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[10.6.4][Vanilla] Acer Aspire 7738G and 5920G Tutorial


DarkMessiah007
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Hello everyone,

 

For the past few weeks i've been trying to get a stable and hardware supporting installation of Mac OS X 10.6.4 on my Acer 7738G. After about 100+ reinstalls i have found a stable installation.

 

First of all, a lot of credits to Plastriq for helping me with getting to the point I am now.

 

BEFORE YOU START: There are some known (and maybe unknown) bugs. Please check them before trying so you are aware.

 

Acer Aspire 7738G:

1. Known Bugs

As I stated there are some known bugs, which I haven't found a solution for so far.

1. Only 2/4 USB Ports are working.

2. I have not found the correct kext for the Webcamera.

3. Sometimes when you have a wrong USB Device in your 7738G it will panic on startup, or just get stuck. This can be fixed by simply rebooting your laptop. This happens very rarely, I haven't had it for like a week now.

4. WiFi card does not work. I ordered an Airport card from E-Bay. At the moment of writing it will arrive within a week. This only costs arround $20-$30. (Using a USB WiFi Stick I ordered before). As for the Original 7737G WiFi adapter: I know that project camphor is busy writing kexts for this card.

5. I have not found a correctly working kext for the ethernet adapter.

 

In short: you need another device at the point of writing to have any network connection on your ACER.

 

I would like to see people help eachother (and me) fixing those bugs so we will have a perfect installation.

 

2. Needed resources:

- I used an external Harddisk to use as an Installation Disk.

--- If you don't have this, make sure you have an USB Stick of 2GB or more to put Drivers and Packages on your Laptop.

- Mac OS X 10.6.0 Vanilla Disk. (You have to find this yourself)

- Either an Computer running Windows with an Mac OS X Virtual Machine, OR another computer running Mac OS X.

- An internet connection

- VoodooHDA Kext (Google it). Use the latest version.

- VoodooBattery Kext (Google it). I tested version 1.2.1.

- MyHack 1.1.4. (Google "myHack 1.1.4 nawcom". Use the first link that pops up).

- Mac OS X 10.6.1 Update (Google is. It is a bit hard to find but still there. Make sure you don't have the Server version).

- Mac OS X 10.6.4 Combo Update (Google it).

- Kext helper (Google it, use cheetha's website :))

 

3. Prepare the disk

1. Start up your already running Mac OS X Environment

2. Copy the downloaded 10.6.0 Install DVD (dmg) to this Environment.

3. Start Disk Utility

4. Repartition your USB Harddisk (I dont know how to do this with an DVD, I'm sorry). Make sure one of your partitions (if you desire more than one) is 20GB.

5. Use the Restore option to put the 10.6.0 DMG on your 20GB Partition.

6. Run the MyHack 1.1.4 installation. Click next until you can choose your Disk.

7. Select the 20GB Partition disk.

8. Click "Customize" to customize your installation options, enable ApplePS2Controller and enable IOATAFamily.kext. Do NOT touch the other options.

9. Run the installer.

10. Disconnect your Harddisk by ejecting it and physically disconnecting it.

 

Now you put the VoodooHDA installer, the VoodooBattery.kext, the 10.6.1 Update, the 10.6.4 Combo Update, and the MyHack 1.1.4 installation files on your 20GB partition. (i made a folder called "Drivers", but thats not rly relavant).

 

5. Your Acer Aspire 7738G

1. Connect your USB disk to your Acer 7738G.

2. Fire up your 7738G and enter your BIOS screen.

3. In the "Main" tab of your BIOS, make sure SATA mode is on AHCI and NOT on IDE.

4. In the "Boot" tab, make sure your USB-KEY is on 1st place, and your USB-HDD is on 2nd place and one of your internal harddisks on place 3.

5. Save settings and reboot.

6. You should get the MyHack screen now. Make sure you selected your Mac OS X Install DVD, and type "-v" (without quotation marks) so you can see what it is doing. This is handy in case it MIGHT get stuck.

