Well after some confusion and trial & error I found an install process that worked for me and my components.

• HEC 6K28BB8F Black MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case
• GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
• G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
• BFG Tech GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card
• LG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW...CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
• SAMSUNG HD642JJ 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
• SeaSonic S12-430 430W ATX12V Active PFC Power Supply
• APPLE Mac OS X v10.5.6 Leopard – Retail

Sure it took me the whole weekend + a :cough: sick day from work (Monday – what can I say) but I figured out a solution (a good combination of steps and kext's to install) for my (HackMini / HackPro) RIG. I basically followed the advice from this forum thread (and these users Zaap #12 and Nonix #29) for my mobo and various install guides online. From my experience I can say this mobo worked OOB. I did have to install the drivers for sound and video but that was it.

I will be working on getting the rest of my apps installed and using my new OS X RIG. So far I'm thrilled and glad my Macbook has a Desktop counter part to play with.


If anyone is interested here is my install process in a nut shell. Hope this helps


1. I start off with the boot 132 CD.
2. Insert the Leopard Retail 10.5.6 DVD when ready.
3. I partition the drive (Using Disk Utility) then proceed to install Leopard (No extra stuff except for fonts).
4. Install goes great and I force reboot going back (Using boot 132) to the Leopard welcome and sign up screens.
5. After the initial welcome install screens I noticed the NIC was working OOB (100mbits-Full Duplex) and it even sent in my reg-stuff with the basic info I added. No biggie I do this all the time with the Macs I do own.
6. At this point I do a software update. Installing everything except Airport and ilife09 stuff.
7. After all updates I wanted have been installed. I Install my audio driver and force reboot as suggested here: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.ph...10.5.6#Gigabyte

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At this point I gather the needed .kext files to get the next steps completed (VERY IMPORTANT part #1 for me at least!). I make a GA-G31M-ES2L (install-kit) folder and copy the some files from the leopard_install_kit.zip and other install guide files listed online to my GA-G31M-ES2L (install-kit) folder:


OpenHaltRestart.kext
AppleDeCrypt.kext
Disabler.kext
?? I think there was one more I'm not sure at the moment ??
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8. Booting back into OS X still using the Boot 132 CD I install Chameleon_DFE_for_Hard_Disk.dmg. This was the key for me. I followed some online instructions to install the Extras folder from the Boot 132 CD to the Extras folder in the Chameleon_DFE_for_Hard_Disk.dmg image then installed Chameleon.
9. At this point I take the Boot 132 CD out and restart. And I'm like WOW restart works and I'm rebooting without the CD this time. BUT I still have to select my HD from the prompt just like before (still wont boot right into Leopard on its own) and I'm back at the leopard desktop.

Once I was back in I poke around my install to make sure all is still good. I check System Profiler, Activity Monitor, and adjust some system settings just to see things are working as they should. So-far-so-good! Time to move on to the next steps.

10. Time to finish up. Using the "PCWIZ Universal OSx86 Installer" I selected the following items: My hard drive, Set boot time out to 1sec, Apply EFI Ethernet String (Time Machine Fix), Apply EFI String for Video Card (8800GT 512mb in my case), and VERY Important part#2 for me at least (selected install custom kext from HD) and browsed my USB drive to my GA-G31M-ES2L (install-kit) folder and selected the ALL the .kext files inside.

Keeping my fingers crossed I watch as the install ran and finished up. I quit the PCWIZ Universal OSx86 Installer and do a restart. BAM! My RIG restarts and boots back into the Leopard desktop with out any hiccups and user input. W00t!

Now in shock I do another system check of things, and we are still good-to-go. I guess this would be a successful "vanilla build" at this point. Happy with the results I then use Carbon Copy Cloner to make an image of my HD before installing anything else.

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I don't know why but after several attempts to get a NEW & CLEAN install of Leopard this was how I did it. If I used the "PCWIZ Universal OSx86 Installer" alone it would break things for instance System Profiler main summary screen would be empty and my RIG would not boot back up.

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Issues: I'm trying to fix. They don't seem impact anything, or matter much.

1. No memory information is displayed in the system Profiler. Get the "Error trying to display."
2. Using OSX86 tools I can adjust the "auto reset CPU info" to show my CPU correctly, but my RAM gets thrown off from 4gig to 2gig if I select "auto reset RAM info."

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Today I have installed iWork08 (bought with my MacBook year ½ ago). Install was good and I did an application update. Seems to work fine. I will continue to install more software I use and hope nothing breaks.