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[GUIDE] Installing OS X on Asus X501A (Kexts Included)


joe_black
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(Scroll down to my reply for 10.8 install instructions)
Installing OS X Snow Leopard on Asus X501A Notebook
 
Hardware that will NOT work: QE Support, Integrated WiFi, Bluetooth*
*Bluetooth may work with patched kext. I have not tried.
 
What You Will Need:
- Asus X501A/X501A1 Notebook
- 2 formatted USB Flash Drives (8GB+)
- iATKOS S3 v2 ISO
- Actual Mac or Mac running under VM with USB support
- TransMac for Windows
- "ASUS X501A OSX DRIVERS.zip" kext archive
- Mac-compatible USB WiFi Adapter (optional)
 
---
Step 1 - Acquire iATKOS S3 v2 ISO
Torrent/web search for this ISO, make sure it is S3 v2. Prepare the ISO to be burned to USB.
 
Step 2 - Prepare USB Flash Drives
Installation will require 2 formatted USB flash drives, one with at least 8GB for iATKOS.
 
Using TransMac for Windows, you need to right-click the icon for one of the flash drives and click "Restore For Mac". Select the iATKOS ISO file and let it burn the image to the flash drive.
 
Using a real Mac or Mac running under VM with USB support, you need to burn Chameleon v2.2 bootloader to your other flash drive. This is necessary if you get into boot issues with your OS X installation or issues with dualbooting. This flash drive will save you from not being able to boot. You might be able to use TransMac for this one too, but I highly recommend using a real Mac as much as possible for USB burning.
 
After burning your Chameleon flash drive, make sure it works before you continue! Do not attempt to install OS X without it on this notebook.
Now, you should have 2 ready-to-go flash drives, one with iATKOS and one with Chameleon bootloader.
 
Step 3  - Installation
Insert both of your flash drives into the notebook and power it on.
 
Keep hitting DELETE (or maybe F2) to get into the BIOS. You need to make sure these options are selected:
You can also use ESCAPE and hit Enter Setup.
 
"CSM Support : "Enabled"
"Secure Boot Control : "Disabled"
"Fast Boot : "Disabled" (might not be an option)
"SATA Configuration : "AHCI
Intel Virtualization Technology should also be Enabled.
 
The above BIOS options are required for installation.
... Now we will restart with the saved changes and keep hitting ESCAPE to get boot options.
 
You need to select your Chameleon flash drive (this might be trial and error with 2 of them)
 
While in the Chameleon bootloader, you need to now boot up your iATKOS drive using verbose so hit F8 and type "-v" and then enter.
Your iATKOS installer should start.
 
Click on Utilities at the top and then load Disk Utility, format your HDD with MBR and HFS+ for your OS X partition. (MBR required for dualbooting with Windows, if this is OSX only you should probably use GUID)
 
Under Customize, just make sure you have GraphicsEnabler and UUID. Don't install SleepEnabler or pretty much anything else. Nothing else really matters because we're going to install the kexts ourself. In this regard, you could possibly use a retail ISO but I did not try it myself.
 
Install will take approx. 20mins to 60mins...
 
Step 4 - Post-Installation
 
After install, reboot the machine and try booting first without the Chameleon flash drive.
 
Always boot with "-v" for verbose mode until we are positive everything is stable. You MIGHT get stuck on a completely black screen at this point with no errors or log information what-so-ever. If this happens, restart again and boot with your Chameleon flash drive. Under Chameleon boot the other flash drive using "mach_qoopz -v", you should NOW be able to boot OS X. If "mach_qoopz" still fails you should try "mach_kernel_org -v" and that should do the trick.
 
Before installing drivers you should install system definitions for MacBookPro 8,1 for Snow Leopard. This will change your SMBios.plist to trick your machine into thinking it is a real Mac and load your drivers properly.
 
Step 5 - Driver Installation
 
          Using Kext Utility you can install all the .kext files in the "ASUS X501A OSX DRIVERS.zip" archive to get hardware working BUT you NEED to backup all the originals just in case. Also, for any reason the trackpad isnt working just reply here and tell me and I'll help you through that. All kexts should be installed to /System/Library/Extensions with disk permissions repaired afterwards.
 
If you are stuck in 1024x768 you will need to use boot flag GraphicsMode=Yes "Graphics Mode"="1366x768x32" which can be added to your boot .plist (search for a guide if you don't know how) so you don't have to type it every time.
 
For WiFI you will need a compatible USB adapter. Full QE will most likely not work.
For full USB and webcam support you need to install the USBFamilyRollback kext for Snow Leopard. This will allow your iPod/iPhone and Webcam as well as other devices to work properly.
You can now follow other guides to upgrade from 10.6.3 to 10.6.7/10.6.8 properly if you want.
 
The .zip for the drivers is down below in my reply.

