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my OSx86 (iDeneb on Asus)

680i-osx

By 680i-osx,
in OSx86 10.5 (Leopard)

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680i-osx
680i-osx
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I was a Windows user since the 95 version. It was running on an IBM Aptiva box that really sucked.

Since then, I used to run all flavors of Windows in my PCs (that I built myself, never got a "brand PC" again) until the XP version.

One day I felt I needed something new, something that could free me out from all the Windows problems (you know, frequent crashes, all sorts of malwares you get just surfing the net, and so on...).

So I bought my first Mac, the first generation MacBook Pro 17 just a few weeks after its arrive into the stores. I was amazed by everything from the external looks, the hardware inside, to of course, the "most advanced operating system in the world", as they say. It simply is the most stable, secure over the net and good looking OS I ever experienced.

And now that I built a new PC just for games, I thought it should be great to run OS X on it... The best hardware you can pay for, customized to YOUR specs in the way YOU want, with YOUR favorite parts, running the best OS.

That was how I came to the OSx86 world... And I was very happy to realize I'm not alone, there are so many people with similar wishes, working hard to make it a reality for more and more users. The project is so huge and it is quite clear that Apple could make quite a profit on it, that I can't understand why Apple doesn't allow the installation of OSX on non Apple machines.

After some research, I've learned quite a lot about installing those hacks in a PC, and I realized how hard is to make it on a nvidia 680i based board... Sometimes it was so disappointing that I even considered buying an Intel based mobo. But after a good number of attempts I came into a recipe that worked for me and should work for those with similar hardware.

 

 

The hardware:

=============

 

- Asus P5N32-E SLI (non plus, 680i SLI);

- Intel Core2Duo E6600 2.4GHz @ 3.375GHz;

- Corsair Dominator 2x2GB DDR2 1066 @ 1100MHz CL5;

- MSI GeForce 8800 Ultra OC (factory overclock) @ 660MHz 768MB;

- Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI (real X-Fi hardware);

- PCI firewire card, Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A chip, 3 ports;

- Asus bundle SupremeFX 8ch "HD" sound card (ADI 1988B);

- 10 onboard USB 2.0 ports, using ports 1~6;

- Dual onboard gigabit LAN, 680i MAC with Marvell PHY (88E1116);

- Maxtor 300GB 7200rpm S-ATA with the hacked Mac OSX;

- Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm S-ATA running Windows XP and all my games;

- Seagate Barracuda ES 500GB 7200rpm S-ATA, J-HFS+, data storagen;

- Old Pioneer DVD-ROM drive, still kickin' in the parallel IDE interface;

- HP LP2475w 24" wide LCD screen, primary (1920x1200x24@60Hz);

- Mitsubishi 19" wide LCD screen, secondary (1440x900x24@60Hz);

- Apple aluminum keyboard (MB110J/A) through USB;

- Microsoft Optical IntelliMouse through USB;

- Enermax Galaxy 1000W, SilverStone FT01 case, fan controllers, Kenwood amp and speakers, external firewire HD and DVDRW, etc.

 

 

The software:

=============

 

- iDeneb v1.4 10.5.6 + some patches (see below);

- Windows XP SP2 + lots of games.

 

 

The recipe:

===========

 

Get the "iDeneb_v1.4_OSx86_ISO" image file somewhere, it has 4.31GB and a md5 sum of: f02f68782e1526b65f2514e4292eed10

A bit of Googling and programs like Transmission would do to get the image.

After downloading, burn the image into a DVD-R. Avoid cheap blank disks here. I didn't patch the image before burning, just download and burn.

 

Now to the most important part of the installation, the custom packages to install. After partitioning (don't forget to use journaled HFS+ and MBR) you will have to choose the right patches for your system.

I came to this list after several attempts, eliminating each problem at a time, and now my hackintosh is very stable and fast now.

 

----------------------------------

- Language packs

---- As you wish

- X11

- iDeneb Essential System

- Patches 10.5.6 Ready

---- Audio

------- Analog Devices

---------- ADI1988B

---- Chipset

------- AppleNForceATA

---- Kernel

------- Kernel 9.5.0 Voodoo

---- Fix

------- AppleSMBIOS

---------- AppleSMBIOS Mac Pro

------- Seatbel Fix

------- Power Off Fix

---- Video

------- NVidia

---------- NVinject

------------- NVinject 0.2.1 768MB

----------------------------------

 

After the reboot, I did install the following 3rd party patches (both found in this forum):

- nForceLAN 0.62.12n.pkg.zip

nForceLAN_0.62.12n.pkg.zip

just unpack and install the package

- AppleNForceATA.kext.zip

AppleNForceATA.kext.zip

after unpacking, used Kext Helper b7 to install it

Kext_Helper_b7.zip

 

I think that's all I did...

Don't forget to configure your sound output to "line out".

