Snow Leopard successfully installed on Intel DG33BU

[rcg]

Just wanted to share my experience on how I got Snow Leopard running on my system.

 

First, my system specs:

• Intel DG33BU motherboard
  
• Intel® Core™2 Duo Desktop Processor E6750
  
• XFX GeForce 8500 GT Fatal1ty 512MB DDR2 (PV-T86J-Y1SW) with 1 DVI and 1 VGA port
  
• Apple Cinema 20" monitor
  
• Two SATA hard disks
  
• One SATA CD/DVD drive
  

Installation prerequisites:

• Leopard already installed on a SATA hard drive (if needed, follow my instructions posted here on how to install Leopard on DG33BU boxes)
  
• A SATA blank hard disk (to install Snow Leopard on it) connected to SATA Port 0
  I had one disk partitioned with MBR and with WinXP on it. The other one was also partitioned with MBR and was used for Leopard. As I needed a blank disk, I used Acronis Disk Director to resize my WinXP partition, leaving enough space to copy my Leopard partition. Still using Disk Director I copied the Leopard partition from one disk to another. Just after checking that I could correctly boot from the freshly copied Leopard partition, I was sure I could format the other disk.
  
• Image (dmg) of the Snow Leopard Install DVD
  
• Chameleon 2.0-RC2 installer package
  
• Chameleon 2.0-RC3 binaries
  
• Kexts for the Chameleon bootloader (they will be installed on the EFI partition)
  
• 64 bit Kext for the Intel 82566 network adapter (it will be installed on the Snow partition)
  
• 64 bit VoodooHDA
  
• Patched DSDT.aml file
  
• BIOS configurations:
  • HPET enabled
    
  • IDE as Native and SATA as AHCI (*)
    
  • ACPI as S3
    
  • Intel-VT disabled (if available - it depends on your processor)
    
  • Compliance Test Pattern disabled (**)
    
  • Primary Video Adapter as Auto (**)
    

(*) To be able to dual boot WinXP with AHCI enabled, I had to install Intel drivers following tutorials I found through Google. It seems that Vista and Windows 7 have built-in AHCI support

(**) Thanks to Gautham Gupta for these two

 

Installation procedures:

1. Boot into Leopard and using Disk Utility, format the new disk with GUID partition scheme (I always create two partitions, one for the OS and another for data I don't want to lose when reformatting). Give an easy name for the partition you're going to use for Snow Leopard (I called mine as "Snow")
   
2. Mount the Snow Leopard Install DVD image. After that, click on the "Go" menu and select "Go to folder". Type "Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages/" (without the quotes) and hit "Go"
   
3. Double click on "OSInstall.mpkg" and follow the onscreen instructions. Just be sure to choose the Snow partition you created before. And remember to click on "Customize", deselecting unneeded languages and all printers. After Snow Leopard's installation completes, don't boot
   
4. Install Chameleon 2.0-RC2. Again, follow onscreen instructions. Just make sure to click on the "Change Install Location" button, selecting your Snow partition, and then on the "Customize" button, selecting the "Chameleon EFI HFS" and the "Extras" options. After Chameleon RC2 is installed, don't boot
   
5. Copy the Chameleon RC3 boot file to your EFI partition. To achieve this, open Terminal, and type the following commands:
   

   sudo -s
   <your password>
   diskutil list
   <identify the EFI partition on the same disk where your Snow partition is - it'll be something like diskXs1, with X=0,1,2,etc. - use this identifier on the next commands>
   mkdir /Volumes/EFI
   mount_hfs /dev/diskXs1 /Volumes/EFI
   killall Finder

   
   If you get an invalid argument after the mount_hfs, type "fsck_hfs /dev/diskXs1" and then try again
   You'll see a new disk on your Desktop (or Finder window) called EFI. Copy the "i386/boot" file from Chameleon RC3 binaries to the EFI disk. If you receive permission denied errors, try copying using Terminal (after issuing the "sudo -s" command)
   

