iPC 10.5.6: unable to select hard drive during installation, plus other strange problems

[Christopher W]

Hey all - I'm having some weird problems trying to install X.

 

First off, my spec:

 

Intel Q6600

Asus P5Q-E (with patched BIOS ROM)

NVidia 9800GTX+

Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5Tb SATA HDD

Lite-On P-ATA DVD/RW drive

 

First of all, the PATA optical drive isn't even recognised by iPC - I also get an AppleVIAATADriver error during boot, which is weird because my mobo doesn't have any VIA chipsets on it... To get iPC to boot at all, I have to use (ironically) my XBox 360 HD-DVD USB drive!

 

I've partitioned my drive according to this guide, with a 500mb FAT32 partition followed by an HFS+ partition for OSX and some other bits and pieces (all appropriate partitions are set as Primary).

 

After flashing Juzzi's ROM for my mobo, iPC boots from the DVD fine and I can get to the GUI installer. However, when I get to "where do you want to install mac os x?" I'm shown no hard drives.

 

In Disk Utility, my drive shows up, and the FAT32 partition shows up and is verifiable. However, although the other partitions (another primary HFS+, a primary NTFS and an Extended NTFS) all show in red - along with "Verify volume failed: Unrecognized Filesystem."

 

Clicking on the hard drive and clicking Verify shows the Unrecognized Filesystem error for "disk0s2", the HFS+ partition (disk0s1 is the FAT32 partition). "XP" (partition 3) shows as "Verify volume failed: Invalid request." The Extended partition shows as "Verify volume failed: Invalid request." too.

 

I partitioned the drive with the latest version of Parted Magic beforehand; am I missing something here? I've tried both the Intel ICH10R SATA interface and the Silicon Image SATA interface on the mobo, plus I've tried setting the HDD as IDE, SATA Enhanced and SATA Compatible. Nothing works.

 

 

 

Is there anything I'm missing here? This is my first OSX install so I have no prior experience. I'm downloading iATKOS to give that a go, but iPC seems to have the most built-in support for my hardware so that's why I chose it first. Also, I'm going to have OSX on one partition and Windows XP Pro on another (because most of the time I have to use Windows)... Is there a neater way of doing this than the current method I'm trying?

 

Thanks in advance...

[Beerkex'd]

That sounds like a total mess.

 

I didn't look at the tutorial you followed, but I would start clean and use Apple Disk Utility on the install DVD to format and partition the drive, instead of using external utilities. Apple Disk Utility is very powerful if you click in the right places..different options appear depending on if you select a partition on a drive, or the drive itself...click the question mark to get some help if you need it.

 

It doesn't do NTFS, but you can make FAT32 partitions and then convert or reformat them to NTFS later.

 

btw I have the same motherboard as you. You're right of course, there is no VIA chipset on this board, but the Marvell 6121 PATA controller driver is loaded from AppleVIAATA.kext. I guess VIA chipsets use Marvell controllers too.

 

I have the iPC 10.5.6 final DVD, and it boots fine on my PATA DVD drive connected to the 6121. I'm using original ASUS BIOS.

Unless we don't have the same iPC DVD, I don't understand why it wasn't working for you.

 

The Silicon Image SATA ports you can forget about, I don't think anyone has that working, use the ICH10R. Six SATA ports should be enough anyway..

 

Don't forget to set it to AHCI mode in the BIOS.

 

Windows (XP/Vista) won't install with this setting, you need to download AHCI drivers for the ICH10R from intel, put them on an USB stick or CD or whatever (you can also put them on your Windows install disc and reburn it) and when Windows asks if you want to load drivers during setup, point it to the (unzipped) drivers, where ever they are.

 

Also consider not installing Windows at all, and run it in a virtual machine under OSX instead (unless you're using Windows for games of course). Performance should be off the charts with the CPU you have.

 

I just saw that we have the same video card. I have attached my DSDT.aml that has the 9800GTX and the Marvell 88E8056 injected to it. If you use this you don't need to patch your BIOS, you can update to the latest BIOS from ASUS.

9800GTX will work right away with 10.5.6 vanilla Nvidia kexts and this DSDT. For the 88E8056 you should disable LAN2 in the BIOS (top LAN port) during install, and you'll need to stick a patched AppleYukon2.kext in IONetworkingFamily.kext plugins folder. I've attached that too.

Also attached are fully working drivers for the on-board sound, thanks to TheKing.

