Mac OS x86 noob, needs guidace to get things working!

[spiderjerusalem]

So I got my newly built custom PC running OS X 86 (10.4.1). Here are my specs (at least the components relevant to what OS X is running with):

 

Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI Premium, board rev. 1.02, BIOS 1009 (latest as of 11/14/05)

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ rev. E3 (Venice core), 2.2 GHz (default)

RAM: 2 GB Crucial PC3200 DDR400, 3-3-3-8 timings (default)

Video: XFX GeForce 6800 GS XXX Edition

Audio: SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI card, onboard AC'97

Networking: Onboard Marvell & nVidia NIC's, Belkin 54G wireless PCI (F5D7000)

Storage: Western Digital 10 GB IDE hard drive, Sony DW-Q30A DVD Dual Layer burner (hard drive is master, DVD drive is slave on IDE Channel 1 on the motherboard)

Etc: Apple Pro keyboard, Logitech MX1000 mouse, Viewsonic v1700w monitor (native 1280x768 resolution), external Lacie D2 120 GB hard drive via FireWire

 

Everything recognizes fine except for the following: audio (nether AC'97 nor Audigy 2; I'm aware of the incompatibility problem with the Audigy series, but the firewire port works fine... go figure), networking (neither onboard NIC nor Belkin wireless). I haven't gotten around to trying the SATA ports (Sil 3114 or nVidia), but that's not crucial to operation.

 

Also, iTunes (version 4.8 is installed with the deadmoo image I used) doesn't seem to want to work. Not sure what is causing this...

 

What I would like is for someone to help me find what software (or programming tasks) would make the networking and audio bits work, and any other particular software tweaks I may need to make everything run properly. Any input or guidance is appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[RJMac]

Check the Wiki (Sound). C-Media AC'97 audio can be used via the IOUSBFamily kernel extension (.kext) from the Darwin 8.01 cd, found here.

 

Not sure of the compatibility with nForce NIC's. The wireless adapter patches can be found in the Wiki (Wireless Adapter).

 

Tadaa.

[DSi-Gaming]

iTunes doesnt work as it is ppc only, which requires rosetta. The deadmoo image is using a kernel which ignores sse3 commands, so you need to replace it with an original unpatched one, in addition to the CoreGraphics file.

Also, try the platform=x86PC boot flag, it might help

[aitikin]

The NIC's you have will not work natively. Wish I could tell ya otherwise, but I'm dealing with the same stuff myself. People are working on editing the Darwin drivers over to OS X 86. One can only hope they can figure it out. I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. You can get ahold of some Alpha open source nVidia drivers, but they really aren't all that yet. Maybe we'll get real drivers soon.

[U.C.]

it must be bad to spend all that on a rig and find out that a cheap {censored} celron with intel boards and onboard vga runs it perfect

[spiderjerusalem]

Thanks everyone for your help!

 

RJMac: I stumbled across the drivers for the audio and the wireless card not too long after I made the original post. I guess I have to settle with wireless only...

 

DSi-Gaming: I'm assuming that you're telling me that I need to go find a better image than the deadmoo image. It's intriguing to find this out now, considering every guide I can find makes no mention of the lack of SSE3 commands in that particular image, and most actually go so far to state how to improve deadmoo for CPU's that don't support SSE3. Other PPC-native apps, such as iPhoto, work just fine (I was able to import my photos of OS X running on my new computer from my camera without issue; taking screen shots of the desktop result in gray PNG images and not pictures of my desktop, for some odd reason). As far as trying platform=x86PC boot flag, I'll be honest by saying that I have no idea as to what you're talking about. If you could provide me with more information, or point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated.

 

aitikin: I figured at the very least that the nVidia NIC wouldn't work. At the very least I would have thought the Marvell would have been supported in some shape or form, but, then again, I have never seen an Intel-brand motherboard sporting more than one network port in all of my years building systems, so they have no reason to support another brand of NIC besides their own which is tied to their chipset. Sigh...

 

Unstable Connection: The system I have wasn't really built with running Mac OS X in mind; it was more of an afterthought that I had, thinking it would be a fun experiment. I almost instantly recognized the Intel board and model when I saw the first pictures of what hardware the dev's were receiving (as a side note: I'm actually amazed that intel isn't pushing their BTX board standard on Apple; either that, or Apple recognizes a bad technological design spec from a mile away like most motherboard makers can). Integrated graphics makes the most sense for Apple and Intel to support while developing because it refrains from a battle breaking out as to whether ATI or nVidia is the next official video platform for Apple. Also it's good control for dev's who would much rather know that their program works on the most simple graphics solution, meaning that it should work on any graphics solution, ATI, nVidia, or otherwise.

 

Thanks again for all your feedback. If you guys and gals have any other important information that might be relevant to exercising any of the other hardware in my system (e.g.: SATA, SLI, etc.), it would be much appreciated.