6. Open the Extras/com.apple.Boot.plist file on the EFI disk in TextEdit and paste your graphic cards EFI string between the <string> and </string> tags that follow the "<key>device-properties</key>" line. You could copy it from your running Leopard Boot.plist or generate it using EFIStudio
   
7. Exclude all Kexts in the EFI's /Extras/Extensions folder. Copy the Kexts I provided
   
8. Create a patched DSDT.aml following the guide. Optionally, use the file I provided, but I don't know if it'll work. Put the patched DSTD.aml file in the Extras folder of the EFI disk
   
9. Open Disk Utility, right-click on the Snow partition and choose "Information". Copy the value for "Universal Unique Identifier". Right-click on the /Extras/Extensions/PlatformUUID.kext on the EFI partition, choose "Show Package Contents", then open the "Contents" folder. Open the Info.plist in TextEdit and paste the value copied from Disk Utility between the <string> and </string> tags that follow the "<key>PlatformUUID</key>" line.
   
10. Reboot and in BIOS change your hard disks boot order, so that the new GUID disk is the first option (or hold F10 during the POST screen and choose that disk)
    
11. In Chameleon boot screen press any key and then type -v -f and hit enter
    
12. If everything went fine, you should boot into Leopard, with no sound and no network
    
13. Once in Leopard, install the Intel82566MM.kext and the VoodooHDA.kext using Kext Helper. Reboot and again use the -v -f boot options
    
14. If everything went fine, now you'll have a fully working Leopard installation. If you wish, install the VoodooHDA preferences panel by double-clicking the VoodooHDA.prefPane file
    
15. I've already updated to 10.6.1 and had no problems.
    

 

EDIT on 23 Jan 2010: After a long delay, today I decided to try the automatic 10.6.2 update. After restarting, I could not boot into Snow Leopard anymore because of a kernel panic with the following message:

Version mis-match between Kernel and CPU PM

After some research I discovered that I needed to use a version of SleepEnabler.kext compatible with MacOSX 10.6.2 (you can find it here). To replace the old one I booted the iPC 10.5.6 install DVD and ran the following commands in Terminal:

diskutil list
<identify the EFI partition on the same disk where your Snow partition is - it'll be something like diskXs1, with X=0,1,2,etc. - use this identifier on the next commands>
mkdir /Volumes/EFI
mount_hfs /dev/diskXs1 /Volumes/EFI
mkdir /Volumes/EFI/backup
mv /Volumes/EFI/Extras/Extensions/SleepEnabler.kext /Volumes/EFI/backup
mv <PATH TO DOWNLOADED KEXT>/SleepEnabler.kext /Volumes/EFI/Extras/Extensions

(If you're planning on installing the 10.6.2 update, I would suggest replacing the SleepEnabler.kext on the EFI partition while still logged in the 10.6.1. In that way you won't need to use an install DVD or boot to another installed MacOSX in order to have access to the Terminal.)

After restarting I could boot into Snow Leopard again and evrything was still working, including sound and network. And now I'm a happy Snow Leopard 10.6.2 user!

 

EDIT on 26 Jun 2010: Some time ago I've upgraded to 10.6.3 and today I've upgraded to 10.6.4 (using the automatic update from MacOS). On both times I decided to see what happened after upgrading, so I did not update the SleepEnabler.kext before booting. On both times my Hackintosh KP'ed. And on both times I resolved the problem simply by downloading a compatible SleepEnabler.kext and overwriting the one in my EFI partition (that's why I keep my old iPC install DVD, as I can boot into it and use the Terminal app). I don't remember where I downloaded the compatible SleepEnabler.kext, but with a simple Google search you'll surely find it.

DSDT.aml.zip

Intel82566MM.kext.zip

Kexts.zip

[Gautham Gupta]

Hey

 

I have 1 SATA hard disk with Kalyway 10.5.2 installed on it (Hard disk from a gigabite motherboard).

