[Guide] ASUS G73JH Snow Leopard Installation

[vknyvz]

This is a guide on how to install a retail copy of MAC OSX 10.6 to ASUS G73JH Gaming Laptop

 

Specs -

Intel® Core™ i7-720QM

6GB DDR3 1333MHz memory

17.3" LED-LCD

500GB HDD 7200rpm (320GB Toshiba External I used for Snow Leopard installation)

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 ( Apple I hate you! )

Atheros Wireless and Atheros LAN

 

Notes - Couple asked me through PM how to install Snow Leopard so here it is. I did lots of investigation on how to put OS X (10.5 or 10.6) on this laptop so I could continue my iPhone SDK development. I wasn't aware of Apple's not supporting ATI 5xx0 Series GPUs yet! But surely this wouldn't change my mind of buying this laptop as this thing owns everything on Windows.

 

Final Note - Yes! I didn't try any kexts on this to make, audio and lan work because you know what's the use; without graphics! so there you go guys how to install Snow Leopard on this machine.

 

Things you need;

- Download EmpireEFI_V1085_AMD_Inteli3i5m.zip

- MAC OSX 10.6 Retail Disc, Also iDeneb 10.5.8 Lite Edition should also work!

- Partition your hard drive with id=af on Windows, or use an external HDD (like me)

- If you running more than 4GB of RAM like me either take the extra RAM out or make sure to type the maxmem command on the installation)

 

Installation;

- Burn Empire EFI and boot the laptop from the laptop make sure SATA settings set to AHCI

- On boot up type;

-x -v -x32 maxmem=4096

- Format the external HDD or the partition you created on Windows to MAC OS Journaled format, install and reboot

- Reboot with the same Empire EFI disc and commands that you first booted and installed with to continue to installation.

- That's it!

 

What works upon installation;

- Graphics on vesa mode

- O/S itself runs really fast

- Reboot works (didn't try sleep)

- USB ports (external mouse and keyboard works fine)

- Connecting to an external monitor (which I found weird as my previous laptop didn't without proper kexts)

 

What doesn't work upon installation;

- Quartz Extreme graphics

- Wireless

- Ethernet LAN

- Audio

- Camera

[Mr Ron]

awesome thanks alot. i have the same laptop and would love to be able to run OS X.

[vknyvz]

Basically this is like a Ms Dos install I used to do 10 years ago lol

 

pretty much OS itself no graphics no audio. I didn't try to make any other device work because it's useless without the graphics.

[Mr Ron]

ahh good ole MSDOS, dam shame apple is not supporting ATI. this laptop has so much potential.

[vknyvz]

Oh my hell yea with 5870 snow leopard would even run faster I mean literally :-)

[schif]

hi, i will have this laptop, any person have succeeded the full install ( all works great) with the G73JH ? what's the wireless card in this laptop ?

 

thank's

[donpiko13]

Good work Mate!

Thank you very much.

[bafio]

This is a guide on how to install a retail copy of MAC OSX 10.6 to ASUS G73JH Gaming Laptop...

Hello, I'm Fabio from Italy, this is my first Hackintosh and my first post in InsanelyMac Forum...

 

I have same laptop (G73JH) but installation was not so clean and functionally. I have installed SL Retail using [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] Supported, with -x maxmem=4096 flags.

 

At the end of installation SL report: Install Failed: Mac OS X Cannot Be Installed on this Volume.

 

At this installation point I can only restart or shutdown the system. Restarting the system with the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] cd it present [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] and mac os option. Selecting Mac it start and complete the installation regularly. I have same problem as you (net, sound, video card etc.)

 

 

 

When i try to restart it won't. It need [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] CD all the time. I know is there a way to have it starting without any cd or boot loader. I'm wrong?

 

If you have some time to spend could you post the pictures of your bios configuration?

 

During installation i decided to partition my HDD in Guid Partition table (first partition FAT32, second partition Mac journaled) instead of MBR (can this is the problem?).Thank you for your effort. Bye

[TimeFire]

There's any way to make Ethernet LAN and Audio work?

I tried to search on Internet without success.

[mmjvb]

Finally : ATI 5870 kext

 

Get it from here : tthanks for netkas

 

also it is reported in comments that it is working on G73JH

 

 

 

I tried it on mine with no hope

 

please guys check it and sombody explain how tp install it here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jitters]

Hey I finally got somewhere. I actually got the OS installed. But no luck on the new ATI drivers, I don't think I know how to install them. I took out the ram to get to 4096 and typed -x -v -cpus=1 before booting into Empire EFI. idk if that help anyone. But I think that the ATI drivers are almost ready or ready we should have a swell mac laptop going on...

[nate8282]

Did anyone with a G73JH get the video driver to work, and if so did you install all of the kext files or just certain ones?

[nate8282]

When i try to install the video drivers i get the following error.

 

System extension cannot be used

The system extension "/System/Library/Extensions/RT61CardbusDriver.kext" was installed improperly

 

 

I attached a picture.

[Ezbox]

Hello everyone,

 

I have successfully installed snow leopard on a G73jh using the method described here : tonymacx86

and using the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]-ATI-5xxx-2 disk to boot initially. I am able to upgrade to 10.6.4 and get audio working. The problem I have now is that when I try to get the ATI5870 to be recognized I get a kernel panic and cant boot in osx again resulting in having to reinstall/restore from time machine.

 

Hope to get more information about how to get the card to work, I would even be happy to be able to boot in vesa for now.

 

No drivers for wireless/ethernet, but I am thinking about changing the half/minipci wireless card for one with atheros 9280 chipset which should work as Airport and windows 7 supports with own drivers.