 

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*** 7/12/13 ***

 

Boot issues with Mountain Lion & Lion on X501A... decided to try Snow Leopard with successful installation. (Native, not VM)

So I currently have dualbooting on the X501A.. Win7x64 and 10.6.3. After hours of work I have 1366x768 resolution and full VRAM support.

Just ordered a Rosewill RNX-N150UBE for the WiFi as the integrated WiFi is unsupported (AR9485)... Should arrive in a few days.

 

Will post screenshots once I get wifi working in a few days.

Again if anyone has an Asus X501A and needs questions answered I am here to help. :)

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*** 7/15/13 ***

 

Attached are all necessary kexts for a working OS X 10.6 installation on the X501A.

(These kexts might also work for Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks but use at own risk)

* (UPDATE: Tested working on 10.8.2!)

 

Everything works except QE (I believe CI works) and integrated WiFi (USB WiFi adapter required)

Full resolution ("Graphics Mode"="1366x768x32" and full video ram allocation.

 

Site mods can add to the Wiki if they would like. :)

ASUS X501A OSX DRIVERS.zip

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Hi joe_black.,

 

Great effort, you can add it to the Wiki yourself if you want, on how to do this, follow this link: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/283218-wiki-editing-how-to/

If you like, you can turn this topic in a guide, i think it was the main idea? 

 

If you edit the first post with instructions on how to install and fix everything after installation, just click the report button, and ask for the topic to be moved to the notebook/guides section. 

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*** Successful 10.8 ML Installation ***


* Boot installer using Chameleon v2.2svn r2254! *


X501A ML ZIP Kext Archive (Tested 10.8.2) : https://app.box.com/s/nzu6kihpparuzsjrunao


 


Successful Mountain Lion (10.8.2) installation on Asus X501A.


Was much more complicated than Snow Leopard...


 


Patched Kernel: "mach_intel" kernel from ML ZIP Kext Archive (Niresh "intel" kernel)


FakeSMC.kext: (Placed in both /Extra and /S/L/E)


System Definitions: MacBookPro 8,1 (SMBios.plist)


USB: Might need a rollback but first try without it.


PCI Configuration Fix may be required (search for kext/guide)


 


If you get AppleSMC hangs go to:


/System/Library/Extensions/IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext > Inside go to ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext in Plugins > MacBookPro8,1.plist


Edit the file and remove this block:



<key>FanThrottledRPM</key>
<integer>3500</integer>
<key>FanMax</key>
<array>
<integer>6200</integer>
</array>

EDIT: Another possible solution to solve SMC hangs is to use a Macmini definition but I recommend using the patched MacbookPro definitions for this machine.


 


And now! We now have this!


  http://s15.postimg.org/y7vunqrtn/about.png


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hi! joe_black, what about wifi? How did you fix it?
 
i have AR9285 for Mac-compatible USB WiFi Adapter (optional). What you think?
 
And what you think about total capacity for this laptop?
 
i have x501u.

 

Integrated WiFi is unsupported.

You need a USB compatible WiFI adapter.

 

I can get some better video performance (I believe it will ad framebuffer) by adding this device-properties string but still no QE/CI:

<key>device-properties</key>
<string>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</string>
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My video is HD7340M...can you know something about that kext?

 

p.s. I changed my hard drive to ssd. 

This guide is for X501A not X501U!

I have no idea about that chipset!

 

X501U uses completely different hardware (AMD CPU, video chipset, etc)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

You mentioned in the first post that you had found a fix for the trackpad not working.  When I boot into a [url=&quot;http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/&quot;]#####[/url] install using 'Laptop Support' and 'Legacy USB Support', the track pad works.  But I haven't been able to use it once I install ML.

 

Thoughts?

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  • 2 weeks later...

How did you do it? Could you post the Kext and the method? thank you..

 

1. Install iAtkos ML2 (10.8.2 - I install kext from this post except Graphic kext #6 )

2. Install Chameleon (I don't remember version, i think r227x) Check option in screen

3. Set SMBios - MacBookPro 9.2 or MiniMac 6.2

4. Update to 10.8.3

 

Screen_Shot_2013_10_13_at_12_27_45_PM.jp

 

After restart i got full QE/CI with vanilla kext

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1. Install iAtkos ML2 (10.8.2 - I install kext from this post except Graphic kext #6 )

2. Install Chameleon (I don't remember version, i think r227x) Check option in screen

3. Set SMBios - MacBookPro 9.2 or MiniMac 6.2

4. Update to 10.8.3

 

Screen_Shot_2013_10_13_at_12_27_45_PM.jp

 

After restart i got full QE/CI with vanilla kext

Thanks for reply. I've searched for chameleon, but i didn't find it :(

 

Can you upload your pkg? (if you still have it?)

 

ps. have you tried audio kext?

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