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Hacked BIOS EEE PC 900HA

paranoia2mb

By paranoia2mb,
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paranoia2mb
paranoia2mb
Posted
Posted

Hi all,

 

I am definately new here, but I have been able to load OSX into almost every computer I come accross with a bit of tinkering--with that being said, my Asus EEE PC 900HA model is not booting OSX because there is no modified BIOS out there for it. There seems to be for almost any other version worth putting 10.5.5 on it, but not the 900HA. Does anyone have any advice, or the ability to make a hacked BIOS so OSX will boot?

 

Thanks so much in advance!

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Hagar
Hagar
Posted
Posted

You sound knowledgeable, so here's a bleeding-edge suggestion: as you may be aware there is a variant of boot-132 that will patch dsdt at boot time. If you could create a suitable .aml file in linux, and add it to, say a preboot cd, that should perform the patching needed *without modifying the bios*

 

afaik this exact method has yet to be tried, it came up in discussion the other day, but in theory it should work fine.

 

fancy blazing the trail?

paranoia2mb
paranoia2mb
Posted
  • Author
Posted
You sound knowledgeable, so here's a bleeding-edge suggestion: as you may be aware there is a variant of boot-132 that will patch dsdt at boot time. If you could create a suitable .aml file in linux, and add it to, say a preboot cd, that should perform the patching needed *without modifying the bios*

 

afaik this exact method has yet to be tried, it came up in discussion the other day, but in theory it should work fine.

 

fancy blazing the trail?

 

 

Unfortunately I am not very schooled in linux.. I grew up on DOS/Windows 3.11/95/98 so I'm big with command-line, but literally have never used a linux-based system.

mcsenerd
mcsenerd
Posted
Posted

Well...this trail has already been blazed I'm afraid...

 

I didn't go with the Boot-123...but I did use the Chameleon w/DSDT override which I imagine is quite similar. I wrote up a pretty crude "how-to" here. I can now boot into OS X but I still have some issues. I can't get Power Management working for the life of me, I of course have zilch chance at getting the built-in ethernet working, and it won't shut down all the way.

 

I have solved (kinda) some issues along the way. I've replaced the WiFi card with a Dell 1390 and that solved my wireless needs. I installed the OpenHaltRestart kext and that seemed to solve my flaky keyboard, mouse, and USB issues. I used Audieee and that seemed to kinda get the sound working...but man...talk about a true hack!

 

I'd like to get the powermanagement and the ethernet working on this thing...but I guess I can live with the state of things right now. I'd also like to get the function keys working (especially the brightness controls)...but hey...all things in good time right? Maybe some others can help me out with figuring those things out sometime...

movingmage
movingmage
Posted
Posted

Hey-

 

I have the DSDT Override working with PCI EFI V9 (a new chameleon variant with the override built in). I had to make a dsdt.aml file. iDeneb v3 10.5.5 will boot this machine from CD-ROM.

 

-I put a Broadcom miniPCI card into my 900ha in place of the oem card (about an hour disassembly/reassembly job). It registers as a genuine Airport card.

 

-I have sound working with Audiee

 

-I have the battery meter wokring with a special added kext

 

-I have successful shutdown. I didn't originally - it would shutdown the OS but not power off. Then, I took the risk of running Apple Software Update. I let it update everything including the security update. Since then, shutdown goes to full power-off.

 

-I have sleep/wake

 

-I have full QE/CI harware based graphics at the native 1024x600, with 1280x1024 external monitor support extended desktop. No screen artifacting if you use the correct 950 kext and framebuffer kext.

 

-I was able to add an EFI ethernet string, and although built-in ethernet itself does not work, this did seem to fix my Netflix streaming DRM issue.

 

-There is a third-party speedstep kext that I got working, but I disabled it...the small increase in batt time is not worth the performance hit on an Atom processor to me. I get ~4 hrs batt.

 

-Webcam works natively.

 

-The biggest thing I am missing is sound-in (which would be nice for the webcam). It seems there is no driver specific to this sound chip. I'd love to see someone take this on.

