[GUIDE] - Snow Leopard on GIGABYTE EP45-UD3R - Alternate Method

[xRotorHead]

The following Snow Leopard installation method to the Gigabyte EP45-UD3R is not my work, simply a compilation of two different methods, one by Adam Pash, editor of Lifehacker and the other by d00m42. They have done amazing work and derserve much credit. All Ive done is copy/paste bits and pieces of their work (along with many of my own tweaks) to make something that enabled me to successfully install Snow Leopard onto a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R motherboard. And it works perfectly...no Kernel Panics. This method only works on the EP45-UD3R motherboard, I wouldnt try it on any other as the DSDT.aml is specifically setup for the EP45-UD3R. For this method to work, you must have an operable version of OS X already installed on another computer, an empty HDD, and a portable USB Hard drive for the installation. Also, Youll need to download this file onto your existing OSX installation (many thanks to d00m42 for this bit of genius).

 

 

Step One: Prepare Your USB Drive

We are going to be installing Snow Leopard to your Hackintosh from your USB drive rather than from the Snow Leopard install DVD, since in order to run the installer on your PC to begin with, youll need to slightly customize the way the installer is loaded. (More specifically, we will be loading a custom bootloader onto the USB drive that will make booting into the install work like a charm.*)

So first things first: You need to format your USB drive and then turn your Snow Leopard install disc into a disk image on your desktop. Here is how to do it:

1. Launch the Disk Utility application another OS X Leopard computer: (located at /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility)

2. Format and partition your USB drive: Insert your USB drive; after a second, it should show up in the Disk Utility Sidebar. When it does, (1) click on it, then (2) click on Partition. (3) Choose 1 Partition from the Volume Scheme, (4) give it a name (I called my HackintoshInstall) and select Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) from the Format drop-down. Now, and this is important: (5) hit the Options button and make sure GUID Partition Table is selected as the partition scheme. Once youve made sure to set all the appropriate settings, just (6) click Apply and Disk Utility will get to partitioning your USB drive.

3. Copy the Snow Leopard Install DVD image to your hard drive: In the following step we will be turning your USB drive into Snow Leopard Install drive, but before we do that, we need to get the installer off your DVD and onto your hard drive. To achieve this, insert the Snow Leopard DVD. When it shows up in the Disk Utility sidebar, (1) click on it, then (2) click New Image in the Disk Utility toolbar. Choose where you want to save it (for the sake of convenience, I put it on my Desktop), then click the Save button. Now go grab yourself a cold drink. This will take some time. When it finishes, move on to the next step.

4. Restore the Snow Leopard Install disk image to your USB drive: Now, in Disk Utility, (1) click on HackintoshInstall (or whatever your called your partitioned USB drive) and (2) click on Restore. (3) Drag and drop Mac OS X Install DVD.dmg from the sidebar to the Source field, then (4) drag and drop your USB drive from the sidebar to the Destination field. Now simply (5) click on Restore and enter your password when prompted. Disk Utility will take everything on the Snow Leopard Install DVD and restore that image to your USB drive since, like I said above, we will be installing Snow Leopard from our USB drive instead of the DVD. Again, go grab yourself another drink; this will take a few minutes. When it finishes, your USB drive has basically been turned into a Snow Leopard installation drive.

5. Dont reboot yet; Run PC EFI 10.1 from the SL Pack, and install it to the HackintoshInstall USB drive. Then copy all items from the Extra folder on the SL Pack into the Extra folder in the HackintoshInstall USB drive.

5a. Lastly, copy and paste the entire SL Pack folder onto the HackintoshInstall USB drive (for later use).

 

Step Two: Prepare your EP45-UD3R BIOS

6. Boot into BIOS of the EP45-UD3R and go to "Integrated Peripherals" menu. Set SATA RAID/AHCI Mode to AHCI mode.

7. Also in BIOS in "Advanced BIOS Features", select your USB hard drive as 1st boot drive in Hard Disk Boot Priority. Save and Reboot.

