Retail Leopard on a GA-EP45T-UD3LR

[NoSmokingBandit]

This is my first time writing a guide, so if anything is unclear or just plain doesnt work please let me know and ill fix it. Please post if you have success!

I will update this guide for Snow Leopard when 10.6.2 it released. There are too many bugs in Snow Leo right now and i dont feel like fighting it while i get the hac set up.

Installing Mac OSX Leopard on a GA-EP45T-UD3LR

 

Intro:

Why the GA-EP45T-UD3LR?

* Cheap ($100 USD when i bought mine)

* Fast (supports Core2Extreme cpu and 2200MHz DDR3 ram)

* Compatible

 

Requirements:

* A Retail copy of Leopard

* My download pack (links at the bottom of the guide)

* Video drivers for your card

* One blank CD-R

* A USB Drive

 

Initial Setup:

*Boot up and press the DEL key to enter the BIOS setup. In the BIOS Settings change to boot order so CD-ROM is before HDD. Under Integrated Peripherals change the SATA mode to Native. Save and Exit.

 

*Copy the Post-Install folder from the install pack to your USB drive.

 

*Find the graphics kexts needed for your video card (most likely NVInject, NVKush, or similar). If you have a GTX 2XX series card requiring EVGA's drivers skip this section. Copy the graphics kexts to the Post-Install/Bootloader/Extensions folder on your usb drive.

 

*Burn the BOOT132.cdr image from the BOOT Disk folder to a blank CD-R. In Windows use IMGBurn, in OSX use Disk Utility.

 

Installing Leopard:

Boot from the BOOT132 disk you just burned. After it has finished loading eject the disk insert your retail Leopard disk. Press Enter twice and the disc will start to load. Press F8 and boot with "-v". When the installer loads continue until you need to choose the disk to install to. Open the Utilities menu at the top of your screen and open Disk Utility. Find the HDD you wish to install OSX to and partition the entire drive to GUID partition table. One partition on the drive MUST be formatted as HFS+, you can make other partitions of any format if you so choose. WARNING: This will erase all data. Don't get pissed at me if you forget to backup your data. Note: I suggest using a separate drive for OSX if you plan on dual-booting. I have a 80gb drive i use specifically for OSX and i have windows on a different drive. This guide does not cover dual-booting, so research how to dual-boot on a GUID drive before starting this install. When it is done partitioning close Disk Utility and choose the partition you have formatted as HFS+. Continue and Customize the install. Uncheck every box except the first. Continue and install OSX. When the install is complete restart and remove the retail Leopard disk and insert the BOOT132 disc again. Boot from the BOOT132 disc and when asked what HDD to boot from type "80" then hit enter. At the next screen type "-v" again and hit enter. OSX will load and soon enough you will be flying through space. Set up OSX as usual (if you dont want to register hit winkey+Q at the registration screen and click Skip). When you get to the Desktop plug in your USB drive and continue to the Post-Install step.

 

Post-Install:

Now that we can use OSX we can set up our bootloader and kexts. Eject the BOOT132 disk and put it away, we shouldn't be needing it any more. Navigate to the Post-Install folder on your USB drive. Open terminal and type:

cd <drag Bootloader folder into terminal window>

sudo ./Make-EFI-Boot-Now-v3.sh

 

Follow the instructions on screen and choose to do a complete install. Make sure you choose the correct drive number (generally 0, but make sure it is the drive with the EFI partition on it) to install the bootloader to. It will install Chameleon and copy over the kexts. Now we need to create a DSDT.aml so AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext doesnt cause a kernel panic. Navigate to the Post-Install/DSDT folder on your USB drive. Open DSDT Patcher GUI and check off "Darwin/Mac OS X" and "New HPET Option". Click "Run DSDT Patcher" and wait for it to finish. If there are no errors (1 warning is normal) navigate to the Sessions folder and find your DSDT.aml file. To move this into the EFI partition we need to mount it. Open Terminal and type:

Sudo -s

*password*

mkdir /Volumes/EFI

Diskutil List

 

Find the partition labeled "EFI" and note it's Disk#s# number. Continue with:

mount_hfs /dev/Disk#s# /Volumes/EFI

cd /Volumes/EFI

 

 

Copy DSDT.aml to /Volumes/EFI/Extra

cp <drag dsdt.aml into terminal window> /Volumes/EFI/Extra

 

When finished unmount the drive:

cd /

umount /Volumes/EFI

 

At this point everything but the Audio is ready, so navigate to the Post-Install/Audio folder on your USB drive. Drag both Kext files into Kexthelper. Give the app your password and click Easy Install. When it is finished navigate to /System/Library and delete Extensions.mkext. Reboot.

 

You should now be finished and can start installing updates, apps, and whatever. Remember to ALWAYS install system updates (10.5.X) by downloading the dmg from Apple's support site. NEVER install major updates via Software Update. If something goes wrong you can always re-install the update from the DMG, but you cannot do this using Software Update. If you have a GTX 2XX card please continue to the next step, otherwise just ignore this next section.

 

GTX 2XX Setup:

If, like me, you have a GTX 2XX series card we need to take a few more steps to install the graphics kexts. The GTX drivers require 10.5.7 so if you are below 10.5.7 install the latest update. Reboot and download the GTX driver pack (link at the bottom of the guide). Open the (1) ATY_Init.pkg and install it to your Leopard install. When finished install the (2) GTX Drivers.mpkg to your Leopard install. Reboot.

 

Known Issues:

Things don't always work 100%. If you have an issue related to this motherboard (aka, not your own fault) i will add it to the list. If you know how to fix any of these quirks please post anything you might know. Thank you!

 

* For me wake from sleep only works 50% of the time. The machine sleeps perfectly but on wake the screen turn on then off a few seconds later. To fix this i hold down CMD+ALT+F12 to sleep the machine again. After waking the 2nd time it works perfectly. This may be related to my video card, but i'm not sure what would cause it.

 

* I have yet to find a SMBIOS that reports my ram correctly. The best I got was 800mhz DDR2, which isnt accurate at all.

 

Other Information:

* I have used the following Kexts in my install:

AppleIntelPIIXATA2 [sATA]

AppleDecrypt [im not sure exactly what it does, but you need it]

OpenHaltRestart [fixes shutdown/restart]

Tulip [Ethernet]

UUID [Error_35 fix]

 

* The com.apple.boot.plist has been modified to include "debug=0x100" automatically. This should help troubleshoot any kernel panics.

 

* I dont use any IDE (aka PATA) drives at all, if you do please download the appropriate kext and drop it into the Post-Install/Bootloader/Extensions before installing the bootloader.

 

* If you want to install a custom Chameleon theme i would suggest you add it to the Theme folder and modify the boot.plist before installing the bootloader. Once the bootloader is installed it can be accessed by terminal only.

 

* The ALC888 sound is supposed to support 5.1 channel, but i dont have a surround set yet. I have a Logitech X-530 coming in soon and i'll post an update when it arrives and i can test it.

 

* If you want to add more kexts to the EFI partition mount it like you did when moving the DSDT in and copy your kexts to /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions. When done cd to /Volumes/EFI and run ./mkextupdate.sh. Unmount as described earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

Downloads:

* Install Pack: Mediafire MegaUpload

* GTX 2XX Pack: Mediafire MegaUpload

[pwrbkdude]

My system is working perfectly EXCEPT for audio. It shows no sources. In your instructions for patching audio, you mention removing "extensions.mkext" but I can't find it anywhere. Is that possibly effecting my setup? Thanks!

[nelsonsito]

this guide was great! been loving the leopard install for over a month now without a single problem…looking forward to your snow leopard guide NoSmokingBandit !!