Mavericks 10.9.2 on HP XW8600

[jdryyz]

Well I did not see your suggestion on restoring the original kexts...so I reinstalled a fresh Mavericks. This time I used the install method from that site that shall remain nameless. I had to remember some boot options I needed to get the installer working with the Quadro 2000. It went smoothly after that. I did the "Easyb****" method to get some stuff installed quickly as it was hard to work in the ultraslow environment.

 

I reinstalled both kexts at the same time using Kext Wizard and rebooted. It worked this time! And then, also, Ethernet and my SATA III card hard drives mounted on the desktop. Things are starting to work! I then went to your "rest of kexts" archive for the 10.9.5 audio but I'm still having trouble with that. I assume the "HDAEnabler" from the 10.9.2 archive is required also. Do both the "AppleHDA" and HDAEnabler have to be installed simultaneously? I remembered to boot with -f, but I still have no audio output device listed.

 

Now I can have this working Mavericks system moved over to my 6Gbps hard drive and SATA III interface.

 

I have dabbled in Yosemite a little. I would much rather use that over Mavericks if I could. Have you had any luck with that on the xw8600?

 

Thanks!!

[jdryyz]

Re-reading this thread, I see you mentioned you needed the DSDT to enable sound also. The AppleHDA.kext in your latest archive is still necessary too, just not the HDAEnabler?

 

I also saw your comment on Yosemite (post #5) where you said it boots with many problems. When it boots for me, it acts just like it did with Mavericks (slow, unresponsive, crashing, etc.). Getting the IOPCIFamily installed correctly is what helped with Mavericks. Perhaps the same is needed for Yosemite. I understand there is a user on here (axmanA?) who is working on it for Yosemite, but I keep reading references to AMD not Intel processors.

[Benjudas]

Excuse me, my work has kept me busy again.

 

To get the sound working you have two options:

 

- Without DSDT, you need HDAEnabler.kext and AppleHDA.kext and start with "f" option.

 

- With DSDT, only AppleHDA.kext and proper injection into the code. (My DSDT file).

 

Sure, in both cases, that your sound is turned on in the BIOS.

 

About Yosemite, I have not been able to try it too much, I just got it to boot and check that my old kexts not work properly.

 

If you get any progress, please, post it. I will be very thankful.

[jdryyz]

Thanks. Just like with the IOPCIFamily.kext, does AppleHDA.kext and HDAEnabler have dependencies? Do they need to be installed at the same time?

 

If you needed the DSDT for audio, wouldn't that guarantee I would too? Could you provide a copy of your DSDT without the CPU info somehow or tell me how to edit my own DSDT to correct the audio problem? I know a pogram called MaciASL but haven't used it.

 

Too bad on Yosemite. Hopefully a solution is found in the future....then again we'll probably get El Capitan by then.

 

 

Excuse me, my work has kept me busy again.

To get the sound working you have two options:

- Without DSDT, you need HDAEnabler.kext and AppleHDA.kext and start with "f" option.

- With DSDT, only AppleHDA.kext and proper injection into the code. (My DSDT file).

Sure, in both cases, that your sound is turned on in the BIOS.

About Yosemite, I have not been able to try it too much, I just got it to boot and check that my old kexts not work properly.

If you get any progress, please, post it. I will be very thankful.

[Benjudas]

When I said that they have dependencies, I mean that those kexts are related each other, so it is necessary install at same time for get the system boot, but in the case of sound it is different, if you do not install at same time, the only thing that could happen is that sound not work, but the system still booting.

 

About if you need DSDT for get sound working, I have sound with both options, obviously I think is better if you use the DSDT option because the system boots faster and you install one kext less.

 

The copy of DSDT without CPU code is very dificult to me right now, I am very busy these days so I invite you to try with MaciASL. Is exactly the app that I use. There are tons of information on internet, and I could point you in the right direction if you need it.

 

Good hack my friend!

[jdryyz]

Sorry, I know you said the other two kexts had dependencies but I did not know that applied to the audio also. I will try again.

