There are now two parts to this guide, Snow Leopard and Leopard.


Last Updated 11/17/09, recent updates:
- added USB keyboard bios setting
- added note on updating to 10.6.2
- Adidasprince's chameleon patch.
-I've put up the Snow Leopard guide below.

NOTICE:

Adidasprince has posted a patched chameleon that fixes the 2GB limitation.
see this.

Please do NOT post here saying that you don't have the 2GB memory restriction problem without having run the memory test HERE at post #61. I am tired of responding to people who haven't bothered to read this thread or the big thread and have subsequently been proven wrong.

Old News:
Gigabyte has sent us a new BIOS to fix the > 2GB limit!!!
see post #66. EDIT: Unfortunately it doesn't appear to fix the problem.



Part 1: Installing Leopard using a retail 10.5.6 DVD on the GA-E7AUM-DS2H

Last Updated: 09/07/09

This guide was greatly facilitated by the hard work of folks like Signal64 and Koalala over on the
GA-E7AUM-DS2H thread over in Reader News & Review HERE. EDIT: that thread has been closed by the moderators. Please feel free to discuss issues with this board here, but also please refrain from posting info about Macbook Pro restore disks and osx86 "distros". This thread is about getting the board working using a retail install.

The vanilla install is quite simple Only a few kexts are required. A few more are optional to address issues.

WARNING - follow this guide at your own risk. I take no responsibility if you bork your board. That said, I have done the install several times while working it out so it is pretty low risk.

KNOWN ISSUES WITHOUT RESOLUTION
1) As of now, this mobo only works with 2GB of ram or less EDIT: when using the on-board video, otherwise there is no such limitation. There is some work going on in the aforementioned thread to try and fix it. Now is appears that nobody is working on it. I've opened a ticket the Gigabyte, they asked me to check the DRAM voltage which I did, I upped it to 2.0 according to Corsair spec and it had no effect, and of course I didn't expect it would. I've reported back to Gigabyte and pointed them to the memory test that shows the problem. Who knows, maybe they'll fix it.
2)After resuming from sleep audio does not work. EDIT: I tried THIS usb audio adapter and it works great and has no issues recovering from sleep.

Everything else works though some kexts are required for audio, restart, and working ethernet LAN after restart.

Steps

1) Acquire the necessary files listed at the end of this post, and prepare a boot CD with the image also listed at the end of this post (NEWISO.iso).

2) Flash your BIOS with Koalala's updated bios. You must do this. Flashing the bios on this mobo is low risk due to its dual bios feature. Just unzip e7aumd2hf3x.zip and copy to a FAT formatted USB stick. Reboot and go into Qflash at the first screen.

2a) After updating the BIOS, reboot and go into the BIOS. Pick "load optimized defaults" and type "Y". Now go to the "Integrated Peripherals" menu. Set both "Onboard IDE controller" and "NV SATA controller" to enabled. If you have an all SATA set-up Set "On-chip SATA mode" to AHCI, otherwise leave it on IDE. Set "USB keyboard support" to enabled. Hit F10 to save and exit.

3) Boot from the NEWISO boot CD. Hit return twice at the prompt. Remove the boot CD and put in the Retail 10.5.6 DVD. When it prompts for device ID take the default (9f).

4) Once the retail disk boots, pick your language and then before proceeding, open the disk utility from the utilities menu bar. If you don't see your disk listed on the left hand side, you didn't get your disk cabling/jumpers done properly.

5) Select your disk from the left hand pane and pick partition from the right hand pane. Create your partitioning scheme however you like but be sure to click on the option button and make sure it is GUID partition otherwise you can't install a retail DVD. If you don't know how to do this look HERE for a reasonable guide. Also make sure to take the default format (Mac OSX Extended journaled). If you find yourself reinstalling, erase the partition you are installing to before proceeding.

6) Exit the disk manager and continue with the installation. When the installation is done, put your boot CD back in as it reboots. When you get to the prompt for device id pick 80 if you have only one drive, otherwise you may have to fiddle with the number 81, 82 to get to your drive.

7) After OSX has booted and you've done all the account creation stuff, get the following onto your desktop either via ethernet or a USB stick (get them at the bottom of this post). UInstaller.zip (OSX Univeral installer), dsmos.kext, SMBIOSenabler.kext, AppleHDA.kext.

8) Open UInstaller.zip by double-clicking an navigating into the folder (it is a good idea to read the user guide at this point). Start UInstaller by double clicking on it.

