.

Use this guide found at

A. Installing Lion on separate New Drive:

After step 7 you install OSX Lion on your new hard drive. After install you boot into Snow Leopard to install Chameleon on new hard drive where you installed OSX Lion.

B. You want to install over Snow Leopard partition.
In step 7 you already installed new lion compatible Chameleon on Snow Leopard partition.

C. If you have problems booting your newly installed OS use bootable version of iBoot 3.1 or higher to boot into your partition. Remember to back up your Extra folder.
by osx86install