[GUIDE] Snow Leopard on HP ProLiant Microserver N36L (AMD)

[Saf]

Did your HD6450 cards work properly out the box?

[85Razor]

Did your HD6450 cards work properly out the box?

 

Yes it does! There is no need to remove the graphics driver. There is obviously something wrong with the distro, I presume.

[Edhawk]

Saf,

No using HZ can be a pain with the Microserver and HD 6450. I had to remove the graphics drivers last time I installed HZ, I did so as part of the customise options which are available when you first get to the hard drive selection. Once HZ had run through the second stage of the installation, i.e. when you reach the desktop, I then installed the AMD6000 & AMDRadeonX3000 kexts I had from another Yosemite install, which I made sure already contained the device & vendor ID for this card.

Obviously if you do a clean install using the 10.10.5 installation app, which can be downloaded from the store and use clover as your installer this issue doesn't arise.

Rather than using HZ I would now recommend the use of the latest Enoch r2795 (Chameleon variant) as your bootloader with a clean install of Yosemite, using one of Spakk's or Bronya's Yosemite AMD kernels.

[Saf]

Saf,

 

No using HZ can be a pain with the Microserver and HD 6450. I had to remove the graphics drivers last time I installed HZ, I did so as part of the customise options which are available when you first get to the hard drive selection. Once HZ had run through the second stage of the installation, i.e. when you reach the desktop, I then installed the AMD6000 & AMDRadeonX3000 kexts I had from another Yosemite install, which I made sure already contained the device & vendor ID for this card.

 

Obviously if you do a clean install using the 10.10.5 installation app, which can be downloaded from the store and use clover as your installer this issue doesn't arise.

 

Rather than using HZ I would now recommend the use of the latest Enoch r2795 (Chameleon variant) as your bootloader with a clean install of Yosemite, using one of Spakk's or Bronya's Yosemite AMD kernels.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Could you upload your graphics kexts by any chance? 

 

Thanks,

Saf

[Edhawk]

Saf,

 

AMD kexts attached as requested. Hope they are helpful.

AMD6000Controller.kext.zip

AMDRadeonX3000.kext.zip

[rtrtrtrt]

Hi all,

 

Some great back and forth discussion going on here.

 

Once all of the kinks have been ironed out, would it be possible for someone to lay out the steps in a summary post please.

 

I'd definitely find it a great help and I suspect there'd be quite a few others who'd appreciate it too.

 

rt

[Edhawk]

Saf,

 

Copy of my org.chameleon.Boot.plist

 

?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>AtiConfig</key>

<string>Pithecia</string>

<key>AtiPorts</key>

<string>3</string>

<key>Default Partition</key>

<string>hd(5,2)</string>

<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>1920x1080x32</string>

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>AMD_Kernel5</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>kext-dev-mode=1 npci=0x2000 dart=0</string>

<key>PciRoot</key>

<string>1</string>

<key>SMBIOS</key>

<string>/Extra/SMBios.plist</string>

<key>Theme</key>

<string>Choose_Your_OS</string>

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>5</string>

<key>device-properties</key>

<string>4b00000001000000010000003f0000000100000002010c00d041080a000000000101060000040101060000007fff0400160000006200750069006c0074002d0069006e0000000500000001</string>

</dict>

</plist>

Saf,

 

Copy of my SMBios.plist excluding the SMserial.  As you will see I am using iMac 8.1 SMbios.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>SMbiosdate</key>

<string>02/09/08</string>

<key>SMbiosvendor</key>

<string>Apple Inc.</string>

<key>SMbiosversion</key>

<string>IM81.88Z.00C1.B00.0802091538</string>

<key>SMboardproduct</key>

<string>Mac-F227BEC8</string>

<key>SMexternalclock</key>

<string>200MHz</string>

<key>SMfamily</key>

<string>iMac</string>

<key>SMmanufacturer</key>

<string>Apple Inc.</string>

<key>SMmaximalclock</key>

<string>2.2GHz</string>

<key>SMmemmanufacturer_1</key>

<string>Crucial</string>

<key>SMmemmanufacturer_2</key>

<string>Crucial</string>

<key>SMmemspeed</key>

<string>1333MHz</string>

<key>SMmemtype</key>

<string>24</string>

<key>SMproductname</key>

<string>iMac8,1</string>

<key>SMserial</key>

<string>XXXXXXXXXXXXX</string>

<key>SMsystemversion</key>

<string>1.0</string>

</dict>

</plist>

[Saf]

Saf,

 

AMD kexts attached as requested. Hope they are helpful.

