[Guide] Retail Snow Leopard 10.6.2 on Asus P5Q PRO

[ChronoDog]

Hey all, my 1st guide post ever here

 

I'm rather a newbie to this myself, so I probably won't be able to answer all of your questions, plus this guide is comprised of me trying/failing numerous other guides - general guides for the entire P5Q series and guides for other systems.

 

This particular guide is for the P5Q Pro, you can probably use it for other boards in the series, but with a bit of common sense applied - i.e. don't try to flash your board with the wrong BIOS or use the wrong Audio/LAN kexts - not all of the P5Q boards have the same onboard Audio and LAN.

Needless to say, I won't be responsible for you messing anything up

 

I owe a lot of credit to a lot of people for making this possible, so I'll be adding appropriate links to all of the original posts I've used next to the files.

 

 

 

The stuff you need to HAVE:

 

DSDT-modded P5Q PRO BIOS from this page.

An original Apple OS X 10.6 Retail DVD or an image thereof.

Another physical drive on he same machine with a distro of Leopard already installed on it (Kalyway/iPC) to work from.

Chameleon 2.0 RC3 installer from this thread.

Netkas PC-EFI v10.5 (links on the page).

Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update (Combo)

A bunch of misc kexts to prevent KPs, various system errors and enable Sleep (attached at the bottom of this post). I've gathered these kexts from various posts and sites, which, in turn linked them from other posts and sites, and so on and so forth, so I can't be sure whom to thank for these.

Audio (ALC1200) kext from this thread.

LAN (Atheros 8121) kext from this thread.

Shutdown/Restart (EvOReboot) kext from this page.

Kext Helper b7 from this page.

 

 

 

The stuff you need to DO:

 

 

1) Flash your motherboard's BIOS with modded one - copy the .ROM file onto a flash drive, reboot and enter the EZ-Flash utility. Shutdown after the update is done and clear the CMOS (preferably by unplugging the PC from the power outlet, taking out the onboard CMOS battery and pressing the power button a few times to discharge it).

 

2) Configure your BIOS settings accordingly (tme/date and stable system clocks and timings). Be sure to put the HDD Controller mode into AHCI, Enable S3 sleep Only, Enable ACPI 2.0 and APIC and disable USB EHCI Hands-off. The rest is up to you.

 

3) Install your Leopard distro (Kalyway/iPC or anything else that works for you) on one of the physical drives, boot into it and insert your Snow Leopard Install DVD (or mount the image). I also suggest copying all of the files you downloaded earlier to a folder in he root directory of the drive you just installed the Leopard distro on - for ease of access in the upcoming steps.

 

4) Fire up Disk Utility and partition your destination drive (for Snow Leopard) with a GUID partition table. The amount and size of the partitions is up to you.

 

5) Open a terminal window, paste the following line into it:

open "/volumes/mac os x install dvd/system/installation/packages/osinstall.mpkg"

...and hit Enter. Install Snow Leopard onto your destination drive/partition. DO NOT reboot after it's done.

 

6) Run the Chameleon 2.0 RC3 installer and install it on the same drive you just installed SL (Snow Leopard) onto. After the installer is done, open a Terminal window, navigate to the partition you just installed SL on (cd /volumes/"partition name") and delete the "boot" file from it (rm boot). Verify that the "boot" file is indeed gone by typing "ls" and exit the terminal. Drop Netkas' "boot" file from the PC-EFI v10.5 archive you downloaded onto the root folder of the SL partition.

 

7) Unpack the archive attached at the bottom of this post and copy the contents of the "Extra" folder into the "Extra" folder in the root directory of the SL partition. You can go ahead and edit the contents of the "com.apple.boot.plist" file to your liking, most options there are pretty self explanatory. Chameleon has a lot of other options that you can add to that file, check out their site for the full list.

 

8) Reboot and boot from your Snow Leopard partition with the "-x" (Safe Mode) flag, unless you're 100% sure that your videocard is natively supported by Snow Leopard (like an ATI Radeon 4870, for example). Booting into Safe Mode also saves you the half a minute of watching the Welcome video In any case, making the videocard work is up to you.

 

9) Run the MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.2.dmg you downloaded earlier let it fully update and safely reboot (Restart will probably not work for you at this time, so feel free to reset it if it doesn't restart within about 5 minutes from pressing "Restart".

