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Foxconn 330i nVidia ION nettop looking for OSX

sean.leber
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sean.leber
sean.leber
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I have a barebones foxconn 330i system that I have loaded with 2gb RAM (800 MHz) and a 500gb hard drive. I really want to get OS X (leopard or snow leopard, doesn't matter to me) up an running so that I can use it as a home theater machine. I would like to use the HDMI out on the box so that I can watch 1080p .mkv files on my television. So far I have been unsuccessful in getting windows 7 to do this well, and jolicloud was a bust (at least I thought so). I'm comfortable with OSX which is why I'd prefer to hackint0sh it above all else. I have an external DAC that I plan to use with the box, so sound is not really an issue (other than getting the DAC recognized, but it should automatically recognize) and wifi I know is a lot to ask for (I can probably replace the internal with a dell 1510 card.) Any suggestions or guides that already exist would be helpful. THANKS!

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Niffty
Niffty
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I have a barebones foxconn 330i system that I have loaded with 2gb RAM (800 MHz) and a 500gb hard drive. I really want to get OS X (leopard or snow leopard, doesn't matter to me) up an running so that I can use it as a home theater machine. I would like to use the HDMI out on the box so that I can watch 1080p .mkv files on my television. So far I have been unsuccessful in getting windows 7 to do this well, and jolicloud was a bust (at least I thought so). I'm comfortable with OSX which is why I'd prefer to hackint0sh it above all else. I have an external DAC that I plan to use with the box, so sound is not really an issue (other than getting the DAC recognized, but it should automatically recognize) and wifi I know is a lot to ask for (I can probably replace the internal with a dell 1510 card.) Any suggestions or guides that already exist would be helpful. THANKS!

 

Hi,

 

Also looking for a similar guide, did you find one? have any ideas? or been successful?

 

Cheers

 

James

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Breathless
Breathless
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You may try the guide for ASROCK ION 330. Otherwise, XBMC Linux is a good alternative for your home theater.

 

I just got this system as well and will be experimenting soon. Hopefully i'll have some success and will be able to help you guys out.

 

UPDATE: From what I have learned so far, many of the guides that would work for us cannot because we are unable to disable hyperthreading (the bios doesn't let us change it, or basically anything else for that matter), and most of the other guides require that you do so. I have tried various boot flags to try to get around this but have been unsuccessful thus far. I did manage to get very close though using another guide built for another 330 ION based system but I got stuck at "still waiting for root device". That guide is here for your reference:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...16#entry1330267

 

I tried several different things that are routinely suggested to get past this problem but they didn't help, such as specifying the hard drive location in a boot flag etc.... I still have a few other things to try though. Stay tuned.

 

UPDATE 2 Ok, through a lot of experimenting here is where I am at. As you can see, it looks quite clean. I can't get past "still waiting for root device" though... I have tried everything that has worked for me in the past to get past this, but this time nothing is working. Any ideas/workarounds? I think it is happening because the bios uses "IDE Mode" instead of AHCI. Of course, there is no way to change this option in the current bios.

 

P1090847.jpg

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Breathless
Breathless
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Hi -AHCI mode is a *must* - nag Foxconn support for a firmware with this feature; best to be able to disable HTT as well.

 

You heard the man everyone. Submit a ticket to Foxconn asking them to give us these options in the bios:

 

Enable/Disable "Hyperthreading"

 

and especially

 

"Sata Mode Operation" IDE/AHCI

 

I have already submitted my ticket. Chances are if enough people bug them, they'll implement it. Here is the support form:

 

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/support/online.aspx

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jmcl
jmcl
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I just got this system as well and will be experimenting soon. Hopefully i'll have some success and will be able to help you guys out.

 

UPDATE: From what I have learned so far, many of the guides that would work for us cannot because we are unable to disable hyperthreading (the bios doesn't let us change it, or basically anything else for that matter), and most of the other guides require that you do so. I have tried various boot flags to try to get around this but have been unsuccessful thus far. I did manage to get very close though using another guide built for another 330 ION based system but I got stuck at "still waiting for root device". That guide is here for your reference:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...16#entry1330267

 

I tried several different things that are routinely suggested to get past this problem but they didn't help, such as specifying the hard drive location in a boot flag etc.... I still have a few other things to try though. Stay tuned.

 

UPDATE 2 Ok, through a lot of experimenting here is where I am at. As you can see, it looks quite clean. I can't get past "still waiting for root device" though... I have tried everything that has worked for me in the past to get past this, but this time nothing is working. Any ideas/workarounds? I think it is happening because the bios uses "IDE Mode" instead of AHCI. Of course, there is no way to change this option in the current bios.

 

P1090847.jpg

 

Anyone tried this on the 330i

 

http://www.osnews.com/story/21564/Building...n_t_Sue_You_For

 

Txs.

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bluebag
bluebag
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Hi Breathless, good work. I'm trying to install Snow Leopard (10.6.x, not sure of the exact version). But basically I "restored" the retail DVD to an external USB Drive. Then ran Netbook Bootmaker to make it bootable. It starts the boot process but I get this message: "Expecting 2 cores but only found one on Die 0" or something along those lines.

 

Heres what I found out:

- 10.6.2 and up have no atom support.

