MSI K9A2 Platinum Anyone? (AMD)

[MacObsessed]

Hi all

 

Has anyone with this motherboard (http://tinyurl.com/6czthm) succeeded in installing any distribution of OSx?

 

I'm a bit noobish at this, but it seems like the problem im having now (after successfully installing Zephyroth's 10.5.2... "still waiting for boot device") is due to the fact that the 790FX chipset isnt supported yet in that distro, but most of the people on this forum know WAY better than I do.

 

I've been searching for a KEXT thinking i could just add it to the distribution I'm using, reburn the DVD and re-attempt it, but I can't find the kext (forget about the fact that I dont really know how to add the kext to the iso using my MacBook Pro... but I'll get to that when I need to )

 

So, has anyone out there succeeded?

 

Anyway, here are my specific specs

 

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 AM2 6400+ Black, 3.2GHz

MOBO: MSI K9A2 Platinum AMD RD790FX Phenom (http://tinyurl.com/69dsfy)

-->Chipset: AMD 790FX chipset (AMD 790FX + SB600)

-->Bios: Optimized Defaults, only changed boot device order

RAM: 4GB Mushkin HP2-6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory

HDD: 500GB S-ATA II 7200 RPM on SATA-1

VID: ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB x 2 (with crossfire cables)

CDRW: Internal DVD+CD Rewritable Combo Drive 16X52X32X52 (Primary Master)

DVDR: ASUS Internal SATA DVD+/- RW + CDRW Rewritable Drive (Primary Slave)

SOUND: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Retail Edition

NET: Onboard Gigabit (10/100/1000Mbps) PCI Network Card

 

P.S. This post by Shadow3K was really the thing that inspired me to give this a try.. great info for AMD http://forum.infinitemac.com/comments.php?...p;page=1#Item_1

[fcollingwood]

Have you tried setting SATA to AHCI in the Bios?

 

I've just got one of these boards, will be replacing the Gigabyte M61VME I'm currently using.

[MacObsessed]

What I'm doing now is... starting with the "optimized defaults" then I make the following changes:

 

1. Under "Advanced BIOS Features" --> "Boot Sequence"

--> Change the boot order so that my IDE Slave DVDRW is first and the IDE Master 500GB IDE is second

2. Under Integrated Peripherals --> On-Chip ATA Devices

--> Set the "PCI IDE BusMaster" to Enabled

--> Set the "On Chip SATA Controller" to Disabled

--> When I do that the "Raid Mode" Disappears so I cant change it to AHCI

--> Set the "Raid Mode" to IDE (when I set it to AHCI I get com.apple.boot.plist not found )

 

3. Under Integrated Peripherals --> Set "Extra RAID Controller" to Disabled

 

when I do all this though i'm STILL getting "still waiting for root device"

 

UGH! What am I doing wrong?

[Amacx86]

Hey,

 

Have you had any luck getting x on your machine? I've got the same motherboard, with a 9950 @ 2.6 ghz. Bios upgraded to 1.8, settings fairly stock with the exception of SATA = ACHI.

 

I've tried Ideneb 10.5.6, Leo4All, iAtkos 4, and LawlessPPC Phenom.

 

the iatkos and lawless distros I can at least get to boot with cpus=1 -v -f -x ...

 

They run the installer, but I end up with a machine that won't reboot to the OS succesfully.

 

I've sort of given up for now and just put Windows XP x64 back on it. I'd really like to stay with AMD, but unless I can hackintosh the box, I'll go intel...

[Amacx86]

Partial success: MSI K9A2 Platinum...

 

Well, at long last, I'd like to report a partial success on the K9A2 Platinum. My machine has 4 gigs of RAM, an ATI 4850 PCI video card, and a Phenom 9950 @ 2.6 ghz. The internal DVD drive is IDE, the 1 gig internal hard disk is a 1 TB WD on SATA set to ACHI.

 

I finally booted the machine with iDeneb 10.5.6 off an external USB DVD drive, and it booted right up with no flags set. It also installed fine with no flags set;

 

I used the voodoo kernal, ACPI fix. Also chose the PS/2 fix.

 

I installed to an external USB hard disk.

 

The machine boots off the USB hard disk but no input from the PS2 mouse or keyboard.

 

I'm hoping replacing them with a usb keyboard and mouse will give me a fully functional machine.