 

I would like more into on using a DSDT to correct graphics and audio problems. Although, I am close to just getting an nVidia GT 740 graphics card because it is said to be supported out of the box in Mavericks without any tweaking necessary. My Quadro 2000 is a powerful card, but not under Mac OS X and I'm not convinced creating a DSDT will be enough.

 

Thanks!!

[jdryyz]

Well, the audio problem is going to have to take a back seat for the moment. I discovered I am having trouble with my SATA III card. I was eager to try it out with my Crucial 250GB 6Gbps SSD drive. I installed a fresh system on the SSD using the built-in SATA (since the SATA III is not visible from the installer). I installed the IOFamily rollback and then used Multib**** Easyb**** to install the initial settings. The 3rd Party SATA driver was included in that, but I'm not sure if it is needed because the Asmedia 1061 card is supposed to be natively supported. This could be my problem right here, but I'm not sure.

 

After installing the system on the SSD and I tried to boot, I had this problem:

 

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/65706-boot0-error-official-guide.html

 

But I applied the fix and it booted fine after that.

 

I have a 250GB 6Gbps rotational drive connected to the second port on the SATA III card. When I tried copying a large file ( over 3gb) from the SSD to the other drive, it was very slow.....then it actually froze and the system crashed. I had to do a hard shutdown. Copying small files seems fine, but I believe that has to do with not enough time to reach saturation speeds.

 

I'm wondering about two other things: 1) What is the best PCI-e slot to use the card in? It is only a 1x card, I believe, but I'm not sure about how "lanes" work or if the card is really operating at the optimal speed. When I boot up, The Asmedia BIOS screen reports Gen 1 and I'm pretty sure I want Gen 2 and the card supports it. I tried putting the card in the second x16 graphics card slot (according to HP, this is a Gen 2 slot)  but that did not help. Maybe I need to change a BIOS setting for how the slots are configured. Right now, they're set on Auto.

 

2) Cables. How important is using SATA cables rated for 6Gbps? I just grabbed two SATA cables from my stash and I'm sure they are older than SATA III.

 

So when I put my SSD back on the built-in SATA II and transferred files, the crashing stopped. The rotational drive stayed on one of the SATA III ports. Of course, keeping the SSD on the built-in SATA is not ideal.

[Benjudas]

I think that I know what are you doing wrong. You are installing Multib**** Easyb**** and it install a lot of kext that aren't needed. 

I suggest to make a fresh install, install all the kexts that I posted here (All of them at same time), and install build in Chameleon thru Chameleon Wizard. When you get ethernet working, you can update chameleon to 2377 version. Do not worry about old version kexts and old version of chameleon, because all of them should work in 10.9.5.

Then post the result.

We will talk again.

About the PCI Slot, I use the number 7 as you can see in the picture, and the cables, I think that if you want to get the best performance, you should use the proper cables. I upload another picture with my SSD performance.

Regards.

 

[jdryyz]

Actually, I am only using MultiB**** to install some kexts and only for things I know are safe...the FakeSMC, the Chimera boot, boot options, MacPro3,1 ID, and the 3rdPartySata. Nothing else. Easyb**** was only used as a guide.

 

I made the same discovery about the best slot for the card and I see it the same way you do (oddly, as a PCI-x). It shows as a Gen 2 card when booting up now.

 

There's still a problem with the card, though. It follows all drives connected to it and I see the same behavior on the Windows side so I do not think the Mac OS X is to blame. I may have just got a bad card. They're pretty cheap so I could get another. Too late to get a return.

 

Out of curiosity, what is your firmware version? Mine is at 0.951 and there is a 0.954 update available. I do not know how to get it installed. It may involve using DOS.

 

I made another important discovery yesterday. When I concluded that I may have a bad card, I decided to install the AHCIPortinjector.kext. I shutdown, moved my SSD over to the built-in SATA port 0, restarted and changed my BIOS settings to AHCI+RAID. The system booted up much faster!! I checked my speed using the speedtest program and it looked much better!! Consistent with a 3Gbps connection. I thought I was only sacrificing the RAID option when using the Separate IDE Controller setting. I was losing performance also!! I was wondering why the system seemed so sluggish.

