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Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi

Ayla

By Ayla,
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Ayla
Ayla
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Bios wont be a problem But no info about the Network audio chip or the and i think it's an Nforce chip So i might be a problem

 

I found this info, about the chip's, in the manual:

 

On board RTL8CL Gigabit LAN(Optional)

v Supports 10/100/1000M bps operation

 

On board RTL80EL Fast Ethernet(Optional)

v Supports 10/100Mbps operation

v Supports half/full duplex operation

 

Onboard Audio(Optional)

v Azalia High-Definition audio

v Supports 6-channel

v Supports Jack-Sensing function

 

 

So, will they work? :)

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Ayla
Ayla
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I just got this board. Bad news. Tried to boot iDeneb 1.4 and it wouldn't. Got a "com.apple.boot.slist not found" error. Tried iATKOS 5i, same thing. I used two different USB DVD drives, disabled audio and LAN, no go.

 

This board does not have IDE btw.

 

I'm sure you have to use the MacBook Unibody restore dvd or a 10.5.6 RETAIL dvd. You need the 9300 chipset drivers which are on one of those dvd's (maybe the NoPE 10.5.5 dvd will work).

 

Check the Asus P5N7A-VM thread !

 

It uses the same chipset.

 

And please report back in this thread with the results :happymac:

 

Thanks

Martin

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balderdashian
balderdashian
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I'm sure you have to use the MacBook Unibody restore dvd or a 10.5.6 RETAIL dvd. You need the 9300 chipset drivers which are on one of those dvd's (maybe the NoPE 10.5.5 dvd will work).

 

Check the Asus P5N7A-VM thread !

 

It uses the same chipset.

 

And please report back in this thread with the results ;)

 

Thanks

Martin

 

Didn't know that, thanks. I own a family pack for Leopard, but it's 10.5.0. I'll see what I can find.

 

Prior to your reply, I Used that "OSX Universal Installer" app on a real Mac and installed iDeneb 1.4 to the SATA disk. I followed the instructions in the Asus P5N7A-VM thread. The bootloader works but I get a kernel panic.

 

I'll try and find a distro that has 9300 and keep pluggin away.

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balderdashian
balderdashian
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Spent a long time on this Zotac ITX board.

 

First I tried the instructions exactly in the Asus P5N7A-VM thread except I used a retail MBP 10.5.6 Install DVD. Froze when I tried to boot off it.

 

Then I tried installing iPC 10.5.6 PPF 5. I didn't add any patches or drivers except for the Nvidia New MBP 9300 video driver. The system booted up fine, except the video driver didn't work. Non-native res, no QE or CI, etc. Ethernet and SATA worked fine, so that was good. Audio did not work. Shutdown/restart did not work. System Profiler saw my 1.6ghz Intel Dual Core as a 4.2Ghz Core 2 Duo (I wish).

 

I'm trying a new install with NATIT instead to see how that goes. Also adding a shutdown/restart patch. And I'm going to do a post-install install of the custom audio texts known to work on the Asus.

 

FYI, this board cannot boot any OSX86 install DVD using a USB DVD drive. I don't have a SATA DVD drive to test, so I've been installing on the hard drive using a working Mac using the Universal OSX86 Installer.

 

Long story short, despite having the same Nvidia chipset as the new Macs, this isn't even close to being an ideal OSX86 machine.

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balderdashian
balderdashian
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For anyone following my experience with this board take it with a grain of salt. I think I have a defective board. Most of my OSX86 problems showed USB OHCI errors, and now I'm seeing USB problems in Windows as well. Sometimes after a reboot the USB devices won't work at all, and sometimes Windows suddenly starts installing drivers for a USB bus as if I had just plugged in new hardware.

 

I'm getting a replacement next week.

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Ayla
Ayla
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For anyone following my experience with this board take it with a grain of salt. I think I have a defective board. Most of my OSX86 problems showed USB OHCI errors, and now I'm seeing USB problems in Windows as well. Sometimes after a reboot the USB devices won't work at all, and sometimes Windows suddenly starts installing drivers for a USB bus as if I had just plugged in new hardware.

 

I'm getting a replacement next week.

 

Great, let us know how it works out with the new board !

 

And, please make a guide so that others can try (if you get it to work) ;)

 

Thanks

Martin

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  • 2 weeks later...
Ayla
Ayla
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For anyone following my experience with this board take it with a grain of salt. I think I have a defective board. Most of my OSX86 problems showed USB OHCI errors, and now I'm seeing USB problems in Windows as well. Sometimes after a reboot the USB devices won't work at all, and sometimes Windows suddenly starts installing drivers for a USB bus as if I had just plugged in new hardware.

