[Guide] Vanilla Retail 10.6.x with Chameleon v2 for Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L

[rednous]

Hi Blackosx,

 

i would like to report another (a friend of mine computer) successful 10.6 retail install (preboot CD + retail DVD) on the following hardware:

 

Mobo: Gigabyte EP45-UD3LR, BIOS F7 (AHCI BIOS v1.20E)

RAM: 2 x 2GB DDR2 1066MHz Corsair

Video: Palit GeForce 9800 GT 512MB

HDD: SATA2 Seagate Baracuda 500GB

DVD: SATA2 LG (cant remember the exact model)

Audio: ALC888

Network: Realtek RTL8169C

USB Keyboard & mouse

 

Audio, video, network, USB EHCI and SATA2 patched in DSDT and fully working. sleep works fine, system awakes via the power switch, shutdown & restart works fine too.

 

Once again huge thanx to you for the nice guide, to all the people writing in this thread and to all others known and unknown at the OSx86 scene.

 

[blackosx]

Well done rednous, and thanks for reporting back

Maybe you & zawx can talk regarding (above) with his problem with 9800GT?

 

.......to all the people writing in this thread and to all others known and unknown at the OSx86 scene.

I'll second that! - Well done to everyone

[rednous]

Blackosx, yes sure we can talk with zawx about the above issue with 9800GT

 

so, zawx,

 

could you provide more details about what you've done: any additional kext(s) (if) you're loading in Extra or something else to get any clues why your video is buggy. even some screenshots from the System Profiler's Graphics section. more details about your motherboard model/vendor would be also of help. is your mobo gigabyte or asus, foxxcon, or any other vendor?

 

from my experience with nVidia and OS X i can tell that series 9 is very well supported, even 9800 GT is natively supported.

 

so here i have a question to ask you: did you performed the DSDT patching according to the Blackosx DSDT guide in the very first post of this thread? maybe you're missing some small, but important detail while performing DSDT patching (it's very tricky i can admit for myself).

 

your 9800 GT should work perfectly eventually!

 

zawx, am i right that your 9800GT (XFX Geforce 9800GT OC) is overclocked somehow? maybe this is the root of your problems?

[blackosx]

@Zawx - I hope rednous' comments etc. can help you.

Thanks rednous

 

EDIT: for zawx - You could also try using Chameleon's GraphicsEnabler option in the com.apple.Boot.plist to automatically inject the device properties for your video card at boot. To use this option you will need a DSDT without any patched video, and adding the following key/string to com.apple.Boot.plist.

 

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>yes</string>

 

The success of this all depends on whether your system reports your video card in pci0 or pci1 as Chameleon v2 RC3 r658 defaults to pci0. If your video card is detected by your system to be on pci1 then you could try Netkas' PC EFI v10.4.1, which defaults to pci1. (I think that will work with nVidia cards).

[philippebezoteaux]

Hey guys !

 

Just a quick reply to know how fast your system is shutting down ?

My Snow Leo takes ages to shutdown or restart.

 

What about you ?

If so any solutions that could speed it up ?

[blackosx]

Just a quick reply to know how fast your system is shutting down ?

My Snow Leo takes ages to shutdown or restart.

 

What about you ?

If so any solutions that could speed it up ?

My machine doesn't take too long to shutdown/restart. I will time it later this evening.

Has yours always taken ages or is just recently? Maybe you have installed a certain software that's slow at closing?

[rednous]

@Zawx - I hope rednous' comments etc. can help you.

Thanks rednous

 

EDIT: for zawx - You could also try using Chameleon's GraphicsEnabler option in the com.apple.Boot.plist to automatically inject the device properties for your video card at boot. To use this option you will need a DSDT without any patched video, and adding the following key/string to com.apple.Boot.plist.

 

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>yes</string>

 

The success of this all depends on whether your system reports your video card in pci0 or pci1 as Chameleon v2 RC3 r658 defaults to pci0. If your video card is detected by your system to be on pci1 then you could try Netkas' PC EFI v10.4.1, which defaults to pci1. (I think that will work with nVidia cards).

