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OSX on Asus G60VX


jakebb
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Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo P7450

Chipset: Mobile Intel® PM45 Express Chipset +ICH9M

Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M with 1GB GDDR3 VRAM

WiFi: Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5100 ABGN

 

I tried booting with iPC 10.5.6, but it exited out and restarted while it showed the apple logo. Which distro should I try first?

 

Thanks.

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Well 1st off posting in the right area on the forum would help a lot.

2nd I don't think there is graphical support for your card until 10.5.7

3rd I would try doing a snow leopard (10.6.0 or 10.6.1) install instead of leopard.

AFAIK your Intel wireless chipset will NOT work under ANY version of OSX. (no drivers)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I also just purchased an Asus G60VX (-RRBX09) and plan on installing Snow Leopard on it. It should arrive early next week and I will post my progress once I begin. Any tips any of you have would be greatly appreciated. Once we get a fully operational setup we should make a How-To for this laptop. Other similar Asus laptops (such as the G51, K61IC, etc) would probably have a similar install process.

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Alright, I got it to install. You have to use iAtkos v7. You also need to boot with cpus=1. Attached is a text file with the customize options. Everything works well except for 3 things:

 

1. You need to boot with cpus=1 every time, kind of annoying

 

2. Wifi does not work, I bought a netgear wg111, which worked fine

 

3. The screen resolution is low, and you can't change it.

 

I am typing on it right now. If anyone knows how to fix any of these please tell me.

 

Oh hey and if anyone is interested in installing snow leopard retail, the psystar website says rebel efi works with this model of computer. I don't know how trustable psystar is, but they have a trail if anyone wants to try it out with a retail copy of snow leopard.

 

If anyone is interested in installing snow leopard retail on this model, it says on the psystar website that rebel efi is compatible with this computer. There is a trial version of it, so if anyone has a retail dvd of leopard, you might want to try this out, since a retail installation would be much better than iatkos.

iatkoscustomize.txt

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Alright, I got it to install. You have to use iAtkos v7. You also need to boot with cpus=1. Attached is a text file with the customize options. Everything works well except for 3 things:

 

1. You need to boot with cpus=1 every time, kind of annoying

 

2. Wifi does not work, I bought a netgear wg111, which worked fine

 

3. The screen resolution is low, and you can't change it.

 

I am typing on it right now. If anyone knows how to fix any of these please tell me.

 

Oh hey and if anyone is interested in installing snow leopard retail, the psystar website says rebel efi works with this model of computer. I don't know how trustable psystar is, but they have a trail if anyone wants to try it out with a retail copy of snow leopard.

 

If anyone is interested in installing snow leopard retail on this model, it says on the psystar website that rebel efi is compatible with this computer. There is a trial version of it, so if anyone has a retail dvd of leopard, you might want to try this out, since a retail installation would be much better than iatkos.

 

I'm going to try a retail install. I downloaded Empire EFI which is the free version. I'm also looking for the Psystar right now. I'll let you know how each of those goes first.

 

I saw that there are drivers for the 220M video card and that it should work. Do you have that working or is it just the resolution is locked? What res are you at now?

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I am at 1024 by 786. I think the drivers are working, just not correctly. I tried reinstalling an selecting no drivers, and everything worked except when I scrolled down on any application, It would just clump all the text together and it looked very odd. In iAtkos there are drivers for this video card, but like I said I don't think it is working correctly since the resolution is low. Also, on some applications, such as photobooth, it says video card not compatible. I actually tried empire efi, although i used snowosx instead of retail leopard. I have also tried the the trial version of psystar rebel efi, although I could not get it to boot since my only retail copy of snow leopard is on a usb stick.

 

After doing some reading around, it looks like snow leopard has support for this video card (nvidia gtx 260) built in. But leopard does not. I think I might try installing snow leopard, I would love to have better resolution.