I'm planning to shift this harddisk to a G33BU board and install snow leopard on it.

How should I proceed?

[rcg]

It would be better to use a second SATA disk. You could connect this HD to your Gigabyte mobo, execute steps 1 to 9, move the HD to the DG33BU and then execute the final steps.

 

Or you could get and old IDE disk (if your Gigabyte mobo supports IDE) and, using Kalyway DVD install DVD, make a backup image of your Leopard install and then restore it to a partition on the IDE disk. After making sure that you can boot Leopard from this restored partition, you'll be able to format the SATA drive and install Snow Leopard on it.

 

If you really can't get a second drive, maybe it'll be possible to install Snow Leopard on a second partition on the same disk. If your HD is already partitioned as GUID, and you didn't use the EFI partition, then probably it's possible to install Snow Leopard using the steps above. But if it's MBR, then it'll be a little more complicated. You could install Snow Leopard from inside Leopard (you'll have to overwrite OSInstall.mpkg with a special version that lets you install on MBR partitions, as described in many other guides) and then install Chameleon and all kexts directly on that partition. But then it won't be a vanilla install, and probably updates would cause you trouble.

[Gautham Gupta]

I prepared a bootable snow leopard usb drive for installation with MBR patch & Chameleon 2.0 RC2 successfully.

 

When I tried to select Install OS X in Chameleon on G33BU, I get "press reset button" message.

 

How to proceed further?

[rcg]

Well, as I haven't tried that method, I really don't know. There are many guides on installing Snow Leopard from a USB stick, maybe you can get more help from them. Theoretically those guides work for any mobo that supports a Hackintosh. You can follow one of these guides and use the kexts I provided for Chameleon.

 

Just some questions:

 

• Did you format your USB stick with the GUID scheme?
  
• Did you install Chameleon to hidden EFI partition?
  
• Did you retore the Snow Leopard Install DVD to a second partition on the USB stick?
  
• Is there any reason for not installing the Chameleon RC3 "i386/boot" file on your USB EFI partition?
  
• Did you copy the kexts I provided to the Chameleon /Extras/Extensions folder?
  
• Did you create a patched DSDT.aml file and did you put it in the Chameleon /Extras folder?
  

Maybe it'll work if you prepare the Chameleon on the USB stick to boot the Install DVD just as I prepared the Chameleon on the GUID partitioned disk to boot the installed OS.

[Gautham Gupta]

Hey

 

I actually tried to follow your method since the usb boot didn't work. I got an extra 40gb IDE harddisk from a friend.

I installed Kalyway 10.5.2 on the 40 GB harddisk (MBR) using my gigabyte motherboard as it doesn't work on G33BU.

While using the same gigabyte motherboard, I installed Snow Leopard on a 250 GB SATA harddisk sticking to your guide strictly.

Just before rebooting, I installed the 250 GB harddisk on my G33BU and tried booting from it.

 

Now I get stuck. The screen freezes on "Initialized MAC framework successfully".

 

And in the questions you asked, did I have to manually copy kexts for chameleon to the Extra/Extensions folder?

 

Is the problem because I had installed it on the gigabyte board and then transfered it to the intel board?

[rcg]

I don't think the problem is because you installed Snow on the HD attached to another mobo, as I think Apple's installer always copies the same files, no matter the hardware being used. But I might be wrong.

 

And yes, you have to manually install specific kexts manually to the EFI partition, because the default ones installed by Chameleon don't work with the DG33BU. But as you told that you followed my guide, I guess you did it already.

 

I'm just not sure about the patched DSDT. I'm pretty sure that if you create it the gigabyte board it won't work for the DG33BU. A best bet still would be to use the one I patched, but there are na garanties...

 

Some other questions:

 

• What GPU are you using?
  
• Did you install tha latest BIOS update availabe on Intel's site?
  
