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

[titan4]

@ titan4 and EnzoFX

 

Thanks for your answers!

 

I think I am very close to the solution as I have a Samsund SH203 DVD drive that might be the cause of this issue. I already noticed, that my 10.5.8 install unexpectedly reached sleep on idle after creating a DVD image. I just went away, living the image creation going on, and the PC was 'sleeping' when I came back but I couldn't reproduce it anymore.

 

I will retry this: leaving intentionally a disk in my DVD drive and double check (on SL 10.6.1 now).

I will also try 'disabling sleep for hard drives in Energy Saver pref pane' as suggested in the post mentioned by EnzoFX and tell you what the result is.

 

Yes I have SH-223 and i am pretty certain that is the reason, however I have sleep for hard drives disabled and that had no effect. I haven't tried leaving leaving disk in drive, but honestly that is stupid solution. I would rather go and buy new dvd drive, like Optiarc mentioned in EnzoFX's thread.

[mandar3d]

If We Dont have usb keyboard and mouse , only have ps2 keyboard and mouse then what to do?

 

 

Vanilla retail 10.6.1 install with Chameleon on a separate partition for the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L

 

I have also produced three other guides for the GA-EP45-DS3L

Using DSDT on the GA-EP45-DS3L

Vanilla Retail 10.5.7 install guide with Chameleon on a separate partition

Vanilla Retail 10.5.7 install guide with Chameleon on the EFI partition with Dual Boot Windows 7 on same HDD

 

 

News

 

Netkas has released an updated FakeSMC - Now v2

Thanks Netkas for your continued development.

I have updated the Support Files to v1.7 and the BootCD to v1.02 to include this.

 

Guide now updated to v2.4

 

BootCD updated to v1.01 to include Chameleon v2 RC3 r658

 

 

For anybody new to this install, please read this page thoroughly before starting as although I update the install guide PDF often, it is here you'll find about all the latest info regarding this install

 

 

Introduction

 

Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard, it’s new, it’s out and you’ve got it and now you want to know how to install it?... Well I can show you how I have done it and to be honest it’s pretty easy. This is not a bible to the only way of doing things, it's purpose is to show how to build a retail system and get 10.6 installed. I have only documented what I did to get my system up and running. I couldn't possibly document every different option and there are plenty of other ways of doing it.

 

I have written this guide from a point of view of a fresh install and as always I aim to only use Chameleon’s /Extra folder and leave the retail install untouched.

 

First though, I have to thank Laszlo from projectsnow.net for his guide, as that is where I first discovered how to load Snow Leopard for testing purposes. Also thanks to everyone on this forum and in the OSX86 scene for creating the tools and evolving the installation process so it is now this easy to have a Macintosh on your PC.

 

For anyone who has followed my previous install guide for 10.5.X, installing 10.6 should prove fairly straightforward as you will already have a patched DSDT.aml for your system. For anybody else who doesn’t have a patched DSDT, then I recommend you follow my guide Using DSDT with the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L and once you have one, test that it works on a 10.5.X system. However, your existing DSDT.aml needs to be edited to include a CMOS reset fix, otherwise everytime you restart the BIOS will present you with an error, offering you load from default settings or from the previously last used settings. You can find out how to do this by reading my DSDT guide.

 

This guide was made for my system using the following hardware. GA-EP45-DS3L Rev 1 BIOS F10. Intel Core2Duo 7300 2.66Ghz, 4GB DDR 800Mhz, nVidia 8800GT 512MB, 2 x 500GB SATA II Hard Drive, SATA II DVD-RW, USB Keyboard & Mouse. If you have any additional hardware it might be worth unplugging it for now until the system is installed.

 

Although I have tried to make this guide as simple as possible, it still requires some knowledge of OSX86 and the willingness to research, read and learn. Before posting problems on this thread, please ensure you have read and completed the install guide PDF and have searched this thread for possible solutions.

 

 

What can be achieved with this guide?

 

I am currently running a Mac OS X 10.6 system with sleep, automatic sleep, shutdown, restart, time machine, bonjour networking, video and audio in both 32-bit & 64-bit. Native 5.1 surround from digital coaxial posted as working with DSDT (See this post by philippebezoteaux). SpeedStep is working but in 32-bit mode only. It's slick and operates perfectly for my needs.

