Problems finalizing 10.6.5 SL on Asus P5Q Pro Turbo

[CervantesX]

Hi!

 

So, I found the excellent Pirate EFI X Boot CD, which lets me boot my retail Snow Leopard disc and install it directly. It's great.

 

However, I can't get Chameleon RC4 or other bootloaders to work. For instance, with Chameleon, if I go i with no options I hang at the grey apple logo. If I start it with "-v -x -s cpus=1" I get some verboseness and then a black screen and a hang. I tried installing manually via the instructions, and also using the Lizard tool. Same result. However, I can boot via my boot CD, pick my SL install, and get in fine. I just don't get my updated kexts to handle my hardware.

 

My understanding is that, in order for those to kick in, I need to be starting up from a bootloader that has those kexts available to it. I've already redone the install after discovering the Chameleon 1TB limit, after a week of reading different ways to install things until my eyes are bleeding, and so now I'm going for the (hopefully) easy route and ask around, and hopefully save my sanity

 

Can someone please either suggest what I'm doing wrong, or point me to a better bootloader?

 

Also, I'm really having a hard time tracking down what is the latest kext for the GeForce 9800. Many of the posts are 2 years old, or point to nonexistant downloads, or just generally confuse me. What's the most straightforward way to get my video card working, once I've got a working bootloader?

 

Hardware:

Asus p5q pro turbo

XFX GeForce 9800 512mb

2GB Kingston HyperX

1.5TB Seagate SATA drive (2 partitions - 900gb/500gb)

Sony SATA DVD drive.

 

Stand-alone install, no dual booting. Retail SL 10.6 install, Chameleon RC4.

 

Thanks very much!

Cerv

[Gringo Vermelho]

Also, I'm really having a hard time tracking down what is the latest kext for the GeForce 9800. Many of the posts are 2 years old, or point to nonexistant downloads, or just generally confuse me. What's the most straightforward way to get my video card working, once I've got a working bootloader?

 

Set GraphicsEnabler=y in /extra/com.apple.Boot.plist.

 

You don't need to track down any kexts. OS X already has nvidia drivers, but they can't work with your video card out of the box because it doesn't speak "EFI". To use a PC video card with OS X (even on a real Mac), you need something that "injects" the missing data into ioreg (link if you're curious - http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#do...heRegistry.html) - GraphicsEnabler is by far the easiest way to do this.

 

There are three other injection methods available - you can use an injector.kext such as NVEnabler (several others exist), a gfx0 device in DSDT or an "EFI" Device-Properties string in your /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist. Google/Forum search to learn more.

 

Sometimes the injection alone is not enough - the OS X nvidia drivers still need to know your video card's device ID in order to work. Google "guide for all nvidia boards" to learn how to add your device ID to the relevant nvidia kernel extensions. If you don't see "NVDANV50Hal registered and loaded" when booting verbose (boot with -v) you'll need to do this.

 

You should upgrade to Chameleon 2.0 RC5 so that you can have automatic memory detection, native CPU power management and other goodies. Google/Forum search for more information.

 

btw, Nvidia offers a set of drivers that are newer than the drivers that come with Snow Leopard 10.6.5 - don't install them if you aren't running 10.6.5 though.

 

About your Chameleon issue - if you can boot from a Boot CD but not with Chameleon installed to your hard drive it is most likely because you need to copy some files or replicate some configuration settings from the boot CD. If, when booting verbose, you can see messages from OS X (not only the initial messages from Chameleon) before the hang, then the hang is probably not caused by Chameleon itself - you have installed it correctly. Check the contents of your Boot CD. You can find the kernel extensions (drivers) inside a RAM disk image on the boot CD, its filename is initrd or preboot.dmg. Google something like "how to make a Chameleon boot CD" - reading about how to make one will teach you how to take one apart.

 

Visit the VoodooProjects forum, Chameleon General board and read the Chameleon bootloader documentation to learn more about how Chameleon works. And go read the release thread for Chameleon 2.0 RC5 here on InsanelyMac - all the new features in RC5 aren't mentioned in the docs that are available at the VoodooProjects forum. Find the thread with google or the forum search.

 

Good Luck.