[Guide] Vanilla Retail 10.6.x with Chameleon v2 for Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L

[blackosx]

Thanks plenty to everyone who contributed towards this guide, especially towards blackosx who compiled his knowledge into such an easy to follow guide...

 

I have successfully installed Mac OS X 10.6 on my Gigabyte GA-945PL-S3.

 

KP seem to only occur on the 64bit kernel, which I presume is a kext error...

That ok with me loading in 32bit cause I don't have 4G Ram anyways...

 

The only issue I have at the moment is sound... I can't get the sound to work. I've used LegacyHDA.kext and attempted at the DSDT... but obviously something isn't right. I've tried using EFI but failed...

It says in my System Profiler that my Audio (Built In) is :

Intel High Definition Audio:

Then follow with some Device ID, Audio ID, Avaliable devices...

 

But when I open my System Preferences and select Sound there is no input/output devices...

 

Thanks plenty for all the help.. Im so glad I got this working!!

Hi PeterHsieh

Well done for getting Snow Leopard installed on your GA-945PL-S3.

 

I found audio for this mobo, the GA-EP45-DS3L which uses ALC888, a pig to get working with DSDT, but after a month of research, trials, tests etc. (and some help from Thiagomorales and tmongkol) it now works.

 

But your mobo uses ALC883, so the fix with the LegacyHDA to work in partnership with DSDT, in this thread won't work for you. So unfortunately you are going to have to do some research for anyone else who has it working for your mobo and hopefully you can get it working a lot quicker than it took me.

 

I changed my old 6600gt (i think that finder was a little bit slowly) to a 9500gt 1gb, i put my efi string in com.apple.boot.list, made a new dsdt with out graphic card, then I used kext utility, and now my system is working perfect with sleep!

 

Thanks!!

Fantastic.. - Well done llblasi

[Biøhazard]

blackosx have you ever tried to install it in a raid? i think that i have to wait until a new chameleon version is released.

[blackosx]

blackosx have you ever tried to install it in a raid? i think that i have to wait until a new chameleon version is released.

No, I haven't tried installing to a RAID setup. The only thing I can tell you about Chameleon and RAID from what I remember reading is that Chameleon supports Apple software RAID but not BIOS RAID.

[Biøhazard]

Yeah blackosx, chameleon supports apple raid (my 10.5.8 installation is in raid), i will try to install it later I'll tell you the results.

Thanks

[flyguyjake]

Blackosx,

 

Is it possible to run the kext utility to repair the snow install from a different osx hdd in the same computer? I have a 10.5.6 working hdd in the same computer.

 

Thanks

[blackosx]

Blackosx,

 

Is it possible to run the kext utility to repair the snow install from a different osx hdd in the same computer? I have a 10.5.6 working hdd in the same computer.

 

Thanks

This would be a welcome feature but as far as I know, no. It needs to be run on the same volume as you want to work on.

[philippebezoteaux]

Dos anyone use the digital output on its mobo ?

 

I would be interested in knowing if you guys have 5.1 surround working !

[titan4]

There was some post regarding crashes when enabling Time Machine. I enabled it using spare disk for backup and it works just fine no crashes. So just for info.

 

Dos anyone use the digital output on its mobo ?

 

I would be interested in knowing if you guys have 5.1 surround working !

 

SPDIF Passtrough may work but requires some AppleHDA.kext patching. What i was rather thinking is using analog outputs and create aggregate device but had no time to try that so far. But i can try it now so I will let you know.

 

EDIT: Now that is easy ! 5.1 Multichannel works flawlessly when created aggregate device in Audio MIDI Setup. Only thing I noticed is that (and i am not sure here because I did not used this MB before) plugs are strangely reorganized so it took me a moment of trial and error to found right output plugs. (again I may be wrong and they work as they should)

[blackosx]

Okay guys, after a couple of days with using ifconfig for the bonjour fix, I am suggesting the following for making it run automatically.

 

Make an Applescript with the command to run ifconfig and add your password, save it in /Extra/Bonjour along with ifconfig, and add the script to your login items to automatically run it at login.

 

I have attached a Zip archive containing what you need and a read me. Hopefully it makes sense as it's so simple to do, I feel the instructions seem a bit long... anyway let me know how you get on with it and after a little while I will add it to the support files.

 

I have also attached a couple of screenshots just in case anyone gets confused...

