Introduction
PC01
ASUS P5QL Pro with 1004 BIOS
8gb RAM
Celeron 420
20gb SATA HDD
GeForce 8400GS 256mb PCI-E videocard
PC02
ASRock Conroe945G DVI
4gb RAM
Core2Duo E6300
1.5tb SATA HDD
ATI x1950 Pro 256mb PCI-E videocard
I intend on installing retail Snow Leopard onto these PCs. This post covers the following:
- Creating a Snow Leopard USB installer that can be used on both PCs
- Using that USB installer to install Snow Leopard onto both PCs
- Installing drivers onto both PCs
- Updating both PCs to 10.6.2 and notes if you're using Pentium4/PentiumD/Celerons
Requirements
- A Mac OS X running computer, running at least Leopard. This is where we are going to create the Show Leopard USB installer.
- An 8gb USB Memory Stick
- Retail Snow Leopard in disk image format (.DMG)
- Mac OS X 10.6.2 Combo update full file (MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.2.dmg). Store this file onto the Desktop of the Mac OS X running computer where we are to create the USB installer.
- The target machine can be of two PCs listed above
- Repository of files here (misc.zip). Store this file onto the Desktop of the Mac OS X running computer where we are to create the USB installer.
Creating the USB installer of Snow Leopard
This is done on a Mac OS X running computer. All the steps here require that the logged in account is an administrator.
1. Insert the USB drive
2. Once it has mounted, launch Disk Utility. This is under the Utilities folder, under the Applications folder of the hard disk.
3. Under Disk Utility, highlight and select the 8gb thumbdrive (not the drives yet) from the left side showing the list of available disks of Disk Utility. Partition tab should be visible if you choose correctly.
4. Go to Partition tab
5. Under the Partition tab, choose 1 Partition under the Volume Scheme
6. Click on Apply button. This will erase the thumbdrive and its contents and will be prepared to be used on a Mac
7. Once partitioning has completed, highlight and now, select the disk under the USB drive
8. Go to Restore tab
9. Drag the Snow Leopard disk image to the Source space
10. Drag the only partition under the 8gb USB drive to the Destination space
11. Ensure that Erase destination is checked
12. Click on Restore button
13. This process takes arounnd an hour to an hour and a half to two hours to complete. Have a break
14. Once disk restore has completed, there should be no progress bars running in Disk Utility. You should be seeing Snow Leopard installer mounted with Mac OS X Install DVD window opened.
15. You may quit Disk Utility
16. At the Mac OS X desktop, highlight the 8gb thumbdrive named Mac OS X Install DVD and press CMD-I (alternately, you can right-click the thumbdrive and choose Get Info).
17. At the Get Info window, click on the Padlock icon
18. It will prompt with a username and password of the administrator. Enter it, and click OK.
19. Go back to the Get Info window, you should now see that the padlock icon has been unlocked
20. Make sure to tick to uncheck the Ignore ownership on this volume checkbox
21. Close the Get Info window
22. Double-click the misc.zip file on the desktop to extract its contents
23. It will create a folder on the desktop called Misc
24. Open that folder, make sure that the file names are sorted by Name and that the view is set as List
25. From the Window opened, launch Chameleon 2.0 RC4 package by double-clicking on its file (01 - Chameleon 2.0 RC4.pkg)
26. On the first dialog of Chameleon, click Continue button
27. On the second dialog, DO NOT CLICK INSTALL BUTTON YET, click the Change Install Location button
28. From the list, MAKE SURE TO CHOOSE AND HIGHLIGHT the thumbdrive containing the restored OS X Leopard Install DVD
29. Click Continue button, then click Install button.
30. You will be prompted where you enter the administrator account. Enter it and click OK button.
31. Chameleon boot loader will install to the thumbdrive. Click Close button when done.
32. From the Desktop, open the 8gb thumbdrive containing the restored OS X Snow Leopard installer. You will notice that a folder and a file is created named Extra and boot respectively. This is what chameleon did.