9) Choose the Hard drive to install on at the top (your OSX partitiion). Select the "Install PC_EFI V9 Chameleon" check box. Select the "Install Custom Kexts from HD" checkbox and browse to the location (desktop) of the dsmos.kext, SMBIOSenabler.kext and AppleHDA.kext and select them all. They will appear in the box next to the browse button.

10) Do NOT select any other check box. In particular make sure that the "Apply kext package" check box under "Select motherboard package to install" is NOT checked.

11) Click on the "Install" button at the bottom left corner. When it is done, exit the Universall Installer.

12) Open the disk utility, in the finder under Applications->Uitlities. Select your OSX volume in the left pane and click on "Repair Disk Permissions". Wait for it to complete, it will take a few minutes.

13) Remove the boot CD and Shutdown (not restart).

14) After rebooting you can install the nForceLan package to get ethernet LAN enabled upon resume from sleep (it is reported that resume from sleep is not a problem with wifi cards). You can also install the OpenHaltRestart.kext to get restart working. And finally if you have a SATA HD you can install OrangeHDIconFix to fix the orange icon. You can find links to these below. I have not yet personally verified these but Blueknight over in the aforementioned thread has.

EDIT: re nForceLan I finally tried the nForceLan.kext to make my ethernet work on resume from sleep. It works fine, except the nForceLAN produced a kernel panic after restarting at the end of the package install. Booting in safe mode and removing
/System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/nvenet.kext
solved the problem see here . If you install this kext, I recommend you do this before you restart ;^).

EDIT: re mkv Video playback - Some people have reported a problem with the onboard video providing lousy playback through plex of hi def mkv's. yhX over on the big thread reported you could fix this by removing AppleUpstreamUserClient.kext.

That's it! Start up and enjoy.

EDIT: Upgrading to 10.5.7. I successfully updated using the combo update. After the update is through do not press restart but rather use the UInstaller (or your favorite kext tool e.g. KextHelper or OSX86Tools) to reapply DSMOS.kext and the AppleHDA.kext from step 9. Then restart and you should be good to go. I, of course was optimistic when I first updated and pressed restart. If this happens to you simply use the boot cd to boot from the hard disk and apply the kexts. Some people are hoping this fixes the 2GB ram limitation and I confess to having been too lazy to try it. I also doubt the 10.5.7 update will fix the problem. Eventually I'll try it and let you know. EDIT: I tried it, the 10.5.7 update does not fix the 2GB memory limitation.

EDIT: Upgrading to 10.5.8. I successfully updated using the combo update. Before starting the combo update, install AppleDecrypt.kext (don't forget to repair disk permissions) from the link below. This works better than DSMOS.kext and after running the combo update you just reboot. No need to install DSMOS.kext again and no hang on restart or booting from the bootCD. As with all the combo update you will probably get the "you must shutdown and restart" gray screen. I did not have to re-appy the AppleHDA.kext after the update(but audio is still off after resume from sleep). If you use the nForceLan kext, OpenHaltRestart.kex, or OrangeHDicon.kext you may need to re-apply. Some people are undoubtedly hoping this fixes the 2GB ram limitation and I confess to having been too lazy to try it. I also doubt the 10.5.8 update will fix the problem. Eventually I'll try it and let you know.

Necessary Files

- UIinstaller (I used V1.2) look HERE (thanks PCWiz!)
- Koalala's BIOS -e7aumd2hf3x.zip from Koalala's post 403 in this forum HERE (thanks Koalala!)
- NEWISO.ISO, DSMOS.kext and SMBIOSenabler - get the NEWISO.zip HERE (thanks Wingrunr21!). After you install OSX open the iso by double clicking, double click on initrd.img navigate into Extra->Extensions and pull out dsmos.kext and SMBIOSenabler.kext onto your desktop.
- AppleHDA.kext - pull it out of ALC889A_1056_fix.zip from HERE. (thanks tmongkol!). You don't need the other kext thanks to Koalala work getting dsdt into the BIOS (also don't need NVkush or any other graphics injector).
- AppleDecrypt.kext -from wingrunr21's dell laptop guide HERE. You can use this instead of DSMOS.kext and save yourself some trouble.

Optional Files
- nForceLAN.pkg - get it HERE be sure to install using the pkg.zip.
- OpenHaltRestart - get it HERE
- OrangeHDIconFix - (only if you have STATA hard drives) get it HERE (thanks PCWiz!)


Any help with the sleep issues and 2GB limit welcome.


