Leopard on Series 7 NVIDIA nForce MCP + Intel CPU MOBOs

[chazburgr]

@ chasburgr

 

Initially get the basic system working using my Customize selections BUT without choosing audio, video and network options in Customize menu just to ensure that basic system is working with Voodoo kernel, AppleNForceATA, AppleSMBIOS, USB, 10.5.5 Seatbelt kext etc.......

 

iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Base System (installed by default with AppleDecrypt.kext and Disabler.kext)

 

Language Translations - Optional but not selected by myself

 

iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Intel AMD SSE2 SSE3 :

 

Kernels - 9.5.0 Voodoo Kernel

 

Drivers - Video Drivers - Initially None

Drivers - Chipset Drivers - AppleNForceATATest nForce Drivers

Drivers - Audio Drivers - Initially None

Drivers - Ethernet Drivers - Initially None

Drivers - USB Drivers - Patched USB Drivers

 

Fixes and Patches - Seatbelt.kext 10.5.5 (must be installed if Voodoo 9.5.0 kernel is installed)

Fixes and Patches - AppleSMBIOS Patch - AppleSMBIOS-27 Rev3 Mac Pro

Applications - Optional but all selected except Marvin's AMD Utility

 

You can install audio, and video and network options afterwards by making selections in Customise and deselecting iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Base System option.....

 

oh wow! it actually worked! so im taking from your instructions that i should reinstall leopard and this time, select audio, video and network options and deselect the base system. ill give that a go and see how that works.

 

thanks so far!

[verdant]

oh wow! it actually worked! so im taking from your instructions that i should reinstall leopard and this time, select audio, video and network options and deselect the base system. ill give that a go and see how that works.

 

thanks so far!

 

Glad to help.......yes......

[chazburgr]

Glad to help.......yes......

 

thank you so much. it actually loaded and I set it up. But once I go back and attempt to add the drivers through Customize on the disc, I get this error:

 

 

i chose the nvdarwin 1024, azalia, and the nforceLAN drivers and thats it. is the problem within the ethernet driver i selected?

[verdant]

thank you so much. it actually loaded and I set it up. But once I go back and attempt to add the drivers through Customize on the disc, I get this error:

 

 

i chose the nvdarwin 1024, azalia, and the nforceLAN drivers and thats it. is the problem within the ethernet driver i selected?

 

First:

 

1) Disable one of the onboard LAN ports in your BIOS

 

2) Check in /System/Library/Extensions for the unwanted presence of forcedeth.kext and/or nForceEthernetController.kext......if present, then delete......

 

Second:

 

If problem not solved or isolated, then first install audio driver only, and if system is OK, then install video driver, and if OK again, install the nForceLAN kext, to isolate the cause of any problems......

[chazburgr]

First:

 

1) Disable one of the onboard LAN ports in your BIOS

 

2) Check in /System/Library/Extensions for the unwanted presence of forcedeth.kext and/or nForceEthernetController.kext......if present, then delete......

 

Second:

 

If problem not solved or isolated, then first install audio driver only, and if system is OK, then install video driver, and if OK again, install the nForceLAN kext, to isolate the cause of any problems......

 

 

so everything works, full sound and LAN works perfectly! the only obstacle in my path is the video card. which driver should i pick for a currently unsupported video card, the nvidia gtx 260.

[verdant]

so everything works, full sound and LAN works perfectly! the only obstacle in my path is the video card. which driver should i pick for a currently unsupported video card, the nvidia gtx 260.

 

Until a proper driver is available, you can run in VESA mode without hardware CI/QE.....as follows:

 

Modify the com.apple.Boot.plist file as follows:

 

1. Go to the Terminal, and at the $ prompt, type in

 

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

 

2. Enter your password when requested. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the cursor within the Terminal window.

 

3. Type in (without any spaces anywhere except where there are spaces)

 

"Graphics Mode"="1280x1080x32@60" BUT using your display resolution.....

between <string> and </string> under <key>Kernel Flags</key>.

 

4. Move the cursor the Terminal window down until it no longer moves, then press Ctrl O and then Enter, to save the modified com.apple.Boot.plist file.

 

5. Press Ctrl X to Exit and type "exit" at the $ prompt to log out of the Terminal and then close and quit Terminal.

[chazburgr]

Until a proper driver is available, you can run in VESA mode without hardware CI/QE.....as follows:

 

Modify the com.apple.Boot.plist file as follows:

 

1. Go to the Terminal, and at the $ prompt, type in

 

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

 

2. Enter your password when requested. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the cursor within the Terminal window.