33. From here, open the Extra folder of the thumbdrive
34. On our respository (Misc folder), open the Extra folder under the ASROCK 945GDVI folder under '02 - Drivers' folder. You should now be seeing these windows side-by-side.
35. Select all files and drag all contents of the Extra folder (under the Misc folder) to the Extra folder (of the thumbdrive).
36. It will prompt to authenticate the process, click on Authenticate button
37. It will prompt to replace an existing folder on the target drive, click Replace button
38. It will prompt with an administrator account, enter it and click OK button
39. Copying will start
40. You also need to copy the entire extracted Misc folder on the desktop to the Thumbdrive. Highlight the Misc folder and drag it to the thumbdrive.
41. At the desktop where Snow Leopard 10.6.2 updater is located (MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.2.dmg), rename the file by highlighting it and press ENTER key. Enter the new name as '05 - MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.2.dmg' without the quotes.
42. Copy that file on the Misc folder on the USB
43. The Misc folder of the USB should exactly contain all the files shown here in numeric order. The numbered filenames show the order on how are we going to install Snow Leopard on the target machine
44. Highlight the thumbdrive on the desktop and press CMD-E to eject it (alternately, after highlighting the thumbdrive, drag it to the TRASH icon at the Dock).
Installing OSX on the target PC
Ensure the following is set on the BIOS of the target PCs
- ACPI and AHCI are both enabled
- Boot priority is set to boot on the USB
- SATA HDD is plugged on the first SATA port
- This guide does not require any patched BIOS
Here are the steps
1. Insert the thumbdrive on any available USB port of the PC
2. Restart the PC (if it's currently on). Make sure to boot it to the USB
3. Once the USB has started up, it will briefly show the Chameleon boot menu. At this point wait.
4. It will then boot OS X. At the first window where you're going to choose the language, press ENTER.
5. From the first dialog showing Install Mac OS X do not click Continue yet, as we're going to format the target hard disk. On the menu bar, click on Utilities and choose Disk Utility
6. Under Disk Utility, from the list of disks at the left, highlight the target hard disk (not the partition but the disk) that we're going to install Snow Leopard.
7. Go to Partition tab
8. Under Partition tab, choose the number of partition(s) that we're going to set on the hard disk. Personally, I choose only 1 Partition. It depends on your preferences on how many partitions you will need. Just make sure you note the partition name where you're going to install Snow Leopard.
9. Without fiddling with the other settings, click on Apply button. This will erase the hard disk and its contents and is being prepared to be used on a Mac.
10. Once it's done, quit Disk Utility.
11. It will go back to the first dialog showing Install Mac OS X. Click Continue button
12. Click Agree button on the License Agreement dialog
13. Choose the target disk that you want to install OS X to. If you have created only 1 Partition from the Disk Utility, only one disk will show up here. Highlight that. After doing that, you may optionally click on Customize to choose which components you may or may not want to install. Personally, I choose not to install Language and Printer drivers. Click on Install button to proceed with the actual OS X install.
14. This process may take 20 to 30 minutes. You may take another short break while this process is taking place.
15. Please do note that since we have set the boot order to start at the USB, and the USB will automatically boot at the Snow Leopard Install, do not get surprised that when you come back more than 20 minutes, that the Snow Leopard Install has appeared. If it does appear, what you need to do is simply restart by clicking Restart under the Install menu. Do not remove the USB drive.
16. Without plugging off the USB drive, wait until the installation has completed and once the computer has restarted, you should boot from the USB and again see the Chameleon boot loader. Quickly press left and right keys on the keyboard to be able to navigate the bootable disks that are present. At this point, highlight the hard disk containing the newly installed Snow Leopard and press ENTER.
17. It will now boot into Snow Leopard on the hard disk. At this stage you may notice that the graphics are slow, the resolution is not optimal and that sound is not yet present. We are going to fix this later by installing the drivers needed.