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Alright, I got the resolution fixed. I tried upgrading to snow leopard, but the disc would not boot, so I gave up. I then tried to upgrade to 10.5.8, and it made the video card start working great, it fixed the resolution too, it now lets me change the resolution as it normally would. To upgrade, I simply used the apple updater, and when it restarted I inserted the iatkos disc and installed the drivers and fixes only. On the next boot, everything worked greatly, and I am very happy with it. So that is one more problem fixed.

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Awesome! I'm glad the resolution is working now.

 

I'm bidding on a retail 10.6 DVD on e-bay right now. My brother has the 10.6.2 upgrade disc (he purchased a MacBook Pro recently) so I'm going to make the jump once I have everything running with the standard 10.6 disc. How far did you get with Empire EFI?

 

I'm also interested in why you chose a USB wifi adapter over a different internal mini-pci. I'm bidding on a used Dell 1390 wifi card on e-bay. They go for under $20 shipped it seems and don't have to worry about plugging in an external card. The only downfall I can see of that is that the card that comes with the laptop could be a better card as far as range goes. I plan to keep it if the one that comes with it is supported later on.

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I wouldn't spend too much money on a retail disc, since I am not sure it will work, and there are other sources where you can obtain a retail disc for free. You also probably would not need the 10.6.2 upgrade disc because if you got everything working, you would be able to upgrade through the apple updater regularly. Also make sure you are buying the full snow leopard dvd, not the upgrade disc. The full dvd should cost a few hundred, while the upgrade disc will probably cost about thirty.

 

With empire efi, I couldn't even get the disc to boot, although that might be because I used a snow leopard osx86 distro instead of the real snow leopard. I might try booting empire efi with my retail snow leopard flash drive, to see if that will work.

 

I am using a usb card since it was the only thing available at the time I was at best buy, and I was with a friend who offered to buy me something, so I could not pass up the opportunity to get a mac compatible wifi card, even if it was usb. I will probably buy an internal wifi card eventually. Wifi seems to be the only problem now. I even solved the cpus=1 problem by using osx86tools, and then setting a boot flag to cpus=1, so now I don't have to type it in every time. Even the webcam works, I was having fun with photobooth all night. But yes, I think the next step would be to get snow leopard working, I am probably going to try upgrading to snow leopard from this current distro, since there are a few guides out there on how to upgrade iatkos to snow leopard.

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re """I wouldn't spend too much money on a retail disc, since I am not sure it will work, and there are other sources where you can obtain a retail disc for free""""

The upgrade disk which you can use for the install is only @ $30.

Fot the best operating system, why not support apple

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You can use the upgrade disc for the install? I though you could only use the upgrade disc to upgrade from leopard. Can you do a fresh install with only the upgrade disc and nothing else? If so, I will probably buy one since I am very interested in getting snow leopard installed on this model.

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the best way to avoid any Kernel Panics is to used DSDT.aml compile from your own system.

use Ubuntu LiveCD to get a dump of your dsdt.dsl and compile into DSDT.aml.

then install using any method you wish...i prefer installing thru another OSX using OSInstall.mpkg.

then install Chameleon bootloader and latest EFI 10.1-10.5

I use the basic Kexts in the folder /Extra/Extensions/ such as FakeSMC, NullCPU~, IOAHCI~, OpenHaltRestart, PlatformUUID, and SleepEnabler.

 

keyboard, trackpad, nvidia gtx 260m, and alc663 sound is not easy or straight forward for this particular notebook running Snow Leopard.

KB/TP was done by using voodoops2controller.kext and AppleACPIPS2NUB.kext compiled for snow leopard.

installing in /Extra cause problem...best to install into S/L/Extensions and be sure to remove Mouse.kext from plugins folder inside voodoops2

 

never had any luck with gtx 260m using efi string, nvenabler, or graphicsenabler.

i had to customize NVinject by adding the Device ID 061810de using correct VRAM.

 

also using VoodooHDA compiled for Snow Leopard and deleting AppleHDA.kext.

