eboyer Posted May 18, 2008 Share Posted May 18, 2008 First the specs: Motherboard: INTEL D975XBX2 (BadAxe2) PSU: Antec 850 TruePower CPU: INTEL Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66ghz RAM: 4GB (1gb x 4) Corsair Dominator VIDEO: DIAMOND ATI 2900XT 1GB HD-1: Western Digital RaptorX 150gb @ 10,000 RPM (@vista install) HD-2: Western Digital 750gb 3.0 SATA @ 7200 RPM (@leopard install...hopefully) HD-3: Western Digital 500gb 3.0 SATA @ 7200 RPM (@storage) DVD-RW: Asus SATA Sound: Creative X-Fi Platinum (I know this wont work...) What I have done up until this point: -Installed more than 15 different versions of OSX86 (pretty much everyone up until a few months ago) What the (BIG) problems WERE: -A LOT of the installations would go through perfectly, but then when it came down to actually booting into the operating system after it got done loading it would either A. stay at a grey screen B. go to a darker grey screen or C. could obviously tell that the OS has booted, but would have artifacts on the screen. (this should be related to video drivers?.. i have tried booting into safe mode.. same problem) -Not able to find the root directory after it loads a bunch of files in safe mode -Eventually got to the point where the CD's wouldnt even boot. Since then: -I have taken a break, as it was getting to be very stressful getting everything to work -Reset BIOS settings to defaults -Ran Vista for a few months NOW ITS TIME. BADAXE USERS! I am calling for YOU. Are there specific steps you had to take in the BIOS as you did this? ATI 2900XT USERS! I am calling for YOU. Same question. I know the drivers were in a testing phase the last time I went at this... Have they gotten better? Does this card work perfectly fine? I hope so, as I ASSUME this was where most of my issues were coming from. If you guys could answer a couple of those questions I would appriciate it greatly, I will be checking back in 24 hours hopefully with goodness that one of my two releases: Leo4allv3final or iAtkos_2.0i will work just fine. if NOT I will be updating this post with SPECIFIC issues so that I can have you guys help me out. Thanks for helping out guys. I know some of these problems are pretty general and hard to pin point without exact error messages, and that is what the purpose of this post is. I will include screen captures and error logs through this journey to pin point the true problem I am having with my hardware. Until tomorrow, peace and love. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xx66stangxx Posted May 18, 2008 Share Posted May 18, 2008 I have not tried out iAtkos_2.0i But I have fully tested Leo4all v3 worked great after a modification Try both, if you want, and see what works best for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eboyer Posted May 18, 2008 Author Share Posted May 18, 2008 I see a screenshot of the new iAtkos, and I saw support for my video card, so I was going to give that one a shot first. I want to start working on them right now, but they haven't finished downloading yet. grrrr. Did you have any problems at all when installing Leo4all? I saw that that had a bunch of extra applications that are useful in the package, it looks pretty solid. I guess we'll just see which download wins! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isotome Posted May 18, 2008 Share Posted May 18, 2008 eboyer- I have a BadAxe2 based hack that works great. Your specs are all good EXCEPT for your graphics card. At this point, Mac OSX does not recognize graphics cards with memory above 256Mb. Some have been able to get cards to run with 512MB, but they have to flash the card's ROM in a special proceedure. I have not seen anyone get a card working with more than 512 MB video RAM. I think this card of yours is the cause of your boot problems . Try any Nvidia card in the 7000 sderies for the best compatibility. Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eboyer Posted May 18, 2008 Author Share Posted May 18, 2008 eboyer- I have a BadAxe2 based hack that works great. Your specs are all good EXCEPT for your graphics card. At this point, Mac OSX does not recognize graphics cards with memory above 256Mb. Some have been able to get cards to run with 512MB, but they have to flash the card's ROM in a special proceedure.I have not seen anyone get a card working with more than 512 MB video RAM. I think this card of yours is the cause of your boot problems . Try any Nvidia card in the 7000 sderies for the best compatibility. Good Luck Awesome. Would my card work alright and just show up @ 256mb? Or is it just completely not working at all? *ALSO*... "Still waiting for root device" * was the exact error message I was getting towards the 2nd half of my trys with the installation. Partition related? I couldn't get 10.5.2 to run on my Gigabyte K8NS (NForce3 250) without disabling the SATA controllers in the BIOS, which was a royal PITA. Pulled this out of another post. Would this have anything to do with it? "System config file 'com.apple.boot.plist' not found" This was also another common error I had throughout my attempts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eboyer Posted May 18, 2008 Author Share Posted May 18, 2008 When I install the OS, the ONLY drive that will be plugged in will be the Leopard drive. So dual booting is not the question... BUT What options do I need to choose with that? EFI? MBR? Chicken wings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xx66stangxx Posted May 18, 2008 Share Posted May 18, 2008 In the picture it shows the bootloader already chosen so there is no need to install any additional patches unless your system needs them. That's the whole reason for trial and error for osx86 haha. In regards for the Leo4All install for my Amd system. I only had to delete an Nvidia kext and repair permissions for it to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eboyer Posted May 19, 2008 Author Share Posted May 19, 2008 Alright! I have now tried the iAtkos 2.0i and had some similar issues. The first time I installed it, it installed alright, when it went to boot, it went to the load screen, then went on to a blue one and did nothing. The Second time, I reinstalled, then actually just got a "Boot Device not found" The last time, I tweaked some settings in BIOS, reinstalled AGAIN, and then when I restarted to try it for the first time, about 1 minute into the load screen, my computer just went to a black screen. If it can load the OS off the Disc for the installer, why cant it load after its installed? Is there somthing I should be specifically doing with my hard drive in disk ultilty and BIOS? *EDIT* THE SETTINGS I USED IN THE CUSTOMIZE PANEL ON