 

After installing iPC, you can install the Chameleon 2.0 bootloader and use the AHCI injector kexts that come with it to fix the orange icons for the ICH10R and get it properly recognized in system profiler. Then you won't have to modify the Apple AHCI kexts.

 

For more information, search my previous posts!

DSDT.aml.zip

P5Q_E_sound_and_LAN.zip

[Christopher W]

Oh wow, that's great fortune for me - thanks for the detailed info.

 

After my OP, I continued to try and reinstall Windows (after I knackered my partitions the first time around) - and bizarrely, having updated the BIOS, Windows would give the classic BSOD error during final installation even though my SATA drive was set in IDE mode (and even more strangely, it installed perfectly the first time when I turned on the machine!)

 

 

 

Anyway, I now have a working Windows partition [edit: with the drive set to AHCI mode!], and it's the only partition on the disc. I'm using a stock ASUS firmware on the machine. I'd like to have OSX on its own partition on the same drive - are there any steps you'd recommend to help ease me into the installation process? I can just go and make a new FAT32 partition in Windows, then format it as HFS+ during OSX install right?

 

 

Also, without the cooked firmware for my mobo, how will I be able to boot from the iPC disc if it just silently reboots after it begins to load Darwin? I really appreciate you attaching the DSDT and kexts with the stuff injected in, but I have to be honest: I've seen lots of talk about all that stuff, I don't really know what they're for. (time to go do some more research!)

 

I may call on you for some more help soon... Thanks for your detailed reply though, I would've never figured out some of the stuff you mentioned I should do prior to install. (Where do you pick up stuff like that?!)

[Beerkex'd]

First I have to say that I can't help you with the partitioning, I have OSX installed on a separate GUID partitioned drive with a separate NTFS data-only partition and Windows installed on another. I don't know how to run both OSes from the same drive.

Look here for solutions: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showforum=104

 

You don't need a patched BIOS ("cooked firmware") to boot from the iPC DVD. But once you get to the installer you WILL have to select one of the generic DSDT patches under custom install, otherwise you will never get your installation to boot. You can replace it with mine later for fully working 9800GTX+, 88E8056 time machine fix and all four cores on your CPU working.

 

You have to set the ICH10 to AHCI mode in the BIOS before installing OSX.

 

Since you have now installed Windows in IDE mode instead of doing what I told you (!) you'll have to find one of the posts here on the forum that tells you how to change the drivers in Windows so that it will load in AHCI mode - or you can go into the BIOS and change between AHCI and IDE mode every time you change operating system. It's your choice!

 

Try booting the DVD with CPUS=1, this will enable only one core on your CPU and (if your BIOS settings are right) you should be able to boot.

You can fix that later by using the patched DSDT.

 

Here is an earlier post of mine with some more details, especially pay attention to the BIOS settings:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1130219

 

..I picked up all this stuff by spending a lot of my spare time reading anything I thought was interesting in this forum.

[Christopher W]

You don't need a patched BIOS ("cooked firmware") to boot from the iPC DVD. But once you get to the installer you WILL have to select one of the generic DSDT patches under custom install, otherwise you will never get your installation to boot. You can replace it with mine later for fully working 9800GTX+, 88E8056 time machine fix and all four cores on your CPU working.

 

You have to set the ICH10 to AHCI mode in the BIOS before installing OSX.

 

Since you have now installed Windows in IDE mode instead of doing what I told you (!) you'll have to find one of the posts here on the forum that tells you how to change the drivers in Windows so that it will load in AHCI mode - or you can go into the BIOS and change between AHCI and IDE mode every time you change operating system. It's your choice!

 

 

Nononono, don't worry - when I reinstalled Windows for the second time, I made absolutely sure that my SATA was set up in AHCI mode! (I even made an XP installation disc with the SATA drivers slipstreamed so it'd work )

 

 

I'll give it another go once I've figured out the best way to partition my drive... Prepare for a return with more questions if it doesn't work

 

Thanks so far!

[Christopher W]

Ok, an update.

 

I'm finally into OSX - the kX Audigy drivers work fine (I have sound), NVKush sorted my 9800GTX+ (well, it runs at 1440x900 anyway). Chameleon 2 RC1 with DSDT is installed (thanks to some help from nawcom on IRC) and dsdt.aml is in the root and working alright so it seems.

 

I still have some things to sort, though. Here's what's not working:

 

P-ATA DVD Drive

Onboard NIC

Onboard sound

 

 

My PATA drive doesn't work in OSX, and it didn't work in boot either. I always got the still waiting for root device error if I tried to install from the internal drive - it's weird, because it's a brand new optical drive (a Lite-On) and it's the only PATA device on the board. I can't use it inside OSX either because it doesn't show up (thank god for my Microsoft HD-DVD USB drive!)

