AppleVIAATA over 4gb RAM bug solved (at least i believe so)! JMicron and AppleNForceATA at development, For those who has trouble with ATA drivers and more than 4gb of ram. Options

[chris3g]

Just wanted to say thanks, your jmicron driver solved my issue.

I had moved from a p5w-dh to a p45-ud3p, and on the new board the only port for my IDE DVD-RW is on the jmicron controller. I was getting kernel panics every time i tried to burn a disc and occasionally at other times when accessing the drive. The modified driver (with JMB360) has cleared up all my problems!

[digital_dreamer]

SATA External drives icons its just a chosmetic change, it got no effect on functionality.
I'm not sure about your logic, maybe its flawed, I think chameleon ignores anything in \Extra\Extensions if there is a \Extra\extensions.mkext
That was my point exactly, if you have something in there you might not be loading the correct AppleViaATA. Thats why I suggested getting rid of everything there not really needed for booting.
From what I know if there is an extensions.mkext the extensions folder is ignored (unless booting with -f, this is true for OS X but I'm not sure if its the same for chameleon, maybe chameleon always uses extensions.mkext if it exists).
Chameleon (both in kext or mkext) extensions dont override vanilla extensions automatically nor the opposite, all the extensions are loaded first chameleon and then vanilla, and the best one is chosen according to OS X matching rules (version numbers, IOProbeScore...); so if for example you have 2 appleviaata.kext, one in chameleon and another in \S\L\E, you dont know which one is loaded, it depends on their plist definitions (I think higher versions are favored first, and if same version, higher ioprobescore personalities are favored, but I'm not sure about this).

I just wanted to add my experience on this mkext and /Extra directory issue:
I originally had a script that set up the Chameleon 2 RC1 /Extra and /Extra/Extensions directories. But, when we threw the kexts in /Extra/Extensions and created the boot cache in /Extra, there were a lot of troubling reports from various users losing USB hot-plugging, bluetooth, etc. Obviously, the system.kext plugins were not always loading. Why? What we found out was that we couldn't have the System.kext (or any other kext) in /Extra/Extensions with a boot cache from it. There's some confusion taking place in Chameleon regarding having both. The solution was to either (1) install System.kext in S/L/E (not a good solution for a vanilla install), (2) delete System.kext in /Extra/Extensions (not ideal, if you wanted to update your boot cache and your kexts are gone), (3) rename "Extensions" folder to something else (best solution).

So, now, I don't use an /Extra/Extensions, but /Extra/Stored_Kexts, and build the boot cache from it. Chameleon ignores this folder and this method doesn't cause any confusion for it. Everything loads correctly. Of course, there are still dependency issues, but that's to be expected.

I might add that we never did try just the /Extensions method, without the boot cache. But, I didn't want to go that route, as the mkext provides faster booting and is the Apple-approved method with Snow Leopard on the way.

Hopefully, this feedback may clear up any issues regarding what really gets loaded and how to fix it.

As a added bonus, after my script builds the boot cache (mkext), it changes the permissions of the Stored_Kexts folder to 777 to allow users to add/delete kext at will, knowing that this folder does not contain the live kexts the system is actually booting from.

[GUIDE] Retail OS X Install (10.5.6) on Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 (Core i7) Mobo

kind regards,
MAJ

[Undead Surfer]

I'm wondering. Is there constant development going on for this version of the driver or is the development being done by MeDevil?

It seems that this version of the driver has sorted out a few quirks that I would have been experiencing. I was unable to install XCode without booting with CPUS=1. Constant crashing during the install. I was unable to clone a drive either using Carbon Copy Cloner until I switched over to this driver.

Good stuff.

[d00m42]

Just wanted to say thanks, your jmicron driver solved my issue.

I had moved from a p5w-dh to a p45-ud3p, and on the new board the only port for my IDE DVD-RW is on the jmicron controller. I was getting kernel panics every time i tried to burn a disc and occasionally at other times when accessing the drive. The modified driver (with JMB360) has cleared up all my problems!

