77 replies to this topic

[absolutenot]

Last updated 8/11/2009 9:05 CDT

My quest to get my P6T SE working has taken me down many roads.  The most helpful of which were Digital Dreamer's guide to installing on the Gigabyte EX58-UD5 and M J's guide to installing Leopard Retail on a P6T Deluxe using Boot-132

The P6T SE board differs from the common P6T board a little bit -- primarily in the audio department -- the SE has an ALC1200 -- the P6T and the Deluxe have an AD1988 or so, I think.

While M J's guide was helpful, I wanted to get the machine running with the Vanilla Kernel, as one of the main things that I want to do is to run VMWare.  Sooo....once I had a barely functional install using Boot 132, I started working on this...

This will require the following:  A base install using one of the other distro methods to get running,
DSDT Patcher file (or, if you're running a i7 920, my dsdt.aml may work for you -- attached to post #10 in this thread),
Chameleon 2.0 RC2 or later,
ALC1200 Kexts for audio (available on this topic) availble in the extensions.zip file attached to post # 35 of this thread.
The Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 motherboard kexts from this topic (specifically, the Disabler.kext and dsmos.kext).    (these kexts are now included in the extensions.zip file attached to post 35)
OSX86Tools if you need to create the EFI string for your video card

The install itself is suprisingly simple.  Once I got my process streamlined, I was actually amazed at how simple it was...

1.  Partition your disk as normal -- GPT table, yadda yadda...
2.  Ensure the disk you had partitioned supports file ownership  (if everything on the machine you're installing from is kosher, it most likely will).  You can check this by going to disk utility, right clicking the volume you're installing to, and clicking Information.  You're wanting the line that says "Owners Enabled".  If it says yes, then you're in the clear.

If it does not -- then right click the drive from your desktop, and Get Info.  At the bottom of the pane, there's a lock.  Click it, enter your username/password, and uncheck the box next to "Ignore ownership on this volume".  If you don't do this, the install will not boot from Chameleon after it's all said and done.

3.  Install Retail DVD
4.  Install 10.5.7 Combo Update
5.  Install Chameleon 2 RC2 onto the target drive
6.  Place your DSDT.aml file in the /Extra folder (follow the directions in Part E of M J's guide) - but place the final DSDT.aml file only in your /Extra folder on the target drive.
7.  Place Disabler.kext and dsmos.kext into the /Extra/Extensions Folder
8.  To get your audio working, Place the ALC1200 Kexts (AppleHDA.kext and HDAEnabler.kext) in the /Extra/Extensions folder
7.  Copy the extensions in the extensions.zip file attached to post 35 to the extra/extensions folder, and set permissions/ownership appropriately (755, and root:wheel)
8.  Rebuild the /extra/extensions.mkext file
9.  Edit the com.apple.boot.plist file to include your EFI string for your video card, if necessary.  I used OSX86 tools to create mine for a Geforce 9600GT
Edit the com.apple.boot.plist file to use the Chameleon options that you need.  My recommended flags in this file are listed in post 35 in this thread.
10. Boot up, and enjoy the beauty of a fully working, vanilla install.
(One note -- the first boot, I didn't get any sound.  I just had to go in and set the output to my line out jack -- by default, it seems the headphone jack was the chosen output path)

That's all there is to it.


This is the process that worked for me -- I of course issue no warranties on whether or not it will work for you, but I'm quite happy with the results.

Just remember -- with the latter versions of Chameleon, there's no need to do ANYTHING in the /System/Library/Extensions folder.  Everything you need to work with is in /Extra.  Doing it this way ensures that system updates won't kill your hack.

Hope this helps!

EDIT ----

Done a couple more of these with gecko, and we're seeing a couple of new issues --

For some reason, the sound seems quite tempermental -- still investigating this (this has been resolved, see edit #2 note).  Everything else seems pretty solid though.

Also -- if you're running an nvidia card, you can use the built-in video portion of chameleon.  See the notes that come with the source code download of chameleon for more info.

