Toshiba Satellite M115-S3144 Installation Issues

[jdev]

I've had minimal success installing OS X on my Toshiba Satellite. According to the OSx86 wiki, it looks like there have been quite a few users out there meeting with success on similar models, so I'm not sure where the problem lies, but upon installation, my internal SATA drive is not detected and I end up with the infamous "Still waiting for root device" message.

 

I've attempted installation with two releases (iATKOS v1.0i and Leo4Allv3) and the only way, so far, that I have managed to boot the system is to install to an external HDD and boot from it. This is not ideal, however, as it requires an external drive always be connected, and the access time is much slower than the internal Hitachi SATA drive.

 

I would love to know if anyone has gotten OS X to work on this particular system, or can offer advice based on their experiences. I'm pretty new to the whole OSx86 world, and am still learning, so there may be a better process for me to follow.

 

The install process that I used was to install from the Leo4Allv3 DVD to the external drive, selecting the 9.2.0 Sleep kernel*, AzaliaAudio driver, GMA950 (Old) display driver, nothing under chipset, nothing in SMBIOS (since nothing there was a match for the 533 FSB), nothing under Networking (again, no match) and then selecting Power Management for Laptops and leaving About this Mac selected.

 

*(vanilla kernel causes the system to endlessly reboot after install, and the messages occur too quickly in verbose mode for me to even see what the problem is)

 

After install, prior to booting into the os, I boot with the -v -s flags, and ran the /sbin/fsck -fy and related commands, then changed the root password and booted into the system. I attempted to install some drivers with KextHelper but didn't have much luck (I could add items to the list, but the install options never were enabled).

 

So the end result of this was a system that booted, ran slowly due to the external drive, and had no wi-fi or SATA support. Not great, but getting there. I then attempted to run the Kalyway 10.5.3 update, and it totally killed the system (skipped right over the USB drive in boot, and so I ended up back at the DVD install prompt. So I'm currently reinstalling to get back to my previous point and try again to fix some issues.

 

I would LOVE to get OS X working well on this system, and would love any advice from people with experience either with this system, or based on the specs below.

 

Laptop specs are as follows:

• Processor Intel Core 2 Duo T5200 / 1.6 GHz
  
• Data bus speed 533.0 MHz
  
• Chipset type Mobile Intel 945GM Express
  
• L2 Cache size 2.0 MB
  
• RAM Installed 2.0 GB
  
• Technology DDR2 SDRAM - 533.0 MHz
  
• Memory specification compliance PC2-4200
  
• Storage controller type Serial ATA/IDE
  
• Storage Controller / Serial ATA Interface Serial ATA-150
  
• Hard Drive 120.0 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400.0 rpm
  
• DVD Type DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - Integrated
  
• Card reader type 5 in 1 card reader
  
• Display Max Resolution 1280 x 800 ( WXGA )
  
• Graphics Processor / Vendor Intel GMA 950
  
• Max Allocated RAM Size (for video) 224.0 MB
  
• Wireless NIC Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
  

Thanks!!

-J

[jdev]

I've had minimal success installing OS X on my Toshiba Satellite. According to the OSx86 wiki, it looks like there have been quite a few users out there meeting with success on similar models, so I'm not sure where the problem lies, but upon installation, my internal SATA drive is not detected and I end up with the infamous "Still waiting for root device" message.

 

Seems I've fixed my own problem!

 

Rebooted using v- s- flags, changed the root password with the passwd command (this is why I was unable to install anything via KextHelper before, apparently). Came back into the system, and added the IOATAFamily.kext via Kext Helper. Lo-and-behold, the DVD-ROM drive and the internal HD showed up immediately!

 

I then booted using the install disk and copied the drive image of the external drive to the internal HDD. I booted again, and selected the startup disk with the rd=disk0s1 -v command. Booted, and voila! Working install off the internal drive.

 

If anyone knows of a better way to have worked around this, though (ie. a distro that may have supported the SATA controller without all this effort) please let me know!

 

Thanks,

-J

[jdev]

So, today, given that I managed to brick the system and had to reinstall everything, I figured I'd post my updated method for handling this situation. I still haven't gotten around the need for a spare USB drive with a working install (either preinstalled or installed prior to installing to the internal drive) so if anyone has ideas for a better method, please let me know.

 

When I first tried an install on this system, I was working from this basic tutorial posted here:

http://modmyi.com/forums/installation/3168...a205-s5804.html

 

As you can see, the IOATAFamily.kext used appears to be a modified version to fix the issue with the DVD drive, but in my case, with a Toshiba Satellite M115-S3144, it also fixes the SATA drive recognition.

 

What I've done to get around this is to have an external USB drive with OSX and the modified IOATAFamily.kext installed, and, after I do the initial install to the internal drive, rather than booting to it, I boot to the external USB. Then, once in the system, I run a terminal instance, and copy the modified kext to the internal drive and fix the permissions (if anyone reading this has questions on how to do that, just ask, but I'm assuming it's a pretty straightforward task to most here).

 

Reboot, switch the boot disk in the bios to the internal drive (from the USB), and it's done.

 

Anyone have any ideas of how to do this better? Is there an easy way to make a modified installation disc with the updated kext incorporated? Also, does anyone know what's different about this driver? Seems it's included in the standard Leopard install, so I assume this has been modified to work.

 

-J