[GUIDE/HOWTO] Snow Leopard 10.6.3/10.6.4 on Asus "Republic of Gamers" G60JX

[quaestor]

[GUIDE/HOWTO] Snow Leopard 10.6.3/10.6.4 on Asus "Republic of Gamers" G60JX (mine is the "Best Buy" RBB05)
2011-03-29 Note: What with 10.6.7 having just come out, this guide *might* be out-of-date. I think it's still informative, so I'm not going to state categorically that it's deprecated. How about "Use at your own risk" ?
On a related note, I've been getting PMs now and then, which is cool, but before you PM me (expecting an answer, anyway) keep the following in mind:

• I will not support the G51JX. I don't have one and I don't want to have to keep track of the differences.
• If you are using a "distro", I will ignore you. There are seventy-billion possibilities of screwing up a basic install, depending on how "clever" the distro maintainer is, and there are I don't even know how many distros. Can't keep track of that much {censored}. That's why I made this guide, and that's why it's written from the p.o.v. of Do It Yourself.
• Also, and I quote myself from below - if your issue is one that you think others might run into, PLEASE, ask in this thread. If nothing else, you're more likely to get an answer from the community at large than from me.
• I've been extremely busy IRL, and I bought myself a 2011 MBP (Core i7 w00t), so I'm not following this stuff as closely as I once did.

end Note

NOTE: This guide is not deprecated, but I strongly suggest, once you get 10.6.3 installed, that you update to 10.6.4 using the Combo Updater.
PLEASE, if you have any questions, ask them in this thread. Chances are, someone else has the same question, and answers to those questions will be available to help everyone.
Notes:

• I discovered, after posting this, that meklorts's PS2 driver is 32-bit only (he has said he will release a 64-bit version at some point), so if you want to run 64-bit (which you can do with this guide on this hardware), you'll have to use something else for PS2. I don't care much about 64-bit, so I'm not going to pursue it, but I vaguely recall that there's a 64-bit VoodooPS2 (according to Ocha888, there is a 64-bit pref pane which works fine).
• For everything to work smoothly, particularly the GTS 360M, you will have to install the MacBook Pro Software Update v1.3 (URL provided). Pay close attention to the install instructions below.
• This was a pain, mostly because of the usual problems with hackintoshing - vague/conflicting/out-of-date/hidden/inaccurate information. It's very hard to tease out the bits and pieces which are both relevant and current. So, in part, this guide is to help me remember how to do this .
• My exact hardware, including PCI-IDs in Windows device manager format, is linked from my sig.
• I've put an entry into the 10.6.3 HCL.

Not working/flaky:

• Original wireless: You'll want to save yourself the pain and order a replacement from eBay or some such. I happened to have a working card laying around which is recognized by SL, so I can't really make any recommendations; keep in mind that the original is a 1/2-height b/g/n, with two antenna connectors. There is room in the chassis for a full-sized card (which is what I'm using). The caveat here is that the full-sized card can't be mounted (i.e. screwed down). Electrical tape is your friend .
• Sleep/Hibernation: Seems like it might work, if I could get proper shutdown - that's where it hangs. See Shutdown comment re: DSDT. (FWIW, hibernation no longer works under Win 7 64-bit; I'm beginning to suspect the 206 BIOS upgrade).
• Shutdown/Halt: Shutdown hangs with a black screen and a steady HDD light, but no sound of HDD activity. Tried every kext and trick known to mankind. May require DSDT chicanery.
  Note: if you're testing one of the above (sleep/hibernate/shutdown), and you get a hang on the next reboot before the kernel loads, assuming that you can access the drive in some other way, delete "/private/var/vm/sleepimage" and try again.
• HDMI audio, though I've never really dealt with it before, so I may have done it wrong. In any case, I can't get the ALC663 and HDMI devices to show up at the same time.
• FN keys for volume control: very low priority, not to mention that I don't even know where to start.
• Card reader: update - replacing the DEV_ID in the VoodooSDHC plist works fine, right up until I insert a card Causes all mice (trackpad and USB mouse) to stop working; keyboard works veeeery slowly. Card doesn't mount. I had to powercycle.