7. Now when the Installation program is started, open Disk Utility and Partition one of your internal disks as a (GUID) Mac OS X Journaled partition.

8. Exit the Disk Utility and install Mac OS X like you would on a real Apple Computer.

9. After the installation, leave the USB disk plugged in, so it will boot MyHack again. Now instead of selecting the Install DVD again, we will select the freshly installed OSX partition you installed Mac OS X on. Instead of using the "-v" option, you use "-f -v" now. (without quotation marks)

10. As you see, your machine will boot fine into Mac OS X.

11. Now open your USB Disk and copy the Driver folder (or all the loose files you put on the disk) to your Desktop (i'm not sure if it's called Desktop in OS X).

12. Eject and physically delete your external USB Disk.

13. Run the 10.6.1 update.

14. After it's done do NOT close the installation, but install myHack 1.1.4 first with the same options as you did on your other Computer. This time on your internal OSX Disk.

15. Reboot your Acer.

16. We are on 10.6.1 now. Confirm this by using the "About this mac" option from the Apple Menu.

17. Open terminal and make yourself root by using "sudo su" and filling in your user's password.

18. Use the following commands:

cd /
cp mach_kernel mach_kernel_backup

19. While keeping the terminal open, run the 10.6.4 Combo update. After it finishes, again DO NOT CLICK RESTART.

20. in your terminal use the following commands:

mv mach_kernel mach_kernel_1064
cp mach_kernel_backup mach_kernel
chgrp wheel /mach_kernel

21. Now you can close your terminal window.

22. Install MyHack 1.1.4 with the same options as on step 14 of this chapter.

23. Reboot your Acer with options "-v -f". At this point it might panic once or twice. You can fix this for now by using the options "-v -f cpus=1". It will fail once more, but if you boot with "-v" again it should boot fine.

24. You are booted in 10.6.4. make sure by again using the "About this Mac" option.

OPTIONAL:

25. If you have an internet connection available on your Acer, install the updates from "Software Updates".

26. Reboot again (in -v).

 

6. Installing hardware:

1. You are now in a stable environment. Verify this by rebooting a few times (5 times) with option "-v" (again without quotation marks).

2. Install your VoodooBattery by using the Kext Helper.

3. At this point your Acer might panic again, this will be fixed on reboot with "-v -f" flags.

4. Reboot with "-v".

5. Install the VoodooHDA package.

6. Reboot with "-v".

 

 

Again reboot a few times with "-v" to make sure your Acer is running OSX 10.6.4 stable. If you experience any boot trouble, use the "-v cpus=1" bootflags to fix this.

 

You should now have a Vanilla Mac OS X (10.6.4) Install with only a bootloader. I have been trying this environment, and I must say i'm impressed with it's stability on my Acer.

 

Acer Aspire 5920G:

You can use the same install guide as the 7738G, only chapter 6. installing hardware will not work for this type so skip that.

To be done: Installing hardware for 5920G and Known Bugs on 5920G.

 

Acer Aspire 1692WLMi:

Not yet finished.

 

My Choices and experiences:

- You might ask: "Why are you using the old 10.6.1 kernel?". I have been trying to get the 10.6.4 kernel to work, but it will NOT boot in any way with any flag or mod. Also 10.6.4 runs fine with the "old" 10.6.1 kernel, so why even bother trying to get the new kernel to work. The kernel version you are using does not affect your Mac OS X installation as far as I know.

- I have been using this configuration for a week or two at the point of writing, and I find it very stable. The performance is really good aswell.

 

Last word:

I hope you liked this tutorial, and found it usefull. Excuse me for my grammar errors, I'm from The Netherlands. I will fix the errors in this guide that are reported in this topic as soon as possible. Please help me improve this Guide. Also please post your experience installing your Acer using this tutorial. If you have another Laptop/System which you try installing using this method, please confirm if it worked for you.

 

 

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this.

 

Kind regards,

DarkMessiah

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  • 1 month later...

