2365 replies to this topic

[scrambler_455]

This thread is for us to share our experience with the hardware configuration:

• GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
  
• Intel Core 2 Quad 3.0GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
  
• GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
  
• 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Memory x 2 (for a total of 8GB)
  
• Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model
  
• 10/ 100/ 1000/ 2000Mbps PCI Copper Gigabit Network Adapter  (The motherboard has onboard Ethernet, naturally, but this particular  board has some problems with onboard in the Hackintosh world.)

Obviously, the case, the hard disk, and the memory don't have to be the same, but here they are for the sake of posterity:

• Antec Sonata III 500 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
  
• Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory x 2 (for a total of 8GB)
  
• Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

The lifehacker guide including hardware config can be found here, and simplified even further through the addition of an automated script here.

Kudos to Adam Pash of lifehacker for putting this together, it's quite amazing to be able to do this so cheaply and simply!

If you've spent the money to get this exact configuration, it's probably a good idea to have a single place to discuss any problems that come up in the future. So share your experience here and hopefully this awesome hack pro setup will work flawlessy untill it's time for an upgrade!

[UPDATE]
  There is an updated installer from stellarola:
  http://stellarola.tu...-update-ud3p-v3
  It should work for 10.6.2

[captcrunch24]

Everything works great...Installation, Boot (even can dual-boot w/Windows 7 using the F12 at the system MB start page)...until...

#1) I cannot install Silverlight (says I cannot install onto a PowerPC)
#2) I would like to find out how to boot into 32-bit kernel mode.

My setup is exactly the same as the lifehacker one...I customized the About This Mac to read Q9650 but obviously there is somewhere else where the Proc info is stored and this may be an issue longterm if installers look for this info...

Any help would be appreciated..

Eric

[alltoorobot]

FYI this worked on my board with minor issues. my details are in my sig. maybe do an install following this guid if you have my board and change some of your files around if you want, might work

[rickyp123]

Okay, so I have been trying to get this to work for the past 8 hours and I am failing. Here is what keeps happening:

-If I do a fresh restore onto the thumb drive, and then install the Mobo package from LH...once I try and boot from the flash drive it gets stuck at Verifying DMI pool data... - When I reboot it MAY get to the start of the installation

-If I get to the start of the installation and try to format my HDD for MacOS, 50% of the time it will KP, the other 50 it will act as if it is formatting the drive. After I do format the drive, I get to the select drive screen of the installation and if I click continue, it KP.

-If I get all the way to the point where it starts installing, I get to 28 minutes remaining and then KP. Sometimes it just says it failed to load Support files.

-Sometimes I just get an Installation error log that comes up right after partitioning drive that cries about:
--NSDocumentController's invocation of - [NSFileManager URLForDirectory:inDomain:appropriateForURL:create:error:] returned nil for NSAutosavedInformationDirectory. Here's the error: "You can't save the file "Autosave Information" because the volume "Mac OS X Install DVD" is read only."

I have yet to get past the beginning stages of the install.

I have replaced everything in my case except well, the case and the mobo and processor. I don't have a spare mobo or processor lying around.

Hardware:
GA-EP45-UD3P
Intel Q9650 Quad Core
BFG NVidia 9800 GTX+ (Have tried with ASUS NVidia GT 260)
Netgear Gb Ethernet card w/GA311NA Chipset
8GB DDR2 1066 Mushkin RAM
SATA HDD/DVDROM

Using Sandisk Flash drive for install (have tried a regular 500GB USB drive as well - same issues)

Not sure where to go from here.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[RonDiaz]

I am getting stuck on boot at "verifying DMI Pool Data" I have followed the lifehacker guide and my hardware is roughly the same, definitely same mother board. Anyone else run into this?  It is pre-booting into SL install. I have yet to get that far.  I am using Kingston 8GB flash drive.  I have 2 identical ones tried them both.  I think the hardware is OK I did boot to a windows 7 RC DVD.




FYI: Thumb drive was partitioned with GUID.  Also I did run the UD3PSnowLeopard package to the flash drive...





Thoughts??




I have a 1.5TB drive and 500GB drive.  My plan was to install Win7 on the 500GB drive and SL on the 1.5..so I may just install Win7 on the 500GB drive for now while I wait for input from you folks here.  Thanks in advance for any help!