Part 2: Installing Snow Leopard using a retail 10.6 DVD on the GA-E7AUM-DS2H

Last Updated: 11/17/09

Snow Leopard regresses a bit from Leopard on this board. You need a Sleepenabler.kext and the 64bit nForceLan updated for SL currently doesn't fix the resume from sleep issue for LAN, so don't update to SL if you need a 100% working rig. I'd like to thank Jon55 for posting his work patching Roisoft's DSDT to Gigabyte's F3a BIOS and SL kexts. I'ld also like thank Blueknight, Genzai, and Olegischinski for their help testing and fixing the new Gigabyte BIOS which is still a work in progress.

Edit: I've added steps for copying Jon55's kexts into /Extra/Extensions. and setting the UUID so that restart will work. I culled the content from the nice doc that rbonon pulled together in post #165 HERE. Read that doc if you want to use an MBR partitioning and dual or tri-boot. Thanks rbonon!



WARNING - follow this guide at your own risk. I take no responsibility if you bork your board. That said, I have done the install several times while working it out so it is pretty low risk.

KNOWN ISSUES
1) You can ONLY install SL with 2GB of ram or less. Once installed you can use adidasprince's patched chamleon to get more ram working. Also if you have a graphics card, you should be able to get more ram working without the Chameleon patch AFTER you install.
2) Audio with Jon55's legacy HDA and it works but does not work after resume from suspend.
3) LAN is not working after resume from sleep. nForceLan doesn't fix the problem. Eno, who authored it has not looked into SL resume issues.

STEPS
1) Acquire the necessary files listed at the end of this post, and prepare a boot CD with the image also listed at the end of this post (unzip and use BootCD.iso).

2) Flash your BIOS with Jon55's patch of Roisoft's DSDT into Gigabyte's F3a BIOS. You must do this. Flashing the bios on this mobo is low risk due to its dual bios feature. Just unzip it and copy to a FAT formatted USB stick. Reboot and hit 'End' to go into Qflash when the BIOS comes up. Just so you know, I haven't personally tried this BIOS and it works. I have been working on a different one based on changes from Gigabyte. Anything patched for SL that is based on Koalala's should also work just fine. Jon55 says his isn't based on Koalala's but works fine for both Leopard and SL, however I had an IDE Leopard install and had some problem with Jon's BIOS on Leopard.

2a) After updating the BIOS, reboot and hit 'delete' to go into the BIOS. Pick "load optimized defaults" and type "Y". Now go to the "Integrated Peripherals" menu. Set both "Onboard IDE controller" and "NV SATA controller" to enabled. At this time, this guide (and all other SL guides I've seen) require that you have an all SATA (DVD and hard disk) set-up so set "On-chip SATA mode" to AHCI. If using a USB keyboard, be sure to enable it. Hit f10 to save and exit.

3) Make sure you don't have more than 2GB of ram installed. Boot from the BootCD.iso CD you burned. When the chameleon appears and BootCD is the icon in the middle of the screen, remove the boot CD and put in the Retail SL DVD. Wait a couple of seconds and hit f10. The icon in the middle will be replaced with the SL Retail cd. Hit enter and the install will start.

4) Once the retail disk boots, pick your language and then before proceeding, open the disk utility from the utilities menu bar. If you don't see your disk listed on the left hand side, you didn't get your disk cabling/jumpers done properly.

5) Select your disk from the left hand pane and pick partition from the right hand pane. Create your partitioning scheme however you like but be sure to click on the option button and make sure it is GUID partition otherwise you can't install a retail DVD. If you don't know how to do this look HERE for a reasonable guide. Also make sure to take the default format (Mac OSX Extended journaled). If you find yourself reinstalling, erase the partition you are installing to before proceeding.

6) Exit the disk manager and continue with the installation. When the installation is done, it will almost certainly put up an error screen saying it can't start Mac OSX on this disk. DON"T WORRY, just ignore it. Press the Restart button, and you'll have to do a hard shutdown of the computer. Start it back up and as it boots put your boot CD back in and press F12 to get the boot device options screen. If you miss this step it will hang verifying the DMI pool. I struggled for a long time before I figured out that you have to pick YOUR dvd device from the boot menu (mine was at the bottom) using any of the rest of the options causes it to hang on verifying the DMI pool. When you see the chameleon, pick the disk you installed on by using the tab key and hit enter.

