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

[c0h1b4]

I've made two observations on the 10.6.1 update (at least on my computer):

 

1. SL now boots significantly faster. Barely 2 seconds from Chameleon compared to the over 7 seconds in 10.6.0.

2. I can't seem to overclock anymore. Any attempt to boost the FSB in the BIOS from the default 266MHz results in a reset to 267MHz. 10.6.1 is the only thing that has changed, although I am not excluding this to be a coincidence. The power supply has been suspect since I built it.

 

Please, post your hardware. My 10.5 was booting in 2~3 secs. Now my 10.6 & 10.6.1 takes about 30 secs to boot. It seems to have problems in DSMOS and Audio Kexts...

 

Thanks

[blackosx]

Hi flyguyjake

 

I haven't been keeping up with the latest kit myself, but I know someone, who funnily enough introduced me to this hackintosh scene and knows what he's on about, has just built himself a new rig. I'm sure he won't mind me posting the details...... This is copied from his email

 

Intel i7 965 @ 3.8ghz

EVGA Classified X58 Motherboard

Corsair HX1000W 1000w PSU

Noctua NH-U12P SE1355 SE

6gb G.Skill Trident PC3-16000 CL9

2x EVGA GTX280 SLI`d

3x 73gb WD Raptor

3x 1tb Samsung F1

Antec 900 (modified for cabling etc)

 

Geekbench`s just over 12,600 but i have alot of tweaking yet with the T1 timing on the ram... Can`t wait to get osx on it!

 

So that might give you some idea of where to aim?

[kreayshunist]

I have just rebooted using my original SMBIOS.plist I built and the Memory show fine now in System Profiler

So yes, it's a SMBIOS issue.

 

My SMBIOS contains the proper memory identification, manufacturer, serial numbers etc.. and it reads perfectly. I was just doing test earlier to see if a different SMBIOS gave me a different Geekbench result.

Interesting. I'll try that out.

 

Please, post your hardware. My 10.5 was booting in 2~3 secs. Now my 10.6 & 10.6.1 takes about 30 secs to boot. It seems to have problems in DSMOS and Audio Kexts...

 

Thanks

I updated my sig. 10.5 for me took longer to boot, on the order of 10s.

 

Intel i7 965 @ 3.8ghz

EVGA Classified X58 Motherboard

Corsair HX1000W 1000w PSU

Noctua NH-U12P SE1355 SE

6gb G.Skill Trident PC3-16000 CL9

2x EVGA GTX280 SLI`d

3x 73gb WD Raptor

3x 1tb Samsung F1

Antec 900 (modified for cabling etc)

 

Geekbench`s just over 12,600 but i have alot of tweaking yet with the T1 timing on the ram... Can`t wait to get osx on it!)

That's... impressive, lol. Fastest Geekbench I've gotten on my computer is just shy of 8900 when I clocked my chip to 3.6GHz with a 1.6GHz FSB. Not stable under high stress, no doubt because of the power supply. Processor itself was at 65C.

[Capt_Boom]

A little Help for those trying to get a Gigabyte P35-DS3L working properly with 10.6.1

 

This Zip file contains a DMG with my /Extra folder as well as the Most recent F9 Bios for the P35-DS3L which includes the New AHCI Code so it boots really fast.

 

The DSDT.AML File i've included is for my board which is stock Plus an Evga 8600 GTS 512 PCI Express card.

 

It includes the USB Built in Fix as well as the Reboot to corrupted Bios Fix.

 

Modify as you see fit.

 

I hope this helps you guys.

 

 

P35-DS3L-10.6-Setup.dmg.zip

[dukebound85]

A little Help for those trying to get a Gigabyte P35-DS3L working properly with 10.6.1

 

This Zip file contains a DMG with my /Extra folder as well as the Most recent F9 Bios for the P35-DS3L which includes the New AHCI Code so it boots really fast.

 

The DSDT.AML File i've included is for my board which is stock Plus an Evga 8600 GTS 512 PCI Express card.

 

It includes the USB Built in Fix as well as the Reboot to corrupted Bios Fix.

 

Modify as you see fit.

 

I hope this helps you guys.

