Leopard on Series 7 NVIDIA nForce MCP + Intel CPU MOBOs

[Milov]

I may be mentally tired but you said that your OS X volume is a Primaty 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.....?

 

By "beginning" I mean there isn't any unallocated space before it. I don't think I could possibly install OS X on top of the MBR because the MBR includes the partition table, and without the partition table, the drive would be considered blank and so there would be nowhere to install to. The MBR on that drive has (or had, depending on what the incomplete mac install did or didn't do to it) a blank code section of the MBR, but as long as the partition table is in tact and pointing to the partition (which would have to be the case for the disk utility to recognize the partition in order to format it), then GRUB should have no problem pointing to the right place. GRUB would be set up to point to the VBR of that partition (I don't think GRUB can point to the actual MBR, or if it can then it is not usual for it to do that).

 

I think Disk Utility was confused, not expecting the third partition to be at the front of the drive and the first two partitions to be at the end of the drive. It probably thought the partition table was corrupted and tried(miserably) to fix it when I formatted the partition, by setting the first physical partition as the first partition in the MBR, and discarding my two windows partitions since it didn't see them in front of the third partition.

 

In any case, I was able to get my drives back in the right order so that it would boot to my first drive where GRUB is at. And after many hours of waiting, Acronis has successfully found and restored my two missing partitions. Now the mac partition is first, the extended partition is second and my windows partitions are 3 and 4, so everything is in order now (although my windows installations will probably be whacked out when they discover they aren't on the same partition that they thought they were on anymore).

 

I shouldn't have any more problems with my partitions, but I still need to figure out what to do about the OS X installer. I want to figure out how to get it to finish completely. Tomorrow I'll let it just sit while I go do something else for a while; maybe given enough time it will decide to finish.

[verdant]

@ Metallica35

 

You can find out your Storage Controller Vendor and Device IDs in Vista as follows:

 

1. Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button, right-clicking Computer, clicking Manage, and when/if you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation by pressing Continue.....

 

2. In Computer Management window, click on Device Manager in LHS column.......click on Storage controllers in RHS column.......

 

3. Highlight desired contoller device and right-click, then click on Properties in pop-up window........then click on Details tab in window menu......

 

4. Click on Device description drop-down menu button and select Hardware Ids......in Value box

you will see a code similar to the one as shown:

 

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_037F&SUBSYS_...........

 

The code highlighted in RED is the Vendor ID and the code highlighted in GREEN is the Device ID, hence Vendor ID = 10de and Device ID = 037f

[Milov]

Okay, so I got it to install (YAY!), and everything boots up fine (albeit a bit slowly). I had to dust off my Microsoft wireless keyboard too, since it is my only USB keyboard (I had my PS/2 keyboard plugged in before and I couldn't type anything into the registration fields).

 

I fixed up Darwin and it is cooperating with GRUB excellently now.

 

My main problem now is that OS X doesn't seem to want to acknowledge the existence of my LAN ports, so I can't connect to the internet with it.

[verdant]

Okay, so I got it to install (YAY!), and everything boots up fine (albeit a bit slowly). I had to dust off my Microsoft wireless keyboard too, since it is my only USB keyboard (I had my PS/2 keyboard plugged in before and I couldn't type anything into the registration fields).

 

I fixed up Darwin and it is cooperating with GRUB excellently now.

 

My main problem now is that OS X doesn't seem to want to acknowledge the existence of my LAN ports, so I can't connect to the internet with it.

 

Glad you are up and running......

 

Have you checked my post #1 for eno's nForceLAN.kext which you can install with Kext Helper b7 or OSx86Tools......?

[Milov]

Glad you are up and running......

 

Have you checked my post #1 for eno's nForceLAN.kext which you can install with Kext Helper b7 or OSx86Tools......?

 

 

Yep, I saw that (I remembered seeing that there, but I didn't actually remember where I saw it until after I made my last post). I downloaded the kext(using windows) but, I couldn't figure out how to use kext helper. I can't even find kext helper. I'm pretty sure I checked it when I installed everything, but it isn't in Applications or Utilities, and the spotlight can't find it.