 

 

Although I've tried lots of times, I can't get the AppleYukon2.kext to 'stick' when I put it in the right directory. Every time I reboot, there's still no network cards appearing in the Apple preferences. The same goes for the onboard sound - it doesn't appear after a reboot. Is there any recommended method for installing these kexts?

[Beerkex'd]

If you used my DSDT.aml (and your video card is plugged into the first PCIEx16 slot on the motherboard, where it should be), you don't need NVKush. That's the whole point of injecting video into the DSDT.

 

When installing, under custom install, did you install any drivers from the chipset, LAN, Video or sound sections?

After installing, did you add anything to /System/Library/Extensions?

 

Did you configure the BIOS exactly like I said?

 

Did you put the kexts I attached in /extra/extensions?

 

If you did and it still isn't working, install Kext Utility:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...p;mode=threaded

 

Unzip the attached kext for the Marvell 6121 P-ATA controller and stick it in /extra/extensions.

 

Then make a backup somewhere of /extra/extensions (very important - so you can easily add files later if you need to) and drag & drop the Extensions folder onto the Kext Utility icon.

 

This will build an extensions.mkext inside the /Extra folder.

 

Then delete the Extensions folder (you made a backup, right?) leave the extensions.mkext in /extra and reboot.

AppleVIAATA.kext.zip

[Christopher W]

Appreciate your reply - I'll answer blow-by-blow.

 

If you used my DSDT.aml (and your video card is plugged into the first PCIEx16 slot on the motherboard, where it should be), you don't need NVKush. That's the whole point of injecting video into the DSDT.

 

I did put your DSDT into the root, as soon as I installed Chameleon 2... However it didn't work for some reason; I got tearing when I dragged windows and there was clearly no hardware support.

 

I tried creating a custom EFI string using gfxutil but that only partially worked (no QE) - only NVKush gave me full hardware support. Maybe it's a different hardware or revision ID?

 

When installing, under custom install, did you install any drivers from the chipset, LAN, Video or sound sections?

 

Yep. I carefully chose only the ones I thought were necessary to get my system working (Intel SATA and RAID drivers, the appropriate Marvell driver for the LAN, a handful of apps etc...) Should I have not bothered installing anything at all except for the Intel drivers, and just manually put all your drivers into /Extra/Extensions?

 

After installing, did you add anything to /System/Library/Extensions?

 

Nope, although I've tried since then (replacing kexts, updating kexts). I reversed the changes after they made no difference. I tried putting them into /Extra/Extensions first (rebuilding the cache each time and rebooting) but it's made no difference. It's almost like OSX is reverting to an inbuilt set of kexts and not respecting the fact I'm trying to use custom kexts or overriding the defaults!

 

Did you configure the BIOS exactly like I said?

 

Yep. The restart of my system was done with SATA as AHCI (and Windows installed as AHCI), ACPI enabled, top LAN port disabled.

 

Did you put the kexts I attached in /extra/extensions?

 

See above

 

If you did and it still isn't working, install Kext Utility:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...p;mode=threaded

 

Unzip the attached kext for the Marvell 6121 P-ATA controller and stick it in /extra/extensions.

 

Then make a backup somewhere of /extra/extensions (very important - so you can easily add files later if you need to) and drag & drop the Extensions folder onto the Kext Utility icon.

 

This will build an extensions.mkext inside the /Extra folder.

 

Then delete the Extensions folder (you made a backup, right?) leave the extensions.mkext in /extra and reboot.

 

Perhaps building the extensions.mkext is the step I'm missing... I didn't realise I had to regenerate the .mkext each time I added extensions, I thought just rebuilding the cache and rebooting would do that. (Or am I barking up the wrong tree, as such?)

 

Another strange curiosity - I was using the PC and then all of a sudden, the PS/2 keyboard just stopped working (and this was with the PS/2 keyboard patch installed right from the start) - I had to install the VoodooPS2 driver to make it work again. I love weird bugs that just appear from nowhere

 

 

I'll give your troubleshooting steps a go when I get back home - I have to record a gig tonight so I won't be back until late, but I think I might have an hour at home before I have to head off to the venue. I will definitely attempt all these steps within the next 12 hours though - if I can't get anywhere, I might just try reinstalling OSX from scratch again with absolutely no drivers, and then just put your drivers in!