 

 

P35-DS3L-10.6-Setup.dmg.zip

how do you modify for an 8800gt 512 by chance? pretty easy?

 

Also, OP, I can not seem to burn the iso file. The .iso file is unable to be selected when I am using diskutility

 

any idea? usually i have no issue burning boot disks

 

thanks!

[Capt_Boom]

Sorry it's not a boot disk it's just a DMG File

 

 

Mount it to your desktop and copy the kexts and DSDT.AML file to your /Extra Folder

 

As to modify the DSDT.AML File I suggest recreating the file using the guides listed and using mine as a point of reference to integrate the Fix's Such as the Bios Corruption and the Built-In USB Fix

 

 

 

 

Or you could recreate a file with the proper video card and copy just that section into the DSDT.ISL file and recompile it with the IASLME Utility i've included in the DMG File

[dukebound85]

i can not figure out how to make this boot disk

 

maybe im just a moron lol

 

the one provided in the first post just restarts my computer

[bshagnasty]

Great guide! (for this board and the dsdt).

 

I got snow leopard working, except for few annoyances:

 

- the first time you start playing any audio, i get a static chirp and then the audio plays. This happens if you don't play a sound for 5-10 minutes (it seems as if it "sleeps" my audio device after few minutes and has the static chirp when it "wakes" it up again).

 

- I'm getting really annoying random restarts. It's hard to diagnose (I know it could be a PSU issue, but I had the same hardware running 10.5.6 rock solid for 18+ days uptime). It's hard to beleive that all of a sudden it would start doing this under snow leopard. Also the random restart only happens when launching applications. It doesn't happen at any other time. It's not picky about which application it would restart on however, I've had it happen when starting up: iTunes 9, EFIStudio, UnrarX. etc...

 

 

If anyone else is having similar issues, let me know. I'm trying stuff and if I can get it fixed I will share.

 

thanks,

[Capt_Boom]

I've made a Boot CD based on the EP45-DS3L bootcd posted at the start of the thread

 

It works on my hardware your mileage may vary.

 

GA-P35-DS3L.cdr.zip

 

I take no credit for the contents i just used what was posted here to make it work

 

The upside is that since it uses a patched DSDT.AML file you won't have issues with bios being reset during the installation of Snow Leopard however if you have graphics card other then nvidia i can't guarantee this bootcd will work for you as i built the DSDT.AML with an 8600 gts with 512 Meg ram

 

 

This is a CDR Master as Osx creates and can be burned using the Disk Utility withen a working os x machine. It will probably work via Nero or other apps but i havn't tried.

 

Good luck

[blackosx]

Great guide! (for this board and the dsdt).

I got snow leopard working, except for few annoyances:....

- the first time you start playing any audio, i get a static chirp and then the audio plays. ....

- I'm getting really annoying random restarts.

Hi bshagnasty

 

Well done for getting your system up an running

 

The static chirp has been mentioned before and yes, I get it too. But after all the other audio solutions I have tried for this motherboard, I still stick with this one being the best. So is the tiny little blip before the very first sound really that much of a problem?

 

As for your restarts, you shouldn't be getting any as my system is rock solid. It's either a hardware problem or there is something wrong with your Snow Leopard build.

 

 

 

A little Help for those trying to get a Gigabyte P35-DS3L working properly with 10.6.1

 

This Zip file contains a DMG with my /Extra folder as well as the Most recent F9 Bios for the P35-DS3L which includes the New AHCI Code so it boots really fast.

I've made a Boot CD based on the EP45-DS3L bootcd posted at the start of the thread

 

It works on my hardware your mileage may vary.

Capt_Boom

 

I appreciate you trying to help out, but I don't support your idea of posting BootCD's and extra folders for a different motherboard here. There is a whole forum out there for you to add a thread with your specific files and then all you needed to do was post a link here to that thread to notify others about your files for that mobo. I say this is because I don't want this thread littered with posts about your files for a different mobo!

[titan4]

The static chirp has been mentioned before and yes, I get it too. But after all the other audio solutions I have tried for this motherboard, I still stick with this one being the best. So is the tiny little blip before the very first sound really that much of a problem?

