Install Guide for Snow Leopard on a P6T (non deluxe)

[Mpampis]

Greetings Searay_X.

 

Thank you for the time you have put in your work.

 

Unfortunately I have been using Windows forever and I do not have more than tiny experience with Mac. However, I would really like to change that.

 

I have been reading for days about turning my PC to using MAC but I never found anything as BLUNT as yours. I have a {censored}load of questions, some annoyingly noobish. I do not mind googling, I've been doing it for days but nowhere did I find something that I can throw some trust on. I'll just make a few important questions at this point, I hope I don't bother you.

 

My System:

 

Asus P6T M/B

 

i7 920 @ 2,66 Ghz

 

Sata HDD, Sata DVD

 

Nvidia GTX 275.

 

Reading your guide I can see you made clear that this is a Guide for experienced users of Mac. I'm not one. My whole experience on Mac is summed up in ~8 hours in the past week on my brother's new iMAC.

 

So if you can not be arsed to help an inexperienced user such as me, I understand. You can stop reading right now and send me a reply so I stop waiting

 

1) Which DVD's do I need to buy to get Snow Leopard on my non MAC computer? My computer is running on Windows 7 64 bit Currently. I have access to a SL MAC and it came with 2 disks. One seems to be the 10.5.6 version and the other is 10.6.

 

Can I use those? I don't mind paying to buy new ones anyway as long as I know I will get them working.

 

2) What are those iATKOS/iPC etc stuff? Nothing to do with what we are doing here, right? I did try some of those since I was reading a dual boot guide that made everything look as easy as if it was a fairytale. It had nothing to do with what I'm looking for though.

 

3) In order to get all this done, I'll need to find some time off and sit on my brother's MAC and try to see how to do the EFI's and stuff. Unfortunately all these terms(EFI's etc) are completely NEW to me. So I'm gonna be googling them at the time I'm trying to figure out what to do.

 

However, I do have one question that I'd like to ask before that. What is the difference that I have to do with GTX 275? As you mentioned there are some different stuff to do with ATI cards and Nvidia 2** cards. Have you succeded it (or know some1 who has) with an Nvidia 2** card? And which?

 

4) Any idea if this could be dual booted with Windows 7 64 bit? I mean, playing with DISKPART and a bootloader could make this work without much change to what you have here, right? Worst case scenario a repair would be needed on W7 after installing both OS's (?)

 

Thank you VEEEERRRYYYY much

 

Mpampis.

[Searay_X]

Greetings Searay_X.

 

Thank you for the time you have put in your work.

 

Unfortunately I have been using Windows forever and I do not have more than tiny experience with Mac. However, I would really like to change that.

 

I have been reading for days about turning my PC to using MAC but I never found anything as BLUNT as yours. I have a {censored}load of questions, some annoyingly noobish. I do not mind googling, I've been doing it for days but nowhere did I find something that I can throw some trust on. I'll just make a few important questions at this point, I hope I don't bother you.

 

My System:

 

Asus P6T M/B

 

i7 920 @ 2,66 Ghz

 

Sata HDD, Sata DVD

 

Nvidia GTX 275.

 

Reading your guide I can see you made clear that this is a Guide for experienced users of Mac. I'm not one. My whole experience on Mac is summed up in ~8 hours in the past week on my brother's new iMAC.

 

So if you can not be arsed to help an inexperienced user such as me, I understand. You can stop reading right now and send me a reply so I stop waiting

 

1) Which DVD's do I need to buy to get Snow Leopard on my non MAC computer? My computer is running on Windows 7 64 bit Currently. I have access to a SL MAC and it came with 2 disks. One seems to be the 10.5.6 version and the other is 10.6.

 

Can I use those? I don't mind paying to buy new ones anyway as long as I know I will get them working.

 

2) What are those iATKOS/iPC etc stuff? Nothing to do with what we are doing here, right? I did try some of those since I was reading a dual boot guide that made everything look as easy as if it was a fairytale. It had nothing to do with what I'm looking for though.

 

3) In order to get all this done, I'll need to find some time off and sit on my brother's MAC and try to see how to do the EFI's and stuff. Unfortunately all these terms(EFI's etc) are completely NEW to me. So I'm gonna be googling them at the time I'm trying to figure out what to do.

 

However, I do have one question that I'd like to ask before that. What is the difference that I have to do with GTX 275? As you mentioned there are some different stuff to do with ATI cards and Nvidia 2** cards. Have you succeded it (or know some1 who has) with an Nvidia 2** card? And which?

 

4) Any idea if this could be dual booted with Windows 7 64 bit? I mean, playing with DISKPART and a bootloader could make this work without much change to what you have here, right? Worst case scenario a repair would be needed on W7 after installing both OS's (?)

 

Thank you VEEEERRRYYYY much

 

Mpampis.

 

1. You will need a RETAIL copy if SL - the ones that come with a Mac are "fixed" to that series and a little difficult to hack unless you use install option 1 from my guide, an external drive (or at least a temporary external drive) and use the computer SL was packaged to install it to the HDD that will end up in your machine.

 

2.Nono of those apply - your (our) P6T's are capable of a 64BIT SL install with no modified kernel - the disks you mention are merely modified originals that (albeit have a lot of work put into them and I am thankful to them for making) have been stripped, changed and sometimes even visually edited and usually DO NOT operate the same in the end. You will be using a RETAIL copy...

 

3.I can help you - If you PM me I will email you - I have helped a few people over the phone and it is WAY easier to explain some of this that way, PM me and I will give you a # if you want to handle it that way to start - I recommend it.

 

4. Dual is easy - you can do it all on the same drive or use 2 drives (I recommend 2 drives just because it's cleaner and easier for someone new to the scene) and the EFI loader will give you an option to load whatever OSs you have installed.

 

Additionally, your'e ahead of the game and you don't even know it . When building a SL system, having access to a 10.6.X machine makes building the kext cache easier amongst other things.

 

 

To everyone else, I am sorry I have NOT had time to combine the updates and the EFI_v3.dmg - My work has had me very busy - I promise I will do this tonight and post an update when I do.

 

Regards,

 

Ryan

[Zinzan]

Hey Ryan,

 

Thanks for the guide. I'm kinda like Mpampis--just getting started on this stuff, and there's a lot to absorb.

 

I followed your guide over the past couple days, got stuck (installer would never come up with the language choices, but then decided to rebuild my EFI "magic stick" on a Lexar Lightning instead of an older Lexar 2GB stick I had laying around, and that made all the difference. I've now got SL up and running on my P6T i7 920 build!

 

But I've read and reread your guide, and I'm still confused about a few points.

 

1. I have a nVidia GeForce 260. I'm still not quite clear on what I should do. It's working now with your files, but the GPU is obviously not configured completely. I've read a little bit about EFI strings, but I'm still not sure what I should do to fully take advantage of my video card.