 

after many nights of headache, here's all files that I used to get things working:

 

g51vx_working.zip

 

Everything works, EXCEPT:

Wireless LAN

Keyboard Volume Control

 

This is a post from another thread about installing snow leopard on the g51vx, which is almost identical to the g60vx. The attached file also has kexts and a dsdt.aml. I am going to try this out shortly, once I can obtain a snow leopard disc.

 

Here is a link to the thread incase you want to download the kexts and dsdt. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...177855&st=0

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I purchased the full OSX 10.6 DVD for $50 on ebay, but the guy sent me iLife '09 by accident so he's sending me the correct disc now (I just have to wait a few more days).

 

The laptop arrived yesterday and I'm anxious to load OSX on it. I purchased a Dell 1390 wifi card which comes up as airport in OSX and has drivers already included. It was about $13 shipped on ebay. There's plenty of them on there so I would say it's well worth the purchase. I just hope the card doesn't have a significantly lower signal strength than the one the G60vx comes with out of the box.

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I installed snow leopard using the 30 dollar upgrade disc and got everything working, except wireless of course. Here is a quick mini-guide

 

1. Download and burn empire efi to a cd. Use the gt200 version, not the normal version.

2. prepare a flash drive with the the files from the link at the bottom of this post. Also put kext helper on the flash drive.

3. Boot from empire efi, take out the disc, put in snow leopard install. Make sure you are on guid partition scheme, mbr comes default on the g60vx

4. When you get to customize, only choose the things you need. Click install and wait until it is finished and restarts.

5. When it restarts, re-insert the empire efi cd, and click on your main partition with osx on it.

6. The welcome video will play, although it will be glitchy and slow. Enter information and continue. When it is all ready, click on the mounted empire efi disc, go to extra and go to chameleon bootload v2rc3. Install it.

7. Take out the disc and put in the flash drive. open up kext helper and install all the kexts included in the g51vx_working.zip file. there are two directories of kexts, one is in the system folder and the other is in the extra folder. Look through until you find both sets of kexts, and install them all at once with kext helper. Wait a few seconds after installing and you should get kernel panic. Turn off, reboot.

8. When you get to chameleon bootloader, type in "iarch=i386 cpus=1" (without quotes)

9. When you boot into it now, everything should be working. The next step would be to add com.apple.boot.plist, and add "iarch=i386 cpus=1" to it so you don't have to type it in everytime.

 

There you go, for the g51vx_working.zip file I am talking about. There are two kext directories on it, merge all the kexts together and install with kext helper. Everthing should work just fine except wireless

 

Why did you pay 50 bucks for the disc? I paid 30 at the apple store. Keep in mind that you can use the upgrade disc for this process.

 

Ask me if you need anything clarified.

 

Oh ya, and it also is a good idea to make a custom dsdt, use dsdt patcher gui to do it, it can create one and apply it to the partition very easily.

 

here is a direct link to g51vx_working.zip, incase you don't want to search for it. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...st&id=60209

 

Oh hey, and tell me if the dell wifi card works well, the usb wifi card I am using is not compatible with snow leopard. It would be great to have something that I didn't need to plug in everytime.

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i have this laptop the Asus G60vx the the blue one that came with windows 7 had it and i want to know if i can dual boot with this method using the iATKOS v7

 

i would love having mac OSX but i game on this baby and i don't want to lose that. =]

and also

 

do you guys have a step by step installation for this laptop?

like some sort of PDF or something?

 

I've installed Mac OSX before on an old toshiba and it worked great, but no wi-fi or sound which was the worst -__-

but im worried that since it was Realtek sound drivers and all that this laptop has the same Realtek (i know newer ones) but might run into the same problem, because i can get along just fine if all i need is to buy a wifi card or something like that.

 

but the money maker is, does it work with sound and does it especially work if i want to dual boot, if so any help please?

 

thank you in advance :D

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Install windows first, then install iatkos after. Make sure it is Master Boot Record, windows will not install on guid, but iatkos will install on mbr.