7) After OSX has booted and you've done all the account creation stuff, get the following onto your desktop either via ethernet or a USB stick (get them at the bottom of this post). The Chameleon V2 RC3 installer package, sleepenabler.kext and optionally nForceLan.kext and the kexts from Jon55's post too.

8) Open the chameleon installer by double-clicking and run through the install. After it finishes, go to your finder and click on the disk you installed on. You'll see an Extra folder. Open another finder window and the double click on the BootCD.iso icon on your desktop to mount it. When the finder window opens on BootCD, click on the Extra folder to open it then click on Preboot.dmg to mount it. When the finder window for the Preboot.dmg opens drags the Extra folder inside the Preboot.dmg onto your desktop.

9) Now copy all of the contents of the Extra folder you just dragged onto your desktop, into the Extra folder that you opened when you clicked on the disk you installed SL on. Also drag the Sleepenabler.kext into the Extensions folder in that folder.

10) Open the disk utility, in the finder under Applications->Uitlities. Select your OSX volume in the left pane and click on "Repair Disk Permissions". Wait for it to complete, it will take a few minutes.

11) Remove the boot CD and Shutdown (not restart).

12) After rebooting get the following kext from Jon55's "Kext 64bits.zip" file: LegacyHDAPlatformDriver.kext, OpenHaltRestart.kext, PlatformUUID.kext, Sleepenabler.kext and Extra/Extensions folder on the disk you installed on.

13) Open Disk Utility, select your "Mac" partition, right-click to get "Information", and copy the Universal Unique Identifier number

14) Edit the /Extra/com.apple.boot.plist file as follows:


15) Edit the /Extra/Extensions/PlatformUUID.kext/Contents /Info.plist file as follows:


16) Repair permissions on the directories BEFORE you regeneratte the extensions cache. In a terminal window:


17) Rebuild your Extensions.mkext file running the following commands in a terminal window (thanks to rbonon/zhell):


18) For good measure, repair the disk permissions using the disk utility

19)After rebooting you can experiment with the nForecLan.kext to try to get LAN working on resume from sleep. EDIT: nForceLan had no effect for me and I screwed around trying to delete nvent.kext and go into trouble, be careful I recommend using OSXTOOLS to backup your extensions. If you get into trouble you can boot the BootCD (you may need to use f12 again). You can also experiment with removing some of the kexts from the BootCD.

20) Audio. After install the default output is set to headphones. Be sure go switch to line out if you want to use speakers, etc.

EDIT: Upgrading to 10.6.1. I successfully updated using the System Preferences->Software Update app. Since the kexts are in /Extra/Extensions, update shouldn't touch them. My update was that simple.

EDIT: Upgrading to 10.6.2. By following the instructions from netkas HERE, I successfully updated using the System Preferences->Software Update app. Essentially you need to make sure there is a NullCPUPowerManagement.kext in /Extra/Extensions and you must delete SleepEnabler.kext or replace it with the patched one from Netkas, if you don't do this you will get a kernel panic. My update was that simple.


That's it! Enjoy. I welcome any constructive suggestions for improvements and also as always any help getting things working better.


Necessary Files

- Chameleon V2RC3 installer HERE
- Jon55's patch of Rosisoft's DSDT work into the Gigabyte f3a BIOS and kexts - in post #89 of this thread HERE
- BootCD.iso.zip attached. I didn't create this, got it from one of the other Gigabyte motherboard threads.

Optional Files
- nForceLAN.kext.zip - attached. This is the 64 bit version. I have NOT tested this and it does not currently work.
- adidasprince's Chameleon patch for using more that 2GB of ram (look toward the end of the thread). Thanks adidasprince!!

Memory panic fix (>2 GB of memory) by slashack (127611)
Using a Intel DP43TF (Intel P43 Southbridge - ICH10) on 2 x 2Gb Corsair DDR2 PC2-6400 memorry and had kernel panics. Used the Debug item to startup and Rember to test. Found that (see attached picture) JMicronATA.kext was responsible. Loaded JMicronATA.kext using an mkext with Chameleon 2.0 RC1 and all is well.

The Mobo does support up 16 Gb of RAM. Does anybody try to get it work at least with 8 GB RAM?

To my knowledge, no. Everyone seems stuck at 2GB. There are some assertions that the tables exported by the BIOS (DSDT and the ilk) are incorrect.

I am considering this board for a HTPC.

Any issues getting the video to work? Does DVI port work OK? How about HDMI? I'm guessing HDMI with sound doesn't work?

Thanks for the guide, looks great.