 

2. I'm confused on the talk about the talk about slow SATA drives. What I do see is that if I leave my Windows 7 disks (separate HDDs) connected and configured as AHCI, booting into SL takes a long time. But if I disconnect them, or configure them as IDE, booting into SL is much quicker. But I see you talk about brue's or the king's DSDT.aml fix, and I'm still confused. I see that you've included a DSDT.aml file in your guide, but is it in the EFI package you provided, or do I need to do something. And is this supposed to allow me to leave my Windows drives as AHCI and boot into SL quickly?

 

3. Using your guide, are you saying that we CAN NOT apply any SL updates?

 

4. I'm unclear what that UUID stuff is all about.

 

Sincerely,

 

Z

 

P.S. Oh yeah, your guide references a page with your BIOS settings. But the link is bad--page missing. I see that you later post screen shots of your BIOS settings, but those appear to be after install Overclocking BIOS settings. Pre-install, does the BIOS need to be set differently? I see mention that we shouldn't overclock during install. Do you have a new URL for the page with your preinstall BIOS settings? Thanks.

[Searay_X]

Hey Ryan,

 

Thanks for the guide. I'm kinda like Mpampis--just getting started on this stuff, and there's a lot to absorb.

 

I followed your guide over the past couple days, got stuck (installer would never come up with the language choices, but then decided to rebuild my EFI "magic stick" on a Lexar Lightning instead of an older Lexar 2GB stick I had laying around, and that made all the difference. I've now got SL up and running on my P6T i7 920 build!

 

But I've read and reread your guide, and I'm still confused about a few points.

 

1. I have a nVidia GeForce 260. I'm still not quite clear on what I should do. It's working now with your files, but the GPU is obviously not configured completely. I've read a little bit about EFI strings, but I'm still not sure what I should do to fully take advantage of my video card.

 

2. I'm confused on the talk about the talk about slow SATA drives. What I do see is that if I leave my Windows 7 disks (separate HDDs) connected and configured as AHCI, booting into SL takes a long time. But if I disconnect them, or configure them as IDE, booting into SL is much quicker. But I see you talk about brue's or the king's DSDT.aml fix, and I'm still confused. I see that you've included a DSDT.aml file in your guide, but is it in the EFI package you provided, or do I need to do something. And is this supposed to allow me to leave my Windows drives as AHCI and boot into SL quickly?

 

3. Using your guide, are you saying that we CAN NOT apply any SL updates?

 

4. I'm unclear what that UUID stuff is all about.

 

Sincerely,

 

Z

 

P.S. Oh yeah, your guide references a page with your BIOS settings. But the link is bad--page missing. I see that you later post screen shots of your BIOS settings, but those appear to be after install Overclocking BIOS settings. Pre-install, does the BIOS need to be set differently? I see mention that we shouldn't overclock during install. Do you have a new URL for the page with your preinstall BIOS settings? Thanks.

 

 

You made a couple of good points - the major point is what I have been stressing all along - YOU MUST HAVE GOOD QUALITY FLASH MEDIA.

 

That being said - to answer your questions,

 

1. I have not had time to create the bios page at all - the post further down you speak of was a quick snapshot before V3 of the guide - you probably arrived here recently - before V3.

 

2. The updated DSDT and boot MUST BE APPLIED after you build the magic stick!. You just do what the guide stated but with the newer files - I think your slow boot/drive access issues are primarly due to not riunning the updated DSDT.aml and possibly BIOS issues - If you look above, I stated that I am working on making a FINAL release of the magic stick that has the necessary files built in. You need to also read about the owners/permissions thing and the fact you should edit out the 32 bit flags from the com.apple.Boot.plist

 

3. Platform UUID is simply the unique identifier that Mac OS uses to distinguish one system from another - It has additional purposes and definite future purposes like when geekbench learned to detect a Hackintosh by the smbios (fixed by smbios.plist and a few alternate methods). Google it and you will find what Apple intends to do with this in the future - it started showing up on my MBP at around 10.5.6. - at this time I am not certian it has any specific use but there is no harm in insuring it is correctly associated with your SL install drive in case someone uses it as a parameter in their software to determine if someone is running a hack or not. I have systems both ways and there is NO difference as to how they run. That is why I have a "why not" in the guide since it is easy to do.

 

4. There are COUNTLESS resources regarding your card and the EFI strings to add to the com.apple.Boot.plist in on the magic stick. Some people get ny with merely adding ATY_Init.kext, some with just an EFI and others need both.

 

Please note that I only left an EFI string in the com.apple.Boot.plist as a starting point/example since it will work with pre GTX 200 series cards that are dual DVI and 512 MB (it does not matter how it is labled as far as manufacturere and ROM version). The GTX 200 series are a different beast alltogeather. I bought a Mac edition so all I am using is an EFI string... It would probably work for yours. I need to post the video on how I edit strings as I have an easy way if you "see" it but it is one of those things that is difficult to word so I have left it up to the end-user to determine the proper strings - You DO have to define the built-in Ethernet as well though.

 

 

5. The idea of the magic stick is to be able to take updates. think of the magic stick as a replacement bios with built-in boot loader. The concept here is to "trick" the PC into thinking it is an EFI based system, a Mac system to be specific, one that is defined by the parameters in the smbios.plist...

 

I would be happy to call you or you call me. I am working on a video and updates to the guide that will address many of the questions I am getting - BIOS setup is critical and I have slacked on it because its not simple screen shots; its taking pics, cropping/pasting and making a page. This is a guide not a novel - LOL - and if I typed everything out I could have a book on the subject and there would be a ton of repeat info that is available elsewhere. If a guide gets too lengthy then it looses it's value - people will go "damn - I have to read ALL this"...

 

 

Anyway, PM me an e-mail and I will give you my # so you can call and I will walk you through your bios and how to apply the boot. updated DSDT.aml, edit the EFI strings and remove the flags since my DMG does not contain the final files (or you can wait a day or to for the video and final release or use the attached zip in conjunction with the guide and apply the patches - your call as to how you wish to handle that) - I will add that quite a few people have called me - I don't mind - It's my way of giving back to the community.

 

To reiterate, the MOST important things are BIOS setup and good quality flash/cf/sd/msd or whatever media!!!

 

 

I rushed this response because dinner is ready - LOL so I hope i got to everything - If not, I will catch it after dinner and highlight the corrections.

 

Regards,

 

Ryan

 

As stated - I am working on the BIOS page - I have been VERY busy. I have stated what my second job is but my primary is VERY demanding - A job that I can not publicize what it is I do of you know what I mean. I have also delayed the release of the final EFI/Magic Stick package since I am working on a small bonjour issue that still persists regarding screen sharing for some people.

[Zinzan]

Thanks for your reply, Ryan.

 

Yeah, after I posted my questions, I saw that you had added a new post yourself earlier this evening (I had checked earlier today, before your final post), and saw you mentioning that you would be updating your guide and EFI package.

 

I can wait a couple days for your updates and video. Looking forward to them. But yeah, I'd still like to understand how to update EFI strings and DSDT.aml application, etc, so if I'll probably still get in touch with you on some of these "hard to document" techniques. I appreciate the offer of your time and expertise!

