Retail Snow Leopard on P5Q - Closest to the real Mac Pro yet!

[nickryu]

can i flash bios with windows 7? beause i juz saw a topic said will fail to boot-up computer if flash in win 7.

[pulse00]

hi all. i've managed to install the retail version sucessfully, however my onboard network card is not recognized. anyone else had this issue ?

[Panther1]

hi all. i've managed to install the retail version sucessfully, however my onboard network card is not recognized. anyone else had this issue ?

 

 

Hi pulse00,

 

Are you using the AttansicL1eEthernet.kext for the onboard network card? Look for Quaza's post and link to the P5Q.zip file. This will have the mentioned kext in there for you. Also open up network preferences in System settings once the kext is loaded and you have rebooted. This should then prompt saying that a new connection has been found and activate the onboard nic.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Panther1

[konig7]

can i flash bios with windows 7? beause i juz saw a topic said will fail to boot-up computer if flash in win 7.

 

enter the bios and use ez flash to flash the bios. just put the rom file on to a fat32 formatted usb flash drive.

[deadpxl]

retail dvd installation is successful following all guides here, updated bios & set acpi & s3 to enabled, installed retail dvd, installed all kexts as mentioned here, all works now except sleep. however, I still get random kernel panic/system freeze ("press power button to shutdown" message)..how about you guys? don't you experience any kernel panic while using snow leopard?

[Panther1]

Hi deadpxl,

 

I have only experienced one kernel panic and that one was by my own doing. I was trying to get the line in port to work for the onboard sound and experimenting with different audio kexts. Other than that, my system has been rock solid!

 

Panther1

 

retail dvd installation is successful following all guides here, updated bios & set acpi & s3 to enabled, installed retail dvd, installed all kexts as mentioned here, all works now except sleep. however, I still get random kernel panic/system freeze ("press power button to shutdown" message)..how about you guys? don't you experience any kernel panic while using snow leopard?

[Ian T]

Retail Snow Leopard on ASUS P5Q

 

Panther1,

 

Hey, just wanted to let you know I've posted instructions on how to create a boot-132-mars disc, based on flashGX and noob766 posted guides.

 

This is that boot-132-mars disc I worked on, so that I could get a near perfect install of Snow Leopard.

(i.e., avoidance of "Install Failed" and "Mac OS X Install Data" folder)

 

The idea behind this was to avoid the following errors:

• no ramdisk config file
  
• EBIOS read error
  
• error parsing plist file
  

flashGX:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=184338

 

noob766:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=182227

 

This allows you to boot the Retail Snow Leopard Installation DVD using the familiar Chameleon 2.0 RC3-r658 boot menu.

 

You can find the guide as well as the package here:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=189299

[kooby]

FYI

I have to report a kernel panic ;-(

 

When I turned off the lan from within system preferences/networking (i.e. I toggled the DHCP dialogue box to Off) The system had a panic.

 

It would be interesting to see if this is just my machine or if it can be reproduced.

 

Thanks

Kooby

[Ian T]

Kooby,

 

I forgot to mention that I've disabled the onboard LAN.

 

Take a look at my ASUS P5Q PDF Guide found here > http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=189414

 

Instead, I am using a Netgear FA311 Gigabit PCI Adapter based on the Realtek RTL8169S.

 

I am also using a Netgear WG311T Super-G Wireless PCI Adapter using the 32-bit only AirportAtheros.kext.

 

 

Peace,

 

IanT

 

FYI

I have to report a kernel panic ;-(

 

When I turned off the lan from within system preferences/networking (i.e. I toggled the DHCP dialogue box to Off) The system had a panic.

 

It would be interesting to see if this is just my machine or if it can be reproduced.

 

Thanks

Kooby

[Ian T]

Panther1,

 

I'll be testing the guide on an ASUS P5Q-E since I have that mobo

 

I will let you know the results in a day.