 

Step Three: Install Snow Leo from the USB drive to your HDD

8. Now you are ready to install the OSX-SL onto your hard drive (not your USB dirive). Reboot hitting F12 to make sure to select your USB drive in Hard Drives. Select (enter) the HackintoshInstall icon when the GUI appears. When the installer boots, go to Disk Utilities and setup your HDD that you want to install Snow Leopard onto; make sure youve re-partitioned it, GUID formatted HDD, name it: Snow. Complete the rest of installation as usual...it will take 15-30 minutes.

9. When install is complete, reboot.

 

Step Four: Tweak the new Snow Leo installation

10. Reboot again to your HackintoshInstall USB drive using the F12 method to select the USB drive. But this time, when the GUI appears showing the HackintoshInstall USB drive, use the arrow keys to select your newly created Snow HDD.

11. Hopefully it boots into your new version of Snow Leopard. Go through all the normal initial setup screens. Then, go to your USB drive/SL Pack and agian run PC EFI 10.1, but this time make sure to install it to your newly installed Snow Leopard installation on the Snow HDD.

12. Next, copy all the contents of the Extra folder in the SL pack, and paste to into the Extra folder in the root of your Snow drive.

13. Next is to manually edit the UUID of the Snow drive into two different locations. First, open the "smbios.plist" (from your Extra folder) in PlistEdit Pro. Fill in the information in the <string> tags, although it's not necessary to have a serial number. The plist is currently configured for a Mac Pro 3,1, but you can use whatever you want, look up a guide on smbios.plist. The SMexternalclock is your FSB speed, the SMmaximalclock is your processor speed in MHz, the SMmemtype is your memory (18 is DDR, 19 is DDR2, and I think 20 is DDR3), and finally SMmemspeed is your memory clock in MHz. Now, without closing smbios.plist yet, open Disk Utility. Click on your Snow drive, and then on Info at the top. Copy the Universal Unique Identifier string, and paste it into a new text file, because you will use this later on as well. Close Disk Utility, and proceed to paste the string you just copied into smbios.plist under SMUUID on top of the "PASTE YOUR UUID HERE". Once you have completed this, save the smbios.plist, make sure the changes were applied, and navigate back to your Extra folder.

14. This time, go into Extensions, and right click on PlatformUUID.kext, picking the "Show Package Contents" option. Open the Contents folder, and finally open Info.plist with PlistEdit Pro. Copy your UUID again, and paste it over where it says "PASTE YOUR UUID HERE". Save the changes, and close the window.

15. Next, open up EFIStudio, located in the SL Pack. Select your Graphics card, and hit "Add Device". Copy the long hex string in the second (lower) box of the new window that pops up. Open up com.apple.Boot.plist in your Snow drive's Extra folder (with PlistEdit Pro), and paste that long hex string you copied over the long hex string already there (mine). Save the file, and close the window.

16. Lastly, reboot back into BIOS Advanced BIOS Features and select your Snow drive as the 1st boot drive in boot priority, save and reboot. You can lose the USB drive at this point.

 

Step Five: Boot to a Perfect Snow Leo Hackintosh on the Gigabyte EP45-UD3R

17. Snow Leo should now be perfectly installed. Probably a good measure to run Kext Utility from the SL Pack.

18. Not common, but if you are getting KPs and you have other NTFS Windows HDDs attached to the motherboard, re-boot into SL and quickly disable Spotlight's indexing by adding the NTFS Winows storage devices to the "Private" list in System Preferences>Spotlight. This is NOT an issue on my particular setup and I have two ntfs partitions with full Spotlight functionality and no KPs.

19. I also disabled Software Update automatic checking for updates, as Ive seen KPs associated with this, I DONT USE SOFTWARE UPDATE.

20. UPDATE 1: if you get the stuttering mouse movement issue after launching iTunes or Quicktime, this may likely be because you have a GeForce 8800 GT like me. The Fix: just go to System/Library/Extensions folder and delete AppleUpstreamUserClient.kext. But make sure to run Kext Utility from the SL Pack immediately after you delete this kext and before you reboot (see no. 21 below).