Thank you for your ery very good tutorial it works for me :)

On my Acer Aspire 7738 G.

But it sems so that we have difrent hardware.

 

I have a NVIDIA Geforce GT240M (After 10.6.4 update the card works prity fine in full display resulution 10...x900)

 

But when I Update Snow Leopadr to 10.6.5 with latest iUpgrade 10.6.5 the Card is shown as GT240M in System but now the only display resoulution i can chose is 1024x768.

 

Did you now how to change the resulution?

 

And I think i have another Network Card becose My Hack installer cant install the driver???

I have no network supoprt.

 

And at least: :)

 

It seams you have a smal mistake in your Tutorial on Step 20:

 

20. in your terminal use the following commands:

 

Your Code:

mv mach_kernel mach_kernel_1064
cp mach_kernel_backup mack_kernel
chgrp wheel mach_kernel

 

But for me works only:

mv mach_kernel mach_kernel_1064
cp mach_kernel_backup mack_kernel
chgrp wheel /mach_kernel

 

In last Line there was missing a "/" in front of the mach Kernel.

 

And at the end Thanks for yout Tutorial again you have make my day :D !!!!!

Love you :D

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  • 1 month later...
Thank you for your ery very good tutorial it works for me :)

On my Acer Aspire 7738 G.

But it sems so that we have difrent hardware.

 

I have a NVIDIA Geforce GT240M (After 10.6.4 update the card works prity fine in full display resulution 10...x900)

 

But when I Update Snow Leopadr to 10.6.5 with latest iUpgrade 10.6.5 the Card is shown as GT240M in System but now the only display resoulution i can chose is 1024x768.

 

Did you now how to change the resulution?

 

And I think i have another Network Card becose My Hack installer cant install the driver???

I have no network supoprt.

 

And at least: :)

 

It seams you have a smal mistake in your Tutorial on Step 20:

 

20. in your terminal use the following commands:

 

Your Code:

mv mach_kernel mach_kernel_1064
cp mach_kernel_backup mack_kernel
chgrp wheel mach_kernel

 

But for me works only:

mv mach_kernel mach_kernel_1064
cp mach_kernel_backup mack_kernel
chgrp wheel /mach_kernel

 

In last Line there was missing a "/" in front of the mach Kernel.

 

And at the end Thanks for yout Tutorial again you have make my day :D !!!!!

Love you :D

 

 

Thank you for your kind words. I've edited the chgrp line. it was because I cd-ed to / already.

 

I currently dont have OSX on my laptop, but if you want i can put it on again and see how to fix your issue.

Let me know :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
Thank you for your kind words. I've edited the chgrp line. it was because I cd-ed to / already.

 

I currently dont have OSX on my laptop, but if you want i can put it on again and see how to fix your issue.

Let me know :o

 

I refollowed this tutorial. Instead of installing 10.6.4 comboupdate, i used 10.6.6 comboupdate. Everything works fine now except for the USB. I cant get my USB running yet.

 

I'll edit this post when I get it to work.

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  • 3 months later...

Great tutorial! Managed to get snow leopard to work in my Aspire 7738G. Thank You!!

 

The only problem I've got is the sleep mode. For some reason it won't work (the screen just goes black) After that when I try to restart it gives me this error: Loaded HFS+ file: [system/Library/CoreServices/System Version.plist]

 

I managed to find out it has got something to do with 4GB memory and hibernation. After the error I managed to start osx typing Wake=N

 

Does anyone had this problem? I would be very happy for a solution.

 

EDIT: I replaced orginal wlan card to Dell 1390 card and wlan is working great out of the box.

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  • 1 month later...

Hello,

 

I happen to have the same laptop, but i have a problem.

i have 10.6.3 vanilla installed, but in another way (a bootcd, and stuff)

but when i try to install voodooHDA it panics, and says i don't have a voodooHDA device. after that i had to reinstall everything. so do you suggest -v -f and will that work? or do i need to find another solution?

 

thanks in advance

 

tinytinus

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