While I succeded installing Leopard from HD, I wonder if the same is possible with Tiger.
Basically, I do the following:
- Put Installer DVD contents in an HFS partition
- Add specific kexts for my hardware
- Make it bootable (see here:
- Enjoy installing without wasting a DVD =)

While this is straightforward with Leopard, I never got this to work with Tiger. The system boots, single user mode works, but at normal boot, the GUI does not come up. The system just hangs with those last messages before the GUI should come up (ATSServer etc.)

I bet this IS possible, but has anybody ever succeeded in doing so?

Instead of adjusting your Extensions folder on your Install HD partition, better put your Extensions in /System/Library/Extensions.mkext. It works for me while building custom install DVDs.

PS: Just wipe out Extensions folder unless you're going to use a kernel without decryption built in it. That's a bit tricky since if you put r3d3.kext or dsmos.kext into the .mkext it will not setup commpage area properly. In this case you still need both Extensions folder with r3d3.kext or dsmos.kext + System.kext for resolving dependencies and an .mkext. Plus load the robot.kext in /etc/rc.cdrom after the line where kextd starts for example.

So far my understanding is that if there is no .mkext file present, Darwin Loader and later kext will read the kexts from Extensions/ folder. This gives more flexibility while testing, as do not need to un- and repack that .mkext file all over again.

I still have problems with the GUI, though. ATSServer complains "Cannot use ATS Persistent store - switching to old FODB code". Then the system just sits there and no GUI comes up.

Somehow it does really matter for the Install media if you put your kexts into Extensions folder or make an .mkext using them. With the second scenario you'll get to the GUI otherwise get those ATS errors. At least that was the case back in the old 10.4.1-10.4.3 days.