 

Sincerely,

 

Z

[awol]

u havent reply my post yet...

[Mpampis]

Hey mate, Thanks for your reply!

 

Thank you for offering to help, however, before I start all this it seems I will have to get my hands on the right DVD.

So I've found the DVD Boughtable in this website which is the retail Mac box set: http://www.plaisio.gr/Computers/Software/O...il-MC209Z-A.htm

 

It's a greek site but you'll understand

 

Is this the same though? http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC209Z/A...zMyODM#overview

 

It is the MC209Z but before ordering I'd like to make sure it's a retail version and I can use it when I have currently NO other MAC at my PC. (Cause in the Apple site it says "if you have older versions than Leopard").

 

I'm pretty sure that's it but I don't wanna make a mistake. For some reason it will cost me 169$ if I buy from Apple but 255$ if I buy from Greek store

 

IGNORE THIS (unfortunately apple doesn't ship to Greece )

 

Thanks, Mpampis

 

PS: If we get to speak when trying to configure, I'd liek to add: I'm pretty sure my phone line might have free calls to the USA as long as it's a home phone I'm calling. I will check that out, otherwise, any chance we could speak over Skype, Ventrillo, MSN or any other similar program?

[The_old_PC]

OK so i started folowing this guide and i got stuck.

I made the EFI stick and i opened terminal then i navigated to the i386 folder. So wenn i put in the ls command i see the files in there the boot boot0 and so on.

no i put in the first command and it asks me to rewrite the mbr.

Is that normal? I thought that should not be? only on the third command.

Thanks in advance

[Searay_X]

Hey mate, Thanks for your reply!

 

Thank you for offering to help, however, before I start all this it seems I will have to get my hands on the right DVD.

So I've found the DVD Boughtable in this website which is the retail Mac box set: http://www.plaisio.gr/Computers/Software/O...il-MC209Z-A.htm

 

It's a greek site but you'll understand

 

Is this the same though? http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC209Z/A...zMyODM#overview

 

It is the MC209Z but before ordering I'd like to make sure it's a retail version and I can use it when I have currently NO other MAC at my PC. (Cause in the Apple site it says "if you have older versions than Leopard").

 

I'm pretty sure that's it but I don't wanna make a mistake. For some reason it will cost me 169$ if I buy from Apple but 255$ if I buy from Greek store

 

IGNORE THIS (unfortunately apple doesn't ship to Greece )

 

Thanks, Mpampis

 

PS: If we get to speak when trying to configure, I'd liek to add: I'm pretty sure my phone line might have free calls to the USA as long as it's a home phone I'm calling. I will check that out, otherwise, any chance we could speak over Skype, Ventrillo, MSN or any other similar program?

 

 

Μπορώ να κάνω να αντιγράψω εάν εσείς να μην πάρω - if there is no other way that is...

 

and yes, I can iChat (lol) or MSN but I have international calling - I have many friends and family across the pond.

[bamf]

Ryan-

 

Adding the TrendNet NIC fixed my bonjour issues (I think) - as well as my VMWare issues, so I am GTG now.

 

Thanks again for your help, and let me know if I can help you out with anything related to the guide...

 

Next thing for me to do is to overclock this thing...

[Searay_X]

OK so i started folowing this guide and i got stuck.

I made the EFI stick and i opened terminal then i navigated to the i386 folder. So wenn i put in the ls command i see the files in there the boot boot0 and so on.

no i put in the first command and it asks me to rewrite the mbr.

Is that normal? I thought that should not be? only on the third command.

Thanks in advance

 

 

My friend - keep in mind that the guide clearly states to put the modified boot at the ROOT of the EFI drive. I just wanted to note that you don't use the one in the i386 folder.

 

Yes - you want to rewrite the MBR on the first command...

 

You do the fdisk, dd, then fdisk -e in order then you copy over the boot and DSDT.aml to the Magic Stick =- the updated boot (from the attached zip in the guide goes to /Volumes/EFI/ and DSDT.aml goes to /Volumes/EFI/Extra/ AFTER you do the above

 

My EFI.dmg is a Magis stick - Use it as a reference for where the files go - It just needs updated with the boot and DSDT and you have to run that process to make it bootable. I included the files at the bottom of the guide to update the stick is

 

Regards,

 

Ryan

 

u havent reply my post yet...

 

 

Sorry - - Got tied up

 

u havent reply my post yet...

 

 

Sorry - - Got tied up

[Zinzan]

...but when i try to boot snow leopard (using EFI then the installer)

the installer stuck at the screen where i should select install language

it just grey screen with mouse cursor and the language select still didnt pop out

i wait around 20 minute, still blank...

 

Hey awol, I'm no expert, but as far as this question, I got stuck right here, too. Using a different USB stick got me past this. I was using an old Lexar 2GB and just couldn't get past this point. I rebuilt the EFI magic stick and it didn't help, until I switched to a Lexar Lightning 4 GB. It's a little bit newer (but still a couple years old), but it's MUCH faster. You might try faster a USB stick...

 

Good luck!

 

Z

[Searay_X]

Searay_X

i manage to restore EFI

but when i restore snow leopard, it say it need to scan. when i scan the image, it say invalid argument

so i try to restart snow leopard using leopard, success

but when i try to boot snow leopard (using EFI then the installer)

the installer stuck at the screen where i should select install language

it just grey screen with mouse cursor and the language select still didnt pop out

i wait around 20 minute, still blank.

i use the same image to install snow leopard using other method and it works, which mean the image is not corrupt.

i want to use your efi method as it did use any patch on the installation.

btw,can u include ps2 support on ur efi? im using ps2 keyboard n mouse as i use my usb port for other purpose.

 

The invalid argument is because you didn't make the SL copy compressed. YYou can NOT scan a R/W dmg - only a compressed. Convert it or remake it. If you look, I will bet that your SL DMG is read/write and this is why you can't restore. This can cause the issue you are decribing - if you don't have a good (perfect copy) it will not work.

 

If you look a few posts above (#104), you will see that this is usually caused by using cheap media for the EFI/Install Flash drive. Asus hates certain media.

 

Also could be bios issues but I doubt it. Sounds like and EFI problem. Look at post #104 in this topic...

 

It could also be that you need the right GFX strings - I left mine in there as a reference since it included the ethernet so depending on your card, the current string may not work. You can remove the string entirely from the com.apple.Boot.plist and run VGA mode until you know exactly what string/method to use for your card. Once again, look to post 104.

 

If you remove the string, the section of the com.apple.Boot.plist will look like the following excerpt -

 

<key>device-properties</key>

<string></string>

 

I am going to do a video of the how-to on EFI since it's a PITA to document but easy to do - I will try to do that today as well as post the updated EFI Magic Stick.

 

Lastly - I have NO intention of adding PS2 for several reasons. Sorry. You can buy a 4 port USB hub for under 20.00 USD. I will add this - The P6T has a total of 12 USB ports (6 external connectors and 6 internal pin headers) - what could you possibly be using 12 on? If your not using the pin headers inside, you can buy a 4 port USB device that replaces one of the blanks on the back of the computer and plugs in to the pin headers (2 of them - each of the 3 blue pin headers represent 2 usb ports).