Untested

• Firewire port, but kext binds without errors (don't care ).
• TurboBoost: Works to the best of my knowledge, based on what I've read elsewhere. AppleIntelCPUPM loads, says "Turbo Ratios 0022", and then the AppleIntelCPUPMClient loads. Those seem to be the indicators that it's working.
• Speedstep: can't ascertain whether this is working or not. All indications are that this requires a (major, complex) DSDT fix.

Working:

• SL 10.6.3 / kernel 10.3.1
• Both cores/all threads.
• GFX at native res (1366x768) with full acceleration.
• VGA output.
• HDMI video output.
• Multi-monitor.
• Audio - Speakers/Line In/Mic/Mic in. Auto-sense for internal speakers/headphones, auto-sense for internal mic/ ext line in/ ext mic. Correct names in Sound pref pane (requires Info.plist edits which are beyond the scope of this howto). S/PDIF: 10.6.3 - Appears in the Sound pref pane, but doesn't actually work. 10.6.4 - Fully working. You must keep the AppleHDA.kext from 10.6.4 update in place, as well as using VoodooHDA kext.
• Wireless (using replacement mini PCI-E card).
• Ethernet (built-in).
• Keyboard (why do laptop makers insist on using PS2?!).
• Touchpad, with gestures, although it's a little flaky - not nearly as smooth/responsive/well-behaved as on my T60 (although Ocha888 indicates that using VoodooPS2 64-bit gives good results).
• Optical drive.
• Webcam.
• FN keys for keyboard & screen backlight.
• eSATA port.
• Battery monitor.
• Screen blank.
• "About This Mac" mostly accurate (I only care if it works; I'm not hung up on it being pretty).
• Platform UUID.
• Time Machine.
• Restart/reboot
• Wireless killswitch (it's a hardwired switch).

Kexts:

• AtherosL1cEthernet for LAN (download "Attansic / Atheros L1C for Snow Leopard").
• meklort's ApplePS2Controller / com.meklort.ps2.helper.plist / SynapticsTrackpad pref pane for keyboard/trackpad with gestures (grab the first three links from DropBox)(Ocha888 indicates that the VoodooPS2 works great for him, with gestures).
• AppleACPIPS2Nub for use with meklort's PS2 (from nawcom.com).
• VoodooHDA for sound (get "VoodooHDA.kext_261_Snow.zip" - you'll also need "VoodooHDA.prefPane_Snow.zip"). There is a wealth of information in that post (and the links from it) dealing with low-level stuff like editing the Info.plist to sort out the codec verbs. I encourage you to read it for yourself (it's waaay beyond the scope of this guide). This is where I got the info to fix device names in the Sound pref pane.
• voodoohdahelper to save mixer settings across reboots; download from here, last link in the first post. It's in the "build/Release" folder of the zip file.
• VoodooBattery for battery info (from nawcom.com).
• FakeSMC which does all kinds of good stuff.

Other stuff you'll need:

• Empire EFI boot disc v 1.085 R2 - "Empire EFI V.1085 R2 (Experimental Support for AMD Phenom , Athlon and Sempron with SSE3 , and as well as Intel Core i3 , Core i5-M , Core i3-M , Core i7M)". Instructions are at the website. Filename is "EmpireEFI_V1085_R2_AMD_Inteli3i5m.zip".
• AsereBLN_v1.1.9 bootloader (main support thread)
• MacBook Pro Software Update 1.3 for proper Ibex Peak (HM55, Core iX) / sound / NVidia GTS 360M (no hacks needed, just "GraphicsEnabler" = "Yes" in Boot.plist) support.
• DSDTSE - excellent DSDT editor.

Full disclosure: I hate "kext packs", 'cause I have no idea where they came from, by the time I get hold of them they're usually out-of-date, and I don't know where to get updated versions (and also "teach someone to fish...", etc).
I've provided links to all info I used / all files I downloaded.

How to:
I'm going to assume a certain level of experience here. I don't have the time (or enough room in one post) to hand-hold everyone on the planet through every installation step. Anything I gloss over/mention in passing is going to be well documented elsewhere and very easily found.

