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

[blackosx]

You are probably using 64-bit kernel, but these solutions are working only on 32-bit kernel.

Good thinking.

 

And I am happy to be back. I don't have a lot of time this month tho. I am studying software engineering alongside my job and I have some exams in January so it will be tough month

January for me is always a bit mad, especially the beginning as I try to get back to normality after the Christmas/New Year break and get my head back in to work. So I understand... and any input you can help with here is always greatly appreciated.

 

Hope the exams go well for you

[Goldi2001]

yäh !

 

That is it !

 

I'm using 64-bit kernel !

 

BIG BIG THX !!!!

[Goldi2001]

sorry, how can i chance booting in 32 bit ?

 

NTFS its not working and i have no idea more how can i change ntfs to 32bit

 

Its is only working when i booting in 32bit ?

 

 

do you understand ?

[titan4]

You need to have

<key>arch</key>
<string>i386</string>

in your com.apple.Boot.plist on Chameleon partition in /Extra

[Chynaman]

Hello everyone,

 

I have 10.5.7 on ep45 board based on blackos' original thread, and looking to do some upgrade.

 

This might have been mentioned in the previous 99 pages of this thread, but could anyone of you tell me if 8g of ram would be recognized? I remember in blackos' previous guide of 10.5.7, someone put in 8g of ram and it would either cause KP or not all the rams were recognized. The reasoning behind it as I vaguely remembered, was b/c this board only support up to 4g for most ram manufacturer? was that fixed?

 

thanx in advance.

[blackosx]

...could anyone of you tell me if 8g of ram would be recognized?

Good question Chynaman.. I don't know the answer.

I remember z4g0r having the issue here but we have had a few BIOS updates since then so maybe the issue has been fixed?

 

Is anybody else here using 8GB that can report?

EDIT: on the GA-EP45-DS3L only.

[snifferpro]

Good question Chynaman.. I don't know the answer.

I remember z4g0r having the issue here but we have had a few BIOS updates since then so maybe the issue has been fixed?

 

Is anybody else here using 8GB that can report?

 

I'm using 8gb on an ASUS P5Q3

[blackosx]

I'm using 8gb on an ASUS P5Q3

Thanks snifferpro. I am aware there are plenty of users out there using 8GB or more on other motherboards but I was asking if anybody has 8GB installed on the GA-EP45-DS3L.

[Chynaman]

As i was trying to download all the files from your first page, i realized that because of my location, and my isp, i do not access to either mediafire nor filefactory, is it posible that you can have a rapidshare link? much appreciated

[Ashe]

Hello everyone,

 

I have 10.5.7 on ep45 board based on blackos' original thread, and looking to do some upgrade.

 

This might have been mentioned in the previous 99 pages of this thread, but could anyone of you tell me if 8g of ram would be recognized? I remember in blackos' previous guide of 10.5.7, someone put in 8g of ram and it would either cause KP or not all the rams were recognized. The reasoning behind it as I vaguely remembered, was b/c this board only support up to 4g for most ram manufacturer? was that fixed?

 

thanx in advance.

Someone else might know more, but with my install of 10.6.1 (have since gone to 10.6.2), on an EP43-DS3L with 8gb, based on this guide, I got kernel panics ('getPhysicalSegment() out of 32b range') until I set a boot option of 'maxmem=3072' to limit the OS to using 3gb of my 8. I didn't test with a maxmem=4096 though, but I see other people have 4gb without kernel panics, so might try that later.

 

EDIT: Just so it's clear, I use an EP43-DS3L, not an EP45-DS3L - though not sure there's much difference.

EDIT2: The kernel panic happened with both 32bit and 64bit kernels.

[Z4g0r]

Hi guys!

Merry Christmas and Happy New year for all (and sorry for the late)!

8GB of Ram running well @ 800 and voltage under 1.8 v

i try 8 GB (4x2GB) Corsair XMS2 @1066 but ar'nt supported because are at 2.1 v

The EP45 DS3L mobo supports ram at max 1.8 v

Now i'm running as well the ram in signature

[jamonda]

Thanks snifferpro. I am aware there are plenty of users out there using 8GB or more on other motherboards but I was asking if anybody has 8GB installed on the GA-EP45-DS3L.

 

It works. I'm using 8gb of Kingston RAM. VMWare Fusion works much better.

[LOLmoe]

blackosx,

 

i installed the RC4 that has the pciroot, systemid, etc fix on it.

 

using vanilla RC4,

my uuid was : DF557FA2-C304-556B-A442-960AB835CB5D

after installing your version with the fixes it's different but.....

 

isn't UUID supposed to match the UUID in Disk Utility's Mac OS X Partition?

It doesn't match.

 

can you give me a brief guide on how to use the SystemID? I don't even know what it is.

is it some random number that will generate a UUID FROM that?

 

 

thanks.

[bigpoppa206]

Good question Chynaman.. I don't know the answer.

I remember z4g0r having the issue here but we have had a few BIOS updates since then so maybe the issue has been fixed?

 

Is anybody else here using 8GB that can report?

EDIT: on the GA-EP45-DS3L only.