[nhc]

Using the lifehacker build exactly, only difference being a hitachi deskstar HDD instead of the WD.  Hardware seems fine, as i can run the ubuntu 9.04 live cd.  but i can't boot to install osx.  when i try to boot off the flash drive, i get:

boot1:  error

any ideas?

also - just noticed a post above having a similar problem.  i'm also using a kingston 8gb flash drive.  is there any chance its the drive?  i noticed in another thread someone simply switched from one brand of flash drive to another and it made a difference...

[stellarola]

rickyp123, on Sep 18 2009, 11:55 PM, said:

Okay, so I have been trying to get this to work for the past 8 hours and I am failing. Here is what keeps happening:

-If I do a fresh restore onto the thumb drive, and then install the Mobo package from LH...once I try and boot from the flash drive it gets stuck at Verifying DMI pool data... - When I reboot it MAY get to the start of the installation

-If I get to the start of the installation and try to format my HDD for MacOS, 50% of the time it will KP, the other 50 it will act as if it is formatting the drive. After I do format the drive, I get to the select drive screen of the installation and if I click continue, it KP.

-If I get all the way to the point where it starts installing, I get to 28 minutes remaining and then KP. Sometimes it just says it failed to load Support files.

-Sometimes I just get an Installation error log that comes up right after partitioning drive that cries about:
--NSDocumentController's invocation of - [NSFileManager URLForDirectory:inDomain:appropriateForURL:create:error:] returned nil for NSAutosavedInformationDirectory. Here's the error: "You can't save the file "Autosave Information" because the volume "Mac OS X Install DVD" is read only."

I have yet to get past the beginning stages of the install.

I have replaced everything in my case except well, the case and the mobo and processor. I don't have a spare mobo or processor lying around.

Hardware:
GA-EP45-UD3P
Intel Q9650 Quad Core
BFG NVidia 9800 GTX+ (Have tried with ASUS NVidia GT 260)
Netgear Gb Ethernet card w/GA311NA Chipset
8GB DDR2 1066 Mushkin RAM
SATA HDD/DVDROM

Using Sandisk Flash drive for install (have tried a regular 500GB USB drive as well - same issues)

Not sure where to go from here.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Are you overclocking per chance?

[RonDiaz]

nhc, on Sep 18 2009, 10:55 PM, said:

Using the lifehacker build exactly, only difference being a hitachi deskstar HDD instead of the WD.  Hardware seems fine, as i can run the ubuntu 9.04 live cd.  but i can't boot to install osx.  when i try to boot off the flash drive, i get:

boot1:  error

any ideas?

also - just noticed a post above having a similar problem.  i'm also using a kingston 8gb flash drive.  is there any chance its the drive?  i noticed in another thread someone simply switched from one brand of flash drive to another and it made a difference...

It feels to me like it is the Flash drive....it would displease me I ordered them with the newegg order just for this purpose...I dont know if I have anything else that is bigger than 8GB that I can dig up here. I will look.

[BigDaddyD]

RonDiaz, on Sep 18 2009, 11:42 PM, said:

I am getting stuck on boot at "verifying DMI Pool Data" I have followed the lifehacker guide and my hardware is roughly the same, definitely same mother board. Anyone else run into this?  It is pre-booting into SL install. I have yet to get that far.  I am using Kingston 8GB flash drive.  I have 2 identical ones tried them both.  I think the hardware is OK I did boot to a windows 7 RC DVD.




FYI: Thumb drive was partitioned with GUID.  Also I did run the UD3PSnowLeopard package to the flash drive...





Thoughts??




I have a 1.5TB drive and 500GB drive.  My plan was to install Win7 on the 500GB drive and SL on the 1.5..so I may just install Win7 on the 500GB drive for now while I wait for input from you folks here.  Thanks in advance for any help!

I had the same issue with the verifying DMI pool problem... and had to go back into my BIOS and make sure the USB boot was selected again on top.

[RonDiaz]

BigDaddyD, on Sep 18 2009, 11:41 PM, said:

I had the same issue with the verifying DMI pool problem... and had to go back into my BIOS and make sure the USB boot was selected again on top.

I have done that a couple times but I will try again.





PS: Win7 installed on the 500GB from DVD without issue.

RonDiaz, on Sep 18 2009, 11:42 PM, said:

I have done that a couple times but I will try again.





PS: Win7 installed on the 500GB from DVD without issue.