Lol dude I also moved from a P5W-DH to a EP45-UD3R, and I would get kernel panics everytime I tried to burn a disk and occasionally at other times when accessing the drive. I guess I'll try what you just did rofl!

[pyrates]

I have a fresh install of OS X Leopard 10.5.6 with the nforce ata driver 0.1 and I'm finding it is freezing after a few minutes after booting. Here is my specs:

core 2 quad q6600
p5n32-e sli plus
8 gb of ram

Should I try the debug driver to find out what the issue is? And how do I use it? Is there something special that needs to be done on startup?

[junguoau]

Last update: 11/12/2008

Basically, the problem is when you have more than 3 gb of ram (some says 2.5 gb) and AppleVIAATA, JMicronATA, AppleNForceATA or AppleATIATA driver.

In my case, I've got 2 IDE HDD and when I upgraded to 4 gb of ram, my desktop started to freeze, or give kernel panics (AppleVIAATA).

After some hours of googling and looking for the driver to solve my issue, i finally made a custom driver that made it.

The problem was that AppleVIAATA driver used 32 bits addresses to make DMA. In an environment with 4 gb of ram, you need 64 bits addresses. I've rewritten some code so that this kext uses a kernel api which supports 64 bits.

I think the problem is solved. To generate kernel panics, i used Rember to test all memory, and while this was running, i started to browse mi IDE hdd. After rewriting the driver, i had no more panics!

FAQ:

1- DOES THIS MEAN THE BUG IS SOLVED?
Old answer: NO! Need testing, i've finished 30 minutes ago and i couldn't test it as much as needed to say it works fine.
New answer: It seems so.

2- IS IT A REPLACEMENT FOR APPLEVIAATA.KEXT?
Old answer: NO! It only solved my IDE problems (I removed some PCIID from Info.plist)
New answer: Yes, it is.

3- CAN I HAVE THE SOURCE CODE TO KEEP DEVELOPMENT?
Old answer: YES! Just tell me where can i upload it (svn like google code) without any legal violation.
New answer: There's a googlecode svn project here: darwin-ata. You may check out and get the source. If you want to be part of the development team (or whatever the name of the people who are trying to make this work is) just PM me. Try to add some info so i can check if u are going to benefit this development or not.

4- DO YOU KNOW HOW TO WRITE IN ENGLISH?
Old answer: NO! I've done such an effort to write this post that i think i'm loosing my mind.
New answer: I'm finishing my degree in computer sciences, not english, the answer is still NO.

5- WHAT KEXT SHOULD I DOWNLOAD?
ONLY ANWSER: The ones that doesn't have the word DEBUG in their names.

6- WHY NOT DEBUG KEXTS?
They are for DEBUGGING. Use them if and only if i tell u to do it. First warning.

7- HOW DO I REPORT A NON WORKING KEXT?
1: boot with -v debug=0x100 at darwin prompt
2: make a dump with ioreg -l > dump.txt
3: after having a panic, take a picture of the screenshot (I need to read every character, so make sure the screen fits the picture)
4: atach dump.txt and the picture of the screen into this topic and wait for my answer (sometimes other users might help)

8- I HAVE LOTS OF INFO DISPLAYED ON BOOT AND LOGS. LOTS AND LOTS OF INFO EVERY SECOND. WHAT'S GOING ON?
RTFF. You've been warned.
If you need some help, or have some comments, or find some bugs, just post in this thread.
Here's what we've got so far:

JMicronATA: v0.6 Working
AppleVIAATA: v0.2 Working
AppleNForceATA: v0.1 Working (?). Some may have issues with DVD drives. Some may have issues with voodoo kernel
AppleATIATA: v0.1 Not tested, waiting.
stmiller has compiled these kexts with Tiger (10.4.8) in case someone is using 10.4. He only tested AppleVIAATA.kext.
DON'T USE DEBUG KEXTS UNLESS I TELL YOU TO DO IT. This is the second and last warning.