 

All-in-all a success (after much work! :( )

 

Please post your successes/failures and we can learn from each other!

 

Best,

MI

paranoia2mb
paranoia2mb
Posted
  • Author
Posted
Hey-

 

I have the DSDT Override working with PCI EFI V9 (a new chameleon variant with the override built in). I had to make a dsdt.aml file. iDeneb v3 10.5.5 will boot this machine from CD-ROM.

 

-I put a Broadcom miniPCI card into my 900ha in place of the oem card (about an hour disassembly/reassembly job). It registers as a genuine Airport card.

 

-I have sound working with Audiee

 

-I have the battery meter wokring with a special added kext

 

-I have successful shutdown. I didn't originally - it would shutdown the OS but not power off. Then, I took the risk of running Apple Software Update. I let it update everything including the security update. Since then, shutdown goes to full power-off.

 

-I have sleep/wake

 

-I have full QE/CI harware based graphics at the native 1024x600, with 1280x1024 external monitor support extended desktop. No screen artifacting if you use the correct 950 kext and framebuffer kext.

 

-I was able to add an EFI ethernet string, and although built-in ethernet itself does not work, this did seem to fix my Netflix streaming DRM issue.

 

-There is a third-party speedstep kext that I got working, but I disabled it...the small increase in batt time is not worth the performance hit on an Atom processor to me. I get ~4 hrs batt.

 

-Webcam works natively.

 

-The biggest thing I am missing is sound-in (which would be nice for the webcam). It seems there is no driver specific to this sound chip. I'd love to see someone take this on.

 

All-in-all a success (after much work! :( )

 

Please post your successes/failures and we can learn from each other!

 

Best,

MI

 

 

I unfortunately have no idea how to make the DSDT file. Any chance of me finding a tutorial how to install this? I just combed forums and Google, but no luck. I have OSX sitting on my machine under dual boot with Darwin - Chameleon v1.0.11. I assume this is what becomes altered to allow the boot... I have already switched out a PCI-E Airport Extreme Wireless N card..

mcsenerd
mcsenerd
Posted
Posted
I have the DSDT Override working with PCI EFI V9 (a new chameleon variant with the override built in). I had to make a dsdt.aml file. iDeneb v3 10.5.5 will boot this machine from CD-ROM.

....

-I have the battery meter wokring with a special added kext

 

-I have successful shutdown. I didn't originally - it would shutdown the OS but not power off. Then, I took the risk of running Apple Software Update. I let it update everything including the security update. Since then, shutdown goes to full power-off.

 

-I have sleep/wake

 

All-in-all a success (after much work! :( )

 

Please post your successes/failures and we can learn from each other!

 

Best,

MI

 

Cool deal! I'm just a clutz that was happy just to get into OSX with the thing. You'll have to elaborate on the PCEFI thing for me...because with the way I did it...I can't get power management working for nuthin... Maybe my DSDT.aml is jacked up...wouldn't shock me if that was the case! ;)

4274284727
4274284727
Posted
Posted
Could you guys please post more details about how you installed? For example; Are you using MBR or GUID. Which kexts did you install?

Thanks.

 

Hi everyone,

 

I have successfully installed iDeneb 10.5.5 on my 900ha.

 

Mcsenerd: your DSDT.aml file worked for me. I can shutdown the eee pc. Speedstep doesn't work yet since I haven't tried tampering with it yet.

 

Thanks for your help.

mcsenerd
mcsenerd
Posted
Posted

Well...when I installed OS X on my 900HA, I basically followed the guide over at ipis OS X. I have reflashed my BIOS to the newly released 0306 flash...and then I rebuilt my DSDT.aml with Fassl's patcher and from there...I'm using the new PCEFI V9 with that DSDT.aml file. I still can't seem to get the power management stuff working. I'm sure I'm screwing it up somehow with something stoopid. It's like it tries to load on boot up...but suddenly the battery gets the X in it and says that there are no batteries available.

