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

[samdelgado]

i get that everyboot and my computer is pretty much 100% right now. its the last thing i see when i am in -v mode before i see the desktop

 

 

Yeah I get it every time as well, so I guess we can scratch that off the list. thanks for letting me know Now it is down to these other two. I will try to contact netkas.

[verdant]

Yeah I get it every time as well, so I guess we can scratch that off the list. thanks for letting me know Now it is down to these other two. I will try to contact netkas.

 

 

Another possibility is that your MOBO's nVidia nForce System Management Controller (SMC) has been "scrambled" after all the re-boots after attempted installations of OS X......so try the following.....

 

So shutdown the PC, wait a bit, then remove the CMOS battery for at least 1 minute, then replace it. Then start the PC, go into BIOS and load optimised default settings into CMOS, and then save/exit......also check that you have the latest BIOS installed for your MOBO......

 

@ pinchescrapa

 

What are your system details and what are you installing SL to and from what.......?

 

The vanilla kernel should work with your nForce 6 or 7 series chipset + Intel CPU MOBO.............

[jchief4040]

Verdant: could you tell me where I need to install the nForceLAN.kext now that I have SL installed? My onboard LAN is not working (nor is my audio). Also, I would like to know where to find the nForceLAN.kext file because I could not find it in the Support Files?

[verdant]

I was able to boot using the USB boot device and choosing options so I am now booted into SL - everything is working EXCEPT: Onboard LAN and Audio.

 

UPDATE: OK somehow I forgot to put the nForceLAN.kext on my USB device. Now that SL is installed could someone tell me specifically where to put the kext file in SL (the full path)? I am very new to the Mac in general. I am only switching so I can use Apple Logic. THANKS!

 

So what cleared your SMC errors....? What USB boot device did you use....?

 

Put Snow Leopard nForceLAN.kext in /Extra/Extensions and in /System/Library/Extensions

with Snow IONetworkingFamily.kext in /Extra/Extensions (copied from /System/Library/Extensions)....then in Snow Leopard use Disk Utility to repair permissions.....and

then in Terminal type

 

sudo touch /Extra/Extensions

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

[jchief4040]

So what cleared your SMC errors....? What USB boot device did you use....?

 

Put Snow Leopard nForceLAN.kext in /Extra/Extensions and in /System/Library/Extensions

with Snow IONetworkingFamily.kext in /Extra/Extensions (copied from /System/Library/Extensions)....then in Snow Leopard use Disk Utility to repair permissions.....and

then in Terminal type

 

sudo touch /Extra/Extensions

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

 

SMC - we used fakesmc v2 however I still got the SMCisinabadState errors but shortly after I got a grey screen and got to the install screen then once the install completed and tried to reboot I got a KP. But I am still able to boot it up using the boot loader. Not sure what the SMC errors meant if it works? Anyway the USB device is still the Kingston DataTraveler 8GB. Thanks for the info on where to place the extensions.

 

So what cleared your SMC errors....? What USB boot device did you use....?

 

Put Snow Leopard nForceLAN.kext in /Extra/Extensions and in /System/Library/Extensions

with Snow IONetworkingFamily.kext in /Extra/Extensions (copied from /System/Library/Extensions)....then in Snow Leopard use Disk Utility to repair permissions.....and

then in Terminal type

 

sudo touch /Extra/Extensions

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

 

OK I found nForceLAN.kext on RapidShare doing a Google Search. I'm not sure it's the correct one because after following your instructions SL still does not recognize any Ethernet ports so still no LAN. OK I didn't have an Extra/Extensions folder in SL so I created one (I did have the /System/Library/Extensions though). So now I have that folder with only the nForceLAN.kext and the IONetworkingFamily.kext as the only files. I'm sure I did not follow correctly. Also, do you know where I can find a known working Snow Leopard nForceLAN.kext? Thank you

[verdant]

SMC - we used fakesmc v2 however I still got the SMCisinabadState errors but shortly after I got a grey screen and got to the install screen then once the install completed and tried to reboot I got a KP. But I am still able to boot it up using the boot loader. Not sure what the SMC errors meant if it works? Anyway the USB device is still the Kingston DataTraveler 8GB. Thanks for the info on where to place the extensions.

