Esoteric AMD system working in iATKOSv7

[praxisseizure]

Hello and I cannot give enough thanks to the OSx86 community for all their hard work, especially in the area of problematic hardware. Without you peeps, I'd be out of luck. You more than deserve my infinite thanks.

 

This is a report on my experience hacking hardware that is rather uncommon, combined with hardware that is just a pain in the ass. I wished someone who had even remotely similar a setup posted an install log. I could find none, so I'll layout how it worked for me.

 

First off. I could not get Snow Leopard to work. Vanilla > manual patching, iATKOS S3, SNOWOSX, HAZARD, all panic w/ all kernels. What's wrong? I'm still trying to figure out. The ONLY thing that worked is iATKOSv7. (10.5.7)

 

My setup:

 

Tyan Thunder s2915 (n6550)

2x AMD Opteron 2360 SE (Octocore / 2.5Ghz)

16GB 667 DDR2 (can only use 4GB in OS X)

NForce Professional x2 Chipset (MCP55)

ATI Radeon HD 4850 PCI-e (Standard build from Visiontek)

Creative X-FI Titanium PCI-e (Standard build from Creative)

Areca 1130ML RAID controller PCI-X

Generic Firewire 800 PCI-X (works OOB)

BlackMagic Multibridge Extreme PCI-e (HD-SDI I/O breakout box)

 

 

I cannot run x64. I've tried countless things.

I MUST have in my com.apple.Boot.plist Kernel Flags > arch=i386 maxmem=4096

Could be a myriad of things I've not yet figured out, but for now it works in x32 flawlessly.

If I boot x64 I get a kernel panic from the video card, not the Mobo. I'm pretty sure if you have an OSx86 friendly video card, you'd have no problem booting x64.

I can boot w/ -x (safe-boot) in x64 (without the arch=i386 and maxmem=4096). The 16GB memory shows up, however, that doesn't do me all that much good without the video card working properly.

 

Installation:

I have dualboot on separate drives. I don't do same-drive MBR dualboot. There's guides for that.

-Partition OS X drive in Win xp/7 a GUID (GPT) Drive w/ no partitions. (Free Space)

-Boot iATKOSv7 DVD (easy to find) >> hit F8 on boot to add flags

-Use Kernel flags -v cpus=1 arch=i386 maxmem=2048

>> If you have "Still waiting for root device" problem, just go back into Windows and re-format MBR / NTFS, then put offline and re-initialize GUID (GPT) but do not create a partition. (It will eventually work, Tyan BIOS doesn't have AHCI options.)

-Install ONLY 9.5.0 Voodoo XNU kernel and NforceSATA with latest Chameleon. NOTHING ELSE.

 

-Set BIOS to boot that drive.

-F8 during Chameleon boot and input kernel flags >> -v -x arch=i386 maxmem=4096

-If you don't hit safe-boot (-x), then the radeon HD4850 will give you scrambled screen.

You can boot to multiple drives/partitions from Chameleon, it's a great loader.

 

Once in SAFE-BOOT Leopard (this stuff is easy to find w/ google)

- Install NforceLAN.kext (gives you ethernet and internet)

- Download (before hand) OSx86 Tools and run DSDT Patcher.

- Apply it to your intended Volume. (you should end up with a "dsdt.aml" on the root of that Volume)

- Install Netkas 7_radeon_hd_48x0_drivers.pkg

- Install Natit_no_powerplay_4800_4600.pkg

- Copy from /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

com.apple.boot.plist to your desktop.

- Open it in textedit

- add this to it >> ***THIS ONLY WORKS FOR ATI RADEON HD 4850 DUAL DVI***

 

<key>device-properties</key>

<string>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</string>

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>Yes</string>

 

If you have a different radeon HD card, look yours up. I found this EFI-string by chance. I've not found a utility that creates EFI-strings for radeons HD's later than 3xxx. It's out there somewhere.

 

- Also make sure the Kernel part of it is like this >>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>custom</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>arch=i386 maxmem=4096</string>

- Save that, then copy your original com.apple.boot.plist to another location (anywhere) so you have a copy of the original.

- Overwrite the original plist with your modified one.

 

That should get dual DVI video working. Without weird jerkiness.

 

Creative X-fi Audio>> (Google Therius VoodooHDA)

- Install Therius 0.2.2 r8 Release Light

(You get minimal features and haven't tested MIC, but for output it just works)

(There are certainly better setups for this.)

 

If you have the Areca RAID card, then they have MAC driver dmg's. Download and install, piece of cake.

Same with BlackMagic Multibridge.

 

Everything works, QE/CI, RAID (Sound is stuck in Stereo not 5.1, but more tooling with that later. )

 

Bizarre, yes.. impossible? Not a chance.

DO NOT UPDATE FROM OS X UPDATER. YOU WILL BREAK IT.

 

Again much cheers and hope someone else benefits from this write-up.

It was two weeks solid of trial and error because no one has this setup, period.

May the gods not strike down you who tread the same path.

Even in 32-bit, it works quite well. (Not as fast as Win7, but still runs FCP like a champ)

 

Anyone who has additional insight or wants to help me get Snow Leopard and x64 working. I'm all ears. I've failed at every pass. I'm no expert, but I've learned a lot about OS X over the last two weeks. Even then, I obviously don't know enough to push through. TIA if you've got info.

 

-Tom