Some explaining needed

[beaugus]

Getting OSX started can be a problem for some (still is for me), I've had no luck and zero support from anyone on this forum about why my installation hangs on IO buffer lockups.

 

1 thing i still cant understand is all these .kext things and I think its something that hasn't been explained good enough anyware, there's plenty of these things floating around and requirements to modify them to work but where and how abouts does anyone go about doing that.

 

Take my experience for example, leopard or tiger simply does not even get to the select laungage screen so access to the terminal is out, and when .kexts need to be modified just to get the thing that far, how does anyone do it.

 

It's extreamly frustrating not even knowing the basics of what plenty of people here know yet expect everyone to have the same know-how.

 

I'm not taking a stab at any one here, but theres plenty that I dont think has been explained well enough for the n00bies to comprehend, this community could be alot better if half the people here could provide the positive support for the people who started out the same.

 

So with all that out of the way, my questions are:

 

Explain .kexts and how they are modified (especially for people who dont have immediate access to OSX)

Where to start when the installation dosent (and when you know others with simular hardware have success)

[jsz0]

KEXTs are drivers. When someone says you need to modify a KEXT they mean you have to edit the Info.plist file. For example:

 

(In Terminal)

nano /System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext/Contents/Info.plist

 

You'll see something like this:

<string>0x2363197b</string>

 

The reason for this is simple: there are lots of different device IDs for diferent types of hardware even though they are basically the same card/chipset. By putting in your device ID you are telling the KEXT that your hardware is compatile and this specific driver should be loaded for it. That being said, you need to know IF the KEXT actually does support your hardware or adding the device ID won't do anything for you. You can find your hardware's device ID by using Windows Device Manager, a Linux boot disk or looking at the "hardware summary" screen your BIOS shows (hit the PAUSE key on your keyboard)

 

In your case I would say you might have bigger problems then editing a KEXT can fix. You shouldn't really have to edit any KEXTs to get the OSX installer to run. Editing KEXTs is typically for getting post-install sound, networking, graphics, etc working. The only time you might need to do a pre-install KEXT mod is if your disk controller wasn't being detected but, in that case, you could still start the OSX installer. It sounds like perhaps your hardware is VERY OSX incompatible. You might want to try removing any non-essential hardware you have installed and see if the OSX installer will at least start. If not, might be a lost cause.

[beaugus]

Thank you very much for writing up about the kexts it makes perfect sense to me now.