 

 

Final question for this post - how did you create the DSDT patch for your/my CPU? I've been reading around and understand what the DSDT is doing, but I'm still mystified as to how you created the DSDT patch for the particular CPU. Did you have to write it by hand, or did you base it on another processor or what? (Am I not fully understanding how the DSDTs are created?)

 

 

Cheers for now...

Christopher

[Beerkex'd]

About your video problem with my DSDT - I think you just need to plug in your monitor in the other output.

 

Also, DSDT.aml goes in /extra, don't put it at the root of the drive. Read the Chameleon 2.0 docs! jeez...noobs..!

 

My device ID is 0x0612 - my 9800GTX works with unmodified Apple 10.5.6 NVidia drivers with either the 9800GTX EFI string from OSX86Tools, or with my DSDT patch.

 

DSDT is part of the ACPI section in the motherboards BIOS data, it is not CPU specific, it is motherboard specific. What BIOS version are you using on your P5Q-E? My DSDT.aml was generated from the 1901 BIOS and I'm using 2001 now with no problems. Maybe it's best to update it if you have an older BIOS version.

Stick the unzipped BIOS file on a USB flash drive and press ALT+F12 (or is it F2?) during boot up to start the built in BIOS flash tool.

 

My DSDT.aml was generated with this nice app here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=142434

 

The 88E8056 (thanks krazubu) and 9800GTX+ (thanks Roisoft) has been inserted by hand later, I couldn't get it to work using the patcher alone.

 

Rebuilding the cache just rebuilds the extensions.mkext in System/Library. It doesn't do anything for the stuff you have in /extra/extensions or extra/extensions.mkext - OSX doesn't know about /Extra (again - that's the whole idea!) it's your bootloader that handles all of that stuff.

 

It is not recommended to use PS2 and USB input devices at the same time. If you must, google VoodooPS2Controller and try that instead of the driver you're using now. I don't know if it can run from /extra/extensions.mkext - try it and see. Rebuild a new extensions.mkext with VoodooPS2Controller in it, following the same process I outlined before - and remember to keep a backup!

 

Have a nice gig.

[Christopher W]

Ok, an update... You're going to be scratching your head at this one!

 

The BIOS is running latest (v2001). Nothing changed since last time. I ended up giving up on the previous installation, and starting again from scratch. This time, I went for the vanilla kernel and the bare minimum of drivers to get the thing working (Intel SATA drivers, Audigy drivers for sound).

 

I put DSDT.aml into /Extra instead of the root (I was told to put it in the root by someone on IRC, so I did what he said ).

 

I installed Kext Utility and copied over all the kexts from the P5Q_E_10.5.6.zip file you uploaded. I followed your instructions to the letter, building the larger mkext and deleting Extensions from /Extra afterwards.

 

I rebooted, and.. The graphics card is still running in software mode, with screen tearing. LAN doesn't work, my PATA drive doesn't show up and onboard sound doesn't work either. In fact, just to get it to boot I had to manually specify cpus=1 at the Cham2 bootloader screen (which implies DSDT.aml isn't even being accepted by Chameleon!) (Putting DSDT.aml into the root made no difference, of course.)

 

The PATA drive still doesn't show up in X. The graphics card refuses to work in accelerated mode, and I can only choose from 1024x768. It's not even detecting my monitor (before, it used to show SyncMaster in Display Profile). Even MORE bizarrely, my PS/2 keyboard worked just fine with the patch from the iPC disc... Until I installed all of those kexts, and rebooted. After that, I had to install VoodooPS2 to get it to work again.

 

 

What am I missing here? It's really, REALLY strange that all of the exact kexts which are needed for this motherboard (with what sounds like an identical configuration to yours!) just don't seem to want to work.

 

On the first boot after mkexting all those extra kexts, I did notice some errors or warnings in the log as it scrolled by... Is there an easy way of capturing that to file for analysis?

 

 

 

(And what the hell am I missing here?! this machine is almost totally vanilla apart from the one small batch of extra kexts I've added and mkexted, I can't think of any reason why your machine works perfectly and my almost identical setup just refuses to work properly.)

[Beerkex'd]

I'm stumped. I'm sorry to say that I have no idea why it isn't working for you.

 

Look through this post again just to doublecheck stuff..

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1130219

 

Did you plug in your monitor (funny, I also have a Syncmaster, mine is a 943BX) into the other output? You should be using the one that's closest to the motherboard.