 

(I have to credit the applescript to scorcho)

Bonjour.zip

[boogi]

Hi dakku

 

There was a post here from g_MAC saying he had found out how to do this from CaptainNemo's post, but I haven't looked in to it.

 

EDIT: But the way I understand Chameleon is that it will only load kexts from the active partition. In this case, the Chameleon volume is the active partition so regardless of which partition (10.5 or 10.6) you select, it will always attempt to load what ever is in the /Extra folder.

 

Now I haven't tried this from RC2 v640, but a while back when I was testing with RC1 v431, I created 2 x partitions, and each partition had a 10.5 system installed on it and I then installed chameleon on to each of those partitions with the idea that I could use a different set of kexts for each system for testing. But I could only ever get Chameleon to use the extra folder on the first partition, never from the second partition. Now if this situation has changed with RC2 v640 and it can now load a different set of kexts dependent on which system is selected to boot then yes, in theory it can be done.

 

Does that make sense?

Regarding running Leopard and Snow Leopard on the same partition, I can confirm what blackosx says about how Chameleon works. You need to find a way to use a different Chameleon install since I think it will just default to one if they're both on the same physical drive (in your case, the Leopard one so it'll load your Leopard kexts and SL will likely not work). What about trying to make a boot CD with your Snow Leopard kexts or even a bootable USB drive like you did to install Snow Leopard in the first place. Perhaps that would work? The only problem is you'd have to use that whenever you wanted to boot to SL.

[blackosx]

EDIT: Now that is easy ! 5.1 Multichannel works flawlessly when created aggregate device in Audio MIDI Setup. Only thing I noticed is that (and i am not sure here because I did not used this MB before) plugs are strangely reorganized so it took me a moment of trial and error to found right output plugs. (again I may be wrong and they work as they should)

Wow.. this sound exciting titan4.

Can you please elaborate on this and explain what it all means? As I don't know what you mean by 'created aggregate device in Audio MIDI Setup'.

 

Thanks and well done

[titan4]

Sure. There is Audio Midi Setup app in Utilities. You can use it to create that aggregate device, which is imo one of the most fascinating osx functions. It is just as simple as combining like three 2-channel outputs to one 6-channel output.

 

Here is how you can do it:

1. Launch Audio Midi Setup from /Applications/Utilities
   
2. Click + sign on left side
   
3. On right side choose all 3 output devices (except digital one of course)
   
4. Click Configure Speakers button
   
5. Select all 3 channels on top, click Multichannel button and select 5.1 Surround from listbox to the right of it
   
6. Then you must assign each channel to appropriate speaker. If you click on speaker name it will send some noise to chosen channel
   
7. Click Apply and Done
   
8. Now you have 5.1 surround output you can select as Output device in System Preferences/Sound (you can rename it in Audio Midi Setup)
   

 

Tested it with VLC and some nice 5.1 mkv and works perfect. Still not SPDIF passtrough, which is digital so there is no quality degradation because of cheap soundcard but it is nice working 5.1 output.

[flyguyjake]

Help!

 

I have successfully booted to the snow desktop but the HDD that my SnowLeopard & Cham partitions are on is showing as external and the drive doesn't appear on the desktop.

 

How do I fix this so that the HDD is recognized as an internal drive?

 

Kext Utility can't complete 100% because it can't find extra/extensions...

[titan4]

Help!

 

I have successfully booted to the snow desktop but the HDD that my SnowLeopard & Cham partitions are on is showing as external and the drive doesn't appear on the desktop.

 

How do I fix this so that the HDD is recognized as an internal drive?

 

Kext Utility can't complete 100% because it can't find extra/extensions...

 

It is OK that it can't find /E/E because you have it on separate partition. However regarding that you see partitions as external... It happened to me once when I was playing with some stuff however repairing permissions with Kext Utility helped for me. Reason why you don't see them on desktop might be that you have disabled showing drives on desktop. You can find that setting in Finder Preferences.

[PeterHsieh]

Thank you for your response blackosx... I forgot to mention that my mobo GA-945PL-S3 is in Rev.2 which the audio has ALC888 8 Channel Audio Codec Gigabyte - GA-945PL-S3... Do you think there will be any luck now xD...?

 

Once again, thanks for everything,, everyone putting in so much effort to get this working xD....

[titan4]

Since it has 888 it should work well with DSDT, so i would try to play with it a little. In worst case you can always use voodoohda i guess.

