NEWBIES (NOOBS STAY AWAY) Guide to Basic Stuffs: Read/Learn This Before You Jump/Install Any Version of OS X
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ALL NFORCE OWNERS: READ THIS MESSAGE (DONT GO ANYSTEPS BEFORE YOU READ THIS PART):
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I stopped coming back to supporting this topic... From Now On You Can Continue getting support on Verdant's topic... You can still find many usefull information here, but I wont be coming to this topic frequently...

☻ FOR GOD'S SAKE DONT PM ME!!! YOUR PERSONAL ISSUES ABOUT NFORCE MOBO!!! THIS IS AN NFORCE TOPIC AND IT IS MADE TO DISCUSS ISSUES. SO EVERYONE CAN READ AND LEARN FROM EACHOTHER! MOST COMMON PROBLEMS/SOLUTIONS ARE PROVIDED IN POST#2 SO PLS TAKE TIME TO READ THE DAMN POST ENTIRELY, NOT JUST ONE SENTENCE OR SKIM READ... READ IT CAREFULY, PROPARLY!

☻ MAKE A SIGNATURE OF YOUR HARDWARE PROFILE [/b]THIS IS ONE OF FIRST MOST NEEDED INFO BEFORE ANYONE CAN START HELPING YOU! READ BELOW, THERE IS INFO HOW TO DO IT!

☻ BIOS SETTINGS TO CHECK A-) EXECUTE DISABLE BIT: ENABLED B-) USB KEYBOARD/MOUSE: ENABLED C-) ACPI MODE: S3 OR S1 OR BOTH D-) IF YOU HAVE AHCI SETTING FOR YOUR SATA/IDE PORTS: ENABLE AHCI FOR THOSE PORTS...

☻ PS/2 KEYBOARD & MOUSE OWNERS BEWARE OF THE PS/2 ISSUES... IT IS ALWAYS HEADACHE TO OWN PS/2 KB AND MOUSE...GET YOURSELF A USB VERSION AND SAVE SOME COUNTLESS HOURS OF HEADACHE...

☻ SAM MULTIMEDIA READ/WRITE ERRORS ARE INDICATION OF 3 POSSIBLE SCENERIO!!! 1) MOST POSSIBLE ONE IS THAT NFORCE ATA DRIVERS ARE NOT WORKING WELL ON YOUR SATA DVD (THIS IS A KNOWN ISSUE AND HAS ANOTHER TEST DRIVER WHICH HELPS IT WORK A BIT BUT NOT TOO MUCH COMPATIBILITY, SO GET YOURSELF AN IDE DVD) 2) YOU BURNED YOUR ISO TO DVD WITH MORE THAN 4X SPEED (NEVER BURN MORE THAN 4X!!!, USE 4X OR LESS SPEED) 3) YOUR DVD MEDIA IS NOT VERY GOOD TO BE READ OR DVD WRITE IS NOT GOOD IN READING ALL MEDIA TYPES...

☻ ON BOARD LAN ON NFORCE MOTHERBOARDS DO NOT WORK!!!! THERE IS A DRIVER BUT CAUSES MORE HARM THAN GOOD SO READ POST#2 FOR SUGGESTED WIFI/LANs FOR HASSLE FREE NETWORK ON NFORCE

☻2 x NVIDIA GFX CARD (SLI OR SINGLE MODE DOESNT MATTER) DOES NOT WORK ON ANY CHIPSET AS OF YET... NO OFFICIAL OR PATCHED DRIVER SUPPORT AS OF YET!!! SO YOU HAVE ONE OPTION == TAKE ONE CARD OFF IF YOU WANNA RUN OSX ON THAT PC!!

☻RAID HDD Configs with built in soft-raid controller (this applies to only built-in soft-raid==not apple's soft raid solution, which is different) SOFT-RAID DOES NOT WORK ON ANY CHIPSET with soft-raid (there are some sis raid versions which is hardware-raid and has driver, apart from that no other soft-raid works... You have to run OSX in single drive configs!

☻4GB RAM 4 GB CAUSES RANDOM FREEZES DUE TO INCOMPATIBILITY IN THE NFORCE ATA DRIVERS FOR 64 BIT MODE! NO PROPER SOLUTION FOR THIS ISSUE. ONLY TWO WORK AROUNDS. 1) USE ONLY 2GB RAM LEFT IN THE PC, 2) USE MAXMEM=3072 VALUE IN THE COM.APPLE.BOOT.PLIST FILE FOR START UP...