• Grab the latest (206) BIOS from Asus. Don't know if this is important or not, but it's what I'm using, and unless you know of a specific OSX conflict, I'd always suggest using the latest available firmware for anything.
• Your best bet is to install the latest version of retail SL DVD you can find (10.6.3 would be best) onto an external drive, using an existing OSX installation. If you don't have another install already, use the Empire EFI boot disk to kickstart the retail 10.6 DVD install (I've personally test-booted a "vanilla" retail 10.6.3, and a 10.6 from a MBP). Don't forget that SL requires GPT (although I've heard that there is a hack to allow SL to use MBR).
  NOTE: After discovering that I'm a bonehead, I figured I should spell out how to use the Empire boot disc in more detail. See post #5 below.
• After install completes: use Empire for 1st boot, watch tacky movie, register etc., install 10.6.3 Combo Update (if you installed from an earlier version DVD). 10.6.3 fixes some issues on this laptop.
• Do the edit to SystemVersion.plist described in this post at netkas' blog. This allows you to install the MBP Update; you won't be able to otherwise.
• Install MBP Software Update 1.3. The vanilla kernel and "GraphicsEnabler" key in Boot.plist (brand new key from the latest Chameleon source; included in Asere's build) didn't work for me until this update.
• Update boot loader. Do it manually; you'll thank yourself later. The instructions are in the bootloader download. I'm using an update of the Chameleon EFI bootloader, AsereBLN_v1.1.9. It auto-probes correct memory info, takes Platform UUID from BIOS, patches DSDT to make restart work without a kext, and patches ACPI V2 FACP PM_Profile's "system-type" (good for laptops), among other things.
• Make your '/Extra' & '/E/Extensions'
• Drop VoodooBattery and FakeSMC into '/E/E'.
• Drop Atheros and AppleACPIPS2Nub kexts into '/S/L/E'. I couldn't be bothered to arse around with making the other kexts work from there by doing up an mkext; it's not like Apple is going to overwrite the Atheros or VoodooHDA kexts with an update, and there's always USB if the PS2 kext stops working. (If you're really picky, look into the kextcache command and make a cache to put into /Extra. Don't forget to use the flags to include dependencies, and don't be surprised if sound and PS2 still won't work).
• Install VoodooHDA:
  • Drop the kext into '/S/L/E'.
  • Remove or rename AppleHDA.kext (if you do the 10.6.4 update, do not do this step).
  • Double-click the pref pane to install.
  • Put "voodoohdahelper" in '/usr/local/bin'.
  • Put the attached file "org.voodoo.driver.voodoohdahelper" in '/Library/LaunchAgents'.
• Install meklort's PS2 stuff using these instructions.
• Drop your DSDT.aml into /Extra. Using DSDTSE, apply the following fixes:
  • 1.Method DTGP - Crucial! You *must* have this for (some of) the other fixes to work!
  • 2.HPET fix: fixes AppleIntelCPUPM (NullCPUPM. not needed).
  • 3.SBRG/LPCB Lower temperatures hack (our DEV_ID=3B09h; it's is already in AppleLPC.kext): lowers temps when using native SpeedStep.
  • 4.FN button hack: works, but not for sound.
  • 5.RTC fix: not needed (known to break sleep, but apparently not on this HW/OS?).
  • 6.Time machine fix: not needed.
  • (FYI, I also used some fixes for compile warnings without breaking anything, so they're safe.)
• Put "MacBookPro6,1" in smbios.plist (this is actually important, for various reasons), along with whatever else you usually use, but remember that the AsereBLN will handle memory identification.
• Put "GraphicsEnabler", "system-type", and your other favorite stuff in Boot.plist.
• Replace "IOPCIClassMatch" key/string with "IOPCIMatch", "0x3b568086" in VoodooHDA.kext's Info.plist. That's the specific DEV_ID/VEN_ID for the Intel HDA controller. SL already sees/knows about the ALC663.
• Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything... .
• Cross fingers and reboot.