 

3. Type in (without any spaces anywhere except where there are spaces)

 

"Graphics Mode"="1280x1080x32@60" BUT using your display resolution.....

between <string> and </string> under <key>Kernel Flags</key>.

 

4. Move the cursor the Terminal window down until it no longer moves, then press Ctrl O and then Enter, to save the modified com.apple.Boot.plist file.

 

5. Press Ctrl X to Exit and type "exit" at the $ prompt to log out of the Terminal and then close and quit Terminal.

 

AWESOME. thank you so much. i had to delete geforce.kext to solve the problem of a repeating screen but after that it works like a charm. thank you so much for all your help!

[verdant]

@ chazburgr

 

Sorry, I assumed you had already done:

 

1. After rebooting by typing -s at the boot: prompt and waiting for the prompt

:/ root# to appear, type each of the following lines, followed by Enter and then waiting for :/ root# to re-appear:

 

mount -uw /

rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/GeForce.kext

rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/Ge*.kext

rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/NV*.kext

 

followed finally by exit.

 

"logout" will then appear on screen followed by "Jettisoning kernel linker" and the rest of the verbose booting screen, resulting in successful booting into the OS X Welcome screen and music.....

 

2. The System Profiler shows under Graphics/Displays, 1024x768 resolution 32-bit Color depth and 32MB VRAM with Software Driven CI and QE Not Supported, and against Kernel Extension Info: No kext loaded

 

but glad you got it sorted......

[radik4506]

Thank you I instal it By after grafic installation on screen after awhile showup small and short lines which could clean by selecting area. What i have to do Help please

[verdant]

Thank you I instal it By after grafic installation on screen after awhile showup small and short lines which could clean by selecting area. What i have to do Help please

 

Please explain what you did for your graphics installation e.g. what installer/driver etc. and tell me what you see in System Profiler under Graphics/Displays........

[kaluce]

EVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW Motherboard

XFX Geforce 8800GT Alpha dog edition [10de:0611]

Intel Xeon E3110 Processor

1 samsung spinpoint F Sata hard drive

1 WDC Sata hdd

1 Maxtor Pata HDD

2x2GB OCZ Reaper 1066 DDR2 Ram

Lite-On DVD-RW IDE

RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI [1814:0201]

Creative Labs SB Audigy [1102:0004]

 

IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 IDE [10de:0265]

nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller [10de:0266]

nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller [10de:0269] (rev a3)

Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) [104c:8023]

 

Used: OSX XxX 10.5.6 / xnu voodoo 1.0revA

 

I installed the Ralink network driver for the pci based 2500 card, I managed to install forcedeth, which on the nForce 5 chipset it produces a link status unknown but it does recognize what it is. my audio isn't supported, but the on board sound card is recognised.

 

SATA drivers are really messed up, and they tend to break anything installed on them (in my case, my windows install was trashed, so I disabled the SATA drives when in OSX until i can neuter or fix the SATA drives, OR kill it's support for ntfs.

 

From time to time my keyboard and/or mouse locked up, these are on usb, and I had to unplug and replug them. I Installed the USB and PCI driver kexts and this problem stopped completely. This also caught some other bugs, and the Firewire PHY/link down errors were fixed.

 

Occasionally, the computer would crash. It would get to the gui and then crash with a blank blue screen. This doesn't seem to happen anymore after i installed the generic usb and pci enumeration stuff, i also swapped to nvinject as opposed to NVKush, and it seems to be quicker. installing this off the bat probably would have helped.

 

When i get back to OSX, i'll attach my dmesg output from boot, and my LSPCI stats, if it's small enough, i'll also attach my codecdump from linux, so anyone with the same motherboard and audio can use it with the hda kext.

[Metallica35]

to begin with, my specs are as follows:

 

-780i SLI FTW mobo

-2x 1tb Seagate SATA HDs

-PATA DVD drive (hp)

-intel core2 quad @2.4ghz

-nVidia GeForce 9500gt graphics card

-8GB (4x2GB) corsair DDR2 800mhz RAM

 

I have almost every version of hackintosh releases under the sun. I tried almost every boot method, including changing my BIOS options, and using the rd=diskXsY command. I've been trying a combination of "nforce -v cpus=1 maxmem=2048 rd=diskXsY", but nothing can get any of these releases to boot. I get stuck at the "still waiting for root device" error every single time. The releases I have acquired include: Kalyway 10.5.2, iDeneb 10.5.5, iAtkos v1i, v4i, and v5i, and Leo4All. They all give me the same error no matter what I do! I've been trying to get Mac OS X installed on my computer because I am a computer science major in school, and I need the UNIX functionality. I currently am dual booting Vista and Linux, but I would really just rather have Mac OS X for everything on this desktop, especially since I have a macbook. No compatibility issues between my 2 computers would be lovely. Anyone who could help me, I would GREATLY appreciate it!