 

10) Run Kext Helper b7 and install the Audio, LAN and EvOReboot kexts with it, you can install all three at once and they should all start working even without a restart. You can also install your videocard kexts at this point (if needed), but you'll definitely need a restart in that case.

 

Enjoy a fully working OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2

 

 

Note: Software Update works just fine, but be sure to skip/hide the 10.6.3 update whenever it's out - most chances are that the current (Dec 2009) kexts will not work with it properly and/or cause Kernel Panics.

 

Once again - a lot of respect and thanks to all the people who've made this possible by creating the necessary tools, utilities and kexts that make it all run on PCs so well!

Extra.zip

[mcbeth303]

Works Perfect for me except one thing. booting the first time i got a cpu mismatch error. I had to remove SleepEnabler.kext to get it running. the rest works nice.

 

thanks a lot for your efforts

[dabear]

Hi. Could anyone explain why the modified bios is needed for this to work?

[mcbeth303]

try googling for "osx86 what is Kext, Kernel, DSDT, SMC, RTC & Efi"

 

and have a look here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=205045

its an installing guide without having to flash the bios. but this guide does not work for me, cause i have troubles with my usb stick, im not able to install chameleon on it.

 

PS: cpumismatch error: after deleting the sleep enabler.kext my cpu was reported as core 2 solo, but i have a core 2 duo processor. after resetting the bios again it was reported as core 2 duo, and sleepenabler.kext is not giving me the cpu mismatch error. so be sure to to reset the bios after flashing, and put the bios battery out for some time as stated in the guide. maybe you should load the bios defaults at first start, restart again, and then changeing the bios as you like.

 

now osx works great, only thing my radeon hd4870 does not wake up from sleep

[ryman]

Hey Guys,

very well Guide. Thank you. Does 64-Bit working?

[mcbeth303]

64-bit Kernel and Extensions:yes

 

so for me it works

[ryman]

Does I need a Leo on the same PC or does it works with an install at my Hackbook with an external drive. I don`t want to install leo just for the SL installation.

[Usher]

hey guys, i did everything smoothly but at the first time reboot, I select Snow Lepoard partition and boot with -v...then i see the black screen...the power light is still blue means it's still working...plz tell me what to do.

[Nautje]

hey guys, i did everything smoothly but at the first time reboot, I select Snow Lepoard partition and boot with -v...then i see the black screen...the power light is still blue means it's still working...plz tell me what to do.

 

I get the same result,

I see the apple logo, then a "Loading" bar, which disappears half way through the loading process and then a minute or so later, I get a black screen..

 

And I followed this tutorial to the letter.

 

- Nautje.

[zipxavier]

Just wanted to say thanks for the great tutorial and links to the required kexts and such. I also had to remove Sleepenabler to boot for the first time in 10.6. However, netkas has a fixed 10.6.2 Sleepenabler on his site. I am right now running 10.6.2 Retail with these components.

 

Asus P5Q Pro

4GB RAM

Radeon HD4850 Sapphire Dual DVI edition (just installed netkas's LegacyATI4800 kext with kexthelper and it worked fine. I had a blue screen for about 2-3 minutes on boot thinking it crashed but I was patient after the 7th time and it eventually booted with full resolution change Q

[CaaN]

Just want to say thx..your guide give me spirit to setup dis hackintosh

 

i manage to instsall Snow Leopard on my p5q pro

with the latest bios from ASUS..

 

boot using empire efi + Snow Leopard Retail

 

after install need put some kext to make my network/audio card to working..

and nvdarwin for my 8600GT ..

 

update to 10.6.2 SL

Working already about 10 Hour already..and still ON!

[Trinit]

Very interesting sir

[tibetfreedom]

Thanks this looks great,

I have been trying to install this with the latest Chameleon and also using an apple software RAID, no joy as yet...

any pointers would be very welcome !

[firebirduk]

To these points must be added the following 2 points:

 

1. In BIOS the drive that will take the Snow Leopard installation should be the first HARD DISK in order to be "blessed"

 

NOT the first device as that will be your DVD and then any other boot device and then HD for install.

 

2.

 

The stuff you need to DO:

 

6) Run the Chameleon 2.0 RC3 installer and install it on the same drive you just installed SL (Snow Leopard) onto. After the installer is done, open a Terminal window, navigate to the partition you just installed SL on (cd /volumes/"partition name") and delete the "boot" file from it (rm boot). Verify that the "boot" file is indeed gone by typing "ls" and exit the terminal. Drop Netkas' "boot" file from the PC-EFI v10.5 archive you downloaded onto the root folder of the SL partition.