 

So I thought to myself, I do not need the SATA III card for now if the built-in SATA is working so well. Another problem, though. The "bad" card appears to have caused some data corruption on the SSD. Disk Utility shows errors it cannot repair and says I should make a backup right away. No problem, I will just reinstall a fresh system again. I decided it would be best to just remove the SATA III from the box since I won't be using it. But.....there seems to be some need for it still and I think it has to do with what you wrote in your first post:

 

"The SATA works thanks AHCIPortIjector.kext and in my case I selected in the BIOS menu the Raid-AHCI mode to get 6 ports working because I have a PCI card with ASMedia1062 Chipset, but you may need separate IDE setting if you haven't this card (only 4 ports)."

 

Using the ACHI+RAID setting in the BIOS and the AHCIPortinjector alone does not seem to be enough. When I boot up without the card, I get the Apple logo, and a funny looking box shows up on top of it. Booting in safe mode does not help. I'm really confused by this. What does the SATA III card do to make built-in AHCI work even though I do not have drives hooked up to it?

 

By the way, your post says you have the ASMedia1062. When my system boots up, BIOS says 106X, but the Mac System Profile says 1061. How do I know for sure which card I have? I will double-check my packaging when I get home. 

 

Sorry for the long post, but I am making progress.

 

I think that I know what are you doing wrong. You are installing Multib**** Easyb**** and it install a lot of kext that aren't needed. 

I suggest to make a fresh install, install all the kexts that I posted here (All of them at same time), and install build in Chameleon thru Chameleon Wizard. When you get ethernet working, you can update chameleon to 2377 version. Do not worry about old version kexts and old version of chameleon, because all of them should work in 10.9.5.

Then post the result.

We will talk again.

About the PCI Slot, I use the number 7 as you can see in the picture, and the cables, I think that if you want to get the best performance, you should use the proper cables. I upload another picture with my SSD performance.

Regards.

 

[jdryyz]

You should also know that I used Unib**** for my Mavericks installer. I had too much trouble with the myhack Mavericks installer. I do not know why. The Mountain Lion installer worked fine.

 

On my latest fresh install effort (recovering from damage file system on SSD) I did what you suggested and installed only your kexts (all at once) and then 2.3.5 of the ethernet kext. I did not use Multib**** for anything this time and I have ACHI and the ASMedia card showing up in the System Report. Hard drives are only connected to the built-in SATA and the system is stable. At first I thought the audio was finally fixed because I saw something different in the report also, but I am still unable to select an output device from my Sound preferences.

 

So at present the only thing I have missing that I would normally get from Multib**** is the Chimera bootloader (still using USB drive to boot). The Mavericks Multib**** Chimera installs version 2378 by default (just one up from your suggestion to stay at 2377). So I can just use the Chameleon Wizard to install 2377, correct? Not sure what "install method" I should select yet since my Windows system is now on its own drive that is not on Port 0. In addition, I need to reinstall Windows after the change to AHCI and I do not think Windows 7 will allow an install to a drive not connected to the first port. Maybe I can shuffle the drives around just to get Windows installed and then let the bootloader handle the booting. Another option to simplify things is to partition the SSD but I really want to devote the entire drive to the primary OS X system.

 

Ohhh...I also have a change in graphics cards.....more on that to come.

[Benjudas]

I have been using this setup from about one year ago, and is very stable and powerfull, so I suggest you to install manually apple.com.boot.plist, smbios.plist, and chameleon, and my experience in OSX86 world says that is better when you control what is installing in your system. You do not need 3rdpartysata.kext, just achiportinjector.kext is enought. I think that MultiB**** install nullcpupowermanagement.kext too so you loose speedstep feature.
The best option that I know for connect the SSD is this:
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=130830674778&globalID=EBAY-ES
But it is a bit expensive.
It is great that you want to experiment with this machine to get the best performance, but I did it long time ago, and I think that you should employ your time in things that I did no get, like sleep or yosemite, but it is only a suggest.
Right now, I am very busy and I can not help you fully.