 

Peace,

 

IanT

 

 

Hi Yeahia Amer,

 

I cannot personally comment on either of these P5Q series boards as I do not own them. I can only imagine that if the differences in hardware are ever so slightly, they both should work and have the same results of a clean stable panic free installation of Snow Leopard

 

Panther1

[konig7]

RE: booting straight into SL without having to press enter

 

this is continuing from post 49 on page 3

 

open com.apple.boot.plist located in root/extra

add the red writing as follows:

 

<dict>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string></string>

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>5</string>

</dict>

</plist>

 

timeout is in seconds, you can change to whatever you perfer..

 

hope this helps

 

konig7

[tofagerl]

OK, this is weird, but my bootloader suddenly stopped working overnight.

Instead of the Chameleon screen, i get a memory allocation error, with the weird comment "0xDEADBEEF".

 

I tried reinstalling Chameleon, but no matter what I do, I can't get it working again! I even reinstalled from an old Time Machine backup, and no go...

 

Any tips?

 

Solution: A bad USB-harddrive!

[kooby]

Hey Guys,

 

I have a dumb question.....

 

Leveraging from konig7's post #61. When I'm at the boot loader screen, I usually have to "press any key" to get to the OS choice screen. I understand that if I set the timeout to 1 second it will effectively wait 1 second & boot into SL. Is there a way to boot straight into the OS choice screen and have it sit there until I choose which OS I want to use vs. having 2 screens. (i.e. I would like to get rid of the "press any button" screen).

 

will removing the following from the com.apple.boot.plist accomplish this?

 

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>5</string>

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Kooby

[Ian T]

deadpxl and Panther1,

 

I'm not sure if you guys saw this new post:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=189562

 

But, it fixes the CPU field in "About this Mac" from "Unknown" to display say "Intel Core 2 Duo"

 

It worked on my rig...

 

Intel E8400 3.0 GHz

ASUS P5Q

 

Add the following to entriesToAdd:

AQM=0103

 

This will allow you to install Silverlight, since it does some sort of check 'InstallationCheck'.

 

I will try installing VMware Fusion 2.0.5 and Parallels too...

 

Peace,

 

IanT

 

Hello to everyone,

 

Today I want to share with you my experience with installing Snow Leopard on an Asus P5Q motherboard with absolutely no kernel panics whatsoever! Defaults to 64bit enabled too!

 

1. Obtain the modded bios for this motherboard here:

 

Modded Bios for P5Q

 

2. Download and burn the bootcd here:

 

SL Boot CD - Chameleon RC3

 

3. Boot system with bootcd and eject when menu appears

 

4. Insert your retail SL dvd into drive and wait a few seconds then hit F5 and it will now show Mac OSX Install Disk

 

5. Hit enter and it will boot up into the setup

 

6. Open up Disk Utility and partition your drive for SL with GUID format

 

7. Exit out of Disk Utility and then proceed with install picking the defaults or removing unecessary items from list

 

8. Once install finishes it will state that it did not install successfully (hint it really did, it just could not bless the booting of the installation with out the help of the cd)

 

9. Reboot system with boot cd and then arrow over to your SL install and hit enter

 

10. Once you are at the setup screen finish setting up your system.

 

11. After setting up your system you will have just a few more steps to go for your perfect retail install

 

12. Download the Kext Helper app here:

 

Kext Helper App

 

13. Download the VoodooHDA 64bit kext file here:

 

VoodooHDA 64Bit Audio driver for ALC1200

 

14. Install VoodooHDA kext with Kext Helper

 

15. Reboot system with BootCD still in drive and pick your SL install

 

16. Voila! At this point you can update as normal and get up to 10.6.1 without any hassles or kernel panics.

 

* No drivers are needed for the graphics, they are native with full Open CL 1.0 enabled!

 

* Time Machine works out of the box!

 

* The only thing missing from this near perfect retail install is a way to get the BootCD boot loader installed on the SL install. Once this is achieved, you will have the perfect Mac Pro using your retail disk unmodified!

