EVGA 680i sli with 10.5.7 and vanilla kernel 9.7 (working)

[MadFalcon]

--EDIT-- THE mini GUIDE IS A COUPLE OF POSTS DOWN...

 

Hey fellow osxerz,

I'm fairly new to the whole osx86 scene. I've been doing research for a couple of weeks now on installing osx86. I managed to get a fully working 10.5.6 install on my vmware with 1920x1200 res n networking. No sound though. Finally I decided to bite the bullet and install osx on my evga 680i sli motherboard.

 

After much research I found out that 680i just isn't fully compatible and is a pain apparently to get working..

 

After learning a lot from the vmware install. I decided to apply the knowledge n install it myself and I have to tell you. It couldn't be easier to setup and get working. I only have one problem and that has to do with multicore recognition. I know multicore works. You just have to have a processor that is compatible with the vanilla kernel. So my rig is using CPUs=1 in order to boot.

 

I wanted to use vanilla kernel for full compatibility with mac software. I'm using the installation for mac and iPhone development. It's possible to get all cores working by using a modified or patched kernel. I know of no good 9.7 based kernels.

 

In any case my installation of full 10.5.7 is working wonderfully with the exception that I'm using only one core. Again it will not be a issue if u use a processor that's being used by apple or by using a modified kernel.

 

My system specs are:

motherboard: evga 680i sli with d33 bios

video: 8800gtx overclocked

ram: 6 gb @ 800mhz

sound: onboard alc885 chip, fully working with all inputs and outputs and front panel headphone etc etc

processor: qx6700 2.66ghz oc to 3.21ghz

 

so if anyone has questions or needs a step by step of what I did, post back and I'll let ya know.

The update to 10.5.7 was so simple it's not even funny I didn't backup or anything.

 

Edit: I've done this install on an external USB harddrive that already had a ntfs partition with music data etc. So the install is done on a secondary partition on that hard drive and it doesn't mess with my vista installation in any way. To boot into mac I simply press escape when computer boots up and pick my external as the boot drive and viola I'm in mac. Also I used an xbox HD DVD drive to do the install and it is recognized and does work with the mac lol. Talk about unusual lol. So I can answer any questions you may have regarding external drive installations and multibooting and multibooting without {censored} up your windows install.

[muka3D]

Hey MadFalcon, I've got a very similar configuration to yours, and I've been struggling with OS X... Would you mind writing a little guide for me on how you got it working? For example, which distribution you're using, and which drivers/patches you selected?

 

Thanks a bunch. Perhaps once I get mine working I'll be able to make a nice little tutorial/video for everyone else that has this platform and is banging their heads...

[MGJulius]

Hey,

 

Just letting you know that you do NOT have to have the same kernel as the base system installed. i.e you can run the voodoo 9.5 kernel on a 10.5.7 system. However, the System.kext and Seatbelt.kext must match the running kernel

[kfootballkid]

i was able to get 1.5.5 working with ideneb dist. and a 680i SLI with an Intel E6700, only to find out ilife 09 isnt supported by 1.5.5, so im thinking about doing 1.5.6/1.5.7 would be great if u explained your process a little more. thanks!

[MadFalcon]

Hey MadFalcon, I've got a very similar configuration to yours, and I've been struggling with OS X... Would you mind writing a little guide for me on how you got it working? For example, which distribution you're using, and which drivers/patches you selected?

 

Thanks a bunch. Perhaps once I get mine working I'll be able to make a nice little tutorial/video for everyone else that has this platform and is banging their heads...

 

 

Yes, ofcourse i can write a guide explaining what i've done. I've actually been working on the system and have gotten all 4 cores working and i'll explain that as well.

 

 

 

Hey,

 

Just letting you know that you do NOT have to have the same kernel as the base system installed. i.e you can run the voodoo 9.5 kernel on a 10.5.7 system. However, the System.kext and Seatbelt.kext must match the running kernel

From my experiments and research and the fact that i knew mac was a unix based system. I realize that the kernel's are interchangeable. But a program compiled for one kernel and using specific calls from that kernel will not run on another version of the kernel unless it's a later build of the kernel. That is why i wanted the 9.7 kernel.

 

i was able to get 1.5.5 working with ideneb dist. and a 680i SLI with an Intel E6700, only to find out ilife 09 isnt supported by 1.5.5, so im thinking about doing 1.5.6/1.5.7 would be great if u explained your process a little more. thanks!

 

and once again, no problem, i will write a guide to explain what i did to help you guys out. and it might make u tad bit happy to know that i have ilife 09 fully functional and working...

