Using an existing pre-edited DSDT file

[A.D.]

Hi everyone,

 

 

i've a couple of quick questions about DSDT compatibility: i've searched for a DSDT file for my P6T WS Pro mobo, and found this one here: ( http://www.insanelym...dpost&p=1733899 ), which was already made by MaLd0n for Kibitz. My question is - could i try and use this one for my mobo, or i still need to install win7, extract original dsdв and find some way to patch it?

 

i'm not sure which version of BIOS that other mobo had when the file was made, can it be a big trouble if my BIOS ver. is different?

 

Are there any other possible issues using such DSDT?

 

P.S. My questions are addressed mostly to MaLd0n as he was the guy who created this patched file, but any info on this from anybody is much appreciated)) Thanx)

 

P.P.S.: Sorry if that's an extremely noob question, i'm building my first hackintosh.. It's the second sleepless night, the process is very exciting, but i feel my head is overwhelmed with info and things get a bit messy in it.. Just want to double-check things as the third night will be my last i'm afraid

[3.14r2]

I strongly advise you against using DSDT made for other user (even with the same motherboard). Different configuration (even with the same MB or with the same version/revision of MB) might require some minor (or not so minor) adjustment(s) to be made to DSDT. For example an amount of RAM may differ or some different cards may be present in your configuration. These small differences may cause serious trouble instead of solving issues.

 

Actually Windows is not needed to extract DSDT. It can be done with Linux Live CD/USB (ubuntu or similar) to extract ACPI table(s) (including DSDT and others). There is information available on how to do it (use the forum search and/or Google/Rambler).

 

Extract it. Use the moded DSDT (the one moded by MaLd0n) as an example to check what fixes have been applied (and how). Do the same to the DSDT you have extracted.

[A.D.]

Shame on me.. i couldn't wait and applied that dsdt last night)) just wanted to get a working "mac" a bit faster ))

 

The system is working normally (without applying dsdt it booted only with PCIRootUID=1 -x, CP in all other cases ), except the sleep function and all the things like normal video, audio and other stuff (did not play with kexts yet))

 

But reading your post i realized that you're right, it's always better to learn how to and do things on my own) I still need to patch it for my config to get 'sleep' working. Will do so.

 

P.S. I assume things should go right, if i just replace this dsdt.aml in /Extras with my brand new one, when i get it done?)) I mean, no re-installing a whole system and all that...

[3.14r2]

...if i just replace this dsdt.aml in /Extras with my brand new one, when i get it done?

Yes it should. I'd suggest to rename the older dsdt to say DSDT.aml.bak or other to avoid replacing an already working one, just in case you know . Then copy the new DSDT to /Extra dir.

[Gringo Vermelho]

Here's my suggestion..

 

While testing your own patches, leave the one you downloaded earlier as dsdt.aml. Name the DSDT you are working on test.aml.

 

Then, whenever you want to load your own DSDT instead of the one you downloaded, just type DSDT=test.aml at the Chameleon boot prompt.

[A.D.]

Yup, thanks, that's a great idea, big convenience.

 

As to testing - are there some specific things that i should check? i mean, besides power-on, power-off, sleep? The system for now is behaving as expected, except sleep - i've done these tweaks to my dsdt reffering MaLd0n's file, everything seems to be working normally - os boots, ram and cpu recognized, powers off and restarts correctly.. again - except sleep.

 

Update: my file looks almost exactly as MaLd0n's now. Sleep behaviour: at first the system does nothing when putting it to sleep, and then, in a few seconds you can hear a 'click' from an audio system - the same as that you hear when an audio driver is loaded on boot (i assume that it unloads the drv). Then you move a mouse or press a key - and there's a click again - the driver is loaded back, i assume?

[LatinMcG]

u can compare the .dsl (text readable) of yours and theirs.. there u will see what changed.

i use text wrangler..but theres others

[A.D.]

Update:

 

Had to update to Lion as my GTX580 didn't work properly with SL. Now EVERYTHING is working PERFECTLY - sleep, power, reset, all mb stuff, EVEN THE CPU SHOWS its CORRECT OVERCLOCKED SPEED (2,94 instead of X5650's native 2,67). And all this is working thanks to MaLd0n, this guy ROCK! ) Man, i'll buy you a lot of beer if you ever visit Russia.. Or if i finally make my dream come true and fly to Rio ))

 

You guys who posted here and gave me some way to search and experiment - U certainly ROCK too!

 

P.S. Offtopic: Too bad Lion doesn't have Rosetta anymore.. I wanted to experiment with some old versions of pro-tools software on an intel system. But i still got my good old G4, so at least i still can work with PT )))

 

P.P.S. Offtopic - does anyone have any ideas how to have a Raid0 which is avalable from BOTH win7 and lion on a Hack?)) Can't find any kexts for onboard raid controller.. and apple raid card is extremely expensive to buy it just for experimenting..

[3.14r2]

Offtopic - does anyone have any ideas how to have a Raid0 which is avalable from BOTH win7 and lion on a Hack?

Get a PCI-E RAID card which would have drivers both for Windows and OS X. There are generally two types of such card - hardware RAID cards (expensive but faster and more reliable) and RAID cards that uses CPU for some operations (these are cheaper but less powerful). If all you need is two disks RAID (not say 12 disks RAID) then cheaper card will be enough. Hardware RAID cards will perform better then 4 disks or more are used.

 

Like:

http://www.highpoint...ries_rr2300.htm Windows cards

http://www.hptmac.co...ompatibility=18 OS X card. Find one which is supported by both OSs and has all you need.

