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

[blackosx]

Not as much as I was yesterday. I started jumping around room and making kitty sleep and wake up like 20 times in a row She was finally complete And I have some feeling that SATA fix mentioned even increased overall stability.

Brilliant. It's a good feeling to know you have a complete stable system

 

I noticed something on my system last night though and that was trying to ZIP up a 15.5MB folder of a website I had designed. The folder contained lots of small files, html, php, gifs, jpegs etc... the normal for a website. Anyway it wouldn't complete the compression. The finder got to 12MB and wouldn't finish!.. I could click the cross to stop it and then try again and it would do the same? I have successfully compressed lots of other folders on this system... I don't know if this is a 10.6.1 problem or my system?

 

EDIT: I can't think it being my system as it's been rock solid with everything else. This is the first issue I have come across..

[titan4]

I had similar problem with Time Machine backup remember ? It was backuping and on some moment just stuck and stopped copying without any error. I wonder if this can be somehow related.

[blackosx]

Yeah, I remember. It might be related?

[snifferpro]

Hi Blackosx

 

A few more questions here from a noob.

 

I have SL installed but neither my Marvell Yukon controller or Ralink usb Wifi

are working.

 

I want to try a few suggestions to see if they correct the issue.

 

My questions are,

 

1. If I want to add a kext file, do I add it to my SL partition in s/l/e or do I add

it to the Cham partition where I put the kexts from your guide?

 

2. Are the kexts in the Cham partition used just to boot SL or are they

incorporated into the SL partition.

 

3. When I add a kext file, do I have to do a Repair Permissions, and does that

have to be done from the booted SL or can I do that from a booted 10.5.8?

 

Hope I made myself clear and I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future.

 

Thanks

[blackosx]

Hi snifferpro

 

1.

It's completely up to you. But personally I build my systems by only adding anything that I need for my system to Chameleon's /Extra folder, leaving the retail install completely untouched. Then at any time I can do a re-install or install 10.6 to a second backup partition and it will just boot and have everything working as the Cham partition is already set-up. So I would only add a kext to /E/E in the Cham partition. But you can add a kext to /S/L/E if you want, it's your system.

 

But note: Not all kexts will load from /Extra and that's up to you to find out.

 

2.

Kexts in the Cham partition are injected in to the system by the bootloader at boot so they will be in memory at runtime.

 

3.

If you use the Cham partition as I detail in my guide then you don't need to use an Extensions.mkext or worry about permissions etc.. Just add a kext (as long as it loads) and you're done. But other people do recommend using an Extensions.mkext in /Extra and I used one on my 10.5.7 install guide. So you can use one if you want.

 

If you want to rebuild permissions on your SL system, then boot in to SL and double click kext utility. Or again from SL, load up Disk Utility and click repair permissions.

[petrs99]

I would like to thank you for your amazing guide. I have now completely stable kitty after a little effort. Tha last thing which i could solve was sleep. I tried everything but with no luck. But everything what i had to do was turn the Start up automatically after a power failure function in System preferences/Energy saver. Thats it:) Thx for advice of Titan4 i have now everything.

So once more.. Thx for really outstanding guide and keep up the good work.

[blackosx]

Fantastic - Well done petrs99

[petrs99]

Did somebody experience any slight crackling noises when system notification sounds come up?. It usually only occurs for me only first time. Can I repair it somehow? I'm using an ALC888 and your LegacyHDA.kext in Extra/Extensions folder.

[blackosx]

Hi petrs99

This has been covered recently, have a look back over some of the recent pages here.

[uketernity]

Hey All,

 

Ive having an issue with chameleon stopping my sound working.

 

With a fresh install an booting off a usb drive, sound works fine, as soon as I install chameleon, sound stops working, even if I boot off the usb drive.

 

Ive got a raid stripest disk as my main sl drive. This is really confusing me. Anyone got any ideas?

 

Thanks

[blackosx]

Have you got more than one instance of Chameleon installed which might be causing conflict?

[uketernity]

No,

 

Fresh install, completely reformatted the drives prior to installing SL

[blackosx]

Well the sound is controlled by three things...

 

A - Your patched DSDT.aml

B - The LegacyHDA.kext I supplied in my Support Files

C - The default AppleHDA.kext installed in the system which we don't touch.

 

So it can be only either A or B.

[uketernity]

This is the weird thing.

 

My DSDT.aml is patched and works fine (with LegacyHDA.kext) prior to installing chameleon.

After installing chameleon and booting directly or by using the usb stick (which used to work and provided sound) i get no sound.

[blackosx]

If it used to work with the USB stick, then something in your installed system has changed. To test this, do a re-install from your USB drive on to your backup partition which shouldn't take long. Then boot directly in to that new install from Chameleon and see if your sound works with that. If so, then you know it's something on your current system

[imacken]

Hey,

 

Is that right? The only way to boot a preboot cd is to use a sata dvd drive? My boot cd's for leopard worked off my ide drive. I only just bought it a couple of months ago so im loathed to ditch it.

 

Oli

 

Well, I think this is a weird one. I could never get the BootCD thing to work ever on my P35C-DS3R UNTIL I changed the BIOS option 'Onboard SATA Control Mode' from IDE to AHCI. The only thing is that my DVD drive is IDE - go figure!

 

The only thing is that Windows will not boot with that option set, although SL will boot with either setting, so I have to change it only when I need to use a BootCD.

[pedjoh]

Hi again!

For starters I like to really thank u for your great work!