• Did you try connecting the HD to different SATA ports? I've just remembered that I had some problems to boot Snow until I connected the HD to SATA port 0
  

 

And here are some settings I just checked in my BIOS which may or not be needed:

 

• HPET enabled
  
• IDE as Native and SATA as AHCI (one of these days I checked that I could boot Snow using IDE as Legacy, but the DVD drive did not work)
  
• ACPI as S3
  
• Intel-VT disabled
  

[Gautham Gupta]

If you are mentioning about the kexts that I had to replace in the EFI partition, then I've done it. Is this what you are mentioning to as the chameleon kexts?

 

• I used your DSDT.aml. Didn't want to experiment there.
  
• I'm using Geforce GTS 250.
  
• I didn't install any BIOS update, my BIOS version: DPP3510J.86A.0497.2008.1007.1913
  
• My HD is connected to the SATA 0 port. I also tried connecting it to the SATA 1 port.
  
• I didn't have an Intel-VT key anywhere.
  

This is the exact message that is displayed before my pc freezes:

MAC Framework successfully initialized
using 10485 buffer headers and 4896 cluster IO buffer headers
IOAPIC: Version 0x28 Vectors 64:87
ACPI: System State [s0 S3 S4 S5] (S3)
█

[rcg]

Yes, the kexts that go in the EFI partition are the ones I call Chameleon kexts (because these are the kexts loaded by Chameleon before loading SNow Leopard).

 

I strongly recommend updating your BIOS version. My version is DPP3510J.86A.0572.2009.0715.2346, which is the most recent available at Intel's website.

 

The Intel-VT configuration can be found under the Security tab (the full name is Intel Virtualization Technology).

 

In all my Hackintosh frustrated installations I can't recall getting stuck so early in the boot process as you did. In my working Snow boot process, after the IOAPIC and ACPI lines I get the RTC (Real Time Clock) line. Here are the first lines:

 

MAC Framework successfully initialized
using 10485 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers
IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vectors 64:87
ACPI: System State [S0 S3 S4 S5] (S3)
RTC: Only single RAM bank (128 bytes)
netkas presents fakesmc, a kext which emulates smc device
mbinit: done (64 MB memory set for mbuf pool)
From path: "uuid", 
Waiting for boot volume with UUID A27681FD-F5CF-3C6C-A4D4-2D526E29D7ED
Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources...
com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib load succeeded
FireWire runtime power conservation disabled. (2)
FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 8023 PCI now active, GUID 0090270001ecc628; max speed s400.
Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SAT1@1F,2/AppleAHCI...
BSD root: disk0s2, major 14, minor 2
Kernel is LP64

 

So, it seems your problem is related to RTC. From what I've read, RTC is closely related to DSDT. As we use patched DSDT and the patched DSDT.aml file is created from information extracted from BIOS, maybe updating your BIOS will solve that issue, making my patched file work for your hardware. If it doesn't work, try booting without the patched DSDT.aml file. And if that doesn't work too, you'll have to find a way to create your own patched DSDT (maybe booting from Kalyway Install DVD and using Terminal).

 

And also make sure you've enabled HPET in BIOS.

[Gautham Gupta]

I updated my BIOS to version 572.

Tried deleting DSDT.aml

Tried -v -F, -v, -x32.

Still no go.

 

Kalyway doesn't boot up on G33BU.

 

Would there be a problem due to processors?

I figured out that mine doesn't support Intel-VT as it isn't there under the security tab.

Mine is an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU - 2.2 Ghz.

[rcg]

I don't think the processor is related to the problem.

 

Have you tried to install iPC 10.5.6 on that board? Although in my other post (where I explained how I installed iPC) I told that an IDE DVDROM drive was needed, I just tried to boot the iPC install disk using the Native/AHCI options in BIOS and it worked. If you manage to install and boot iPC, then it'll be a lot more easy to install the retail Snow Leopard. For instance, you could use it to create your patched DSDT file.

 

Other than that, I'm running out of ideas...