 

I have a short guide for iatkos on here on this thread, just look around, and I also have a guide for snow leopard retail. They both work completely fine, and the sound works great, the wifi is the only thing that doesn't work. If you are doing a fresh install, I would recommend snow leopard, while it is a little more difficult, you get access to apple updates and the os goes faster.

 

Yeah, I have the same one, the blue one with the fake tear across the front, it looks badass.

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I installed snow leopard using the 30 dollar upgrade disc and got everything working, except wireless of course. Here is a quick mini-guide

 

1. Download and burn empire efi to a cd. Use the gt200 version, not the normal version.

2. prepare a flash drive with the the files from the link at the bottom of this post. Also put kext helper on the flash drive.

3. Boot from empire efi, take out the disc, put in snow leopard install. Make sure you are on guid partition scheme, mbr comes default on the g60vx

4. When you get to customize, only choose the things you need. Click install and wait until it is finished and restarts.

5. When it restarts, re-insert the empire efi cd, and click on your main partition with osx on it.

6. The welcome video will play, although it will be glitchy and slow. Enter information and continue. When it is all ready, click on the mounted empire efi disc, go to extra and go to chameleon bootload v2rc3. Install it.

7. Take out the disc and put in the flash drive. open up kext helper and install all the kexts included in the g51vx_working.zip file. there are two directories of kexts, one is in the system folder and the other is in the extra folder. Look through until you find both sets of kexts, and install them all at once with kext helper. Wait a few seconds after installing and you should get kernel panic. Turn off, reboot.

8. When you get to chameleon bootloader, type in "iarch=i386 cpus=1" (without quotes)

9. When you boot into it now, everything should be working. The next step would be to add com.apple.boot.plist, and add "iarch=i386 cpus=1" to it so you don't have to type it in everytime.

 

There you go, for the g51vx_working.zip file I am talking about. There are two kext directories on it, merge all the kexts together and install with kext helper. Everthing should work just fine except wireless

 

Why did you pay 50 bucks for the disc? I paid 30 at the apple store. Keep in mind that you can use the upgrade disc for this process.

 

Ask me if you need anything clarified.

 

Oh ya, and it also is a good idea to make a custom dsdt, use dsdt patcher gui to do it, it can create one and apply it to the partition very easily.

 

here is a direct link to g51vx_working.zip, incase you don't want to search for it. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...st&id=60209

 

Oh hey, and tell me if the dell wifi card works well, the usb wifi card I am using is not compatible with snow leopard. It would be great to have something that I didn't need to plug in everytime.

 

I will let you know how the Dell wifi card works once I get it in the mail. The resolution on the display is stuck at 1024x768 and I'm working on fixing that. Sound works as well.

 

Some differences between our installs:

 

When I put in all of the kexts and hit apply I don't get a kernel panic and restarted normally.

 

Step 8 causes issues for me. My laptop boots normally into the OS if I skip this step. If I do it a screen comes up and says that I need to restart the computer. This issue repeats itself if I type that into the boot loader.

 

I also wiped the second hard drive during the OSX install and installed it on that drive. I also went into the BIOS and set that drive as the first in boot order so I was able to leave Win7 as it was on the first drive. Having 2 drives on the G60vx has proven to be a big time saver if you don't want to lose Win7 and have to reload it after you install OSX.

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NVinject.kext, in the library folder of g60vx_working. After I restarted, the graphics were perfect, and I could change it normally in the settings. Did you get all the kexts, or just the ones in the extra folder? Go to the library folder, there is more.

 

Oh wait, I think I might know the cause of your video problem. Are you using the gt200 version of empire efi? The regular version would not recognise this video card I don't think. If you are not, go to the empire efi website, under the normal download should be the gt200 version, get that and burn a new cd.

 

My laptop boots normally without using cpus=1, but I need arch=i386 or it won't work. But, when I don't use cpus=1, then I get tons of lag, and everything runs slow, and the computer usually crashes within a minute of booting. Does your laptop run laggy? If it does, try cpus=1.