No luck...I don't seem to have any alternate USB devices over 8GB either

[RonDiaz]

I just did the manual terminal work from the old lifehacker guide vs the installer app, and I have now booted into SL!!!!!

Installing!!! Will post when complete.

[RonDiaz]

RonDiaz, on Sep 19 2009, 12:37 AM, said:

I just did the manual terminal work from the old lifehacker guide vs the installer app, and I have now booted into SL!!!!!

Installing!!! Will post when complete.

INSTALLED!!!  When I reboot it does want to boot the installer disc though and not the installation...anyone know how I fix that??  If I hit the any key before it autoboots I can choose the installed drive then it errors and i choose it again and it boots.

RonDiaz, on Sep 19 2009, 01:51 AM, said:

INSTALLED!!!  When I reboot it does want to boot the installer disc though and not the installation...anyone know how I fix that??  If I hit the any key before it autoboots I can choose the installed drive then it errors and i choose it again and it boots.

I lied it doesn't error when I choose the installed drive I got confused...  How do I default it from the installer to the install?

[Roy L. Flush]

I have finally gotten the OS installed on mine. I am using the EP45-UD3LR which is functionally identical to the EP45-UD3P, except the "p" version has some extra things, like firewire and two ethernet  ports.

The install is up and running but was not smooth. Here are my notes...

- I couldn't boot the USB device as long as AHCI mode was selected, but the hard drives wouldn't show up for MacOS unless AHCI was selected. The solution was to download and apply the latest BIOS.

- I get the following error during boot...

     "EBIOS read error: Device timeout Block 0 Sectors 64"

   I get four of those in about a five minute period of time, then the system goes ahead and boots.

- I cannot get my wireless PCI network card to work. I had it working on the same machine under MacOSX 10.5.7. It is a Linksys WMP54GS Version 1.1 and I understand that it is Mac Friendly.

I haven't tried sound yet.

--
Phillip

[scrambler_455]

rickyp123, on Sep 18 2009, 08:55 PM, said:

Okay, so I have been trying to get this to work for the past 8 hours and I am failing. Here is what keeps happening:

-If I do a fresh restore onto the thumb drive, and then install the Mobo package from LH...once I try and boot from the flash drive it gets stuck at Verifying DMI pool data... - When I reboot it MAY get to the start of the installation

-If I get to the start of the installation and try to format my HDD for MacOS, 50% of the time it will KP, the other 50 it will act as if it is formatting the drive. After I do format the drive, I get to the select drive screen of the installation and if I click continue, it KP.

-If I get all the way to the point where it starts installing, I get to 28 minutes remaining and then KP. Sometimes it just says it failed to load Support files.

-Sometimes I just get an Installation error log that comes up right after partitioning drive that cries about:
--NSDocumentController's invocation of - [NSFileManager URLForDirectory:inDomain:appropriateForURL:create:error:] returned nil for NSAutosavedInformationDirectory. Here's the error: "You can't save the file "Autosave Information" because the volume "Mac OS X Install DVD" is read only."

I have yet to get past the beginning stages of the install.

I have replaced everything in my case except well, the case and the mobo and processor. I don't have a spare mobo or processor lying around.

Hardware:
GA-EP45-UD3P
Intel Q9650 Quad Core
BFG NVidia 9800 GTX+ (Have tried with ASUS NVidia GT 260)
Netgear Gb Ethernet card w/GA311NA Chipset
8GB DDR2 1066 Mushkin RAM
SATA HDD/DVDROM

Using Sandisk Flash drive for install (have tried a regular 500GB USB drive as well - same issues)

Not sure where to go from here.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Definately sounds like BIOS settings to me. Go through every setting against the screenshots. also, check your ram to make sure it's getting the right voltage.

Also, I had the boot loop problem when I first got the system up and running. I changed the voltage of my memory and it seemed to go away. To get it to boot, I had to cut power and wait a minute or 2.

[nhc]

RonDiaz, on Sep 19 2009, 02:37 AM, said:

I just did the manual terminal work from the old lifehacker guide vs the installer app, and I have now booted into SL!!!!!

Installing!!! Will post when complete.

did you reformat the stick again, or did you just erase it and run through the steps starting with the restore?

[rickyp123]

stellarola, on Sep 18 2009, 11:57 PM, said:

Are you overclocking per chance?

