28 replies to this topic

[sp3ctr3]

Well, I guess I'll get straight to the point really. I'm new, came here to hopefully get myself Mac OSX running on my computer. Got an Inspiron 580 with the following specifications:



Would I be able to do it? If so, are there any current tutorials on how?

[JamesLittler]

This looks perfectly compatible

Start off with a copy of Nawcom's ModCD and a Snow Leopard 10.6.3 retail disk.

Once you have Snow Leopard installed and updated to 10.6.8 you will be able to upgrade to Lion fairly easily.

[sp3ctr3]

JamesLittler, on 24 January 2012 - 12:22 PM, said:

This looks perfectly compatible

Start off with a copy of Nawcom's ModCD and a Snow Leopard 10.6.3 retail disk.

Once you have Snow Leopard installed and updated to 10.6.8 you will be able to upgrade to Lion fairly easily.

I really appreciate the reply, but...what exactly should I do? Doesn't have to be too detailed. I can figure out the small stuff on my own, but I boot up that ModCD then somehow run Snow Leopard from there? Or what? D:

[JamesLittler]

Yes, boot the mod cd, then at chameleon (the GUI boot loader) swap it for the OS X retail disk, press F5 a few times to update the display (your OS X disk will now appear), select the OS X disk using the arrow keys, then type -v (this will boot in verbose mode so we can monitor the boot process).

When you get to the installer, format your hard drive using disk utility (in the utilities menu) as GUID partition table (from the advanced menu), and OS X Extended Journaled.

Quit disk utility, the installer should start again.

Follow the installer through, (when installing, keep moving the mouse every ~10 mins to keep the screen from sleeping)

When the installer finishes it will say 'install failed' this is because it cannot install the boot loader to the EFI chip (you don't have one on your motherboard).

Reboot, and boot using the Mod CD, at chameleon, select your new OS X partition on your hard drive, type -v and press enter.

If you get to your desktop, great, you can now install chameleon to your hard drive so you no longer need the Mod CD and complete your install by finding kexts for your natively un-supported hardware.
You will place these in either System/Library/Extensions or Extra/Extensions of your hard drive (depening on the kext and the OS, e.g. Lion needs all kexts in S/L/E.)

Rebuild caches using kext utility before you reboot !!!IMPORTANT!!!

Reboot and pray

Always boot with -v until you have a stable install that boots every time.

If at any point you get stuck, take a photo of the panic screen, post it here and if no-one gets back to you, send me a pm with a link to the thread and I'll try to help you.

[sp3ctr3]

Tried booting iAtkos S3 and Hazard if that matters. Does it HAVE to be the retail disk? So far, both just get stuck at some point.

http://www.anony.ws/i/GLES1.jpg
http://www.anony.ws/i/f93sh.jpg

[JamesLittler]

try booting with:
PCIRootUID=1 PCIRoot=1 -v

It doesn't *have* to be a retail disk but it is much easier to troubleshoot as you know exactly what has installed. Distros do all sorts of things and unless you know exactly what's going on you are set for failure.

If you do choose toy use a distro, when you see the customise option, deselect everything, that will get you as close to retail as possible.

[sp3ctr3]

Seemed to do nothing. Same error. D:

[PookyMacMan]

My guide in my signature describes a full method for using the ModCD.

Your issue has to do with your hard drive not being detected. You will need a kext for your data controller; please get me your vendor/device IDs (I describe how in my guide) and post them here. I'll rebuild the ModCD with whatever's needed.

Concerning distros, I would not use one. Because the ModCD already patches the installer, the distro would probably confuse everything...I haven't seen anybody succeed w/ ModCD + distro.

James, I've never had that EFI chip error? Also, the ModCD patches the installer and installs Chameleon.

[sp3ctr3]

I've got it installed. Used the retail CD and it went fine. Also had to change my BIOS settings to AHCI. Though, the default Chameleon Loader just tries to run the system (Currently Snow Leopard) but suddenly turns off my computer. I tried loading the OS from that ModCD and it went fine.

Ah, sorry for the trouble, but how do I start finding Kexts? If I even need any more? And how will I upgrade to Lion from here?

UPDATE: I have 6GB of RAM, but only 2GB are shown in "About this Mac". Looking for more problems if any now. Can't change my resolution as well.