 

Interesting, I don't think I have them with Digital Out.

 

And typing better than you ? Common....you mean my horrible english sentence composition ? I learned english from games and movies, so my grammar absolutely sucks

[blackosx]

Interesting, I don't think I have them with Digital Out.

 

And typing better than you ? Common....you mean my horrible english sentence composition ? I learned english from games and movies, so my grammar absolutely sucks

They were good games and movies then.. Lol

[the_gael]

I have installed Snow Leopard 10.6.1 on my GA-P35-DS4 machine using this guide and I am delighted with the results. I don't have sound but that is OK I will find a solution for that elsewhere. I am experiencing an issue with Time Machine which I have seen before on another Build method so I thought I would ask if anyone here is aware of what causes this - I did a Google Search and didn't find a solution.

 

I have set a dedicated 250GB SATA drive as my Time Machine Disk and when I try run Time Machine backup I get the following error

 

I have never seen this error prior to upgrading to Snow Leopard - initially I thought the issue was with the SATA drive going to sleep when the backup was running but now I suspect this is not the case as I have turned of the Let HDD sleep switch in Energy Saver.

[blackosx]

I really don't know. I have just tried Time Machine here and it works fine. To isolate the issue to that drive, can you set up another drive to run Time Machine on? If that works when you definitely know it's your 250GB SATA drive then you can try using Disk Utility as the error message suggests?

[Donar]

I just installed EvoEnabler.kext to Extra/Extensions, i now can boot to the Desktop and i can work from that. It gives graphics glitches when scrolling so it's not a 100% fix the .kext is for 4850 so maybe it doesen't work too well with my 4890. I have to find out where i find the Info about QE/CI and Open CL in Snow, as it is not where it was with Leopard (About this Mac -> GFX).

[titan4]

I have to find out where i find the Info about QE/CI and Open CL in Snow, as it is not where it was with Leopard (About this Mac -> GFX).

 

You can use benchmark for OpenCL, and QE/CI is quite easy. As far as I know if you have transparent menu bar then you have QE/CI.

 

EDIT: Time Machine generally works for me just fine, but few times I had in issue with backup stuck. Just right now I installed some stuff like CS4 Master Collection and such, and now TM is backuping and is stuck on 8,1GB/19,48GB and won't backup more It happened to me a few times before. When I try to stop the backup after that it stucks on Stopping Backup and if I try to restart it stucks on blue screen unless I restart manually. I wonder if this is TM problem or hack problem

[the_gael]

You can use benchmark for OpenCL, and QE/CI is quite easy. As far as I know if you have transparent menu bar then you have QE/CI.

 

EDIT: Time Machine generally works for me just fine, but few times I had in issue with backup stuck. Just right now I installed some stuff like CS4 Master Collection and such, and now TM is backuping and is stuck on 8,1GB/19,48GB and won't backup more It happened to me a few times before. When I try to stop the backup after that it stucks on Stopping Backup and if I try to restart it stucks on blue screen unless I restart manually. I wonder if this is TM problem or hack problem

 

I had also recently installed Adobe Master Collection and it was on the first backup - now it appears to backup fine - I will keep an eye on it and see if it fails when it is adding a large amount of data to the backup again.

 

I thought I had resolved the issue a couple of days ago by adjusting settings in the Energy Saver - turning off the option to put hard drives to sleep but I have had the issue with this setting as well.

 

Do you get an error message when your backup stops or can you just see that it has stopped increasing the size?

 

I do still think my issue has something to do with loss of communication or ability to transfer data to the drive.

[titan4]

I had also recently installed Adobe Master Collection and it was on the first backup - now it appears to backup fine - I will keep an eye on it and see if it fails when it is adding a large amount of data to the backup again.

 

I thought I had resolved the issue a couple of days ago by adjusting settings in the Energy Saver - turning off the option to put hard drives to sleep but I have had the issue with this setting as well.

 

Do you get an error message when your backup stops or can you just see that it has stopped increasing the size?

 

I do still think my issue has something to do with loss of communication or ability to transfer data to the drive.