EDIT #2
we've done some more research and identified a few more issues -- these can be fixed by modifying the applehda kext (included with the extensions.zip attachment on post 35 in this thread)

[Embio]

great guide mate, but I think it'd be helpful if you could list the BIOS settings as well...

edit - no idea where 'absolute not - great guide' came in :-S

[US la]

Thanks for posting the guide!

I would love the BIOS setting as well. I think you would do the community a great favor by adding anything you can possibly think of adding since the P6T is a VERY popular board for overclocking yet there is nowhere near enough about installing x86 on one on the forum. Yet.  

And anything else you can do to make this guide more noob-ready would be appreciated as I am tying to build my first x86 on a P6T soon.

[absolutenot]

Thanks for the feedback -- this is my first guide, so, thanks for your patience.

BIOS settings are:

- Main
- Storage Configuration
+ Configure SATA as [AHCI]
- Advanced
- CPU coonfiguration
+ Intel ® HT Technology [Enabled]
+ Active Processor Cores [All]
+ A20M [Disabled]
+ everything else [Enabled]
- Onboard Devices Configuration
+ High Definition Audio [Enabled]
+ Front Panel Audio [HD Audio]
- Power
+ Suspend Mode [Auto]
+ Repost Video on S3 Resume [Yes]
+ ACPI 2.0 Support [Enabled]
+ ACPI APIC Support [Enabled]
- APM Configuration
+ Restore on AC Power Loss [Last State]
- Boot
- Boot Device Priority
+ 1st Boot Device [ATAPI CD-ROM]
+ 2nd Boot Device [Hard Drive]

Honestly, with this method, it's not all that picky.  Main things to remember are SATA configured as AHCI, Execute disable Enabled.

It's a great board and it runs awesomely -- I've only dabbled with overclocking it so far.  it's already faster than the single processor Nehalem Mac pro (2.83 ghz) (according to xbench)

[Multisaft]

hey i like to thank you for this guide. i will try to install os x on my soon coming hardware and hope to handel this with your guide.

hardware: p6t - se, i7 920, 6gb ram, 150GB velociraptor for os x and windows 7, 1tb as a 2nd hdd for photos, geforce gtx 260

what was your first installation to work with? iDeneb, Kalyway, or another one?

[popophobia]

Hey Absolutelynot,

Do you mind upload the DSDT.aml and all the required kexts in Extra folder? I'm planning to preinstall a hdd for my uncle machine and I'd rather not go through the trouble of telling him to run the scripts. Thanks.

Best.

[gecko]

Multisaft, on Aug 1 2009, 06:49 AM, said:

hey i like to thank you for this guide. i will try to install os x on my soon coming hardware and hope to handel this with your guide.

hardware: p6t - se, i7 920, 6gb ram, 150GB velociraptor for os x and windows 7, 1tb as a 2nd hdd for photos, geforce gtx 260

what was your first installation to work with? iDeneb, Kalyway, or another one?

This install assumed you had a working mac and you use the retail 10.5.x DVD...  then download the combo update to 10.5.7.  No iDeneb/Kalyway or anything other used here.  Only RETAIL + combo updates from apple.

[gecko]

Absolute is going to back me up on this... but for his install you must start with the 10.5.4 Retail DVD and then go to 10.5.7 using the combo update.  If you start with 10.5.1 and then combo update... your sound WILL NOT WORK!!!  I do not know why, but I verified it over 5 different installs using the same Extras folder each and every time.  I wish someone could explain why... but for now, I'm just gonna call it FM ({censored}in magic).

[Multisaft]

absolutenot, on Jul 27 2009, 09:41 PM, said:

This will require the following:  A base install using one of the other distro methods to get running, DSDT Patcher file, Chameleon 2.0 RC2 or later, ALC1200 Kexts for audio (available on this topic) and The Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 motherboard kexts from this topic (specifically, the Disabler.kext and dsmos.kext).  OSX86Tools if you need to create the EFI string for your video card

but you are talking about a working base install of leopard or tiger to follow your guide?

do you mean that i should use my macbook with a normal 10.5.7 install and install my disk via usb or firewire and run the guide from the macbook?