I hope that you do not misunderstand this comment, because all your progress is my gain.

Regards, and good luck.

[jdryyz]

Thanks again for your help. I appreciate it very much. No pressure on you to respond. Please do so only at your leisure.

 

 

I was going to ask about smbios.plist because my system appears to be identified correctly without creating one yet. I do not know what the Unib**** USB is doing, though.

 

Chameleon creates the apple.com.boot.plist also?

 

I'm glad you mentioned the PCIe SSD adapter. I have seen them before and was curious. I cannot seem to find anyone talking about this particular card in a Hackintosh system, though. The ASMedia seems to be the one people are talking about. Or, they just use a recommended motherboard with built-in SATA III.    How do you know this one works in the xw8600?

 

This looks to be the same product, just a different brand:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Velocity-Extreme-Performance-VEL-SOLO-X2/dp/B0090IA3GY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1435154391&sr=8-2&keywords=Apricorn+velocity#Ask

 

and it currently has a nice rebate offer. I assume this is the same as your eBay link (uses the Marvell 9128 chipset?) but this raises more questions:

 

The last line in the product description says "The 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 is EFI64 but does not boot reliably, and therefore is not supported.".

 

Since my xw8600 closely resembles the 2008 Mac Pro, wouldn't that be a problem or does it not matter since the card initially just thinks it is installed in a PC? And how is it that this card can work in a PC and a Mac? Wouldn't it need a Mac ROM to boot in a real Mac?? I guess it could be a hyrbid ROM.

 

Second question is about the Marvell 9128 chipset. I read about Hackintosh people complaining about it and someone here posts that there is no driver support in Mac OS X:

 

http://www.tonymacx86.com/buying-advice/99577-sata-6gb-s-pcie-controller-buying-tips-help.html

 

but this mentions Mountain Lion not Mavericks. Would I need to use the 3rdpartysata.kext with this card?

 

 

 

I have been using this setup from about one year ago, and is very stable and powerfull, so I suggest you to install manually apple.com.boot.plist, smbios.plist, and chameleon, and my experience in OSX86 world says that is better when you control what is installing in your system. You do not need 3rdpartysata.kext, just achiportinjector.kext is enought. I think that MultiB**** install nullcpupowermanagement.kext too so you loose speedstep feature.
The best option that I know for connect the SSD is this:
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=130830674778&globalID=EBAY-ES
But it is a bit expensive.
It is great that you want to experiment with this machine to get the best performance, but I did it long time ago, and I think that you should employ your time in things that I did no get, like sleep or yosemite, but it is only a suggest.
Right now, I am very busy and I can not help you fully.

I hope that you do not misunderstand this comment, because all your progress is my gain.

Regards, and good luck.

[Benjudas]

Let's go step by step.

By default, chameleon identify your system as MacPro3.1 (even if smbios.plist don't exist), and in our case is the mac more similar to our machines, so we could no create it. But is recommended find a valid serial number, and create it for get work features like facetime.

Chameleon doesn't create apple.com.boot.plist, is Unib**** USB who is creating it with a particular setting for get the most common systems get work. Now, your system is booting from USB, so it is using the apple.com.boot.plist inside the extra folder in your USB.

My recommendation was that you try to make everything manually, because you will understand what is doing your system.

About if some hardware is supported by my hackintosh, easy answer: if it works in a real mac, it should.

Since Apple decided mount their macs with intel processors the most significant difference between a real mac and a pc is in the boot and SMC. A real mac boots thanks the EFI ROM and a PC boots thanks the BIOS. The magic began when some guy (who is called Netkas) created a kernel extension that can emule the SMC device, and a comunity (thru an open source project) created a bootloader that can emule the EFI ROM. So one time you get your system boot in OSX, if you use any device that it supported by OSX, it should work.

I can't know if sure work, but I think that it should.