 

 

What is working (in OSx86, of course):

======================================

 

- Both processor cores, as they show up in the "activity monitor" and in the Cinebench R10 benchmark. System Profiler detects two cores at 3.38GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 1.5GHz bus, 4GB memory at 1091MHz;

- Videocard recognized as "NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra" in the Cinebench R10 and scoring higher than a Mac Pro's Radeon HD 2600XT. The System Profiler detects it as "Graphics by NVIDIA", Core Image is hardware accelerated and supports Quartz Extreme and rotation. Running the desktop with dual displays at both monitor's native resolution. All desktop animations and video playback are smooth;

- All S-ATA HD detected and mounted at boot. Works as they should;

- IDE DVD-ROM mounts disks normally, played DVD movies without problem;

- External Firewire HD mounts, reads and writes;

- USB memories mounts, reads and writes fine;

- Bundled soundcard detected as "Intel High Definition Audio", device ID is 0x104381F2. So far I'm just using the line out and front panel out and they work without any distortion;

- Both ethernet ports, connects and assigns IP through DHCP. Net surfing works fine, downloads 700MB Linux ISOs in about 2 minutes (close to the line limit) and mounts them without problem;

- Keyboard automatically recognized and working, including Exposé/multimedia control/volume keys (except brightness control, it does nothing when pressed);

- No stability problems at all! Leaving it on most of the time, sharing files, playing music and doing other stuff;

- Captures HDV through Firewire (Sony HDR-FX7), edit with Final Cut Studio 2, compress with h264, all as I did with my MBP 17, but much faster!

 

 

What is half working:

=====================

 

- Firewire could be faster (MBP 17's FW400 is quite faster than on the OSx86);

- Couldn't finish a DVD-R writing with Toast Titanium 7.1;

- Power off sometimes leaves the fans on, but the hard disks and displays are all shutdown properly;

- Boot time is a bit too long, ranging from 2min to 2 and a half minute.

 

 

What doesn't work:

==================

 

- Creative X-Fi soundcard... Not even recognized with any of the bundled drivers in the iDeneb DVD, and didn't find any driver on the net. I'm already planning a soundcard upgrade, maybe an Onkyo SE-200PCI LTD, but still not sure if Envy24HT cards with Wolfson WM-8740 D/A converter works on OSx86.

 

 

Blah blah:

==========

 

Dual booting without 3rd party bootloaders. I'm doing it just pressing F8 in the POST screen. Not a hassle since in most cases I'm booting into OSx86 anyways, and that is the default hard disk in the BIOS. (actually I'm too lazy to configure a bootloader...) And yes, the Apple keyboard does work fine even in the BIOS setting screen.

The X11 was selected during installation because it can be useful to other programs, like Gimp, and it's a bit confusing to get it by your own.

Didn't apply any of the official updates, just iTunes 8.1... My computer is working so nicely I don't want to screw it with unnecessary updates.

Do it at your own risk, I'm not responsible for any damage this little guide makes to your computer, car, house, conjugal life... ;)

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680i-osx
680i-osx
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I forgot to mention why I opened this topic...

It was just to serve as a reference for those trying to install OSx86 on a PC with similar hardware... To show them that it is possible and doesn't require any motherboard upgrade.

When I started the challenge, it was a bit hard to even find someone saying that it is possible, so that's why...

 

Again, ask anything you want, I know it sometimes is hard to find the answers... ;)

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Beerkex'd
Beerkex'd
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Yes, the post is practically useless without that information.

 

There is no driver for the X-Fi series cards, Creative Labs are keeping their hardware information to themselves.

There is however a very good OSX driver for SBLive/EmuAPS/Audigy series cards, based on the kX project driver.

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680i-osx
680i-osx
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Sorry about the patches, I did edit the post and now I hope to help more people.

I added a "recipe" section and attached the 3rd party patches used in the final stage of installation.

Keep comenting and feel free to ask! ;)

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verdant
verdant
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Sorry about the patches, I did edit the post and now I hope to help more people.

I added a "recipe" section and attached the 3rd party patches used in the final stage of installation.

Keep comenting and feel free to ask! ;)

 

An important omission is a list of the correct BIOS settings and IDE cable connections and PATA (IDE) device jumper settings if any readers of your "how to do" guide have played around with their BIOS settings and/or have a mixed SATA/PATA device system.......can be obtained from my Pre-Series 7 nForce chipset thread post #1........ ;)

 

Cheers

verdant

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680i-osx
680i-osx
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An important omission is a list of the correct BIOS settings and IDE cable connections and PATA (IDE) device jumper settings if any readers of your "how to do" guide have played around with their BIOS settings and/or have a mixed SATA/PATA device system.......can be obtained from my Pre-Series 7 nForce chipset thread post #1........ wink_anim.gif

 

Cheers

verdant

 

It wasn't supposed to be a complete guide, like yours. Indeed, your guide was really helpful, with lots of information, thank you! :)

I just want to make a specific post, so people can use it as resource to complement guides like yours. If I could encorage anyone with similar hardware to get into the OSx86 world, it is just enough for me.

 

But yes, the BIOS settings are important too, so here we go:

Flashed the BIOS to the latest version, 1701.

I disabled HPET, since even with the patches, I've found it was the culprit of the entire USB, firewire and sound getting down (couldn't even use the mouse to shuttdown), when transfering files through firewire. Now firewire is pretty stable, but a bit slow.

The only PATA device (DVD-ROM) is connected with a 80 wires cable and jumper set at master.

USB Legacy support enabled.

Onboard firewire was disabled since I got a better TI based card.

Besides the overclocking options, most things were left at default values.

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