[HowTo] Building my first OSx86 box...

[bofors]

I want to report that a defect has emerged on one of my Dell 2005FPW panels.

 

It basically looks like a light streak of crud that runs from near the middle of my panel the bottom close to the center of the screen. I appears so like something produced by wiping a greasy finger, that I assumed it was for while and when I could not clean it, I determined my panel had a problem.

 

The defect is likely to have arisen from some misapplication of a thin flim on back side of the panel. It is minor enough for hold off sending it back to Dell until it is convenient for me, but I will definitely be returning it before my three year warranty expires.

[Guest goodtime]

Bofor,

 

Let's see the whole thing put together!

 

GT

[bofors]

You mean this?:

 

[indiekiduk]

I have 2 2005FPW and they both have backlight leakage - I already sent one back but the replacement had backlight leakage too. Like you I'm holding off returning it - I'm hoping if I wait long enough there might be the slightest chance they'll send me the 2007WFP instead.

[bofors]

My panels also have the typical 2005FPW backlight leakage, but this does not bother me at all.

 

Even with the "streak" defect, I still am very happy with my panels. Although there are more choices on the market now that I would certainly consider, I know that I bought what was best for my needs at the time.

[bofors]

 

We are working on getting EFI working on these motherboards and want everybody help.

 

Join the MacEFIx86 Project in the X-Labs:

 

http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showforum=74

[bofors]

I managed to get RAID 0 working using my 2 SATA drives.

 

After trying to set up the RAID using 10.4.3 - 10.4.5 off the CD install (which never worked, I can't seem to be able to drag the drives to the RAID window during the initial setup routine) I decided to take an other approach.

 

I setup 10.4.3 and an old IDE drive I had on hand. After rebooting off this drive, I was able to see my SATA drives. I had to trash all off my current partition info off the 2 SATA drives. Even though I make a living writing Windows software, I have yet to use Windows off my home system since OSX has been installed so why waste space for XP on this box. And my OSX partiotions were just to small to be usefull.

 

Once I had 2 clean virgin drives, I was able to drag both drives to the raid window, setup a new Name for the RAID and specify type 0. Click on create and voila - A 280gb RAID 0.

 

Granted, this is a software RAID versus a hardware one, but the performance should still be interesting.

 

I have spent many hours trying to do this, including using 10.4.5, but have failed to reproduce StickyDigit's results. I have PM'd him for more details on want exactly he did, but he has been off the board for a few weeks.

 

Nonetheless, I have a new idea on how to get RAID working. I am going to set it up in my G5, then move the drives back to my OSx86 box. This implies that it should work:

 

http://rentzsch.com/tidbits/intelbasedMacBootIncompatibility

[bofors]

I have now got OS X software RAID working on my box. The only problem is that OSx86 10.4.5 will not boot of it as is. There are a couple different ways to do this. Basically you needed either a Mac tower or some external storage device to set up the RAID drives. I used my G5.

 

Simply move the internal RAID drives into the external box and then connect to them via USB or FireWire (use Target Disk Mode for a Mac tower). When paritioning disks select "Mac Paritioning Scheme" by pressing the "Options" button (the default for external drives is "PC Partitioning Scheme" which does not support OS X's software RAID). Then the should be draggable into the RAID table view and set can be created. Alternatively, the same results can be achieved by formatting and setting up RAID in a PPC Mac tower. Once the RAID drives are set up, just move back into the OSx86.

 

The only problem is that that the drives are not bootable. Note that I worked with 10.4.3 and 10.4.5 rather thoroughly. Because of Apple's switch to EFI with 10.4.4, the 10.4.3 Disk Utility may be better for working with BIOS systems. In addition, to the "Mac" and "PC" partitions schemes, it also has a "GUID Parition Scheme" option that creates 200 MB of free at the front of the drive. My conclusion is that the BIOS bootloader does not recognize the resulting partition scheme.

 

I started a thread in the Hardware forum for this topic here: http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showtopic=19154

[xandiztxu]

I spent about 1 hour reading this topic

 

GREAT TOPIC!!!!