 

 

yeah, Blackosx, GraphicsEnabler key is very, very good suggestion, but i think zawx has given up on his 9800GT unfortunately.

[blackosx]

...but i think zawx has given up on his 9800GT unfortunately.

I think you're right. Thanks for your help though

[Slapdick]

First of all, I'd like to say a big thanks to blackosx for the guide.

 

I got Snow Leopard installed without any problems using the USB method. Oddly, I couldn't get the BootCD method working for me, I kept getting "AppleRTL8169Ethernet: phyWaitForAutoNegotiation TIMEOUT" so I went with the USB method, using your supplied DSDT without Ethernet and Video and it worked 100%. I have an HD4870, so I used the trick mentioned at the top of the thread and installation went flawlessly.

 

The only problem I have is trying to get my wireless PCI card working. It's a linksys WMP110, which has the Atheros AR5008 chipset, which I understand should "work out of the box". However, it doesn't even show up anywhere under the system profiler. The only thing showing up in my PCI section is the HD4870.

1. I had read that ticking the HPET box when making your DSDT can cause PCI cards to go missing, so I tried that but my card still won't show up in the PCI section of the System Profiler. I tried disabling HPET in the bios and that didn't help.
   
2. I don't see "AirPortAtheros" anywhere in my system profiler (but it does exist in the Library/Extensions/ directory on my SL drive. Should I drop it into the Extras/Extensions/ directory on the Cham drive?
   
3. I turned off the ethernet in the BIOS (I don't use it) and still no luck.
   

I feel like I'm missing something obvious. It seems search isn't working in these forums and I haven't made a lot of headway googling the issue, anything I'm missing?

[blackosx]

Hi Slapdick

 

Well done with your install and with getting your HD4870 working

 

I have heard a few people having problems with wireless NICs and not having one myself I haven't been able to do any tests. But if you have heard that your linksys WMP110 works out of the box, all I can suggest is asking whoever said that. I see you have done your research as yes, one solution could have been the HPET option in DSDT but I don't understand enough to know exactly why that would affect it.

 

You say you see AirPortAtheros in Library/Extensions on your SL drive. Is that a kext? did you have to install something with your linksys? If so, and it's not working then adding it to /E/E on the Cham partition probably won't make any difference.

 

I can't throw any more light on the problem as I have never tried setting up wireless on my hack. Hopefully you can find a solutions in another thread. Sorry not to be much help....

[DieBuche]

hey blackosx

i got a a really weird error with my 10.6.1:

 

I installed according to your guide, patching my dsdt, my extensions are those:

fakesmc

sleepenabler

platformuuid

OpenHalt

Nullcpu

LegacyHDA

 

For some reason, about 1-5 minutes after i booted all Hardrives seem to be inaccesible:

I can still move around windows etc. but as soon as any application needs to read/write i get the beachball.

I waited 15 min to now results, everything still spinning.

There is nothing in the log about it. I tried disconnecting my ide drive (other 3 are sata), but it didn't change anything.

In my bios ahci is enabled.

 

It would be great if u could point me in the right direction for a fix..

[blackosx]

This is a new one to me...

Maybe try running your system with only the system HDD connected to see if that works fine by itself?

[BJMoose]

Hey guys ! Just a quick reply to know how fast your system is shutting down ?

My Snow Leo takes ages to shutdown or restart. What about you ? ...

I'm using a different mb than yours, but from the time I hit the shutdown button, it takes 4-5 seconds tops. Hope this helps.

[zawx]

Blackosx, yes sure we can talk with zawx about the above issue with 9800GT

 

so, zawx,

 

could you provide more details about what you've done: any additional kext(s) (if) you're loading in Extra or something else to get any clues why your video is buggy. even some screenshots from the System Profiler's Graphics section. more details about your motherboard model/vendor would be also of help. is your mobo gigabyte or asus, foxxcon, or any other vendor?

 

from my experience with nVidia and OS X i can tell that series 9 is very well supported, even 9800 GT is natively supported.