 

 

 

P.S. I've gotten all 4 of my cores working and from reading around and finding out that some people were having problems with the onboard nic when more than 1 core was active, i figured i would have similar problems. But surprisingly i'm not having those problems and it's because i'm not using the 9.6 voodoo kernel. The kernel i am using is a 9.7 modified xnu kernel based on voodoo.. or so the page said but later on i found out that the kernel just removed all the HPET {censored} from the kernel and any xnu calls... (not quite sure what that means, and honestly don't care as of this moment lol). When i do post the guide i will also post the link to that specific kernel.

[muka3D]

Thanks a bunch MadFalcon... I'm eagerly anticipating your guide...

[MadFalcon]

---GUIDE---

Before i start with the guide, let me write my system configuration and what I was planning on doing.

 

Motherboard: EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775

Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.66GHz Quad Core (Overclocked to 3.23GHZ)

Ram: 6 GHZ 800MHZ Ram (2x4Gig Patriot) + (2x2Gig Corsair) (don't ask why...)

Video: EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX Superclocked (x2 but only one hooked up right now)

HDDs: Too Many... Sata & USB... But the ones that probably matter are a 150gig WD Raptor with Vista x64 and 1TB WD My Book USB external on which Mac OSX is running on.

 

Okay before i start i want to explain that i bought the MyBook for extra storage space and was partitioned as NTFS. when i decided to install osx i used drive manager in vista to shrink the drive (also known as resizing a partition). then i reformated 250 gigs into another partition so technically the data is on first partition and the 250 gig space is on a second partition on an external... So when you read that you have to use a whole disk or use a primary partition or blah blah blah.. no.. you don't.. you can do it how ever the hell you want to do it. It will just overwrite your boot loader for that drive... but nothing is ever really 'messed up'. It does make the process simpler and faster if you already have the partitions setup and formated. It doesn't matter what file system the osX partition is in because you will later change it. What i'm getting at is that it's better if you don't mess with partitioning the drive in Disk utilities during OSX installation. On my USB drive i had 700gigs for data partition and the on the second partition i had 250 gigs formated as NTFS and named 'OSXUSB'. I had done this before i ever went into the installation for OSX. It made it easier later to find it without me having to go through my 10 other hard drives and guessing which one it was.

 

What i used to install osx was "iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Universal PP5 Final". Ofcourse for legal purposes.. umm i can't tell you where to get it, and to protect my ass i will also let all the apple lawyers know that i own a new mac mini (happily being used by the wife) and have a licensed copy of leopard (which is just sitting on my desk and is not installed on the mac making the unused license legal for me to use).

 

Download iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Universal PP5 Final

Download 10.5.7 Delta Update

 

Burn the update on a disc

OR

Put it on a harddrive in your system that you're not installing osx on.

 

---Preping the System

-Bios

 

First of all update your bios... it solved a lot of my initial issues. The latest Bios is almost a year old and it's P33. So it that's what you have good on ya. if not, update your bios.

 

In your bios goto Advanced Chipset Config -> CPU Configuration.

 

Set CPU Thermal Control to [TM1 & TM2]

Set C1E Enhanced Halt State to [Disabled]

Set Execute Disable Bit to [Enabled]

Set Virtualization to [Disabled]

 

Set All cpu cores to Disabled there should only be one core enabled by default that you can not turn off.

 

Since i have a quad core, i disabled cpu core 1, 2 and 3. cpu core 0 was enabled by default and i couldn't change that.

 

---Installing OSx

 

You should have already burned ipc image on a dvd. if not, u can still do it.. Once you're done Pop in the DVD and at boot either it'll boot from the dvd drive or you'll have to pick it. in Either case, i usually just press ESC and pick my Xbox HD-DVD drive (connected using USB to my PC) and it asks you to press any key to boot from CD.. go ahead and do that.

 

note: From my experience many distros crash at this process so no one can really follow the tutorial any further lol. That happened to me when i was trying to get osx running on vmware. There's many things you can do to avoid this from happening. If you have many harddrives like me.. disconnect all your data holding drives. leave only the drive you're installing to in the machine.. if you are installing on an external, Disconnect all other drives. If you have any extra PCI cards remove those. All you really need in your computer is CPU, RAM and a video card to boot up. If you are unable to boot using those, reset your bios default settings, disconnect all USB {censored} you have hooked up, except the drive you're installing to and keyboard and mouse. Pretty much what i'm getting at is that you want to install your system as bare bones as possible to avoid conflict... LUCKILY for me and my board i didn't have to disconnect anything what so ever and i booted right into the installer.

 

Once in the installer,

1. Pick Your language and press next arrow
   
2. once the welcome screen pops up and the menu bar at the top shows up, Click on Utilities and pick Disk Utilities.
   
3. In the Disk utilities section You will see all your physical drives and the partitions within. Pick your disk or partition and format accordingly. I'm not covering this subject because it is the same across the board and you can find this information every where on these boards. IF you do have any specific questions about what to do in this section, please post your problem and what you're trying to accomplish and i can give you suggestions and help.
   