☻ USB NOT MOUNTING ISSUE THIS ISSUE IS CAUSED BY SIMPLE MISMATCHED KERNEL VERSION AND SYSTEM.KEXT VERSION... SOLUTION IS VERY SIMPLE IN FACT... JUST USE THE CORRECT SYSTEM.KEXT VERSION WITH YOUR KERNEL VERSION. THERE IS A SIMPLE INSTALLER IN POST#2 READ IT, YOU WILL FIND IT...


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Purpose of the iAtkos R3 or any other OSX86 distros: Main purpose of the R3 project was to fix previous problems with the original release, so that people with nforce chipsets (of course intel chipsets as well) can test the OSX out on their mobo to get a feeling of OSX, and get familiar with it, before they go out to buy an original MAC Computer. So keep in mind, that none of the projects here, is to bring piracy, but to make people get familiar with OSX, and later to buy original MACs. There is no way you can make everything work perfect as Apple do not release/license OSX for 3rd party distribution and installation on other hardwares other than its own in the near future? SO, the real feeling of MAC will come with real MAC. There is no guarantee that Apple will let OSX being installed the way it is right now forever. So treat these OSX versions as a demo into real MAC world, not main intention of piracy.

Introduction Speech : Why I added this Paragraph? Most people do not like to read long stuffs... New people come and go everyday to the scene, but not all of them are very successful. Why? Because they are noobs, they are stupid. Why start too harsh? Well I didnt start harsh actually, check the title? It says "newbie", i would say NOOB, but I didnt. Because some people are clever, although they are new to the stuffs. They first read what is said before they jump to conclusion. What does it mean? When you read through this topic, or any topic through the forum, you will understand why, when you understand the whole osx project concept... It usually takes no longer than 2-3 weeks to get familiar with OSX, after couple of installations and bricks... But it doesnt mean you will be expert, you will only be familiar and will be able to do some stuffs on your own, or with little guidance... I am no where near being expert, just an experienced user... Because I also take advices and guidance at times from other experienced users or experts as well... How do you become experienced? You must know what hardware you have on your PC in the first place, like check my signature to see how to learn some of them. ALSO THIS IS AN NFORCE CHIPSET WITH INTEL CPUS ON IT SUPPORT TOPIC. IF YOU DONT HAVE NFORCE CHIPSET WITH INTEL CPU ON IT, DO NOT ASK FOR HELP, RATHER PM ME or ANY OTHER PERSON YOU LIKE YOU THINK THAT MAY HELP YOU, SO THIS TOPIC KEEPS CLEAN... BUT DO NOT MAKE PM AS A HABIT AS I M NOT ANYONE'S PERSONAL ASSISTANT. IF YOU PM TOO MUCH IT MEANS YOU DONT READ MUCH, SO I WILL IGNORE YOUR PMs

Now Lets Get Back to Business:
In POST#1, I provided the most common thing any new user should know/understand before jumping anything here. You will not understand everything, but you will at least have an idea about what is going on... It is long, but very usefull later and at least you will know where to look for, when you see some of these terms on topics...
In POST#2, I provide the information about "What To Knows" before during and after installation. I usually update this post, as much as I can to reflect more problems/solutions. So check back this post#2 regularly as well... POST#2 is very important for all newbies, and must be read and understood before jumping to installation. Read it carefully couple of times! When you are confident enough, continue to installations/updates...

What is Next - What to do before you ask for HELP?
In POST#2 at the very beginning I colorized a message, people usually ignores it when they encounter problems and ask for help. Here is the statement again:
Make a Signature of your Hardware Profile/Specs.
How?
Go to my control panel/edit signature/copy paste anyones signature(for example mine)/update my signature
Why Do I Make This Annoying Task?
Because, you specs if posted on the message, after couple of messages on top of your message, your message will be forgotten, and I am trying to help as much people as possible, but I cant remember always what you have on your pc... It is too much time consuming for me to scroll back and forth to be able to write a reply to you... Another thing, is that, when other people with same specs see your profile, you may be helpfull to overcome some obstackles those people may have... So you can help others as well, unless you are not willing to? Then why are you here, anyway? Also If you dont make signature, you will be scolded/insulted or best case asked to provide information about it anyway...