 

No error message. I was checking system.log:

Sep 12 13:29:57 T4-KITTY com.apple.backupd[3482]: Starting standard backup
Sep 12 13:29:58 T4-KITTY com.apple.backupd[3482]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Data/Backups.backupdb
Sep 12 13:31:03 T4-KITTY com.apple.backupd[3482]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 22.63 GB requested (including padding), 413.90 GB available

 

After that I wanted to try check backup disk with disk utility and it properly cancelled:

Sep 12 14:14:49 T4-KITTY com.apple.backupd[3482]: Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
Sep 12 14:14:50 T4-KITTY com.apple.backupd[3482]: Copied 15569 files (7.5 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.

 

And I can actually cancel the backup just fine now. So I really have no idea, but when I searched for it a little I found that this sometimes happens on real Macs too, so maybe it is just TM bug. It actually happened to me once when transferring small amount of data like few megabytes.

 

But what happened to me also when installing Master Collection is that once setup stuck and I had to restart it. So I guess this can really be a problem with disk access somehow.

 

They were good games and movies then.. Lol

Ye for learning quantum physics terminology in english....priceless

[the_gael]

No error message. I was checking system.log:

Sep 12 13:29:57 T4-KITTY com.apple.backupd[3482]: Starting standard backup
Sep 12 13:29:58 T4-KITTY com.apple.backupd[3482]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Data/Backups.backupdb
Sep 12 13:31:03 T4-KITTY com.apple.backupd[3482]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 22.63 GB requested (including padding), 413.90 GB available

 

After that I wanted to try check backup disk with disk utility and it properly cancelled:

Sep 12 14:14:49 T4-KITTY com.apple.backupd[3482]: Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
Sep 12 14:14:50 T4-KITTY com.apple.backupd[3482]: Copied 15569 files (7.5 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.

 

And I can actually cancel the backup just fine now. So I really have no idea, but when I searched for it a little I found that this sometimes happens on real Macs too, so maybe it is just TM bug. It actually happened to me once when transferring small amount of data like few megabytes.

 

But what happened to me also when installing Master Collection is that once setup stuck and I had to restart it. So I guess this can really be a problem with disk access somehow.

 

Whatever the issue is I don't think it is related specifically to the install method in this thread - I have experienced exactly the same issue when using Tseug's install method from his thread. It may still be related to Hackintosh methods in general for Snow Leopard as I have never seen this error before either on my Apple Macs or on previous Hackintosh builds of Tiger or Leopard.

[jaikob]

Just wanted to let you know I used your guide with a P35-DS3L + making DSDT.aml, and I'm glad to say all is running

 

Thanks a bunch for your guide!

[snifferpro]

I just read your entire guide before attempting to do the Snow Leopard install

and I have a few questions.

 

1. In Step 1 you say "(when you have it finally as you want it then you can always

put it on the EFI partition)" I assume you are talking about the EFI partition of

SnowLeopard. How do I get the info from Cham to SnowLeapard? Can I just copy

it?

 

2. In step 3B you say "Next, go back to the Disk Utility and select INSATLL from the left pane

and then click Restore (4thtab). For the source image locate your Mac OS X disc image

file on your hard drive and INSTALL as the destination. This will restore the 10.6 installer

on to your USB drive." How do I get the Mac OX X disc image on my hard drive? Or

do you mean from the DVD itself?

 

3. In step 3B you say " Add your DSDT.aml to /extra" Can I use the DSDT.aml from

my working Leopard 10.5.8 system? Or do I have to build a new one?

 

4. In step 3B you say "then take the yellow (32 bit) com.apple.boot.plist and

edit it to add your desired resolution you want the installer to use, and make it look like this"

Can I use the com.apple.boot.plist from my working leopard 10.5.8 and modify that?

 

5. Steps 5D and 5E. Are these steps done against the CHAM partition?

 

Sorry for so many questions, but I'm a bit of a noob and I'd lile to make sure

I understand your guide before I attempt install.

 

Thanks

[titan4]

I just read your entire guide before attempting to do the Snow Leopard install

and I have a few questions.

...

 

1. You can look to another of blackosx guides, where he explains how to install 10.5 with Chameleon on EFI partition. It is not SnowLeopard partition, it is hidden partition on GPT formatted drive.