 

Here is a 2 port version but you can get them in 4 - The device pictured below will only use 1 of the 3 blue pin headers for example.

 

 

 

Note to all - this will not change the guide, it just means that you will NOT have to patch the Magic Stick.

[Mpampis]

Μπορώ να κάνω να αντιγράψω εάν εσείς να μην πάρω - if there is no other way that is...

 

I'm not quite sure what you meant there, however I just found out I should just buy through ebay cause in my country it's too overpriced.

 

Thx for reply,

 

Mpampis

 

 

EDIT: I ordered it through ebay mate, brand new sealed, from a very certified user, and all that with 138$ shipping included . It would take me 255$ to buy it in a greek shop .

 

One of these days I'll start doing the pre-install stuff on my brothers SL iMAC.

[SomeGuy12345]

P6T (non deluxe) Snow Leopard Install Guide

Modified - Latest Version 3

with the NEW r3 EFI and base files!!!

Everything working including sleep - Bonjour is now fully functional - see the Bonjour Update near the bottom of this guide...

 

 

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

 

NOTE About the POLL - 10/28/09.

 

 

I cant help but notice that there are a few people stating the guide did NOT work for them. I have to reiterate that this giude is for the P6T! If you do not have a standard P6T and you are posting that this didn't work, please DON'T. It can mislead others and is unfair to the efforts I put into this for P6T users!!!

 

If you DO have a standard P6T and are having issues, PM me or post your issues so I and other experienced users can help you...

 

Read before you post something that may not be correct. I sell Mac clones as a side business and I have built 7 machines of all different specs using this method - It is in my opinion a bulletproof method.

 

Thanks - Ryan

 

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

 

UPDATE/PERSONAL NOTE 09-27-09:

 

I am going to be BLUNT here and do not mean it to be rude but if this doesn't work for you, YOU are doing something wrong or YOU have a hardware issue. This guide's kext's are intended ONLY for the P6T - not the WS, not the Deluxe not the SE and so on. For those boards to work you will need to use different audio methods and on some boards more or different base kexts!

 

So before you POLL that it didn't work for you, PM me and I will give you my email and check your setup. I need details to help you...

 

BE SURE TO CHECK FOR UPDATES AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!!!

 

Also, I want to brag a little. Check out THIS link. The high numbers are of my i7 975 and the one that is by itself is a real Mac Pro that cost over 3500.00 with way less features!

 

A few notes to start with:

 

For those too lazy to read, I am making a Video of the how-to and many tips, tricks and so on. It will be available in a day or so.

 

This guide will help you get a fully functional Snow Leopard install on a Asus P6T. This guide can work for other i7 boards as well but you will need to mod a few kexts.

 

Since 2005, when this all began for me, this method is IMHO the best possible way to install OS X on PC hardware and it is the closest to a real Mac experience I have com across!

 

This guide assumes (although not entirely necessary) that you have a working Leopard install on a P6T already - why? because! For real though, if your already up and running with 10.5.x you are familiar with the board and you have your graphics/EFI strings all figured out. Your going to want your graphics acceleration working so when you boot for the first time you get the cool video and sound - LOL.

 

If you do not have a working P6T install that's OK too. You will need access to a machine with either 10.5.x or 10.6.x though.

 

I use a "Magic Stick" method which means you will be using a SD, Flash Drive, CF, Micro SD or something like it to boot from - I have a multi card reader installed to my 3.5" bay that will do SD/CF/Micro SD, Sony MS, XD and others and it cost less than $20.00 at my local computer store - HERE is a link to what I am talking about. This is not necessary though, A USB Flash drive, USB to SD adapter (like this) or external multi card reader/writer will work fine. The reason for this is that this allows you to do a clean UNMODIFIED install of Snow Leopard. No "hijacking the EFI partition on your HDD and having to jump through hoops to mount it to make changes - not to mention that if your HDD crashes you loose all your hard work! - with this method you can pop in a new drive and restore from a time machine backup and you can also take the unmodified Snow Leopard install disk our of your machine and use it in another with a "Magic Stick" built for the new board (like I did when testing a Gigabyte board), use it in a real MAC and once again, changes and mods are easier. Throughout this guide I will be calling the EFI disk a "Magic Stick"

 

NOTE: See update at the bottom for some information regarding hiding the MagicStick in finder so it's not always on the desktop...

 

Fist things first - Download this NEW pack HERE. it uses the NEW Chameleon r3 and it is all the files you will need to build the EFI as well as other needed files to complete your install - I have also included 0603 and 0707 Bios with a cool familiar full screen gray Apple POST screen available HERE separately -it makes it more like a Mac IMHO by not having to see the BIOS POST info - you can choose to turn off the full screen logo if you wish but regardless, I do recommend updating to 0707 due to a JMicron update)

 

If you are building the EFI from another 10.6.x machine you will do things a little different on a 10.5.x there are a few additional steps needed - I will note the differences below.

 

Overclocking has not been an issue but it is ALWAYS a good idea to install clocked at stock speeds to avoid install errors!

 

This has only been tested with Nvidia based cards (although I see no reason it wouldnt work with AN ATI) - you may have to add the included ATY_Init.kext or something similar if you use an ATI or Nvidia GTX 2xx (non mac edition - I use the Mac Edition so a simple EFI string works for me) - I don't use ATI cards so I can't be too helpful there. Please note that if you do add kexts to your EFI boot loader you will need to read below on how to add kexts to your EFI and build a proper Extensions.mkext.

 

The EFI drive includes an smbios.plist and a com.apple.boot.plist with an EFI string for a 9600GT OC. If you use an Nvidia 8xxx through 9xxx and your graphics card is in the first PCIe slot, you should be able to boot with full hardware acceleration and modify the com.apple.Boot.plist file after install - I did so with an Nvidia 9800 GTX.

 

 

SECTION 1. EFI prep:

 

1. On a working Leopard/Snow Leopard Machine, restore the downloaded EFI disk image to a flash drive/SD/CF or whatever you choose. As stated earlier, I have a multi-card reader/writer installed in one of my bays so my EFI boot disk is on a micro SD -

 

You accomplish this by;

 

a. Downloading and extracting my pack above to a convenient location - we will be doing some work in terminal so extracting the SLv3 folder to the root of your working Leopard/Snow Drive will make for less typing.

Insert a blank "Magic Stick" and Format it with 1 partition GUID (not MBR) as pictured below and name it EFI.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Close Disk Utility.

 

3. Browse to your SLv3 folder you downloaded and right-click (control click) the file named EFI_v3.dmg and select "Open With" > "Disk Utility.app"

 

DO NOT MOUNT THE DMG!!!