 

So I found it online, and I'm going to boot back into OS X in a minute to hopefully reinstall kexthelper.

[Metallica35]

@ Metallica35

 

You can find out your Storage Controller Vendor and Device IDs in Vista as follows:

 

1. Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button, right-clicking Computer, clicking Manage, and when/if you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation by pressing Continue.....

 

2. In Computer Management window, click on Device Manager in LHS column.......click on Storage controllers in RHS column.......

 

3. Highlight desired contoller device and right-click, then click on Properties in pop-up window........then click on Details tab in window menu......

 

4. Click on Device description drop-down menu button and select Hardware Ids......in Value box

you will see a code similar to the one as shown:

 

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_037F&SUBSYS_...........

 

The code highlighted in RED is the Vendor ID and the code highlighted in GREEN is the Device ID, hence Vendor ID = 10de and Device ID = 037f

 

I am at the right screen, but under storage controllers the only thing coming up is Microsoft iSCSI Initiator

[Milov]

So, eno's kext said it installed correctly, but after restarting, it still didn't detect my LAN ports. I then tried download Mysticus C*'s installer, which also said it was successful, but now OS X won't even boot.

 

In -v mode, the last few things it spits out are:

 

IOKitWaitQuiet() timed out waiting to write kernel symbols

InterfaceNamer: timed out waiting for IOKit to quiesce

InterfaceNamer: no network interfaces, could not update platforms UUID

[Milov]

Aha! I am proud to say that I am writing this reply through OS X! I wasn't able to fix the problem from Mysticus C*'s installer, so I reinstalled the whole operating system. My problem with eno's kext was that the kext in the zip file was just a container for the real kext that I was supposed to install, but I was trying to install the container, and OS X probably ignored the kext inside and treated the outer kext as though it was empty. After reinstalling OS X, I tried installing the inner kext and then it worked fine, I didn't even have to restart my computer before it said it detected both of my LAN ports. I've already made use of it too.... replacing Safari with Firefox.

 

Next up is my sound, and my graphics.

 

Not sure how this will go. I'm kind of afraid that I might not be able to get my sound to work.

[verdant]

Aha! I am proud to say that I am writing this reply through OS X! I wasn't able to fix the problem from Mysticus C*'s installer, so I reinstalled the whole operating system. My problem with eno's kext was that the kext in the zip file was just a container for the real kext that I was supposed to install, but I was trying to install the container, and OS X probably ignored the kext inside and treated the outer kext as though it was empty. After reinstalling OS X, I tried installing the inner kext and then it worked fine, I didn't even have to restart my computer before it said it detected both of my LAN ports. I've already made use of it too.... replacing Safari with Firefox.

 

Next up is my sound, and my graphics.

 

Not sure how this will go. I'm kind of afraid that I might not be able to get my sound to work.

 

You should be able to get sound with the onboard sound chipset since AFIK your audio chipset codec is the Realtek ALC888........see here.....and here..... But I do not know about the C-Media Oxygen™ HD CMI8788 although there is a kext for the CMI8738PCI

[verdant]

I am at the right screen, but under storage controllers the only thing coming up is Microsoft iSCSI Initiator

 

Are you sure that

 

(1) in your BIOS that you have set

 

RAID Enable [Enabled]

SATA 0 Primary RAID [Disabled]

SATA 0 Secondary RAID [Disabled]

SATA 1 Primary RAID [Disabled]

SATA 1 Secondary RAID [Disabled]

SATA 2 Primary RAID [Disabled]

SATA 2 Secondary RAID [Disabled]

 

I ask this because AFIK with your EVGA nforce 780i SLI FTW MOBO, you MUST have RAID Enable set to [Enabled], so that you can enable or disable the SATA functions.

 

This because WHEN you set RAID Enable to [Disabled], all SATA functions are changed to Disabled and cannot be changed, yet you want to set

 

Serial-ATA Controller [All Enabled]

 

(2) Have you installed the native AHCI/SATA drivers in Vista?