Edits: I do them in-line and note them here. I realize it's a little bit of a pain if you're coming back after reading through already, but it keeps all the info in one post for new people. I try to be explicit about what I've changed so it's not too hard to find.
edit 2010-05-29: removed note to moderators, added note about meklort's PS2 being 32-bit only, added results of S/PDIF testing, note about shutdown.
edit 2010-06-02: update for sleep, shutdown, card reader, VGA, NullCPUPowerManagement/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement, Turboboost/Speedstep, add note about kextcache.
edit 2010-06-03: add link to DSDTSE, info re: DSDT fixes applied.
note 2010-06-03: tried new fakesmc from mozo/slice/gyk with monitoring plugins - complete phail, but at least no KP.
edit 2010-06-04: update info on audio ins/outs auto-sense, S/PDIF completely moved to "Not Working", audio in/out names problem added. Results from HDMI testing. Working multi monitor output added. Minor edits and formatting.
edit 2010-06-07: thanks to nfshp253 - clarified Empire/1st boot info, added note for Empire instructions, clarified "GraphicsEnabler" Boot.plist key info, note explaining the reason for editing SystemVersion.plist (can't install MBP Update without it). Edit regarding edits . Fixed FakeSMC link. Add link to 10.6.3 HCL.
edit 2010-06-12: Attached DSDT.aml dumped from Ubuntu live disk, on request.
edit 2010-06-16: Added "Method DTGP" to DSDT fixes. Thought everyone knew about that one Note about hibernation breakage under Win 7. General edits/cleanup/clarification. Correct sound device names added to "working" section. Remove reference to meklort's PS2 fixing FN keys - this is actually done through DSDT. Duh. Note on recovery from failed sleep/hibernate/shutdown. Rewrote Turboboost note - afaict it works. Rewrote Speedstep note. Revised note on touchpad; can't get good settings for it - it's just twitchy. Better link to MBP install hack.
edit 2010-06-17: Due to unbelievable stupidity on my part, I got the entire Empire EFI bit wrong. Fixed, and a post added to better explain its use.
edit 2010-06-19: S/PDIF now works - with 10.6.4. And.. um... the stock AppleHDA kext is in place. Along with VoodooHDA. Freaky. Left S/PDIF in "not working" section as technically it doesn't work under 10.6.3.
edit 2010-07-13: Updates from Ocho888's post re: VoodooPS2, VoodooHDA 64-bit. Changed topic and title to "10.6.3/10.6.4", as 10.6.4 seems to be a good update which fixes at least one issue. Moved S/PDIF to "Working" section, with the caveat that 10.6.4. is required.

org.voodoo.driver.voodoohdahelper.plist.zip

[quaestor]

To the 563 of you (to date) who've read this post, and the 11 who've downloaded the attachment; thanks so much for the encouragement. Not a single comment/critique/suggestion/thank you? Really? The only reason I continue to maintain this guide at this point is to help myself out. And here I was, hoping that maybe someone else (brighter than me) might have suggestions regarding / be working on, the S/PDIF / HDMI audio, Sleep/Hibernate/Shutdown, and Speedstep issues (in the spirit of the "many eyes" open-source type philosophy which has gotten all of us this far...

[kingbobyjr]

I for one will thank you for this guide.

 

I have had no success. I also have the Asus g60jx-rbb05 from BestBuy and only get a black screen after I insert the OS disk and press enter. I'm using 10.6.2...from a DVD...not sure if that is the problem or not.

 

The laptop is updated to the 206 BIOS...any reasons why it would hang at a black screen?

[quaestor]

I for one will thank you for this guide.

 

I have had no success. I also have the Asus g60jx-rbb05 from BestBuy and only get a black screen after I insert the OS disk and press enter. I'm using 10.6.2...from a DVD...not sure if that is the problem or not.

 

The laptop is updated to the 206 BIOS...any reasons why it would hang at a black screen?

 

LOL, thanks very much for the reply! I had a bit of trouble getting the Empire --> SL DVD boot working; I had to try several times. I think the DVD drive in these laptops isn't the greatest... Keep at it, and if it doesn't start up after a few tries, you might try "burning" the Empire ISO to a USB key, or maybe using a USB/eSATA (external) DVD drive.

 

Let me know how it turns out.

[quaestor]

MEA CULPA! MEA CULPA!

 

My sincerest apologies to nfshp253 and kingbobyjr, who were both unfortunate enough to trust me

 

I think I was almost completely asleep when I finally got the Empire EFI boot disc to work, and I disremembered which one I used. And here I was pitching a fit because no-one liked my guide

 

Anyway, I've edited the guide with the correct link and filename, and as a bonus, since I feel like such a moron, this post'll be a quick guide to Empire EFI booting, as there are some pitfalls to watch out for.

 

These laptops have cheap DVD drives. There, I said it. Also, the BIOS is a little weird.

 

What does that matter?

 

The best way to kick off the Empire disc is to power on the laptop with it already in the drive. Don't hit ESC and go to the menu and then put in the disc; although it acts like it sees the disc, it won't boot from it.