4274284727
4274284727
Posted
Posted
Well...when I installed OS X on my 900HA, I basically followed the guide over at ipis OS X. I have reflashed my BIOS to the newly released 0306 flash...and then I rebuilt my DSDT.aml with Fassl's patcher and from there...I'm using the new PCEFI V9 with that DSDT.aml file. I still can't seem to get the power management stuff working. I'm sure I'm screwing it up somehow with something stoopid. It's like it tries to load on boot up...but suddenly the battery gets the X in it and says that there are no batteries available.

 

Did you install the powermanagement.bundle? I didn't install it. Maybe it is the culprit.

 

On the DVD I checked applesmbios.kext, gma drivers, ichx fixed, and azalia audio.

 

The other kexts I installed are ACPIBattery.kext, GenericCPUPowerManagement.kext, and IONetworkingFamily.kext. I also reinstalled the GMA drivers with GMA950.pkg which automatically gave me the native resolution.

 

Are you certain that it isn't a bios setting that is causing the problem?

mcsenerd
mcsenerd
Posted
Posted
Did you install the powermanagement.bundle? I didn't install it. Maybe it is the culprit.

 

On the DVD I checked applesmbios.kext, gma drivers, ichx fixed, and azalia audio.

 

The other kexts I installed are ACPIBattery.kext, GenericCPUPowerManagement.kext, and IONetworkingFamily.kext. I also reinstalled the GMA drivers with GMA950.pkg which automatically gave me the native resolution.

 

Are you certain that it isn't a bios setting that is causing the problem?

 

Well...the piddly little BIOS in the 900HA doesn't have much in the way of options...especially concerning ACPI or the like...so I don't think that's the issue here. Now it may very well be some sort of hardware issue I suppose...but the battery is working fine in XP and under Ubuntu EEE so I think that's unlikely also. In any case...I'm doing a reinstall right now...so I'll detail my process here...maybe just for my own amusement :-) Now a little preamble...I have made some modifications to my Eee 900HA (I've installed a 2GB stick of G.Skill PC2-5300 and I've swapped the original WiFi adapter out with a Dell Truemobile 1390 card).

 

1.) Installing iDeneb 1.3 (10.5.5)...Erase the partition as Mac OS X (non-journaled) (and yes...it's MBR partiitoned...I don't know of any way to boot XP otherwise)...install selecting the following options:

 

X11, Chipset : ICHx Fixed, Fix : AppleSMBIOS : AppleSMBIOS 667, Fix : Firewire Remove, Video : Intel : Intel GMA950 , and some applications...

 

2.) Of course...at this point OS X will not load with the current 3.06 BIOS which has not been patched or fixed...so...I use a USB stick loaded with Ubuntu EEE to boot into a live install. I copy over the new PCEFI v9 boot file over to the OS X root and also copy over my latest DSDT.aml generated by Fassl's patcher...reboot...

 

3.) Upon reboot...I go through the goofy welcome routine...

 

4.) As per the guide over at ipis OS X...I install the AboutThisMac.pkg and let it go through its routine...

 

5.) Here's where the issues start...I usually follow the exact routine over at ipis OS X...but I'll diverge from it now just to try to concentrate on getting the power management to work. At this point I've made zero mods save for the PCEFI and DSDT injections. Right now...I'm looking at no battery icon on the taskbar...and nothing listed in Energy Saver either... I begin with installing only the ACPIBattery.kext from the v7 Post Install bundle with Kext Helper 0.7b. I reboot...

 

Guess what? Go into Energy Saver and click on the "Show battery status in the menu bar" and hold onto your hats...

 

NO BATTERIES AVAILABLE...big shock to me... Not. THIS BIG PIECE O' :wink2:

 

Look...I don't know why my particular Eee is not working...but this portion of it is certainly not working. And look...I'll be the first to admit that I'm too stoopid to know where to begin to fix it. I look at the messages in the console and I can't really see anything out of the normal that would cause this... I do see a message about ACPIPS2Nub.kext every time I boot up...I can't remember exactly what it says...and I've had problems with the built in keyboard and mouse working intermittently...Could that be part of the problem? Once again...I'm too dense or ignorant to even know where to look to find out.