[rcg]

Well, some bad news: I've just tried to boot Snow Leopard without the patched DSDT, and, although it seemed that Snow wasn't fully functional (for instance, not all partitions where automatically mounted), it booted. So, it seems that your problem isn't related to the patched DSDT. And I don't know what it could be.

[Gautham Gupta]

Hey!

 

I've got it to boot finally!

I disabled 'Compliance Test Pattern' and set 'Primary Video Adapter' to auto and it booted up snow leopard as well as the iPC DVD.

 

Now that I'm in Snow Leopard, I have a couple of problems.

• Is there a way I can boot Snow Leopard with Native/IDE config?
  
• How do I use my IDE DVD Drive?
  
• How do I set up a 5.1 channel audio output?
  

 

By the way, thanks for everything!

[rcg]

Well, I'm really glad to hear about that! Those are really good news! I'll update my original post and instruct to set these BIOS options.

 

Leopard boots normally with Native/IDE option in BIOS, but from what I've read until now, I think there's no way to boot Snow Leopard in that way. For Snow Leopard your BIOS must be configured as Native/AHCI. But why can't you leave it as Native/AHCI?

 

I never managed to use my IDE DVD drive, even on Leopard. Maybe there is a kext that would do the job, but I've never found it. That's why a got a new SATA drive.

 

And I also never managed to get the ALC888 sound fully working. But as basic stereo output was enough for me, I really didn't care a lot. I think you'll have to do a litle research on your own. If you find a solution, please post it here!

 

Happy Snow Leoparding on your DG33BU!

[MacNutty]

Does your second SATA drive works correctly? I am having problem with my DVD drive which is SATA (at 1), either it is not been detected or if detected then I get kernel panic.

 

Note: I need to update my signature.

[rcg]

Yes, all my SATA drives work correctly. The drive with Snow Leopard is connected to port 0, the drive with WinXP and Leopard to port 1 and the DVD drive to port 4 (the board has only 4 ports, which are 0, 1, 4 and 5).

 

Do you get the kernel panic when trying to use the drive (i.e. when inserting a disc)?

[MacNutty]

I followed your instructions and was able to install Snow Leopard, but I always have to boot with -f option otherwise it does not boot. I also used your kexts but my SATA DVD writer is detected sometimes, and sometimes not. What to do to fix it? I have PS2 keyboard and mouse and I tried to put PS2 kexts (AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext and ApplePS2Controller.kext) into /EFI/Extra/Extensions folder and also built the /EFI/Extra/Extensions.mkext but it does not recognize my PS2 keyboard and mouse. Please help to fix it.

 

Otherwise your guide is excellent. Thanks.

[Ratz1]

Ok, so I'm trying this on my DG45ID because nothing else has worked yet and I'm doing it on a different partition on my GIUD Leopard drive since I have no other drives to do it on. When I get to the Terminal part and do the mount_hfs.... it tells me, "mount_hfs: Resource busy" then I tried the fsck thing and it just keeps telling me the same thing, I can see the EFI drive in a Finder window, but I can't do anything with it.

[rcg]

I also used your kexts but my SATA DVD writer is detected sometimes, and sometimes not. What to do to fix it?

Does your SATA DVD writer get detected and then not between restarts or even during one session? And when it is not detected, it does not even get listed in System Profiler under "Serial-ATA"?

 

I have PS2 keyboard and mouse and I tried to put PS2 kexts (AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext and ApplePS2Controller.kext) into /EFI/Extra/Extensions folder and also built the /EFI/Extra/Extensions.mkext but it does not recognize my PS2 keyboard and mouse. Please help to fix it.