But before buy any component, I think you should keep trying to get the system full working.

I still thinking why your sound isn't working. I have installed this kext in my older system (HP XW4400) and it work perfectly. The only thing with this kext that you should know is that in the sound system preferences, the output devices are invested. So for get audio signal thru line output, you should select internal speakers. 

Sorry about the preaching.

Regards my friend.

[jdryyz]

So what is the importance of com.apple.boot.plist? It exists (created by Mavericks, I assume) in \Library\Preferences\SystemConfiguration. Does it need to edited/modified and placed in Extra also?

 

Chameleon Wizard is what I used to create the smbios.plist for the MacPro3,1 (ID was there already when booting from USB like you said). After I installed the Chameleon bootloader 2377, the boot settings were stored in org.chameleon.Boot.plist. Both .plist files were saved to the Extra folder I created also. There's doing things manually.  

 

Good news also after I installed the bootloader, the nvda_drv=1 was turned on automatically and my nVidia Web Drivers for Mavericks started to work! Now my new graphics card (GT 740) is recognized correctly in the System Report. Sadly, the drivers did not seem to offer much improvement over the OS X default. I get 33fps in Cinebench but I know the card is capable of doing much better. Windows Cinebench gets 52fps. This could just be a sad reality for Mac users or there is still something not right with my graphics. I could have just kept my Quadro 2000 and used the GraphicsEnabler=Yes and there would not have been much difference from the GT 740 (four years ahead of the Quad 2K). I was motivated to try the 740 because I read about it having native support. It is true but that does not mean it is optimized for Mac OS X still.

 

Getting back to the .plist files-- If they exist on the Unib**** installer, they must be marked hidden because all I see is the Mavericks Install icon.

 

As for the audio, it is a mystery. Please see the attached pics. I cannot make any selection on the Sound preferences because it is not detecting the audio device correctly. With the -f enabled on boot, I see more items in the report but still no output device is available.

 

 

[Benjudas]

Ok, great!

The next step for improve the graphic performance is get work AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext, but I think it can wait.

About com.apple.boot.plist, you should have, one plist that is called com.apple.boot.plist in \Library\Preferences\SystemConfiguration (created by Mavericks) and one plist that is called org.chameleon.Boot.plist (safest for edit) in /Extra that you can create with Chameleon Wizard. Mine is very simple, I don't need more settings.

For the audio, you should check if there is any IRQ conflict with another device, so google for an app that is called IORegistryExplorer and look for "interrupt" in the property keys, like my picture. You have to find all devices that are using the same value that your HDEF device. In my case are 1, 7 and 15.

Save your IOReg and post it.

 

[jdryyz]

Ahh, so it was the org.chameleon.Boot.plist that I believe you only meant to say. Turns out I already figured out the importance of that and the smbios much earlier in this project. But what I have learned from this, though, is that Easyb**** & Chimera add unnecessary stuff I do not want. Best to just let Chameleon install the bootloader. My settings are identical to yours except I do not have Ethernet built-in enabled. Doesn't seem necessary. My Ethernet is working fine without it. Just needed the kext.

 

I found IORegistryExplorer 3.0.2. Hope that is fine. I'm afraid I am totally lost as to what it is I am looking for. The best I was able to do what match my screenshot with yours. When I search on the word "interrupt", it lists far less in the tree structure. Maybe should start by making sure I am using the same version of IORegistryExplorer as you.

 

I see this step is going to be more difficult than anything else thus far. Too bad you cannot remote into my desktop.....hmmm....actually, I believe that is possible using Messages.

 

 

 

Ok, great!

The next step for improve the graphic performance is get work AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext, but I think it can wait.

About com.apple.boot.plist, you should have, one plist that is called com.apple.boot.plist in \Library\Preferences\SystemConfiguration (created by Mavericks) and one plist that is called org.chameleon.Boot.plist (safest for edit) in /Extra that you can create with Chameleon Wizard. Mine is very simple, I don't need more settings.