21. UPDATE 2: if you delete any kext from the System/Library/Extensions folder, make sure run Kext Utility from the SL Pack before you reboot. If you don't you may get stuck in an infinite KP loop after reboot.

[irontony]

This sounds very promising.

 

I've read both guides that this is based upon and they're very good and helped me install Snow Leopard on my EP45-DS3P.

 

Unfortunately no one sells EP45-UD3P anymore BUT I can find a couple of EP45-UD3R

 

So I am interested in this guide and Dooms.

 

 

Question: Please can you check system profiler and check Firewire and see if it is ok.

 

 

Kindest regards

Irontony

[vacacol]

hi ur tutorial is great but im havnig a trouble wen osx starts in the registration part it freezes and i get the restart screen dont know y the only thing i had to do diferent was the part of adding the video card and that is because i cant find my 9600 there so if there is a place where i can find that hex ill apreciate ur help

 

 

 

thx alot for the tutorial

[Paul_42]

hi ur tutorial is great but im havnig a trouble wen osx starts in the registration part it freezes and i get the restart screen dont know y the only thing i had to do diferent was the part of adding the video card and that is because i cant find my 9600 there so if there is a place where i can find that hex ill apreciate ur help

 

 

 

thx alot for the tutorial

 

Here you go; http://aquamac.proboards.com/index.cgi?boa...=509&page=1

[xRotorHead]

This sounds very promising.

 

I've read both guides that this is based upon and they're very good and helped me install Snow Leopard on my EP45-DS3P.

 

Unfortunately no one sells EP45-UD3P anymore BUT I can find a couple of EP45-UD3R

 

So I am interested in this guide and Dooms.

 

 

Question: Please can you check system profiler and check Firewire and see if it is ok.

 

 

Kindest regards

Irontony

 

FireWire working; I get this from system profiler:

 

FireWire Bus:

 

Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec

[rbonon]

The following Snow Leopard installation method to the Gigabyte EP45-UD3R is not my work, simply a compilation of two different methods, one by Adam Pash, editor of Lifehacker and the other by d00m42. They have done amazing work and derserve much credit. All Ive done is copy/paste bits and pieces of their work to make something that enabled me to successfully install Snow Leopard onto a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R motherboard. And it works perfectly...no Kernel Panics. This method only works on the EP45-UD3R motherboard, I wouldnt try it on any other as the DSDT.aml is specifically setup for the EP45-UD3R. For this method to work, you must have an operable version of OS X already installed on the Gigabyte EP45-UD3R, an empty HDD, and a portable USB Hard drive for the installation. Youll need to download this file onto your existing OSX installation (many thanks to d00m42 for this bit of genius).

 

 

Do you have sleep working properly? Meaning, have everything (LAN, sound, etc) working after a wake up from sleep?

 

Tks!

[iwcham1979]

 guys, I can buy GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3LR. is the guide going to work on it?!

[xRotorHead]

Do you have sleep working properly? Meaning, have everything (LAN, sound, etc) working after a wake up from sleep?

 

Tks!

 

 

Yes, all working 100%. For sound, all I needed was to go to System Preferences and change Output to Internal Speakers. I use the green plug for speakers.

 

Other issues yet unresolved:

* The timed sleep function in Energy Saver doesn't seem to initiate; but the normal method of entering sleep works great (ie click apple, then sleep).

* Unable to write to any ntfs partitions. Reading and copying data off the ntfs drive works fine, but no write. I tried various methods to regain this, but no luck yet. FIXED with this little NTFS Mounter app.

* I've found download speeds in Safari to be slower as compared to Firefox.

[rbonon]

Yes, all working 100%. For sound, all I needed was to go to System Preferences and change Output to Internal Speakers. I use the green plug for speakers.

 

Other issues yet unresolved:

* The timed sleep function in Energy Saver doesn't seem to initiate; but the normal method of entering sleep works great (ie click apple, then sleep).