 

so here i have a question to ask you: did you performed the DSDT patching according to the Blackosx DSDT guide in the very first post of this thread? maybe you're missing some small, but important detail while performing DSDT patching (it's very tricky i can admit for myself).

 

your 9800 GT should work perfectly eventually!

 

zawx, am i right that your 9800GT (XFX Geforce 9800GT OC) is overclocked somehow? maybe this is the root of your problems?

thanks for your reply, I have more or less given up on having my card work, but I can give you guys a rundown on what I have tried to get it working. I've been busy with both work and school the last couple of days, which is why I haven't checked back, and yes, OC in the card's name indicates that it is overclocked. I've had it working fine in Mac OS X 10.5.X in the past using iPC with an EFI-string.

 

The problem I'm having is that everything seems fine, hardware acceleration seems activated, but it's just too slow. I mean that it's so slow that minimizing windows is lagging severely, it's completely unusable. (But I am getting the correct resolution and everything. I found some page where some guy explained how to check if hardware acceleration is activated, and everything seems fine there.)

 

I've more or less tried everything in ACPI Patcher, all the different locations for dual DVI & tv-out, and even without TV out. Tried both PCI0 and PCI1 with and without PEGP. No difference.

 

I've also tried unchecking DSDT Graphics(can't remember the specific name) and doing an EFI-string instead and while this made the graphics performance a little better, doing anything(like watching a video, on youtube or using VLC) and minimizing a window is still very laggy. Using the automatic graphics with Chameleon RC3 bootloader, it wouldnt work at all, no correct resolution and overall slow. With the latest PCIEFI I got the same performance as with an EFI-string.

 

Is there anything left to try? I was under the impression that I've more or less done everything I could and that something was wrong with the graphic drivers in SL and that I should wait for 10.6.2 before trying again. I should add that I'm using Windows 7 now and everything works fine here, so it's definitely not my hardware that is faulty.

 

Thankful for any help.

 

E: Forgot to say but I'm using the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L motherboard.

[DieBuche]

This is a new one to me...

Maybe try running your system with only the system HDD connected to see if that works fine by itself?

 

Yeah ur right, in the end i found that when i remove the entry for my win7 partition from /etc/fstab (to enable r/w) it works perfecly. Weird

[blackosx]

@ zawx - Well by the sounds of it, you have tried everything!

And as you have had it working in 10.5.X and then there must be something else that can get the issue sorted, but unfortunately I don't know what. Also my 8800GT is a OC edition, so I doubt it has anything to do with that.

 

@ DieBuche - Glad you have the issue fixed. As for the fstab trick to enable ntfs r/w - Be careful as it can cause problems.

 

@philippebezoteaux - Regarding shutdown / restart times.

Just done a shutdown after having my machine running for about 3 days and shutdown took 9 seconds.

After rebooting, I tried restart and that took 6.5 seconds.

[gucki76]

Because that's how Chameleon has been programmed. It can read what version of the system is selected at boot then inject the correct set of kexts. Chameleon is a clever bit of coding and is getting better all the time....

 

Hi blackosx,

 

thank you for your effort, help with installation and this excellent guide!

 

I managed installation of

Leopard 10.5.7

and

Snow Leopard 10.6.1

on one hard drive with Windows Vista on a second hard drive.

Bios 11.b works fine.

 

However, I see two error messages when starting in verbose mode:

 

Leopard 10.5.7: error after loading of UUID.kext from the folder Extra/10.5/Extensions (for SL I added my UUID in PlatformUUID.kext, but this was not required in your 10.5.7 guide for UUID.kext)

 

SL 10.6.1: error after loading of SleepEnabler.kext from the folder Extra/10.6/Extensions

 

Any ideas how to fix these issues? Are these error messages relevant?

 

Best regards

 

Gucki76

[spacr]

Finally got my 64bit Snow Leopard working!! No more KPs. Turns out my overclock that worked fine in 64 bit win7 and 32bit SL didnt like 64bit SL. I tuned down the overclock 200MHz and voila, no KPs! Drove me nuts for weeks!!

