Installing new software causes "Still waiting" error

[convert2apple]

Hi, I am new here and I am having problems with my retail install of Snow Leopard on the Asus Rampage II Extreme motherboard. Almost everything works without a hitch including sound, QE/CI, networking and CPU recognition (number of cores, as well as OC'd speed, on the core i7 920).

 

The only problem is with AHCI and hard disk recognition. The first time I booted after installation, things went fine. I was using AHCIPortInjector.kext and LegacyJMB36xSATA.kext in my /Extra/Extensions.mkext file in Chameleon for hard disk recognition. It worked so I didn't think there would be any problems.

 

When I installed the 10.6.4 Combo Update, I restarted and got the infamous "Still waiting for Root Device" error along with "SerialATAPI device reconfiguration did not complete successfully" message. Did a lot of research and decided to try another AHCI kext. Booted off a USB hard drive that has a basic install of iDeneb 10.5.5 loaded and uninstalled the AHCIPortInjector kext. Then I experimented with installing different kexts, rebuilding the extensions.mkext (via Terminal) and seeing which combination would let me boot again.

 

Fixed the problem by using LegacyAHCIPortInjector.kext and LegacyAppleIntelPIIXATA.kext in the Chameleon kext-cache. I thought there might just have been a problem with the update so I went about installing iLife, which requires a reboot. Upon startup, I get the "Still Waiting" and "SerialATAPI" errors.

 

Booted back into iDeneb and performed more mkext experiments to try to fix the issue. The TotallyFixStillWaiting.kext did it this time, but after successfully booting and installing some Logitech software for my mouse and keyboard, the same d*** thing happened again.

 

I get it to work again by not using any AHCI kexts this time but still have more software to install that requires me to reboot. Installed and once again can't boot into Snow Leopard! I have tried every combination of AHCI kexts that I can think of and it still won't boot.

 

I narrowed the problem down to software installations somehow messing with ACHI drivers but I can't figure out any permanent fixes that don't require me to rebuild and change the Extensions.mkext file every time I install new software. I also Googled endlessly but didn't find any reason or explanation for this behavior. Then I registered here and I hope someone can help me.

 

/Extra/KextStore contains the following:

-AD2000b

-EvOreboot

-fakesmc

-OrangeIconFix

-IONetworkingFamily

(in addition to various combinations of hard drive kexts)

and is manually cached via chown, chmod and kextcache Terminal commands

 

S/L/E is unmodified with the exception of AppleHDA patched to version 10.6.2 (10.6.3 version breaks sound support with my motherboard)

 

I hope this is enough information for anyone who can help me fix the booting problem.

 

Thanks in advance

[MaLd0n]

you're using some kext, or did the fix for DSDT (cmos reset)

ahci in bios is enabled by default?

 

I had a problem so

I had forgotten cmos reset

bios keeps coming back to factory settings

where was disabled ahci

 

if that is your problem

edit the DSDT or use kext

 

DSDT

 

You can fix this by editing your dsdt file.

 

Length should be changed to 0x02.

 

Code:

Device (RTC)
{
 Name (_HID, EisaId ("PNP0B00"))
 Name (_CRS, ResourceTemplate ()
 {
    IO (Decode16,
    0x0070,             // Range Minimum
    0x0070,             // Range Maximum
    0x00,               // Alignment
    0x02,               // Length
    )
  })
}

 

KEXT

 

USE ElliotlegacyRtc.kext

 

several Asus boards do not need the hit (they already have the 0x02, / / Length)

but I do not know if Asus are all well

you could have a look

 

 

Desculpas pelo ingles

 

if your problem is not that

use systeminfo

See what your Sata/Pata controller

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=219584

 

 

you can make a clean

use the Onyx

 

[convert2apple]

Thank you for your help. I haven't had a chance to try out either solution yet because my external hard drive with iDeneb/Leopard is loaned out to a friend for a few days. As soon as I am able to boot back into iDeneb I will try out your fixes on my Snow Leopard retail install.

 

Is ElliotLegacyRtc.kext available at kexts.com? Also, how can I open a DSDT.aml file? My Snow install uses a custom DSDT but I can't open it with any DSDT utilities. They only allow me to extract a DSDT from my mobo BIOS rather than read an already existing DSDT file?

 

Thanks

[Gringo Vermelho]

Is ElliotLegacyRtc.kext available at kexts.com?

Unbelieveable. You prefer to wait for an answer to that rather than visiting the site yourself?

Also, how can I open a DSDT.aml file?

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=223205

or

http://www.osx86.es/?p=610

 

AFAIK the LegacyRTC kexts that are out there only work in 32-bit kernel and drivers mode for some reason.

 

The DSDT fix is bit-agnostic and all you have to do is change a 0x04 to a 0x02. It's usually not needed on ASUS boards though.

[MaLd0n]

ElliotLegacyRtc.kext works in 64

 

 

although I do not use, I tested

and actually works in 64

[convert2apple]

Unbelieveable. You prefer to wait for an answer to that rather than visiting the site yourself?

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=223205

or

http://www.osx86.es/?p=610

 

AFAIK the LegacyRTC kexts that are out there only work in 32-bit kernel and drivers mode for some reason.

 

The DSDT fix is bit-agnostic and all you have to do is change a 0x04 to a 0x02. It's usually not needed on ASUS boards though.

 

Actually I was on a tight schedule and was unable to check my PC for awhile. Thus I actually could have waited for an answer before being able to check for myself. Besides, I eventually checked and couldn't find it anyways.

 

However, I didn't need it after all and *finally* figured out what was wrong last night: the SATA ports in which my hard drives were plugged into, I found out after some research, can drastically affect the way OSX works on the Asus Rampage II Extreme motherboard.

 

AHCI kexts didn't recognize my Snow Leopard install because my SL hard disk was plugged into the 5th SATA port on my ICH10 controller. Apparently my motherboard requires OSX to be plugged into the 1st port.

 

After a week and a half of hair-pulling troubleshooting, I'm glad the solution was as simple as switching my Win7 SSD to the 5th SATA port and putting my OS X hard drive in the 1st port. Everything's working like a champ now aside from having to switch boot order in BIOS to get to Win7 but that's a separate topic...

 

Thanks to both MaLd0n and Gringo Vermelho for replying to help me figure out my issue. Even though I figured out a different solution on my own, I still appreciate taking time to help a somewhat-noob* like me who hasn't even been registered for a week. Very helpful and responsive community

 

*(I say somewhat-noob because I started off my Hackintosh project as a complete noob but have learned a lot since then. A true noob is someone who wants all the answers handed to them with out learning anything for themselves. Plus, I already have some Linux background so the UNIX commands didn't scare me)