 

Below are the screen shots of my Mac Pro with Snow Leopard 10.6.1 installed:

[konig7]

Hey Guys,

 

I have a dumb question.....

 

Leveraging from konig7's post #61. When I'm at the boot loader screen, I usually have to "press any key" to get to the OS choice screen. I understand that if I set the timeout to 1 second it will effectively wait 1 second & boot into SL. Is there a way to boot straight into the OS choice screen and have it sit there until I choose which OS I want to use vs. having 2 screens. (i.e. I would like to get rid of the "press any button" screen).

 

will removing the following from the com.apple.boot.plist accomplish this?

 

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>5</string>

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Kooby

 

hey Koody

 

yeah, your right just remove

 

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>5</string>

 

from the com.apple.boot.plist

 

konig7

[sash11]

Just installed SL from original DVD through Boot-132 method without any bios modding.

My system specs:

 

CPU PSN : Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q9650 @ 3.00GHz

MB Brand : Asus

MB Model : P5Q-WS

NB : Intel P45/P43 rev A3

SB : Intel 82801JR (ICH10R) rev 00

RAM : OCZ 8192 MB DDR2 Dual Channel (4X2GB)

GPU Type : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260

HDD: WD VelociRaptor 150GB SATAII

DVD-WRITER: HL-DT-ST-DVD-RAM LG SATA

Monitor: LG W2442PA

 

At the end of the installation I got a success message. No errors!

Time remaining was not shown correctly, jumped from 28 minutes back to 30. Took probably 40 to 50 minutes to install from DVD.

Video card and monitor were recognized natively as well as Realtek LAN and FireWire.

Monitor resolution automatically was in Full HD 1920 x 1080.

Processor is seen with 4 cores. Memory also!

Marvell 88SE6121 Ext SATA controller had to be disabled in the BIOS.

RealTek ALC1200 is still not working. But I have not applied the kext yet...

Also when I connect Toshibe 2GM USB flash drive system hangs. I have to power down the PC.

Also CDs will not eject after I intall any package that requires a reboot. If I agree to reboot after the installation, DVD drive will not open after I press the button. I have to turn off the PC in order for drive to open the tray.

[marionez]

ALC1200 in my signature.

 

What about sleep/reboot/shutdown?

[sash11]

Shutdown and reboot work okay.

Sleep have not tested yet!

BIOS version is latest from Asus website 1703

For the boot CD I used BOOT-132-MARS-IanT-092909.iso

62,015,488 byte

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?tvqmzuztjnh

 

Couple more points of observation:

I have another SATA drive of the same manufacturer with two partitions NTFS formatted. I run Windows 7 on it. SL sees both partitions natively in Read Only mode. Very convenient!

Have not been able to install AnyData CDMA ADU-510A modem for the internet connection yet. But solution is in progress. Also in order to boot into different OSes I have created two bios profiles.

First for Windows7 with everything enabled, second for SL with disable second LAN, boot from LAN and eSATA marvell controller. After I go back and forth between OSes, system time gets messed up. In windows it is earlier by 3 hours, in SL it is later by 3 hours.

[marionez]

Sleep isn't working here.

 

Someone who tested sleepenabler kext?

[bruceleeglad]

Heya everyone !

 

I used this bootdisk guide and installed fully retail snow leo on

 

Asus P5Q-PRO

CPU Q9550

4GB Ram 667mhz

Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX260 TOP

 

installed with GIUD partion !

 

After install i installed the kexts from your package, and everything works like a charm.

 

But now i want to install a bootloader so i dont have to use the disk everytime.

 

When i try to install the chameleon 2 like the guide says, i get install failed everytime.

 

And ive tried to install VM Ware fusion for intel macs, but i got a weird error saying this program only works on Intel Macs not Power PCs.... So my snow leo thinks my computer is a Power PC, is that the problem ?