 

 

 

 

 

4. In Disk Utility, select EFIv3.dmg by clicking it and at the top menu, select "Scan Image For Restore"

 

 

 

 

5. After the restore completes, make sure the EFIv3.dmg is still highlighted and select the restore tab. In the right pane, click "Erase destination", drag EFIv3.dmg to "Source" and your magic stick EFI to "Destination" and click "Restore"

 

 

 

NOTE: the IMG is about 222MB so it will fit on a small card for people with smaller media for their Magic Stick...

 

6. Select your EFI partition and right click (control click) it and select Information. Make note of the disk identifier (in my case being disk 3)

 

 

 

7. (optional). to login to terminal as su ( it annoys me to have to always type sudo - if you don't know how, to be able to login as su all you have to do is type "sudo passwd root" without quotes and set a root password then type "su" without quotes at your prompt and enter the new password you just chose.

 

8. cd to the SLv3/i386 folder (i.e. cd /SLv3/i386)

 

9. recall the Dis Identifier of your EFI drive (i.e. disk1)

 

10. Do the following from the SLv3/i386/ folder - you must be logged in as su or put sudo in front of the following 3 commands - I would just do the su login option as defined in the optional step 7;

 

(X is the EFI disk disk from Disk Identifier - once again, in my case I would replace the X with 3)

NOTE: REMEMBER _ IF YOUR NOT LOGGED IN AS "su", YOU MUST PUT "sudo" IN FRONT OF THE NEXT 3 COMMANDS

 

fdisk -f boot0 -u /dev/rdiskX

and then press enter

dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXs1

and then press enter

fdisk -e /dev/rdiskX

and then press enter

NOTE: You may get an error on the 3rd command above about fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory - IGNORE IT After the 3 above commands, type the following

 

f 1

and press enter

w

and press enter (after pressing enter you may have to type "y then enter again" if you get a message stating the change will take effect after next boot)

q

and press enter

11. cp boot /Volumes/EFI

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your doing all this from a Leopard 10.5.X install you have to do the following in terminal as su or put sudo before the following command;

vsdbutil -a /Volumes/EFI/

This has to be done so the included Kext Utility.app will build an Extensions.mkext for you.

If you are in Snow Leopard building the Magic Stick, you can skip the vsdbutil command

 

At this point, if you already have the EFI string for your specific video card than edit /Volumes/EFI/Extra/com.apple.boot.plist. I have included ATY_inint which can be added to /Volumes/EFI/Extra/10.6/Extensions which works for various ATI cards and Nvidia Cards - Some people have reported having to use it and an EFI string on cretin cards ...

 

HINT: I'm not going to get into graphics too much as the guide stated - I expect you to be familiar with your hardware but I will give a helpful hint - Instead of using gfxutil to make ins', outs' and all that, just use it to get the path of your device then you can get OSX86Tools and use it for just converting HEX to plist files for editing (being sure to NOT let it write to com.apple.Boot.plist) and use it to import edited plist files to output hex files so you copy and paste the string into the com.apple.boot.plist on your EFI Magic Stick.

 

Whether you added any kexts or not, now would be a good time to test that everything is setup right. I would move the Kext Utility.app from the SLv3 directory to the Desktop and then in finder, go to /Volumes/EFI/Extra/10.6/ and DRAG the extensions folder over the Kext Utility.app (do NOT run the app directly) -

SECTION 2. Bios Setup:

 

Click HERE for a page-by page Bios setup for the i7975 and the 920

 

Other than that, we all know to use AHCI and so on. The boot setup is VERY important!!!

 

SECTION 3. The install:

 

Option 1 (I dislike this method - Try to use 2 - This method is not a good way to go. I use 2 on Gigabyte board as well as many others)

 

A.

From within your current install, format a drive GUID Moac OS Extended Journaled, mount the SL image/insert the CD or whatever your SL install is on and browse to System/Library/Installation on the install media and run the OSInstall.mpkg, select the drive you want to install SL on and any custom options you wish and wait for it to finish . - I had a high failure rate this way (as in "Install Failed" message and trust me when I say it will NOT work if you get this message" which led me to option 2 since its been 100% reliable.

B.

Configure your bios to use the EFI media as the boot disk and make sure there are NO other disks listed under boot disks. Also, set your drive list in the bios to have the USB/SD/microdrive or whatever as the first disk and your SL as the second. I'm not going going to get into a bunch of bios settings as you should already be familiar with them - if you have a working Leopard install than I am going to assume you know what your doing although I did post my BIOS setup for reference above for the i7 920 and the i7 975 Extreme.

C.

First boot - If you built the EFI Magic Stick from 10.5.x I would run -v -f. V3 does NOT like the Extensions.mkext to be built in 10.5.x. After boot, you will have NO SOUND- Don't panic - this is because you did a -f which breaks the sound temporarily. Once your through the OS X setup I would browse to /EFI/Extra/10.6 and drag the Extensions folder over the Kext Utility.app again - you should notice a smaller mkext file. Reboot normally and you will have sound and all!

 

Option 2 <-USE ME

 

A.

Get SL retail and using Disk Utility restore it to a USB flash drive like we did when we made the EFI Magic Stick.

B.

Repeat step 2 from the above "Option 1" install but make sure you DO NOT have your SL Install Disk inserted during BIOS setup; only your EFI disk!

C.

Boot using the modified EFI drive with the SL install USB drive inserted into any available USB port and during the timeout (the countdown), use the arrow keys to select Mac OS X Install. It is not a bad idea to add the -v -f flags as well for the install (they are NOT needed to run SL as I boot normally - although I would do it on install

D.

Once your loaded the installer, Go through the install process , format your drive SL Drive as GUID Mac OS X Extended Journald, continue with the install - I would select custom so quicktime and rosetta get installed and you can remove the language translations that you don't need, let it run - if you did everything right you should have a working vanilla install and be at the countdown screen

 

NOTE:

If the install fails it is due to a BAD COPY of the SL CD - bottom line. If your not overclocked during install and you make it to the installer and it fails, you either have a flakey ESB flash or a batched copy - !

 

E.

First boot - If you built the EFI Magic Stick from 10.5.x I would run -v -f. V3 does NOT like the Extensions.mkext to be built in 10.5.x. After boot, you will have NO SOUND- Don't panic - this is because you did a -f which breaks the sound temporarily (it breaks it during every -f boot but comes back during a normal or -v boot. Once your through the OS X setup I would browse to /EFI/Extra/10.6 and drag the Extensions folder over the Kext Utility.app again - you should notice a smaller mkext file. Reboot normally and you will have sound and all!

 

Adding Kext files.

 

AGAIN - YOU HAVE TO ENABLE OWNERS IF DOING THIS FROM LEOPARD by running in terminal as su or sudo "vsdbutil -a /Volumes/EFI/" then Simply copy the needed kext files to the /Volumes/EFI/Extra/10.6/Extensions directory and drag the Extensions directory over the provided Kext Utility.app (do not run the app - drag the Extensions directory from your EFI drive on to it)

 

 

SECTION 4. Troubleshooting:

 

 

Work in progress...

This will cover detailed GFX methods/issues including SLI, Bonjour and other possible configuration issues.

