SilverZero Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Alright, I've been cruising the forums for hours and hours trying to make some headway on this. I've got a Dell XPS400 with a PentiumD 820 processor, 1gb RAM, 945 chipset, 2 SATA HDs, and XP running great. After trying to install OSX on my 2nd HD with no luck, I finally put a new partition on the back half of my primary HD, which allowed me to at least install OSX, but it hangs on initial boot. I've tried using SSE2 patches and SSE3 patches (included on the DVD I am using), but each one hangs. The SSE2 hangs at the grey Apple screen ("waiting for root device"), and the SSE3 install got past that to a black screen with a mouse arrow, and that's it. Mouse moves, but it's frozen beyond that. Has anybody done a successful OSX install on an XPS400 or Dimension 9150? If so, please post your methods and the ISO/image you used. I know it's been done, so hopefully one of you will see this and help me out. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverZero Posted October 18, 2006 Author Share Posted October 18, 2006 Bump before I try the 10.4.7 install DVD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverZero Posted October 18, 2006 Author Share Posted October 18, 2006 Sweet Sally Mae, I'm in a native OSX environment on my Dell XPS400! I used Xeijin's install guide (here), using the VMWare installation on a 30gb partition on the back end of my primary HD (the one running WinXP). I also used the JaS 10.4.6 install, which worked without a problem. I selected the first update (the one that says it's required for Intel installs), and the SSE3 upgrade, along with the HP printer drivers and the Sigmatel 9220 audio selection. Notes: I thought it had frozen right at the end of the installation, but it ended up going when I clicked around and viewed the error log (it's like it jump-started it or something), and then it finished! I couldn't boot back in using VMWare - I got an "MBR error" numbers 3 and 1, probably because the OSX partition wasn't active. I keep seeing conflicting suggestions about whether or not it needs to be set active, but in this case, it might have. I just rebooted the physical machine, which already had Acronis OS Selector installed. OSX showed up as an Unknown Operating System, so I changed the name, made sure its partition was active, and went for it. I wish I had plugged my speakers into the black subwoofer output before this, because I bet the sound that went along with the first-time boot movie would have been great. That's right, my sound works out of the box, so to speak, along with my network adapter (Intel Pro 1000). I'm writing in Safari right now. I'm also using a MS Multimedia keyboard, which had to be configured at the beginning, but I just followed the directions. My MS Intellimouse Explorer (v4, I think) works just fine, too. I'll make sure to add anything I can to the wiki's HCL, but using Xeijin's VMWare install guide and JaS' install disc was the ticket for me (after several failed attempts at native installs). Any questions, PM me! Thanks, Xeijin and JaS! Now it's on to updating and learning OSX! I'm going to put a Ubuntu install in next, so we'll see how they all play after that. W00tah!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverZero Posted October 18, 2006 Author Share Posted October 18, 2006 More updates: I tried to update to 10.4.7 using JaS' update and a guide I found stickied here at InsanelyMac, but it ruined my install (I couldn't boot in again). I'm trying again from the beginning with JaS' 10.4.7 full install DVD. Will update with more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverZero Posted October 18, 2006 Author Share Posted October 18, 2006 And again: The 10.4.7 install succeeded, and even rebooted inside VMWare for the initial startup. No sweet intro movie, though. I got 2 errors regarding the installation of AC97 stuff ("System extension cannot be used. . . AppleAC97Audio.kext" and also "MaxxussAC97AudioES137x.kext"), so we'll see how that works out. . . . I can boot in again and again in VMWare so far, and now I'm going to try for the native boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverZero Posted October 18, 2006 Author Share Posted October 18, 2006 On rebooting for a native boot, OS Selector didn't see my OSX installation, so I disabled it in XP, made sure the OSX partition was active, and rebooted. Now, I get an error on boot: "EBIOS read error: Error 0xbb / block 11352 Sectors 64." It comes up 4 times, then freezes there. I'm getting a boot CD to get my XP partition active again so I can try to get in to OSX via VMWare again, to see if it's stll okay (I was able to activate the XP partition using Ultimate Boot CD -> XFDISK). And now I am back in OSX via VMWare. I don't know what to do now, but I'll hit the search pages for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevieg909 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I'm using Dell Dimension 9200...believe its Intel 965P with ICH8. I was unable to install natively. The 10.4.6 and 10.4.7 dvd's both just hung on the "still waiting for root" error with the white cross. I think its something with the sata controller not being supported by osx, so I picked up a Seagate external usb hard drive and an external usb dvd-rom drive. Both dvd's worked with the usb devices...just partitioned the external drive and installed to that. Boots without a problem. Onboard lan, sigmatel audio, and geforce 7300le still don't work. Don't know if that helps, but I've noticed lots of people having problems with the dell dimension 9150's and 9200's...thats what worked for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prasys Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I am using a Dell Dimension 9100 I did not select any patches during the installation. I only installed Jas' update for Intel. Thats all + OS 10.4.4 and the update for Intel. I am installing it on an IDE Drive though. The black screen problem is related to ATi. You need to boot to Safe Mode and you need to patch the ATIkexts , otherwise you will get a black screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverZero Posted October 27, 2006 Author Share Posted October 27, 2006 Thanks for the replies. I got OSX working on my XPS400 quite well, once I figured out to set the target partition active first. It worked almost out of the box, except for some screen resolution issues (fixed now). I'm trying to get my triple-boot setup working correctly now using GRUB, if possible. I'm having issues with GRUB setting the OSX partition active, but then when I reboot, since the OSX partition is still active, GRUB doesn't start up (I installed it in a separate /boot partition, not to the MBR, and I know that is probably the problem, I just haven't had time to try anything yet). Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prasys Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I suggest you to use the BIOS as a Boot Loader , thats one of the best method i could think OSX - IDE Linux[debian]/Windows - SATA I just hit F12 and select...you should try that tooo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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