cpus=1

[HaX0r Jim Duggan]

I've recently installed the Kalyway version of Leopard on the following system:

 

MSI P35 NEO2-FR

e4400 @ 3Ghz

4GB Kingston RAM

80GB SATA Maxtor HDD (Leopard)

80GB SATA WD HDD (Data)

500GB SATA WD HDD (Vista, XP, Apps)

MSI 8800GT (yay, it works)

Soundblaster Xtreme Gamer (doesn't work - will have to use onboard audio sadly)

 

Everything is working ok so far (apart from a few lockups).

 

The thing is, I have to boot with -v -f cpus=1 switches but would really like the second core of my E4400 to function otherwise I doubt OSX can be more than a pretty toy to play around with - I'm not going to start using it for actual work unless it's at least as fast as when I boot into Vista or XP to do some renders in C4D or something. Long term I'd like to buy a proper Mac but want to get a feel for the OS first to see if it will be worth the Apple Tax. Anyway, I digress.

 

So, what are the factors that dictate the usage of cpus=1? I've looked around these forums quite a lot and no-one ever seem to explains why it has to be used - just that it is required in certain circumstances. Is this issue tied to particular motherboard, or will some amount of changing BIOS parameters or something in the OSX installation itself help?

 

Any light shed on this problem would be gratefully received.

 

PS - I don't suppose my Soundblaster Xtreme Gamer sound card will ever work will it?

[00diabolic]

I wish I knew myself. I am in the same boat. Whats worse is I have a system with almost the exact specs of a macbook. From what I understand it has to do with the BIOS. The way the bios is written allows OSX to see the cores starting when Darwin loading and then can properly use both.

 

In my case i could use a hacked kernal and get both cores on my Lenovo 3000 n200 0769AVU. Have you tried that? If your like me you hate that and would love to run the vanilla kernal. I feel your pain. It seems like there should be a kext fix for this or maybe a hacked darwin that would turn on both cores early on. At least with a hacked kernal I can get there so that would make sense right.

 

I hope an expert can chime in here and shed some light on this subject with some possible solutions.

[HaX0r Jim Duggan]

I wish I knew myself. I am in the same boat. Whats worse is I have a system with almost the exact specs of a macbook. From what I understand it has to do with the BIOS. The way the bios is written allows OSX to see the cores starting when Darwin loading and then can properly use both.

 

In my case i could use a hacked kernal and get both cores on my Lenovo 3000 n200 0769AVU. Have you tried that? If your like me you hate that and would love to run the vanilla kernal. I feel your pain. It seems like there should be a kext fix for this or maybe a hacked darwin that would turn on both cores early on. At least with a hacked kernal I can get there so that would make sense right.

 

I hope an expert can chime in here and shed some light on this subject with some possible solutions.

 

I would love to try a hacked kernel that would allow both cores to run but searching both Google and this forum hasn't thrown anything up. Solutions would be really great!

[00diabolic]

Hey,

 

What install did you use? In IAtkos there are like 3 kernal options. Just reinstall with one of the other kernal options available.

 

Also I found this. Very interesting. See what it says about cpus=1 useful for core Duo users. Thats me. But i am considering getting a Core 2 Duo. Perhaps that will stop my problem. Will see.

 

# -f - This forces rebuilding of extensions cache

# -s - Boots into a single user command line mode

# -v - Verbose, boots in text mode showing all debug info and errors

# -x - Boots into safe mode

# "Graphics Mode"="1024x768x32" - Tells VESA to boot with this resolution, the x32 is bit depth and is only compatible with VESA 3.0 and up

# "Quiet Boot"="Yes" is the opposite of -v, forcing the graphic boot

# rd=disk0s1 - Tells Darwin to boot from a certain partition specified in BSD format. Disk 0 specifies first HDD and s1 specifies first partition as 0 is the MBR.

# cpus=1 - Tells the system how many CPUs or cores to use, useful for Core Duo users.

# platform=X86PC - Can be used if problems with normal booting, ACPI is another option here

# -legacy - Boots OS X in 32bit mode rather than 64bit if 64bit is used due to a 64bit processor

[Deviant0ne]

Here for modified kernels. The IRC server and channel you need are located in the first post.

 

Your issue is indeed a BIOS problem. I hit the same snag with an ASRock MoBo I bought to run OS X. As soon as I upgraded to my current Gigabyte MoBo, the problem disappeared.

 

I read a post from a member name Kabyl, who was willing to rebuild different MoBo BIOS' to allow OS X to run correctly. Here is the thread, I've also seen him in the uphuck IRC channel.

[00diabolic]

I Just got netkas's newest 9.2.0 kernal with speedstep and WOW. Works soooo GREAT. I would recommend you try that.

 

get it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?bmcos0yqdyl

 

Nice package installer by macaroo

 

I have both cores, speedstep, battery icon on 10.5.2. Its not vanilla but you cant get speedstep with vanilla so who cares and at least my system will boot vanilla with cpus=1. So I dont have to fear updates.

 

All I need now is sound for a perfect setup on my new lappy.

[HaX0r Jim Duggan]

Cheers. Will try that when I've got the whole thing backed up so I can easy restore without having to re-insall. Did the kernel get your second core working or did it work beforehand?

[HaX0r Jim Duggan]

Okay I tried the new kernel and it makes no difference

 

Did sort my slow boot issue out though

[00diabolic]

Wow you must have a wacky bios. Mine liked the netkas kernal and loaded both cores np with it. My bios must be only have weird cuz it does not like the vanilla kernal only.