 

I'm getting a replacement next week.

 

Any news on this?

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balderdashian
balderdashian
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Any news on this?

I still couldn't get it to work. USB would not boot any Mac install disk whatsoever. Not even with boot 123. I had borrowed a SATA Blu-ray drive from work but have since returned it. The only way I could test was using the OSx86 Universal Installer. This never worked unless I used iPC 10.5.6 and added the Asus DSDT file (which is not the same BIOS thus should not work). Even then it was unstable and would not reboot after creating a new user.

 

I don't know how to create a patched DSDT for this board. My understanding is that you need to have a working installation first, then patch your DSDT. But if you can't get it working to begin with, then how does one create it?

 

I would absolutely not get this board for OSX until someone makes a guide and a DSDT file for it. I've given up on it and will go with the Intel Atom board instead.

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  • 3 weeks later...
HMiller
HMiller
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I have a more or less successful install with this board that I'll share. This is kind of a lazy write-up because this is not my main hack and thus it is "good enough" for me, not a perfect install. This is for a little media center with PLex, EyeTV, Remote Buddy, and the Sony BD remote.

 

This is a Vanilla Retail type install!

 

What does not work, but could:

-On-board Audio (I am using iMic USB which does work and did not hassle with this except to find that VoodooHDA does NOT work).

-wireless networking (did not try on this b/c I use wired gigabit)

-Sleep/resume works from menu, but usb keybord does not come back--get error about overvoltage causing USB device to be disabled. Unplugging keyboard and plugging back fixes, but I have sleep turned off. For my purposes I can't wake the system from remote anyway, so I do not care.

-PS2 Key/Mouse (why bother?)

 

Does not work and never will: This board does not support USB wake on the hardware level, Zotac you b*stards!

 

What does work (reliably)

-onboard gigabit ethernet

-onboard video

-iMic USB for audio

-bluetooth dongle usb

-Playstation3 BD remote with remote buddy/bluetooth

 

Untested:

-I do not have an optical drive in this system. I assume a Sata drive should work fine.

 

Install Method:

1. Insert sata hard disk in working hackintosh, partition GUID. Mark to not ignore permissions on this drive in info.

2. Install OSX 10.5.0 from working hack, run Apple 10.5.6 combined update.

3. Copy over AppleACPIPlatform, AppleSMBIOS, dsmos, IntelCPUPMDisabler, IOAHCIFamily, IOATAFamily, NVkush. (these are attached, not all may be necessary, like I said this is a lazy write-up!).

4. run Chameleon 2.0RC1 and use standard install (EFI-type may work, I did not use it).

5. Put the disk in the new system and boot up. OK, here's the gotcha. The 10.5.6 update will run a boot time process that will overwrite some of the kexts you just copied. In fact, it will boot and do this, then reboot on its own. Just let it go until you get a kernel panic or something then copy your kexts again and repair permissions. I might have re-run chameleon installer here, kind of forget.

6. Boot up and if you do get any kind of kernel panic, just reboot. Once this is setup, you will NOT get any panics or instability. I am typing this from this system now!

7. Run all updates from the Apple menu, all install with no issues.

 

All-in-all, this is a very easy install and the board supports OSX pretty well for me at least. Not sure of the OP's problems, but I would just say to try to get away from Distros if you can. Retail installs are actually a lot easier/more predictable. Who knows what the scripts in a distro are doing? Just get your retail working and save a copy of the particular kexts/dsdt etc you used and then a reinstall is a breeze.

 

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention. I have tried Vanilla retail on 2 different systems with 10.5.6 retail DVD and have not had success. Specifically, 10.5.6 Reatail DVD did not work on this board for me. For some reason the 10.5.0 -> 10.5.6 update method works much better for me even though it is an extra step.

confirmed_works_on_zotac.zip

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HMiller
HMiller
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Yes, you can run the 10.5.6 Combo update against any drive in a working system that does not already have it applied, you just pick it during the install. Most of the other updates have to be run from the running OS, but not the combo update.

 

FYI, the command to install the base OS from within the working system must be run from terminal:

open /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install DVD/system/installation/packages/OSInstall.mpkg

 

As you saw from my steps, you actually have to install/update in working system, boot in Zotac system, move drive back to working (or use a bootable media to re-copy the kexts and repair perms), then do your final boot and apple updates.

