189 replies to this topic

[Saf]

I thought I'd post back after testing it but I've not really had time to watch anything at the moment. Not streaming to an Apple TV but it's the same as an iPhone/iPad in that the server needs to transcode the file live when playing. I've only used it twice and another handful of times just to test to see if it plays and it's been fine.

Did you check the log when it wasn't working? Might have just been a teething problem. The server still scanning media etc? Anyway, not that it matters anymore if it's working fine now!

It's doing good at the moment. Uptime of 4 days and 13 hours. Just been using it as a file/web server. It's great that it has so many USB ports, got a load of externals connected to it and finally sorting out all my data. Transferring a long. Running headless, I just screen share/ssh in to it.

Type uptime in terminal and have a look at your load averages. Mine seem quite high but the CPU usage in activity monitor is low. Hmm, not sure what that means.

On my iMac:
13:43  up 5 days, 16:05, 3 users, load averages: 0.06 0.18 0.17

On my HP Server:
13:44  up 4 days, 13:46, 5 users, load averages: 4.81 4.52 4.11

[tk007b]

My 'uptime' on my microserver  is like this:-

18:32  up 1 day,  5:48, 2 users, load averages: 2.61 2.40 2.31

and I shutdown my mac mini (for the first time in about 3 months today), so will post in a few days

On a separate note, I still can't get the auto boot to work.

My plist file reads like this (see below). I couldn't workout how much of your script I needed to put in the plist file and how much was comments. Can you help me out ?

Cheers

TK

blah blah blah .. then ..
    <string>arch=i386 -force64 maxmem=4096 -f</string>
    <key>Timeout</key>
    <string>5</string>
    <key>Instant Menu</key>
    <string>yes</string>
    <key>Default Partition</key>
    <string>hd(0,1)</string>
/dict>
</plist>

[splonk]

I had the same problem on my machine with autoselecting the drive to boot. Whatever I added or changed in the plist had no effect until I wiped my drive, repartitioned and reinstalled everything.

You could try reinstalling Chameleon manually via the Terminal. I had no end of problems on another machine with the installer packages, which seemed to install everything properly but left me with unbootable machines. Just leaving the usb flash in the drive stopped POST from completing.

[Saf]

 tk007b, on Aug 14 2011, 06:39 PM, said:

My 'uptime' on my microserver  is like this:-

18:32  up 1 day,  5:48, 2 users, load averages: 2.61 2.40 2.31

and I shutdown my mac mini (for the first time in about 3 months today), so will post in a few days

I was about to say that's ok then, mine is similar but I've just done 'uptime' again and it's showing:

14:21  up 6 days, 14:19, 2 users, load averages: 10.46 11.38 11.07

!!! Hmm, wonder why it's so high. Think I could also benefit from more RAM, using the stock 1GB stick! Seems to be running ok though...

 tk007b, on Aug 14 2011, 06:39 PM, said:

On a separate note, I still can't get the auto boot to work.

My plist file reads like this (see below). I couldn't workout how much of your script I needed to put in the plist file and how much was comments. Can you help me out ?

Your plist is fine, you just need to remove the 'Instant Menu' key. Then it'll auto boot into the default partition after a 5 second timer (giving you enough time to access the chameleon menu if you want).

So delete what I've put in bold and you should be good:

Quote

blah blah blah .. then ..
<string>arch=i386 -force64 maxmem=4096 -f</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>5</string>
<key>Instant Menu</key>
<string>yes</string>
<key>Default Partition</key>
<string>hd(0,1)</string>
/dict>
</plist>

Hope that helps

Splonk, you didn't leave the Instant Menu in as well by any chance did you?


Saf

[tk007b]

Thank You Saf,

Removing it sorted the problem. Although, it took me two goes because I had the 'instant menu' command in there twice, presumably it was part of the original plist that Janitor wrote.

Now I have a system that I can remotely control from anywhere using logmein and am also able to remotely boot if needed - Very cool

BTW I have 8 Gig of Memory in my box, but the plist is restricting me to 4. Janitor says the system becomes unstable when using 8 but I haven't played around yet.

Cheers




TK

[splonk]

 Saf, on Aug 15 2011, 02:30 PM, said:

Splonk, you didn't leave the Instant Menu in as well by any chance did you?

Saf

I don't think I ever had it in. I always rolled my own plist. I certainly don't have it now.

By the way, I moved my start disk to the ODD bay and attached it to the free SATA port on the motherboard. Couldn't get the HP to recognise my disk although booting from the install flash drive worked every time. Tried every combination of kexts to no avail before I noticed in the bios that the IDE drives were set to Legacy IDE. SATA ports 5 and 6 are actually bridged to an IDE controller. Changed that from Legacy to IDE and I was back in business. Sometimes it still will not boot unless I boot in verbose mode.