OK, Finished Installed, Have/Had Problems/Concerns, Made Signature, and Ready to Ask for Help?
Now, In this stage, please provide/explain as much details as possible and screen caps if you can about every single thing/step you have done, and what happened next after each of these instances... The clearer and informative your problem statement, the easier to identify the problem and help for solution...

Now You Can Continue with Reading the Rest If You Are Confident and Ready to Get on the Bus


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What is Kernel? (from wiki)
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In computer science, the kernel is the central component of most computer operating systems (OS). Its responsibilities include managing the system's resources (the communication between hardware and software components).

It works between your OS, and your hardwares, and device drivers located around kernel so that they can communicate with your os, and everything understand eachother's language.

Path for kernel:

"/"

or

you can call root of the partition you are working on,and if you are working on different partition than the one you are trying to fix, than the path is:

"/volumes/your_other_osxpartitionname/"

In OSX it is named "mach_kernel"

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what is a device driver? (from wiki)
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A device driver, or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer hardware device.

Basically it is the software that allows your devices to be recognized by and to work on any operating system. That means, most of the time, your devices will not work out of the box or will work with troubles, as OS X has very limited hardware devices support built in it. Why? ask Jobs about it why he choose that path not me.

Drivers in OS X has extension of .kext and are located in a folder named "extensions".

Full path for it is:
/System/Library/Extensions

if you are trying to locate on your own working partition, or if you are working in a different partition to fix another one, to locate another osx's driver folder, you should look for:

/volumes/your_other_osxpartitionname/System/Library/Extensions

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What is permissions?
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Ok you have found kernel/drivers from different sources, and want it to work, what should you know/do next?

You need to place the kernel (mach_kernel) / driver (kext file) into the folder location I mentioned above, and need to fix the permissions (its characteristics).

Why? OS X requires all files to have certain characteristics so it can identify things like, what user files are, what system files are and how to treat them in short. If you do not define this characteristics, it will refuse to run them or treat them as normal user files or such...

The most common permissions you will need to know are driver permissions, and kernel permission

for kernel and driver's ownership permission level is "0:0" or "root:wheel"
for kernel access/mod permission level is "644"
for driver access/mod permission level is "755"

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What is mkext / caches?
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Ok you placed everything in right place, but it still doesnt want to work, what is wrong?

OSX has sort of (i call it this way for easy understanding) disaster recovery and/or fast boot operation. And when you load the system as it is, the opreation i just mentioned, will prevent new drivers from loading at boot. These operations are done by two files:
In Tiger; Extensions.mkext, and Extensions.kextcache
(full path for both files: "/system/library/" )

In Leopard; Extensions.mkext, and caches/com.apple.kext.info
(full path for mkext files: "/system/library/" )
(full path for both info file: "/system/library/extensions/caches/" )

So, if you do not delete these two files or do some special operations, osx will ignore your changes and in the next boot, it will load original ones, which means whatever you copied, or fixed, will not work.

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What is Terminal?
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It is the place where you speak and listen Unix commands some of which are explained below. terminal is equivalent of dos prompt in windows you can say... It is located in Applications/Utilities/Terminal

when you run the terminal most of the time you will want to do changes in the system. To be able to make changes you will need to have root access (admin mode you can say). For this, when you start the terminaltype;

sudo su
or
sudo -s (you can learn the difference by reading around)

after these command system will ask you to enter you password, just type your password and there you go now you can do many things that you cant do/see in GUI. when you are finished enter exit twice...

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USING TERMINAL, or SAFE MODE
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How to //go up/down in folders // delete / move / copy / fix / edit files?
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+ Navigate through folders/directories
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cd is used for going up and down in folders and also going straight to paths...

some important locations::
cd / : goes straight to your root (where your kernel is)
cd /System/Library : to find your Extensions.mkext (Extensions.kextcache for tiger as well)
cd /System/Library/Extensions : to go to your drivers folder
cd /System/Library/Extensions/Caches : to locate your caches
cd .. : to go one folder down/back in hierarcy
cd /users/your_account_name/Desktop : to go to your desktop
cd /volumes/another_osx_partition/ : to go to another osx installed partition

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+ Copying / Moving files around
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cp/mv are used for copying files around for your own reasons, you can normally do gui type of copy/move as well, but somefiles are not shown in gui but in terminal, so you would need it manually...

cp leaves original files in the source, unlike mv command, that renames the source or moves the files from source to the destination folder/file name usage is pretty much same...

using -R in any command, will apply to folders and files within the folders recursively... so you wont get annoyed by the messages...