 

 

This is OK as long as you use Tinkertool or some other tool to allow you view HIDDEN System files at Root to delete "boot"

 

Mike

 

p.s. I did not bother with -x at first boot of Snowy as I already had an ATI 4870 graphics card.

 

Finalising the install gives you the option to transfer all your files/applications and settings which I did (including all Itunes stuff) After said transfer it updates on the fly any apps that need updating for SL

[zwaf]

Thank you very much!

On my

P5Q Pro

Core 2 Quad Q9300

SAPPHIRE ATI Radeon HD4870 512mb

everything works fine!

But there is one little annoying problem:

Restart doesn't work after Sleep, but everything else works.

Do you have same problem?

Do you know how to fix it?

[firebirduk]

First a BIG thank you to ChronoDog for a concise and accurate Guide for the P5Q Pro and probably others in the range.

 

The few caveats I have added made for a seemless installation with a fully working Snow Leopard install with all apps working first time. I am not aware of any other OS that allows the complete transfer of all apps and files from an existing Leopard on the second HD especially my networking which is static. Mail worked immediately just as I had left off with the Leopard installed HD.

 

Zwaf:

 

I do not have the problem you are experiencing withan identical ATI card. I am however, having trouble with heat and fan!

 

Did you follow the Guide with S3 enabling sleep etc?

 

Any other help I can give please ask.

 

Mike

[zwaf]

This kext solved my restart-after-sleep problem:

http://www.kexts.com/view/166-osxrestart.kext.html

[emodro]

Hey so i accidentally updated to 10.6.3 when i try to log on i get the spinning wheel of death, when i checked the verbose log its stuck on the power management kext, does anyone have a working kext, or know how to fix my issue or know how i can downgrade?

[Banditos]

Can anyone confirm that this is still working?

Or if there are any updates to any parts of the guide?

 

Is something as drastic as flashing your bios really necessary if I want to install the retail DVD of SL on a PC with the p5q pro motherboard?

 

Before actually flashing my bios I want to be 100% sure there is no more friendly approach and nothing will go wrong.

[Detrich]

Banditos

 

Flashing with homemade BIOS is not necessary. You can install SL retail w/o problem using original BIOS.

[Banditos]

How would that be possible and what are the downsides? I've got some experts (at least I believe they are) saying that flashing your bios is absolutely necessary. Ofcourse i'm interested in any information you got.

 

I tried installing yesterday and I got stuck at the "still waiting for root device" message.

[Marley05]

hi thanks for the tut, iv tryed to install 10.6.2 on my system a few times over now and im ending up with the gray screen that tells me to restart or hold the power botton till it turns off. i think its just me doing something really dumb!

 

10.5.5 and rebel-efi works on my systems perfectly

 

same goes for 10.6.0 retail using rebel-efi bootloader (darwin xxxx) sorry cant remember the number off the top of my head

 

update to 10.6.1 without probs. but get a

 

cpu panic when i update to 10.6.2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hears my setup

 

q9550 quad 2.83

 

p5q pro

 

his hd 4650

 

2 x sata hdd

 

1 x sata dvd

 

(iv done some googling on the hd4650 and it seems that 10.6.2 is what i need, if anyone knows of a way to get the 4650 to work on 10.6.1 please let me know

[Marley05]

ok so i did some more googling for my problem with installing 10.6.2. and found that Rebel (this was a torrent by the way ) was stopping my install (maybe something to do with the 64bit kernel) im not to sure im a noob at this)

anyway iv now reinstalled with the universal ones, ive managed to get to (Mac OS X 10.6.1 again (10B504) now when i try to update to 10.6.2 via combo or just normal update i get the Restart Hold Power Botton Panic AGAIN!

 

im now thinking of trying to use the universal version of 10.6.2 hope i have better luck with that!

if anyone knows a better way please say so!

 

and another thing im not sure but it seems that iv still got Darwins loader even tho i formatted the partitioned drive, i dont know if the universal 3.5 has that within the cd or not????

and yes once again im a noob so i dont know what is what!

 

thanks in advance!

[joachim janke]

i wrote a short german guide to install 10.6 on a P5Q Deluxe Board:

10.6 auf einem Asus P5Q Deluxe installieren