I have a GA-EP45C-UD3R and have always used 8 gigs of RAM with no problems. We are close to a DS3L. Might need to set up your ram manually thats all.

[LOLmoe]

I have a GA-EP45C-UD3R and have always used 8 gigs of RAM with no problems. We are close to a DS3L. Might need to set up your ram manually thats all.

 

my friend has 8gb of g.skill ddr2 ram.

[Chynaman]

So i have looked under gigabyte's website, pulled up a few ep45 boards, apparently, all the ones i've looked at, DS3L, DS3LR, DS3P, and DS3R, all updated their max ram capacity to 16 gigs, but as Z4g0r have mentioned, they have to be 1.8v. I could have swore that this info wasnt there when I was making a choice as to which board to buy. So this probly means I have to flash my Mobo sometime soon if i want to use more than 4 gigs of ram.

 

thank you all for the input.

 

 

EDIT: the difference I saw within these 4 mobos are DS3L and DS3LR have ALC888 audio, and the other 2 have 889 audio. Other than the L mobo, the other 3 all have firewire connection.

[robbiet480]

Thought i'd share this interesting little tidbit. I was having issues with getting everything working correctly so I reinstalled. I was surprised both times that I had installs that the boot cd booted up with everything working perfectly. So the second time that I installed I wanted to try a little experiment. I installed Chameleon RC4 manually and then opened up the Preboot.dmg disk image on the cd. From there I copied over the Extras folder to the root of my hard drive (I made everything on one partition instead of two). Upon rebooting, everything, including graphics worked with the exception of my audio but that is because I need to fix perms on the audio kext. blackosx, maybe this is a better option?

[blackosx]

Hi guys!

Merry Christmas and Happy New year for all (and sorry for the late)!

8GB of Ram running well @ 800 and voltage under 1.8 v

i try 8 GB (4x2GB) Corsair XMS2 @1066 but ar'nt supported because are at 2.1 v

The EP45 DS3L mobo supports ram at max 1.8 v

Now i'm running as well the ram in signature

Hi Z4g0r,

 

Thanks for confirming the RAM situation

And thanks to everyone else for their contributions.

 

my uuid was : DF557FA2-C304-556B-A442-960AB835CB5D

after installing your version with the fixes it's different but.....

 

isn't UUID supposed to match the UUID in Disk Utility's Mac OS X Partition?

It doesn't match.

 

can you give me a brief guide on how to use the SystemID? I don't even know what it is.

is it some random number that will generate a UUID FROM that?

To quote from my post here.

EDIT: From reading Rekursor's original post he says that the system generates an IOPlatformUUID from the system ID we enter. When we look at the Hardware UUID in system profiler, it shows us the IOPlatformUUID.

You can read all the details I know from Rekursor's post.

I personally enter my UUID, from the Partition as shown in Disk Utility, in to my com.apple.Boot.plist.

 

As i was trying to download all the files from your first page, i realized that because of my location, and my isp, i do not access to either mediafire nor filefactory, is it posible that you can have a rapidshare link? much appreciated

Hi Chynaman

 

Maybe, if I get time. But I am busy updating the PDF guide at the moment, so maybe you can wait until I am ready to post the new one? or if you want, PM me and I will email the current PDF guide to you?

 

Thought i'd share this interesting little tidbit. I was having issues with getting everything working correctly so I reinstalled. I was surprised both times that I had installs that the boot cd booted up with everything working perfectly. So the second time that I installed I wanted to try a little experiment. I installed Chameleon RC4 manually and then opened up the Preboot.dmg disk image on the cd. From there I copied over the Extras folder to the root of my hard drive (I made everything on one partition instead of two). Upon rebooting, everything, including graphics worked with the exception of my audio but that is because I need to fix perms on the audio kext. blackosx, maybe this is a better option?

Hi robbiet480

 

My guide only shows one way building an installation and as you have posted, there are different ways to do it. You can install Chameleon on to your system partition, or even on to the EFI partition, as I have briefly mentioned in section 1 of the existing PDF guide. Feel free to do it as you wish

 

And yes, the Extra folder I made in the preboot.dmg contains everything for a 10.6.0 system on the GA-EP45-DS3L, hence why your system works when you boot from the BootCD. However, the Extensions.mkext contains more than is needed for your final install, and some old files that are no longer needed. I could add a mention to copying over this Extra folder, but one of the aims of my guide was to show everyone how to build an Extra folder so they can make changes and update it in the future. But your post might prove useful for some.

 

Thanks for the note and good work

Regards

[LOLmoe]

@blackosx,

 

ahh props mate, it worked fantastically.

oh i have a question...

 

when booting with this boot file, in the top left corner, (in the gray colour screen before the apple logo shows) something like pci root something appears, it's like a message. I think it's just cosmetic, becuase there aren't any halts or pauses.

do you kno what that's about?

 

(Oh, btw, when I'm putting in the UUID, do I have to include the dashes, or no dashes?)

 

thank you.

[blackosx]

when booting with this boot file...

Just to be sure we are using the same boot file. I am using the modified Chameleon v2 RC4 boot file which inlcudes Rekursor's SystemID & PCIRoot patches and Duvel300's restart fix. It was compiled by Thiagomorales and he uploaded it here.

