nForce OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) RETAIL INSTALL GUIDE on a Series 6 or 7 nForce chipset / Intel CPU MOBO

[dirtycity]

wow Verdant, glad to hear u got SL working on series 6/7 nForce mobo(i got 750i lol)! patiently waiting for your "Installing OS X to your target HDD volume partitioned/formatted as MBR/HFS+" guide, since I only have one hard drive with MBR formatted T-T. Great job anyway, keep going!

[verdant]

wow Verdant, glad to hear u got SL working on series 6/7 nForce mobo(i got 750i lol)! patiently waiting for your "Installing OS X to your target HDD volume partitioned/formatted as MBR/HFS+" guide, since I only have one hard drive with MBR formatted T-T. Great job anyway, keep going!

 

I will try to work on it as soon as I find some time......

[dirtycity]

hi all, I just had my first attempt to install SL on my evga 750i ftw mobo/Q6600 cpu but failed. The first problem is that my mobo wont boot from a usb stick. What I did is that install SL under leopard, and then manually install the kexts, *.plists, DSDT.aml and chameleon 2.0 RC1 onto the newly installed SL volume followed by verdant's guide here. After all necessary installations done I reboot and my computer went into an infinity reboot loop.I managed to get rid of it by changing the boot flag back to the Leopard partition(with chameleon 1.0 from the IPC 10.5.6). So I think is chameleon 2.0 causing the problem. I have tried install chameleon 2.0 RC1/2 and the result was the same. Seems my computer doesnt support for chameleon 2.0....... Do anyone have solution for this issue? and anyone here with 750i can get it boot from usb drive? TIA for any helps

 

EDIT: just tried chameleon 2.0 RC3 but still no luck. this time the computer wont reboot repeatly but went to black screen and dead after boot to SL.

[g_MAC]

I haven't start updating my P5N-E SLI. still with 10.5.7. Still waiting for 64bit AppleNForceATA.kext.

But I am running 10.6 on a new rig (GA-P35-DS3R), works like a charm...

 

Hi, how did you manage to get it done? Did you follow specific steps, or just the one showed in this post?

 

Thanks in advance...

 

G_Mac

[trokhim]

Thanks, verdant, for this guide!

 

I went through all the steps, and there are issues:

- Could not make extensions.mkext by Kext Utility on USB Flash Drive as written in guide (kext utility reported an error). But it was created on HDD where I was going to install SL.

- After rebooting, I've booted from USB, chameleon logo appeared, apple logo appeared and the installation wizard started. I've deselected all printer drivers, all fonts and all languages except russian. Installation began, and after about 10 mins it showed an error and asked to restart. When I pressed restart, CMOS is cleared and all my BIOS setting became default.

What is the reason? Did I make mistake in creating dsdt.aml? or there are 2 seperate problems:

1. CMOS reseting (wrong dsdt.aml)

2. The problem that stoped the installation process?

 

Can you help me?

Thanks

 

UPD: regarding dsdt.dsl editing (I think there is a mistake): It is written in the guide

namely to edit the RTC section in the file so as to decrease the length of the IO segment from 4 to 2

and then

change 0x02 to 0x04

So as I understand it should be changed from 0x04 to 0x02 because originally I had 0x04..

[verdant]

Thanks, verdant, for this guide!

 

I went through all the steps, and there are issues:

- Could not make extensions.mkext by Kext Utility on USB Flash Drive as written in guide (kext utility reported an error). But it was created on HDD where I was going to install SL.

- After rebooting, I've booted from USB, chameleon logo appeared, apple logo appeared and the installation wizard started. I've deselected all printer drivers, all fonts and all languages except russian. Installation began, and after about 10 mins it showed an error and asked to restart. When I pressed restart, CMOS is cleared and all my BIOS setting became default.

What is the reason? Did I make mistake in creating dsdt.aml? or there are 2 seperate problems:

1. CMOS reseting (wrong dsdt.aml)

2. The problem that stoped the installation process?

 

Can you help me?

Thanks

 

UPD: regarding dsdt.dsl editing (I think there is a mistake): It is written in the guide and then

So as I understand it should be changed from 0x04 to 0x02 because originally I had 0x04..

 

I have changed the procedure in the guide so that generating the Extensions.mkext is done on the Leopard Desktop enabling the app to easily find the correct paths....

 

You are correct......I have corrected the typo in my guide.....I wrote that it should be decreased and then stupidly typed the guide following my own already modified DSDT.aml.....

