14 replies to this topic

[El.Pilote]

Hi everyone,

I decided to create a kind of how to for the awesome Big Bang xPower board as nobody seems to have created one before. You’ll have a magic verbose boot without any error, 32 and 64 bits proof.

I’ll skip basics steps that you can find on other x58 threads and explain directly what’s working or not and post kexts and the DSDT that I’ve made to have a fully working install on 10.6.7.

I’ll also skip video cards part, as anyone have a different one.

What’s working with DSDT edits :
- Native CPU power managment (thanks to Chameleon RC5)
- Power off and restart
- Native ICH10(to get rid of AHCIBlockStorage)
- Loading AppleLPC
- AppleSMBusPCI (doesn’t return any errors anymore)
- Sleep with no USB interrupt after wake up
- jMicron e-SATA
- Firewire (only after sleep)
 dsdt.aml.zip   8.96K   256 downloads

Needed kexts :
- FakeSMC (with temperature monitoring)
- Ethernet (RealtekR1000SL.kext)
- Audio (VoodooHDA.kext)
- e-SATA (JMicron36xeSATA.kext, only for system infos cosmetics)
(All kexts are going into S/L/E)
 MSI_Big_Bang_xPower_Kexts.zip   340.8K   201 downloads

What’s not working :
SATA 6Gbps

Note : USB3 seems to work natively on 10.6.7, I can't test because I don't have any USB3 device, but USB2 ones are working.

First of all, you need to upgrade to latest bios on MSI website.

Also, and i don’t know why, I had to put my Mac hard drive onto the 4th SATA port, as sleep doesn’t work in the 1st or 2nd one, maybe only relative to me, try it if sleep doesn’t work.

Bios configuration :
Set every onboard chip to AHCI

In Power Managment Setup :
ACPI Function - Enabled
ACPI Standby Set - S3
EuP 2013 - Disabled
Restore On AC Power Loss - On
Wake Up Event - USB - Enabled

You’re free to go for the rest of bios configuration, overclocking is working as I’m running my i920@4Ghz.

Get the latest Chameleon RC5, you’ll have to use GenerateCStates and USBBusFix.

Here’s the com.apple.boot.plist I’m using :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com...yList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Graphics Mode</key>
	<string>1920x1200x32</string>
	<key>Kernel</key>
	<string>mach_kernel</string>
	<key>Kernel Flags</key>
	<string>-v arch=x86_64</string>
	<key>Theme</key>
	<string>Hackintosh</string>
	<key>GenerateCStates</key>
	<string>yes</string>
	<key>UseAtiROM</key>
	<string>yes</string>
	<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
	<key>USBBusFix</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
</dict>
</plist>

I hope that my english was not crappy and that this kind of how to will help xPower owners to install OS X on their computers, as it took me a lot of work to make this board fully working.

If anyone has a trick for working Firewire without sleeping, please post here.

See you guys !

[cr911]

Hello!

Thanks for the great info! And by the way your English was excellent! For an example of bad English, read the manuals that come with the Big Banger mobo in the USA, it can be funny and mysterious!

I have some questions (2) to ask if you or anyone may help.

1) The BIOS file you have been so kind to share, did you download it from MSI's website? I was only able to  find 7666v13. Perhaps yours (A7666IMS.137) is for a European version of the board?

2) I have been having a problem with my RAM being read as 8 gig 1066 when it has 12. BIOS recognizes all 3 strips of memory but stops calculating the total at 8 at boot and it shows up as Dual Channel instead of Triple. Is this associated with the CPU being an i7 920?


Thanks again!

[El.Pilote]

 cr911, on Sep 18 2010, 11:25 AM, said:

1) The BIOS file you have been so kind to share, did you download it from MSI's website? I was only able to  find 7666v13. Perhaps yours (A7666IMS.137) is for a European version of the board?

2) I have been having a problem with my RAM being read as 8 gig 1066 when it has 12. BIOS recognizes all 3 strips of memory but stops calculating the total at 8 at boot and it shows up as Dual Channel instead of Triple. Is this associated with the CPU being an i7 920?

Hi, thanks for your interest!

I got this bios from MSI german forum, MSI Big Bang xPower Beta Bios Thread, I don't know if it applies on US board, but I think there's no differences, try it, stuff onboard still the same and if it can't work actual bios won't let you flash it.

For your ram problem, it's common for x58 boards, there's a lot of possibilities :
- Try each stick on one dimm slot
- Update bios
- Reseat CPU and check your pins are not damaged
- Up ram linked voltages

If it still not working, I think you'll have to RMA the board.

Hope this helps!

[cr911]

 El.Pilote, on Sep 18 2010, 01:24 PM, said:

Hi, thanks for your interest!

I got this bios from MSI german forum, MSI Big Bang xPower Beta Bios Thread, I don't know if it applies on US board, but I think there's no differences, try it, stuff onboard still the same and if it can't work actual bios won't let you flash it.