 

Thanks for everything! I'll give it a go when tonight when I get some time! Will let you know how I get on If not, will try the vanilla route.

 

 

Hi all,

 

Some great back and forth discussion going on here.

 

Once all of the kinks have been ironed out, would it be possible for someone to lay out the steps in a summary post please.

 

I'd definitely find it a great help and I suspect there'd be quite a few others who'd appreciate it too.

 

rt

 

 

I could do with a step by step summary right now! Used to love tinkering in the past with all this. Really prefer this to just work now!

[Edhawk]

Anyone wanting a fairly straightforward 'Vanilla' install for Yosemite on the HP Microserver or any other AMD machine would be advised to watch the video created by Shannee for AMD El Capitan installs.  I have just used the exact same process to create a new Yosemite 10.10.5 installer, using one of Bronya's kernels (Bronya's 10.10.5_rc3 kernel), which can be downloaded from the second post on the following page - kernel_10.10.5_rc3.zip

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/302075-amd-yosemite-kernel-testing-for-help-use-the-help-topic/page-91

 

This post is from the reconfigured Microserver, which on first glance is running very well.  I have not had any graphic issues and both my ethernet and wifi adapters have worked with no issues.

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/310098-el-capitan-install-preparation/ 

 

Shannee's video will walk you through creating an installation usb, he has also provided a download with most of the files you will need.   It's easy to stop the video at various stages, do what's required and then continue the video.

 

Obviously there will be some differences between the Yosemite and El Capitan installs be these are fairly minor.  One is that a couple of files shown in the video are not present when you view the contents of the base system on your desktop, two apple files shown in EC are not present in Yosemite.  Pretty much everything else is the same.  

 

One very important task is the removal of two kexts from the usb installer, these can be found in System/Library/Extensions: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext and AppleTyMCEDriver.kext 

 

All I have in my Extra folder that is different to Shannee's is the BCM ethernet kext for the HP, which I have attached. 

 

I have used the org.chameleon.boot.plist and SMbios.plist information provided above.  I have also included the kernel.plist provided by Shannee.

 

I am just about to install Enoch r2795 on my SSD for this install to boot from the HD rather than the usb.

 

Good luck with your installers and getting Yosemite 10.10.5 up and running on the Microserver.

BCM5722D.kext.zip

[Edhawk]

Enoch install worked just fine, but with no graphical interface at boot screen.  I need to customise the install to use a theme and have icons when the Microserver boots!

 

iMessage_debugv2 fails to produce the Rom, MLB or BoardSerial Number for the Microserver, so I guess no iMessage, Face Time again.

[85Razor]

@Edhawk: Thank you for your extensive explanation. But, I switched to Clover now and it works very well. No boot problems or anything like that. You just need the correct settings. The only thing that is not working 100% is de ethernet kext (v2.3.5) for the onboard NIC. Sometimes during high traffic load the driver freezes. This is also explained by the developers of the kext. Do you experience the same problem?

[Saf]

Enoch install worked just fine, but with no graphical interface at boot screen.  I need to customise the install to use a theme and have icons when the Microserver boots!

 

iMessage_debugv2 fails to produce the Rom, MLB or BoardSerial Number for the Microserver, so I guess no iMessage, Face Time again.

 

Thanks for the all that info! Will give it a go today.

 

What did you do for the graphics during that install? Did you have to play about with kexts? Remove/add when doing the vanilla route or did it just work?

[Saf]

Hmm, setup the installer with vanilla Yosemite as you recommended Edhawk.

 

Booted the installer from USB and it kept restarting, so removed the AMD kexts from the installer USB and it booted into the installer.

 

It's installing now but still got the damn graphics issues! Argh! This Sapphire Radeon HD6450 is testing my patience Once installed will try and tweak things and get that graphics working somehow!

 

I tried your graphics kexts Edhawk with the HZ yosemite and it booted but wouldn't load the kexts, kept coming up with errors to load kext.