 

hi all, I just had my first attempt to install SL on my evga 750i ftw mobo/Q6600 cpu but failed. The first problem is that my mobo wont boot from a usb stick. What I did is that install SL under leopard, and then manually install the kexts, *.plists, DSDT.aml and chameleon 2.0 RC1 onto the newly installed SL volume followed by verdant's guide here. After all necessary installations done I reboot and my computer went into an infinity reboot loop.I managed to get rid of it by changing the boot flag back to the Leopard partition(with chameleon 1.0 from the IPC 10.5.6). So I think is chameleon 2.0 causing the problem. I have tried install chameleon 2.0 RC1/2 and the result was the same. Seems my computer doesnt support for chameleon 2.0....... Do anyone have solution for this issue? and anyone here with 750i can get it boot from usb drive? TIA for any helps

 

EDIT: just tried chameleon 2.0 RC3 but still no luck. this time the computer wont reboot repeatly but went to black screen and dead after boot to SL.

 

That is strange......I would expect it to be bootable from a USB flash drive.....try with just the Chameleon 2.0 RC1 bootloader installed on the single volume GPT/HFS+ partition/formatted no-spaces name USB flash drive and see if you can boot from it.......also check that in your BIOS you have enabled all USB parameters.....

 

ONLY then if it is bootable.....then follow my guide......setting up /Extra, DSDT.aml AND PC_EFI V10.1 boot file....etc. first and then restore SL onto the flash drive.....

[Volcacius]

New BootThink 2.3 has just been released with Snow Leopard support. If I'm not wrong, that should also means that we can boot retail SL dvd That would simply a lot all the mess of installing, verdant can you give it a try?

[verdant]

New BootThink 2.3 has just been released with Snow Leopard support. If I'm not wrong, that should also means that we can boot retail SL dvd That would simply a lot all the mess of installing, verdant can you give it a try?

 

I will check it out......

 

UPDATE I installed it on a spare GPT/HFS+ volume on an external USB 2.0 HDD drive (same drive that I have installed SnLp to) via Leopard into the 200MB hidden EFI partition of the HDD (that BootThink partitions as HFS+).......I did it this way to avoid the Chameleon bootloader already installed in the HDDs MBR.......it installs successfully and can pick up all the bootable HDD volumes, both OS X, Windows and Linux (Ubuntu)......BUT it did not recognise the OS X 10.6 Install DVD in my PATA DVDRW as being bootable......

[rohizzle121]

hey after the all the initial figuring out of stuff, would it possible for you to make a like video tutorial?

[verdant]

hey after the all the initial figuring out of stuff, would it possible for you to make a like video tutorial?

 

Sorry but that would not be possible.

[CyberPrime]

I assume it does as this covers nForce series 6 chipsets, but can anybody confirm this on an EVGA 680i SLI mobo?

[verdant]

I assume it does as this covers nForce series 6 chipsets, but can anybody confirm this on an EVGA 680i SLI mobo?

 

It works on a 650i and on 790i so I see no reason why it should not work on a 680i.......

[samdelgado]

Hey Verdant,

 

You helped me about 6 months ago when I was installing leopard on my 780i. You were a great help, and the work you have already putting into getting Snow Leopard running is incredible. I am a little confused with your guide. I tried following it last night but during the install it paused at about 20% in for over 2 hours so I canceled it. My computer right now has 4 HDD's. A 500gb sata Windows 7 64 bit, a 40gb ide for my music, and 80gb ide for my video editing apps, and my other 500gb which had Leopard on it. I wiped the Leopard drive and cleared all of my important stuff off of it, as I was planning to put Snow Leopard on there. I saw your update today about having a Windows 7 drive plugged in causing problems, so I unplugged it but I am still getting stuck in the install. Here is my computer specs:

 

2.66 quad core cpu

evga 780i mobo

nvidia gforce 8800 ultra video card

4 gb ram

2 sata dvd drives

and I will be trying to use the linksys wmp54g card, which I was able to get to work on Leopard

 

I have a 32gb flash drive that I am using for the install, but I am cofused on one part. When you put "Part D - Installing to GPT HDD...." Do I need to do all that in addition to doing all of that to my flash drive? The steps looked identical, and I wasn't sure if that was if someone was just trying to install it from another HDD in their computer. If I am just trying to install from my flashdrive, do I need to worry about any of those steps? Also, are we expected to find all of the kexts that get those components above working? And then add them to the extensions folder? I wasn't too sure so I just went ahead and put like an NVinject one in there and a voodoohda kext which I guess runs the audio off of the mobo. I am not savvy with the whole hackintosh scene, so I might be skipping some important steps that I was expected to know to do. I also have access to a macbook which I can get files from, but now that my Leopard install is gone am I still able to complete this guide? Thanks for your help.