4. Once your drive or partition (in my case) is Erased/formated as the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Format. Close Disk Utilities.
   
5. Now you should be back on the Welcome Screen. Press Continue
   
6. You should be on a Screen where you have to pick your drive. There should only be one drive or partition listed and it should have a Green Down Arrow in the picture. That means that drive is in the correct format for installing OSX. If you have multiple selections here With those green arrows, that's find too. Just make sure you pick the one that you initially intended to install OSx on. That is why it helps to remove all other drives from the system. Now Select the correct drive and press continue.
   
7. The Next Screen that pops up will be the Install Summary Screen. On this screen you will click on Customize.
   
8. Here you will have items:
   iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Base System (Already Checked)
   Language Translations
   iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Intel AMD SSE2 SSE3
   
9. Expand iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Intel AMD SSE2 SSE3 and Pick the Following:
    
   Drivers--->Chipset Drivers--->AppleNForceATA nForce Drivers
   Fixes and Patches----->DSDT Patches--->Patch DSDT
   Fixes and Patches----->AppleSMBIOS Patch--->AppleSMBIOS-27 Rev3 xxxMHZ
   Alternate Bootloaders--->Chameleon with DSDT / Custom Boot Picture
   Applications--->pick ALL Applications except "Marvin's AMD Utility"
   
   
10. Click on Done
    
11. You should be back to Install Summary Screen. On this Screen Click Install and go do something... Actually on second thought, Don't do something, sit there and watch it... Because you have to take control before it automatically reboots. You want to control the first boot into the system. So just sit there and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't restart without you.
    
12. Once installation is done and it starts counting down to restart, you can either let the countdown finish or Click on restart yourself.
    

Note: In Step 9, the xxx is the MHZ that you have your ram running. I strongly suggest you pick 800MHZ even if you're running higher. ofcourse if you are not running 800MHZ ram sticks then pick the speed your ram sticks are running at.

 

End of Installation....

 

 

When the computer starts rebooting, press DEL to get into bios.

 

 

Now if you had one drive that you partitioned into two or more and one partition already had another OS (such as vista) installed and you installed OSx on another partition then your boot loader has been replaced by chameleon.

 

If you have installed on a completely seperate drive then your original windows bootloader probably didn't get modified and when the computer starts it'll start back up with whatever your first boot device is.

 

So take out the iPC dvd out of the dvd drive.

 

You should still be in the bios. Once you have the dvd out of the drive. Restart your system and press ESC to get the boot menu of the motherboard.

 

Pick the Drive you installed OSx on. It should load up Chameleon and prompt you to press any key while it counts down. Press any key to interrupt the count down and Go into the boot loader menu. Make sure the correct drive/partition is selected and type the following: -v -f and press Enter.

 

You shouldn't need to type 'cpus=1' if you have all your cores disabled.

 

The -f switch will force it to load ALL the kexts. Please be advised that we have nothing but a bare system at this point, the ethernet/sound/video etc will not work because we did not install any of those drivers. Only thing modified that is installed here is the chipset driver. and the SMBIOS patch. We did this so that we can get our system to boot up with minimum modifications.

 

Note: Here's another step that many systems will stop booting. You should not have any problems here because we have a bare minimum system with nothing special loaded. Also we only have ONE core loaded so there should be absolutely NO problems. Please post back here if you have problems at this step. Also be advised that sometimes it will look like it's paused and isn't doing anything but it is. Unless you see a kernel panic. In which case there's a problem. But like i said there should be no problem due to the fact that we are so bare bones here.

 

Now hopefully you should be seeing the "welcome to OSX" video (choppy as hell since no drivers are installed). After the video it's the usual registration {censored}. Go ahead and fill em out. Make sure you set a password for your account. Once you are done, you should be at the OSx Desktop.

 

Congratulations you are done with installing a barebones 10.5.6 vanilla installation with nothing working lol.

 

--Preparing for 10.5.7 update

 

At this point we are going to set up some things to help us if our update for 10.5.7 fails to boot for whatever reason. If you look at any updating tutorials they will tell you to backup your kexts and kernels and all this other stuff. Which is a good idea if you've been using 10.5.6 for a while and have a lot of things in there.. It's not necessery to do that if you are following this tutorial. Although I do suggest backing up the current kernel so that you can boot back into osx, if the 10.5.7 kernel fails for whatever reason. So we are going to do that first.