 

There are others as well but I'll leave it for you to google this

 

P.S. More on RAID cards (quite an old topic so info is mostly about Leopard/Snow Leopard) http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=94679

[Gringo Vermelho]

Just to add two things:

Can't find any kexts for onboard raid controller..

It's because there are none. OS X will not work with your motherboard southbridge RAID (like Intel ICHxR for example) because it's BIOS based. You can install OS X on a single drive connected to ICHxR set to RAID mode. Not sure what happens if you try to access drives on the RAID array from OS X, or if they just go invisible..?

 

Apple software RAID supposedly works on a Hack, never tried it myself.

[eep357]

I can confirm software RAID works fine. My Lion install is on RAID-0 using 2 1tb Hatachi Deskstars, doesn't get booted too often these days cause got SSD right when first ML preview came out and use it, but the RAID is still accessible in ML and holds most my apps and data. I don't recommend this for type of setup for a beginner as it is very high maintenance, all chameleon, /Extra and needed boot files are stored on hidden boot helper partitions that the bios can read, so everything must be done manually, no chameleon wizard or package installers, or easy bootloader updating and everything must be done twice (or more if more drives in the array). The system will maintain an updated kernel cache on each one, array's UUID must be added to boot.plists, and must have boot with kernel cache enabled, if not (or if -f is used at boot) you'll just get mach_kernel not found. In some ways though it's kinda like an EFI install that you have to do twice every time.

And of course it won't be accessible in Windows normally, but I think Macdrive supports Apple software raid

[A.D.]

Get a PCI-E RAID card which would have drivers both for Windows and OS X. There are generally two types of such card - hardware RAID cards (expensive but faster and more reliable) and RAID cards that uses CPU for some operations (these are cheaper but less powerful). If all you need is two disks RAID (not say 12 disks RAID) then cheaper card will be enough. Hardware RAID cards will perform better then 4 disks or more are used.

 

Like:

http://www.highpoint...ries_rr2300.htm Windows cards

http://www.hptmac.co...ompatibility=18 OS X card. Find one which is supported by both OSs and has all you need.

 

There are others as well but I'll leave it for you to google this

 

P.S. More on RAID cards (quite an old topic so info is mostly about Leopard/Snow Leopard) http://www.insanelym...showtopic=94679

 

Thanks, man. I was thinkin about it myself, but didn't see any raid controllers supported by both OSes in russian stores before. These examples are helpful, will do some research, thx again.

 

...OS X will not work with your motherboard southbridge RAID (like Intel ICHxR for example) because it's BIOS based...

 

Maybe it's a noob question, but my mobo specs say that there's a separate marvell chip working as raid controller. in fact, there are even 2 chips - one for SAS (raid capable, Marvell 88SE6320 ) and one for eSATA (raid capable, Marvell 88SE6121). I see a SAS section in Lion's System Profiler.. Does that mean that i can do some research and try to find some kexts for this sas chip to use it? Or maybe i'm just getting things messy again though... That sas array would be the most convenient option as it's already been tested and working on my previous Win7 installation. I'm even ready to try and make eSATA raid..)) I need something really big and fast enough to use with AE rendering, multitrack audio, 3dmax and C4D. And i want it to be cross-platform. Of course, there's always a way.. Getting a 1-2 tb data exchange disk formatted in exFAT, for example.. but it's too easy)) and workin with it, copying stuff here and there is too slow and unreliable

I can confirm software RAID works fine. My Lion install is on RAID-0 using 2 1tb Hatachi Deskstars, doesn't get booted too often these days cause got SSD right when first ML preview came out and use it, but the RAID is still accessible in ML and holds most my apps and data. I don't recommend this for type of setup for a beginner as it is very high maintenance, all chameleon, /Extra and needed boot files are stored on hidden boot helper partitions that the bios can read, so everything must be done manually, no chameleon wizard or package installers, or easy bootloader updating and everything must be done twice (or more if more drives in the array). The system will maintain an updated kernel cache on each one, array's UUID must be added to boot.plists, and must have boot with kernel cache enabled, if not (or if -f is used at boot) you'll just get mach_kernel not found. In some ways though it's kinda like an EFI install that you have to do twice every time.

And of course it won't be accessible in Windows normally, but I think Macdrive supports Apple software raid

 

I'm not afraid of some bit of coding, and doing things manually.. in fact i even enjoy this way - i like to control things on my machine and know exactly what was done to get a desired result. If you could give me some clue, an approach, where to START looking, i would try it - it's interesting) Searching this forum and googling can provide a lot of useful info..but in fact, it's TOO much)) I've spent almost a week here and there, just reading hack guides, manuals, all kinds of tweaking experiments and reports - it's all very interesting, exciting, and hard to stop reading - there's always "one more link to this cool article")) It's like reading Wikipedia - you come to find out about something just for a minute, and in a few hours you find yourself still reading.. articles about things you didn't even need.. but they are so cool))

 

Thanks again to this forum and all of you guys

[eep357]

I'll see if I can find a good how to for you.

[A.D.]

I'll see if I can find a good how to for you.

 

Man, no need to bother, really. It will be enough if you just specify some things that i need to learn. I mean if you just say WHAT needs to be done, i'll try and find a way HOW to do it, and i won't be distracted by some unnecessary things if i know exactly what to look for)) It's more exciting than just follow a tutorial) For now i will use a separate raid controller as 3.14r2 suggested. But this way will free up some SATA ports on mobo, so i'll try to create another array, making it your way. Following your previous post i've already found some info on modifying the bootloader and also some info on kernel modifications, and feel like some kind of sorcerer's apprentice)))

 

Thanx!