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Unaware of the current issues with Third-Party SSD support on Yosemite I went ahead and bought a 128 GB Crucial MX100 SSD.

I hear a lot of problems about enabling Trim on Yosemite etc.

I recently download Chameleon SSD Optimizer. Using this software I enabled Trim and smart optimization.

Question 1:

What is all the commotion about Trim? Chameleon seemed to have no problem enabling Trim.

Question 2:

What options should I set with Chameleon SSD Optimizer (i.e - Sudden Motion Sensor, NOATIME, Time Machine, Sleep Mode/Image)?

Basically, what is it that Chameleon does to optimize SSD performance and where does Trim come into this, and why are people giving out, this is my main curiosity? Everything seems OK to me...

I would like as much info as possible but assume no prior knowledge

Gregory Peck
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  • Please try to keep to one question. Regarding both of your questions, Chameleon's website explains what it does, why Chameleon (or similar software) is required to enable TRIM support, and what the particular options do. If you have specific questions about the explanations, please edit your question to include them. – tubedogg Mar 15 '15 at 05:14

2 Answers2

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The TRIM command was introduced to facilitate “garbage collection” of deleted data, allowing the SSD to reset those “unused” blocks back to an “empty” state. This allows for better performance for many SSDs.

All Chameleon does is hack your SSD to enable TRIM. What the hack does is basically tell the OS that the non-Apple SSDs in the system are Apple drives so TRIM can be engaged with them.

Some people have not been able to boot up with Yosemite because it doesn't support TRIM but programs such as Chameleon have created a work around. The real issue is that the TRIM hack needed to be applied every time you upgraded to a new OS version, which was a real pain. But now that is not a issue. Hope this helps.

tubedogg
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TechScrum
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The Trim command helps with “garbage collection” of deleted data, resetting those now-unused blocks to an empty state at the time of file deletion. This allows for better performance for many SSDs, because waiting for the next write operation that requires use of that space to reset the blocks can significantly lower the speed of the write operation.

Chameleon, and similar software such as Trim Enabler, modify a kernel extension (essentially a driver) to enable TRIM support for non-Apple branded SSDs.

With the release of Yosemite, kernel extensions are now required to be signed. Since these pieces of software modify the kernel extension, the digital signature is no longer in place and OS X will refuse to boot. The work-around is to disable the kernel extension signing requirement. The Trim Enabler Yosemite FAQ has more details on this.

tubedogg
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