 

Just want to congrats u about ur sucessuful, cant wait to see some pictures of another programs runing on your machine (Office 2004, and some games would be cool)

 

See ya

[GoldenBoy]

Bofors:

I just successfully installed 10.4.6 on my Pentium 830 and D949Psn intel board, using a Geforce 5500 PCI graphics card, and a SATA2 Western Digital 250 gig HD. The problem I'm having (which from what I've read in the forums, you've had the same issue) is actually getting the OS to load after it's been installed. I'm not sure what's causing it to fail, but whenever it begins to load up the OS, the progress bar stops at about 5% and all hard drive activity stops. I'm running the most current intel bios on the board, but I'm still unclear about the exact steps that I need to take next to make successfully load. I keep reading about "kext"s and other things, but I'm not sure if that's my problem (but then again it may be). Is there a solution in these forums for that problem that a novice would understand. The stuff I've browsed is slightly over my head, since I'm not -that- familiar with console commands, etc. A step by step How-To would be incredible!

[bofors]

The problem I'm having (which from what I've read in the forums, you've had the same issue) is actually getting the OS to load after it's been installed.

 

I am not sure what you are referring to because I do not think that I have every had a problem like that.

 

I have not tried to run 10.4.6, my impessive is it adds almost no benefits but causes a lot of problems. At this point, I have no plans to install it. I will be perfectly happy to run 10.4.5 until Leopard comes (10.5), as far as I am concerned there is nothing wrong with it. So if you are unable to get 10.4.6 running, I recommend 10.4.5 instead.

 

Now, about your failure to load OS X. I am going to guess that it has something to do with your PCI (not PCIe) graphics card. Since I assume you were able to install OS X with the card, it certainly is possible to make it work. However, it is also possible that the installer itself is not 10.4.6 but 10.4.4 and that is reason it work while 10.4.6 does not.

 

Have you search the forum for any reports of people using NVidia PCI (not PCIe) cards?

 

Do you have access to any PCIe graphics cards?

 

Do you have any other cards installed in your machine?

[coreme]

Golden Boy:

 

If you have trouble booting (I have dual boot, and I have had trouble booting), these should be checked:

 

Did you use the PPF1 patch to the Jas 10.4.6 dvd?

Will your machine boot with the install dvd in the drive?

Try typing F8, then -x -v to boot into safe mode with verbose viewing.

You may have to download a livecd (linux), and make the partition a primary one (though if you aren't dual boot, this should not be an issue).

[GoldenBoy]

Thanks guys for the fast response. As it turns out, it was the PPF1 patch that I had not installed. That fixed me right up All I have now to fix is the graphics card. Because the driver isn't installed, I'm locked in to 1024x768. To my suprise, I went to apple's site and downloaded 1080p movie trailer, and it didn't even sputter (granted only half of it would show on my screen since it's so large). I was impressed. Also, my Pentium D 830 3.0ghz shows up as 4ghz in "About This Mac". Funny The SATA2 drive works great too. I need to run the benchmarks to see how it really stacks up.

 

Any suggestions on any PCI-e graphics card that's fairly high-end that's easy to setup. I plan on using it for Windows Gaming and Mac Video Production. Using a 21" Gateway widescreen LCD.

[bofors]

Also, my Pentium D 830 3.0ghz shows up as 4ghz in "About This Mac". Funny

This is "normal", mine says 4 GHz too.

 

Any suggestions on any PCI-e graphics card that's fairly high-end that's easy to setup. I plan on using it for Windows Gaming and Mac Video Production. Using a 21" Gateway widescreen LCD.

I would look at using some ATI x1600 using the "boris" method. I think that only works for VGA out though, check the Drivers forum for details.

[coreme]

I think this is the right spot to ask for help on my problem. I have been trying to research for 4 weeks, and have reinstalled many times, but always end up with the same problem, namely:

 

My mac osx86 partition INTERMITENTLY DOES NOT BOOT. In graphic boot mode, I eventually get the “stop/no smoking” type sign, in the verbose boot mode, a litte bit after the HPET error, I do NOT get the line that says “Got Root disk0s2”, which I DO get when it boots correctly.