For your ram problem, it's common for x58 boards, there's a lot of possibilities :
- Try each stick on one dimm slot
- Update bios
- Reseat CPU and check your pins are not damaged
- Up ram linked voltages

If it still not working, I think you'll have to RMA the board.

Hope this helps!

Hello again comrade, it seems we are the only two people in the world using this MSI board, we rock!

So it turned out after much searching and deliberating that I went through OCZ RMA for the ram problem. (The triple-channel must have had one bad stick).

Have you upgraded to 10.6.5? and how about the USB3? I havent had a chance to try it out but there should be a custom kext to enable all super-speed products (not just from La Cie) on TonyxMac's forums.

Hope your fall is tres bien haha
-

[sstiwari]

 cr911, on Nov 22 2010, 02:47 AM, said:

Hello again comrade, it seems we are the only two people in the world using this MSI board, we rock!

So it turned out after much searching and deliberating that I went through OCZ RMA for the ram problem. (The triple-channel must have had one bad stick).

Have you upgraded to 10.6.5? and how about the USB3? I havent had a chance to try it out but there should be a custom kext to enable all super-speed products (not just from La Cie) on TonyxMac's forums.

Hope your fall is tres bien haha
-

No Pal... count me also. Running Snow Leopard 10.6.5 on MSI Big Bang XPower with 2 GTX 480s in SLI with EFI Strings, on BIOS 1.3 release(not beta) without any dsdt edits. Everything is fine... except some occasional kernel panics and yes sleep is not working.

[El.Pilote]

 cr911, on Nov 22 2010, 02:47 AM, said:

Hello again comrade, it seems we are the only two people in the world using this MSI board, we rock!

So it turned out after much searching and deliberating that I went through OCZ RMA for the ram problem. (The triple-channel must have had one bad stick).

Have you upgraded to 10.6.5? and how about the USB3? I havent had a chance to try it out but there should be a custom kext to enable all super-speed products (not just from La Cie) on TonyxMac's forums.

Hope your fall is tres bien haha
-

Hi again! I upgraded to 10.6.5 everything was ok, USB3 is natively supported if you activated it in the bios, it is recognized as fast usb in profiler. I don't have any USB3 devices so I can't test but it's ok with USB2 hard drives and faster. You don't need any kexts, check your bios settings if you can't see it in OSX

lol fall is ok, hope yours too

 sstiwari, on Nov 27 2010, 04:51 PM, said:

No Pal... count me also. Running Snow Leopard 10.6.5 on MSI Big Bang XPower with 2 GTX 480s in SLI with EFI Strings, on BIOS 1.3 release(not beta) without any dsdt edits. Everything is fine... except some occasional kernel panics and yes sleep is not working.

Hi rare xpower user

You should use my DSDT if you don't want to be bored with editing, I upgraded my bios to last official one and it still perfectly working as its seems there's minor changes. Set your settings as mine in bios for sleep, and try another sata port for your osx hard drive and you're good to go! Kernel panics should disappear too.

[macbau]

Does this install work using MultiBeast?

[ardoreal]

I've been trying to install Lion with this motherboard but no luck, I also can't seem to get to an installer when trying to load SL. What installer would you recommend for this motherboard?

[Edit]
I used tonymac's current iboot and installed it just fine.  Rockin it out on Lion now!  Trying to get a few sleep issues worked out but thanks for the guide.

[ardoreal]

I worked out the sleep issues in another thread, but I'll paste what ultimately fixed the problem as well as my DSDT.  It would seem that the OP's DSDT info is a bit dated in lieu of Lion.  My system is currently %100 stable and SATA 6GB/s is working in Lion!

S3 sleep is now working! Fans shut down, LED's go off, yet ram stays powered. It's not %100 perfect, it's just %99 there. The only idiosyncrasy present is that I have to hit the power button twice. It's more like I can hit the power button now to sleep it (that's another fix) but when waking I hit the power button, then hit it again about 3 seconds later and it wakes from sleep. Or, I can just tap the spacebar on my keyboard and it wakes that way too.

The fix entails, for one having a proper DSDT. MSI Big Bang Xpower owners really should create one specific and I may release some patches for it in the guides section. I also applied this fix http://tonymacx86.co...m...27&start=10 rather specifically this code pasted into the terminal

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x8b\x45\xc8\x39\x45\xcc\x74\x0b|\x8b\x45\xc8\x39\x45\xcc\xeb\x0b|; s|\x8b\x45\xb4\x39\x45\xb8\x74\x08|\x8b\x45\xb4\x39\x45\xb8\xeb\x08|' /System/Library/Extensions/AppleRTC.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleRTC

In my DSDT to get the power button working I had to change

Device (PWRB)
		{
			Name (_HID, EisaId ("PNP0C0C"))
			Name (_UID, 0xAA)
			Name (_STA, 0x0B)
		}
	}

I changed _HID to _CID

Attached Files

•  DSDT.aml.zip   8.76K   21 downloads

[MaLd0n]

 ardoreal, on Jul 25 2011, 10:11 PM, said:

...

 dsdt.ardoreal.zip   8.79K   56 downloads
Alias
Dtgp
Ehci
Hdef -->if you use VoodooHda, use AppleHdaDisabler in S/L/E
Hid/Cid
Hpet
Irqs
Lpc
Mute
Remove devices
Smbus
Shutdown

[sstiwari]

 ardoreal, on Jul 26 2011, 02:11 AM, said:

I worked out the sleep issues in another thread, but I'll paste what ultimately fixed the problem as well as my DSDT.  It would seem that the OP's DSDT info is a bit dated in lieu of Lion.  My system is currently %100 stable and SATA 6GB/s is working in Lion!