 

Native NTFS read/write which was added by Apple but then removed is posted as working. Thanks to titan4. See this post. But be warned about potential issues by reading here.

 

 

32-bit or 64-bit?

 

I found a useful explanation here

 

 

Requirements

 

• for 64-bit you need a CPU with SSE3. So all core 2 duos, quads & extremes.

• SATA HD's and SATA DVD drive and make sure BIOS SATA AHCI mode is set to AHCI.

• A purchased Retail Mac OS X install DVD (not the restore DVD you get with Apple hardware).

• A USB keyboard & Mouse.

• A running OS X system to install from and either a spare HD or space for extra partitions on current HD.

• A USB memory stick 8GB minimum or external USB hard drive (Installing from a USB boot drive is recommended).

• A patched DSDT.aml which includes the CMOS reset fix! (I you don't have this then see my guide).

• My Support Files download.

• A little patience.

• Anyone with an ATI video card, please read Netkas' ATI page before attempting this install as you might have video driver issues which need to be addressed. And now also have a look at this post by Donar.

 

 

Up to date info that's not in the PDF guide

 

• For sleep issues, it's always worth following the 'Jan Bird method', which is to make sure the 'Start up automatically after a power failure' checkbox is ticked in System preferences/Energy saver.

 

 

Known issues with this install

 

• If you install with the BootCD or a USB drive and follow this guide for your GA-EP45-DS3L then it should go smoothly. Most problems come from using the OSInstall.mpkg method, which riddles your system with ownership/permission errors. But my system running Snow Leopard is rock solid.

 

 

Install methods - I have now included reported successful install options posted by users

 

Download the Install Guide PDF, the BootCD and the support files then follow the required steps.

 

For Step 3 of the guide 'Install Mac OS X' my guide covers the these three options...

• Boot from BootCD, and install directly from the retail Snow Leopard DVD. (Recommended)

• Using an existing OS X system to build a USB boot drive. Then boot from it and install to a blank HD / partition.

• Using an existing OS X system to run the 10.6 OSInstall.mpkg to a spare HD. (This method WILL give errors).

 

But there are now successful variations to completing Step 3, kindly posted by users, and these are...

• titan4's variation. Using a single HD and a distro (iPC).

• shamansanchez's variation. Using a Single HD, 2 x partitions, Boot from USB to launch a restored 10.6 DVD image on HD.

• boogi's variation. Using a single HD with 10.5 already installed and a USB.

 

 

Install Tips

 

• Ensure your system HDD is plugged in to SATA port 0. Thanks fragreaver.

• If running the 10.6 retail installer fails to complete, try not selecting printer drivers. Thanks doradekell.

• If you have 10.6 running but you're not happy that it's 100% stable, try re-installing 10.6 to another partition from within 10.6 and use that one instead. Thanks doradekell.

• Try resetting your BIOS to defaults, then only enabling AHCI and HPET to 64bit mode. Thanks titan4 & HMiller.

 

 

BIOS settings

 

I have put links here to screenshots of my BIOS for reference.

BIOS 1 BIOS 2 BIOS 3 BIOS 4 BIOS 5 BIOS 6 BIOS 7

 

 

Files - Now including v1.02 Snow Leopard Boot CD

 

Install Guide PDF v2.4 (7.13MB) Last updated 12th September 2009 - 01:43

Alternate Download Link FileFactory

 

Install Guide Support Files v1.7 (1.35MB) Last updated 13th September 2009 - 18:39

Alternate Download Link FileFactory

The Support Files have now been updated to include Netkas' updated FakeSMC v2

 

GA-EP45-DS3L BOOTCD v1.02 (10.75MB) Last updated 13th September 2009 - 20:13

Alternate Download Link FileFactory

Note: This BootCD is based on an original build by Superhai. So thank you Superhai for your innovation.

Intstructions:

Download this ISO and Burn it to a CD. Boot from it, eject the BootCD, insert your retail Snow Leopard DVD, wait a little bit, press F5 and you'll see the Install DVD in Chameleon's device list. Select it and boot to the installer. Use Disk Utility to partition your HD as per this guide, install onto the SnowLeopard partition, when it's done, reboot back in to 10.5.X, then finish off the guide using the Support Files.