 

If you have installed all the apps as Step 9 above suggested, then you should have a really amazing utility called "osx86 Tools". It should be in "/Applications" either there or in "/Applications/osx86tools" either way it's in the applications folder somewhere. Run that application and Click on "Backup Kernel(mach_kernel)". It will ask you what drive you want to back up from. Pick the drive where you installed osx. Then it will ask you where you want to back up to. and once again pick the same drive. This will create a file named mach_kernel.backup. You can go to your root drive and check to make sure it's there. Since i am not on my mac right now, i can't look at it. But it'll have the words backup somewhere in there. I'm pretty sure it'll be called mach_kernel.backup. You can rename that to backup_kernel (no extension) if you so choose. This will make it easier to switch kernels at chameleon without actually replacing the kernel. Now this backup kernel is the 10.5.6 (9.6) vanilla kernel. Since you already booted into osx with this kernel. You KNOW it will work... right? lol

 

The Second utility that you need to run is called DSDT Patcher GUI. This step maynot be necessery. I did it anyway and my system is working. I don't know if this had any effect or not.. so i'm including this bit as well. DSDT Patcher GUI tool should be in "/Applications/DSDT Patcher GUI". I know that it's in /Applications in a folder of it's own. It may not be named as i named it above. I'm not on my MAC so i don't remember the exact folder but you will know it when you see it. Anyways, run the utility. Place a check next to New HPET Option and Apply DSDT Patch to: and underneath will be a list box with all your drives. Pick the drive that you have OSx installed. For me it's OSXUSB cuz that's why i named my partition. Now even if Darwin/Mac OS X has a dot next to it, click the dot again as if you were selecting it and click Run DSDT Patcher. It should start doing it's thing and should complete with no errors. A couple of warnings is ok. I recieved one warning. If it got errors then it didn't compile thus didn't install. Thus I'm not sure what's wrong. Post back with details and i can look into it.

 

---10.5.7 Update Installation

Now either pop in the CD that you have burned the Delta 10.5.7 update to, or goto whatever drive you saved it on and find it. Or you may have saved it on a USB stick, in which case, pop that baby in. Double click on .dmg file to mount it. Once it mounts, it should auto start. Follow the instructions and don't change any settings just keep clicking next. Wait for it to be done and it will ask to reboot. At this time, go ahead and once again click on reboot and let osx finish doing it's thing and it will restart your system.

 

At boot once again, press ESC and pick the drive you installed osx on. At the chameleon prompt press ANY key to interrupt it. Make sure your OSX drive/partition is selected and type: -v -f and press Enter.

 

The -f Switch will force the loading of all kexts once again. Now at this point i thought that the chipset patched driver and the SMBIOS memory patch kexts were also removed.. but for whatever reason... they weren't, and the system will (should) once again boot back up. I did notice that the update made it faster to load everything. The same might be true for you too. You shouldn't have any problems getting back into OSx.

 

If everything worked and you are sitting at the desktop again, then congratulations you are now running 10.5.7 with a vanilla 9.7 kernel with nothing else working. But hey that's a good start right?

 

 

--Making things work...

 

Now so far we have a very vanilla 10.5.7 OSx installation but nothing works and that is not what we want. So click on the Apple icon on top and shut down the computer. As it's doing it's thing to shut down. Load up iPC 10.5.6 dvd again. If the dvd drive doesn't open, no worries Mac monopolizes your drive.. just wait till it shuts down your computer and then as you're starting back up, put the dvd in.

 

NOTE: Now here the instructions are SPECIFICALLY FOR MY BOARD.... If you have something a little different.. a different revision maybe an asus 680i board.. whatever. You want to make sure you know what components are in your system. Find out what chipset your sound is specifically if you want to get it working(Mine's ALC_885).. and ofcourse your GPU will probably be different too, so find out thru these forums, as to what will work with your card. I'm assuming you have the same board as me and the same video card as me (8800GTX).

 

Okay with that out of the way, As you're booting, press ESC to select the boot drive. Pick your dvd drive with iPC dvd loaded. and press Any key to load the DVD installation.

 

Once it's finished loading. It will give the screen to pick your language again.

1. Pick your language and click the next arrow
   
2. At the Welcome screen click Continue
   
3. At the Select a Destination Screen, pick the drive/partition you have OSx installed on and click Continue
   
4. At the Install Summary Screen Click Customize
   
5. REMOVE THE CHECK NEXT TO iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Base System
   
6. Expand iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Intel AMD SSE2 SSE3 and Pick the Following:
    
   Drivers--> Video Drivers --> NVIDIA --> NVDarwin 768MB
   Drivers--> Audio Drivers --> ALCxxx --> ALC_885
   Drivers--> Ethernet Drivers --> nForceLAN Driver
   if you were having problems with restarting/shutting down then pick:
   Fixes and Patches --> Shutdown / Restart Fix
   
7. Once you are done picking all those options, the "Space Required" should read something in the MBs something like between 6 to 20 MB. What i'm getting at is, IT SHOULD NOT BE in the GBs. All you're doing is installing patched kexts on top of what you have in the system already. Now Click Done
   
8. Click Install on the Install Summary Screen
   
9. Wait for it, should take like 2 minutes.
   
10. Now it'll ask to reboot... Do so, and yes we are once again going to interrupt the reboot process..
    
11. Same as before as your computers reBooting, press ESC and select the drive your osx is installed on, as the boot drive.
    