[blackosx]

However, I see two error messages when starting in verbose mode:

 

Leopard 10.5.7: error after loading of UUID.kext from the folder Extra/10.5/Extensions (for SL I added my UUID in PlatformUUID.kext, but this was not required in your 10.5.7 guide for UUID.kext)

 

SL 10.6.1: error after loading of SleepEnabler.kext from the folder Extra/10.6/Extensions

 

Any ideas how to fix these issues? Are these error messages relevant?

Hi Gucki76

 

Well done with your install.

 

So you see these errors when the system is booting in verbose mode and the messages are scrolling up the screen? Can you also see these in the system.log? and what are the exact error messages?

Let me know and I will have to look at my system to see if I have them too..

 

Finally got my 64bit Snow Leopard working!! No more KPs. Turns out my overclock that worked fine in 64 bit win7 and 32bit SL didnt like 64bit SL. I tuned down the overclock 200MHz and voila, no KPs! Drove me nuts for weeks!!

Hi spacr, Well done to you too and thanks for mentioning the OC was causing you problems with 64-bit. I will add a mention to that on the front page.

[blackosx]

iSoprano has recently started a thread aimed at DSDT fixes for Gigabyte boards and Master Chief has been applying his amazing knowledge to help us gain an insight to a better DSDT for us all. With a cleaner, more specific, correct DSDT for our motherboards and cpu's etc., we will have a system that will perform and co-operate with the OS in a way which Apple intended.

 

At the moment my system doesn't have any noticeable issues after following my basic DSDT guide and this install guide, and hopefully nor will yours. So with regard to what this new thread for Gigabyte DSDT can achieve for this mobo, I am not sure yet. I don't think it will reveal new features, but it might help with getting rid of OpenHaltRestart? or it might help to natively enable bonjour networking without the need for ifconfig? At the moment, this is speculation but if anyone is interested in this then you can find the thread here.

 

EDIT: After my first attempt at following Master Chief's DSDT instructions I can now wake from sleep with my keyboard and mouse.

[rednous]

zawx, i got a suggestion for your 9800 GT to try with your com.apple.Boot.plist:

<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>arch=i386 -pci1</string>

why don't you try the -pci1 kernel boot option? or then maybe -pci0 option. i pasted part of my boot.plist in order you to see the correct syntax for using multiple kernel boot options. also before rebooting it's not a bad idea to update to PC EFI 10.5 (released today by netkas).

 

wish you good luck and if you try it, please report back the result

[spacr]

EDIT: After my first attempt at following Master Chief's DSDT instructions I can now wake from sleep with my keyboard and mouse.

 

Can you update the dsdt on the front page with the new entries? Im a total noob when it comes to dsdt, can I use it on my setup?

 

p.s

Im using this fakesmc here from oldnapalm to enable cpu temp in istat. Worth a mention

[gucki76]

Hi Gucki76

 

Well done with your install.

 

So you see these errors when the system is booting in verbose mode and the messages are scrolling up the screen? Can you also see these in the system.log? and what are the exact error messages?

Let me know and I will have to look at my system to see if I have them too..

 

Hi blackosx,

 

in the system log after loading of 10.6.1, I see different error messages: this is the whole system log after start:

 

Oct 22 07:19:47 localhost com.apple.launchd[1]: *** launchd[1] has started up. ***

Oct 22 07:19:52 localhost configd[13]: network configuration changed.

Oct 22 07:19:52 Guckis-Mac-Pro configd[13]: setting hostname to "Guckis-Mac-Pro.local"

Oct 22 07:19:52 Guckis-Mac-Pro com.apple.kextd[10]: Can't load /System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext - no code for running kernel's architecture.

Oct 22 07:19:52 Guckis-Mac-Pro com.apple.kextd[10]: Failed to load /System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext - (libkern/kext) requested architecture/executable not found.

Oct 22 07:19:52 Guckis-Mac-Pro com.apple.kextd[10]: Load com.jmicron.JMicronATA failed; removing personalities.