 

I don't understand why Chameleon 2.0 doesn't load the extensions or the DSDT.aml.

 

It's possible that it didn't get installed correctly. Did you use the installer?

 

I just remembered that I couldn't get Chameleon 2.0 to work until i deleted the file 'boot' from the previous bootloader at the root of my drive.

Try that (you need to enable viewing of hidden files somehow, or you can just delete it from terminal) and then reinstall Chameleon 2.0.

 

Open Console in the utilities folder (or just type Console in Spotlight) to see the system logs.

[Christopher W]

Something reaaaaaaaaally screwy going on here.

 

Nothing's changed on my system since yesterday, yet now I'm getting a halt when trying to boot into OSX. (the dreaded IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vectors 0:23)... I'm going to start fresh with iPC once more and then I think I might try iATKOS if I get nowhere.

 

I would be fascinated to see what you'd do (and in what order) if you were setting up this machine for OSX!

 

I might buy a second hard drive soon, and try installing iPC to that as well. I'd just prefer to keep things simple - one disk, one SATA port in use to start with for OSX installs. Walk before you can run and all that

 

 

 

Responding to your previous Qs - yes, I used the Cham2 installer. I'm using the graphics port which is furthest away from the TV OUT connector on my graphics card (i.e., the one closest to the motherboard - I've always used that one as my primary monitor output).

 

I think for now it's time to sleep on it. Hopefully my brain will have some wonderful solution to the problem in the morning (hey, at least we can live in hope ) Thanks as always for your input on this, it's a bit like being thrown in at the deep end when you have these really weird problems, but I'm still hoping that we can crack it. Makes very little sense really considering just how similar our machines are!

[Beerkex'd]

I'm getting a halt when trying to boot into OSX. (the dreaded IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vectors 0:23)...

 

That happens to me too. Boot from the DVD with -v, then when it passes the mbinit:done message, press the reset button and you can boot from HDD again.

[Christopher W]

Well, I'm properly dumbfounded by this. I've done yet another fresh reinstall (formatting the partition beforehand) and I'm still having this problem with kexts not loading.

 

Here's a specific list of all the things I chose for the most recent install:

• Default kernel
  
• No video, chipset, graphics drivers
  
• Intel ICHx SATA drivers + Intel ICH10 SATA Support (interestingly the drives all showed up as removable drives before installing Chameleon 2, they showed up fine afterwards...)
  
• ACPI Fix
  
• Verbose mode
  
• Patched USB Drivers
  
• ACPI Fix (because I got the "using 16384 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers" problem without it)
  
• Patch DSDT
  
• Most of the useful applications
  
• VoodooPS2 driver (after install)
  

I put the drivers from your P5Q-E zip file into /Extra/Extensions, dragged the folder into Kext Utility to build the mkext then deleted /Extensions. I installed Chameleon 2 and put DSDT.aml into the root of the drive, rebooted... And DSDT.aml didn't seem to work because I just got a reboot during boot.

 

So, I'm back to square one... The graphics card isn't working in hardware mode, the PATA optical drive isn't showing up, onboard network isn't working and the machine will only boot with cpus=1. Oh, and I'm totally bamboozled! :/

 

 

Am I missing anything here? Did you do anything different at all with your install? The only real difference I can think of here is that you have a Pentium 4 and I have an Intel Q6600... Which kernel are you running?

[Beerkex'd]

I'm using the Voodoo 9.5.0 kernel. But I don't think that'll help you.

 

It's really strange the problem you are having. It should work the same for you as it does for me - and yours is supposed to be more compatible because of the CPU you have. I don't get it.

 

btw I've just done a 'archive and install' from a HDD partition containing an Apple retail 10.5.6 DVD.

 

So I'm now running retail OS X 10.5.6 on my P5Q-E with the only modifications being the extensions.mkext, the voodoo kernel and Chameleon 2.0 bootloader.

 

I'm not sure if it means anything - my drive is formatted as GPT. Are you on MBR? I think you are.

I would try installing on a clean, zeroed out hard drive and use Apple Disk Utility to format and set it up with GUID partition table. If you need a NTFS storage partition on the drive you can create a FAT32 partition with Disk Utility and convert it to NTFS from within Windows later on.

 

Make sure you've got the files from this post:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1130219

 

Don't forget you also need to include AppleDecrypt.kext or DSMOS.kext, a PS2 fix if you're using the PS2 port on the P5Q-E, and a disabler.kext if you need to disable intelcpupowermanagement.kext or other stuff.