 

I installed in the following manner,

 

1. used livecd to partition 2 primary partitions on my SATA II drive, 1st as ntfs for windows, 2nd as unallocated for mac.

2. installed win xp sp2 on 1st partition, without installing much else (like did not install Intel Chipset drivers)

3. booted from jas 10.4.6 PPF1, and formatted unallocated partition (2nd ) as HFS+ and installed osX with proper xtras

4. Booted into osX and changed the boot.plist to <string>rd=disk0s2</string> so that Darwin will boot to osx as default.

 

And for a while, everything was a great Dual Boot. Default to OSX, occasionally to winxp by hitting a key at the F8 screen. I booted up reliably to OSX 30 times, then decided to install the Intel Chipset Drivers from the Intel disk that came with the Intel D945GNT LKR mobo. Booted into winxp, ran the installer (default settings), and as soon as I did that, I started being able to boot into osX only intermittently as show above. This seems to have happened to me 3 times, that when I install the chipset disk, I hose my ability to boot to osX.

 

I try rd=disk0s2 –x –v at boot, and sometimes that helps, and I get the Got Root, and it boots, but it does not always work either.

 

Other weird things:

Then after a few days, my USB keyboard is not recognized during the boot, so I can’t even get to the F8 screen, I have to plug in my PS2 kbd.

I try unplugging the second SATA II (data) drive, that sometimes helps.

I can’t install all these dual boot os’s on an IDE drive because one of my main goals is to have two optical drives so that I can do cd to cd copying, so my one IDE channel is full.

I try changing the “Configure SATA as” in the BIOS to ACHI (when I installed the OS’s, I believe that it was configured as IDE the whole time). When it is configured as ACHI, winxp blue screens right at the flash/scroll screen, and works fine when I go back to IDE. Mac osX seems to boot (or not boot) equally with both settings.

 

I am kind of pulling my hair out. I am not sure that it is the chipset drive install that has hosed my system each time, but that is the one thing that I seem to remember caused it each time even though does not make sense to me. I am loath to reinstall everything all over again without understanding what the heck causes this and how to reliably prevent it.

 

Please anyone with a really good, reliable Intel D945 dual boot setup with osX as the default boot, tell me a) how you did it, and why you think this is happening to me. I would really love to avoid installs that involve Acronis, or Partition Magic, and I thought I had it ready to go with the Darwin and the boot.plist modification. For 25 boots it was working great.

 

Motherboard: Intel D945GNTLKR (Jas 10.4.6 PPF1: AHCI, Ethernet, Audio, FireWire, SATAII)

CPU: Pentium D 940 (65nm dual "core" Presler, 3.2 GHz, 2 x 2 MB cache, 800MHz FSB)

RAM: 2 x 1GB OCZ-ValueRAM DDR2-667 (5-5-5-10) HD: 2 x 300 GB SATAII (7200 RPM))

DVD-RW: Pioneer DVR-111D, Samsung CDRW-DVD as 2nd optical

GPU: Intel GMA950 + ADD2-N

[bofors]

I think this is the right spot to ask for help on my problem.

 

I do not use Windows and do not dual boot, so I hope someone else here can try helping you. However, it seems to clear that you should reinstall and not install the Intel Chipset drivers.

 

Other weird things:

Then after a few days, my USB keyboard is not recognized during the boot, so I can’t even get to the F8 screen, I have to plug in my PS2 kbd.

 

I had some cases of my USB keyboard not being recognized on boot when I first built my box, but they were minor. I have not really noticed this problem lately, it seemed to be associated with repeatedly rebooting from the BIOS setup menu. Perhaps you should try updating to the lastest BIOS from Intel. Which version of BIOS are you running now?

[coreme]

thanks for responding.

 

I have the latest bios from intel when I checked 2 weeks ago.

 

Latest is that I tried to clear my CMOS, and now I get fans and lights, but black monitor. no intel splash screen, no white text, nothing.