18. Go through the wizard. Make sure to note the account name and password you will set here. This is the administrator account we're going to use for authentication prompts. Make sure to set a password for the administrator as this is needed!
19. Once done, you should be seeing the Snow Leopard desktop on the hard disk.
Once OS X Snow Leopard is installed and you're at the desktop
1. Set the view preferences. At the Finder, press CMD+, (command+semicolon key) to access the Finder preferences. Alternately, you can click on Finder menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under Finder Preferences, ensure that all checkboxes are enabled under the Show these items on the desktop area.
3. Close Finder Preferences
4. Open the thumbdrive by highlighting its icon on the desktop. Copy the Misc folder to the hard drive by drag-drop its icon (Misc) to the hard disk icon (where we installed Snow Leopard)
5. Once copying has completed, eject the thumbdrive by highlighting its icon on the desktop and pressing CMD+E.
6. Remove the thumbdrive off the USB port as we won't be needing this anymore.
7. Navigate the hard disk to open the Misc folder that we just copied. At the window showing the Misc folder, press CMD+2 to set the view as Detailed. Keep this window open.
Enabling the hard disk to boot Snow Leopard
1. At the Misc window, launch Chameleon install by double-clicking on the '01 - Chameleon 2.0 RC4.pkg' icon.
2. It will start with a wizard, click Continue button on the first screen
3. By default it will choose to install to the hard drive where we install Snow Leopard, click on Install button
4. It will prompt for an administrator account. Enter the administrator account that we used when we're registering OS X after Snow Leopard has installed. Chameleon will also prompt that it will require a restart after it has installed. Click Continue Installation Button when prompted.
5. Chameleon will start installing. After it has installed, DO NOT CLICK THE Restart BUTTON YET! At this point, minimize the Chameleon install window by pressing CMD+M.
6. At the desktop, double-click on the hard disk icon to open it. From there, you should be seeing a folder named Extra. Open that folder. There's an Extensions folder in it, open it. Set it aside.
7. Go back at the Misc folder
8. If you're using an Asus motherboard, navigate the 02 - Drivers > Asus P5QL Pro ; Extensions Extra 64-bits & 32-Bits folder. Copy all four files with '.kext' from that folder to the blank Extensions folder. It will prompt to authenticate. Click on the Authenticate button and enter the administrator account. Copying will start.
9. If you have an ASRock motherboard, navigate the 02 - Drivers > ASRock 945GDVI > Extra folder. Copy all the files there, including the Extensions folder. It will prompt to authenticate. Click on the Authenticate button and enter the administrator account. Copying will start.
10. Go back to the Chameleon installation wizard and you may now click on the Restart button.
11. Once the PC restarts, it will boot to the Chameleon bootloader. It will automatically highlight the hard disk icon. Press ENTER to boot OS X. This is the method of our restart at the moment.
Installing the drivers
1. At the OS X Desktop, open the Misc folder if it is not yet opened yet. From there, launch Kext Helper by double-clicking at the 03 - Kext Helper b7.app icon
2. If you're using an Asus motherboard, under the Misc folder, navigate to the 02 - Drivers > Asus P5QL Pro ; Extensions System 64-bits & 32-Bits folder. Highlight all three .kext files in it and drag them to the Kext Helper window.
3. If you're using an ASRock motherboard, under the Misc folder, navigate to the 02 - Drivers > ASRock 945GDVI ; Kexts_into_System-Library-Extensions folder. Highlight all three .kext files in it and drag them to the Kext Helper window.
4. Kext helper will display the kext files you have added.
5. Enter the password at the password box on Kext Helper and click on EASY INSTALL button
6. It will prompt to verify on proceeding the installation of the Kexts, click OK button
7. Once it completes, it will pop-up a dialog box for confirmation. Click OK button.
8. You may see a separate pop-up alerting you on a newly detected Network Interface and may ask you to proceed at the Network Preferences. If this does appear, click on Network Preferences Button. From the Network Preferences, just click on Apply button
9. Quit Kext Helper
Installing the driver for a discrete graphics card
1. Going back at the Misc folder, open the 04 - GFX folder. From there, launch EFIStudio.app.
2. Under EFIStudio, there's a list of supported graphics cards. Click on the pulldown menu to choose the card applicable to your hardware setup (mine is an nVidia 8400 GS 256mb).