[kreeki]

Interesting, i have a very same computer (K9AGM mb with SB600), all tutorials saying that i should set up ACHI, but then i always get still waiting for root device.. i am a newbie but i tried to set things differently and at Native IDE i had no problem problem with installation or running OS X.. but still ps/2 doesn`t work even when proper drivers are installed, but i will fix it later.. so, still waiting for device error can be always fixed in bios settings.. so try change settings, that tutorials are not working on all computers... hope it helps.. cheerz

[Amacx86]

Interesting, i have a very same computer (K9AGM mb with SB600), all tutorials saying that i should set up ACHI, but then i always get still waiting for root device.. i am a newbie but i tried to set things differently and at Native IDE i had no problem problem with installation or running OS X.. but still ps/2 doesn`t work even when proper drivers are installed, but i will fix it later.. so, still waiting for device error can be always fixed in bios settings.. so try change settings, that tutorials are not working on all computers... hope it helps.. cheerz

 

I picked up a PS/2 -> USB cable today for the mouse and keyboard. I'm going to give it another try in this configuration and see what happens.

 

I picked up a PS/2 -> USB cable today for the mouse and keyboard. I'm going to give it another try in this configuration and see what happens.

 

Ok, so an update...the cable converter did enable x to recognize my keyboard and mouse. But I also realized that the smooth boot occured not when I had my raid/sata set to achi, but to ide. However, X doesn't see my internal hard disk when not in achi mode.

 

So I'm wondering if there's a fundamental disagreement between the built in SATA on the MSI K9A2 and OS X distros that prevent an internal sata drive from accepting the install.

 

Things are ok now, as I'm using an external USB with ideneb and an internal sata with windows xp 64 so I have a dual boot of sorts.

 

Now, how to get the ati radeon 4850 recognized...

[Amacx86]

Ok...so here's the final update:

 

Nearly complete success.

 

My hardware specs...

 

MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard with BIOS 1.8 installed

4 gigabytes of 800 RAM

1 TB SATA hard disk

ATI Radeon 4850 PCI video

 

Internal hard disk set to ACHI, booted off USB external DVD (with no flags or -v) for the install. I DID HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT MY VIDEO CARD was in PCI-e 1, and my hard drive was in SATA 1 or it would not work. However once that was done, the internal SATA in ACHI mode works fine.

 

Used the Radeon 4800 series drivers to get 1280 x 1024 and QE etc working. Aside from the occasional vertical vibration of the image during which it quickly shifts down a half centimeter or so and back (literally in the blink of an eye) the video works fine.

 

I used the Voodoo 9.5 kernal.

 

The machine runs fine now, aside from the occasionally blip that I just mentioned and no sound (have a Soundblaster PCI x-gamer... and though I chose the SB extensions during install, no sound...)

 

Screenshot attached.

 

I'm never going back to windows, that's for sure.

[Amacx86]

Complete Success!

 

Ok, so I didn't think I was going to post an addendum to this, but I kept tweaking (and crashing), and finally think I have things completely stable.

 

A few things I've learned:

 

- IDE vs ACHI doesn't matter much. Whether or not iDeneb installs (or actually boots for that matter) has to do with whether or not there's a pre-existing image of the OS on a hard disk that's attached to the system. If there is, it breaks the install. So to get a good install, you have to format all drives attached to your machine and boot off an external USB optical drive (internal sata might work; but I don't have one...). What ACHI does is give you incrementally better performance and better stability as an install to a SATA drive in IDE mode will result in more kernal panics.

 

- Once you get the hardware configuration set, leave it be. I originally installed with a Soundblaster X-gamer in once of my PCI slots and even though I didn't have the OS install drivers for anything creative, pulling it from the PCI slot broke the install.

 

- Upgrading to 10.5.7 from the apple software update - or even the iDeneb 10.5.7 update, seems not to work and will destroy the install.

 

What I selected during the install: Voodoo Kernal 9.5, Fixes: ACPI, Seatbelt, despite seeing an option for a DDR2800 Applebios, I left it unselected. ALC 888 for audio, Realtek 1000 for ethernet, and the SB series chipset. Didn't install any video, but downloaded and installed the Netkas for my ATI 4850.

 

Everything works fine now.

[Gravian]

Complete Success!

 

Ok, so I didn't think I was going to post an addendum to this, but I kept tweaking (and crashing), and finally think I have things completely stable.

 

A few things I've learned:

 

- IDE vs ACHI doesn't matter much. Whether or not iDeneb installs (or actually boots for that matter) has to do with whether or not there's a pre-existing image of the OS on a hard disk that's attached to the system. If there is, it breaks the install. So to get a good install, you have to format all drives attached to your machine and boot off an external USB optical drive (internal sata might work; but I don't have one...). What ACHI does is give you incrementally better performance and better stability as an install to a SATA drive in IDE mode will result in more kernal panics.