Q: I am getting a blinking cursor trying to boot from the new EFI

A: You either didn't build the EFI correctly or more likely, your BIOS is setup wrong regarding disk and boot order, make sure your only your Macic Stick is plugged in during the boot setup/disk order in your BIOS (do NOT have your SL flash install plugged in until your done setting up your BIOS to use the EFI MagicStick...

Q: I can boot and get to the installer and start installing but it crashes at X%

A: You either have a bad copy of SL to your flash drive or you have a flaky flash drive. Asus is pickey with some USB flash media. What is happening is that the SL installer can't verify one (or more) of the packages it needs to install. Also,

MAKE SURE YOU ARE

NOT

OVERCLOCKED while your installing

.

I will add that I am open to PM's - if your stuck then give me a shout...

 

 

 

 

Section 5. General Info about the new V3:

 

With the new Chameleon r3

You can then have an EFI disk with the OPTIONAL following structure for dual booting 10.5.x and 10.6.x - Also it supports internal/external drives 2TB and above at boot time.

 

EFI/

Your Folders/

Extra/

com.apple.Boot.plist

smbios.plist

Themes/

10.5/

Extensions/

Extensions.mkext

10.6/

Extensions/

Extensions.mkext

Common/

(if you want but it can cause confusion so I wouldn't add it...)

OtherFiles.whatever

 

 

NOTE: You can keep your current directory structure - the above is to just let you know you can now dual boot to 10.5/6 with this method. Anything in /Extra/Extensions or Common will override Extra/10.x/Extensions so DO NOT USE THEM

 

 

ALSO - I am going to reiterate to EVERYONE - with the EXCEPTION OF THE Boot.plist and possibly the a few graphics kexts if your using simple EFI strings, the EFI_v3.dmg I provided should have you booting with no further edits!!!

 

Tho ONLY other thing you have to do is make sure owners are enabled on the EFI drive so Kext Utility.app runs without error - the above details this.

 

 

 

Section 6. The platform UUID:

 

If you want your Platform UUID to match (not necessary that I know of but why not? it's easy) you need to do the following,

 

In Disk Utility, select your SL drive, right click and select Information. Copy the UUID

 

In ternimnal;

 

cd /Volumes/EFI/Extra/10.6/Extensions/PlatformUUID.kext/Conents

 

(su or sudo) pcio Info.plist (or use a plist editor and finder - whichever)

 

in the section "Add Platform UUID" under the key "PlatformUUID", modify the string to that of the UUID of the Drive SL will be installed on - the UUID is easy to find under DiskUtility as described above. DOUBLE CHECK the UUID is correct!

 

After-which you will want to remake the Extensions.mkext on your EFI disk. This can be done by mounting the EFI drive on any mac, browse to the EFI/Extra directory and dragging the Extensions folder over the Kext Utility.app. It will correct permissions and build the Extensions.mkext.

 

 

SECTION 7. UPDATES AND OTHER INFORMATION:

 

 

ONCE AGAIN - DO NOT INSTALL ANY PATCHES TO YOUR DRIVE!!!

 

 

Here is a Proof of Concept Video - It is over 70MB - give it time to load

SNOW LEOPARD BOOT AND GEEKBENCH VIDEO

 

UPDATE:

 

So you like using a MagicStick but you don't want it showing up on the desktop all the time?

 

Here is an easy fix so you don't have to look at the EFI drive on the desktop all the time.

All you have to do is rename your EFI drive to .EFI - You can use the attached ShowAllFiles.app to show hidden files/folders so you can make edits to the EFI partition such as edits, adding kexts and using the Kext Utility.app to rebuild the Extensions.mkext on the EFI drive.

 

OS X uses a "." before a file or folder to denote that it is "hidden"

 

Anyway, the little app I attached just shows/hides the hidden files/folders with the click of a button. Easy enough right?

 

If you don't want to use the app, you can just use Finder from your desktop by selecting "Go" from the apple menu (at the top) then select "Go to Folder" and type /Volumes/.EFI/ and this will get you there in finder. HINT: if you see no files using the "Go", all you need to do is open terminal and as su or with sudo before the following command. chflags -R nohidden /Volumes/.EFI/*

BONJOUR UPDATE: IT IS FIXED!!!

So far, the only 100% reliable fix for Bonjour is to get a PCI Ethernet card Boasting the RTL8139D chip - It works OOB and is available on several low cost cards such as the Netgear FA311 - I m still working on the onboard as there is NO reason it shouldn't work - If you don't use Bonjour, don't worry about it since you have fully working LAN OOB without the need to do anything. I personally need bonjour because I have several computers and my printers use it...

 

Bonjour is fixed!!! I modified the stock IONetworkingFamily.kext

 

I only tested in 64bit but there is no reason it shouldnt work in 32 as well. This also works on the EX58-UD5 FYI

 

All you have to do is download the attached IONetworkingFamily.kext.zip, copy it to your EFI/Extra/10.6/Extensions directory and rebuild the Extensions.mkext with Kext Utility.app

 

 

 

 

 

MAJOR 64BIT Update:

 

Thanks for the user brue pointing something out to me - I realized that I omitted some files that I use and that I failed to build into the package to enable 64 bit. - the SLv3 Above has been corrected as of 9-28-09 at 17:00 PST so if you downloaded it after that then don't worry, you have the latest boot file which will automatically load the kernel as 64bit and the extensions as 32 (provided you edit the com.apple.Boot.plist and remove the arch=x86_32 and leave the -32) so just follow the instructions as defined above. For those of you already up and running you will want to update your boot file on your EFI drive with the one attached below in DSDT_kext_bootFor64Bit.zip and update the audio extensions even if you plan on running 32 bit.

 

Here is the Skinny - If your using a MagicStick EFI as recommended (as once again I don't believe in modding the SL install drive AT ALL including hijacking the EFI partition), download the attached below and copy the boot from it to the root of the EFI and the audio kexts from the below zip file to EFI/Extra/10.6/Extensions.

 

Also, If your EFI is not visible on your desktop make it. You will want to right click (option click) it and un-check "Ignore ownership on this volume" as pictured below. Permissions HAVE TO BE ENABLED IF YOU PLAN ON RUNNING 64 BIT EXTENSIONS. They NEED be anyway since it fixes some bugs that appear when not enabled!

 

 

 

After you copy the files and no longer ignore owners, rebuild the Extensions.mkext by dragging EFI/Extra/10.6/Extensions over the Kext Utility.app

 

Edit your EFI/Extra/com.apple.boot.plist and remove the arch=x86_32. If you leave the -x32 you will be running the 64 bit kernel and 32 bit extensions as seen here,

 

 

As you can see, I am now running the 64 bit kernel and 32 bit extensions (like almost ALL Mac's released with SL are due to 64 bit extensions breaking a few programs)

 

 

To run 64 bit extensions edit the EFI/Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist so that the only kernel flag is SMBIOSdefaults=no and you will be running both kernel and extensions in 64 bit.