Downloads:

All the kexts here!

Hi I find a strange problem, not sure if anyone else experienced. Im using ideneb 1.4, i had the freeze problem before, then i installed your AppleVIAATA, it really fixed the problem. First of all thanks heaps.

Then i installed MacFuse 1.7 and ntfs-3g 1.2938, i can write to NTFS, but i cant see my IDE anymore, i tried looking up in Disk Utility, cant find it there to. Then i uninstalled your AppleVIAATA,and installed a 32bit (old one), then i see my IDE, but the 4gb Ram bug comes back again.

I tried the newest version of Macfuse and NTFS-3g as well, my IDE just disappears once i install your AppleVIAATA......

Please help me!!!!!

Thanks in advance!

[div_conspiracy]

I just tried it, installed the JMicron kext using kext helper, and so far, using Adobe Lightroom, which always gave me a kernel panic before, everything is running smoothly.

I have an IDE boot drive on a GA-EP35-DS3L with 2x2GB Corsair XMS RAM.

Previously I had 2GB and hadn't experienced any problems until I upgraded the RAM.

Thank you for your hard work! This is great!

[smidge]

Hi, took the plunge and tried this kext, it worked well on the machine listed in my signature. No issues so far 4gb seems a bit snappier than before.

[Powaking]

I am at my wits end. I have used Kalyway 10.5.2 > 10.5.6 no problems (I did have to change my ACHI setting in the bios to initially get it going but got it working afterwords).

I have reinstalled using iPC 10.5.6. I did not have to make any change in the BIOS to get it installed but after installation I can not use my CDRom drives. I have used the kexthelper to install the JMicronATA.kext which immediately made my burner available. Great I'm flying now. But on reboot I get a kernel panic. Replace the kext with the original and I can boot up but no cdrom access.

I have a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 v3.3 board. My hardware ID is 2363197B.

Can anyone help me out? I'm going nuts over this.

[macwars]

Can you tell me which one i should take?
I tried JMicron but with 6GB it doesn't work.
Thx!
Here is my dump.txt

Attached File(s)

 dump.txt ( 222.85K ) Number of downloads: 12

 

[Dr Donkey Kong]

Hello all, I have a GA-EP45-DS3R motherboard, 8GB of ram. I switched to the JMicronATA.kext that i found here and all my issues are gone...

But now...I want to activate the onboard raid to raid 5 and when i launch into Mac OS X i am getting that the drives are unreadable and to initialize them...Any ideas?

The only kext i installed form here is the JMicronATA.kext so if it is as simple as installing some more let me know!

Thanks!

[anthrobug]

Is there a known issue with ATA Drive speed when using this kext? I'm using version 1.0.2 that's 88KB in size.

The problem I had was that I wouldn't see more than 15-20MB/sec out of my ATA drives, they were set to cable select on my one ATA Bus - it's a P5Q-SE board. I found a thread discussing speed problems in 10.4 which suggested doing this;

Copy AppleVIAATA.kext to the desktop.
Right click and select 'Show Package Contents' on AppleVIAATA.kext
Open 'Contents'
Open the file 'info.plist' in 'Property List Editor'
Open 'IOKitPersonalities/VIA PATA Controller' and check the box 'Serial ATA'.
Save the file, and install it manually or with something like OSX86Tools.

After doing this, I'm seeing 60-100MB/sec on my latest ATA drive. And I'm having no problems at all since changing this. Am I using an old version of the file?

[bobdowntheroad]

I just wanted to say that this thread (and the one that was started before this one was created) helped me fix the last thing that was wrong with my install.
I finally have OS X on my Asus P5Q Mobo, but i just wanted to add that it has a Marvell IDE Controller on it, and I used the driver on AppleIntelPIIXATA kext fully working for all ICHx Mobo to get my IDE drives working with 6GB of RAM.

Thank you!

