Im Getting Really Impatient Please Help.

[Proplaya23]

MSI 870-g45

AMD Phenom 2 1100T x6

 

4gb DDr3 RAM

 

300gb WDRaptor HDD

 

XFX HD5750 1gb PCIx2.0

 

WHy doesnt it even boot or anything im about to break it.

 

I know AMD is really hard and people look at this and just roll their eyes and think oh not another newbie idiot trying to make it work.

[TheDub]

Hi, I'm not a Snow Leopard Hackintosh pro by any stretch, but I've been running Leopard on AMD for years now and have been so happy with it I have no Linux or Windows partitions.

 

That said - Could you provide a little more information? Is this your first hackintosh attempt or have you used Leopard and have just decided to upgrade?

 

First of all a retail install, to my knowledge, is a difficult process with a AMD. There are a few different "distros" with AMD support baked in that will make things go much smoother.

 

When is the boot process stalling? After an install? Booting up the setup dvd?

 

Boot up problems in my experience have always been 3 different possible problems.

 

1.)Sata is not in AHCI mode. - I do believe other modes CAN work but on AMD if you can switch your sata controller to work in AHCI mode you'll have a much better experience. In my BIOS it lists the option as SATA->AHCI under one of the controller options, I'm sorry I can't quote exactly where I found it right now.

2.)Bad Extensions - Hopefully you're using the Chameleon Bootloader (or an equivalent) which in the /Extras/Extensions folder should contain the decrypter among other things. (Did I mention I'm not quite an expert?)

3.)Bad Kernel - AMD absolutely needs a compatible kernel, the stock retail kernel will NOT boot.

 

 

I'd recommend the iAtkos distribution. v7 for Leopard or S3v2 for Snow Leopard. You'll need to do a bit of research on your own to know what settings will work best for your system but if you select at least a proper kernel with AMD support and the proper graphics driver you should be able to boot.

 

In iAtkos v7 - which is Leopard, but may be worth playing with just to get a feel for your machines compatibility with OS X in general - I would select the following:

 

Defaults except where I mention changes! These options are found when you click customize right before the install button.

 

1.)Qoopz 9.7.0 Kernel - This is AMD compatible and works with 10.5.7 and 10.5.8 for sure.

2.)Video I would select nVidia -> EFI Strings -> DVI/DVI (<- Important select the option that matches your cards outputs - if you have an ATI card I can't help you as I know nothing about how those work with OSX86)

3.)Wired Network R1000 (My motherboard chipset is SB700)

4.)Audio - Azalia Audio

 

I might be missing a few options I would select - but if you read each option in the distro you choose you can help adjust for your system. Since you're just starting I would select only the essentials and see how it goes. Such as the Kernel and Video - then go back and look at things like Audio / Networking / Etc

 

I hope this at least helps somewhat. If you still can't boot add the -v boot option to see verbose mode where you can see what output it gives when it freezes. A common one might be "Waiting for root device..." which signals OS X isn't seeing your hard drives, common fix is AHCI mode.

 

Cheers,

TheDub

[Proplaya23]

First Off i just wanna start by thanking you for a reply ..........THANK YOU

 

 

 

and i cant even get past the darwin/x86 boot screen ive tried HAzard ,iatkos s3v2 , my AHCI is on and power state is in S1 also tried bootflags like -v -f -x cpus=1 busratio=20,25 -force64 nothing works.

 

it loads upto loading +HFS file from Library/extensions/m.kext then restarts over and over and over lol

[TheDub]

Not a problem.

 

Have you tried retail? Distro's are on their way out I read as more and more retail install methods become available.

 

There is a promising guide here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=269839

 

I'm looking to move off of Leopard soon and will probably start here myself.

 

Your problem sounds like a kernel issue. Are you sure a AMD compatible kernel is in place? I know iAtkos contains at least 4 different kernel options, selecting nothing will install the stock retail kernel which again with AMD will not work. Assuming you're selecting one which one are you choosing? Maybe want to try a different one, in the description when you click them it should state what they are compatible with.

 

I'm not sure what extension m.kext is - are you sure you don't mean Extensions.mkext?

[Proplaya23]

yes thats what it is extensions.mkext and yes im pretty sure it is the kernel too because it loads mach_kernel but ive tried typing in legacy_kernel in the boot options with all the distros i have like iatkos and Hazard with no luck. im gonna try the retail dvd method i just need a USB 8gb or a DL DVD.

 

 

UPDATE: which kernels does the iatkos s3v2 contain maybe im spelling them wrong or something and now it says efi_null_stringdata error something like that

 

also says no SMBIOS found

[TheDub]

http://www.kexts.com/desktops/9746-guide-os-x-10-6-amd.html

 

Another good guide.

 

Looks like the new theme is definitely the less is more retail approach.

 

Good luck! If you get past the m.kext error or Extensions.mkext error and run into a new one let me know and I'll help you best I can!

 

yes thats what it is extensions.mkext and yes im pretty sure it is the kernel too because it loads mach_kernel but ive tried typing in legacy_kernel in the boot options with all the distros i have like iatkos and Hazard with no luck. im gonna try the retail dvd method i just need a USB 8gb or a DL DVD.