12. Press Any key when prompted to stop the chameleon boot loader.
    
13. Type: -v -f and press Enter
    

Now it will once again reload the kexts (along with the new ones we just installed) and once all the kexts are loaded, you will start seeing that it will start recognizing things. You will probably see the two ethernets and when nvdarwin kicks in you will see info from your graphics card. Sometimes it takes a long time Trying to write something to some kinda cache, i don't know. Either way, leave it alone unless you get a kernel panic. You shouldn't get a kernel panic, but if you do, post here and i'll try to help you. Anyways once everything loads up it will take u to osx desktop.

 

The resolution should have automatically changed to your monitors native rez. which means your graphics card is working. You should see a sound icon up top, which means sound is working. If you try to go on the internet... it won't load up any pages... To fix this, Go into System prefrences and Network and you should see both of your ethernet ports. One will have a green light next to it, denoting that it's connected. But there will be no IP there. Click on the Ethernet port and change the setting from DHCP to anything else, and change it back to DHCP and it should start working.

 

Congratulations, You now have a 10.5.7 OSX installation with the 9.7 Vanilla kernel. Only problem now... You're running only one core.

 

As i had mentioned in my above post that your processor might be compatible with mac, and would probably work if you enabled the cores. So after all this is done, here's what i would do. restart your computer...

 

Go into bios and enable one core at a time if you have a quad core. If you have a dual core, then enable the 2nd core.

 

Now boot back into OSx drive and once again at the darwin prompt, type: -v -f to reload the kexts (you don't have to do this everytime, i like doing it whenever i change something major) now if you're lucky it will boot right into OSx with both of your cores enabled and you will be a happy camper. Be aware that i had been successful in booting into osx with 2 cores but it would lock up in the first 5 minutes. so the best thing to do is let it do something semi CPU intensive to see if it will lock up. I would use uTorrent to download a fairly large (legal) file and leave it overnight to make sure the processor and the ethernet are working fine and you are not having the same problems that most people are having.

 

If you are unlucky and aren't able to get past kernel panics with 2 or more cores enabled, then don't despair, there is a fix. There is a modified 9.7 kernel out there. I think it's ANV 1.4 or something like that i don't remember it off the top of my head. But if you google "osx86 9.7 voodoo kernel" you will be able to find it. (it's not voodoo kernel, but that's how i usually find it).

 

With the above mentioned kernel, i have all 4 cores active and i have been able to not only install iphone OS 3.0 sdk with the new xcode but i've also compiled all samples in mac and everything works flawlessley. I had read that many people were having problems with ilife09.. so I 'borrowed' it from a friend of mine, installed it, and tried Garage band, imovie etc etc and they all load and work fine. I uninstalled it afterwards, but i'll probably end up buying it later on since my wife is in love with it now. I also installed WoW and, it works as well.

 

So please, post back with your questions and i will try to answer / help you in any way that i can. I am not an expert in ANY way shape or form. I have simply stated the steps that i took to get to where i am. A Fully functional 10.5.7 install on a 680i SLI motherboard.

 

Hope this helps.

[Skeeter007]

Hey fellow osxerz,

I'm fairly new to the whole osx86 scene. I've been doing research for a couple of weeks now on installing osx86. I managed to get a fully working 10.5.6 install on my vmware with 1920x1200 res n networking. No sound though. Finally I decided to bite the bullet and install osx on my evga 680i sli motherboard.

 

After much research I found out that 680i just isn't fully compatible and is a pain apparently to get working..

 

After learning a lot from the vmware install. I decided to apply the knowledge n install it myself and I have to tell you. It couldn't be easier to setup and get working. I only have one problem and that has to do with multicore recognition. I know multicore works. You just have to have a processor that is compatible with the vanilla kernel. So my rig is using CPUs=1 in order to boot.

 

I wanted to use vanilla kernel for full compatibility with mac software. I'm using the installation for mac and iPhone development. It's possible to get all cores working by using a modified or patched kernel. I know of no good 9.7 based kernels.

 

In any case my installation of full 10.5.7 is working wonderfully with the exception that I'm using only one core. Again it will not be a issue if u use a processor that's being used by apple or by using a modified kernel.

 

My system specs are:

motherboard: evga 680i sli with d33 bios

video: 8800gtx overclocked

ram: 6 gb @ 800mhz

sound: onboard alc885 chip, fully working with all inputs and outputs and front panel headphone etc etc

processor: qx6700 2.66ghz oc to 3.21ghz

 

so if anyone has questions or needs a step by step of what I did, post back and I'll let ya know.