Also ran Geekbench (version 2.2 beta 7 - others crash on AMD) for good measure. It gave me a rating of 1600 odd or 60% faster than the base Mac Pro G5.

I also compiled the ethernet kext from the latest sources and now I have full duplex working. I haven't tested it extensively for errors; there were a few issues on building but no errors that I could see and it loaded without problems on my box.
 BCM5722D.kext.zip   50.97K   42 downloads

[tk007b]

Thanks Splonk,

Using the new ethernet kext on FULL duplex with no obvious issues !   

Cheers

TK

[Saf]

Glad to see it worked tk007b. When you say remotely boot, you mean restart the box? Not boot from shutdown? It'd be great if you could do that... Had any luck with WOL? Actually saying that, does the server sleep? I've not tried it out!

Thanks for the new ethernet kext Splonk. I'll give it a go later. When going in System Profiler with the old kext, it says Full Duplex, is it not?

Oh and thanks for the info about moving the start disk to the ODD bay. Didn't know there was a spare sata port on the board. I was thinking of moving that in so I could have 4 main storage drives in the HDD bays. I'll leave that till the weekend!

Just need to get a 10 or 20 metre ethernet cable now. Currently got the server under the TV connected to the router and it's not so nice looking there! I'll wire the cable under the carpet and put it at the back of the room behind the sofa out of sight!

Where have you guys put the server? Directly connected by ethernet to router? Wireless? Homeplug? I considered the homeplug but it's gonna be in the same room so I might as well wire a cable...
Just need to buy some more RAM now

Saf

[splonk]

Saf,

Check in SysPrefs>Network>Ethernet>Advanced>Hardware. What do you see?

Forgot to mention that the spare power supply is via molex so you will need to invest a few pennies in a molex to SATA 15pin power plug.

You might want to run that Russian bios update that janitor linked in the OP if you are going to use the eSATA port at any stage.

[Saf]

 splonk, on Aug 17 2011, 02:02 PM, said:

Saf,

Check in SysPrefs>Network>Ethernet>Advanced>Hardware. What do you see?

Forgot to mention that the spare power supply is via molex so you will need to invest a few pennies in a molex to SATA 15pin power plug.

You might want to run that Russian bios update that janitor linked in the OP if you are going to use the eSATA port at any stage.

I've checked it where I think you want me to

SysPrefs>Network>Ethernet>Advanced>Ethernet

and it says configure-->automatically. And full-duplex is selected. If I click manual, it allows me to select half-duplex or full-duplex. And an ifconfig gives me:


media: autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
status: active


Hmm...
I'm sure I've got that cable somewhere, I'll have to dig out the box of spare cables. Thanks for the heads up And the BIOS update, I'll do that as well

[splonk]

 Saf, on Aug 17 2011, 02:31 PM, said:

I've checked it where I think you want me to

SysPrefs>Network>Ethernet>Advanced>Ethernet

and it says configure-->automatically. And full-duplex is selected. If I click manual, it allows me to select half-duplex or full-duplex. And an ifconfig gives me:


media: autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
status: active

Odd. My experience was pretty much as reported in this post. If it isn't broken...

[tk007b]

Hey Saf,

I meant remotely reboot (useful if I'm connected and need to reboot whilst away from home)

My server is in my small bedroom/office and is currently connected via my 200mps homeplug. However, it's 'soon' to be connected via RJ45 to my gigabit switch.
Runs fine with a homeplug if you have one spare.

Interested to know if you can get yours to 'sleep' as mine crashes the instant I try (all of the time), I think it needs a DSTS file that's about but not fully tested .. .. I think !

Currently, I cannot wake it from an OFF state

Cheers

TK

 Saf, on Aug 17 2011, 11:48 AM, said:

Glad to see it worked tk007b. When you say remotely boot, you mean restart the box? Not boot from shutdown? It'd be great if you could do that... Had any luck with WOL? Actually saying that, does the server sleep? I've not tried it out!


Where have you guys put the server? Directly connected by ethernet to router? Wireless? Homeplug? I considered the homeplug but it's gonna be in the same room so I might as well wire a cable...
Just need to buy some more RAM now

Saf

[splonk]

What you need for normal sleep is an S3 state (suspend to RAM), which the HP singularly lacks. Not surprising, as servers tend to be run 24/7 as a rule.
It does, however, have S4 (hibernate to disk)  and S5 (wake up on lan). You need to select one of these in the bios. If it is set at S0, then it won't sleep at all. Not sure what the DSDT has in relation to sleep, so a sleep kext might be needed.