[flyguyjake]

It is OK that it can't find /E/E because you have it on separate partition. However regarding that you see partitions as external... It happened to me once when I was playing with some stuff however repairing permissions with Kext Utility helped for me. Reason why you don't see them on desktop might be that you have disabled showing drives on desktop. You can find that setting in Finder Preferences.

 

Ok so the hard drive selection was unticked in finder preferences by default so I have it now ticked, however now I have blue folders on the desktop for the snow & cham partitions. They should be HDD icons right?

 

I even switched the sata cable for this HDD to SATAll0 and that didn't help.

 

What's even more wierd is that my other osx hdd's are showing up as external drives in finder preferences but their respective icons are HDD's on the desktop... go figure!

[blackosx]

Sure. There is Audio Midi Setup app in Utilities. You can use it to create that aggregate device, which is imo one of the most fascinating osx functions. It is just as simple as combining like three 2-channel outputs to one 6-channel output.

 

Here is how you can do it:

1. Launch Audio Midi Setup from /Applications/Utilities
   
2. Click + sign on left side
   
3. On right side choose all 3 output devices (except digital one of course)
   
4. Click Configure Speakers button
   
5. Select all 3 channels on top, click Multichannel button and select 5.1 Surround from listbox to the right of it
   
6. Then you must assign each channel to appropriate speaker. If you click on speaker name it will send some noise to chosen channel
   
7. Click Apply and Done
   
8. Now you have 5.1 surround output you can select as Output device in System Preferences/Sound (you can rename it in Audio Midi Setup)
   

 

Tested it with VLC and some nice 5.1 mkv and works perfect. Still not SPDIF passtrough, which is digital so there is no quality degradation because of cheap soundcard but it is nice working 5.1 output.

titan4, Thanks for explaining that. It looks like something I might actually use

I have never loaded that application in my life! (The last time I ever played with MIDi was on the Amiga when I used a separate hardware box to connect to a keyboard.. LOL)...

 

EDIT: I have also found this thread for ALC888 & Digital Out with SnowLeopard, if it's any use?

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=182896

[titan4]

@flyguyjake

I know what are you talking about, because I have seen it on my kitty once too. Have you made some changes to original kexts in /S/L/E ? I am not 100% sure what I did to fix it but i think running kext utility to repair permissions and recreate cache was sufficient. Do you have IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext in /Volumes/Cham/Extra/Extensions ?

 

EDIT: I have also found this thread for ALC888 & Digital Out with SnowLeopard, if it's any use?

I'd like to check it, but it looks like you forgot the link :-)

 

EDIT: Thank you :-)

EDIT: I have seen this thread already before. Only conclusion is that it really requires patching AppleHDA.kext = Lot of research, lot of work, lot of fun = need more time, maybe on weekend.

 

Offtopic EDIT: I am still newbie regarding OS X, but damn that Time Machine is the best backup app i have ever seen. So cool ! :-) I am saving some money to buy MBP but it is slow

[blackosx]

titan4 - I have added the link (sorry about that) and it looks like you have answered all the questions here - Thank you

 

EDIT: I have never looked in to patching AppleHDA either so it would be a learning curve for me too. But here's a link to MadTux's guide

 

Yeah, Time Machine does make backup so simple... and as for saving for a MBP, at least by the time you have the money, you'll be well educated in Mac OS X

[prettyby7]

OK Black I've started over followed your guide meticulously and I don't have the same KP as before but something new has come up.

 

 

Hopefully you can tell from this pic what the issue is. When I reboot I get the apple logo and it just sites there (I think this is the Chameleon bootloader). Nothing happens with that it just sits there. When I reboot and use -v I get the error in the pic shown above. I've compiled my DSDT since my mobo is Asus P5K Pro and I edited the smbios.plist to reflect my mobo, uuid for snowleo hd, etc. I've also made sure that I'm using the right "boot" you supplied to replace on the chameleon partition. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I feel I'm making progress but unsure.

 

Thanks

[flyguyjake]

@flyguyjake

I know what are you talking about, because I have seen it on my kitty once too. Have you made some changes to original kexts in /S/L/E ? I am not 100% sure what I did to fix it but i think running kext utility to repair permissions and recreate cache was sufficient. Do you have IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext in /Volumes/Cham/Extra/Extensions ?