I personally have only used DVI and it works very well with my 1920x1200 lcd monitor. My understanding is that HDMI works fine although as you guessed the HDMI audio does not. By the way, I tried THIS usb audio adapter and it works great and has no issues recovering from sleep.

I am also considering this board but I woder if onboard audio supports analog 5.1 (via 3 lineouts) in osx? In that case, would iTunes also work with surround sound when listening to music?

I don't have 5.1 so I can comment. I'll look at the options in the sound preferences next time I get a chance and let you know what it looks like is supported.

did anyone of you tried this fix - Darwin-ATA - to work around the 2GB-RAM-problem?

Link to Google - Code:
http://code.google.com/p/darwin-ata/downloads/list

Thanks so far!
FreEkO

Hi all,

This is my first post to this forum
Thanks every one for instructions.


I have successfully installed Leopard on this motherboard with Dlach's guide (patched BIOS, retail 10.5.6, ... )
When I hook up one display ,either VGA or DVI, it works OK

It doesn't work when I try to get it work with two displays (VGA + DVI). Both screens went black

VGA as primary display
DVI as secondary display

I saw on other topic one user had similar expirience but I didn't find patched BIOS version for this setup.
Is there any workaround, or is there possibility for Koalala to make additional BIOS version.


Thanks in advance.

I haven't even checked to see if the board supports this. Since the 9400 uses shared memory and that is suspected to be causing the problem with >2GB of RAM, I would tend to avoid it. If you want to pursue it I think if it can be done it is via NVCAP settings and you probably would need a patched DSDT. Check the big thread I referenced at the beginning of the first post to see if other have gotten it working. If so you can still patch a DSDT and use it as my understanding is it overrides the one in the patched BIOS or you could try PMing Koalala. I don't know that he reads this thread.

My posts in the big thread are mostly centered around getting DVI+vga to work. It's supported for sure, but I still can't get the right combination to work.

With the patched bios, only one will work at a time, plugging the other in kills both displays. I tried changing the nvcap via hex editor but it didnt work. With the correct NVcap set as an EFI flag, QE isn't supported on the board.

I have 10 of these things running without QE just so I can dual monitor them. They also all have 2gb of ram sitting in a drawer for each one. I shoulda researched first, honestly this board isn't the "all in one" solution right now.

Thank you both,

It's clearer now what are limitations.



Best Regards

Yeah, I hear you. It is so tantalizing close though. I think if I could just get the time to study the threads on patching the SSDT and DSDT tables (there is one HERE talks about using Chameleon 2.0 to override them) we could fix the 2Gb restriction and probably the audio resume from sleep as well, perhaps even the LAN resume from sleep. Dual displays should be doable too if the macbooks that have the 9400 can do it.

Hello all,

I just finished this install and everything went well. Except for one thing, after I installed dsmos.kext, SMBIOSenabler.kext and AppleHDA.kext my ps2 keyboard stopped working. It worked in OSX before the kexts where installed and it works in the BIOS. Any one have a suggestion?

Yes, you need ApplePS2Conntoller.kext and AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext. You can get them by inserting the newiso boot CD and double clicking on the disc icon, then double clicking on initrd, double click on extra, double click extensions and drag the two kexts from the extensions folder onto your desktop. You can install them using UInstaller and only selecting "Install custom kexts from HD", hit the browse button and select both kexts from your desktop the hit install. Or of course use your favorite kext tool (e.g. kext helper or OSX86Tools) if you have one. Be sure to run the disk utility and repair permissions on your OSX volume before you reboot.

Thank you very much for your help.

Unfortunately after I couldnt use my keyboard, I decided to try and instal OSX on another hard drive (i removed the first one). It didn't work. Too make a long story short, when loading the retail dvd, it stops at the gray screen, with the dark grey apple. I get the spinning wheel followed by a circle with a line through it.

When booting using "newiso" i get this message "system configfile ' /com.apple.s/library/preferences/systemconfiguration/com.apple.boot.plist' not found" Any Ideas?

I have tried searching and some of the solutions others have posted, and none seem to work. I have tried IDE and SATA hard drives and dvd drives, i have re-downloaded and re-burned newiso. I have flashed the bios back to the origanal bios, and then to the Koalala bios. No luck yet.