[kaluce]

Anyone who could help me, I would GREATLY appreciate it!

 

i had that problem when i first started, OSX cant be installed on a SATA drive on an nforce board if you can avoid it from what i understand. if you have an IDE drive, that'd be better to use. i'm also told that there are SATA drivers for the Nforce, but i havent tried them yet, and i dont know how to inject them into a cdrom yet.

 

my computer would hang on the mach reboot section of the installer, and never install the bootloader.

[verdant]

@ kaluce

@ Metallica35

 

Invariably the starting point for success is your BIOS settings correctly and initially inistally OS X with video,audio and network driver kexts......in order to get the basic OS X system on nForce MOBO working with a non-Vanilla kernel etc.......so check post #1 in this thread and look for posts in it from users with the same nForce chipset........I will respond to your specific questions subsequently when I have some free time.......

[radik4506]

Please explain what you did for your graphics installation e.g. what installer/driver etc. and tell me what you see in System Profiler under Graphics/Displays........

I used IPC 10.5.6 And it works I changed like you said BIOS setting.Download with costom setting without chousing driver+ I choose 10.5.5 Seatbelt.kext (OK?) After I used this

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE IDENEB INSTALL JUST REMOVE THE INJECTORS

IF THERE IS ONE TO REMOVE

THIS WHAT I DO

I DON' SELECT A VIDEO OPTION WHEN INSTALLING IDENEB

BOOT IN SAFE MODE

-X

THEN DO THIS

 

1 - INSTALL FRAMEWORK 10.5.5

 

2 - INTALL NVIDIA 9000 SERIES

DO NOT CLICK RESTART AT THE END OF NVIDIA 9000 SERIES SETUP

A LEAST NOT YET

 

3 - INSTALL NVDARWIN.KEXT USING KEXT HELPER EASY INSTALL

 

4 - NOW GO TO DISK UTILITY AND REPAIR PERMISSIONS

 

5 - NOW GO TO NVIDIA 9000 SERIES AND CLICK RESTART

 

6 - LET IT BOOT TO NORMAL MODE

 

7 - THERE IS AN EXTRA OPTION IN OSX86 TOOL

ENABLE QUARTZ GL

 

But it is not worked. and i used 9800GTX NVinject.pkg and it works

 

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX DDL:

 

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX DDL

Type: Display

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 512 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x0612

Revision ID: 0x00a2

ROM Revision: 0x00981

Displays:

F-419:

Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz

Depth: 32-bit Color

Core Image: Software

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Quartz Extreme: Not Supported

QuartzGL: Supported

Display Connector:

Status: No display connected

 

Question do i have to put BIOS setting to default after installation?

[kaluce]

@ kaluce

@ Metallica35

 

Invariably the starting point for success is your BIOS settings correctly and initially inistally OS X with video,audio and network driver kexts......in order to get the basic OS X system on nForce MOBO working with a non-Vanilla kernel etc.......so check post #1 in this thread and look for posts in it from users with the same nForce chipset........I will respond to your specific questions subsequently when I have some free time.......

 

I managed to get OSX running with hard work and patience, ethernet works really well too. Mad kudos to the devs. The only thing i have left is to fix the audio, which is the next on my list to world domination.

[kaluce]

@ kaluce

@ Metallica35

 

Invariably the starting point for success is your BIOS settings correctly and initially inistally OS X with video,audio and network driver kexts......in order to get the basic OS X system on nForce MOBO working with a non-Vanilla kernel etc.......so check post #1 in this thread and look for posts in it from users with the same nForce chipset........I will respond to your specific questions subsequently when I have some free time.......

 

I managed to get OSX running with hard work and patience, ethernet works really well too. Mad kudos to the devs. The only thing i have left is to fix the audio, which is the next on my list to world domination.