- We dont have option of AHCI in BIOS

- We dont have the option of turning off HyperThreading in BIOS

 

I know you suggested that we should open up a support ticket with FoxConn, but can't we get the BIOS from a similar board and try to flash it? Also, it says "American Megatrends", guess they're the ones who made the BIOS. Maybe they have updates for this specific BIOS?

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bluebag
bluebag
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Heres an update. Foxconn tech support gave me a BIOS which has the SATA mode option unhidden. Now I can select AHCI, IDE or SATA operation. But the issue is not that we dont have AHCI option enabled. I think its more of a USB problem.

 

The reason for this conclusion is that I created a 10.6 USB Install Disk. Then installed Chameleon and finally used netkas' bootloader. I also found a patched 10.6.2 kernel which allows Atom support but after all this the boot process hangs with an error similar to "UIMInitialize - could not get chip to halt within 100 ms".

 

This is the killer because I am booting off of USB and the USB subsystem is not initializing and hence we get "Still waiting for root device". Anybody got any ideas?

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bowlman13
bowlman13
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Heres an update. Foxconn tech support gave me a BIOS which has the SATA mode option unhidden. Now I can select AHCI, IDE or SATA operation. But the issue is not that we dont have AHCI option enabled. I think its more of a USB problem.

 

The reason for this conclusion is that I created a 10.6 USB Install Disk. Then installed Chameleon and finally used netkas' bootloader. I also found a patched 10.6.2 kernel which allows Atom support but after all this the boot process hangs with an error similar to "UIMInitialize - could not get chip to halt within 100 ms".

 

This is the killer because I am booting off of USB and the USB subsystem is not initializing and hence we get "Still waiting for root device". Anybody got any ideas?

 

Can you post a link or send me that special bios? I have been reading and searching on this topic for a week, as I have the same computer. Still waiting for root device! I loaded the OS on another computer, then removed the drive from the enclosure and installed it into the Foxconn, and booted OK But, "EHCI controller unable to take control from the BIOS" Stops me. I'm using a patched kernel and arch=i386 to boot.

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Breathless
Breathless
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Heres an update. Foxconn tech support gave me a BIOS which has the SATA mode option unhidden. Now I can select AHCI, IDE or SATA operation. But the issue is not that we dont have AHCI option enabled. I think its more of a USB problem.

 

The reason for this conclusion is that I created a 10.6 USB Install Disk. Then installed Chameleon and finally used netkas' bootloader. I also found a patched 10.6.2 kernel which allows Atom support but after all this the boot process hangs with an error similar to "UIMInitialize - could not get chip to halt within 100 ms".

 

This is the killer because I am booting off of USB and the USB subsystem is not initializing and hence we get "Still waiting for root device". Anybody got any ideas?

 

 

If that is the case then this is still a "non issue", at least for standard installs (using the internal sata port). Put your drive in the system and see if it works! If it really is a usb problem, then this would bypass it. I'll try it myself and report back.

 

*UPDATE* Yes, in addition to needing AHCI mode for standard installs, unfortunately this system also has troubles with EHCI handoff (USB issues). The fix is to DISABLE Legacy USB in the bios. Unfortunately since you are trying to boot from USB, this may be a problem.... Try this and see if you can still boot.

 

Can you post a link or send me that special bios? I have been reading and searching on this topic for a week, as I have the same computer. Still waiting for root device! I loaded the OS on another computer, then removed the drive from the enclosure and installed it into the Foxconn, and booted OK But, "EHCI controller unable to take control from the BIOS" Stops me. I'm using a patched kernel and arch=i386 to boot.

 

Here is a link for all to download the beta bios. I found it on another forum. Hopefully the link works, I can't test it at work:

 

http://www.multiupload.com/RFUKPFQGPU

 

Beta Bios Changes:

 

- "quiet boot" now shows a fullscreen AMI logo instead of text-only

- "Advanced Options" has a new option "SATA MODE" which can be switched to "SATA Mode" (which in fact is IDE compatibility mode), "RAID Mode" (which makes absolutely no sense for this box) and finally "AHCI Mode" (which is native SATA)

 

Now lets bug them for a hyperthreading enabled/disabled bios. I've already submitted a ticket.

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Breathless
Breathless
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Success my Foxconn 330i bruthas!

 

As soon as I flashed to that new beta bios and changed to AHCI mode I was able to boot!

 

I installed using the USB method (10.6.3) on a system already hackintoshed, installed a modified kernel (don't remember which one), installed some fixes (which were from another atom barebone guide for a Zotac system - DSDT, specific kexts) and then put that sata drive directly into the system. BAM, booted right up with full HD resolution QE CI.

 

CAVEAT: DO NOT install 10.6.5.... or if you do, make sure you create an clone of your 10.6.X before upgrading. After updating (combo update) I get stuck at the very end of the Apple logo screen. The circle stops spinning.... I can tell the OS is still loading, it just stays on the apple logo screen. I can even put the machine to sleep and wake it back up again using the power button and after resuming hard drive light activity resumes. For whatever reason its not given back that final command to go to the desktop. I did update my kernel BTW to one that supports Atom under 10.6.5. I tried different versions of Chameleon too to no avail.

 

*UPDATE* OK, i've got virtually everything running on 10.6.3, so at this point I think we are ready for a more official guide. I will start a new thread dedicated to the guide. When complete, it will contain both methods for people with a hackintosh already up and running and without. Here is a link to the Official Foxconn 330i Guide:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...=0#entry1598824

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