 

If you noticed, I also included brue's DSDT.aml - there is a bit of confusion between brue and I regarding the DSDT.aml and we are trying to figure it out - THe rule of thumb is that if you experience crashes and panics running 64 bit extensions try brue's DSDT.aml included in the attached below (also available in the newly updated EFI_v3.zip at the top of the guide) - IMPORTANT: His version will NOT work on machines without the updated boot file so those of you who installed before this update, make sure you downlowd the file below and update the Audio and boot files - they work with 32 bit and 64 bit extensions modes.

 

Also, un-checking the "Ignore ownership on this volume" on the EFI drive fixes sound temporarily breaking on -f boots!

 

A HUGE thanks to brue to pointing out my omission!

 

 

NOTE:

 

I am rebuilding the EFI_v3.dmg tonight to include the fixes - Also, with the latest EFI_v3 and the one to come, use brue's DSDT.aml - in the pack and attached below. I DID find errors in mine for 64bit operation - with the new boot file, brue's DSDT is correct - mine is not.

 

Have fun and I hope this works for everyone else - I will continue to proof read the guide for errors and omissions every chance I get!!!

 

 

-

 

 

Firstly, thanks everyone for working so hard and making your progress available- keep up the good work!

 

From a hardware perspective, I have an identical system, so this walkthrough has been incredibly valuable for me. Right now, SL boots reliably. Audio, Video, and LAN are all working correctly as well. I believe that I have everything working in 64 bit as well (kernel + extensions). Does anybody know how to confirm that I am in fact running kernel+extensions in 64 bit? Is the System Profiler screen enough to know definitively?

 

All that said, I am still having a major problem with all my SATA drives. Per the walkthrough, Chameleon boots off of a USB thumb drive, then I select my first SATA drive for actually running Mac OS X. That drive runs perfectly. However, other SATA drives, including optical drives and other hard drives, have HUGE performance issues, and sometimes, fail to mount entirely. Interestingly, the optical drives don't even show up in disk utility.

 

I have Brue's DSDT in the root of my Chameleon bootloader drive (/Volumes/EFI), and I have replaced the two kexts in my extensions folder with the ones provided by Brue. Obviously, I did all the permissions steps (vsdbutil -a and checked that ignore permissions was unchecked in Finder), then I rebuilt the KEXTs and rebooted. Also, I cleaned up the permissions on EFI with chown -R root:wheel *.

 

Does anybody know what is going on here? Are there more KEXTs I need to make this work? How can I verify that the DSDT is getting applied correctly (beyond setting the DSDT parameter in the Chameleon config file)? Would it help if I ran the kernel in 64 bit but set the extensions to run in 32 again?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Searay_X]

I'm not quite sure what you meant there, however I just found out I should just buy through ebay cause in my country it's too overpriced.

 

Thx for reply,

 

Mpampis

 

 

EDIT: I ordered it through ebay mate, brand new sealed, from a very certified user, and all that with 138$ shipping included . It would take me 255$ to buy it in a greek shop .

 

One of these days I'll start doing the pre-install stuff on my brothers SL iMAC.

 

 

My poor attempt at greek related to getting a retail SL - lol

 

Firstly, thanks everyone for working so hard and making your progress available- keep up the good work!

 

From a hardware perspective, I have an identical system, so this walkthrough has been incredibly valuable for me. Right now, SL boots reliably. Audio, Video, and LAN are all working correctly as well. I believe that I have everything working in 64 bit as well (kernel + extensions). Does anybody know how to confirm that I am in fact running kernel+extensions in 64 bit? Is the System Profiler screen enough to know definitively?

 

All that said, I am still having a major problem with all my SATA drives. Per the walkthrough, Chameleon boots off of a USB thumb drive, then I select my first SATA drive for actually running Mac OS X. That drive runs perfectly. However, other SATA drives, including optical drives and other hard drives, have HUGE performance issues, and sometimes, fail to mount entirely. Interestingly, the optical drives don't even show up in disk utility.

 

I have Brue's DSDT in the root of my Chameleon bootloader drive (/Volumes/EFI), and I have replaced the two kexts in my extensions folder with the ones provided by Brue. Obviously, I did all the permissions steps (vsdbutil -a and checked that ignore permissions was unchecked in Finder), then I rebuilt the KEXTs and rebooted. Also, I cleaned up the permissions on EFI with chown -R root:wheel *.

 

Does anybody know what is going on here? Are there more KEXTs I need to make this work? How can I verify that the DSDT is getting applied correctly (beyond setting the DSDT parameter in the Chameleon config file)? Would it help if I ran the kernel in 64 bit but set the extensions to run in 32 again?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

The DSDT.aml has to be in /Volumes/EFI/Extra/ - not the root - It will NOT function unless installed to the Extra folder. It should be where the com.apple.boot.plist, Themes folder, 10.6 folder and smbios.plist are.

 

Only the updated boot file goes to the root of the EFI. Download the attached zip at the bottom of the guide and apply the patched boot file to EFI root and the DSDT to EFI/Extra/ and your kexts go to EFI/Extra/10.6/Extensions (which has to be dragged over Kext Utility.app every time you add a kext. Also, make sure the permissions are enabled and not ignored as the guide states on the EFI Magic Stick

 

Hope this helps - and yes, if when clicking the "Software" root in System Profiler reads your running 64 bit kernel and Extensions then yes - that is confirmation enough.

 

Regards,

 

Ryan

 

 

NOTE: Guys (and Gals) I am having to repeate info a lot here. The answers are all here in this topic and the guide is clear. If you look at the structure of the EFI_v3.dmg you can open it and see where files are suppose to go - especially if you are viewing hidden files.

[bamf]

Grrr. VMWare Fusion still does not like bridged networking over a long period of time. I'll have to keep playing with that to see if there is anything I can do.

[bamf]

I just did a little moderate overclock on the system to see what it could do. I've got the multiplier at 175 now (so 3.5Ghz), and my Geekbench is now 11197. Not too shabby for not even really pushing the system yet.

 

Edit: 11270 now.

[SomeGuy12345]

Thanks again for all your help. I did all the things above, and the only change I needed to make was to move DSDT.aml into /Volumes/EFI/Extra/. Now, however, I get an error during boot:

"Not loading kext com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin - not found and kextd not available in early boot."

 

After receiving the above error, I wiped my magic drive and rebuilt it from the ground up per your guide - just to be sure. Obviously, I paid close attention to every detail. Unfortunately, I still get the above error after making the 64 bit changes described by Brue. If I remove the DSDT.aml but leave everything else the same, then SL boots fine but still encounters the SATA performance issues described above.

 

I am fairly sure that there is some misalignment between the DSDT and my motherboard. I want to confirm that I am using firmware 0707, and that I set the BIOS exactly as the screenshots higher up in the post. I did not overclock and left the CPU settings on Auto as recommended higher up in the guide.

 

I typed the error into Google and come up with some hits, but all the solutions I found stipulated a new DSDT, and unfortunately the DSDTs available on those threads were for other motherboards (like the P6T SE).