 

I don't know why you wouldn't need arch=i386, but you might not need cpus=1 because of a different processor possibly? Which processor are you using? I am on core 2 duo p7450.

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NVinject.kext, in the library folder of g60vx_working. After I restarted, the graphics were perfect, and I could change it normally in the settings. Did you get all the kexts, or just the ones in the extra folder? Go to the library folder, there is more.

 

Oh wait, I think I might know the cause of your video problem. Are you using the gt200 version of empire efi? The regular version would not recognise this video card I don't think. If you are not, go to the empire efi website, under the normal download should be the gt200 version, get that and burn a new cd.

 

My laptop boots normally without using cpus=1, but I need arch=i386 or it won't work. But, when I don't use cpus=1, then I get tons of lag, and everything runs slow, and the computer usually crashes within a minute of booting. Does your laptop run laggy? If it does, try cpus=1.

 

I don't know why you wouldn't need arch=i386, but you might not need cpus=1 because of a different processor possibly? Which processor are you using? I am on core 2 duo p7450.

I used Empre EFI v1.04 I believe. I installed all of the kexts in the ZIP file you linked on the first page. Everything worked fine without typing in any commands on boot with the exception of video.

 

I got the video to work using NVEnabler 64.kext, however once I restarted I got a ton of lag. I just tried the arch=i386 and this dramatically reduces lag so that when I open windows it works normally. However when I tried to play a DVD the video would lag.

 

When using cpus=1 I get a grey screen and a box that says I need to restart the computer. I guess this is the OSX equivalent of a BSOD?

 

My laptop has the P8700 which is the Core 2 Duo 2.53 (G60vx-RBB09 is the exact laptop model). Under "About This Mac" it reads the CPU as a 2.46 GHx Unknown. All 4GB of memory is seen.

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Well all of the sudden using "arch=i386 cpus=1" now works and the studdering has stopped. I don't understand why this failed before, but I have done a few restarts and it's working each time.

 

I would like to get the system running with both cores. I have read it's a problem with synchronization between the cores. Now that I have it running properly as it is, this will be my next task.

 

Again I'll update you once I get the Dell 1390 installed. Thanks again for the help!

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Good that you go it working, all the problems you has were probably caused by the version of empire efi you used. http://www.mediafire.com/?olzzmy0m0kc using this version, my guide works perfectly, but I guess it is good you got it working anyways.

 

If you don't want to type in cpus=1 arch=i386, then download osx86tools, change boot flags, it will fail with a weird error. Then get the com.apple.boot.plist from the empire efi disc, put it in the right place, then change the boot flags on the plist file manually. Repair permissions with osx86tools, and you are good to go. It is very important that you try and fail to change the plist file before you put it in the directory, for some reason it doesn't work if you don't do this.

 

As far as updating, I was able to update although it required a reinstall of the kexts. Using osx86tools and backup up the extensions would work.

 

For me personally, I just did a fresh install of Snow Leopard retail, updated to 10.6.2 through ethernet, then installed the kexts, etc. after that. Everything is working perfectly, although yes I will buy a dell 1390 through ebay, I might buy one today, although first I would like to search if there is possibly a more powerful wifi card compatible with osx.

 

For getting both cores to work, I don't know. The computer does go fast enough with one core, but of course we want the best speed possible, so we want two. I don't know why it lags when trying to use both cores, it should work since macbook pros have the same processor as our computers. I will search the internet.

 

I am really happy this turned out so well, I never expected to have osx running on this model this well, especially since we have retail working, its awsome.

 

awww, your lucky you got the 2.53 ghz, mine is only 2.13

 

Oh yes, after reading around a little bit, I can confirm your video woes were caused by not using the gtx2xx version of empire efi, you are highly recommended to use that if you have a gt200 video card. But I guess if you got it working without it, thats fine too. The gtx2xx contains drivers for the gt200 already, that is why you needed that extra driver.

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