 

So, anyway, power down after putting the disc in the drive, power up again, hit ESC and pick the DVD drive (I prefer doing it this way rather than constantly mucking around in BIOS changing the boot order).

 

Empire should load (Note: none of this is fast. As long as the drive is spinning, have patience). You should see the customized black bootscreen with a line of instructions at the bottom. Basically, just eject the boot disc, and put in the SL DVD.

 

Now, WAIT. Watch the drive and listen. When it stops seeking and/or the read light goes dark, THEN hit F5.

 

Do yourself a favor at this point and hit TAB twice to go to text mode. Double-check that the Macintosh Install DVD is highlighted in the list, type in "-v" for verbose mode (in case anything goes wrong), and hit enter. And wait. A while. You will at least be able to see what the system is doing most of the time, although there are a couple of loooong pauses. As I said, have patience.

 

With any luck, eventually graphics mode should kick in and you will see the language selection screen. Proceed as planned

[kingbobyjr]

Ahhh...much better...no more black screen. It is installing now.

 

Thanks for the update!!!

 

BTW...I may need to bug you more about this install as I am a complete noob to building a Hackintosh.

 

 

 

 

MEA CULPA! MEA CULPA!

 

My sincerest apologies to nfshp253 and kingbobyjr, who were both unfortunate enough to trust me

 

I think I was almost completely asleep when I finally got the Empire EFI boot disc to work, and I disremembered which one I used. And here I was pitching a fit because no-one liked my guide

 

Anyway, I've edited the guide with the correct link and filename, and as a bonus, since I feel like such a moron, this post'll be a quick guide to Empire EFI booting, as there are some pitfalls to watch out for.

 

These laptops have cheap DVD drives. There, I said it. Also, the BIOS is a little weird.

 

What does that matter?

 

The best way to kick off the Empire disc is to power on the laptop with it already in the drive. Don't hit ESC and go to the menu and then put in the disc; although it acts like it sees the disc, it won't boot from it.

 

So, anyway, power down after putting the disc in the drive, power up again, hit ESC and pick the DVD drive (I prefer doing it this way rather than constantly mucking around in BIOS changing the boot order).

 

Empire should load (Note: none of this is fast. As long as the drive is spinning, have patience). You should see the customized black bootscreen with a line of instructions at the bottom. Basically, just eject the boot disc, and put in the SL DVD.

 

Now, WAIT. Watch the drive and listen. When it stops seeking and/or the read light goes dark, THEN hit F5.

 

Do yourself a favor at this point and hit TAB twice to go to text mode. Double-check that the Macintosh Install DVD is highlighted in the list, type in "-v" for verbose mode (in case anything goes wrong), and hit enter. And wait. A while. You will at least be able to see what the system is doing most of the time, although there are a couple of loooong pauses. As I said, have patience.

 

With any luck, eventually graphics mode should kick in and you will see the language selection screen. Proceed as planned

[kingbobyjr]

Well...installed failed 3 times now. It gets to about 17 minutes to go then stops. I'm thinking it is the DVD rom drive. Going to try with a external USB DVD rom.

 

Hopefully that works....

[quaestor]

10.6.4 Update update

 

Neither nfshp253 nor I have seen any issues. I used the Combo and it booted straight up as usual. Only problem I had was DragThing needed updating.

 

 

 

Performance insanity

 

nfshp253 PM'd me to ask about why Geekbench numbers were so far off from Windows (I had no earthly idea). Without spamming up a whole bunch of tables with results and {censored}, I'll just summarize; Win 7 Home Prem. x64 running 64-bit GB was 68% faster than 10.6.3 in 32-bit mode (note 1) running 64-bit GB?!

 

Now for the bizarro part: I installed 10.6.4 and re-ran. 10.6.4 in 32-bit mode runs 64-bit GB 15% FASTER than under Win7. That's an increase of 93% over 10.6.3.

 

Pure speculation: Apple has snuck Core iX performance improvements into the 10.4.0 kernel without telling anyone. Maybe better Turbo Boost support? Who knows...