[rohizzle121]

ok, so i did all of the steps for installed on a GPT/HFS+ and chamloen rc1 booted fine and everything, but when iclicked the flash drive, it told me mach_kernal coulndt be found. what should i do? i have the SL disc on a PATA connection and my HDD is running iPC leo and its SATA.

[verdant]

Hey Verdant,

 

You helped me about 6 months ago when I was installing leopard on my 780i. You were a great help, and the work you have already putting into getting Snow Leopard running is incredible. I am a little confused with your guide. I tried following it last night but during the install it paused at about 20% in for over 2 hours so I canceled it. My computer right now has 4 HDD's. A 500gb sata Windows 7 64 bit, a 40gb ide for my music, and 80gb ide for my video editing apps, and my other 500gb which had Leopard on it. I wiped the Leopard drive and cleared all of my important stuff off of it, as I was planning to put Snow Leopard on there. I saw your update today about having a Windows 7 drive plugged in causing problems, so I unplugged it but I am still getting stuck in the install. Here is my computer specs:

 

2.66 quad core cpu

evga 780i mobo

nvidia gforce 8800 ultra video card

4 gb ram

2 sata dvd drives

and I will be trying to use the linksys wmp54g card, which I was able to get to work on Leopard

 

I have a 32gb flash drive that I am using for the install, but I am cofused on one part. When you put "Part D - Installing to GPT HDD...." Do I need to do all that in addition to doing all of that to my flash drive? The steps looked identical, and I wasn't sure if that was if someone was just trying to install it from another HDD in their computer. If I am just trying to install from my flashdrive, do I need to worry about any of those steps? Also, are we expected to find all of the kexts that get those components above working? And then add them to the extensions folder? I wasn't too sure so I just went ahead and put like an NVinject one in there and a voodoohda kext which I guess runs the audio off of the mobo. I am not savvy with the whole hackintosh scene, so I might be skipping some important steps that I was expected to know to do. I also have access to a macbook which I can get files from, but now that my Leopard install is gone am I still able to complete this guide? Thanks for your help.

 

You need these kexts in /Extra on your HDD because you are not booting from and/or running OS X on a "real" Mac......your USB flash drive is a "fake" DVDRW enabling you to boot the Snow Leopard Installer since AFAIK you cannot boot from the Retail OS X 10.6 DVD directly.....but there is a Boot132 method too now....

 

Audio is invariable not as simple as using a single kext and for video the graphics EFI string approach is recommended, although some have used NVEnabler.....

 

ok, so i did all of the steps for installed on a GPT/HFS+ and chamloen rc1 booted fine and everything, but when iclicked the flash drive, it told me mach_kernal coulndt be found. what should i do? i have the SL disc on a PATA connection and my HDD is running iPC leo and its SATA.

 

You need the mach_kernel on the USB flash drive too.....did you follow:

 

(11) Now use Disk Utility -> Restore function to load the Retail Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD (or its .dmg/.iso image file) onto the OSX_10.6_USB_Installer volume.....

[rohizzle121]

You need the mach_kernel on the USB flash drive too.....did you follow:

 

(11) Now use Disk Utility -> Restore function to load the Retail Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD (or its .dmg/.iso image file) onto the OSX_10.6_USB_Installer volume.....

 

 

 

I just followed from part D, and it didn't say I needed to do that. Did I misunderstand the guide or somthing? Can this be done with out a 8+Gb flash?

[samdelgado]

Thanks for the reply Verdant.

 

So basically I skipped over the entire step D, but how am I supposed to add all of those files without having a OSX partition anymore? Terminal is needed for much of it, am I suppose to do it all from the USB installer? And should I have been able to make it to the actual installation without having done Step D? It started installing, but froze at about 20%, so I am assuming it is because I did not do the whole step D.

 

Also, have you set up your donations for Paypal yet?

[verdant]

You need the mach_kernel on the USB flash drive too.....did you follow:

 

(11) Now use Disk Utility -> Restore function to load the Retail Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD (or its .dmg/.iso image file) onto the OSX_10.6_USB_Installer volume.....

 

 

 

 

I just followed from part D, and it didn't say I needed to do that. Did I misunderstand the guide or somthing? Can this be done with out a 8+Gb flash?

 

It did in Part C. Section 2. Step. 11........