 

EDIT

 

You could run Ubuntu 8.10 Linux LiveCD and then in Terminal type

lspci -nn

as this will tell you if you have a OS or a BIOS issue with the SATA controllers......

 

EDIT 2

 

Vista is probably seeing your SATA drives as IDE drives which suggests that you do not have RAID enabled in BIOS.......I say this because in Windows XP, AFIK, if RAID is not enabled, SATA drives are seen as IDE drives.......so can you answer my questions above......

[Metallica35]

Are you sure that

 

(1) in your BIOS that you have set

 

RAID Enable [Enabled]

SATA 0 Primary RAID [Disabled]

SATA 0 Secondary RAID [Disabled]

SATA 1 Primary RAID [Disabled]

SATA 1 Secondary RAID [Disabled]

SATA 2 Primary RAID [Disabled]

SATA 2 Secondary RAID [Disabled]

 

I ask this because AFIK with your EVGA nforce 780i SLI FTW MOBO, you MUST have RAID Enable set to [Enabled], so that you can enable or disable the SATA functions.

 

This because WHEN you set RAID Enable to [Disabled], all SATA functions are changed to Disabled and cannot be changed, yet you want to set

 

Serial-ATA Controller [All Enabled]

 

(2) Have you installed the native AHCI/SATA drivers in Vista?

 

EDIT

 

You could run Ubuntu 8.10 Linux LiveCD and then in Terminal type

lspci -nn

as this will tell you if you have a OS or a BIOS issue with the SATA controllers......

 

EDIT 2

 

Vista is probably seeing your SATA drives as IDE drives which suggests that you do not have RAID enabled in BIOS.......I say this because in Windows XP, AFIK, if RAID is not enabled, SATA drives are seen as IDE drives.......so can you answer my questions above......

 

Ok i enabled RAID and updated the drivers and software for the nforce SATA controllers. It looks like the way you said it should look, and the hardware ID is

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_037F&SUBSYS_10013842&REV_A3. What do I do with that now? It seems that it has the same ID as yours, but mine won't work

[verdant]

Ok i enabled RAID and updated the drivers and software for the nforce SATA controllers. It looks like the way you said it should look, and the hardware ID is

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_037F&SUBSYS_10013842&REV_A3. What do I do with that now? It seems that it has the same ID as yours, but mine won't work

 

Now that you have modified your BIOS settings:

 

with the EVGA nforce 780i SLI FTW MOBO, you MUST have RAID Enable set to [Enabled], so that you can enable or disable the SATA functions.

 

This because WHEN you set RAID Enable to [Disabled], all SATA functions are changed to Disabled and cannot be changed, yet you want to set

 

Serial-ATA Controller [All Enabled]

 

you should no longer see your SATA HDDs under the IDE section in Windows Vista Device Manager but now as SCSI Disk Devices and also see the NVIDIA nForce SATA Controllers together with Microsoft iSCSI Initiator under Storage Controllers........and now hopefully be able to pick up the SATA HDDs when booting from the OS X Install DVD.......?

 

You can also try booting from your Ubuntu Live CD and in Accessories - Terminal, type lspci -nn and see if your SATA controllers are picked up in Ubuntu......if so, you should see the SATA HDDs under OS X......

[Metallica35]

Now that you have modified your BIOS settings:

 

 

 

you should no longer see your SATA HDDs under the IDE section in Windows Vista Device Manager but now as SCSI Disk Devices and also see the NVIDIA nForce SATA Controllers together with Microsoft iSCSI Initiator under Storage Controllers........and now hopefully be able to pick up the SATA HDDs when booting from the OS X Install DVD.......?

 

You can also try booting from your Ubuntu Live CD and in Accessories - Terminal, type lspci -nn and see if your SATA controllers are picked up in Ubuntu......if so, you should see the SATA HDDs under OS X......

I am still getting the "Still waiting for Root Device error". Could it possibly be something with my IDE controller for my dvd drive? Maybe that's what is not being recognized?