 

Now I like to comment some things here;

 

Everything (except smbios) works great on my EP35-ds3 with your guides, very good indeed!

 

But my smbios will not do the computer recognized as anything else than a "Hackintosh" in geekbench.

Now I'll like to get that right to so can u direct me to what I should look for, is it wrong serial (W1234567890) that's wrong or what is

depending on this?

 

And....Using the guide with dsdt.aml works great though I had to use 8600GT instead of my 9500GT, is there maybe a

way to fix that, what's your input there?

 

About your recent guide for 10.5.8...

The way to use video.plist and ethernet together in a "combined.plist" did work ONLY when I opened it in efi studio and DIRECTLY saved it to com.apple.boot.plist. not exactly what u recommended but it did work...

 

Keep up your good work Blackosx!!

 

/peder J

[blackosx]

Hi pedjoh

 

You are right, a properly configured SMBIOS.plist will convince Geekbench that your machine is not a Hackintosh. For this I think it's down to a few things like SMproductname like iMac8,1 and as you spotted, SMserial - yours is obviously a made up one.. maybe even SMbiosversion too.. You will have to spend some time reading and searching to find what's best for your system. I had to.

 

Again to get your 9500GT working in a patched DSDT.aml, you are going to have to search for someone else who has done it and copy that they have done. Or just use a device (EFI) string.

 

Well done for generating a combined device (EFI) string in EFI studio. I only suggest one way of doing things but there are many other ways for you to discover.

[lny]

Hi everybody, I'm running currently 10.5.8 but I'm a little bit confused about 10.6.

 

Can I just update 10.6 over my present system without a second partition? I have just one mac partition

Does 10.6 work with IDE Harddrives?

 

Thx!

[blackosx]

I haven't tried updating to 10.6 from a 10.5 system on a hack so I can't tell you. But a friend did it on his iMac and wasn't happy how it turned out so wiped it and did a fresh install of 10.6

As far as I am aware, Apple has dropped support for IDE in Snow Leopard but you can get it working with this.

[uketernity]

If it used to work with the USB stick, then something in your installed system has changed. To test this, do a re-install from your USB drive on to your backup partition which shouldn't take long. Then boot directly in to that new install from Chameleon and see if your sound works with that. If so, then you know it's something on your current system

 

Hmm, ok, ill give that a whirl, but before I do, do you or anyone know how to remove chameleon. I installed it manually following the raid install guide.

 

Oli

[hetman]

ok so althought my 10.6.1 is stable from install option c) (install from 10.5.8 via OSInstall.mpgk) its not perfect and I have excess directories showing up on the volume. I should have just Library, Users, System, Applications -- but i have everything showing, includeing dev, net, etc. So I tried install option a) using boot cd.

 

2 issues i ran into:

1) my install appears to just halt and shutdown the system with ~6 minutes remaining. strikes me as a problem but its consistently happening with 2 different hard drives. i dont know if its supposed to do that. assuming no.

 

2) after the (possibly flawed) install, if i go onto booting into my existing 10.5.8 and installing chameleon the installer just sits there at "writing package receipt". and does not progress

 

i can only guess that the 2nd problem is caused by the first. when you guys install from the bootcd do you see some kind of confirmation that SL has successfully installed? i know it sounds like a stupid question but i gotta ask.

 

i read and re-read this post and searched the forums and i cant crack this mystery. tried to do my homework before asking for more help

[blackosx]

Hmm, ok, ill give that a whirl, but before I do, do you or anyone know how to remove chameleon. I installed it manually following the raid install guide.

 

Oli

For this install, removing Chameleon is as easy as erasing the Cham partition.

 

If you have installed Chameleon manually on to a RAID setup then you should know what files you installed and where, so surely you can just remove them. I don't use a RAID setup and this guide doesn't cover one. So I can't offer you support with that, Sorry Oli.

 

ok so althought my 10.6.1 is stable from install option c) (install from 10.5.8 via OSInstall.mpgk) its not perfect and I have excess directories showing up on the volume. I should have just Library, Users, System, Applications -- but i have everything showing, includeing dev, net, etc. So I tried install option a) using boot cd.

 

2 issues i ran into:

1) my install appears to just halt and shutdown the system with ~6 minutes remaining. strikes me as a problem but its consistently happening with 2 different hard drives. i dont know if its supposed to do that. assuming no.

 

2) after the (possibly flawed) install, if i go onto booting into my existing 10.5.8 and installing chameleon the installer just sits there at "writing package receipt". and does not progress

 

i can only guess that the 2nd problem is caused by the first. when you guys install from the bootcd do you see some kind of confirmation that SL has successfully installed? i know it sounds like a stupid question but i gotta ask.

 

i read and re-read this post and searched the forums and i cant crack this mystery. tried to do my homework before asking for more help

You are right that a bad OSInstall.mpkg will leave your root folder structure showing normally hidden folders.

 

When installing from the bootCD you should see an 'Installed Successfully' message and a big green tick. I have read that if you try installing over the top of a previously bad install then it can fail. I suggest you do a full format of your drive and start again.

[uketernity]

Unfortunately there doesnt appear to be an uninstall chameleon option.

 

You install chameleon manually by copying things to the master boot record and what not, i just dont know how to undo and there is nothing in the help file about it.

[Donar]

Can I just update 10.6 over my present system without a second partition? I have just one mac partition

I tried it and it didn't work, maybe bacause of the Radeon i had inside my Rig then. You really do not want to screw up your only working install...