 

Will keep working on it,

 

Ezbox

[hotwheelharry]

I got it to work pretty well using [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] ATI and Empire. I just wanted to see what the difference was. Every time I boot though, I have to use:

"-x32 maxmem=4096 idlehalt=0 busratio=20"

in bootloader, otherwise I get a kernel panic.

 

I too am using the Asus G73. I am actually using it with Snow Leopard right now to post =D. I had an old USB wireless card that I am using.

 

Here is what worked, and what didn't.

BTW, I used the 10.6.3 Retail DVD

Yes:

Audio

USB

 

No:

Graphics - Stuck with 1024x768 (netkas drivers didn't work either. maybe installed wrong though.)

LAN/Wireless (Atheros chipset)

Keyboard backlight

Fn Keys (except brightness)

 

 

 

I did have a {censored} experience getting Snow Leopard to work with Windows though. I partitioned my HDD from MBR to GPT in Snow Leopard Installer DIsk Utility and wiped everything... which was fine. But, when I loaded up Windows 7 to install, it said it wouldn't install on a GPT partition. BS!!!!!! Windows is supposed to support it. Now I can't use them both on the same HDD and have to buy a second. Anyway, I just decided to screw Windows temporarily and see if the mac would work. It does for the most part. I do need those official ATI HD 5870 Drivers though!!!!

 

If anyone else has tried installing the netkas drivers, is this what you did?

 

Drag all .kext and .plugin and stuff in netkas package into /System/Library/Extensions and then use terminal

 

"sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/kextName.kext" to make them readable or something.

 

Thats all I did, but it din't work. I still got the "the driver failed to install" message.

 

Hope this helps anyone else trying SL. I would say it's not really worth it until those GFX drivers come out though.

[Sarki]

Good news everyone!

 

There seems to be some hope about the ATI Radeon video card.

 

http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=...43&start=20

 

As far as I know, a kext exists that permits to use the 5850 on OS X.

 

I haven't tried it yet, but the corresponding drivers should be available in the last [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] release.

 

I'm trying to do the same.

 

By the way, has anyone succeded in making the keyboard/mouse working under 10.6.4 ?

[Handsome-J]

Im struggling to get this working on my G73JH-RBBX05. Ive pulled out my RAM to get under the 4096 maxmem. IDeneb was only able to be installed via [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] using -x busratio=20 cpus=1. Installation was successful. When I go to restart through [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] I get a Kernel Panic for ACPI. See below:

 

 

I'm dying to see the welcome screen, someone help please.

 

J

[vknyvz]

original author here again

 

well all this time passed and still nothing

 

wow man

 

graphics sound and ethernet at least need to work for a full functioning system.

 

I am still at the first step, SL 10.6 installs but no ethernet and graphics still

 

if anybody has any new info kext or anything share here

[Sarki]

By the way, it's possible to get back the sound and the keyboard by installing VoodooHDA 2.2 and Voodoo PS2.

 

Still no idea how to get the trackpad though...

 

Any news about the Radeon 5870 ?

[Sarki]

Ok guys,

 

forget about the Mobility Radeon HD 5xxx and Netkas or any official driver.

 

Smartie77 in this post explains why the current driver is not made for any Mobility 5xxx.

 

Instead, we should be playing with VESA modes, or wait for the port of the last xf86-ati-radeon open source drivers.

 

If you want to play with VESA, add the following entry in your boot.plist

Graphics Mode"="WIDTHxHEIGHTxDEPTH"

(e.g. "1024x768x32")

For VESA 3.0 graphics, you may append a refresh rate

after an "@" character (e.g. "1280x1024x32@75")

 

Don't get too excited about that workaround, the best resolution you might have is the closest to the standard VESA resolutions available. (still better than the ugly 1024x768 though)

Meaning that you might not have a 1920x1080 screen since it's not a "standard" vesa mode.

I also seriously doubt the possibility to have an over 60Hertz refresh rate.

 

Check in the wikipedia article for VESA resolutions.

[rastamandom]

on my g73jh-A1 I install iATKOS 10.6.3 x64, 10.6.4 new update from apple site work on mine os, but just get bluetooth working...

i runing x64 and i see all 8GB memory, and my CPU is reconise like Xeon quad core with 8 core

 

Not working:

- VGA

- Wireless

- Ethernet LAN

- Audio (i have loud microfonia so i disable it)

[rastamandom]

on my g73jh-A1 I install iATKOS 10.6.3 x64, 10.6.4 new update from apple site work on mine os, but just get bluetooth working...

i runing x64 and i see all 8GB memory, and my CPU is reconise like Xeon quad core with 8 core

 

Not working:

- VGA

- Wireless

- Ethernet LAN

- Audio (i have loud microfonia so i disable it)

i use iATKOS 10.6.3 version

 

 

use F8 and tipe this

 

-x -v -cpu=8 busratio=20

 

i have x64 Leoptad update with 10.6.4 from Apple site if I have something new gona post here

[anthonyeco]

I've been following this post for months. I really hope this gets somewhere I sold my Macbook Pro for this laptop. Would really love to get this going. One question though I realize you cant raid the G73. Can we add a second HD to the other bay just for OSX?

[iJAno]

I've been following this post for months. I really hope this gets somewhere I sold my Macbook Pro for this laptop. Would really love to get this going. One question though I realize you cant raid the G73. Can we add a second HD to the other bay just for OSX?

 

 

yes u can 1rs hdd original os and 2nd hdd SL 10.6.4 working only whitout keyboard lights and graphic acceleration(QE/CI)

[ditbonjour]

Can you post the way you do this please i think a lot of person want to transform the g73 into hackintosh