For the audio, you should check if there is any IRQ conflict with another device, so google for an app that is called IORegistryExplorer and look for "interrupt" in the property keys, like my picture. You have to find all devices that are using the same value that your HDEF device. In my case are 1, 7 and 15.

Save your IOReg and post it.

 

[Benjudas]

For see what is happening, I need the ioreg file, so from ioregistryexplorer, go to file, click on "save as" and post this file.

Are you using a pci ethernet card?

[jdryyz]

Ohh...sorry about that. The file is attached.

 

No, I do not have a PCI Ethernet card. I am using one of the two built into the motherboard. So, yes, it makes sense if I have "Ethernet Built In" checked, but what is it really doing if it is working without it?

 

 

For see what is happening, I need the ioreg file, so from ioregistryexplorer, go to file, click on "save as" and post this file.
Are you using a pci ethernet card?

 

Mac Pro.zip

[Benjudas]

I see some differences in your IOReg. Basically your audio device is using only IRQ 1 that is used by CPU number one and you have no valid pingconfiguration. The only way to modify IRQ that I know is changing manually in BIOS (I don't recommend) or do it thru DSDT. So I edited my DSDT file, deleting my CPU code. Now it have a generic CPU code, so SpeedStep and CPUPowerManagement will no work. The bad news are that you have to know that I am not an expert, and I can not guarantee this DSDT, so if you decide to use it, do it at your own risk. If you do it, take care in the first boot with the CPU temp and if something goes wrong, turn off the computer and boot again with option "DSDT=No". You should rename it to "DSDT.aml" and copy the file into Extra folder for install it.

DSDT_HPXW8600_EveryCPU.aml.zip

[jdryyz]

Thanks. Odd about the CPU and audio being in conflict. You system has dual CPUs also, right? Hmmm...

 

I can test your DSDT first by entering DSDT=/Extra/<filename>.aml on the command line, right?

[Benjudas]

Yes, my system is dual quad xeon. And yes you can use it by this way.

[jdryyz]

Yes, using the command line entry did work. I see an available output device now!!

 

Unfortunately, it is my monitor's audio since I am using a DVI --> HDMI cable right now. That is really cool, but it won't work for me because I do not actually have speakers hooked up to the coaxial connector on the monitor.

 

Now if we can get the built-in motherboard audio output to show up, that would be GREAT!!

Found a problem.....I can no longer shutdown after using the DSDT....also had trouble starting up one time.

 

I didn't not realize the command had a permanent change. I had to use DSDT=No to undo it.

 

I can see tweaking a DSDT is going to be a challenge. Since you mentioned CPU temps, do you have a problem with me using Multib**** to install its newer version of FakeSMC and the hardware monitor or would you prefer that I stick with your older FakeSMC? Is there a better source for the HW monitor? Like here, for example:

 

http://www.hackintoshosx.com/files/file/4345-fakesmc-340-hwmonitorsensors-and-plugins/

 

That is from 2014 so I do not know if it is the latest.

[Benjudas]

Great!

Did you boot with "f" option?

This is very strange. We have the same system, the same Bios version, and the only difference are the processors. I think that it has to be any setting in the Bios. Could you reset your Bios?

There is an option for reset thru a physical button inside the CPU. You have to unplug the computer and push it during 10 seconds. One time I lost one USB port and I had to do it, because thru the BIOS menu did not work.

[jdryyz]

Tried the -f and it booted to a white screen with no mouse so problems starting up and shutting down.

 

I can try the bios reset. I better write down all my settings first.

 

I know one way our BIOS is different. I have SAS disabled.

[MacUser2525]

The bad news are that you have to know that I am not an expert, and I can not guarantee this DSDT, so if you decide to use it, do it at your own risk. If you do it, take care in the first boot with the CPU temp and if something goes wrong, turn off the computer and boot again with option "DSDT=No". You should rename it to "DSDT.aml" and copy the file into Extra folder for install it.

 

Better idea keep existing DSDT.aml and boot with DSDT=/Extra/DSDT-test.aml or whatever you call the test one you put in the extra directory for the testing.