S3 sleep is now working! Fans shut down, LED's go off, yet ram stays powered. It's not %100 perfect, it's just %99 there. The only idiosyncrasy present is that I have to hit the power button twice. It's more like I can hit the power button now to sleep it (that's another fix) but when waking I hit the power button, then hit it again about 3 seconds later and it wakes from sleep. Or, I can just tap the spacebar on my keyboard and it wakes that way too.

The fix entails, for one having a proper DSDT. MSI Big Bang Xpower owners really should create one specific and I may release some patches for it in the guides section. I also applied this fix http://tonymacx86.co...m...27&start=10 rather specifically this code pasted into the terminal

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x8b\x45\xc8\x39\x45\xcc\x74\x0b|\x8b\x45\xc8\x39\x45\xcc\xeb\x0b|; s|\x8b\x45\xb4\x39\x45\xb8\x74\x08|\x8b\x45\xb4\x39\x45\xb8\xeb\x08|' /System/Library/Extensions/AppleRTC.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleRTC

In my DSDT to get the power button working I had to change

Device (PWRB)
		 {
			 Name (_HID, EisaId ("PNP0C0C"))
			 Name (_UID, 0xAA)
			 Name (_STA, 0x0B)
		 }
	 }

I changed _HID to _CID

Hi mate! I have dual GTX 480 installed in my Core i7 Build. Without DSDT using EFI strings i am getting full 1980X1080 with both cards enabled in SL. However, when i use ur dsdt the resolution gets stuck up at 1024X768. Any solutions.

[ardoreal]

 sstiwari, on Jul 31 2011, 01:33 AM, said:

Hi mate! I have dual GTX 480 installed in my Core i7 Build. Without DSDT using EFI strings i am getting full 1980X1080 with both cards enabled in SL. However, when i use ur dsdt the resolution gets stuck up at 1024X768. Any solutions.

Hey sorry it took so long to respond

I've actually switched my DSDT to Mald0n's DSDT.  He made a few patches and pointed a few things out that have really helped me out.  You might try his out.

[sstiwari]

 MaLd0n, on Jul 26 2011, 05:51 AM, said:

dsdt.ardoreal.zip
Alias
Dtgp
Ehci
Hdef -->if you use VoodooHda, use AppleHdaDisabler in S/L/E
Hid/Cid
Hpet
Irqs
Lpc
Mute
Remove devices
Smbus
Shutdown

Hi Mate.. On this Big Bang X Power, I have 5.1 Speakers connected to the Realtek 889 Audio PCI Exp x1 Card included with the Motherboard package. I was using  two MSI GTX 480 with EFI Strings

PCIROOT(0x0)/PCI(0x3,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0) 1st card
PCIROOT(0x0)/PCI(0x7,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0) 2nd card.

The install of Lion was very smooth without any glitches with your DSDT, chimera, lynx2mac LAN kext, and other required kexts with DSDT solution. But there is no audio through the traditional patched AppleHDA.kext, Realtek 8xx kext and even with 889 enabler kext. So I went for voodoohda solution, but the moment I install voodooHDA any version {already deleted applehda.kext}, it gives me kernal panic at boot. Booting is impossible except in safe mode. I have researched and used

<key>VoodooHDADidSkip</key>
<integer>282986176</integer>  [disabling Nvidia's HDMI 0x10de:0x06c0]

voodoo's Info.plist. Now the sound is there, but even now every two or three reboots i am still getting KP. I am clueless.
Can you add up working audio injection for Realtek ALC889 in the exisiting DSDT.

my audio codec dump with your dsdt is attached.

Thanks a tanks.

SS Tiwari

Attached Files

•  audio_data.zip   57.5K   17 downloads

[87linux]

Thank you all for working on this obscure board! I don't have enough free time to try this as of yet, but I will be sure to post my results.

[ardoreal]

Been a while since getting this build up and running.  I've enjoyed a very stable setup since these posts.  I'm running Mountain Lion now and had to make a change, due to the 64-bit-ness of ML people need to use a different patch on AppleRTC.kext in order for sleep/wake to work.  It requires

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x75\x30\x89\xd8|\xEB\x30\x89\xd8|' /System/Library/Extensions/AppleRTC.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleRTC

Then of course delete/rebuild your caches and your sleep function should work again as normal.