 

 

UPDATE: which kernels does the iatkos s3v2 contain maybe im spelling them wrong or something and now it says efi_null_stringdata error something like that

 

Don't quote me but I thought the Snow Leopard DVD image is now 4GB~ or so due to the dropping of all the PowerPC code / binaries.

 

Well - Post Installation with a distro you can't type a new kernel name and just boot that kernel, you select which single kernel you'd like to use during the installation and it installs that kernel as the default. If you're selecting all or none that will be part of the problem.

[Proplaya23]

Are you talking about the Retail Snow Leopard then that would be great im going to try and find it. And which AMD kernels does iatkos s3v2 contain i tried legacy_kernel and it returns that its not found.

[TheDub]

iAtkos contains 4 kernels to choose from during the initial installation I believe.

 

After installation there will be ONE kernel installed on your system and it will be located at /mach_kernel

 

If you didn't choose ONE kernel during the installation of OS X via the iAtkos distro then the retail kernel is installed and will not work - you will have to start the installation over and choose a kernel that properly supports AMD.

 

OR

 

Follow either of the two guides posted word for word and you should get into SL.

[Proplaya23]

ok i got it past the lizard screen where the font changes and it keeps saying Still waiting for root device should i wait it out or is there something totally wrong here?

 

oh and i used bootflags : -f -x -v mach_970 busratio=20 cpus=1

[TheDub]

Still waiting for root device - means that OS X doesn't see your hard drive properly. Going to have to Google around the Forum, if you have SATA in AHCI mode and still get those errors something else is wrong, maybe the chipset isn't working, bad extensions, idk.

[Proplaya23]

how can i Identify what my Disk number is if i cant even boot to the Disk Utility Wizard.

[TheDub]

The no root device error -> I realized you may have forgotten to select a Disk Controller driver in the install. Somewhere in the customize -> Drivers section you will see a SATA entry, if you expand the Sata entry it will show controller options, you must select AHCI.

 

Disk Utility can you show you any Disk's ID if you select it and read the information bar at the bottom.

 

If you take your time - Do a little research - And be patient you can probably get a working Hackintosh. I can verify the new methods of installation work with Snow Leopard, both retail and iAtkos S3V2, on an AMD System with a Gigabyte MA770-S3 SB700 motherboard/chipset. Hopefully yours is compatible to but you just need to take your time in customize and make the right selections.

 

EFI Strings -> Your outputs - For Video

Qoopz 9.7.0 (Leopard) or Qoopz 10.3.0 (iAtkos Snow) or not mach_kernel for retail - Kernel

SATA Driver must be selected and it must be AHCI

 

If you get all 3 of the above entries correct your system will boot. You might not have sound, networking, CI/CL but it will boot unless your motherboard is just simply never going to be compatible.

 

I read the AMD800+ chipsets have some issues and won't boot.

[Proplaya23]

I have the RS780 ATi Chip correct me if im wrong and i heard that its not compatible yet So i guess ill just wait for when they make it working maybe in he next AMD Lion Kernel patch or something idk. I currently have Both my IDE and SATA hard Drives in my MAchine BEcause i tried both methods I also HAve my DVD/CD burner on the Same IDE Cable and tried setting it to Slave and HDD to MAster and Vise Versa but still no luck. AHCI was my first method of choice with the SATA HDD but still no luck. Atleast I am getting somewhere I could never get to actually wait for my "root device" it always restarted. THX alot for your Help I greatly Appreciate it and will continue trying once i get back from the GYM LOL.

[TheDub]

Well - I wish you luck whatever you do. But I took the plunge and backed up my Leopard installation that has so loyally served me for the last couple years and installed Snow Leopard. Let me just say - Nawcom's ModUSB solution works BRILLIANTLY!

 

You can use ModCD if you dont have a Mac to create the flash drive with ( I did this from Leopard ) but you use the retail installer, it auto-detects 90% of what you need to at least get you booting.

 

Worked out of the box with ModCD/ModUSB/Nawcom autodetcted drivers settings:

 

-SATA / AHCI / ATA (supposedly but I don't use it)

-Audio via VoodooHDA (There was a odd volume control bug until I upgrade to 10.6.8 and Legacy Kernel 10.6.8)

-Graphics with full acceleration (Nvidia card)

-Wired Networking

-All basic things seem to be functional.

 

What didn't work?

 

-Sleep

-Computer doesn't halt properly so shutdown / restart stops at a black screen (OpenHaltRestart will likely fix)

-App Store was broken

---Fixed this with the Lizard app - Had to specify what type of Mac to emulate and generate a Serial Number so the App Store thinks I'm an authentic Mac, not a Hackintosh

 

 

And that's it. Overally its 100% functional with a few kinks that were worked out or need to be worked out yet - all of which are likely fixable with some research or ok to live with if they aren't.

 

I HIGHLY recommend you try the retail method with Nawcom's utilities. They have really made this easy - I never thought I'd be using a retail install on a AMD. But I am.

 

That's that. I hope you are somehow able to get it working in the long haul because, let's face it, nobody likes Windows.

 

Cheers,

TheDub