THE INSTALL WERE IDENTICAL TO THE SCREENSHOT ABOVE + THE ATI HD 2XXX XX PATCH FOR MY CARD. On to Leopard4all, lets see if that makes a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eboyer Posted May 19, 2008 Author Share Posted May 19, 2008 I have now tried the Leopard4allv3final... Installation seemed to go better... The hardrive ACTUALLY accepted the bootloader and it was fine without a disc in the drive... but now "Still waiting for root device" All of these problems seem to go back to my hard drive. I also noticed, if I launch the setup, and go into "startup disk" there is nothing in there besides the disc in the optical drive, and the network startup... Should the hardrive be set to IDE or AHCI in the BIOS? Right now i'm going to reformat this drive and get it ready to start all over again, someone help me out please, this is #22 and #23 times ive tried installing leopard. Its starting to get ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BJMoose Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 "boot device not found" generally means that the boot partition was not set properly. Are you certain the partition is active with the boot flag set? Also, depending whether you are partitioning as mbr or guid will make a difference with the BA2 boards. For most installers, there is some additional work necessary for guid and efi. Although I was playing around with the Leo4AllV3 the other day and it was the first installer I've found that loads guid/efi on the BA2 without having to tweak it manually. The BA2 is extremely compatible with almost all installers so you should not have to make any changes in the bios. I chose AHCI because that's how my Windows is set up and I didn't want to have to switch back and forth between IDE and AHCI each time I booted OSx86. Have you searched out the dedicated BA2 thread in this forum? There are some great "how to's" in that thread and most all possibilities are discussed. Since the BA2 is an aging board, you may have to search pretty far back to find it, but it should answer most all of your questions. I don't know about your gfx card, but with Leo4All, I only checked the apple gfx package, nvinject, ichXXX, appleSMBIOS, macpro and the vanilla kernel. For sound out, I used the taruga 1.16 patch with the proper STAC. On the BA2, I would experiment with installing mbr first and then move on to guid...jmho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eboyer Posted May 19, 2008 Author Share Posted May 19, 2008 Have you searched out the dedicated BA2 thread in this forum? There are some great "how to's" in that thread and most all possibilities are discussed. Since the BA2 is an aging board, you may have to search pretty far back to find it, but it should answer most all of your questions. I don't know about your gfx card, but with Leo4All, I only checked the apple gfx package, nvinject, ichXXX, appleSMBIOS, macpro and the vanilla kernel. For sound out, I used the taruga 1.16 patch with the proper STAC. On the BA2, I would experiment with installing mbr first and then move on to guid...jmho. This may be a stupid question, but where exactly can I switch an MBR into a GUID? I poked around in Disk Utility and could not fond it... Also, will setting sata to AHCI in BIOS affect my windows if i have not yet used that option? I wouldnt mind switching it every time, because i dont use windows that much, but just curious. Have YOU personally put up a step by step guide on how you did it? I would actually be interested in doing the same setup you have... I will be purchasing a 7950GT sometime this next week, and I also have dual 24 inch montiors it will be powering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BJMoose Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 This may be a stupid question, but where exactly can I switch an MBR into a GUID? I poked around in Disk Utility and could not fond it... Also, will setting sata to AHCI in BIOS affect my windows if i have not yet used that option? I wouldnt mind switching it every time, because i dont use windows that much, but just curious. Have YOU personally put up a step by step guide on how you did it? I would actually be interested in doing the same setup you have... I will be purchasing a 7950GT sometime this next week, and I also have dual 24 inch montiors it will be powering. If you are using Leo4All, there really is not the need for a step by step other than checking the boxes I mentioned above. However, if you search for the thread I mentioned, you will find mine and a few others who have posted step by steps for different kinds of install disks. Personally, even though I try out all the install disks to see what's new, I set my system up using my actual OSX retail disk, just because I think it's cleaner that way. Definitely not the easiest way though. Yes, if you set your bios for AHCI and haven't added those drivers when you installed windows (hit f6) you probably won't be able to boot into windows without changing bios back. As far as mbr and guid partitioning, when you get to the partition part of the Disk Utility, there's a button at the bottom that says 'options'. Press that and you'll see the options to format via mbr or guid. It won't show up in you're just erasing the disk, only when actually partitioning it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eboyer Posted May 23, 2008 Author Share Posted May 23, 2008 do i NEED to choose a 'vanilla' kernal when installing?... what exactly does that do? I'm going to give GUID a shot tonight, and follow some of these tutorials and see if i can get somthin goin. I see there is a 2900 driver in kalyway's latest package, so I may give that a shot too.* EDIT* also, SMBIOS? do i need that?Moose, if you are free for a little bit on AIM at any point one of these evenings, i'd like to ask you directly, so it would be a little quicker and more efficient than trying the forums. or anyone in that matter, my AIM is in my signature, i'd love to get this working asap. BIG NEWS! For the first time after 30+ installs, leopard is WORKING on my machine.the following things, may be simple fixes, i need your guys' help. ~hard drives showing up as orange(not a big deal) ~LAN on the BADAXE2 not working. simple driver? patch? ~audio-havent checked yet but i would assume its not working. ~video.. 2900xt not working above 1024x768. any 2900 enthusiasts out there? im {censored} excited about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eboyer Posted May 25, 2008 Author Share Posted May 25, 2008 LAN is STILL not working for me, with all the releases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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