 

Edit:

Hmm... No way to double-post (that's a good thing, I guess), so I'll edit instead. Cinebench (note 2) shows ~20% OpenGL performance increase, and essentially 100% CPU performance increase. That jibes perfectly with GB (obviously). What's more interesting to me is that the CPU test blasted the CPU temp up to 60^o, which I've never seen before, and ramped the fan up to a point I've never heard before This implies even more strongly (at least to me) that 10.6.4 has some core improvements in CPU support.

 

 

 

Notes

1: The results for 64-bit GB running in 32-bit mode and pure 64-bit mode were practically identical. The performance increase from 32-bit Geekbench to 64-bit Geekbench was roughly 15% across all OSs.

2: MAXON's CINEBENCH is an excellent Win/Mac OpenGL and CPU stress-test. The CPU test is a well-designed parallel raytrace, so it pegs all threads, all cores, all processors. You will see high temps with this

[nfshp253]

Thanks for everything quaestor, I've finally gotten Snow Leopard to work perfect on the ASUS G51Jx-A1!

[quaestor]

Thanks for everything quaestor, I've finally gotten Snow Leopard to work perfect on the ASUS G51Jx-A1!

 

W00T!

[kingbobyjr]

Ugh...this is just not meant to be...I can't get the keyboard to work or ethernet...the Mac Book Pro will not install no matter what I change in SystemVersion.plist.

 

This is annoying....

[lzd]

Dear quaestor! Thank for your guide, it helped me greatly with my Acer Aspire 5745G

[snarf2691]

hey quaestor. thanks for the guide. i haven't got the chance to try this out on my g60jx yet since im still working on getting ci/qe to work on another hackintosh, but what i was able to get from working on the other hackintosh was that the win7 partition needs to be active in order for it to go into hibernation properly. is that a no go with the g60jx? i hope that the hibernation problem can be fixed. thanks.

[quaestor]

but what i was able to get from working on the other hackintosh was that the win7 partition needs to be active in order for it to go into hibernation properly. is that a no go with the g60jx? i hope that the hibernation problem can be fixed. thanks.

Interesting. Do you mean that the Win 7 partition has to be active for Windows to hibernate, or for SL to hibernate? I hadn't considered that... I'll have to play with it and see. I think the Win 7 partition already is active, but I can't remember for sure.

I don't think that partition activation (or not) has anything to do with the particular HW of the G60 (or any other machine); it seems like that would be more of an OS thing. And yeah, I really wish I could at least get sleep working...

[snarf2691]

windows 7 will hibernate with the windows partition activated. sorry for any confusion. with my other hackintosh im able to get shutdown to work properly, but restart always hangs. then again the dsdt is supposedly the problem on the forums for that mobo.

 

edit: i forgot to mention that sleep/hibernation works on my other hackintosh. meaning to say it's pretty much the opposite of this situation. ah the joys of installing osx on a pc

 

did you install snow leopard onto an external hard drive or just a clone/backup on an external? i think i may try doing an install on an external hard drive to see if i can do some testing for this laptop as well.

[quaestor]

did you install snow leopard onto an external hard drive or just a clone/backup on an external? i think i may try doing an install on an external hard drive to see if i can do some testing for this laptop as well.

I did the install on an external eSATA which I then swapped into the laptop.

 

BTW, googled some interesting stuff re Win 7 (and Vista, I assume) & hibernation:

(last post of this thread)

"Due to BCD bootloader design, Windows volume has to be always the active one, because if not, Windows believes that BCD configuration is the active disk and cannot find it to write on it the default boot entry as the "Windows Resume from Hibernation". So the system will always be booting from the Windows entry even if it should have booted from the Resume entry."

 

I realize the english is a little tortured, but I think the idea comes through OK. I sorta already knew this, and if I'd thought about it carefully, I might have even figured it out.

What happens is that, when the system is asked to hibernate, Windows writes a new boot entry into the BCD store, which it then boots from next time around. Unfortunately, unless the BCD partition is active, Windows is too stupid to figure out where the BCD is[b/], can't write the entry, won't enter hibernation, and also won't explain itself in any way. I saw a hint of a fix somewhere - someone posted something about hacking the Cham boot0, but didn't give any details.

 

'Course, none of this helps the SL side of things at all (at least, I don't think it does...).

[nfshp253]

Just a quick update for you guys, I've installed the newest NVIDIA Driver Update for Mac (it's safe).

[quaestor]

Just a quick update for you guys, I've installed the newest NVIDIA Driver Update for Mac (it's safe).