 

 

Saf

[Edhawk]

Saf,

 

I didn't have to do anything with the graphics during my vanilla install of Yosemite, I just used the kexts that come with the installer.  Everything worked OK with no issues during installation or on first boot. 

 

I have noticed while playing with the installation that I have an Orange icon issue that I understand is related to the chipset not being recognised correctly.  I have an edited kext saved somewhere that hopefully will deal with this issue, with the AMD chipset details provided.  It is probably on one of my detached data drives, when I find it I will post it here.

 

Edhawk

[Saf]

Saf,

 

I didn't have to do anything with the graphics during my vanilla install of Yosemite, I just used the kexts that come with the installer.  Everything worked OK with no issues during installation or on first boot. 

 

I have noticed while playing with the installation that I have an Orange icon issue that I understand is related to the chipset not being recognised correctly.  I have an edited kext saved somewhere that hopefully will deal with this issue, with the AMD chipset details provided.  It is probably on one of my detached data drives, when I find it I will post it here.

 

Edhawk

 

Thanks, much appreciated.

 

Install is done now. Computer restarted, left USB installer in and tried to boot the Yosemite HD from it but it just restarts...

 

Hmm, any ideas? What did you do post install to get it to boot?

 

(Sorry for the constant questions! It's been so long that I feel like I need to brush up on my everything again!)

[Saf]

Done. Replaced the kernel and booted up, just the graphics now to sort as it's still the same as the HZ distro

[85Razor]

Done. Replaced the kernel and booted up, just the graphics now to sort as it's still the same as the HZ distro

 

You still got graphics issues? That is strange. I choose the HD6450 because it is natively supported. No need to alter kext or anything like that. After install you should replace the kernel, that is correct.

[Saf]

You still got graphics issues? That is strange. I choose the HD6450 because it is natively supported. No need to alter kext or anything like that. After install you should replace the kernel, that is correct.

 

What's the Device ID for your card?

 

Could you upload the native kexts that you use with it?

 

Thanks,

Saf

[Edhawk]

Id for my HD6450 graphics card is 0x67791002, this is present in the two AMD kexts I attached above in post 305.

 

if you download DPCIManager this will tell you the id you need for your card.

[85Razor]

Saf,

 

The ID for my card is also 0x67791002 and also present in the AMDRadeonx3000.kext and AMD6000Controler.kext

[Saf]

Hmm, yea so is mine, same ID

 

Scratching my head, can't think what the problem could be....

[Edhawk]

Have you specified a Framebuffer and number of ports in your org.chameleon.Boot.plist, or have you left it on the default ATI framebuffer?  What settings did you use with Mavericks?

I have just tried installing El-Capitan 10.11.2 on my Microserver, using Shannee's latest AMD kernel.  I have used Shannee's usb creation procedure with Enoch bootloader but I am getting an error from the installer where it says files from the Essential.pkg can not be extracted/installed.  I am also having a number of issues getting the usb ports to work, specifically the mouse, when installing this OS on the Microserver, even with the kexts recommended by Spakk.

 

I may have to download a new El Capitan installation and recreate the usb installer as it appears the one I have is corrupt.

[85Razor]

Let us know if you manage to install 10.11.x on the Microserver. I am interested in getting that to work. On my Intel system I installed 10.11.3 to overcome the USB 3.0 issues. But that would probably not solve the USB issues on the Microserver you are reporting.

 

Did you by any change have an answer to my question in post #311? much appreciated!

[Saf]

I used the same Chameleon boot plist as the one you posted. Never used this card before. Just got it recently before installing Yosemite. Might try and install Mavericks. Or maybe even El Capitan in the hope that the HD6450 will work! But I'm not holding out much hope!

[Edhawk]

@85Razor,  

 

No I haven't noticed any issues with network traffic or had any issues with it stalling when passing large amounts of data across the network.  I have 4-5 TB of videos and music on the Microserver and never had any issues playing/transferring the videos or music across the network.

 

The USB issues with the Microserver are likely to be due to the non intel chipset/drivers/kexts.  I'm hoping that installing 10.11.3 will remove this issue, in conjunction with Spakk's v3 usb fix.