EDIT: Nevermind, I had another one again. Same KP. Its giving me AppleVIAATA in the dependencies. However, when I go into the /system/library/extensions folder that file isn't there and neither is jmicron or the nforce. Im pretty sure I have marvell IDE. Any ideas?

[STLVNUB]

I just wanted to say that this thread (and the one that was started before this one was created) helped me fix the last thing that was wrong with my install.
I finally have OS X on my Asus P5Q Mobo, but i just wanted to add that it has a Marvell IDE Controller on it, and I used the driver on AppleIntelPIIXATA kext fully working for all ICHx Mobo to get my IDE drives working with 6GB of RAM.

Thank you!

EDIT: Nevermind, I had another one again. Same KP. Its giving me AppleVIAATA in the dependencies. However, when I go into the /system/library/extensions folder that file isn't there and neither is jmicron or the nforce. Im pretty sure I have marvell IDE. Any ideas?

Probably AppleVIAATA.kext is in the AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext Plugins, REMOVE & REPLACE IT with the one from here.Should fix your problem.

[bobdowntheroad]

Probably AppleVIAATA.kext is in the AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext Plugins, REMOVE & REPLACE IT with the one from here.Should fix your problem.

Its not in there to replace. And under the list of extensions in system profiler, it doesn't list the AppleVIAATA to be loaded. However the IOATAFamily is loaded. I can't seem to find a VIAATA one at all, but on the kernel panics it lists the file (in addition to the IOATAFamily). Also the AppleIntelPIIXATA isn't listed in the System Profiler as actually loaded, i think what I meantioned before was a fluke. I must not be understanding something..?

[varikin]

I tried the AppleVIAATA.kext (v0.2). Now my computer does not start. When I start with -v, it stops at a part that says "Still waiting for root device" every 30 seconds or more.

I tried this with 10.5.3 vanilla and 10.5.4 vanilla, same result. Here is a link to the screenshot of kernel panic (it is rather large so you can read everything) http://baconfile.com/varikin/panic.jpg/

And here is a link to my ioreg -l output: http://s3.amazonaws.com/varikin.baconfile.com/ioreg.txt

thanks for the help

[slashack]

I tried the AppleVIAATA.kext (v0.2). Now my computer does not start. When I start with -v, it stops at a part that says "Still waiting for root device" every 30 seconds or more.

I tried this with 10.5.3 vanilla and 10.5.4 vanilla, same result. Here is a link to the screenshot of kernel panic (it is rather large so you can read everything) http://baconfile.com/varikin/panic.jpg/

And here is a link to my ioreg -l output: http://s3.amazonaws.com/varikin.baconfile.com/ioreg.txt

thanks for the help

Ok, so this panic is because you have more than 2/3/4 gb of ram and the driver does not support them. Do you have this panic with the modified AppleVIAATA?

Checkout previous post for related kext versions. There's one I made showing my kext versions.

[varikin]

Ok, so this panic is because you have more than 2/3/4 gb of ram and the driver does not support them. Do you have this panic with the modified AppleVIAATA?

The panic happens when ever the OS uses more than 3.22 GB of memory. I have a tiny python script that just leaks memory and I watch activity monitor. It consistently crashes at 3.22. So I set maxmem in com.apple.Boot.plist to 3325 (or something like that).

With your kext, the OS didn't even boot, so it never even got a chance to crash. That was the "Still waiting for root device" error.

In looking for the information you wanted, I came across a post where you said the Info.plist should be the same from the old one to yours. It wasn't for me, so I copied the plist over, installed the new kext, fixed permissions, removed the mkext cache and rebooted.

And it worked. I ran my script and used up about 5.7 GB out of 6 with no crash.

Thank you! This has been a thorn in my side for a year.

[macwars]

Can you tell me which one i should take?
I tried JMicron but with 6GB it doesn't work.
Thx!
Here is my dump.txt

Still need help, please!

[slashack]

Still need help, please!

So if u need help, then tell us what happens. We cant guess. We need more than just a dump. What happens with modified JMicronATA.kext?