 

I cleared cmos by unplugging power cable, waiting 20 seconds, left mobo battery in, switched cmos jumper for 20 seconds, put back cmos jumper, plugged power cable in and turned computer on. Complete HOSE, now I don't know what to do at all.

[bofors]

Isn't there a "recovery" position for that jumper that can be used with a "recovery" BIOS disk?

 

You also could try booting with the jumper removed, which is what I would try first.

[coreme]

well, this is very bizarre.

 

there is a cmos jumper (3 pins) and a bios config jumper (3pins).

 

the inteld945gnt support area says that the bios config jumper settings are as follows

 

BIOS Setup Configuration Jumper Settings

 

Function/Mode Jumper Setting Configuration

Normal 1-2 The BIOS uses current configuration information and passwords for booting.

Configure 2-3 After the POST runs, Setup runs automatically. The maintenance menu is displayed.

Recovery None The BIOS attempts to recover the BIOS configuration. A recovery diskette is required.

 

Where NO jumper is bios recovery mode. My mobo shipped with no jumper there???? so I dug up an old hard drive jumper, which fit fine, and I put it in bios normal mode (pins 1-2) and I got the intel splashscreen, and my first boot booted all the way to osx, which it has not done in 20 times.

 

promising, I will keep you posted.

 

Can anyone else check their bios config jumper settings on an intel d945 and tell me if you have a jumper there, and what pins it is on?

[bofors]

OK, I was assuming the CMOS jumper and the BIOS jumper were the same, when really I was thinking about only the BIOS jumper.

 

I can confirm that my BIOS jumper is set to normal (connecting pins 1-2).

[coreme]

thanks for confirming that.

 

After adding the jumper, I booted 5 times to os X instantly, thinking ahha, I have solved it forever, but the 6th boot did the old "Waiting for root device", so I am not completely out of the water, but that BIOS jumper sure helped!

[bofors]

Now that I have RAID setup on my Raptors, but can not boot off them, I need another hard drive for OS X. So, I picked up an Hitachi T7K250 (250 GB) from NewEgg for about $90.

 

But I have been unable to use Hitachi's "Feature Tool" to enable SATA II (3.0 Gbps). I just got of the phone with Hitachi and they are suggesting that the problem is the RAID functionality of my board's chipset (ICH7R). So, either I have to find someother machine to enable SATA II my T7K250 on or try to use a PCI SATA card (without RAID).

[looper]

I'm picking up a 74 Gig raptor to use in my hackintosh (based on Bofor's components) and I have a question. There are 2 variations of the 74 Gig Raptor. the older one (WD740GD) doesn't have NCQ, and the newer revision, WD740ADFD, has NCQ. I have read that having the Native Command Queing in a single desktop user situation can slow down the system. Apparently you can turn NCQ off from the windows OS, do you think you could do this using OSx86? I don't want to get the NCQ if it's going to cause any problems, but apparently it (NCQ version) has a 16MB buffer compared to the older revision with 8. I'll probably play it safe but thought I'd ask the Genius(s) first.

 

Thanks guys!

 

P.S. this will be used as a single drive for the OS, no raid just yet.

 

P.P.S B.T.W. glad to hear bout the success with the RAID setup Bofors!

[looper]

OK I found a bit more info on the NCQ thing from one of the reviewers at storagereview.com-

 

Toggling NCQ occurs at a software level, and therefore, depending on the controller, happens either at the bios or driver level. The process differs for each controller. For our reference SI3124 controller, it takes a registry entry. For other controllers we use (the LSI MegaRaid 300-8 and 3ware 9550SX), it happens via the bios.

[bofors]

I'm picking up a 74 Gig raptor to use in my hackintosh (based on Bofor's components).

 

I just want to say (again) that based on my experience here and the fact that Raptors are about 4x more expensive per GB that I consider them to be a huge waste of money.

 

Furthermore, the Hitachi T7K250 beats the Raptor in some benchmarks: http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/har...7K250/index.htm

 

I bought a Hitachi T7K250 last week and unless Raptors come down significantly in price while adding an SATA II (3.0 Gbps) interface, I really doubt I would ever buy Raptors again (in fact, I have contemplated selling the ones I have).