 

Any thoughts on how to solve this hurdle?

 

Eternally grateful for your assistance!

Grant

[Searay_X]

Thanks again for all your help. I did all the things above, and the only change I needed to make was to move DSDT.aml into /Volumes/EFI/Extra/. Now, however, I get an error during boot:

"Not loading kext com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin - not found and kextd not available in early boot."

 

After receiving the above error, I wiped my magic drive and rebuilt it from the ground up per your guide - just to be sure. Obviously, I paid close attention to every detail. Unfortunately, I still get the above error after making the 64 bit changes described by Brue. If I remove the DSDT.aml but leave everything else the same, then SL boots fine but still encounters the SATA performance issues described above.

 

I am fairly sure that there is some misalignment between the DSDT and my motherboard. I want to confirm that I am using firmware 0707, and that I set the BIOS exactly as the screenshots higher up in the post. I did not overclock and left the CPU settings on Auto as recommended higher up in the guide.

 

I typed the error into Google and come up with some hits, but all the solutions I found stipulated a new DSDT, and unfortunately the DSDTs available on those threads were for other motherboards (like the P6T SE).

 

Any thoughts on how to solve this hurdle?

 

Eternally grateful for your assistance!

Grant

 

 

 

Brue and I agreed to work together early on and I did not do a good job collaborating with him - try the attached - The main folder is named EFI - as in it represents your the root of your EFI. Copy the files from within the EFI folder to the root of your drive following the directory structure

 

You need to have AHCI enabled and all that. Anyway, Try this - it has the proper files and directory structure - just extract it and copy it over.EFI

 

And MAKE SURE YOU ENABLE PERMISSIONS AND SELECT TO NOT IGNORE OWNERSHIP. Then, and only then, rebuild your /Volumes/EFI/Extra/10.6/Extensions.mkext by dragging the folder /Volumes/EFI/Extra/10.6/Extensions over the Kext Utility.app (once again, only after enabling permissions and unchecking ignore ownership on this volume for the EFI drive.

 

A refresher - to enable owners - in terminal - vsdbutil -a /Volumes/EFI/ (you have to be su or use sudo) then in finder, right click EFI and Get Info and uncheck Ignore ownership on this volume (you may have to click the lock and enter your password to uncheck the box).

 

You should end up with an Extensions.mkext that is 1.9MB

 

If that still doesn't work, pm me and i will give you my phone number to walk through your bios.

 

Regards,

 

Ryan

EFI.zip

[SomeGuy12345]

This DSDT works perfectly- thanks SO much. I feel like maybe I owe you a beer or ten...

[awol]

The invalid argument is because you didn't make the SL copy compressed. YYou can NOT scan a R/W dmg - only a compressed. Convert it or remake it. If you look, I will bet that your SL DMG is read/write and this is why you can't restore. This can cause the issue you are decribing - if you don't have a good (perfect copy) it will not work.

 

If you look a few posts above (#104), you will see that this is usually caused by using cheap media for the EFI/Install Flash drive. Asus hates certain media.

 

Also could be bios issues but I doubt it. Sounds like and EFI problem. Look at post #104 in this topic...

 

It could also be that you need the right GFX strings - I left mine in there as a reference since it included the ethernet so depending on your card, the current string may not work. You can remove the string entirely from the com.apple.Boot.plist and run VGA mode until you know exactly what string/method to use for your card. Once again, look to post 104.

 

If you remove the string, the section of the com.apple.Boot.plist will look like the following excerpt -

 

<key>device-properties</key>

<string></string>

 

I am going to do a video of the how-to on EFI since it's a PITA to document but easy to do - I will try to do that today as well as post the updated EFI Magic Stick.

 

Lastly - I have NO intention of adding PS2 for several reasons. Sorry. You can buy a 4 port USB hub for under 20.00 USD. I will add this - The P6T has a total of 12 USB ports (6 external connectors and 6 internal pin headers) - what could you possibly be using 12 on? If your not using the pin headers inside, you can buy a 4 port USB device that replaces one of the blanks on the back of the computer and plugs in to the pin headers (2 of them - each of the 3 blue pin headers represent 2 usb ports).

 

Here is a 2 port version but you can get them in 4 - The device pictured below will only use 1 of the 3 blue pin headers for example.

 

 

 

Note to all - this will not change the guide, it just means that you will NOT have to patch the Magic Stick.

 

thanks for your reply

as for ps2 support, i found a suitable kext

will try to use different media for my EFI and will inform later

thank you

[neonized]

HOT CPU!

 

I saw in your dmg file this kext is not included:

 

NullCPUPowerManagement.kext

 

And while it is not really needed, and my computer ran fine, I read on a blog that it causes the CPU to run much hotter then normal.

 

So i tried it and it was very true. Without it, my CPU ran 66C degrees, and with the kext included its temperature was around 46C. A full 20C degrees hotter.

 

Although it screwed up my sleep, and I had to include the Sleepenabler.kext, at the end I decided it was better for my system for now.

 

Regards,

neonized

[Searay_X]

HOT CPU!

 

I saw in your dmg file this kext is not included:

 

NullCPUPowerManagement.kext

 

And while it is not really needed, and my computer ran fine, I read on a blog that it causes the CPU to run much hotter then normal.

 

So i tried it and it was very true. Without it, my CPU ran 66C degrees, and with the kext included its temperature was around 46C. A full 20C degrees hotter.

 

Although it screwed up my sleep, and I had to include the Sleepenabler.kext, at the end I decided it was better for my system for now.

 

Regards,

neonized

 

 

Thanks for the heads-up and your input in trying to help make a more complete guide but I am working on a final release - the holdup is a bonjour issue with screen sharing (the ONLY bonjour issue left) with the onboard card - I am aware of the issue you described but thank you for pointing it out anyway.

 

There is another possible fix for the heat issue that will not affect sleep mode nor throttle the CPU at idle and that too has been a holdup - I am hoping that my final release is actually a final release so I am being a bit cautious about updates since the current fix you mentioned is subject to change. I don't want the users to have to keep changing the Extensions every time I have an idea or discover a minor issue

 

Unless your way over clocked on stock cooling (I assume most are not and like me, have a massive cooling unit like I do - I am at 4.5GHz on an i7 975 with a cooler mater V8 with a higher RMP replacement fan - heat has not been an issue for me as I have been stable doing possible stress test) the heat should not be a major issue to most at the time being that it is still within the nominal range.

 

I would hope anyone with an i7 with the intention of over clocking would not be running stock cooling. The above is why that kext was not included at the moment.

 

I am re-coding a bunch of stuff for optimization and this takes time - I hoped to be finished yesterday but you know how testing and development goes - sometimes things take longer than expected.

 

Respectfully,

 

Ryan

[neonized]

Ok man, I'll keep an eye on the thread.

 

Also, on a side note I downloaded an updated AppleHDA.kext for Snow from the ALC1200 thread:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=161430

 

and is working very nice (64bit, SPDIF and everything)

 

Regards,

neoinized