 

 

 

OK I found nForceLAN.kext on RapidShare doing a Google Search. I'm not sure it's the correct one because after following your instructions SL still does not recognize any Ethernet ports so still no LAN. OK I didn't have an Extra/Extensions folder in SL so I created one (I did have the /System/Library/Extensions though). So now I have that folder with only the nForceLAN.kext and the IONetworkingFamily.kext as the only files. I'm sure I did not follow correctly. Also, do you know where I can find a known working Snow Leopard nForceLAN.kext? Thank you

 

In my Snow_Support_Files (v1.0) and here.......in /Extra/Extensions on your HDD you should also have these kexts (as per my Guide in post #1):

 

AppleNForceATA

fakesmc v2

GeForce (PCIClassmatched)

NullCPUPowerManagement

NVDAN50Hal (PCIClassmatched)

NVDAResman (PCIClassmatched)

OpenHaltRestart

PlatformUUID

[jchief4040]

In my Snow_Support_Files (v1.0) and here.......in /Extra/Extensions on your HDD you should also have these kexts (as per my Guide in post #1):

 

AppleNForceATA

fakesmc v2

GeForce (PCIClassmatched)

NullCPUPowerManagement

NVDAN50Hal (PCIClassmatched)

NVDAResman (PCIClassmatched)

OpenHaltRestart

PlatformUUID

 

Correct and I do. I was saying I could not find the nForceLAN.kext which I need to get onboard LAN working. And when you say "HDD" do you mean the hard drive in my system that SL is installed on? Or the USB HDD? Right now I have on my USB (in Extra/Extensions) - :

AppleNForceATA

fakesmc v2

GeForce (PCIClassmatched)

NullCPUPowerManagement

NVDAN50Hal (PCIClassmatched)

NVDAResman (PCIClassmatched)

OpenHaltRestart

PlatformUUID

 

I created the Extra/Extensions folder on SL because I thought that was your response to my question about where to put (and find) the nForceLAN.kext for SL (not the USB). I don't have nForceLAN.kext and could not find that in the Support Files and would like to know where to get that. when you refer to /Extra/Extensions you must mean the USB HDD and not the HDD on my system that I installed SL to. Is that right? The "HDD" confuses me. Sorry.

 

So I should put the nForceLAN.kext file on both the USB drive (in the Extra/Extensions as an addition to what you listed) and then on the HDD (not USB - the Internal Drive) I need the file in /System/Library/Extensions - correct? But like I said the nForceLAN.kext I am not sure is right because it doesn't say anything about snow leopard and found it on Google/RapidShare. Just wanted to know a place to find this nForceLAN.kext and know it's the correct file for SL. I hope this makes sense. THANKS!

 

EDIT/UPDATE: Oh sorry I click the link you sent which took me to eno's thread. So now I got the file. Thanks.

[verdant]

Correct and I do. I was saying I could not find the nForceLAN.kext which I need to get onboard LAN working. And when you say "HDD" do you mean the hard drive in my system that SL is installed on? Or the USB HDD? Right now I have on my USB (in Extra/Extensions) - :

AppleNForceATA

fakesmc v2

GeForce (PCIClassmatched)

NullCPUPowerManagement

NVDAN50Hal (PCIClassmatched)

NVDAResman (PCIClassmatched)

OpenHaltRestart

PlatformUUID

 

I created the Extra/Extensions folder on SL because I thought that was your response to my question about where to put (and find) the nForceLAN.kext for SL (not the USB). I don't have nForceLAN.kext and could not find that in the Support Files and would like to know where to get that. when you refer to /Extra/Extensions you must mean the USB HDD and not the HDD on my system that I installed SL to. Is that right? The "HDD" confuses me. Sorry.