The update to 10.5.7 was so simple it's not even funny I didn't backup or anything.

 

Edit: I've done this install on an external USB harddrive that already had a ntfs partition with music data etc. So the install is done on a secondary partition on that hard drive and it doesn't mess with my vista installation in any way. To boot into mac I simply press escape when computer boots up and pick my external as the boot drive and viola I'm in mac. Also I used an xbox HD DVD drive to do the install and it is recognized and does work with the mac lol. Talk about unusual lol. So I can answer any questions you may have regarding external drive installations and multibooting and multibooting without {censored} up your windows install.

 

 

 

 

I have the same set-up, Would you mind sending me a PM with your set-up options and what distro you used.

I have been trying this board for.....Well lets say along time and I had this board when it came out ;-( .

That would be amazing.....

Later....

[muka3D]

MadFalcon, you rock. Thanks a bunch.

 

Hopefully I'll have time this evening to run through your guide.

[MadFalcon]

MadFalcon, you rock. Thanks a bunch.

 

Hopefully I'll have time this evening to run through your guide.

 

Not a problem. I really hope it works for you. OSX is amazing when it works the way it's supposed to. I'm just lucky that i got it working. My next project (just for kicks) will be to re-do my vmware install and update that one to 10.5.7. If i get that working, i'll probably write a short guide on that one too.

 

Let me know if it works for you

[muka3D]

Well, I powered through your excellent guide, but ran into one hitch...

 

After running the OS X installer the second time (when you install video/audio/lan drivers, and the shutdown/restart fix), it no longer boots. Gives me the following error message (this is before I even see the Chameleon thing that lets me type -v -f... It's IMMEDIATELY when trying to boot to HDD):

"System config file '/com.apple.boot.S/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist' not found"

 

It just sits at that screen forever... Any ideas?

 

I'm going to try re-doing the bootloader only using the installation disc... Or maybe I just have to blow the hole thing away and start over. Well, so far so good! I mean, I made it to the desktop a few times, that got me happy enough!

[MadFalcon]

Well, I powered through your excellent guide, but ran into one hitch...

 

After running the OS X installer the second time (when you install video/audio/lan drivers, and the shutdown/restart fix), it no longer boots. Gives me the following error message (this is before I even see the Chameleon thing that lets me type -v -f... It's IMMEDIATELY when trying to boot to HDD):

"System config file '/com.apple.boot.S/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist' not found"

 

It just sits at that screen forever... Any ideas?

 

I'm going to try re-doing the bootloader only using the installation disc... Or maybe I just have to blow the hole thing away and start over. Well, so far so good! I mean, I made it to the desktop a few times, that got me happy enough!

 

 

hmmm, that's wierd. I've gotten that before but on vmware. After installing 10.5.7. The main thing is also that i did all this on an external... The culprit might be the shutdown/restart fix. The reason i say this is because i didn't write down my steps, and i couldn't for the life of me remember if i picked it. My first initial install i ever did which got ruined by the 10.5.7 update because i had no clue what i was doing, i had picked shut down/restart. The best thing to do is like u said, scrap it and start over. the second time though, try installing one driver at a time and before you install drivers... let the 10.5.7 update boot back into mac first.

 

So pretty much....

 

Install iPC --> boot into mac --> install 10.5.7 --> boot into mac (with -v -f) --> restart and boot again into mac to make sure you can still boot --> load iPC disk and install just video drivers --> boot into mac (-v -f) --> restart and load audio drivers --> boot into mac (-v -f) --> restart and install ethernet drivers (-v -f)--> boot into mac (-v -f) --> if it works, then enjoy... if not.. post again and we'll work through it.

 

You also have to make sure that base system is unselected when u boot into iPC disc the second time, otherwise it will ruin your install...

 

I'm sorry it didn't work.. but hopefully we can fix that

[ehh]

Thanks for the guide MadFalcon. It inspired me to get OSX running on my setup again...10.5.7 to boot I went through the steps you outlined, and it worked out pretty well for me.

 

The only problems I had were:

1. Changing resolutions. Everytime I changed resolutions to 2560x1600, the screen would transition to blue and stay that way.

2. Enabling 2nd CPU core. I would get a kernel panic during boot.

 

So I looked into getting a patched kernel after getting into 10.5.7. The "LEEME.txt" (readme.txt) reads:

 

"Hola he preparado un kernel de 9.7.0 usando los fuentes de anV. le elimine

todos los extras que trae, como hpet que no hace falta desde 9.5.0, se le puede arreglar con DSDT. le elimine el decrypter que usaba, una version de tiger con un poema que ya no hace falta. tambien le elimine todo lo que dice AnV. el resto es todo voodoo.