3. Once you've chosen the right card, click on Add Device button. An Editor window will pop-up. From there, click on write to com.apple.boot.plist button.
4. It should prompt you with a user/pass. Enter the administrator account and click on OK button.
5. The Editor window will display Bootlist Completed!. Click on OK and press CMD+Q to quit EFIStudio.
6. You may restart OS X.
7. Note the method of our restart at the moment (boot Chameleon and choose the hard disk).
8. At this point, all functionality is now implemented (Graphics/Audio/Network)
Updating to 10.6.2
1. From the Misc folder, mount the 10.6.2 updater by double-clicking on the disk image 05 - MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.2.dmg
2. It will show a folder containing the actual updater package. Double-click on it to start the install wizard.
3. On the first three window of the wizard, keep clicking at the Continue button.
4. At the third click of the Continue button, it will prompt you to agree with the terms and conditions. Click on Agree button.
5. You will then choose the target drive to install the 10.6.2 updater. Choose the drive that we installed Snow Leopard to and click on Continue button
6. It will show a summary of the setup, click on Install button
7. It will prompt for an administrator password, enter it and click OK
8. It will prompt that the installation will require a reboot, click on Continue Installation button
9. Installation proper will start. This process will take 5-15 minutes to complete.
10. After it has completed, DO NOT CLICK Restart BUTTON YET. If you're using an older processor proceed right away at the next part.
11. If you're using a Pentium Dual Core / or any Core-based CPU, then click at the Restart button on this wizard.
(Optional) If you're using a Celeron / Pentium 4 / Pentium D processor
1. There is a folder under Misc called 06a - for Legacy Processor (Celeron/Pentium4-D), open that folder.
2. Launch the package for Legacy kernel called legacy_kernel-10.2.0.pkg.
3. It will start the Legacy Kernel 10.6.2 wizard. At the first screen, click on Continue button
4. It will ask where to install the package, choose the hard disk where we installed 10.6.2 update. Click on Continue button
5. It will show a summary of the setup, click on Install button
6. It will ask for the administrator password, enter it, click OK button
7. Installation will begin. Once it's done, click on Close button.
8. Going back where we left off at the 10.6.2 install, click on the Restart button
9. Note the method of our restart at the moment (boot Chameleon; choose the hard disk ; and type -force64 and press ENTER).
Editing the startup behavior
1. Once you're in OS X Desktop, from the hard disk, open the folder Library > Preferences > SystemConfiguration.
2. From the SystemConfiguration window, copy the file com.apple.Boot.plist to the desktop
3. Double-click on the file you just copied to the desktop. It will open TextEditor.
4. Focus at the area between <dict> and <key>device-properties</key>
5. Put the cursor after the last character of <dict> and press ENTER three times to provide space between <dict> and <key>device-properties</key>
6. At the space between them, type <key>Timeout</key> then press ENTER
7. At the next line, type <string>1</string> then press ENTER
8. If you have installed the Legacy Kernel for 10.6.2, point the cursor at the line with <string></string>. This line is below <key>Kernel Flags</key>. At the <string></string> line, enter -force64 between it so it will appear as <string>-force64</string>
9. Once you're done press CMD+S to save the file, then CMD+Q to quit TextEditor
10. With the file stored on the desktop, click-drag the file com.apple.Boot.plist on the desktop and release it to the SystemConfiguration window.
11. It will ask to authenticate, click Authenticate button
12. It will ask to replace the existing file, click on Replace button
13. It will ask for the administrator account. Enter it and click OK button
14. You may now restart OSX
ENJOY!
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