[tutorial] Installing OSX to a USB key

Here is a total newbie guide to install OSX86 onto a USB thumb drive.

***requires a working installation of OSX to do this***

Requirements:

A USB thumb drive (i'm using a 8bg model)
A installation DVD


1. Insert your USB drive into your computer that is running OSX, it should appear on your desktop. Next, open a finder window and go to utilities, then open Disk Utility app. This is where we will format your USB drive. Select your drive from the right hand side, then choose options and select GUID Partition Table.


Next, select 1 partition, give it a name and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format type and then click apply.


2. Now your drive should be formatted. However, with thumb drives owners enabled is turned off. In order for OSX to install to a drive owners enabled must be yes. Right-click your drive on the desktop and get info. You will see that ignore ownership is checked off, you must unlock the lock, enter your password when it asks and de-select the ignore ownership, then lock it back up


Now your drive will show that owner enabled is yes.


3. Now it is time to install OSX onto your USB thumb drive. Normally if you insert your install DVD and double click the installer it asks you to rebbot and boot from cd. There is a better way to do this does not require to boot from disc or the need to reboot after completion. Now click menu and go to your utilities folder and open Terminal. Enter this command in the terminal shell:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

This exposes the hidden files and folders on your OSX installation. This helps us because we can go to the OS installer package which does not need to boot from disc.


4. Now insert your disc, it should appear on your desktop (i'm using ideneb v1.3 10.5.5)


Now that you have exposed the hidden files on your OSX it should show a bunch of folders when you double click your disk


now we want to open the installer mpkg so that we dont need to restart. We go ideneb>system>installation>packages>OSInstall.mpkg


5. Now double click the OSInstall.mpkg, agree to the terms, now change install location and select your drive.



Now let it install, it will take a while so be patient. After it completes your should see this.


Now after the installation is completed, you should open a terminal window from your utilities folder and hide your hidden files again.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

Now you should be able to plug this drive into your computer and change your bios to boot from usb and OSX86 should load up.

6. Certain applications in OSX require that a root user has been enabled. I noticed that it was not enabled and I couldn't use any sudo commands in terminal or using kexthelper for example. Open a finder window in your utilities folder and open directory utility, then click the file menu and select enable root user.


Hopefully this is helpful.

Torrentmasta

****Next guide will be how to replace kernels on your USB drive****