 

 

Hello, i have prepared a kernel for 9.70 using the sources of AnV, i removed everything extra it brings, like hpet that isnt needed since 9.5.0, and the builtin decrypter that uses a magic poem, and enverything that was marked "anv""

 

After installing this kernel I solved both of the aforementioned problems. The only one left that leaves me concerned is, "About This Mac" reads "Processor: 200 MHz Intel Core 2 Duo". Cpu-X agrees. When I run with 1 core, it reads correctly at "2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo". Any ideas to check if this is an actual problem or some typo error? I've attached the screenshot.

 

My setup:

eVGA 680i

Intel E6600

XFX 8800 GTX 768mb

D-link DWL-G520 Rev. B

 

EDIT: This is the kernel I'm using http://www.osx86install.com/support/22-new...l-by-qoopz.html

 

EDIT2: Using AnV XNU 1.4 Kernel now

 

EDIT3: Using AppleSMBIOS AnV Mac Pro and About This Mac reports correct processor speed. Xbench CPU score didn't change.

[MadFalcon]

Thanks for the guide MadFalcon. It inspired me to get OSX running on my setup again...10.5.7 to boot I went through the steps you outlined, and it worked out pretty well for me.

 

The only problems I had were:

1. Changing resolutions. Everytime I changed resolutions to 2560x1600, the screen would transition to blue and stay that way.

2. Enabling 2nd CPU core. I would get a kernel panic during boot.

 

So I looked into getting a patched kernel after getting into 10.5.7. The "LEEME.txt" (readme.txt) reads:

 

"Hola he preparado un kernel de 9.7.0 usando los fuentes de anV. le elimine

todos los extras que trae, como hpet que no hace falta desde 9.5.0, se le puede arreglar con DSDT. le elimine el decrypter que usaba, una version de tiger con un poema que ya no hace falta. tambien le elimine todo lo que dice AnV. el resto es todo voodoo.

 

 

Hello, i have prepared a kernel for 9.70 using the sources of AnV, i removed everything extra it brings, like hpet that isnt needed since 9.5.0, and the builtin decrypter that uses a magic poem, and enverything that was marked "anv""

 

After installing this kernel I solved both of the aforementioned problems. The only one left that leaves me concerned is, "About This Mac" reads "Processor: 200 MHz Intel Core 2 Duo". Cpu-X agrees. When I run with 1 core, it reads correctly at "2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo". Any ideas to check if this is an actual problem or some typo error? I've attached the screenshot.

 

My setup:

eVGA 680i

Intel E6600

XFX 8800 GTX 768mb

D-link DWL-G520 Rev. B

 

EDIT: This is the kernel I'm using http://www.osx86install.com/support/22-new...l-by-qoopz.html

 

EDIT2: Using AnV XNU 1.4 Kernel now

 

EDIT3: Using AppleSMBIOS AnV Mac Pro and About This Mac reports correct processor speed. Xbench CPU score didn't change.

 

 

Hmmm, i hadn't messed too much with the smbios stuff. I haven't had much time recently. So according to Edit3: then it's working now right? Oh and as far as the changing rez and getting a blue screen.. Yes that's a known 2.5.7 problem. It plagues actual mac users as well. That's where i found the answer to that problem.

 

I do want to say that, my problem along with everyone else who was having it, had to do with monitors with native resolutions of 1920x1200. OSx would lock on to 1920x1080 and wouldn't let you change the resolution at all. I would always get the blue screen as well.

 

There is a program called SwitchResX. It allows you to add custom resolutions and refresh rates etc.

 

I found the solution in this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?t...45&tstart=0 But i will save you having to go through 34 pages to find the answer and quote (paste) the information that helped me.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

My only solution was: go to

http://www.madrau.com/

download and install switchResX, after that you should have your native resolution available.

If not, like my case, from Preference Panel> switchResX> click on Export EDID.

This will save a file named as your monitor model.

Open it with TextEdit, scroll down and find your max native resolution.

In switchResX pref.panel go to Resolution>Custom and click Add

Add all your Timings Settings copying from file saved (Export EDID)

 

Hope this helps.

 

p.s. Good job Apple... good job.

 

-------------------------------

 

 

 

I hope that helps. with the resolution stuff.

 

Edit: lol your problem was solved after the kernel.. lol ignore the above post then. I was still having problems (i've been using the same kernel as you to be able to use all 4 cores) with that kernel. The switchresx did the trick for me.. But if you didn't have to do that, more power to ya

[ehh]

Hey MadFalcon,

 

Yea, everything is mostly working except my wireless card keeps dropping out so I'm going to connect a Cat 6 to the router.

 

I wanted to try installing on an SATA 36GB Raptor but it didn't even let me load into the setup. As far as I know there isn't an option in BIOS to enable AHCI on our mobos, right?