[PookyMacMan]

The ModCD automatically installs Snow Leopard in 32-bit mode. Open Terminal and type:

sudo nano /Extra/com.apple.boot.plist

Scroll down to where it says arch=i386 (I believe it's under kernel flags) and delete arch=i386. Press Control-O, press enter, and press Control-X.

[sp3ctr3]

Quote

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs$
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string></string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>5</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Mine doesn't seem to have that. And are we fixing the RAM or the default Chameleon loader problem?

Also, another problem. Flash seems pretty slow right now. Laggy and chopped.

[PookyMacMan]

If you look in your plist file, you are loading the mach_kernel. If you used an original 10.6.0 retail disc, the initial releases of Snow Leopard did not support Core i processors. Update to 10.6.7 (use the Combo update; don't do 10.6.8) and then you shouldn't have any booting issues.

We were trying to fix the RAM. Open Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities) and see if the processes are labeled Intel (64-bit).

For Flash, the reason why it's laggy (and also why it can't change resolutions) is because you do not have 3D acceleration (known as QE/CI) enabled. Open System Profiler (/Applications/Utilities), go to Graphics/Displays, and give me the device ID.

[sp3ctr3]

PookyMacMan, on 29 January 2012 - 05:30 PM, said:

If you look in your plist file, you are loading the mach_kernel. If you used an original 10.6.0 retail disc, the initial releases of Snow Leopard did not support Core i processors. Update to 10.6.7 (use the Combo update; don't do 10.6.8) and then you shouldn't have any booting issues.

We were trying to fix the RAM. Open Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities) and see if the processes are labeled Intel (64-bit).

For Flash, the reason why it's laggy (and also why it can't change resolutions) is because you do not have 3D acceleration (known as QE/CI) enabled. Open System Profiler (/Applications/Utilities), go to Graphics/Displays, and give me the device ID.

Downloading...

Under "Kind" everything is just "Intel".

Device ID: 0x68f9


UPDATE: Updated to 10.6.7. My processor is now detected with correct name in "About this Mac". The Default Chameleon Loader still has problems as it runs alright, but suddenly changes the resolution which gives my monitor a blank screen asking me to change the resolution and frame refresh rate. My Wireless Card is now undetected giving me no internet as well. Card Reader is not detected. Ethernet card is also not detected. No other changes so far.

[PookyMacMan]

What may be happening with your monitor is that QE/CI might be enabled, but OS X is detecting the wrong native resolution.

For Wireless, did it work before? If it did most likely it can be solved with an older WiFi kext.

For Ethernet, if i have the device and vendor IDs, I may have a kext to patch it.

For the card reader, is it USB? In my Dell the card reader is an internal USB device, so it won't show up as an internal card reader in system profiler, but it will show up under USB Devices. Check there for your card reader.

[sp3ctr3]

PookyMacMan, on 29 January 2012 - 11:20 PM, said:

What may be happening with your monitor is that QE/CI might be enabled, but OS X is detecting the wrong native resolution.

For Wireless, did it work before? If it did most likely it can be solved with an older WiFi kext.

For Ethernet, if i have the device and vendor IDs, I may have a kext to patch it.

For the card reader, is it USB? In my Dell the card reader is an internal USB device, so it won't show up as an internal card reader in system profiler, but it will show up under USB Devices. Check there for your card reader.

It works when I boot up with the ModCD though.

Yes it worked before.

It says that no Ethernet Cards are installed.

Oh, yeah I got it.

Also, YouTube videos don't seem to show up, and pictures don't either. I can see the thumbnail and video. But press play or open the image and it's blank. White.

[PookyMacMan]

The reason why it works with the ModCD is because the graphics drivers are not loaded. The YouTube issue is a QE/CI issue. If you have another computer there is a way to fix the resolution issue.

I'll get you a wireless kext.

Boot with a Linux Live CD, open the Terminal, and type lspci -nn. Paste the output here.

[sp3ctr3]

Ok, I see. How?

Thanks a lot. Sorry for all the trouble.

http://pastey.org/185y2

[PookyMacMan]

You're welcome.

The way you fix the resolution issue is to enable screen sharing in the Sharing pane in System Preferences, reboot from the hard drive, and connect to your OS X computer via VNC. However, we must fix one of your networking first (pretty easy).

[sp3ctr3]

Do I need another Mac system to connect to it?

Thanks. Hope to get internet working again.

[PookyMacMan]

Sorry to be late, here's the kext:  AtherosWiFiInjector.kext.zip   1008bytes   3 downloads