 

GA-EP45-DS3L SL USB dmg v1.2 (1.16MB) Last updated 8th September 2009 - 09:20

Alternate Download Link FileFactory

Put this on to a HFS+ GPT formatted USB for booting into your Snow Leopard system or use this as a start to building a Bootable USB Drive and Restore the 10.6 DVD on top of it. Note: This contains the DSDT.aml file I use but you might want to change it for yours.

 

Make sure you've read this thread & a tested DSDT.aml on a 10.5.X system before attempting this install.

 

 

Useful files and links

 

cVaD's Kext Utility v2.3.2 - Run this in SnowLeopard and let it rebuild your caches, permissions etc.

Stellarolla's Blog. The latest news from one of this forum's respected Legends.

Snow's guide at infinitemac.com. This is the original source of the USB install instructions. Credit to Snow.

Lifehacker's guide for Building a Hack Pro and installing SL Another guide to show how to make a bootable USB drive. This will help with step 3a of this guide, but use the support file from here.

 

 

Notes

 

With the official release of Chameleon v2 RC3 r658 you no longer need to use Netkas' PCE EFI v10. However, we need to say a big thank you to Netkas for developing PC EFI v10 as without it, none of us would be starting with SnowLeopard until now!

 

If you have already completed this install and want to use the new Chameleon RC3 then download the Chameleon RC3 r658 binaries from the Chameleon website, add the boot file from the new files instead of Netkas' PC EFI v10 boot file. And to boot with the kernel in 32-bit mode you will now need to use arch=i386 in the com.apple.Boot.plist rather than x32 used with Netkas' PC EFI.

 

 

And finally...

 

if anybody follows this guide then please report your successes, failures etc. And finally, I only know what I have learnt so far, and if you have any tips, suggestions, better ways of doing things then please share it.

 

 

Many Thanks

[titan4]

If We Dont have usb keyboard and mouse , only have ps2 keyboard and mouse then what to do?

 

For crying out loud why are you quoting whole first post and why are you writing with big font ?

 

And you can add PS2 kext to your /E/E. It is already on BootCD so if you go with that method don't worry about it.

[blackosx]

Hi everybody. I am back from my holiday and had a lovely time away.

A big thank you to titan4 for all your hard work you have put in here.

[titan4]

Hi everybody. I am back from my holiday and had a lovely time away.

A big thank you to titan4 for all your hard work you have put in here.

 

Good to have you back !

 

And I am glad that I can help in some way. And I see that I am officially a geek now

[blackosx]

Lol... keep knocking up the posts and you'll soon be a Legend

But really, thanks, you have been fantastic and feel free to carry on as I have a few projects coming up and might not be able to spend that much time on here. But I will keep my hand in when I can

 

EDIT: I see Netkas has released PC EFI v10.3 which might help people with ATI video cards? (More here)

 

EDIT: And I see Superhai has updated his BootCD, which the one I use here is built upon. There might be come changes?

[Litvan]

Have you tried changing iMac8,1 to MacPro1,1 in smbios, as mentioned few times in this thread ? I am using Digital Output so I never had any glitches, but I heard this might help.

 

Thank you, titan4!!! You helped me to enjoy my hack-mac even more with normal sound! Changing the Smbios helped. Can I ask you what is digital output? I am sorry if this is a stupid question, I am fairly new to the topic.

[titan4]

Thank you, titan4!!! You helped me to enjoy my hack-mac even more with normal sound! Changing the Smbios helped. Can I ask you what is digital output? I am sorry if this is a stupid question, I am fairly new to the topic.

 

That is a coaxial / optical output that transmits audio in digital format and leaves decoding on your receiver. And it is great that it helped for you. Maybe blackosx would want to pin that because it helped a lot of people regarding sound quality (it actually helped me too in some way that is too long to explain )

 

blackosx: Few projects ? Damn I just received my brand new Halo: ODST and going to play some coop with a friend of mine. But as always I will do all I can to help you in managing the thread as a little token of gratitude for making such amazing guide.

[EnzoFX]

I did not have sleep on idle working in Leopard, but in Snow, it appears to be working! So give Snow a shot if you just can't get it to work in Leopard.