* Unable to write to any ntfs partitions. Reading and copying data off the ntfs drive works fine, but no write. I tried various methods to regain this, but no luck yet.

* I've found download speeds in Safari to be slower as compared to Firefox.

 

Thanks xRotorHead for the feedback! I have the UD3L flavour of this mobo available on a neary shop, and I am considering it for my next hackintosh. Somehow I had the impression reading on other UD3R posts that something did not work after resuming from sleep. Good to hear it works for you.

 

I wonder if this procedure you described is valid to UD3L, as apparently some parts of the hardware are not the same on these two MoBo. Will do some more research.

 

Regards

[xRotorHead]

Thanks xRotorHead for the feedback! I have the UD3L flavour of this mobo available on a neary shop, and I am considering it for my next hackintosh. Somehow I had the impression reading on other UD3R posts that something did not work after resuming from sleep. Good to hear it works for you.

 

I wonder if this procedure you described is valid to UD3L, as apparently some parts of the hardware are not the same on these two MoBo. Will do some more research.

 

Regards

 

 

Not sure about the UD3L. I'm confident you can get it to work, but you'll need to dig through the forms to get some of the tweaks in the Extra folder just right. Specifically, the DSDT.aml is tailor made for the UD3R. But in the SL pack, there's a great tutorial on how to make your own personalized DSDT.aml. Most of the rest of the stuff will probably work just fine. Good luck!

[xRotorHead]

Thanks xRotorHead for the feedback! I have the UD3L flavour of this mobo available on a neary shop, and I am considering it for my next hackintosh. Somehow I had the impression reading on other UD3R posts that something did not work after resuming from sleep. Good to hear it works for you.

 

I wonder if this procedure you described is valid to UD3L, as apparently some parts of the hardware are not the same on these two MoBo. Will do some more research.

 

Regards

 

This looks like a great guide for the UD3L: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=187906

[asapreta]

I´ve made a BOOT DISK and now just install this mobo using it and a RETAIL SL.

Then reboot the BOOT DISK after the instalation restarts, install Chamalelon, PC EFI 10.5, necessary KEXTS on E/E and put my already ready DSDT file on EXTRA folder. Next boot is directly from the HD.

 

Can install even on the PURPLE ports.

 

Best regards.

[od3n]

what ur full system specs? i wolud like to build a system with lowest price.

[xRotorHead]

what ur full system specs? i wolud like to build a system with lowest price.

 

Here's the short list of applicable parts:

 

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R

Intel Q6600 Quad Core running at default speed (2.4Ghz)

Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT

Generic 4Gb (2x2Gb) DDR2 memory

Western Digital Caviar Green 640Gb SATA HDD

Generic SATA DVD burner

Logitech G5 USB mouse

Apple USB keyboard

Corsair HX-620 PSU

Coolermaster Mystique Case

[asapreta]

what ur full system specs? i wolud like to build a system with lowest price.

 

Mine?

Basically the sig plus a Seventeam 620 Powersupply, a Pionner A109 IDE drive (working from the IDE PORT), and some Hds...

[CrackaDoood]

i followed your method and my system boots up just fine, and the graphics work.

 

first of all, my wi-fi card doesn't work, and it used to work right out of the box with Leopard. I assume this is because the kernel is running in 64bit, and their are no 64bit drivers for the Atheros chipset on my wireless card. This leads me too my first question:

 

How do I get my system to boot a 32bit kernel? I searched around and started poking around my plist files expecting to find the arch="x86_x64" tag, but it didn't exist anywhere. So where can i edit the configuration to boot a 32bit Kernel?

 

second question: is this the right approach for getting my wireless to work? I've searched around and it appears that their arn't many wireless cards that work right away with Snow Leopard...will the old 32bit drivers (possibly the ones from leopard) work?

 

my graphics work when i install the system, but it reports it in system profiles as Nvidia 9800GTX or whatever EFI string was in there by default. Like i said, it seems to work, but should i work on putting the correct string in the configuration file. I have 7900GT card...