[Seresias]

Hello:

 

My name is Sergio.

 

This is my attemp for a hackintosh

 

MOBO: Asus P5N-T Deluxe. (780i SLI nvidia chipset)

 

CORE: Intel Core 2 Quad 6600, 4 cores, running at 2.4 GHz, FSB 1066 MHz, RAM Bus at 333 Mhz

 

RAM: 4 GB, Full Dual Channel, (2x 2Gb Kingston DDR 2 6400 Ram Modules) I know i can have it runnin' at 400 Mhz

BUS Clock, but i have underspeed them due to stability pourposes on my pc.

 

DVDRW: 1x LG DVD RW X16 SATA Drive (i don't know exact model, but is a Bulk one)

 

HD's: 2x 1TB Seagate 7200 barracuda SATA Series 32Mb Cache .

 

PARTITIONING:

SATA0: Unpartitioned. This is the one i would like to install Leo.

SATA1: NTFS 1 TB. (Windows Disk with 649 GB aviable space.)

OS: Currently None. i have dettached my IDE Drives containning my Win Installed OS. Nevertheless i Would like

to install a dual boot Win/Leo OS System.

 

GRaphic Card: 1x Nvidia 8800gt 256Mb (G92 Series) i have already dettached another of same type wich was

runnin' in SLI mode.

 

OnBoard Devices:

AUDIO: Realtek Hd Audio (azalia) - Enabled

LAN: Nvidia GigaByte Lan - Enabled

1x ESATA External Port - Unused (i haven't seen option that cofigures this on my bios)

1x 1394a FireWire Port - Unused but Enabled

8x 2.0 Usb Ports - 3 used. Rest Free - Enabled with compatibitity for 1.1 and 1.0

S/PDIF OUT - Unused But Enabled

AAFP (Front Panel Audio) - Emulating AC97 Audio Connector

USB ATTACHED DEVICES:

- Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard an mouse wireless Keyb and Mouse

- hp 1610 Multifunctional Printer.

- USB webcam (Named Safari USB Webcam. Windows autodetect it as

HP Webcam, but i don't Know even the model.)

 

BIOS CONF: I have configured bios as recomended in post. i Have no screenshots.

 

 

INSTALL STATUS: Installer Launched. Language selection Done. Hangs (eternal wait time ) on selecting Hard Disk for installation.

 

LEO OS VERSION: Kalyway Leopard 10.5.1 over DVD Burned at 4x speed.

Already downloaded ATKOS v2.0i Leopard 10.5.2, not Burned yet.

 

 

I will make another attemp of install this night. i will post more later this

 

Thanks for this instructive post.

[verdant]

I am still getting the "Still waiting for Root Device error". Could it possibly be something with my IDE controller for my dvd drive? Maybe that's what is not being recognized?

 

I suggest that you check how your IDE DVDRW is physically set up and connected to your MOBO......see here......as this has been a problem for some......

[Metallica35]

I suggest that you check how your IDE DVDRW is physically set up and connected to your MOBO......see here......as this has been a problem for some......

 

I have my IDE connected to the black pin set (nothing connected to the blue). However, I never plugged anything into the jumper part of the drive. I just have the power supply connected, and the IDE strip connected to the mobo. Do I have to set up the jumper?

[verdant]

I have my IDE connected to the black pin set (nothing connected to the blue). However, I never plugged anything into the jumper part of the drive. I just have the power supply connected, and the IDE strip connected to the mobo. Do I have to set up the jumper?

 

Is your IDE cable one with a middle connector + 2 end connectors, or one with just 2 end connectors, and is it 80 wire or 40 wire......?

[Metallica35]

Is your IDE cable one with a middle connector + 2 end connectors, or one with just 2 end connectors, and is it 80 wire or 40 wire......?