When i look in "About this Mac" it says computer is

 

Model Name Mac Pro

Model Indentifier MacPro2,1

 

I then made a full timemachine backup wich works perfectly also.

 

Tried to install the Cham 2.0 RC3 package i found here on InsanelyMac

but when i boot on my hdd i get this error:

 

boot0:

boot0:

boot0: error

 

Any ideas anyone ?

[pulse00]

thanks for your help guys, i managed to get it running (besides that i still have to boot using the cd, but i'll figure that one out later).

 

I'm still having one problem though, wondering if anyone else encountered this too. My mouse lags frequently, ie when i'm quickly moving through a menu, it stops at some position, and appears on the point where i moved the mouse after some lag.

 

It's not a big thing, but it's disrupting the workflow somewhat.

 

Any hints greatly appreciated.

[konig7]

Heya everyone !

 

I used this bootdisk guide and installed fully retail snow leo on

 

Asus P5Q-PRO

CPU Q9550

4GB Ram 667mhz

Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX260 TOP

 

installed with GIUD partion !

 

After install i installed the kexts from your package, and everything works like a charm.

 

But now i want to install a bootloader so i dont have to use the disk everytime.

 

When i try to install the chameleon 2 like the guide says, i get install failed everytime.

 

And ive tried to install VM Ware fusion for intel macs, but i got a weird error saying this program only works on Intel Macs not Power PCs.... So my snow leo thinks my computer is a Power PC, is that the problem ?

When i look in "About this Mac" it says computer is

 

Model Name Mac Pro

Model Indentifier MacPro2,1

 

I then made a full timemachine backup wich works perfectly also.

 

Tried to install the Cham 2.0 RC3 package i found here on InsanelyMac

but when i boot on my hdd i get this error:

 

boot0:

boot0:

boot0: error

 

Any ideas anyone ?

 

did u follow the guide on page 3, post 49? this should work with most P5Q mobo

[baybars]

Hi. Thanks IanT. I followed all steps as you made guide "how to install" and all went very well. Now i have snow leopard licenced on my PC and functioning perfect.

 

Pulse00 look for IanT guide in this forum and i think you will do all.

Perfect job Iant, thank you again.

 

ASUS P5Q

Quad8440

GeForce GTX260

4x1066 DDR2

4x500GB HDD

NetGear Wireless

Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

M-Audio Audiophile SoundCard

 

thanks for your help guys, i managed to get it running (besides that i still have to boot using the cd, but i'll figure that one out later).

 

I'm still having one problem though, wondering if anyone else encountered this too. My mouse lags frequently, ie when i'm quickly moving through a menu, it stops at some position, and appears on the point where i moved the mouse after some lag.

 

It's not a big thing, but it's disrupting the workflow somewhat.

 

Any hints greatly appreciated.

[sebastianzz]

Sleep isn't working here.

 

Someone who tested sleepenabler kext?

 

 

Sleep enabler didn't work for me, tried with OpenHaltRestart installed and without it, at the moment I have only two kexts installed fakesmc and cpuinjector(audio and both lan cards are disabled via bios -using pci wlan card and usb speakers).

 

I've got sleep working by patching dsdt file, the only problem which I'm having now is that restart and shutdown doesn't work for me after waking up computer from sleep. If I'm not putting machine to sleep restart and shutdown both are working correctly, after sleep chosing any of this options is giving me black screen after system shutdown(fans are still running and display showing no signal). Does anyone know the solution for that kind of problem???

 

 

 

 

BTW I'm running 32bit snow leo(atheros drivers)

[sash11]

Just one point of observation.

I am not a fan of installing any extra software that is not absolutely necessary.

Usually I try to use the tools provided by the operating system itself.

In the guide it is recommended to install MainManu in order to show hidden files. This is absolutely unnecessary. Just show hidden files with this command in the terminal:

 

How hidden files type:

 

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

killall Finder

 

Hide hidden files type:

 

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

killall Finder