[Metallica35]

@ kaluce

@ Metallica35

 

Invariably the starting point for success is your BIOS settings correctly and initially inistally OS X with video,audio and network driver kexts......in order to get the basic OS X system on nForce MOBO working with a non-Vanilla kernel etc.......so check post #1 in this thread and look for posts in it from users with the same nForce chipset........I will respond to your specific questions subsequently when I have some free time.......

 

My BIOS settings are exactly as the spreadsheet specifies for Mac OS X. I can't even get to the installation screen because I get stuck at the "Still waiting for root device" error. I know all of the customization fixes that I need to install, but I can't even boot up the OS X installation CD. It's really frustrating me. I really want to get it working on my system! And btw someone said that it might be because I have a SATA drive. I specified earlier that I have a PATA DVD drive (aka IDE drive)

[verdant]

@ radik4506

 

You should not have to reset BIOS settings to defaults......but make sure that in BIOS

that the Primary Display Adapter is set correctly for your graphics card i.e. PCI or PCI-E.....

 

Check that you have have removed NVdarwin.kext after installing NVinject.kext.......having both kexts in Extensions directory and hence loaded I have found causes the symptoms you describe.....

 

As for getting full CI/QE......have you tried running NVinstaller v.52.pkg......?

[verdant]

My BIOS settings are exactly as the spreadsheet specifies for Mac OS X. I can't even get to the installation screen because I get stuck at the "Still waiting for root device" error. I know all of the customization fixes that I need to install, but I can't even boot up the OS X installation CD. It's really frustrating me. I really want to get it working on my system! And btw someone said that it might be because I have a SATA drive. I specified earlier that I have a PATA DVD drive (aka IDE drive)

 

Have you read post #202 in this thread yet......? Is this with all distros you have tried.....?

[Metallica35]

My BIOS settings are the ones specified in the first post! They are not defaults! I read post #202 as well. I tried using the nforce_core -v command because I had never seen the nforce_core command before, but it just immediately restarted my system. I am still stuck at "Still waiting for root device"

[Milov]

Hi. I'm new here, trying to install Mac on my PC (obviously that's why I'm here).

 

First, here's my specs:

 

Motherboard: EVGA nForce 780i SLI

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz

Memory: 4x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 800

Video: 2x ZOTAC GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCIe in SLI

HDD: 2x Seagate Barracuda 750GB 7200RPM SATA/300 ST3750330AS

DVD: 1x LITEON Bluray/DVD-ROM SATA DH-4O1S-11, 1x LITEON DVDRW LH-20A1L-06

Audio: bluegears b-Enspirer 7.1 24-bit 192KHz PCI

GRUB Multibooting: Xp Pro, Vista Ult, Windows 7, Xp Pro(again), Vista Ult(again), Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10

 

With this many operating systems, I've got a ton of partitions. but I've got a 40GB primary partition reserved for OS X on my second hard drive, currently formatted as FAT32. I'm pretty sure it is the third partition on the drive, although it is physically at the beginning (partitions 1 and 2 are at the very end of the drive).

 

I've set all of my BIOS settings according to the chart in the gif at the beginning of the thread, although my BIOS doesn't seem to match some of the options such as the AHCI (the option doesn't exist).

 

I'm using Kalyway 10.5.2 which is the only install DVD I currently have. I'm hoping to not need any other install DVDs.

 

After booting up to the DVD, it quickly outputs a lot of bright white text, delays for a moment, and finally outputs the message, "Still waiting for root device", without any previous error message.

 

I'm guessing this is because of my SATA HDD.

 

I saw on Mysticus C*'s thread that apparently "Fixing this involves two installations and some editing, no direct solution unless you inject edited nforceata driver to the DVD.", but I didn't see anything about what those "two installations and some editing" referred to.

 

I'm not sure what to do about this. Switching out hardware isn't really an option. If it is due to my DVDRW, then there is a very slim chance that I might be able to borrow an IDE DVD drive temporarily to install with, but that's about it.

 

That section about OSx86DeFacto sounded like it could be a possibility, except I don't know how I would get that to work since I don't have an Intel Mac (If I had an intel mac, I really don't think I would be so interested in trying to install it on my PC), and I'm not sure if I have any bootable USB drives either (I'd have to borrow one and test it out on my non-existent mac).

 

I'll keep searching, but hours of searching is tiring, so I'm going to sleep now. Hopefully someone here can help me.

[verdant]

My BIOS settings are the ones specified in the first post! They are not defaults! I read post #202 as well. I tried using the nforce_core -v command because I had never seen the nforce_core command before, but it just immediately restarted my system. I am still stuck at "Still waiting for root device"

 

I have PMd you.......assume your IDE DVDRW is set as Master......