 

in the top left corner, (in the gray colour screen before the apple logo shows) something like pci root something appears, it's like a message. I think it's just cosmetic, becuase there aren't any halts or pauses.

do you kno what that's about?

Not from memory, no. Can you post a picture?

 

(Oh, btw, when I'm putting in the UUID, do I have to include the dashes, or no dashes?)

Yes, add the dashes. So it will have this format: XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX

[GoGades]

I run 8Gb of G.Skill RAM. I had to do quite a bit of tweaking to get it to boot reliably, but it's been working fine for over a year now. I found a lot of good info on the issue on the Gigabyte Tweakertown support forum ( http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ )

 

Next time I reboot (I can't right now, I've got some work stuff going), I'll jot down my settings and post them.

[blackosx]

I run 8Gb of G.Skill RAM. I had to do quite a bit of tweaking to get it to boot reliably, but it's been working fine for over a year now. I found a lot of good info on the issue on the Gigabyte Tweakertown support forum ( http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ )

 

Next time I reboot (I can't right now, I've got some work stuff going), I'll jot down my settings and post them.

When you post your RAM settings, could you also confirm that your memory is specified at 1.8V, as Z4g0r confirmed.

Then I think we can pretty much end the 'more than 4GB RAM' debate...

 

Thanks

[blackosx]

Another new modified Chameleon v2 RC4 bootloader

 

Asere has released a new modified bootloader for us to use. I tried it last night and it worked great. It includes Duvel300's restart fix, the PCIroot patch (from PC-EFI) that was in Rekursor's patch and a new Platform UUID recognition algorithm which supercedes Rekursor's SystemID patch. There are some changes though which you need to make to your setup in order to use it.

 

Note: It's not essential you do this if you don't feel up to it. Your mahcine will still function perfectly well without it. It's just another advancement.

 

You can read Asere's post and download the file from here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1379601

 

Only do this if you are confident with what you are doing and you have a BootCD, a bootable USB, or another way of booting in to your system just in case you mess it up.

 

Whats required:

 

I am assuming here that you have been using the previously released modified boot files which included Duvel300's restart fix and Rekursor's patches. And the latest DSDT I have posted for this motherboard, dated 10/12/09.

 

If you want to use it then you will first of all have to write some new files to your Cham partition. This is covered in my new PDF guide 'section 3 - Install Chameleon', but I haven't posted it yet so here is an extract from it.

 

You are going to have to identify which drive and partition number your Cham partition is. To do that, load up Terminal and type Diskutil List then press return. That will give you a result similar to this

 

In this example, I have two hard drives installed and for each hard drive in the IDENTIFIER column you’ll see the word disk, then a number. i.e. disk0. I want to work on my Snow Leopard HDD which is disk1. Then looking for the Cham partition I can see that is identifed as disk1s2.

 

Download and double click the ‘Booter_AsereBLN_v1.1.zip’ file to uncompress it.

 

You will find five files, three of which are boot files.

• boot (156KB)

• boot_with_debug (156KB)

• boot_with_embedded_theme (324Kb)

 

These are different versions of the standard boot file which you will be used to replacing by now.. The first one is smaller because it doesn't include a theme, and it's the one I have chosen to use. If you want to use one of the others then you will need to rename it to boot.

 

Then in the Terminal type (or you can copy & paste the commands from here, replacing X and n with your numbers)

 

sudo -s

cd (then a space)............... then drag the ‘Booter_AsereBLN_v1.1’ folder to the Terminal.

fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdiskX...............X = the disk number that Snow Leopard is installed on to (In this example disk1).

dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsn...............X = the disk number of the Cham partition (In this example disk1).

............................................................. n = the partition number of the Cham partition (In this example disk1s2).

cp boot /Volumes/Cham...........................this copies the boot file to the root of the Cham partition.

 

After that, your Cham volume will now have the necessary files to run Asere's modified booter and have access to the revised features.

 

You can remove any key/strings from the SMBIOS.plist which relate to memory:

SMmemtype, SMmemspeed, SMmemmanufacter, SMmempart, SMmemserial

 

If you are using the boot file without the embedded theme, as I am, then you will need to add the key/string to identify the theme in your com.apple.Boot.plist. If you don't, then it will not be drawn.

 

<Key>Theme</Key>

<String>Name of Theme</string>

 

and you can remove the SystemID key/string from com.apple.Boot.plist too.

 

If this all seems a bit too much then take your time to read the original post by Asere and what I have written here to try and understand it before doing anything.

 

EDIT: Asere is continually developing it and it's now up to v1.1.2

Most updates are to do with reading the Memory without SMBIOS patching but it now also includes Duvel300's RestartFix as default so we no longer need the 'RestartFix=Yes' key/string in com.apple.Boot.plist.

[blackosx]

The Bonjour update in Software Update is fine to install.

[keypox]

hey blackosx, i seem to recall that the previous changes to the boot file was only for the EP45-DS3L.

 

Is this new one the same case, only for the ep45? I am running your guide on the p35-ds3l. Pretty stable but always like like upgrades.