 

I'm open to suggestions and ideas. I'd sure like to get it fixed...

4274284727
4274284727
Posted
Posted
Well...the piddly little BIOS in the 900HA doesn't have much in the way of options...especially concerning ACPI or the like...so I don't think that's the issue here. Now it may very well be some sort of hardware issue I suppose...but the battery is working fine in XP and under Ubuntu EEE so I think that's unlikely also. In any case...I'm doing a reinstall right now...so I'll detail my process here...maybe just for my own amusement :-) Now a little preamble...I have made some modifications to my Eee 900HA (I've installed a 2GB stick of G.Skill PC2-5300 and I've swapped the original WiFi adapter out with a Dell Truemobile 1390 card).

 

1.) Installing iDeneb 1.3 (10.5.5)...Erase the partition as Mac OS X (non-journaled) (and yes...it's MBR partiitoned...I don't know of any way to boot XP otherwise)...install selecting the following options:

 

X11, Chipset : ICHx Fixed, Fix : AppleSMBIOS : AppleSMBIOS 667, Fix : Firewire Remove, Video : Intel : Intel GMA950 , and some applications...

 

2.) Of course...at this point OS X will not load with the current 3.06 BIOS which has not been patched or fixed...so...I use a USB stick loaded with Ubuntu EEE to boot into a live install. I copy over the new PCEFI v9 boot file over to the OS X root and also copy over my latest DSDT.aml generated by Fassl's patcher...reboot...

 

3.) Upon reboot...I go through the goofy welcome routine...

 

4.) As per the guide over at ipis OS X...I install the AboutThisMac.pkg and let it go through its routine...

 

5.) Here's where the issues start...I usually follow the exact routine over at ipis OS X...but I'll diverge from it now just to try to concentrate on getting the power management to work. At this point I've made zero mods save for the PCEFI and DSDT injections. Right now...I'm looking at no battery icon on the taskbar...and nothing listed in Energy Saver either... I begin with installing only the ACPIBattery.kext from the v7 Post Install bundle with Kext Helper 0.7b. I reboot...

 

Guess what? Go into Energy Saver and click on the "Show battery status in the menu bar" and hold onto your hats...

 

NO BATTERIES AVAILABLE...big shock to me... Not. THIS BIG PIECE O' :)

 

Look...I don't know why my particular Eee is not working...but this portion of it is certainly not working. And look...I'll be the first to admit that I'm too stoopid to know where to begin to fix it. I look at the messages in the console and I can't really see anything out of the normal that would cause this... I do see a message about ACPIPS2Nub.kext every time I boot up...I can't remember exactly what it says...and I've had problems with the built in keyboard and mouse working intermittently...Could that be part of the problem? Once again...I'm too dense or ignorant to even know where to look to find out.

 

I'm open to suggestions and ideas. I'd sure like to get it fixed...

 

I didn't select a specific smbios. Maybe that is the reason. One minor annoyance for me is that tap to click works half the time.

mcsenerd
mcsenerd
Posted
Posted
<br />I didn't select a specific smbios. Maybe that is the reason. One minor annoyance for me is that tap to click works half the time.<br />
<br /><br /><br />

 

I've tried with no SMBIOS selected, just the SMBIOS and no RAM specifics, using the SMBIOS from the Macbook Air that is floating around here (which is what I'm using now...and I think is the way to go...)...all without success. Like I said...I'm running the latest BIOS. Is that what you're running? I'd downgrade to the original shipping BIOS...but now I can't find a way to downgrade. Oh well...I'll keep hammering away at it I guess...

4274284727
4274284727
Posted
Posted
<br /><br /><br />

 

I've tried with no SMBIOS selected, just the SMBIOS and no RAM specifics, using the SMBIOS from the Macbook Air that is floating around here (which is what I'm using now...and I think is the way to go...)...all without success. Like I said...I'm running the latest BIOS. Is that what you're running? I'd downgrade to the original shipping BIOS...but now I can't find a way to downgrade. Oh well...I'll keep hammering away at it I guess...