 

So I should put the nForceLAN.kext file on both the USB drive (in the Extra/Extensions as an addition to what you listed) and then on the HDD (not USB - the Internal Drive) I need the file in /System/Library/Extensions - correct? But like I said the nForceLAN.kext I am not sure is right because it doesn't say anything about snow leopard and found it on Google/RapidShare. Just wanted to know a place to find this nForceLAN.kext and know it's the correct file for SL. I hope this makes sense. THANKS!

 

EDIT/UPDATE: Oh sorry I click the link you sent which took me to eno's thread. So now I got the file. Thanks.

 

Since most people set up a USB flash drive installer and are installing to a HDD, the HDD always refers to the location of the installed SL system, i.e. on an external USB HDD, or on an internal HDD.....

 

So......nForceLAN only needs to go in /E/E and /S/L/E on HDD.....

[jchief4040]

OK the nForceLAN.kext (Snow Leopard one) from that link won't work with my installation. When placed in the /System/Library/Extensions folder it is highlighted in blue and occasionally it I get a message that the kext was not installed properly. One thing I should say is that I installed the 32-bit OS. The only snow leopard version I could find was for the the 64-bit version. Is that the reason?

[verdant]

OK the nForceLAN.kext (Snow Leopard one) from that link won't work with my installation. When placed in the /System/Library/Extensions folder it is highlighted in blue and occasionally it I get a message that the kext was not installed properly. One thing I should say is that I installed the 32-bit OS. The only snow leopard version I could find was for the the 64-bit version. Is that the reason?

 

Yes......you need the Snow Leopard version

[jchief4040]

Yes......you need the Snow Leopard version

 

Sorry I am confused. On eno's link the only Snow Leopard version was for 64-bit. This is what I have used now and the moment I copy it over into the /System/Library/Extensions (I've re-downloaded the kext's as well to make sure it wasn't corrupted) Snow Leopard says that it is invalid and not installed correctly and stays highlighted blue. Same goes for /e/e.

 

Also, do you recommend installing 10.6.1 via software update?

[verdant]

Sorry I am confused. On eno's link the only Snow Leopard version was for 64-bit. This is what I have used now and the moment I copy it over into the /System/Library/Extensions (I've re-downloaded the kext's as well to make sure it wasn't corrupted) Snow Leopard says that it is invalid and not installed correctly and stays highlighted blue. Same goes for /e/e.

 

You need to run Disk Utility from within 10.6 to fix the kext permissions on /S/L/Extensions and then use Kext Utility to fix permissions of your HDD /Extra Extensions folder.......

 

Update to 10.6.1 only once you have got 10.6 running properly.....

[lolscrapa]

verdant:

 

the default nvidia graphics kext are obv not pciclassmatched in SL /S/L/E, if i copy over the same ones from your snow support dir, and repair permissions, rebuild kext cache, i can see it loading the kexts on startup by hitting pause on keyboard at boot, but they don't get loaded when SL fires up, if i take the exact same kexts and remove the pciclassmatch, the graphics system works like it's supposed to, weird :\ ?

[verdant]

verdant:

 

the default nvidia graphics kext are obv not pciclassmatched in SL /S/L/E, if i copy over the same ones from your snow support dir, and repair permissions, rebuild kext cache, i can see it loading the kexts on startup by hitting pause on keyboard at boot, but they don't get loaded when SL fires up, if i take the exact same kexts and remove the pciclassmatch, the graphics system works like it's supposed to, weird :\ ?

 

I put the PCIClassMatched kexts in SL /Extra/Extensions not in SL /S/L/E......and do not set up an Extensions.mkext for SL /E/E.......but I will do some checking......

[lolscrapa]

Yeah, same here, does it not matter that /S/L/E contains the unpatched versions of these kexts?

as of right now i have the patched ones in /Extra/Extensions, and the vanilla unpatched in /S/L/E, if I try to copy the fixed ones over into /S/L/E, it bricks hardware acceleration

 

edit:

 

missed your text on the last page..