 

thanks again for your help!

[steviegal]

I followed Lifehacker installation and all went smoothly but have been unable to use Time Machine,do you have it working on your installation?

I will try a fresh installation on another HDD if it works with your method, I assume it must be OK as no-one has mentioned a problem.

Thanks

Steve

[letoan]

I get this kp, anyone know what's wrong? Thanks

 

Spec: q6600, ep45-ud3r, ocz ssd, 4gb ddr 800, 4870.

[xRotorHead]

I get this kp, anyone know what's wrong? Thanks

 

Spec: q6600, ep45-ud3r, ocz ssd, 4gb ddr 800, 4870.

 

Hopefully you didn't let Software Update attempt any downloading. This might be the problem; I got endless KPs after letting Software Update do its thing, and although there may have been something more clever I couldv'e done to fix the KPs, I just elected to re-install SL since it was a brand new install anyway. Does it boot into SL for a minute or so before you get this KP? If so, quickly try running Kext Utility before the KP happens. Also try disconnecting any other HDDs besides the SL HDD.

[plympton]

I upgraded to 10.6.2 using the Software Update method - installed originally using the Lifehacker method - on my EP45-UD3R, Quad-Core Q9550. Everything works great - sleep, graphics, etc. I lost my PCI ethernet card doing this, but gained my internet networking card (that didn't work reliably under 10.6.0, 10.6.1).

 

With that, I'm a happy camper...

 

-Dan

[xRotorHead]

UPDATE to 10.6.2

 

1. Removed SleepEnabler.kext from \Extra\Extensions.

2. Installed 10.6.2 from dmg (not from Software Update) but don't reboot when finished.

3. Put Netkas' SleepEnabler.kext for 10.6.2 into \Extra\Extensions.

4. Repaired permissions and rebuilt kext using Kext Utility.

5. Reboot.

6. Everything works 100%.

 

I did notice that Software Update re-enabled itself after the 10.6.2 update and started to try to download stuff before i shut it down and disabled it. Also, I had to re-select the Internal Speakers in Sound/Output of System Preferences.

[garmone]

Hi- I followed your instructions after several weeks of frustration with other approaches and I was successful in getting 10.6.2 on my machine (THANK YOU). The remaining difficulty - and this was true of the other ways I was trying including the famed lifehacker method - is that my WiFi card is not "seen". In fact, no PCI cards are seen by the OS. Any suggestions would be VERY welcome.

 

Thanks

[xRotorHead]

Hi- I followed your instructions after several weeks of frustration with other approaches and I was successful in getting 10.6.2 on my machine (THANK YOU). The remaining difficulty - and this was true of the other ways I was trying including the famed lifehacker method - is that my WiFi card is not "seen". In fact, no PCI cards are seen by the OS. Any suggestions would be VERY welcome.

 

Thanks

 

 

Was this card working under 10.6.0 or 10.6.1? If not, perhaps its just not SL-compatilble. That said, I've heard of other people loosing their PCI cards after the 10.6.2 update. I don't use any PCI cards, so I haven't had the pleasure of troubleshooting this problem.

 

Try installing the PC EFI V10.5. I've heard this may help in detecting PCI cards. I initially had problems figuring out how to use the V10.5 boot file. Simply download it from netkas.org and replace it with the boot file in the EFI V10.1 installer pkg via right-click/show package contents/contents/resources/boot/. Then run the EFI V10.1 installer.

[tnk17]

Hi,

I am using your method.

When I reach step 8, I reboot using F12, select the USB-HDD as my first boot device, press enter. Then the boot screen hangs at "Verifying DMI Pool Data......."

What am I doing wrong?

I downloaded the iso off a torrent, not from the retail DVD.

[guyin916]

I get this kp, anyone know what's wrong? Thanks

 

Spec: q6600, ep45-ud3r, ocz ssd, 4gb ddr 800, 4870.

 

i had the same problem.. had to change macpro4,1 to macpro3,1 in the smbios.plist or something like that.. can't recall.