[tk007b]

Not sure if this is of use, but I use it on my real Mac and Microserver as I use a normal PC keyboard.

http://blob.inf.ed.a...eyboard-layout/

Great if you want speechmarks to be SHIFT + 2 (instead of the '@' sign)

[freebazee1]

Anyone tried Parallels Or VMware Fusion and installed windows 7 or server on it? ... I have tried all the options with parallels but it always ends up in blue screen. But chrome OS and ubuntu works fine in parallels (not tried them with VMware yet). VMware is one step ahead of parallels - kernel panic every time I try to install windows 7 or try to run server 2008 from the second partition. (Reminds me of windows vista, xp and 98 days )

[tk007b]

Having issues when trying to use Virtual Box, as it complains about the Windows 7 or XP disks.

Will copy Win 7 onto the machine and try again from an image file to see how it goes.

Not really missing Windows to be honest but it's nice to have some backup for when I do, so that I can scrap the monstrosity of a tower that's cluttering up my room

Let me know if you get any progress and I'll do the same

Cheers

TK

[splonk]

Why not run Windows natively? It is not as if there aren't enough room for disks.

With regard to the blue screening, this is possibly because Windows 7 does not support AMD AHCI out of the box. You would either need to F6 and feed the relevant Catalyst drivers or switch to IDE mode in the bios and install as such, install the AHCI drivers, perform the required registry hack below which switches on the detect AHCI mode and then reboot and reenable AHCI in the bios. Otherwise you will get a BSOD every time.

AHCI registry enabler
Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

[freebazee1]

 splonk, on Aug 20 2011, 08:39 AM, said:

Why not run Windows natively? It is not as if there aren't enough room for disks.

With regard to the blue screening, this is possibly because Windows 7 does not support AMD AHCI out of the box. You would either need to F6 and feed the relevant Catalyst drivers or switch to IDE mode in the bios and install as such, install the AHCI drivers, perform the required registry hack below which switches on the detect AHCI mode and then reboot and reenable AHCI in the bios. Otherwise you will get a BSOD every time.

AHCI registry enabler
Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

I'm a bit confused now, coz I have windows server 2008 R2 on the other drive and it boots just fine natively with the same bios settings. and I also have windows 7 installed on Hyper V.

Having windows application icons in the dock is a cool feature, which I really want and also the few programs which I use frequently are only windows based ... Plus windows 8 is coming

Also about WOL ... its weird that if I shut the server down after running windows server then WOL works just fine from my iphone but nothing happens when I shuts down after using snow ... so its definitely something to do with os. Can anyone please post the steps to make it work in snow from complete shutdown.

[ralfs]

Hi,

i have installed SL 10.6.7 on my microserver according to this amazing guide.

I use it mainly for AFP file sharing and for Time Machine backups.

I have installed 4x2 TB SATA disks (setup as software raid 10 in OSX) and I run the OS off a USB OCZ SSD drive (the drive has both SATA and USB 2.0 connections).

Randomly after 2-5 days the OS is not responsive - ie it seems that the USB OCZ drive is not accessible till I poweroff and poweron again.

I bought an SATA->ESATA kit and patched the bios in order to use the OCZ SSD drive on ESATA instead of USB hoping it will be more stable.

Problem is that it seems i can't boot the OCZ disk of the esata (remember i just move from USB to ESATA the same disk).

One thing I assume might be going wrong is that BIOS will move around the hard disks.
Currently I have disk0,1,2,3 - which are my 4 2TB disks and when i add the ESATA this changes as
disk0 = ESATA OCZ disk
disk1,2,3,4 are the 2 TB disks

So there two concerns right now about the boot hanging...

1. Disks are moved in the SATA channels
2. Is my RAID 10 affected as there are different SATA ports reported by bios?

I assume if i reinstall everything with the disk on ESATA that it will work but i was wondering if there is any quick hack to make it work without reinstalling.

Thanks!

[antikus]

Hi guys!

Firstly, thank you for all you hard work! I have 10.6.8 running on my new Microserver. I would not have done it without this guide.

Secondly, I'm getting network problems with my setup: I have Microserver to share out a disk using afp and after copying about 40G of data from a Lion machine, the network on Microserver seems to lock down. It starts by spitting out messages like "... -> 3 segments, 2 free, consumer index: 307"   into the system log. Then the connection dies. While Network SP panel tells that Ethernet is active, nothing goes in or out. If I deactivate/reactviate Ethernet it comes back disconnected, claiming that the cable is unplugged. Once I reboot it works fine.

Here is how I set up the machine:
1. Created USB flash with Retail SL image and applied the latest ModUSB
2. Installed that on Microserver stock drive. Rebooted.
3. Upgraded with SL 10.6.8 combo and legacy kernel 10.8.0 v2.
4. Ran Multibeast installer to get Kext Utility
5. Installed the kext splonk posted using Kext Wizard.
6. Ran Kext Utility. Rebooted.
  (machine came back with MAC address resolved!)
7. Installed USB rollback kexts that Saf posted using Kext Wizard.
  ran Kext Utility. Rebooted.

Did I miss anything? Do I need to install/update Chameleon? I plan to put macszfs on the machine and use it as a file server, so I do not need graphics, sound, etc...