[absolutenot]

Multisaft, on Aug 5 2009, 06:58 AM, said:

but you are talking about a working base install of leopard or tiger to follow your guide?

do you mean that i should use my macbook with a normal 10.5.7 install and install my disk via usb or firewire and run the guide from the macbook?

Either one should work.

In response to what gecko said earlier -- We've had... shall we say... mixed results with sound so far.  For some reason, which we're investigating -- when we try to rebuild the extensions.mkext, we lose sound, even if we don't change anything about the kexts.  While trying to address an issue I was having with shutdown with psystar's OpenHaltRestart kext, I've managed to lose sound on my utility install.  Will keep the thread updated when we get this figured out.

popophobia, on Aug 3 2009, 12:54 AM, said:

Hey Absolutelynot,

Do you mind upload the DSDT.aml and all the required kexts in Extra folder? I'm planning to preinstall a hdd for my uncle machine and I'd rather not go through the trouble of telling him to run the scripts. Thanks.

Best.

See attached

Remember to rebuild your extensions.mkext file -- I'm not sure about the audio -- it may or may not work -- still trying to figure out what's going on with the audio.

Multisaft, on Aug 1 2009, 06:49 AM, said:

hey i like to thank you for this guide. i will try to install os x on my soon coming hardware and hope to handel this with your guide.

hardware: p6t - se, i7 920, 6gb ram, 150GB velociraptor for os x and windows 7, 1tb as a 2nd hdd for photos, geforce gtx 260

what was your first installation to work with? iDeneb, Kalyway, or another one?

my first install to work with was the boot-132 install (MJ's guide, linked in the original post)  Once I got that up, I used it to install to another hard drive for this version.

Multisaft, on Aug 5 2009, 06:58 AM, said:

but you are talking about a working base install of leopard or tiger to follow your guide?

do you mean that i should use my macbook with a normal 10.5.7 install and install my disk via usb or firewire and run the guide from the macbook?

That can work -- be sure that file ownership is turned on for your destination drive after you partition it, but I don't see a reason why it shouldn't work.  I've attached the DSDT.aml to another post in this forum, you should be able to copy it to the extra folder on your target drive.

Also -- be careful when installing chameleon to pick the right destination drive -- the current version of chameleon will cheese a mac boot drive if you install to it.

Attached Files

•  DSDT.aml.zip   19.14K   213 downloads
•  Extensions.zip   966.52K   133 downloads

[Multisaft]

thank you
the problem: right now i cannot connect the hdd to my macbook because my external device doesn't provide the hdd with enough power.

i tried to install a lot of distributions on my second hdd. kaly forces my pc to reboot and didn't start the instalation process, ideneb can be installed but everytime i try to start the installed os x reboot again (i've tried many boot-options -v, -x, -s, -f, -x -s, ...)

kaly is telling my sometimes, that my hdd is read only and then it freezes/stops. hm any idear how i can install a distru? i will try iAktos v7 and iDeneb v1.3 next.

[absolutenot]

gecko figured out the sound issue... We'll be posting a fix for that tonight.

(It dosen't make much sense, but we've been able to repeat it across multiple installs -- if I had to guess, there's something wierd about chameleon and AppleHDA)

I'm planning on rewriting the guide to take into account the changes, and will include files this time -- some of the original guide was based on Chameleon 2 RC1, and RC2 changed a few things.

[Multisaft]

that would be great but could you please give me a hint what distribution i should use to install a first leopard on my second hdd? as i mentioned: kaly, ideneb v1.3 and v1.4 does not work (1.4 start the installation maybe i must use the right kext but dunno which i should choose that ideneb starts with my hardware - as i mentioned before: restart every time that i use ideneb)

[maleorderbride]

absolutenot, on Aug 5 2009, 07:37 PM, said:

See attached

Remember to rebuild your extensions.mkext file --

Sorry, but how do I rebuild the extensions.mkext file?  I assume it is the extensions.mkext in the Cham 2 folder, not the system version.

