Disk utility doesn't see internal hard drive during installation (Clover, HP Z620)

[ldis]

In an ideal world I wouldn't be trying to install this on this machine, but this is all I have and I'm quite keen to get it to work!

 

Steps so far:  I first tried [a popular tool available online, Chimera bootloader] but it wouldn't recognise the USB at all. Then I tried Clover using Clover v2.3k_r3202 following a guide online, using FakeSMC.kext, an AppleIntel kext, and NullCPUPowerManagement.kext and replacing VBoxHfs-64.efi with HFSPlus.efi. I'm also using a DSDT for my computer that I extracted using my normal Ubuntu install (I have three SSDT files too but I'm not currently using them because I'm not sure which one I should use). I would get a black screen with the Apple logo and then the computer would restart, it seemed to crash on the "PCI configuration begin" stage. Using boot flags '-cpus 1 -npci=0x2000' ('-npci=0x3000' also works) got me to the installer.

 

Now I'm at the installer but it won't see my internal hard drive. Disk Utility doesn't see it, 'diskutil list' doesn't see it. ACPI is enabled on the BIOS, Vt-d/Vt-x disabled, Secure Boot disabled. The hard drive is a factory condition Samsung 250 GB 850 EVO.

 

Computer details: dual CPU Xeon E5-2650, Nvidia K2000, HP motherboard (J61 v03.50 BIOS).

 

Thanks for any help you can give!

[ldis]

Thanks. I will try this first thing tomorrow. Do you mind if I ask what it does? I'm happy to take it on faith that it's harmless, but I'm just curious

 

If it works will I'll check back to post confirmation, for future reference for anyone else with this computer.

[ldis]

Thanks chris1111. I tried the kexts you sent but then the installer fails to boot at all

 

I have also tried the drive in a different drive bay (just in case) and tried all the different storage modes in the BIOS (IDE compatible, IDE enhanced, AHCI, ACHI+RAID – I've left it to just ACHI but Disk Utility doesn't see the drive with any of them).

[Riley Freeman]

It sounds like you're running a HP Z series workstation. Try taking a look here. From a quick glance it looks like the onboard controllers are unsupported.

[ldis]

Hi Riley. Yeah, I'm running a HP Z620 workstation. It's a new model though, only about a year old.

 

The linked thread talks about unplugging/removing all SATA devices from the motherboard *and* most of the RAM, which is not something I'm comfortable doing. This is my main work computer (when I'm trying this Hackintosh install I keep my main work Ubuntu drive physically disconnected, so if it all goes wrong I can just put the Ubuntu drive back in and still get work done). I'm happy to remove hot-swappable drives etc., but I don't want to take the computer apart otherwise. The linked thread is for Snow Leopard from 5 years ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Z620 I'm using is entirely different to the Z600 the linked poster is talking about. Thanks for the link though, I'll have a read.

 

As a worst case scenario, would it be possible to install and boot from a USB3 external drive instead?

[chris1111]

 

 

As a worst case scenario, would it be possible to install and boot from a USB3 external drive instead?

Yes its possible 

[Riley Freeman]

At least now we know what you have. if you search the forums for the model you'll find others who have installed OS X on the Z620. The C602 chipset should be OK assuming you're using the onboard Intel so I'm unsure why it's not detecting any drives (unless you have some Intel RAID setup enabled?). When you say ACPI is enabled in the BIOS did you mean AHCI? That's the mode you need the SATA controller to be in.

[ldis]

Yes, I do mean AHCI. My apologies, got my acronyms mixed up.

 

Good news is that I've now got the drive to be detected but only by connecting it directly to one of the 6Gbps ports on the motherboard.

 

For anyone else who's trying to get this machine set up, note that (as far as I can tell) the hot swappable drive bays do *not* plug directly into the motherboard, but instead into some sort of riser card. I don't know enough about this machine to explain this fully, but that's might be why it wasn't being detected. The drive also wasn't being detected if plugged directly into the 3Gbps ports on the motherboard either though, so I don't know...

 

Will update if I get this successfully installed.

[ldis]

Making progress. Installed now.

 

New problems:

 

Can only boot with 'cpus=1'. I read I should try VoodooTSCSync.kext, but what IOCPUNumber should I use for a dual CPU system (2x 8-core CPUs, both with hyper threading, Xeon E5).

 

The graphics are also very laggy. Tried installed the Nvidia Web Drivers for the K4000 (I'm using the K2000). They install and the preference pane suggests that the web driver is the active one, but it doesn't feel right. Not sure if this is just because of the single CPU or not. I've tried several combinations of boot flags (nvda_drv=1, PCIRootUID=0, GraphicsEnabler=1 and also using inject Nvidia in the config.plist) but nothing seems to improve the situation.

 

Suggestions very welcome, especially for getting more CPU cores active! Thanks.