Thanks for all the help

My first suspicion is that you have drive cabling/config issues. My second is that your 2nd newiso image is corrupted. If you still have the original newiso boot disc that worked stick with that. Also, if you can, put your (almost working) hard drive back in, the one that had a ps2 that didn't work. If you have a USB mouse that is all you need to do the steps I originally told you to do, no keyboard necessary. (Actually if possible, just spring for a USB keyboard and mouse, its all of $25 or less at newegg and PS/2 is sooo...last century, not to mention that you can set up the BIOS to wake from suspend on USB actions, which is pretty handy). Otherwise...

The symptoms you are seeing with the grey screen stopping or the circle with the line through it is very likely a drive cabling/config issue. You have to be careful when using an IDE hard drive or DVD drive that the cabling and jumpers on the drives are correct. If you don't know how to correctly jumper and pick the order of your drives on the cable, google is your friend. Also you try to set up the same jumpers/cabling that worked for you the first time.
Very likely that is what went wrong when you put in the 2nd hard drive, it probably had its jumpers set differently from you original disk.

Keep at it and you'll get there. Keep us posted.

Ok, I am still having the same problem. I now have SATA HDD and DVD drives hooked up. The HDD is the origanal drive that I had running OSX. I have the HDD plugged into SATA2_0 and the dvd in SATA2_1. There are no jumpers on the dvd drive and the hdd drive jumpers only seem to control the power settings.

Doing some of searching on this site it seems alot of people have this problem with IDE drives. I don't have any IDE drives installed, but I noticed in the BIOS it is using an IDE controller. I changed the "Onboard IDE Controller" to disabled, and the "NV SATA Controller" is/was enabled. The "on chip SATA mode" is set to IDE. When i set it to AHCI no drives are recognized. Is this something I should worry about?

I do not know if I am going down the right road here so any advice is appreciated. and thanks again dlach, for all of your help.

I thought the SATA setup up was finicky, I did get it working and so did at least one other person I know of back on the big thread, but I wound up going to a set up with IDE disk and SATA CDROM. Stay away from AHCI at least until you get things stabilized. If you have other DVD drives try them because someone on the big thread had trouble until he got the right one. I have the following set:

on board Ide controller = enabled
NV sata controller = enabled
on-ship SATA mode = IDE.

I had my IDE disk jumpered to master. That is about all I can suggest since I didn't work hard on the SATA install.

dlach,

Just got your reply in the other thread. Thanks. This clearly is the new thread for this board. BTW, excellent install guide. I will try it.

I am surprised, and excited, by the lack of nvkush. I had felt that this was the problem with my video playback and I really want to use this board for my HTPC (especially if it supports SL). Problem is, the damn thing won't even boot anymore. Did a cmos reset a couple of times, but nothing. I wonder if I killed the battery. Anyway. Nice work so far.

-Net

I have been really busy and just had time to play around with this. Its still not working . I tried with the IDE drive and still have the same problem. Just to be clear, the error occurs when the system is loading the newiso cd. (i have tired the origanal cd that worked previously and the new cd that i made with a fresh download. And this problem started the first time i hooked up the ide drive. Is there any way that some how when i hooked up the IDE drive something got stored in the BIOS that can be cleared out? (I know that is probably a really long shot seeing as i have re-flashed the bios a couple of times. I am really lost for ideas at this point. So any ideas anyone has are worth a try at this point.

Right now I am running windows 7 rc on the computer and everything is working well. I am going to be playing around with installing osx again this weekend.



This is a long shot but, about the 4gig problem, when running windows 7 with 4 gigs of ram in dual channel setup, the video card seem to use twice the ram allocated to it. In windows when i have the video card set to use 512 of ram it uses 1 gig, and when it is set to use 256 it uses 512. So what I am thinking is that the video card uses 512 out of each channel. When I had osx running, even when 512 was set in the bios, it only was using 256. So my idea is if someone had figured out how to allocate more ram to the video card, maybe we could get the recognized ram down to 3 gigs and have things work? I really doubt this will help, just a crazy idea i had when i couldnt fall asleep.

If you have an IDE DVD, use that too and make sure you have one set for master and one for slave. If it doesn't boot switch it. Make sure you unplug the power cable in between booting. If you don't have an IDE DVD try switching the jumper on the IDE hard drive to slave. I know this frustrated me some too especially since it should work according to specs, but I recall trying plugging it into different spots on the cable seemed to make a difference even though it is not supposed to as long as neither drive is set for CS (cable select).


My understanding is that the problem is not the amount of ram we have in the system but rather the way the video ram is memory mapped by the BIOS. I think the key to the memory problem is a patched SSDT to fix the incorrect memory mapping. Since Gigabyte doesn't have any motivation to fix the BIOS.