Cool, good to know.

A couple things; do you know if it helps with the truly crappy 3D performance under 10.6.4, and where in the world did you find it? I had heard that it had been taken off of NVIDIA's ftp site...

[Cknoblet]

Hi Quaestor, I have the exact same G60JX and I'm using your guide to try to do a dual boot Win7/Mac.

 

So far I have:

 

1. Nuked the MBR and allowed OSX to create the partitions so it's GUID.

2. Installed SL (Gold Master?) it's the only version I had access to.

3. Installed Win7.

 

At this point I'm using EFI to boot into OSX. I used your link to fix ethernet, and tried an Apple software update. After a long download and update, OSX will no longer boot. I'm beginning to think that I should start over with a retail SL disc. I'm very new to hacking mac stuff, and I don't have a full understanding of if a different kernal is needed, or if I need a hacked install image or something.

 

Can you offer any advice?

 

Thanks!

[quaestor]

tried an Apple software update. After a long download and update, OSX will no longer boot.

Do you mean you let the Software Update app do an update? If so, that's a Very Bad Idea for OS version updates (i.e. from 10.6.0 to 10.6.4; letting it update apps like iTunes and such is fine).

 

Any time Software Update offers an *OS* update, uncheck it. If you want to do that particular update, look at Apple's website for a Combo Update, which you download and install manually. I don't know why the difference, but OS auto-updates are poison for hackintoshes.

[nfshp253]

I don't know if the latest NVIDIA driver for Mac fixed the 3D performance (what did you use to measure that?) I've only tried OpenGL tests on Cinebench and it's obviously slower than in Windows as the implementation of OpenGL in Snow Leopard is not up to date as in Windows. You can download the hacked version of the NVIDIA driver installer here http://redirectingat.com/?id=292X457&x...wtopic%3D222913

 

That wasn't uploaded by me. If you want the original thread, it's here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=222913

[quaestor]

I don't know if the latest NVIDIA driver for Mac fixed the 3D performance (what did you use to measure that?)

All I've got to go on is CINEBENCH OGL test, and Team Fortress 2...

What the heck, I'll give it a try... Failure is always an option, right?

[attention_getter]

Hey thanks for your guide, quaestor! I know its not much, but thank you. I don't own a G60, but have been eyeing the one at my "friendly" brick and mortar Bestbuy for awhile. Hey I was wondering, though, are you dual booting with windows or not?

 

And quaestor, if its true you are running windows with osx, which windows, and which bootloader? In addition, did you end up with a GUID hard drive or a MBR header?

 

Thanks!

[quaestor]

Hey I was wondering, though, are you dual booting with windows or not?

And quaestor, if its true you are running windows with osx, which windows, and which bootloader? In addition, did you end up with a GUID hard drive or a MBR header?

AsereBLN v1.1.9 bootloader, dual booting Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Drive is partitioned GUID, but Windows requires a hybrid MBR in order to work properly. This is stuff that I'm not too good with, so I'd rather not try to go into any detail. It took lots of fiddling and a reinstall of Win 7 before I got it all working (and I'm still not exactly certain what I did right ).

The best guide I found was here.

[Cknoblet]

Hey Quaestor,

 

I've gotten further along my in attempts to install things. A big help was buying an actual retail 10.6.3 disc, so I'm using the Empire EFI bootloader to start things off, then the retail 10.6.3 for the install. Everything goes well.

 

From there I've tried many combinations of bootloader installs. Manual Chameleon 2.0 Rc4, the MyHack Installer and the Chameleon Rc3 that's on the Empire disc. I can't seem to find any way to get OSX to boot from the harddrive.

 

My harddrive is booting up, I mean, I see the Chameleon menu, and can choose to start OSX from there, but after selection it goes to a white screen with an Apple and basically locks up from there. If I hit tab and try to watch the output or put it in verbose mode, some text flies by then it's a black screen.

 

I have a GUID scheme with OSX being the first partition and a FAT partition as the second (reserved for Win7). Also note that I'm not messing with Win7 or anything at this point. My 2nd partition is currently blank.

 

Booting from Empire EFI works every time and loads me into a mostly functional OSX.

 

I'm missing something here, my partitions aren't right? AHCI Bios issues? Some kexts I need to add or delete?

 

Please help!