 

2. I would recommend to go with BootCD method as it is easier and cleaner. USB method guide counts with you having installation DVD as dmg image on your disk. You can make .dmg image from your DVD, but bootcd method will be easier for you.

 

3. Yes you can, but don't forget CMOS Reset Fix mentioned in DSDT guide.

 

4. You probably can, just check what is in blackosx's com.apple.Boot.plist and fix yours accordingly.

 

5. I am not sure what you mean. Blackosx is copying UUID from his SnowLeopard parition if that is what you mean.

[blackosx]

snifferpro - Download the latest version (v2.4) of the guide, that might help you with some of answers.

 

But to answer then quickly here....

 

1.

When you format an HD and opt for a GUID Partition Table, an EFI partition will automatically be created. To quote the first paragraph of GUID wiki page....

 

In computer hardware, GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a standard for the layout of the partition table on a physical hard disk. It is a part of the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) standard proposed by Intel as a replacement for the PC BIOS, one of the few remaining parts of the original IBM PC. EFI uses GPT whereas BIOS uses a master boot record (MBR).

 

For installing Chameleon on to the EFI partition you need use the Terminal to format it and manage it, as generally OS X hides it from the Finder. But when you know what files you need for your Chameleon partition to have a successfully booting machine, then you can put those files on the EFI partition and your machine will boot as normal.

 

2.

I have revised that section in v2.4 of the guide.

 

3.

If your current DSDT.aml works perfectly for 10.5.8 then yes, you can use that for Snow Leopard. But you will need to edit it to include the CMOS reset fix that I explain in my DSDT thread. I actually recommend building and testing a patched DSDT.aml before attempting a Snow Leopard install.

 

4.

Yes you can use your own com.apple.boot.plist. Just add the kernel flag to allow it the kernel to boot in to 32-bit mode (if you want to)

 

5.

Grab the UUID for your SnowLeopard partition and add in to PlatformUUID.kext and SMBIOS.plist which both live in /Extra on the Cham partition.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your answers too titan4

Note: I am going away for a week from the 16th Sept. Can I ask if you can kindly carry on helping to answer these questions?

 

 

Also, titan4 and The Gael, well done trying to sort your Time Machine problem. It could be a Snow Leopard issue? but that's all I can think of. I generally don't use Time Machine properly so I can't really add any feedback on this, other than to say I can turn it on and off and I have let it run a backup for say 500MB and then manually stopped it.

 

I just installed EvoEnabler.kext to Extra/Extensions, i now can boot to the Desktop and i can work from that. It gives graphics glitches when scrolling so it's not a 100% fix the .kext is for 4850 so maybe it doesen't work too well with my 4890. I have to find out where i find the Info about QE/CI and Open CL in Snow, as it is not where it was with Leopard (About this Mac -> GFX).

Hi Donar

This is good news for users of ATI cards, with regard to being able to at least see the desktop and have a working system. QE/CI info doesn't show in Snow Leopard as you have already pointed out. One way to check for it is to go to your dashboard, hit the on screen + sign and drag a widget from the group at the bottom, on to the screen. If you see a ripple effect then you know it's working.

[daryoon]

Thanks BlackOSX. I think your guides are the most well written and thorough. I appreciate the time you took to digest all the various methods and fixes out there and put together this elegant best practice.

 

I was able to pool the info from your GA-EP45-DS3L guides and following your DSDT guide, am able to get my GA-965P-DS3 rev 3.3 with F13 bios up and running very nicely with minimal binary kext. Love using the Legacy(Dummy) type plist kext instead.

 

I was wondering if you saw this method outlined here to customize the DSDL.aml file further to get rid of the IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext? Look in particular at the SATA fix. http://www.infinitemac.com/f57/how-to-snow.../post34233.html

 

-Daryoon

[blackosx]

Hi Daryoon

 

No I haven't seen those and thank you for showing them to me. I would like to look more in to DSDT fixes as it's amazing what can be done with it but I just haven't had the time lately. I will try and have a play with it later this evening and report back. I am interested in anything that can lower the amount of kexts required.

 

Thanks again