 

I myself don't have any optical drives plugged in. I had a samsung via USB, so I was pretty surprised I had that dvd drive bug. Anyways... It works in Leo. However, I suspect some apps don't let the system sleep. Yesterday I left it on with a bunch of apps open, and it didn't sleep, but it does so fine when there are no apps open haha. So make sure your apps are allowing sleep! Sometimes the apps themselves can be buggy and just not allow it for some reason...

 

Looking into my only single issue in Snow Leo (laggy window movement when switching between spaces):

It may be an apple related bug.

There is a "fix" that messes with Quarts Extreme, but I'm not sure I'm ready to try such a fix. I think some ppl even reported that the problem went away by itself hah. Others said that problem went away if they didn't boot into 64bit... but should I really be trying that? hah

 

Am I correct in assuming it's not my gfx/dsdt setup? Seeing as it worked fine in Leopard. Well actually there was a weird issue where my screensaver wouldn't work, but it works fine in Snow now. Also as mentioned before, it's only spaces-switching, all other animations are fine.

 

I may just go back to an EFI string for GFX....

[msm5]

Has anyone experienced a time lag in the menu bar clock? I've noticed that sometimes the clock appears to be slow. When I open system preferences to reset the clock, it suddenly catches up. I've tried several of the options in preferences (ticking and unticking automatic date and time, ticking and unticking the "flash the time separators" box, etc.) without any difference. I have not had a single kernel panic in over a week of heavy use with this build and installed SL with the bootCD method and chameleon on a separate partition. DSDT takes care of audio, graphics, and LAN with no trouble. Sleep is working. I am booting into 32-bit for now. I apologize if this has been covered, but I don't recall reading about in this thread.

 

Thanks!

[EnzoFX]

No time lag here ^^

[Rillipiru]

Thanks for the guide. I did a usb boot and it worked very well. I have a EP35-DS3R and i used some files from this topic:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=186570

 

I did have a problem last night, everything was freesing, can´t move any windows etc...i was going ape{censored}...but after a while i realized that my mouse left button was not working right.

[EnzoFX]

^^^ that's happened to me a few times, I chock it up to my mouse not being officially supported on OS X, but also, I think it happened on Windows once... don't remember. Logitech G9 here.

 

On Leopard, sometimes usb kb would not be detected on startup, so far on Snow, hasn't happened yet.

[bshagnasty]

In regards to static chirps after 45 seconds of sound inactivity...

 

I had that problem too. Try to set your model to MacPro3,1 in the smbios.plist.

That fixed it for me Maybe it will help you too...

 

Thank you!!!!! this fixed the problem for me. Credit goes to "Lintendo".

[blackosx]

That is a coaxial / optical output that transmits audio in digital format and leaves decoding on your receiver. And it is great that it helped for you. Maybe blackosx would want to pin that because it helped a lot of people regarding sound quality (it actually helped me too in some way that is too long to explain )

 

blackosx: Few projects ? Damn I just received my brand new Halo: ODST and going to play some coop with a friend of mine. But as always I will do all I can to help you in managing the thread as a little token of gratitude for making such amazing guide.

I will add a note to the front page regarding digital audio, or the Mac model name in SMBIOS fixing the initial audio pop but I still haven't got round to trying it for myself.... (I'll have to add that to the long list of things to do )

As for you monitoring this thread, you have been great so just chip in when you can. This forum is updated by everyone's kind donation of their free time and I know important this time is... I will post when I can too but I think this thread, the guides and all the other guides on insanely now contain most of the information that is required to get Snow Leopard installed.

 

Halo is calling so go play..

[mandar3d]

^{_{Hay titan thx buddy}}

[blackosx]

mandar3d - Please can you think before you post here.

Your last post included the complete 1st post of this thread which as far I can see was pointless.

And titan4 did ask you why you were writing in a big font....

 

So please click 'Preview Post' before posting in future to make sure your posts look like every other post.

[snifferpro]

Blackosx.

 

As stated before, I have SL installed and running following your guide

but I noticed when I boot Cham I get a message about errors, waiting

5 seconds and then one more line which goes by so fast I can't read it.