some important usage:
cp -R /path/of/source/file /path/of/destination/
cp /mach_kernel /users/your_account/desktop

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+ Fixing Permissions
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chown and chmod are for fixing permissions (changing attributes of your files)and u will always use it together one after the other one...

some important ones:
chown -R 0:0 ABC.kext (if you are in the same folder as the kexts)
chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions/ABC.kext (if you are not sure where you are)
chown -R 0:0 mach_kernel (if you are in root)
chown -R 0:0 /mach_kernel (if you are not sure where you are)
chmod -R 755 ABC.kext (if you are in the drivers folder)
chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/ABC.kext (if you dont know where you are)
chmod -R 644 mach_kernel

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+ Deleting/Removing Files/Folders
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rm is used to delete/remove files and folders

some important examples:
rm -R /System/Library/Extensions.* (when you exchange or add new drivers you need to delete the Extensions.mkext file to make sure it will load next time you reboot)
rm -R /System/Library/Extensions/caches/com.* (same as above, but this is for fast booting, needs be removed in order for your new drivers to take effect in your next boot)
rm -R /System/Library/Extensions/ABC.kext (when some drivers cause trouble this is how you get rid of it completely, but to stay safe use m command
rm -R /mach_kernel

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How to Edit plist files to add your Dev IDs or change Boot preferences
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nano is the command to edit plist files to do things like adding your device ids, or changing boot preferences.

when you are done, press "ctrl+o" to save changes and press "enter" as it will ask to confirm and press "ctrl+x" to quit editing.

important usagefor drivers to add dev id:
nano info.plist (if you navigated to the right folder)
nano ABC.kext/Contents/info.plist (if you are in the drivers folder)
nano /System/Library/Extensions/ABC.kext/Contents/info.plist (if you are not where you are)

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+ Listing files/folders
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ls is short for list and used to list folders/files which is "dirs" equavalent of dos

"important examples:
ls : list all files and folders in current location
ls -a ABC* : lists files/folders starting with names of ABC

learn other ls usages by reading (good exercise to learn things)

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What is Safe Mode?
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safe mode is the place to fix stuff when you run into trouble, like your system refuses to load, due to some drivers... you will use above mentioned commands here as well as in terminal, once you load your system properly

important things to know:
/sbin/fsck -fy (when you first got into the safe mode, you need to make sure all files and your partitions in good condition, this commands checks them)

/sbin/mount -uw / (you need to mount your partition with write permissions, to be able to make changes, otherwise read-only system wont bring you anywher... this is a must!)

exit (when you are done with deleting or fixing some stuff, sometimes u can use this command in order to continue booting without restarting, until you learn how do not use it...

shutdown -r now (when you are done with everything helps your system to shutdown)

reboot (when you are done it helps you to restart)

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What to Know Before Booting off a DVD or HDD
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You placed your OSX DVD, or booting off from your hdd and it is saying please press F8 to install OSX, so what are you waiting, press F8 to see what is inside

If it is DVD you are booting off;
it will wait for you to enter or type some flags to boot with as below:
If it is HDD you are booting off;
it will wait for you to choose partition and/or flags below
(not that choosing partition is scrolling with arrow keys on your keyboard and do not press enter after that if you are intending to use flags as well

-v : verbose mode to see all system messages to see what is loading and what errors u are receiving.

-x : safe GUI mode to disable some trouble drivers and still enables you to boot

-s : safe text mode (like terminal) if -x doesnt work or u need to make some major changes

-f : after replacing some drivers in your system, boot with this in order to make sure it will reload evertyhing in drivers folder...

cpus=1 : if you get error/panic after some loading saying anything about cpu as this is needed for some chipsets and or kernels that are not patched to work on multicores for those chipsets or drivers. It enables only one core on your system though.

some important usage:

-v -s : to go into safe text mode

-v -x : to go into safe gui mode to ignore majority of the drivers from loading, but not all of them beware

-v -f : it reloads/creates the archive of the drivers folder, good to start with after replacing some drivers

you can also add cpus=1 to any of these usages if you are having problems with the kernelfor example:

-v -f cpus=1

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There many more things to know obviously, but these are the most
needed things for newbies to start from. This way you willgive less
headache to others. Please read it and refer to it, when you are
doing simple tasks, like driver changing, kernel changing, deleting
files etc... so do not ask questions about these simpletasks unless
you really cannot solve byjust doing so
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