 

If anyone runs with this and gets Audio/Wifi working please post results here. I'll probably have a go at those when I get more time. In my case, the config for Plex, EyeTV, Remote Buddy and getting them to work smoothly with Wife Acceptance Factor on our main TV took me far longer than the actual Hackintosh setup so I just focused on the stuff I actually needed.

 

I assume some using this board are doing so because the Mini ITX form is great for a media computer, so I 'll add that I chose to use the iMic for Audio because audio is pretty important on a media computer and the iMic is fully supported on real Macs. It's stereo, but there are 5.1 USB parts that are real Mac compatible if you are so inclined.

 

I watched time shifted Saturday Night Live with automated commercial skipping last night, and looney tunes x264/matroska files are playing right now :) It's a much better system than the Windows Vista Media Center setup I was running. Better in terms of snappy smooth response when moving around with the remote, and better in terms of the reliability of EyeTV when recording TV, doing comskip processing. The Sony remote is vastly more configurable than a MS Media Center remote, but not nearly as complex as using Girder on a wintel system.

 

Remote Buddy and the Sony BD remote rock, but you must purchase RB to get the Plex behavior updates you'll need--well worth the money for RB (about $25) and the remote was about $25 at my local GameStop.

 

System is an e8400 w/ 4GB RAM, 320GB 2.5" Sata Drive and 3.5" 750GB Sata Drive.

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Hugo_bee
Hugo_bee
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hello

i've run my machine.. with a boot hdd (10.5.6 retail with the ZIP above)

the content of the zip was unzipped in Extra/Extensions and boot with Chameleon 2.0 rc1 v431

 

the dsdt? is important to hav one?

 

if not.. my boot reports various info about the loading of ehte E/E drivers.. and then remain in MAC FRAMEWORK.. then after 10sec a KP with the message that that machine is not HPET!!

but in bios I have HPET on.

 

can you give a little advice?

 

thanks!!

ugo

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Hugo_bee
Hugo_bee
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this is only the 1st day. I have problems on restart (it do shutdown.. not reboot) and audio alc662 is already fixed in that forum.. until tomorrow I'll try the voodoohda, I thnk is better.

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HMiller
HMiller
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I'll have to check my HPET setting when I get home, but I am not using DSDT and both shutdown and reboot work perfectly for me with the kext zip I posted. Wake from sleep does not work correctly--I lose the keyboard and mouse until I re-plug them and the network card shows active but does not function after wake until I reboot.

 

Good to hear about the audio, let us know how VoodooHDA works for you. For me it saw the hardware and just produced a single high pitched noise when I tried to play sounds.

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Hugo_bee
Hugo_bee
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i write you now but read tomorrow your answer:

 

now i'm using only the zip. I see in System Information about usb ports.. I see wifi plugged in but it say that is not installed. Is = for you?

 

 

bye

see ya

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Hugo_bee
Hugo_bee
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hy

the voodoohda project is at rev.8.. the build is fine.. I see the audio panel in preferences.. and can adjust volume

but.. i must find a speaker stereo.. the goal is to case mod my little case in order to have a good internal audio!!

the mike don't work..

 

the alc662.txt + taruga patcher doesn't work. no audio, no panel on preferences

 

I repeat thet in my laptop the restart doesn't work. It do completely the shutdown.. but the cpu fan still run.. and no beep of initial system start!

 

with OPENHALTRESTART the restart is good.. but I have double entry in FINDER MENU..

 

RESTART

RESTART

 

SHUTDOWN

SHUTDOWN

 

how can I fix it?

 

nvkush in E/E is not 100% QE/CI.. in S/L/E yes!

 

I', searching for a SMBIOS modded to inject proper DDR2 800 speed ram Kingston.. the system profiler see 667!

 

in the end, sometimes the system profiler crashes.. I did 5 minutes ago the apple update.. is from 10.5.6 'til security update 2009-001

 

I hope next boot to have better system!!

 

any news ?

 

ugo

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dj_dumpling
dj_dumpling
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Hey, great write up everyone! I am following HMiller's protocol but I am now stuck. After I received my kernel panic, I removed the HD from my Zotac machine to my working computer, but I am unable to boot up, I believe it's due to the disk permissions. So my question is "how can you repair disk permission and install kexts to a HD that can't boot up?" I also tried to repair disk permission on this harddrive connected to my working computer as an external harddrive, but the disk permission feature in Disk Utilities is greyed out. Any thoughts? Thanks!

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