SL Retail USB Installer for EVGA x58

[cmmcnamara]

Hi all, I need a little help getting a USB installer to work. First here's my configuration run down:

 

EVGA X58 Classified (E760)

 

Core i7 920

 

6GB OCZ Platinum (3x2GB)

 

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (SATA)

 

Samsung SH-203B DVD RW (SATA)

 

BFG GTX260 Video Card

 

 

 

First of all my method thus far for creating a USB drive based installer is to:

 

1) Partition the flash drive with one partition (Mac OS Journaled) with a GUID partition table.

 

2) Restore a retail Snow Leopard image to the partition.

 

3) Install Chameleon RC3 to the hidden EFI partition with necessary kexts.

 

 

 

For step 3, I've referenced Jae-V's thread for this board's install for the proper kexts and plists.

 

The problem I am having is with my graphics card I believe. The drive properly boots Chameleon but when booting the installer I get a black screen for my monitor even with -v -x boot flags applied. I am unsure of where to go from here. I am sure that the drive has booted into the Snow Leopard install environment because my G15 keyboard and Deathadder mouse both are activated properly once the screen signal is lost, which they only will do when properly booted into OS X (known from my laptop, which has Leopard 10.5.8 installed). I am unsure of how to get graphics drivers installed through normal methods like netkas's ATY_Init w/ EVGA 285 drivers or EFI strings, because I cannot even get access to OS X properly for doing either of those. I noticed that during verbose mode boot, one of the lines mentions something about NVHLANV50 (forget exact spelling) is loaded which I believe to be the proper driver, but it doesn't seem to work, and after forum browsing it seems that the -x flag should have allowed me to boot using VESA graphics but still nothing. Due to all this I'm thinking my last chance is a patched DSDT.aml file.

 

So at this point I need to figure out how to do this properly. I found Koalala's patcher in this thread which means I can use Windows to patch, but I need an existing DSDT.aml and because I need one for my own setup, I am unsure of how to get it or if the one that is supplied in Jae-V's files will work. I have read that I can use Linux to generate the DSDT.aml which I can then use to modify, but I need to know if it is able to be used by OS X and possibly if someone could point me to a good guide for doing so in Linux would much be appreciated. I feel like I am really close to creating this but I need help getting there. Thanks in advance!

[cmmcnamara]

I've done a little more researching on my issues, but I still don't have any definitive answers. I have a feeling that the DSDT.aml creation via Linux will be the key but I just need someone to confirm for me that a Linux created DSDT would be compatible with OS X....I can find the Linux DSDT guide myself. Please anyone?

[jrkilroy]

I had a similar issue, usb installer, EVGAx58, EVGA 260.

 

During the install, I would get a black screen when I expected the installer to load.

 

I had to set the Mac type to "MacPro1,1" and the resolution to 1024x768x32 (probably due to my monitor).

 

I was able to get the installer to work, and to complete. However, when trying to boot into the installed OS I keep getting HPET errors. I still haven't figured out how to get around those

[cmmcnamara]

Oh cool, I have been using the macmodel=MacPro 2,1 flag, as per the 10.5.7 tutorial by ihavearedcouch so I'll have to try the 1,1 flag.

 

Is that your monitor's native resolution or did you just put at the resolution to try and get a signal?

 

I think the HPET error is related to the AppleIntelPowerManagement.kext, which may need to be deleted from S/L/E from a quick forum search. I also believe that I've read that doing that would be unneccessary given a proper DSDT.aml, which is what I am shooting for. I'll give the MacPro=1,1 and the lower resolution a go.

[cmmcnamara]

I found my problem. On the Snow Leopard disc partition on the flash drive I had to remove any NVIDIA card kexts so that my GTX 260 would work in safe mode. From there I can install and use EFI strings post-install.