 

I have all of the kexts from blackosx support file for 32/64 bit (green labels).

 

I can only boot in safe mode.

 

Some of my HDD's are showing up as blue folders on the desktop. (the ones that finder sees as internal)

HDD's that finder sees as external are standard silver HDD icons.

 

When I run kext utility it doesn't find extra/extensions (cham partition)

 

When I run disk utility on SnowLeopard HDD I get Error: No installer packages can be found for this disk

[blackosx]

Hopefully you can tell from this pic what the issue is. When I reboot I get the apple logo and it just sites there (I think this is the Chameleon bootloader). Nothing happens with that it just sits there. When I reboot and use -v I get the error in the pic shown above. I've compiled my DSDT since my mobo is Asus P5K Pro and I edited the smbios.plist to reflect my mobo, uuid for snowleo hd, etc. I've also made sure that I'm using the right "boot" you supplied to replace on the chameleon partition. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I feel I'm making progress but unsure.

 

Thanks

Sorry prettyby7, I can't tell your problem from that pic. Can you supply another pic but with the whole screen? as the clues are normally in the last couple of lines..

 

When you reboot, do you get to see the Chameleon bootloader screen and have the choice of selecting your Snow Leopard partition before you get to the grey screen with the apple logo? (I guess so because you say you reboot and use -v)..

 

I have all of the kexts from blackosx support file for 32/64 bit (green labels).

 

I can only boot in safe mode.

 

Some of my HDD's are showing up as blue folders on the desktop. (the ones that finder sees as internal)

HDD's that finder sees as external are standard silver HDD icons.

 

When I run kext utility it doesn't find extra/extensions (cham partition)

 

When I run disk utility on SnowLeopard HDD I get Error: No installer packages can be found for this disk

Hi flyguyjake

 

The answers have been covered here previously in this thread and just earlier by titan4.

 

For your HD's showing as external, you need to have IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext installed in /E/E.

 

Kext Utility won't see the /Extra folder with this install because I have recommended you install Chameleon to a separate partition. Kext Utility looks for it on the system partition.

 

The disk utility error is a side effect of using the OSInstall.mkpg method. It can be fixed by reinstalling SL on top of your current install or running some BSD.pkg - you'll have to search for that fix as I haven't tried that method.

[flyguyjake]

Hi flyguyjake

 

The answers have been covered here previously in this thread and just earlier by titan4.

 

For your HD's showing as external, you need to have IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext installed in /E/E.

 

Kext Utility won't see the /Extra folder with this install because I have recommended you install Chameleon to a separate partition. Kext Utility looks for it on the system partition.

 

The disk utility error is a side effect of using the OSInstall.mkpg method. It can be fixed by reinstalling SL on top of your current install or running some BSD.pkg - you'll have to search for that fix as I haven't tried that method.

 

Hi Blackosx,

 

Good day to you!

 

I have all of the kexts installed from your support file-kext folder which includes IOAHCBlockStorageInjector.kext installed in chameleon/E/E

 

As far as the HDD issue, All of my drives are internal Sata drives. In finder pref's some are showing up as internal and some are showing up as external. The 2 drives that are showing up as internal have chameleon installed with osx 10.5.5 & 10.5.6.

 

The HDD with cham & snow partitions is the one showing up as blue folders.

 

When using sudo kextstat, are there any kexts to look out for that should or shouldn't be loading? Perhaps this is causing my KP if I can pinpoint the vanilla or cham e/e/kext causing it.

[bigpoppa206]

Well, after several days I can safely say I have 99% success with Snow Leopard in 64bit on a Gigabyte GA-EP45C-UD3R board. The only difference in our boards is that my audio is ALC889a (part of what drew me to this thread in the first place and that I can run DDR2 or DDR3 memory.

 

I say 99% success only because I still am having issues with Sleep, but if forced I could live with it. I have reinstalled all my programs, everything seems to be rock solid. Have noticed when I don't compile an Extensions.mkext in E/E that verbose mode on startup shows some kexts not loading properly and using Kext Utility fixed that in a jiffy.

 

Great guide! It's so much easier to stick with one great thread since the search feature on this board is horrible.

 

Now if I could just figure out how to finance a Supermicro MBD-X8DAH+-O Dual LGA 1366 with twin Xeon W5590 processors and 144 gigs of DDR3 RAM, hehehe!