Getting GTX 280 to work on iAtkos v7

[DRaGZ141]

Okay, so this is my first post here, but I’ve been lurking for about a month or so and I started making my dual-boot Hackintosh a few days ago. I had a LOT of trouble going in, but I eventually got Leopard to load using iAtkos v7.

 

I still have two prevailing issues, though:

 

1. I can’t get any Internet. I think I could probably get Internet to work if I just installed Airport, but since I plan to use this as an editing rig, it’s actually not a bad thing that I can’t get Internet.

2. I want to get my resolution at my monitor’s native 1680x1050 resolution, but I can’t get my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 card working.

 

The second problem is actually rather important because I want to do a substantial amount of editing on this rig and I need to have all the proportions correct and have as much real estate as I can use.

 

I have also had conflicting reports on whether GTX 280 works with 10.5 or not. I've heard resounding nos, I've heard reports of it working 100% specifically with iAtkos v7. I'm just so confused.

 

So, first off, let me start with hardware specs:

 

Motherboard: Asus P5N-D

Processor: Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz

Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280

Hard drive: Hitachi HDS721075KLA SCSI Disk Device

Partitions on that hard drive: 1st partition (597 GB) - Windows Vista 64-bit, 2nd partition (100 GB) – iAtkos v7 with Chameleon 2

Sound: Realtek High Definition Audio

In case you hadn’t guessed by now, this is a Velocity Micro computer. I didn't know I'd want a Hackintosh until four years after I bought this thing.

 

A few notes:

 

1. I forgot what specific things I customized during the iAtkos install, but I definitely installed Chameleon 2 as my bootloader.

 

2. I need to boot iAtkos with the flags cpus=1 and maxmem=3072 to get it to not have a kernel panic when I load, as noted here under P5N-D: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.5.6#Asus - I have tried loading it without those flags and I do, indeed, get a kernel panic. This is fine because Final Cut Studio 2009 isn’t that CPU intensive anyway.

 

3. For some reason, when I put the flags in boot.plist like so:

 

<key>cpus</key>

<string>1</string>

<key>maxmem</key>

<string>3072</string>

 

it doesn’t seem to load them up on boot (I get a kernel panic, but when I load it up again and type in “-v maxmem=3072 cpus=1” manually in the Chameleon loader screen it works fine. This isn’t that big an issue, I don’t mind typing it in every time. But it is a little annoying.

 

4. There’s sort of a screen glitch I am getting where if I try to scroll in a text file or PDF the screen tears (specifically, the scroll bar and whatnot moves but the words sort of “ghost” there until you move the window or minimize and bring it back up, I know I’m describing this pretty stupidly). Will this be resolved once I get the right resolution going?

 

To me, it really isn’t as important that I get the VGA drivers working as it is for me to just get that proper 1680x1050 resolution. Thus, I tried inputting:

 

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>1680x1050x32</strring>

 

into boot.plist, but it gives me a resolution of 1280x1024 instead.

 

I tried using the Leopard GTX 200 Series drivers here:

http://aquamac.proboards.com/index.cgi?boa...&thread=838

 

but it ended up making it so I boot into a black screen and thus forcing me to do a fresh reinstall. Installing the GTX 200 drivers off of the iAtkos v7 installation disk had the same problem.

 

I tried using the GFX string solution here:

http://aquamac.proboards.com/index.cgi?boa...&thread=509

 

but it ended up so that the boot stalls right after the last line that usually loads before the Mac OS X GUI is printed (I don’t remember what this line is). To be honest, I only waited like 2 minutes, but since it had never happened before and my activity light was completely inert, I reverted back to my original boot.plist. I can try it again fairly quickly since I saved the HEX I got in another file. Is it supposed to take that long to boot? If anything, I can take a picture of it so you guys know what I’m looking at, too.

 

I thought of installing Natit, but as far as I could tell Natit is just for OS X 10.4, not 10.5, right? So it wouldn’t work, right?

 

Honestly, I’m very new at this whole thing and this has been kind of a trial by fire.

 

I’m running short on ideas here. I’m soooo close to getting this rig working as I need it to, and, like I said, this graphics card/resolution issue is the only thing I truly need resolved. The sound work great, the video playback, as far as I can tell, works great. I just need this dang graphics card to work right.

 

If you guys have any additional ideas I could try, I’d be extremely grateful. If you guys want me to give any additional information, just ask and I’ll deliver.

 

Thank you so much.

[DRaGZ141]

I had a thought.

 

I have a slot for another video card. Would it be possible to buy another cheap graphics card that is DEFINITELY compatible with iATKOS v7, stick that in, and then have it boot up by itself for iATKOS and then have both my GTX 280 and the cheaper card boot up in Vista?

 

The idea sounds acceptable to me, but I am not sure if I should invest the money if I'm not sure it's going to work.

[DRaGZ141]

Any takers?

 

I'm starting to think that I won't be able to get higher than 1280x1024x32 resolution, but I might be okay with just staying at 1280x800x32 might be okay just so I can get the proper 16:10 resolution.

 

EDIT: Okay, just tried it, apparently I can't choose any resolution that isn't freaking 4:3.

 

Is there any way I can force the resolution to be 16:10? Using Graphics Mode just doesn't work.

[DRaGZ141]

Okay, it appears I'm an idiot.

 

So I did the EFI String AND installed the drivers and, voila, it works.

 

The big issue now is that I can't get QE/CI to work, which I have been told need Natit. So after all that, I am going to try using Natit. Wish me luck.

[Gringo Vermelho]

Your com.apple.Boot.plist is corrupt. Start over with a new one (copy the one from /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration) and use a proper plist editor. Xcode 3 is free and comes with a bunch of handy tools for Hackintoshing, including Apple's own plist editor.

[DRaGZ141]

Your com.apple.Boot.plist is corrupt. Start over with a new one (copy the one from /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration) and use a proper plist editor. Xcode 3 is free and comes with a bunch of handy tools for Hackintoshing, including Apple's own plist editor.

 

Thanks for replying.

 

It turns out that I am an idiot with Natit and iATKOS and this whole installation thing, apparently.

 

For the hell of it, I did a fresh reinstall of iATKOS v7, chose Natit, chose GT200 drivers, and then installed...voila. Everything is freaking fantastic. Sound card is perfect. No artifacts on my screen, I even have fully working QE/CI and my GTX 280 is running at 100%. It's...beautiful.

 

So basically...what took me four days to do could've taken me about half an hour if I had just read up on some freaking documentation. Live and learn.

 

The only issues I have left are:

 

1. I have to boot with the flags cpus=1 and maxmem=3072 but that is honestly completely fine with me because Final Cut Studio will run fine with those settings and these appear to be limitations of the motherboard I am using.

 

2. I have no Internet, also okay because this is an editing suite and Internet would actually be a distraction.

 

I also realized about the corrupted boot.Plist and from now on I will edit it using OSX86Tools.

 

Thanks for all your help, guys. I feel like I learned a lot from this experience. Next time I make a computer, I'll buy the components to work specifically for a Hackintosh first.

 

EDIT: Honestly, I feel like dancing.