 

Hi. I'm new here, trying to install Mac on my PC (obviously that's why I'm here).

 

First, here's my specs:

 

Motherboard: EVGA nForce 780i SLI

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz

Memory: 4x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 800

Video: 2x ZOTAC GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCIe in SLI

HDD: 2x Seagate Barracuda 750GB 7200RPM SATA/300 ST3750330AS

DVD: 1x LITEON Bluray/DVD-ROM SATA DH-4O1S-11, 1x LITEON DVDRW LH-20A1L-06

Audio: bluegears b-Enspirer 7.1 24-bit 192KHz PCI

GRUB Multibooting: Xp Pro, Vista Ult, Windows 7, Xp Pro(again), Vista Ult(again), Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10

 

With this many operating systems, I've got a ton of partitions. but I've got a 40GB primary partition reserved for OS X on my second hard drive, currently formatted as FAT32. I'm pretty sure it is the third partition on the drive, although it is physically at the beginning (partitions 1 and 2 are at the very end of the drive).

 

I've set all of my BIOS settings according to the chart in the gif at the beginning of the thread, although my BIOS doesn't seem to match some of the options such as the AHCI (the option doesn't exist).

 

I'm using Kalyway 10.5.2 which is the only install DVD I currently have. I'm hoping to not need any other install DVDs.

 

After booting up to the DVD, it quickly outputs a lot of bright white text, delays for a moment, and finally outputs the message, "Still waiting for root device", without any previous error message.

 

I'm guessing this is because of my SATA HDD.

 

I saw on Mysticus C*'s thread that apparently "Fixing this involves two installations and some editing, no direct solution unless you inject edited nforceata driver to the DVD.", but I didn't see anything about what those "two installations and some editing" referred to.

 

I'm not sure what to do about this. Switching out hardware isn't really an option. If it is due to my DVDRW, then there is a very slim chance that I might be able to borrow an IDE DVD drive temporarily to install with, but that's about it.

 

That section about OSx86DeFacto sounded like it could be a possibility, except I don't know how I would get that to work since I don't have an Intel Mac (If I had an intel mac, I really don't think I would be so interested in trying to install it on my PC), and I'm not sure if I have any bootable USB drives either (I'd have to borrow one and test it out on my non-existent mac).

 

I'll keep searching, but hours of searching is tiring, so I'm going to sleep now. Hopefully someone here can help me.

 

Firstly, I note that you have 2x ZOTAC GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCIe in SLI.......OS X does not support SLI.......and AFIK it is still the case for most if not all nVidia GFX cards that you cannot run two cards (especially the same model) with OS X.......you need to physically remove one of the cards......

 

Second, having done, that try with the borrowed IDE DVD drive set as Master, booting from the Kalway OS X Install DVD with "-v cpus=1 maxmem=2048" at the Darwin boot: prompt.....and initially do not choose any video, network and audio drivers in the DVD Installer Customize menu........

 

Additional Fonts [Choose to suit your requirements]

Language Translations [Choose to suit your requirements]

 

Kernels –

kernel_9.2_sleep Y (Default choice)

kernel_9.2_speedstep N

kernel_922_kabyl N

kernel_922_modin N

kernel_92_nforce N

kernel_vanilla_92 N

Graphics _Drivers - N

 

Audio_Drivers - N

 

Networks_ Drivers - N

 

Mobo_Chipsets - Default choices

 

Thirds_Applications [Choose to suit your requirements]

 

SSE2_Jas1048_ACPI_APIC N (Default choice)

 

Patches -

 

Hardcoded_SMBIOS Default choice i.e. Lastnetkassmbios

boot_with-cpus=1_flag N

PCGenUSB_Fix N

Francais_pc_keyboard_layout N

TimeMachineFix Y

PowerManagement_bundle N

Intel Memory Controller N

AMD_1052_Patches Default N (Default choice)

[Milov]

Last night I was working on this again.

 

I hooked up an IDE DVD drive and disconnected both of my other SATA drives in addition to my primary hard drive.

 

I used the boot options you recommended and I was able to get into the installer.

 

When I used the disk utility to format the partition for OS X, I specifically selected the Leopard partition, and chose the "Erase..." button. The popup specifically said that it would not affect other volumes on the same disk, but after formatting my XP and Vista partitions disappeared (but my extended partition with all of my linux partitions was still there). I was really nervous about that, but decided to continue with the install.