Oct 22 07:20:00 Guckis-Mac-Pro mDNSResponder[42]: mDNSResponder mDNSResponder-212.1 (Jul 24 2009 22:34:12) starting

Oct 22 07:20:01 Guckis-Mac-Pro com.apple.usbmuxd[36]: usbmuxd-176 built for iTunesNine on Jul 20 2009 at 13:06:53, running 32 bit

Oct 22 07:20:01 Guckis-Mac-Pro bootlog[53]: BOOT_TIME: 1256188787 0

Oct 22 07:20:01 Guckis-Mac-Pro DumpPanic[50]: Error getting a reference to IODeviceTree:/options

Oct 22 07:20:01 Guckis-Mac-Pro com.apple.DumpPanic[50]: 2009-10-22 07:20:01.705 DumpPanic[50:107] Error getting a reference to IODeviceTree:/options

Oct 22 07:20:01 Guckis-Mac-Pro com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.DumpPanic[50]): Exited with exit code: 1

Oct 22 07:20:02 Guckis-Mac-Pro /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow[43]: Login Window Application Started

Oct 22 07:20:03 Guckis-Mac-Pro configd[13]: network configuration changed.

Oct 22 07:20:07: --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Oct 22 07:20:07 guckis-mac-pro configd[13]: setting hostname to "guckis-mac-pro.fritz.box"

Oct 22 07:20:14 guckis-mac-pro loginwindow[43]: Login Window Started Security Agent

Oct 22 07:20:19 guckis-mac-pro WindowServer[63]: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.

Oct 22 07:20:19 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.WindowServer[63]: Thu Oct 22 07:20:19 guckis-mac-pro.fritz.box WindowServer[63] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.

Oct 22 07:20:20 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.notifyd[11]: EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 25

Oct 22 07:20:20 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.notifyd[11]: EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 24

Oct 22 07:20:20 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.notifyd[11]: EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 21

Oct 22 07:20:20 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.notifyd[11]: EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 20

Oct 22 07:20:20 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.notifyd[11]: EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 19

Oct 22 07:20:20 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.notifyd[11]: EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 18

Oct 22 07:20:20 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.notifyd[11]: EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 16

Oct 22 07:20:20 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.notifyd[11]: EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 17

Oct 22 07:20:20 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.notifyd[11]: EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 23

Oct 22 07:20:21 guckis-mac-pro loginwindow[43]: Login Window - Returned from Security Agent

Oct 22 07:20:21 guckis-mac-pro loginwindow[43]: USER_PROCESS: 43 console

Oct 22 07:20:21 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[116] (com.apple.ReportCrash): Falling back to default Mach exception handler. Could not find: com.apple.ReportCrash.Self

Oct 22 07:20:22 guckis-mac-pro com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[116] (com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist[156]): Exited with exit code: 1

Oct 22 07:20:24 guckis-mac-pro fseventsd[47]: could not open <</Volumes/DATA_MAC/.fseventsd/fseventsd-uuid>> (No such file or directory)

Oct 22 07:20:24 guckis-mac-pro fseventsd[47]: log dir: /Volumes/DATA_MAC/.fseventsd getting new uuid: BB435A56-7D6A-42AB-863C-9A55CD30E838

Oct 22 07:20:52 guckis-mac-pro mdworker[172]: (Error) SyncInfo: searchfs error (Result too large) -- falling back to fsw search /

Oct 22 07:21:36 guckis-mac-pro mdworker32[184]: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.

[helob]

iSoprano has recently started a thread aimed at DSDT fixes for Gigabyte boards and Master Chief has been applying his amazing knowledge to help us gain an insight to a better DSDT for us all. With a cleaner, more specific, correct DSDT for our motherboards and cpu's etc., we will have a system that will perform and co-operate with the OS in a way which Apple intended.

 

At the moment my system doesn't have any noticeable issues after following my basic DSDT guide and this install guide, and hopefully nor will yours. So with regard to what this new thread for Gigabyte DSDT can achieve for this mobo, I am not sure yet. I don't think it will reveal new features, but it might help with getting rid of OpenHaltRestart? or it might help to natively enable bonjour networking without the need for ifconfig? At the moment, this is speculation but if anyone is interested in this then you can find the thread here.