 

When you say that it doesn't shut down, do you mean that the indicator leds remain on or something else?

movingmage
movingmage
Posted
Posted

I have a peculiar issue now...!

 

I have 2 eee 900HAs. I built up the first one with 10.5.5 (iDeneb v3, DSDT override PCEFI V9) and added ACPIBattery.kext It works great, and I have a working battery meter. It also shuts down, sleeps and wakes nicely. I was so psyched!!! I imaged the install with diskutil so that I could set it up on my second 900HA.

 

I set up the second 900HA identically by restoring the image, and guess what? The machine boots fine, but the battery icon has an X through it, and as an added bonus, sleep and shutdown do not work properly(doesn't wake from sleep, and doesn't fully power off on shutdown). Also, I can't adjust screen brightness with the FN keys like I could on the other 900HA.

 

They both have the same BIOS and EC Firmware version. Very strange! I am so very sad right now and completely perplexed. Any thoughts?

 

Need I generate a new DSDT.aml even though the machines are identical models? I gave that a try, but did so booted under the old DSDT.aml, does this then prevent me from generating a correct one? Need I boot under Ubuntu or some such thing?

 

Thanks

mcsenerd
mcsenerd
Posted
Posted
I have a peculiar issue now...!

 

I have 2 eee 900HAs. I built up the first one with 10.5.5 (iDeneb v3, DSDT override PCEFI V9) and added ACPIBattery.kext It works great, and I have a working battery meter. It also shuts down, sleeps and wakes nicely. I was so psyched!!! I imaged the install with diskutil so that I could set it up on my second 900HA.

 

I set up the second 900HA identically by restoring the image, and guess what? The machine boots fine, but the battery icon has an X through it, and as an added bonus, sleep and shutdown do not work properly(doesn't wake from sleep, and doesn't fully power off on shutdown). Also, I can't adjust screen brightness with the FN keys like I could on the other 900HA.

 

They both have the same BIOS and EC Firmware version. Very strange! I am so very sad right now and completely perplexed. Any thoughts?

 

Need I generate a new DSDT.aml even though the machines are identical models? I gave that a try, but did so booted under the old DSDT.aml, does this then prevent me from generating a correct one? Need I boot under Ubuntu or some such thing?

 

Thanks

 

Welcome to my world...I have the same issue. I don't know what's going either...but I cannot for the life of me get ACPI functions working correctly on my 900HA... If you find a solution...please do share. I have found none...

limmer
limmer
Posted
Posted
I have a peculiar issue now...!

 

I have 2 eee 900HAs. I built up the first one with 10.5.5 (iDeneb v3, DSDT override PCEFI V9) and added ACPIBattery.kext It works great, and I have a working battery meter. It also shuts down, sleeps and wakes nicely. I was so psyched!!! I imaged the install with diskutil so that I could set it up on my second 900HA.

 

I set up the second 900HA identically by restoring the image, and guess what? The machine boots fine, but the battery icon has an X through it, and as an added bonus, sleep and shutdown do not work properly(doesn't wake from sleep, and doesn't fully power off on shutdown). Also, I can't adjust screen brightness with the FN keys like I could on the other 900HA.

 

They both have the same BIOS and EC Firmware version. Very strange! I am so very sad right now and completely perplexed. Any thoughts?

 

Need I generate a new DSDT.aml even though the machines are identical models? I gave that a try, but did so booted under the old DSDT.aml, does this then prevent me from generating a correct one? Need I boot under Ubuntu or some such thing?

 

Thanks

 

So you got it to work on 1 computer. I think I am going to give this a try, did you need to Mod your Bios at all? If so can you point me in the direction of the one you used?

 

Thanks!

limmer
limmer
Posted
Posted
So you got it to work on 1 computer. I think I am going to give this a try, did you need to Mod your Bios at all? If so can you point me in the direction of the one you used?

 

Thanks!