If it was the OS folder I would just:

rm -Rv /System/Library/Extensions.mkext

kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions

right?

[Multisaft]

i think that's the right way to rebuild your extensions.mkex

wah update form my side: kaly 10.5.2 booted up with speedstepkernel and -x or -s
but extremly slow...

[Multisaft]

i tried to start with the guide.

but i fail at step 3. how should i install the retail os x through kaly? when i insert my original os x dvd the normal
installation routine starts with the restart but this doesn't works. so how can i install os x via a running system on another hdd?


ok update - i've found this for terminal:
cd /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/Packages
open osinstall.mpkg

[Multisaft]

absolutenot, on Jul 27 2009, 08:41 PM, said:

Just remember -- with the latter versions of Chameleon, there's no need to do ANYTHING in the /System/Library/Extensions folder.  Everything you need to work with is in /Extra.  Doing it this way ensures that system updates won't kill your hack.

Hope this helps!

EDIT ----

Done a couple more of these with gecko, and we're seeing a couple of new issues --

For some reason, the sound seems quite tempermental -- still investigating this.  Everything else seems pretty solid though.

Also -- if you're running an nvidia card, you can use the built-in video portion of chameleon.  See the notes that come with the source code download of chameleon for more info.

should i put my disabler.kext, dsmos.kext etc. now into the /Extra folder and not into /Extra/Extensions/ ?
i've tryed the /Extra/Extensions/ folder, but then os x wont boot up.

when i put the kexts into the /extras folder, do i need to do anything else (e.g. repair permissions?)? i've put the extensions into the /Extras folder, reboot and startet vanilla

in verbose mode last message:
localhost mDNSResponder[34]: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname, using default bMacPro-0023....localb instead

in -x -v last message:
AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: initialization complete



btw. vanilla is loading a lot of extensions in System/Library/Extensions/ - but i haven't seen information about loaded /Extras folder
i think that the .kext that i've added because of your guide were not initialised

__
next update:
put the .kext into the /extras/extensions folder again now they are loaded when i use verbose mode at startup
but still this {censored} mDNSResponder that the local hostname coun't be read...
i'm {censored}ed up.

any idear?

[maleorderbride]

Multisaft, on Aug 7 2009, 02:24 AM, said:

i tried to start with the guide.

but i fail at step 3. how should i install the retail os x through kaly? when i insert my original os x dvd the normal
installation routine starts with the restart but this doesn't works. so how can i install os x via a running system on another hdd?


ok update - i've found this for terminal:
cd /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/Packages
open osinstall.mpkg

Did that work for you?  Those are the terminal lines that I found also, but when I type them in my "install" takes about 5 seconds to finish and only puts 9 files on the HDD I point it at.  I am using a freshly formatted GPT HDD and a retail 10.5.6 DVD.

[orionquest]

Hi multisaft

This guide(topic) is not very good.

I did a search outside of instanelymac and found a excellent blog, I will pm you the link as it if forbidden here.

You have to get yourself the ideneb v1.3 10.5.5 iso and I can tell you it works perfect for our board (Asus P6T). Set your sata to achi, turn off hyperthreading and set cpu cores to 1. After you can enable them afterwards.

Good luck

oq

Multisaft, on Aug 1 2009, 12:49 PM, said:

hey i like to thank you for this guide. i will try to install os x on my soon coming hardware and hope to handel this with your guide.

hardware: p6t - se, i7 920, 6gb ram, 150GB velociraptor for os x and windows 7, 1tb as a 2nd hdd for photos, geforce gtx 260

what was your first installation to work with? iDeneb, Kalyway, or another one?

[Multisaft]

@orionquest thank you, but this is not what i wanted to get. i like to run the original vanilla kernel and not the voodoo one. also i've managed to run kaly, so no need for this. but thank you again, i will use the dsdt patcher step again - maybe i've missed something.

@maleorderbride - yes this worked for me. it should open the installer where you can choose the partition on which you like to install your vanilla-os x


a photo from verbose startup:
 vanilla_verbose.jpg   1.56MB   67 downloads