 

running on nforce 750i , evga mobo, intel core2quad q6600, ddr2 1066

 

with leopard when there was high amount of data transfer anywhere, usb would lockup, now i'm getting formal kernel panics, whether it's from trying to do something with a vm app, or force rechecking data from torrent, or anything that tries to somewhat use cpu/disk...

 

either it's dsdt, or maybe nforceata?

[verdant]

Yeah, same here, does it not matter that /S/L/E contains the unpatched versions of these kexts?

as of right now i have the patched ones in /Extra/Extensions, and the vanilla unpatched in /S/L/E, if I try to copy the fixed ones over into /S/L/E, it bricks hardware acceleration

 

edit:

 

missed your text on the last page..

 

running on nforce 750i , evga mobo, intel core2quad q6600, ddr2 1066

 

with leopard when there was high amount of data transfer anywhere, usb would lockup, now i'm getting formal kernel panics, whether it's from trying to do something with a vm app, or force rechecking data from torrent, or anything that tries to somewhat use cpu/disk...

 

either it's dsdt, or maybe nforceata?

 

At the moment AFAIK there is not a 64bit AppleNForceATA.kext available.......however you can use slashack's ApplenForceATA kext v0.1 which allows 64bit memory addressing and thus allows use of > 3GB RAM with KPs under Leopard or AnV's modified version of this same kext......howwever, both are 32bit kexts but that is not a problem because on nForce MOBOs we are booting in 32bit mode via arch=i386 or -x32.......

 

I know Transmission is reported as being problematic on OS X Leopard.......

 

I know some people have modded the DSDT.aml for SATA on Intel chipset MOBOs.....

[lolscrapa]

Yup i'm using 32-bit (anv modded) nforceata and booting with -x32 (Chameleon RC1 with PCI_EFI 10.1 boot file)

[jchief4040]

You need to run Disk Utility from within 10.6 to fix the kext permissions on /S/L/Extensions and then use Kext Utility to fix permissions of your HDD /Extra Extensions folder.......

 

Update to 10.6.1 only once you have got 10.6 running properly.....

 

Thank you so much for your help with this. I got onboard LAN working. I just didn't use the Kext Utility before and after doing so I was OK. I will report though that after about a half hour to 1 hour the ethernet stops working correctly and I get a self-assigned IP address. When I move over to the PCI Ethernet card I put in a while ago it works just fine. After a reboot the onboard LAN will work but only temporarily. Other then that I think everything is OK. I was able to upgrade to 10.6.1 without issue as well. Onboard audio doesn't work but I don't think the guide covered that (I didn't see any kexts for it).

[verdant]

Thank you so much for your help with this. I got onboard LAN working. I just didn't use the Kext Utility before and after doing so I was OK. I will report though that after about a half hour to 1 hour the ethernet stops working correctly and I get a self-assigned IP address. When I move over to the PCI Ethernet card I put in a while ago it works just fine. After a reboot the onboard LAN will work but only temporarily. Other then that I think everything is OK. I was able to upgrade to 10.6.1 without issue as well. Onboard audio doesn't work but I don't think the guide covered that (I didn't see any kexts for it).

 

Glad to help........ SL is clearly not as straightforward in terms of kext loading and permissions etc. as Leopard.............

 

For audio it depends on your audio chipset..........some work with a 64bit compiled VoodooHDA kext while others require a DSDT modification..........

 

The guide has not covered it because it is specific to your MOBO audio chipset......e.g. for my AD1988b chipset I will need to use a modified DSDT.aml file......

 

BTW for nForceLAN.kext, did you remember to rename nvenet.kext to nvenet.kext.bad in PlugIns of IONetworkingfamily.kext......?

 

Yeah, same here, does it not matter that /S/L/E contains the unpatched versions of these kexts?

as of right now i have the patched ones in /Extra/Extensions, and the vanilla unpatched in /S/L/E, if I try to copy the fixed ones over into /S/L/E, it bricks hardware acceleration

 

edit:

 

missed your text on the last page..