How far into boot does it get? Do you see the BIOS splash screen? If not it could be the power supply, one died on me with this board and the symptoms were the fan came on and it seemed to try to boot and then stopped. Other things to try:

- re-seat the RAM.
- make sure the power and reset switch cables are in the proper positions/polarity

Appreciate the bios way is the way in the guide, but I wondered if any further progress had been made with a ssdt and dsdt to get things working as they should, without the bios upgrade?

I've looked at other threads, but frankly my head is spinning with the number of potential alternatives to get this board working!

Reason I ask is I'm not sure what bios version was patched and there seems to be a fairly recent bios update available ...

Thanks in advance

Scoobydu,

I've not had any time to make progress on ssdt/dsdt and don't know that anyone else has.
The patched BIOS version is F3A which as of a check just minute ago is the most recent.

dlach

Yes, thanks for that, I'd loaded it a couple of hours ago and noticed it was 3a or something, which you are right, is indeed the latest.

The weird thing is, profiler shows the graphics chip as a 9400 not an 8400!? edit OK this might be as I haven't installed SMBIOSenabler yet.....

I've not had chance to check the thread to see if that is expected or not.

Also, when I connect hdmi with VGA, both screens get their signals dropped!

So I don't get a chance to setup the displays. Maybe my NV string is incorrect for the format of display outputs (not sure yet)

At least I now have QE enabled, but the other things are weird.

I have done all the steps up to installing the OS from my retail 10.5.6 and I checked my DVD and it passed and starts the install then at about 10% the screen piexelates in rainbow and then goes purple and does nothing.

Any ideas????? I did use disk utility to make 2 partitions before hand but I don't know why that would hurt anything. Also I'm using an IDE Optical DVD and a SATA HDD.

Do you have a graphics card plugged in? Otherwise the board should report a 9400 as that is what the board has.

As for hdmi and VGA simultaneously, I think there were other notes in this thread about that. If it is even supported by the board I'm pretty sure you need special NVcap settings for it. Check the old thread listed in the first post.

Keep us posted on your progress.




Those sure sound like the symptoms of trying to install with greater than 2GB of ram. Current situation with this board is 2GB of ram is the limit.

Is this a limitation of OS X or the motherboard. So does that mean once I start dual booting Win 7 I will have to add/remove everytime I want to run 4gb in WIN 7? Sure wish we can get 4gb working on this!!!

Also, I notice everytime I power on, it seems my OS makes a brand new connection profile each time, i.e. Ethernet then next Ethernet 2, etc Anyone else having that quirk happen.

Windows should see >2GB of ram. I don't know about linux. The problem as I understnad it is that OSX uses the DSDT standard and the motherboard manufacturers(except Apple) don't implement it properly.

I haven't seen the ethernet profile problem.

Just for others who have interested in this mainboard, I have this mainboard and flash the BIOS to stock F3A and hack F3X firmware (with EFI string).

Installed 8GB (4 x 2GB module) with iPC OSx86 10.5.6 and update 10.5.8. I have also have Palit 9500GT 1GB PCIe installed and still get into problem of the leopard hanging when running memory test.

Windows 7 runs fine with 8GB RAM, sleep (S3) works - ethernet + sound all woke up without issue.
For me, it's more or less conclude that this board is not good >2GB for Leopard.

Anyone else have similar experience, i.e using >2GB RAM with external PCIe Video?

Can I use your method on my ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmen...l3=397&l4=0

Thanks in advance.

Wintelmac,
I state the >2GB ram issue up front in the first post and in more than one reply so I kind of have to say "Duh!". It is the one real limitation and basically I don't find it a problem. If you are running memory intensive stuff maybe the system would thrash. I am holding out some hope that SSDT override using Chameleon could solve the memory issue and plan on looking into it when I get a chance. UPDATE: I just went over to the old thread and found you cross posted there. Really bad etiquette. Please don't waste our time.

INsERT,
Sorry but please keep this thread about the Gigabyte board. If you use google and search with site:forum.insanelymac.com you may find a more helpful thread. Good luck.

hi,

i have just one question, do you need to modify any settings in bios after F3fix or is this just fix and you can change whatever as normal.


thanks

The modified F3a BIOS just adds/updates some of the DSDT info in the BIOS. The bios still functions normally and you can make whatever changes work for you.

Hey,
any luck on updating to 10.5.8?

The update worked see the edit on the first post. I have not tried adding more than 2GB but am not expecting it to be fixed.

Hi!