 

It's the one with a middle connector + 2 end connectors. It looks like an 80. Came with my mobo...780i SLI FTW (just got it for christmas)

[verdant]

It's the one with a middle connector + 2 end connectors. It looks like an 80. Came with my mobo...780i SLI FTW (just got it for christmas)

 

OK since you only need at this stage to connect the IDE DVDRW to the MOBO, set the jumper on the IDE DVDRW to the Master position and AFIK on HP DVD drives, looking at the back of the drive, the vertical-pair pin configuration from left to right is Cable Select (CS), Slave (SL), and Master (MA).....but confirm for yourself.......

 

Then connect the DVDRW to the free end-connector on the cable (usually a black connector?) with the other end-connector (usually a blue connector) to the MOBO......

[Metallica35]

OK since you only need at this stage to connect the IDE DVDRW to the MOBO, set the jumper on the IDE DVDRW to the Master position and AFIK on HP DVD drives, looking at the back of the drive, the vertical-pair pin configuration from left to right is Cable Select (CS), Slave (SL), and Master (MA).....but confirm for yourself.......

 

Then connect the DVDRW to the free end-connector on the cable (usually a black connector?) with the other end-connector (usually a blue connector) to the MOBO......

 

how exactly do i set it to master? i'm confused

[verdant]

how exactly do i set it to master? i'm confused

 

See here.....and here (see Fig 10).....

[Metallica35]

See here.....and here (see Fig 10).....

 

I got it! Installer launches perfectly now. After I install, my system restarts with no problem, but it can't load os x up from the hard drive. I keep getting the gray screen that says I need to restart. I booted in verbose mode to see the error and it reads as follows:

 

Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0

 

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: syslogd

 

Mac OS version:

9G55

 

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 9.4.0: Mon Jun 9 19:30:53 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.5.20~1/RELEASE_I386

System model name: 132-YW-E178-FTW

[Metallica35]

oh ok nevermind i got it working now. I think I chose the wrong options. The only thing wrong now is when I'm in os x my graphics card is not recognized which is forcing me to stay on a 1024x768 resolution. I am running dual nVidia 9500gts (I am aware SLI mode won't work). Also, my sound and ethernet are not working. I am using the onboard sound and ethernet from my 780i SLI FTW mobo. The installation disc I am using is the iPC OSx86 10.5.6 disc. What would the exact install customization options for my system be? I feel as though I'm missing a lot of important ones.

[verdant]

oh ok nevermind i got it working now. I think I chose the wrong options. The only thing wrong now is when I'm in os x my graphics card is not recognized which is forcing me to stay on a 1024x768 resolution. I am running dual nVidia 9500gts (I am aware SLI mode won't work). Also, my sound and ethernet are not working. I am using the onboard sound and ethernet from my 780i SLI FTW mobo. The installation disc I am using is the iPC OSx86 10.5.6 disc. What would the exact install customization options for my system be? I feel as though I'm missing a lot of important ones.

 

Other than audio, network and video drivers specific to your system, they should be as in my iPC OSx86 10.5.6 install guide in my blog.....

 

I got it! Installer launches perfectly now. After I install, my system restarts with no problem, but it can't load os x up from the hard drive. I keep getting the gray screen that says I need to restart. I booted in verbose mode to see the error and it reads as follows:

 

Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0

 

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: syslogd

 

Mac OS version:

9G55

 

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 9.4.0: Mon Jun 9 19:30:53 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.5.20~1/RELEASE_I386

System model name: 132-YW-E178-FTW

 

Which proves my point that a person's PC system needs to be properly sorted in terms of BIOS settings and device connections to MOBO before assuming that it is always a distro/driver kext problem that is causing the infamous "Still waiting for root device" error.......

[Metallica35]

Other than audio, network and video drivers specific to your system, they should be as in my iPC OSx86 10.5.6 install guide in my blog.....

 

 

 

Which proves my point that a person's PC system needs to be properly sorted in terms of BIOS settings and device connections to MOBO before assuming that it is always a distro/driver kext problem that is causing the infamous "Still waiting for root device" error.......

 

I have managed to get everything working except the graphics. I don't know why but I can't change my resolution and when I drag windows it trails and messes everything up. It's really weird.