 

This is something I found at: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/OPTING...ION,1594-7.html

 

"With the nForce 680i SLI we were not able to switch from a single hard drive to simple RAID mode. Nvidia’s chipsets usually require you to activate RAID support in BIOS and turn RAID support for every single port on or off. Basically, this activates the AHCI mode for each port."

 

EDIT1: Successfully installed 10.5.6 from a PATA DVD-RW to an SATA HDD. Updated to 10.5.7, using AnV Xnu v1.4. Everything working except POS wireless drops connection.

[Am I Evil?]

followed this...seems to be working except for i have the about this mac showing the 200MHz issue and no audio...i think i installed the wrong audio the first time (i'm fairly sure) and just installing the correct one doesn't seem to be working...assuming i need to delete an audio kext or something first...any ideas on what to do to get my audio up and running...

 

thanks

 

edit: never mind....just double checked and you do have the exact same board as me...so i would assume the audio should be the same...any ideas on why its not working? what should i delete/install again?

[Am I Evil?]

EDIT3: Using AppleSMBIOS AnV Mac Pro and About This Mac reports correct processor speed. Xbench CPU score didn't change.

 

 

well...did that...now its reports 3GHz Unknown and i guess that's good enough....at least the speed's right...

 

edit: also got audio working...so as far as i can tell everything's working now....

[MadFalcon]

Cool guys, i'm glad everything is working for you.

 

I checked my 'About this mac" and ya i have it showing up as 200 MHZ. But the benchmarks are up there with the correct speed etc. So i'm not too concerned about what it's showing because i know it's using the processor correctly.

 

'Am I Evil': How did you get the audio working?

[Am I Evil?]

'Am I Evil': How did you get the audio working?

 

booted into OSX, went into the CD, found the 885 package, double clicked and installed it and rebooted...then i had the audio icon but still no sound...went into system pref. audio and clicked on the top output...i then had sound...

 

edit: i notice i have sound through all 3 outputs...any way to combine them though....as its my front 2 speakers....my rear 2...and my center/subwoofer...each output of the three listed is those separated...any way to get 5.1....if not i'm fine with just using the left and right fronts....

[MadFalcon]

booted into OSX, went into the CD, found the 885 package, double clicked and installed it and rebooted...then i had the audio icon but still no sound...went into system pref. audio and clicked on the top output...i then had sound...

 

edit: i notice i have sound through all 3 outputs...any way to combine them though....as its my front 2 speakers....my rear 2...and my center/subwoofer...each output of the three listed is those separated...any way to get 5.1....if not i'm fine with just using the left and right fronts....

 

 

Hmmm, that's a really good question. Since i'm a not a mac user. I'm not sure how it natively works with 5.1 surround audio systems. Like vista does, without requiring any support from the audio manufacturer. XP doesn't do it and need drivers/application that control the output. I'll look into it and see if i can find an answer for you.

 

Edit: I think i might have found it.. try this link, i'm not able to try it right now.

 

http://guides.macrumors.com/Configuring_5....put_in_Mac_OS_X

[Am I Evil?]

Hmmm, that's a really good question. Since i'm a not a mac user. I'm not sure how it natively works with 5.1 surround audio systems. Like vista does, without requiring any support from the audio manufacturer. XP doesn't do it and need drivers/application that control the output. I'll look into it and see if i can find an answer for you.

 

Edit: I think i might have found it.. try this link, i'm not able to try it right now.

 

http://guides.macrumors.com/Configuring_5....put_in_Mac_OS_X

 

 

doesn't work...tried following the instructions but on all outputs the 5.1 option is grayed out....oh well...i'm fine with this...at least i have audio....

 

edit: found this...http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=87336

[ehh]

doesn't work...tried following the instructions but on all outputs the 5.1 option is grayed out....oh well...i'm fine with this...at least i have audio....

 

edit: found this...http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=87336

Nice find! Congrats getting your installation up and running

[Am I Evil?]

updated to 10.5.8...lost audio...reinstalled audio kext and now everything is fine....

 

edit: also...any ideas on this issues: i have a SATA Blu-ray drive that doesn't work (works fine in windows)...i can see it in system profiler in the SATA section but putting a disc in does nothing...it just spins...any way to get the drive recognized (not even for blu-rays but as a regular dvd drive)...its not needed as i have other drives but since its there it would be nice if it worked...(it has never worked in OSX86...not just now)

[ehh]

Has anyone tried Snow Leopard on a 680i board?

[insane_venky]

 hey,

 

 

 

 

I got iPC 10.5.6 installed and running smoothly... intially there were issues with mounting of dmg files but seatbelt.kext solved that too...

 

 

 

 

Successfully updated to 10.5.7 too... everything works fine but heres my only problem...

 

m trying to install iphone sdk but the dmg i downloaded fails to mount and says "not recognized"...

 

any ideas??

 

 

 

 

Venky