Never overclocked before. Just using defaults. Except for the CPU. For some reason it defaults to a x8 multiplier instead of x9. My CPU voltage is slightly different than adam's as well.

scrambler_455, on Sep 19 2009, 06:05 AM, said:

Definately sounds like BIOS settings to me. Go through every setting against the screenshots. also, check your ram to make sure it's getting the right voltage.

Also, I had the boot loop problem when I first got the system up and running. I changed the voltage of my memory and it seemed to go away. To get it to boot, I had to cut power and wait a minute or 2.

Okay, sounds reasonable. I have no idea what I would change my voltage settings to. Do I decrease them?

[RonDiaz]

nhc, on Sep 19 2009, 05:45 AM, said:

did you reformat the stick again, or did you just erase it and run through the steps starting with the restore?

I just went thru the terminal steps that load on the bootloader.

[dustonio]

Here's my configuration. I changed the CPU and hard drive to save a bit of money, and also had to use G.Skill RAM because the other one that was mentioned in the Lifehacker article was out of stock.

Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model DVR-218LBK LabelFlash Support - OEM
Item #: N82E16827129045

TRENDnet TEG-PCITXR 10/ 100/ 1000/ 2000Mbps PCI Copper Gigabit Network Adapter - Retail
Item #: N82E16833156139

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822136074

EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814130339

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail
Item #: N82E16820231166

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q8400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115057

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813128358

I initially had problems booting with the USB Stick and kept getting "Verifying DMI Pool Data", and then I realized I missed the important step of applying the EP45UD3P Snow Leopard patch to it. Once I did that, I was thankfully able to get to the next step of installing Snow Leopard.

I had several kernel panics while attempting to install snow leopard. It would get stuck at 28 minutes left, but finally, after my third or fourth attempt, the Snow Leopard install to the hard drive worked.

If I keep the USB drive plugged in, it automatically loads up the Snow Leopard Install screen. If I disconnect the USB drive and attempt to boot only to the hard drive (which it sees and recognizes), I get stuck at the nasty "Verifying DMI Pool Data". I have re-installed Snow Leopard to the hard drive twice and keep getting this message.  

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[SkipG]

Networking.

I have this board, an E6750 Core 2 Duo overclocked to 3.2 GHz, an 8600 GT 256 MB, and was running 10.5.8 prior to installing SL. Under 10.5.8 the onboard NIC was running at 100 mips. Using Stell's package, things went pretty well, and I only needed to modify the DSDT to change the amount of NVRAM. However, although the Apple 8169 driver loaded,  I could not get an IP address. Finally got things working by manually setting the Link Speed down from 100BaseTX to 10BaseT. That's when I bought the add-on NIC. Having two PCI slots, I used the top one and adjusted the DSDT file to reflect the address at which the card loaded. Both the Apple driver and the Psystar R1000 driver failed to load citing a bad Interrupt source. FYI, Ubuntu 8.04 has no issues using either the onboard chip, or the add-on card in either slot, at 100BaseTX.

The add-on NIC needs to be installed in the lower slot. That's the way the DSDT was originally coded, and installing the card there works peachy keen. Sometimes it's the simple things that cause the biggest problems.

Stell released three versions of his package. With PME events enabled, and using the first version, the machine will actually go to sleep by itself. Not only that, but the SleepX program in the Developer tools works, too. I can cycle between awake and asleep multiple times. I can even schedule the machine to wake up for backup and then go back to sleep again. I'm psyched . With the third version of the package, my system doesn't go to sleep unless I induce it via the Apple menu.

--skip

[dustonio]

nhc, on Sep 19 2009, 05:55 AM, said:

Using the lifehacker build exactly, only difference being a hitachi deskstar HDD instead of the WD.  Hardware seems fine, as i can run the ubuntu 9.04 live cd.  but i can't boot to install osx.  when i try to boot off the flash drive, i get:

boot1:  error

any ideas?

also - just noticed a post above having a similar problem.  i'm also using a kingston 8gb flash drive.  is there any chance its the drive?  i noticed in another thread someone simply switched from one brand of flash drive to another and it made a difference...

I had problems using the No-Hack Method (http://lifehacker.co...acking-required), so I decided to do the all-Terminal method.

However after going through the entire process, after the "Verifying DMI Pool Data" I got the following results:
boot0: GPT
boot0: testing
boot0: testing
boot0: done
boot1: error

I used the recent release of  Cameleon-2.0-RC3-r658-bin and am stuck. Both the No-Hack and the all-Terminal method get me stuck.