Snow Leopard still boots however.

 

I also noticed that if I boot SL in verbose mode I get a string of errors

that again go by so fast I can't see them but SL boots fine.

 

Is there a way to slow down Cham and SL on boot to at least be able

to read the messages or a log file somewhere that will have the messages

posted?

 

Also, I tried putting 2 kexts into the same folder on Cham where I placed

the kexts mentioned in your guide for my sound, but sound still did not

work. So I then used Kexthelper to put them in the correct folder in

Snow Leopard and sound then worked.

 

Am I correct in assuming that kexts placed in the Cham partition are only

used for the boot process of the loader and not SL itself or is there

something special I must do to make them work if they are in the Cham

partition like a terminal command?

 

I thought that if I placed any special required kexts in the Cham partition

that I would not need them in the SL partiton thus keeping SL completely

virgin.

 

Thanks for your insights.

[EnzoFX]

snifferpro:

The kexts in Chameleon, in /E/E are loaded into the system, same as S/L/E

The difference being that one is easier to edit, and independent of the vanilla partition install. Assuming the kexts are able to run from /E/E, then they should be loading into the system properly.

 

You can do "sudo kextstat" in terminal to see which kexts are loaded. Also, make sure the kexts are able to load from /E/E, some have dependencies on other things that don't allow this.

 

 

blackosx:

Is it true that PlatformUUID.kext is no longer needed? Nor the SMUUID key in SMBIOS.plist?

[blackosx]

Hi snifferpro - EnzoFX has hopefully answered your questions regarding kexts in /E/E and /S/L/E (Thanks EnzoFx )

 

You can pause the Chameleon boot process which allows you to read the messages. I post how here.

 

@EnzoFx - I still use PlatformUUID.kext and the UUID of the system drive in SMBIOS.plist. This is because when I was learning to install SL that's how I was shown it. As to are they required or not I am not 100% sure? And what side-effects, if any, show when they are removed. I haven't had the time lately to test anything like this but I would be happy to hear any update on this. Thanks

[sneezymarble]

It's not entirely clear to me why smbios is needed at all. I understand that it "corrects" the way certain applications see the system's hardware, but other than that, does it do anything for the system itself? Are there any stability issues that result from just omitting smbios all together? System Profiler seems to work just fine without it.

 

Also, I've been trying out an allternative to installing SL via a USB drive. In my Leopard installation I make 2 partitions on my 500GB drive–a 10GB partition called "cham" and a 490GB partition called "Snow Leopard". The cham partition gets the bootloader stuff and I also restore the SL disc image to that partition. Installation is blazing fast this way.

 

The first few times I tried this, however, the installation would, by all appearances, go to completion but then I would be confronted with a "Install Failed" message at the end of the installation. If I rebooted into SL, things would work just fine; but there would always be a folder on the SL drive called "Mac OS X Install Files" that I couldn't delete. My understanding is that after a succesfull installation the system deletes this folder. The system appeared to work properly but I was worried that something might be missing.

 

I've now managed to do a perfect installation from the cham partition, although, I haven't been able to isolate exactly what caused the "Install Failed" problem. For the most recent installation, the one that worked perfectly, I used a dsdt.aml file that I only patched for the CMOS fix, and I also reintroduced smbios.plist into the Extra folder. Before, I was using a fully patched dsdt.aml file and I left the smbios.plist file out of Extra. So, one of those two things was causing the problem. I can't imagine it was caused by smbios, so my hunch is that the fully patched dsdt was giving me trouble. Funny thing is that if I now add the fully patched dsdt.aml to the cham partition, everything works just fine; so, it appears to be a problem limited to installation.

 

Anyway, I like installation from a partition better than installation from USB or DVD for a few reasons. First, it's fast. Second, I don't have to make sure my USB drive is plugged into my system. Third, and this is related to the second, I can use my USB drive for other things.

 

Edit:

 

blackosx, I know you already get this a lot, but thanks for the amazing guide. I've been a distro user up until now. Your guide has brought me into the vanilla installation world and I hope I don't ever go back. I've learned more than I thought I would from using your guide and trial and error. I wish I would have jumped on the vanilla install bandwagon sooner.