 

I chose the exact options in the customize menu that you recommended. The install went fine until the very end. Once it got nearly to the end and it said "About on minute" for the time remaining, it wouldn't go any further. It just sat there endlessly. Some threads have said that the drive turns off after a while, and to keep moving the mouse periodically, but I was moving the mouse the whole time. I have seen other threads where people have had the same problem where the installation gets stuck at the end and moving the mouse didn't help them, but none of them seemed to have a solution. One person said that even though the install was incomplete, that OS X booted up when they restarted (although they were using a different installation disk than me). I tried rebooting (after waiting at least 10 minutes for the installation to finsih when it was already at the end), but it seemed like the bootloader didn't get installed, because nothing booted. I tried doing the install all over again, this time choosing only required options in the customize menu, but it still got stuck at the end. At this point I was getting tired with it so I decided to try to get my missing partitions back (maybe with Acronis).

 

I hooked up my disconnected drives, but when I booted there was still no bootloader, which confused me. I would have thought GRUB should still be in the MBR of my first harddrive since it couldn't have been overwritten by mac when it wasn't even connected. I decided to reinstall grub with my Ubuntu live cd, but after rebooting again it still apparently had no bootloader. While I was in Ubuntu, I was able to verify that my partitions were missing in GParted (which really was not a happy sight, I'm really hoping Acronis can recover those partitions). Now I really was getting tired of this so I decided to give it a rest. Tonight I'll try seeing if there is something in my BIOS that I missed that will fix the boot order of my harddrives (if they are in the wrong order) and hopefully restore grub so I can fix my partitions (otherwise I'll try disconnecting the second one and reconnecting it after a boot, which should set them straight). Once that is done, I'm back to my problem with mac.

 

So the main question here is Why is the install getting stuck at the end? How do I get past that?

[verdant]

Last night I was working on this again.

 

I hooked up an IDE DVD drive and disconnected both of my other SATA drives in addition to my primary hard drive.

 

I used the boot options you recommended and I was able to get into the installer.

 

When I used the disk utility to format the partition for OS X, I specifically selected the Leopard partition, and chose the "Erase..." button. The popup specifically said that it would not affect other volumes on the same disk, but after formatting my XP and Vista partitions disappeared (but my extended partition with all of my linux partitions was still there). I was really nervous about that, but decided to continue with the install.

 

I chose the exact options in the customize menu that you recommended. The install went fine until the very end. Once it got nearly to the end and it said "About on minute" for the time remaining, it wouldn't go any further. It just sat there endlessly. Some threads have said that the drive turns off after a while, and to keep moving the mouse periodically, but I was moving the mouse the whole time. I have seen other threads where people have had the same problem where the installation gets stuck at the end and moving the mouse didn't help them, but none of them seemed to have a solution. One person said that even though the install was incomplete, that OS X booted up when they restarted (although they were using a different installation disk than me). I tried rebooting (after waiting at least 10 minutes for the installation to finsih when it was already at the end), but it seemed like the bootloader didn't get installed, because nothing booted. I tried doing the install all over again, this time choosing only required options in the customize menu, but it still got stuck at the end. At this point I was getting tired with it so I decided to try to get my missing partitions back (maybe with Acronis).

 

I hooked up my disconnected drives, but when I booted there was still no bootloader, which confused me. I would have thought GRUB should still be in the MBR of my first harddrive since it couldn't have been overwritten by mac when it wasn't even connected. I decided to reinstall grub with my Ubuntu live cd, but after rebooting again it still apparently had no bootloader. While I was in Ubuntu, I was able to verify that my partitions were missing in GParted (which really was not a happy sight, I'm really hoping Acronis can recover those partitions). Now I really was getting tired of this so I decided to give it a rest. Tonight I'll try seeing if there is something in my BIOS that I missed that will fix the boot order of my harddrives (if they are in the wrong order) and hopefully restore grub so I can fix my partitions (otherwise I'll try disconnecting the second one and reconnecting it after a boot, which should set them straight). Once that is done, I'm back to my problem with mac.

 

So the main question here is Why is the install getting stuck at the end? How do I get past that?

 

I may be mentally tired but you said that your OS X volume is a Primary FAT32 volume physically located at the beginning of the hard drive and AFIK the master boot record is always located at cylinder 0, head 0, and sector 1, the first sector on the disk.........so would not OS X overwrite the MBR on its HDD and would not GRUB then no longer be pointing to the previous master boot record on this HDD.....?