I've got Koalala's bios file, but i can't load it with the Qflash: it doesn't show this file on the flash card (other bios files like original f3a or saved from Qflash to the same disk are there and can be choosed).
I've noticed the size difference between original f3a and Koalala's. The orihinal is a 1 megabyte and Koalala's is 503 Kb.
Is there any trick to update?

Thanks in advance.

Koalala's is 1MB if you uncompress it. If you tried to install it without uncompressing it would explain your problem. I used stuffit.

Hi!
I've uncompressed it on Vista 32, it was 503Kb uncompressed (Winrar). When i did in under Mac os it became ok (1M).

Thank's for attention

Excellent. Yet another of the many reasons to use OSX. Good luck with the install.

Hi

Are the efforts on making this MB work with more than 2Gb all halted? Is there a thread where it is being actively discussed?

Would be interesting to read how it was resolved if it ever will be...

Cheers!

Hi. I wonder if it's a real help, but it may be a begining of some new investigations on 2GB limit.
There is a hidden menu in Gigabyte's BIOS setup. The manual does not explain it's options meaning, but in the section of FAQ it sais:

Q:In the BIOS Setup program, why are some BIOS options missing?
A: Some advanced options are hidden in the BIOS Setup program. Press <Delete> to enter BIOS Setup during the POST. In the Main Menu, press <Ctrl>+<F1> to show the advanced options.

So i did it and i've seen this (see attached images).
Any ideas if it can bdice used and which way?
Or their meaning...?

As far as I know they are stalled. I haven't had time to study the issue of modding the SSDT to have the correct value. Frankly I'm not too motivated because of the 2GB limit, it works fine with 2GB for my purposes. I am a bit more motivated to learn how to patch the DSDT and SSDT to fix other problems like the audio sleep. It will be interesting to see what SN adds to the mix, I pre-ordered so my disks will arrive Friday. I am not expecting much, especially in the 2GB limitation problem since it is allegedly the Gigabyte BIOS that is not publishing the SSDT properly. Who knows, we might actually get some action if someone wrote to Gigabyte or in their forum.



Thanks for the heads up. Some of those settings (BIOS cachable and Mem power) might be interesting. The spectrum modulation has to do with trying to reduct EMI from the clocks for the various devices. By modulating down it should reduce EMI somewhat but also reduce performance.
I doubt it has anything to do with any of our issues.

dlach

I've PM'd you with the SL details

scooby

@dlach
do you know if somebody tried to install Mac OS 10.6 on this Board? When i´m starting the Installation my Screen is getting black and nothing else happens.


*Edit*

Sorry, i´ve didn´t notice your entrya bout 10.6!

I have this board with 4 GB of RAM. No problems. But I'm not using the integrated video. I have an old 8800-GT tossed in it. This is what I did:

Place a HD into an Intel chipset system.
Use standard install methods (boot-132) etc. I used a 10.5 retail DVD.
Install 10.5.7.
Reboot from CD back to HD.
Let the patch spin on boot... *WAIT 2-3 MINUTES after HD activity STOPS* All retail Macs reboot at this point, they do not spin forever. Let it finish hitting the HD, wait and reboot.
Make sure it starts. It should without a problem.
*DO NOT INSTALL ANYTHING ELSE*
Move HD to GA-E7AUM-DS2H based system.
Boot with the CD, start with HD 80 (or whatever it is)
Reinstall 10.5.7.
Reboot. CD boot, HD the usual.
Let it spin again...reboot.
Install the nVidia drivers from the nVidia site (GTX-285). Show contents, explore down into the package. Install the 3 component package files (video, driver, GL). This bypasses the version checker. These drivers have full hardware acceleration.
Install the nVidia injector from Netkas. (the same one as GTX cards)
Reboot. CD boot, HD the usual.
Install Chameleon v2 RC2.
Add AppleDecrypt, AppleNForceATA, Disabler, IOPCIFamily and OpenHaltRestart.
Search for downloads here don't PM me.
mkexttool it.
Reboot.

Enjoy. I don't have audio working correctly yet.

Came up recognized as a MacPro2.1. Running a E5300 CPU, 4 GB 800 Mhz RAM.

I'll try flipping my video to built-in and see what it does.

*UPDATE*
4GB RAM with on-board video. I did get it to panic and lock up eventually. Does work fine with an add-on board though.

Note: I do not have a custom BIOS loaded into the motherboard. All Gigabyte.

Yes I should make it clear in my main post that it is the on-board video that causes the memory limitation.