 

- Once you get the hardware configuration set, leave it be. I originally installed with a Soundblaster X-gamer in once of my PCI slots and even though I didn't have the OS install drivers for anything creative, pulling it from the PCI slot broke the install.

 

- Upgrading to 10.5.7 from the apple software update - or even the iDeneb 10.5.7 update, seems not to work and will destroy the install.

 

What I selected during the install: Voodoo Kernal 9.5, Fixes: ACPI, Seatbelt, despite seeing an option for a DDR2800 Applebios, I left it unselected. ALC 888 for audio, Realtek 1000 for ethernet, and the SB series chipset. Didn't install any video, but downloaded and installed the Netkas for my ATI 4850.

 

Everything works fine now.

 

Actually, your Kernel Panics are probably from OS X trying to use 32 bit addresses with your 4 gigs of RAM. That's a nono, you need 64 bit addressing. Here, look at this: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=127611

 

 

I've been using the ATI Kext for a while now and it works flawlessly. In fact, I have to say this machine runs better than most Intel machines I've Hackintoshed.

[Amacx86]

Actually, your Kernel Panics are probably from OS X trying to use 32 bit addresses with your 4 gigs of RAM. That's a nono, you need 64 bit addressing. Here, look at this: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=127611

 

 

I've been using the ATI Kext for a while now and it works flawlessly. In fact, I have to say this machine runs better than most Intel machines I've Hackintoshed.

 

Hey, it's been a while since I looked at this topic. You're right about the memory, I ended up pulling 2 gigs of RAM and leaving 2 in. That resolved a good number of the kernal panics. Unfortunately, however, I could never fully get the machine to be stable on a long term basis. Ended up selling the motherboard and processor and rebuilding the box with a Gigabyte P35DS3L and an Intel Quad Core and have been moving along happily ever since.

[kumputer]

I've spent the last 6 months or so trying to get a working Hackintosh out of my K9A2 motherboard partially using this thread for reference among many other sources, and I'm happy to report I have finally managed to get everything working absolutely PERFECTLY running Snow Leopard installed 10.6.3 and upgraded to 10.6.5. Thank you all for the help on this old thread. Here's a step by step on how I managed to get it working:

 

Get a copy of retail Snow Leopard DVD 10.6.3 to 10.6.5.

 

Burn one of NawCom's CD's, the modCD in particular using Windows and PowerISO or Nero, etc:

http://blog.nawcom.com/

 

Make sure you have no more than 2 GB or RAM in your PC, as this will cause kernel panics (you can fix this later)

 

Boot into the NawCom CD, wait for it to give you the boot options, eject the CD, and replace it with the Snow Leopard retail DVD. Press F5 to refresh.

 

Now boot into the Snow Leopard installer.

 

It might give you extra kext options to install, and these might work just fine just using the defaults, but in my case, I installed without them.

 

When the installation completes, boot using the nawCom CD again, and use it to boot into your installed OSX.

 

You should be good to go more or less right now, but in order to not boot using the CD every time, install MyHack using the Chocolate Kernel for AMD:

http://blog.nawcom.com/?p=242

 

Now you should be able to reboot without using the mod CD.

 

Next in order to fix the 2GB RAM limit, you'll need this kext:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=211867

 

After you install the kext, you should be able to put back in that extra RAM with no kernel panics.

 

NOTE:

With my NVidia Geforce 8800 GTS, I was killing myself over many times Snow Leopard would seem to boot just fine, but the video would fail to initialize, and I'd be stuck in the verbose boot screen, last seeing something like DSMOS has arrived. If I press random keys, I'll sometimes hear the apple beep error sound, so I knew it had actually booted. Here's how I can make sure it boots every time and successfully initializes the video. Basically, the video will fail on me every time I attempt to boot cold, essentially, if I power it up and go straight to OSX, it will fail, or if I hard reset using the reset button, it will fail, and subsequently, every time I do a CTRL-ALT-DELETE while before booting a volume after doing a hard reset or cold boot, the video will fail. So, first I must boot into Windows, get at least to the login screen, then soft reboot using Windows shutdown. Now if I boot into OSX, the display works perfectly. It's very odd, but maybe it needs Windows to turn it on first before it can work. Of course, if you crash and are forced to hard reboot your system, you'll need to boot into Windows again before you can boot into OSX.

[Chipstik]

How did you get the audio working if you don't mind me asking?