Hi Guys,

 

was searching the net found this:

 

EeePC 900HA 305

http://rapidshare.com/files/169519104/900H...S-0305.rar.html

 

 

Was able to find the link here:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/lofiversion/ind...129718-100.html

 

 

Anyone try this yet? I might try to give it a shot tonight.

 

Let me know your experiences!

 

-Dan

movingmage
movingmage
Posted
Posted

Ok. I have my second 900HA working now!!! Very, very stable

 

-Sound, speakers/headphones - Audiee (No mic Input), used to set Fn keys to adjust volume

-Webcam works natively in iChat/Photobooth

-QE/CI/1024x600 w/ fn key brightness control- Modded GMA950/framebuffer kexts, and then displayconfigx to set the res once (not the GMA950.pkg installer, that one seems to cause artifacting)

-Sleep/Wake/Shutdown/Restart/Clamshell sleep - All work, need the clamshell kext, but nothing speecial for sleep

-Replaced my wifi pcie card with a broadcom card. Works with no special drivers.

-Vanilla kernel

 

I used PCEFI V9 With DSDT override (which incorporates chameleon), and 0203 BIOS (this is NOT a modded bios). I used fassl's patcher. I read out the bios's DSDT tables through Ubuntu (this is the only way I have had success), pulled it out of the file with a hex editor and then manually fed it into the patcher.

 

I think iDeneb 10.5.5 is the only installer that will boot this machine with an un-modded bios.

 

I needed different, custom made dsdt.aml files for each of my 900HAs.

 

yay!

-MI

V.Max
V.Max
Posted
Posted
Dan...you the man! I used that BIOS and for the first time I got PowerManagement working correctly! WooHoo!!!

 

MCSENERD,

 

When you flashed the Bios your Eee had any change, like a memory upgrade? Or it had only original components? Wich flash method did you used? I tried to flash with Alt+F2 method with an Eee w/ 2GB module. I had a bad flash and a bricked Eee for at least 2 days. Finally I could restore the bios with the new 0306 bios but only after i changed the memory to the original 1GB module.

 

Anyway. Congratulations! I hope i can get my OSX86 running pretty soon!

limmer
limmer
Posted
Posted
Dan...you the man! I used that BIOS and for the first time I got PowerManagement working correctly! WooHoo!!!

 

Thats great!

 

I installed OSX last night, pretty much no hiccups except the damn Atheros 5007eg card that is in the netbook. I used the IO80211Family.kext.zip and finally got OSX to recognize the card. I can turn it off and on, but can't get it to search networks. Tried using a few hacks but nogo. Adjusted some .plist files but to no avail. I'm thinking the easiest solution is going to have to be adding in a new wifi card.

 

I noticed though when I have wifi active and recognized, OSX does not shutdown properly. But, when I have wifi off in the bios OSX shutsdown beautifully. So I am thinking something about the wifi card/driver is causing this issue with the card. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and just put in a card that works OTB.

 

Can anyone list the .kext files they used to get the battery working? Also any tips on getting sound working, I haven't attacked it yet, as the wifi thing is bugging the hell out of me.

 

Also if any of the terminology here sounds wacky, please bear with me as I'm not well versed in hacking/coding or whatever you guys call it.

 

Let's keep this thread active and find a way to make this work!

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

manher
manher
Posted
Posted
Dan...you the man! I used that BIOS and for the first time I got PowerManagement working correctly! WooHoo!!!

 

Dear Mcsenerd, I also have eee pc 900HA and I have upgraded the bios to 0305.

I have tried to download the modded bios: http://rapidshare.com/files/169519104/900H...S-0305.rar.html but there was an error "The limit is reached", could you upload the modded bios for me?

 

Can I use the instructions in this site: http://www.maceee.com/how-to-mac-os-x-1054...1-1000h-27.html to setup the mac osx for my 900HA? If not, could you please provide me step-by-step instructions how to install and where I can get all the required files?

 

Your help will be much appreciated, because I am really a newbie on this mac osx installation things.

 

Looking forward to your respond. Thanks.

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