 

running on nforce 750i , evga mobo, intel core2quad q6600, ddr2 1066

 

with leopard when there was high amount of data transfer anywhere, usb would lockup, now i'm getting formal kernel panics, whether it's from trying to do something with a vm app, or force rechecking data from torrent, or anything that tries to somewhat use cpu/disk...

 

either it's dsdt, or maybe nforceata?

 

When you say hardware acceleration is bricked, what do you see under Graphics/Displays in System Profiler because I know longer see Core Image and Quartz Extreme by name with the SL nVidia graphics kexts loaded and using a graphics string in com.apple.Boot.plist for my OpenCL compliant 8600GT graphics card, rather than a injector or enabler kext.....?

[lolscrapa]

Yeah, it doesn't show that, but I lose the transparent menubar, my display reverts back to 1280x1024, I don't see NVDANVHAL50 being loaded and registered in the verbose output.. I am using gfx string

[jchief4040]

Glad to help........ SL is clearly not as straightforward in terms of kext loading and permissions etc. as Leopard.............

 

For audio it depends on your audio chipset..........some work with a 64bit compiled VoodooHDA kext while others require a DSDT modification..........

 

The guide has not covered it because it is specific to your MOBO audio chipset......e.g. for my AD1988b chipset I will need to use a modified DSDT.aml file......

 

BTW for nForceLAN.kext, did you remember to rename nvenet.kext to nvenet.kext.bad in PlugIns of IONetworkingfamily.kext......?

 

Hmm.. I sure didn't and I cannot find nvenet.kext on my system? Where is PlugIns? I DID, however put IONetworkingfamily.kext in e/e from /system/library/extensions

 

Yeah, it doesn't show that, but I lose the transparent menubar, my display reverts back to 1280x1024, I don't see NVDANVHAL50 being loaded and registered in the verbose output.. I am using gfx string

 

Well darn now that you mention it I don't think my graphics is working correctly either. The only option in displays is 1280 x 1024. I have the GeFore 8800 GTX. But I was not aware of a "gfx string" ? ..

[samdelgado]

Hey Verdant,

 

I took out the battery and reset to defaults like you said but still no luck. I will keep checking in to see if anyone has figured out the SMC errors.

[verdant]

Hey Verdant,

 

I took out the battery and reset to defaults like you said but still no luck. I will keep checking in to see if anyone has figured out the SMC errors.

 

Sorry about that......are you running the latest BIOS for your MOBO....?

 

Yeah, it doesn't show that, but I lose the transparent menubar, my display reverts back to 1280x1024, I don't see NVDANVHAL50 being loaded and registered in the verbose output.. I am using gfx string

 

With the PCIClassMatched kexts in /S/L/E I do get NVDANVHal50.kext being loaded but the mouse pointer behaves oddly...........so it seems as if something has changed with these kexts in SL compared with Leopard......probably related to the OpenCL framework.....so I will remove mention of them from the guide.....

[lolscrapa]

I can pretty much make it kernel panic anytime i want now.. cpus=1 doesn't do anything anymore, no clue what to try next.. could this be causing any problems?

 

AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=0 LocalApicId=0 Enabled

AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=1 LocalApicId=3 Enabled

AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=2 LocalApicId=1 Enabled

AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=3 LocalApicId=2 Enabled

 

or does it not matter they're not matching o.O

[jchief4040]

Hmm.. I sure didn't and I cannot find nvenet.kext on my system? Where is PlugIns? I DID, however put IONetworkingfamily.kext in e/e from /system/library/extensions

 

 

 

Well darn now that you mention it I don't think my graphics is working correctly either. The only option in displays is 1280 x 1024. I have the GeFore 8800 GTX. But I was not aware of a "gfx string" ? ..

 

Guess I should have read the guide a little better. I was able to change the IONetworkingfamily.kext . We'll see how these changes go for me. Thanks! For some reason I find it easy to skip over/forget things in this guide.