virgin install on GA-G31M-ES2L broken by bootloader?

[gearheadgeek]

My MacBook Pro is getting flakey. I suspect graphics hardware as I get strange artifacts and the user interface will freeze randomly. Being laid off, I can't afford to replace it, so when I heard about hackintoshes, I got excited. Other places on the web made it sound like the answer to a cheap Mac, but here I read that a hackintosh is a hobby and if you want a Mac, buy one. Too late - I already had gathered the parts.

 

I did a bunch of research and chose a GA-G31M-ES2L because it was cheap and the hardware compatibility list said is was the most compatible. I have read many different installation instructions, some for the G31M and some for others, few of which agreed on the right way to do it. Most of it is black magic, probably because most of the users don't care about technical details, but random attempts without understanding what is happening is hard for me to take after 30 years of programming and makes for very slow going. For example, I thought retail install was the best since I have the 10.5.0 disk I bought for my laptop and I am interested in clean updates. I tried half a dozen boot 132 disks. Some didn't work at all, some worked poorly. The one that works the best is the most simple - it has no extra kexts. But I had to get to the point of understanding that no kexts was a good thing with a G31M. I didn't find that anywhere because all the methodology seems to be black magic. But I got Leopard installed and updated to 10.5.5 after a few tries, mostly following jdratlif's instructions. I don't understand why, but unlike other people, ethernet works OOB and I have working PS2 keyboard and mouse, but only USB mouse - no keyboard. But attempts to use efi booting have failed. "Install pc-efi v9 from the netkas folder inside leopard-install-kit" seemed to have no effect. Running bootloader.app (recommended in another post) permitted me to boot without a CD but left me with no keyboard - either usb or ps2. I don't know why - a binary compare of the before and after .../Extensions contents showed no difference. I suspect that efi boot stuff from bootloader.app included kexts that killed the keyboard but I don't know how or where they are, even though I have spent days reading posts. Geekboy recommended Chameleon_DFE_for_Hard_Disk.dmg but that scares me because I read that it is custom for Wind (which is a neat box) installs.

 

So, can anyone point me to an efi install that won't kill my keyboard? I don't want a gui or grub - I don't want to multi boot.

 

Can anyone point me to material that will help me understand this efi boot stuff?

 

Carl

[gearheadgeek]

Murphy strikes - sort of. I stumbled across munky's post (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=127330) which answered a lot of questions and did things I understand - fdisk, dd, mkdir, cp, etc. And my box boots without CD. Unfortunately, also without a keyboard. And I did not put any kexts on rdisk0s1. So any help would still be appreciated.

 

Carl

[everdone]

Take a look at Digital_Dreamers thread in the Tutorials Forum. The second post there contains a tutorial by Wolfienuke that is based on Munkeys work. Wolfie created a script that 'automates' setting up the EFI partition for boot. He has a folder for kexts, one for a kernel and you can also add a com.apple.boot.plist to his installation folder. Load the kexts, configure the plist (if desired) and run the script to setup the EFI partition.

 

D_Ds script (first post) is another way to create a bootable Mac OS. He uses Chameleon2 or 1 as bootloader and adds kexts to an /Extras folder.

 

Both methods will work on this board. Just this week I configured one using Wolfies technique. I used all the kexts from D_Ds installer (except for audio and graphics) and placed them in Wolfie's kext folder (replacing the ones provided by Wolfie). I deleted the kernel from the kernel folder, since I am using the vanilla kernel native to 10.5.7 (no need for a system.kext in the kexts folder). I added a basic plist with only a timer key with time string to provide a pause during boot in case I would need to add a boot flag and a place for an EFi string for video (if needed) to Wolfies install folder.

 

I used a boot132 disk to initially boot the computer and install from my 10.5.1 DVD. Once installed, I restarted using the boot132 disk. I went through setup to create an account and then updated to 10.5.6 using the Apple comboupdate. I then ran Woflies script equipped as described above.