[LeRebel]

Hi,

 

I found a solution to wakeup from USB keyboard or mouse press. It's just a case of patching your DSDT to rectify the USB devices power states:

 

            Device (USB0)
           {
               Name (_ADR, 0x001D0000)
               Method (_S3D, 0, NotSerialized)
               {
                   If (LEqual (OSFL, 0x02))
                   {
                       Return (0x02)
                   }

                   Return (0x03)
               }

               Name (_PRW, Package (0x02)
               {
                   0x03,
                   [b][color="#FF0000"]0x03   <----- Ensure this says0x03 [/color][/b]
               })
           }

 

I am not sure this will work on all boards, but it has done the trick for me. Simply edit all your USB entries with the above code. This doesn't however fix wakeup with bluetooth devices :-( I am not sure how to do this, it seems my bluetooth dongle completely switches off during sleep, maybe someone else knows.

 

Hope this helps someone if it hasn't already been posted.

[Litvan]

Hello to everyone!

I just wanted to report a successful install following the guide. I have everything working like a charm using DSDT, Chameleon v2 RC3 r658 bootloader on a separate partition. My system: GA-EP43-DS3L, E7400 2.83Ghz, nVidia 9800GTX 512mb.

 

Guys, can you give me a piece of advice on which external sound card to get? Is there something that's working OOB? The price range is $150-200

 

THANX!!

[Rillipiru]

Guys, can you give me a piece of advice on which external sound card to get? Is there something that's working OOB? The price range is $150-200

 

THANX!!

 

http://us.creative.com/products/product.as...913&listby=

[bero]

I would like to report my success (again!) using blackosx's excellent guides and thank him (and Netkas) for their contributions. *bow*

 

I will just outline what I did, mostly to just to make clearer how I deviated from the guides to accommodate my Sapphire Vapor-X 4870 1GB graphics card. I think it will be of interest to most ATI card users, as I was unable to install SL for a long time before solving the problem. Here are everything I did to get a working 32-bit SL system, starting with a working 10.5.8 system on another HD:

1. Prepare and test on 10.5.8 a DSTD.aml with the RTC fix following blackosx's DSDT guide. Mine doesn't have a graphics card fix since 4870 is not covered by the utility, but does have a cosmetic EHCI fix.
   
2. Format the drive on SATA port 0 as GUID with Chameleon, SL1, SL2, SL3, DVD partitions.
   
3. Restore a gold master retail dvd .dmg to the DVD partition.
   
4. Install Chameleon RC2/3 into the Chameleon partition following blackosx's guide.
   
5. Install the kexts from the support files, fix ownerships on the Chameleon partition.
   
6. Edit SMBIOS and platformUUID.kext following the guide.
   

Now, if I try to boot this system (or the BootCD, or a USB boot disk; I have tried them all) the retail install DVD hangs at around ethernet card initialization. For a long time, I thought it was related to fakeSMC.kext because I could boot with -s flag, which is typical of a fakesmc/dsmos/appledecrypt problem (or so says the mighty Google). I tried every variation of kexts/BIOS settings that I could think of, but nothing worked. Then I decided to try the new PC EFI 10.3 boot file from Netkas:

1. Replace the 'boot' file in Chameleon partition with the Netkas' PC EFI 10.3 boot file.
   
2. Edit Chameleon/Extra/com.apple.boot.plist to include:
   

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>-v -x32</string>

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>y</string>

Boot, and behold! The install dvd partition booted, and installation onto SL1 went smoothly. Booted into a gorgeous 1920x1200 screen even without setting the graphics mode in com.apple.boot.plist. I have been busy installing my usual apps and doing my usual customizations, and I haven't seen a single hiccup so far.

 

In short, the PC EFI 10.3 'boot' file automagically initializes my 4870 correctly, and allows me to use a totally untouched /S/L/E (and without any other EFI/DSDT fix) which I couldn't do in 10.5. (Big thanks to Netkas.) I wonder if blackosx would consider using it on the BootCD or maybe provide an alternative BootCD for ATI users.

 

Caveats: I have no idea if 64-bit, sleep, or dual monitor setups work since I do not use them. Sound and network work fine. Oh, and I couldn't read the pages 35-50 or so of this thread, so if this is duplicate info, sorry.