deleted_account Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Background: The new Mac Pros can now be configured with 15,000RPM SAS Hard Drives. Well, I've decided to experiment on my own (I think I'm one of the first in this community), and have one as my primary. I bough a 300gb SAS drive along with a SAS Controler. Scenario: My situation is I have a 300gb Seagate Cheetah 15K.5 SAS Hard Drive and would like to simply have Leopard OS installed on it. There are mac os x drivers for this card, I just need to somehow implement the drivers in the Leopard Installation disc so that Disk Utility can detect it. Facts: I have an ATTO Tech H308 ExpressSAS Host Controller that contains 2-internal Mini-SAS ports (See diagram below). The hard drives connected to this controller card does not seem to appear/show up in the Leopard installation screen via Disk Utility (though all the drives are formatted to HFS+ already). However, the drives and card are functioning correctly when in the Leopard OS (not installation), they are identified as long as ATTO's drivers are installed. Basically, The BIOS detects the SAS drives out of the box, I just need to have disk utility see them at installation Questions: - What programs/software will I need, to be able to implement the drivers? (How does Kalyway and JaS and them do this?) - What kext will I need to edit for the installation to read it? - Anything else I should consider? More info on this thread: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...89339&st=20 Thanks for your time, I appreciate it. I hope if this is succesful, it will sure help open up 15K RPM SAS HDD solutions and possibilities for the OSx86 community! *Once this is all figured out, I will make a guide that will include parts: "An Overview, Specification, Prerquisites, Procedues, Results" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deleted_account Posted March 20, 2008 Author Share Posted March 20, 2008 I was recommended the "dd_command" via Linux as an option, anyone have experience doing this method? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justroach Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 If you already have a working installation with the proper drivers you can just use Disk Utility's restore ability to copy the partition from the non-SAS drive to the SAS drive. After that you would need to follow the directions here: http://netkas.org/?page_id=35 to write the boot bits you need to the SAS drive. Files for this are here: http://www.mediafire.com/?0xxzx0xsumg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deleted_account Posted March 23, 2008 Author Share Posted March 23, 2008 hello justroach, Thanks for this. Whats interesting is, that was the first thing I've tried, since I've been fairly used to implementing bootloaders before, I thought that doing this would only make sense. And the reason why I didn't work for me the first time is that I kept getting permission denied access errors. Same thing applied with the above netkas steps (which were less explained than the instruction I've been basing off of). Than I realized I should look up the situation, there weren't really any results. So I've decided to "sudo" each command line, doing so would allow me to be the "root" user (it was mentioned in both guides, but vaguely stated, make sure you're a root user, when I didn't know how to become one). So that has been solved and yes, indeed my SAS drive can be set as primary, and I can now get rid of that SATA drive I've been temporarily using on a box. Justroach, I'd have to mention, though you only have a bout 3-4 posts, these are are valuable and informative ones, so keep up the awesome support and help for others. (I was worrid that you wouldn't reply since your last post was some time ago, and wasn't sure if you still visit these forums) Now I need to try to get rid of those hideous icons my controller comes with. Do you or anyone happen to know where I can find the default "Macintosh HD" icon anywhere? Possibly in the resources folder? *Also, I think I'll try your other recommended method just because you spent the time writing it, and I, myself, is curious to know how it works. It's nice enough to know I have a secure backup plan however Thanks so much again. Time to get rid of all my LINUX cds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gujal Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 The Hideous Orange icons are supposedly the right ones for AHCI SATA. Because AHCI supports drives to be hotplugged, you can eject plug in AHCI drives just like USB drives and hence a removable icon. But if you still want the Aluminum HD icons you can use the AHCI related kexts from Brazilmac patch (available in the forums) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deleted_account Posted March 23, 2008 Author Share Posted March 23, 2008 The Hideous Orange icons are supposedly the right ones for AHCI SATA. Because AHCI supports drives to be hotplugged, you can eject plug in AHCI drives just like USB drives and hence a removable icon.But if you still want the Aluminum HD icons you can use the AHCI related kexts from Brazilmac patch (available in the forums) No, I've never mentioned the icons were Orange. I know about what you're talking about though, you are referring to the AHCI being enabled, which would allow SATA drives to be "hot-swappable". Basically if you have secondary drives in your computer without AHCI enab ed, the icons would be aluminum. If AHCI was enabled, the secondary drive would e Orange, but can be fixed via "Fix Hard Drives" kext. In a way, it will act like an External hard drive (the orange firewire or USB icons). [*Hotswapping is something SATA/SAS drives can handle but IDE/ATA drive can't.] I already have the icon fix kext since installing my OS. I don't think the orange hard driv icons are hideous at all. I have 4 externals vi USB and Firewire, they're fine. The icon i'm referring to are these: ATTOs defaults I'm looking for this icon, can't find the .ico file, if its in a resource folder anywhere, that would great: Maybe I'll make a new post, since its a bit off-topic :\ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justroach Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 here is the actual driver for your SAS controller... ATTOExpressSASHBA.kext.