 

EDIT: After my first attempt at following Master Chief's DSDT instructions I can now wake from sleep with my keyboard and mouse.

 

Blackosx,

Sound interesting and exciting

(What I like most on your guide/implementation is that you are always on top of the latest development/features on SL and try to incorporate/update to your guide.)

After following Master Chief's DSDT instructions, what did you get rid off?

Maybe you can detail out how you go about making the changes to your basic DSDT.

Thanks and have a nice day.

 

Blackosx,

 

Re:Latest - Netkas Updates to PC EFI v10.5

 

With the above, what are the new features added?

What if any changes need to make to the basic DSDT.aml per your DSDT guide to get the most of PC EFI v10.5 installation?

Thanks

[blackosx]

Can you update the dsdt on the front page with the new entries? Im a total noob when it comes to dsdt, can I use it on my setup?

 

p.s

Im using this fakesmc here from oldnapalm to enable cpu temp in istat. Worth a mention

Hi spacr

 

I will update my DSDT thread with revised DSDT info and notes etc. in time, but at the moment I am still getting my head around all the changes and trying to understand it all. As for you being a total noob when it comes to DSDT, you can say I am noob too when it comes to making the manual edits in this detail .

 

So by all means wait for me to sort it, or you could always do as I am and join in with the Gigabyte DSDT fix thread and learn what needs to be fixed, why and most importantly, how.

 

As for oldnapalm's fakesmc, I will leave that for now as the DSDT thread is more than enough to keep my mind occupied, and I can't look at everything at once. Once I understand the DSDT coding further and have learnt what we need the I will come back and look at the extra stuff. But if you want to help out and post what oldnapalm's fakesmc is all about, how to use it, what we need and how we can all benefit from it then that would be very useful

 

Thanks

 

Hi blackosx,

 

in the system log after loading of 10.6.1, I see different error messages: this is the whole system log after start:

......

.......

Hi gucki76

 

You started by saying you had issues loading UUID.kext for 10.5 and SleepEnabler.kext for 10.6, but I don't see those errors in your system.log?

 

As for your posted system.log.....

 

One error is about JMicronATA.kext which you must have added to /S/L/E which is not part of this guide.

 

I DO have the following in my system.log (I don't know what they mean but is it a problem?)

I have the WindowServer[63]: kCGErrorFailure

I have the .launchd.peruser.501[116] (com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist[156]): Exited with exit code: 1

 

fseventsd[47]: could not open <</Volumes/DATA_MAC/.fseventsd/fseventsd-uuid>> (No such file or directory)

fseventsd[47]: log dir: /Volumes/DATA_MAC/.fseventsd getting new uuid: BB435A56-7D6A-42AB-863C-9A55CD30E838

I have a similar ones for my WINDOWS volume which is a FAT32 partition. I don't think this is anything to worry about.

 

I DON'T have the follow errors & I don't know what they are.....

You DumpPanic[50] Errors

notifyd[11]: EV_DELETE failed for file watcher Errors

mdworker errors (these are to do with spotlight)

 

 

But generally I don't really look through the system.log too often and unless I have an error which gives me problems with using my system then I haven't managed to find the time to really look in to them.

 

After following Master Chief's DSDT instructions, what did you get rid off?

Maybe you can detail out how you go about making the changes to your basic DSDT.

 

Re:Latest - Netkas Updates to PC EFI v10.5

 

With the above, what are the new features added?

What if any changes need to make to the basic DSDT.aml per your DSDT guide to get the most of PC EFI v10.5 installation?

Thanks

Hi helob

 

Thanks, like I said to spacr - I will, eventually, update my DSDT thread with any new changes I learn, but by all means join in the Gigabyte fixes thread and try for yourself if you want things sooner?

 

As for Netkas' PC EFI v10.5 - I have now updated the front page news with a little more info.