 

You have to follow step-by-step from Part B in sequence through to and including Part D......the USB flash drive is a "fake" DVDRW enabling you to boot the Snow Leopard Installer since AFAIK you cannot boot from the Retail OS X 10.6 DVD directly.....but there is a Boot132 method too now....

 

The Boot132 method may be required if you repeatedly get unexplained kernel panics during the OS X installation on your HDD without much or any useful information in backtrace, relating to specific package extraction (not necssarily printer package extraction)......it is probably due to write errors during the OS X Installer DVD/image restore to the USB flash drive and hence read errors when installing.....

 

As blackosx has stated in his vanilla guide:

 

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

 

It's recommended to install from the BootCD or USB drive as installing with the OSInstall.mkpg method WILL give you errors..

 

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

 

You can now use the Chameleon RC3 BootCD to boot and install from the SnowLeopard DVD!

 

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.

• 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 is prone to 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.

 

Thanks for the reply Verdant.

 

So basically I skipped over the entire step D, but how am I supposed to add all of those files without having a OSX partition anymore? Terminal is needed for much of it, am I suppose to do it all from the USB installer? And should I have been able to make it to the actual installation without having done Step D? It started installing, but froze at about 20%, so I am assuming it is because I did not do the whole step D.

 

Also, have you set up your donations for Paypal yet?

 

You need access to a Mac or Hack running Leopard, or a Mac running Snow......and you need to follow step-by-step from Part B. through to Part D., and then Part F. and Part. G........

 

For PayPal donations see link in my signature.......

[samdelgado]

I do have a macbook by me, but how do I right files to the sata hdd inside my desktop?

[verdant]

I do have a macbook by me, but how do I right files to the sata hdd inside my desktop?

 

Sort out the files you need on your MacBook......copy to a USB stick......plug USB stick into Windows7......use TransMac (or MacDrive) in Windows to transfer files to your GPT/HFS+ HDD volume.......

 

I would also recommend you keeping a Leopard OS X system alongside OS X 10.6 on your desktop PC for "safety" until 10.6 is fully sorted on OSX86......

[rohizzle121]

OHHH i didnt understand, but i do now!

 

So i tried one way, where you restore the Retail disc to a partition on your hard drive and use chameleon rc1 to boot to it and then try and it install it that way

i got SL to boot with everything but sound working, acording to the system profiler thing BUT when i was installing it i got a greyscreen of death the first time and a KP the second time. that was my first KP EVER! it was very scary.

there wasnt a real way to check what happened when i got the KP, so im just gonna start fresh.

 

anyways, ill get my 8GB flash drive tomorrow, so i guess ill be reinstalling leo tonight :/

 

 

thanks so much dude, youve been a great help!

[samdelgado]

Of course! I am retarded I forgot I had macdrive so I can put stuff on there. I will let you know if I hit anymore problems thanks man.

[rohizzle121]

so i just reinstalled leo, and it wont show me the UUID in disk utility, only the USB serial number, is there anything else i could use to find the UUID?

[dirtycity]

I just successfully installed the SL onto a separate GPT HDD by following verdant's guide. However, I can only boot it from usb stick. my computer wont load the newly installed chameleon instead it just load windows 7 on another hard disk. I tried to easybcd but windows 7 doesnt recognize the GUID hd which I installed SL on. I also tried to set the boot flag on SL hd and the computer not even boot. Anyone know how to sort this out?

[verdant]

I just successfully installed the SL onto a separate GPT HDD by following verdant's guide. However, I can only boot it from usb stick. my computer wont load the newly installed chameleon instead it just load windows 7 on another hard disk. I tried to easybcd but windows 7 doesnt recognize the GUID hd which I installed SL on. I also tried to set the boot flag on SL hd and the computer not even boot. Anyone know how to sort this out?

 

This problem is probably to do with your GPT HDD ownership.....

 

Right-click on the target OS X HDD volume icon on your Desktop -> Get Info. If the checkbox next to "Ignore ownership on this volume" is checked then click on padlock symbol to authenticate and UNCHECK the checkbox.

 

Then to ensure that the target OS X HDD volume's root directory is owned by the root user, go to Terminal and type: (note 0:0 is equiavlent to root:wheel)

 

sudo chown 0:0 /Volumes/"your target OS X HDD volume name"/

 

which should enable you to boot from your SL HDD.....

 

 

so i just reinstalled leo, and it wont show me the UUID in disk utility, only the USB serial number, is there anything else i could use to find the UUID?

 

You need to highlight the GPT/HFS+ volume icon NOT the USB device icon in the Disk Utility side bar, then click on Info button in the top menu bar........