 

At reboot everything worked except audio. At that point in time i was using the on board video which gave a fixed resolution of 1024x768. I then went to 10.5.7 using Apples update downloaded from their site.

 

I rebooted into 10.5.7 and added two kexts for audio using Kext Helper. Those two kexts were added to the S/L/E folder. At this point those two kexts were the only non-vanilla items in the fundamental install. The kexts in the EFI partition are in no danger of getting overwritten by a future Apple update.

 

Not liking the fixed 1024x768 resolution, I added an ATI 2400XT video card. This required modification of one kext in S/L/E and adding a Natit kext to the EFI partition.

 

The end result is a vanilla install with the exception of three modified kexts in S/L/E.

 

D_Ds script could also be used to configure this board. The same kexts would be used in either method. The difference is D_Ds method puts the kexts that would be in the EFI partition kext folder in an /Extras folder and uses a Chameleon bootloader instead of the Darwin loader used by Wolfie.

 

In all the methods used to create a bootable OS X, video is always a special case because of all the different video cards available. There will be some degree of searching and experimentation with different kexts, kext modifications and EFI strings to 'fix' video.

 

These are just the highlights outlining what I used to get the board working.

[jonokti]

Do you have a MBP with a GeForce 8600 ?

 

http://theappleblog.com/2009/06/01/apple-e...to-three-years/

[gearheadgeek]

Do you have a MBP with a GeForce 8600 ?

 

http://theappleblog.com/2009/06/01/apple-e...to-three-years/

 

That would be great, but apparently my MBP is too old (about 3 years old). It has an ATI Radeon X1600/

 

Thanks anyway,

 

Carl

 

Take a look at Digital_Dreamers thread in the Tutorials Forum. The second post there contains a tutorial by Wolfienuke that is based on Munkeys work. Wolfie created a script that 'automates' setting up the EFI partition for boot. He has a folder for kexts, one for a kernel and you can also add a com.apple.boot.plist to his installation folder. Load the kexts, configure the plist (if desired) and run the script to setup the EFI partition.

 

Thanks for the reply. I will take a look.

 

Carl

[gearheadgeek]

Just this week I configured one using Wolfies technique. I used all the kexts from D_Ds installer (except for audio and graphics) and placed them in Wolfie's kext folder (replacing the ones provided by Wolfie).

Why did you use kexts from D_Ds instead of Wolfie?

I used a boot132 disk to initially boot the computer and install from my 10.5.1 DVD. Once installed, I restarted using the boot132 disk. I went through setup to create an account and then updated to 10.5.6 using the Apple comboupdate.

Oy. I did the same but 10.5.6 update dies at the 70% mark and I have to start over. What is your magic?

I rebooted into 10.5.7 and added two kexts for audio using Kext Helper. Those two kexts were added to the S/L/E folder. At this point those two kexts were the only non-vanilla items in the fundamental install.

Why do those have to go in S/L/E ?

The kexts in the EFI partition are in no danger of getting overwritten by a future Apple update.

Yeah, that is what I like about Munky's method.

Not liking the fixed 1024x768 resolution, I added an ATI 2400XT video card. This required modification of one kext in S/L/E and adding a Natit kext to the EFI partition.

Did you have to modify the kext before installing the card? Which kext required modification?

These are just the highlights outlining what I used to get the board working.

Rather nice overview. Thanks.

 

Carl

[everdone]

To answer your questions: I put the audio kexts in S/L/E because they did not work from the EFI partition.

I downloaded the 10.5.6 comboupdate from Apple and have in on a USB thumb drive. I copy it to the HD and install from there.

I used D_Ds kexts primarily because they are, in most cases, newer. Although in reality it probably makes little difference which ones you use.

The modded kext was ATIRaedon2000.kext. The change was to put the device ID for my particular video card in place of one of the existing device IDs. Copy the kext and place the copy in a convenient place. Modify and use Kext Helper to install, restart (natit is already in EFI partition) and all should be good. To be safe keep copies of the modified and unmodified kext in a convenient location. The device ID will be listed in SystemProfile in the Graphics section.