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deleted_account Posted March 24, 2008 Author Share Posted March 24, 2008 here is the actual driver for your SAS controller... Yup, I found it thanks for that as well. After a few readings of word searches, I've succeeded in adding the kext (now I have to see if it'd boot), just one thing, I've noticed none of the guide I have mentioned to replace the "Extensions" folder, only replace "Extension.mkext" aren't we supposed to replace those as well? None were ever mentioned to either remove or replace the Extensions folder. I might write a guide on how to get this SAS drive to be bootable soon, thanks for your help, hope this has helped others as well. For those interested in "Slipstreaming" / "Customizing your Leopard Installation" / "Adding drives/kexts to your installation", a few readings here: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=67713 http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...mp;#entry273719 http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...mp;#entry448394 Words on adding packages (.pkg files): http://forum.osx86scene.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1661 All you have to do is unpack the Extensions.mkext that is on the dvd and repack it with the proper ata controller kext. To set up for this go to your desktop and create a folder called Extensions. Also place the Extensions.mkext from the dvd in your desktop. The mkext is in /system/library/ on the dvd. After that is done open a terminal & use the command mkextunpack -v -a i386 -d /users/(your user name)/Desktop/Extensions Extensions.mkext Next delete the Extensions.mkext from the Desktop and put the ata controller kext you want to use in the Extensions folder where you just unpacked the Extensions.mkext. Now use these commands in the terminal chown -R 755 /users/(your user name)/Desktop/Extensions/ chmod -R root:wheel /users/(your user name)/Desktop/Extensions/ kextcache -a i386 -m /users/(your user name)/Desktop/Extensions.mkext /users/(your user name)/Desktop/Extensions/ If you did it correctly you will have a new Extensions.mkext in your desktop. This is the one you want to put back into the iso. hope this helps, good luck. Another... To do this all you have to do is take your osx86 iso and mount it read write,so with this command in the terminal sudo -s (your password) hdiutil attach -readwrite /path/tothe/osx86.iso (hit enter) This will mount the iso so you can edit,delete and copy to the iso(these changes are instant so always work on a copy of the iso if you have the extra space) Now,in your desktop make a folder and call it something i.e work , mkext ... anything really,inside this new folder make another directory called Extensions. Click on the mounted osx86 iso and go to /system/library/ and take the extensions.mkext and drop it in the new folder you just created in the desktop. And in the terminal type without the ( ) mkextunpack -v -a i386 -d (and drop the Extensions folder you created a few minutes ago here) (now drop the Extensions.mkext from the dvd here and hit enter) Now this will unpack everything in the Extensions.mkext in to the new Extensions folder. All kexts ( drivers) in the Extensions.mkext are stored flat,meaning that if you have a kext with plugins inside of it on your system,when its packed into the mkext that the plugins will no longer be in the original kext anymore but along side it like any other kext ( driver) So what does stored flat really mean to you when your working on the .mkext ? It means you have to first and always delete the kext and any plugins from the Extensions folder before you add the one you want to use. once your done working on the unpacked mkext , reset the permissions on them before you repack them. So in the terminal do chmod -R 755 (drop the extensions folder you have been working on here) chown -R root:wheel (drop the extensions folder you have been working on here) Now just repack the mkext Kextcache -a i386 -m /users/yourusername/Desktop/Extensions.mkext (drop your extensions folder you were working on here and hit enter) That will repack the Extensions.mkext and drop the repacked version in your desktop for you. Once you have that just open the osx86 iso you have mounted in your desktop to /system/library/ and drop the new repacked .mkext into the library directory and copy over the old one. That's it you have just repacked the mkext for booting the dvd. Congrats And thanks again to justroach. just in case you forget to authenticate or add perms to the .kext file: The perms are off... Run this chown -R 0:0 /Volumes/diskimage/ATTOExpressSASHBA.kext then kextload /Volumes/diskimage/ATTOExpressSASHBA.kext In case if you're interested, justroach's boot success here: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=66345 1. Mounted the uphuck ISO read/write.2. Copied the Extensions.mkext file out of the uphuck ISO. 3. Used mkextunpack to split the Extensions.mkext file out into it's separate files. 4. Added the AMCC driver available from the 3ware image mentioned above (packages->drivers->macos->Intel->AMCC3ware9000.kext.) 5. Used kextcache to make a new Extensions.mkext file. 6. Copied the new Extensions.mkext file back into the uphuck ISO. 7. umounted the the ISO. Burned it. 8. Once booted I was able to see the 3ware RAID 10 I had created. 9. Partitioned as MBR, but newfs complained about not divisible by 4. 10. Fired up fdisk, took the size of the partition, divided by 4, dropped the decimals places and created a new partition flagged to boot. 11. Back in Disk Utility formatted the partition as HFS+ Journaled. 12. Back to the installer for an install. 13. Booted back up off of the single drive, ran a quick repair permissions on the RAID array and then ran the 3ware installer on the RAID array. 14. Reboot after some BIOS changes onto the array! 15. Profit. ================================= Injecting Drivers in OS X Installation DVD: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=67713 http://forum.osx86scene.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1661 I know this is all a mess...i'll compile a guide once I get all this straightend out and have the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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