I won't be able to run tests and give you detailed help, as I recently got rid of my PS2 keyboard. I remember that I could use it in Leopard, but the needed kexts were installed by Kaliway... But, here are some reasons for a kext not to work:

• The kext is installed in the EFI partition, but it has dependencies on some kexts loaded only by the operating system. The Intel 82566 ethernet card is an example where this occurs, and that's why I instructed to install it's kext on the OS's partition. From what I recall, if that's your case, you'll see some info related to missing dependencies when booting in verbose mode (-v). Try installing your PS2 kexts on your Snow partition using Kext Helper
  
• The kext is compatible with 32 bit mode, but not with 64 bit. Try booting in 32 bit mode and see if it works. If that's your case, you'll have to find a compatible version (or always boot in the compatible mode)
  
• The kext is compatible with Leopard but not with Snow Leopard. In that case you'll have to find a compatible version
  

 

I followed your instructions and was able to install Snow Leopard, but I always have to boot with -f option otherwise it does not boot.

Don't know about the -f boot parameter problem... Maybe it's related to the PS2 kext problem...

 

Ok, so I'm trying this on my DG45ID because nothing else has worked yet and I'm doing it on a different partition on my GIUD Leopard drive since I have no other drives to do it on. When I get to the Terminal part and do the mount_hfs.... it tells me, "mount_hfs: Resource busy" then I tried the fsck thing and it just keeps telling me the same thing, I can see the EFI drive in a Finder window, but I can't do anything with it.

As you already see the EFI partition in Finder, then apparently it's already being mounted by Leopard. Can't you execute the file operations using terminal after issuing the sudo -s command (e.g. using the cp command to copy)?

 

And, do you boot into your existing Leopard already using the EFI partition+Chameleon method? If yes, I think this guide won't work for you, as the kexts on the EFI partition are specific to one OS (Leopard or Snow Leopard). If that's your case, you should try installing Chameleon directly to your Leopard partition, and then installing in Leopard the kexts that are on the EFI partition, and at last marking the Leopard partition as active. But you should be aware that you can end with an unbootable system. And, probably you'll have to keep changing the active partition between EFI and Leopard in order to boot into Snow and Leopard...

 

If you're already booting directly from the Leopard partition, and you can't use the EFI partition even in terminal and under root (sudo -s), then you should try formatting your EFI partition. But be sure that you really aren't using the EFI partition...

[Ratz1]

I'm not sure how it's booting all I see when it's booting in the bios at the top it says Darwin..... Chameleon (version number), and I've at least tried dragging the boot file into the EFI partition and it tells me I can't and when I do the killall Finder command I lose the EFI partition and to get it back I have to reinstall Chameleon RC2

[rcg]

Well, if you installed Chameleon RC2 using the "Chameleon EFI HFS" option, then the Chameleon installer already formatted your EFI partition. If for some reason right after the installation the EFI partition gets mounted and shows up in Finder, then you don't need to execute the commands from step 5. Just use Terminal to copy the boot file from Chameleon RC3:

sudo -s
<your password>
cp <path to Chameleon RC3 files>/i386/boot /Volumes/EFI

[Ratz1]

Yeah I tried that but I can't continue because I still can't do anything with the EFI partition, it shows up, I just can't do anything with it, I can't get into it to get to the Extra's folder and what not. Whenever I try to select that drive nothing happens, it highlights for a second then nothing, it goes back to where I was.

[rcg]

What happens when you, in Terminal, try to access the EFI partition? For example"

sudo -s
<your password>
cd /Volumes/EFI
ls -l

 

Do you get any errors?

 

One thing you could try is to force unmount the partition:

sudo -s
<your password>
umount -f /Volumes/EFI

 

and then mount it again using the commands in my guide.

[Ratz1]

When I do cd it tells me "/Volumes/EFI: Not a directory"

 

And the umount gives me "/Volumes/EFI: not a directory or special device" and "not currently mounted"

 

 

edit: I'm just going to chalk this one up to not working for me like all the others, and try something else, thanks for the help anyway!

[rcg]

Well, I'm pretty sure that this problem can be solved, as to this step there's nothing specific to the mainboard being used.

 

Anyway, I would strongly recommend getting a second SATA hard drive...