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

[verdant]

Yeah.

That´s correct.

Snow Leopard is installed but cannot but into it.

 

Don´t know for sure if you read one edit of my last post, but I´ll write it here again.

 

I´m trying to boot into Snow Leopard(GPT/HFS+) with Chameleon 2.0 RC2 that is the same bootloader I use to start my Leopard(MBR/HFS+). Could this be a problem?

 

Cheers.

 

EDIT

Some pics of my MACINTOSH-HD after the Snow Leopard installation. Take a look to see if helps.

 

| | |

 

Cheers again.

 

 

Remember that in my guide you needed to replace the Chameleon RC1 or RC2 boot file with either PC_EFI v10.1 or 10.2 or with the boot file from RC3 to boot SL......

I select the drive i want to boot from in the bios boot prompt (external hdd in my case) and the chameleon (RC1 with efi 10) boot menu appears showing me all the drives inside my pc (Leopard 10.5.6, Windows NTFS, DATA and Snow_Leopard)

 

I choose Snow_Leopard and boot with -v

 

Then, all the kexts begin to load and when everything finishes, i get the kernel panic.

 

BTW, i tried with this and nothing helps: -v -x -f -x32 arch=i386 cpus=1

 

 

EDIT 1

 

Want to know why the heck it wasn't working? Because os the frikkin chameleon rc1+efi 10.

 

installed rc3 and everyting started to work.

 

let's see how this goes on

 

EDIT 2

 

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!! thanks for all the help. So, if you get a kernel panic with rc1 and efi 10, try rc3.

 

That is good news......as for boot flags.......with RC1 + PC_EFI v10.1 or 10.2 you use -x32

 

BUT with RC3 you use arch=i386

 

AND because SL requires at least a Core 2 Duo you cannot use cpus=1.......

[breakingbad]

hey, when you're in verbose mode and have a kernel panic, what messages do you get?

 

because the same thing happens to me, i can install but once installed it won't start.

 

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: UNKNOWN.

 

Check this files. Sorry for the poor quality. Mobile VGA Camera.

 

[verdant]

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: UNKNOWN.

 

Check this files. Sorry for the poor quality. Mobile VGA Camera.

 

 

I am trying some stuff out with Chameleon 2.0 RC3 + PC_EFI v10.3 boot file on my OS X Boot partition so that I can boot into both Leopard and Snow Leopard from either.......please be patient but I do not think it will take me too long......

[breakingbad]

Remember that in my guide you needed to replace the Chameleon RC1 or RC2 boot file with either PC_EFI v10.1 or 10.2 or with the boot file from RC3 to boot SL......

 

For sure I remember to change the boot file.

 

I already tried doing the installer this 2 ways:

 

> RC1 + PC EFI 10.1 = KP on install (fakesmc v1)

 

> RC2 + RC3 boot file = KP on booting (fakesmc v1)

 

* As the description of fakesmc on the guide, I don´t believe it woud make much difference between v1 or v2...

 

Cheers.

 

 

I am trying some stuff out with Chameleon 2.0 RC3 + PC_EFI v10.3 boot file on my OS X Boot partition so that I can boot into both Leopard and Snow Leopard from either.......please be patient but I do not think it will take me to long......

 

Wow. You rock.

I can´t thank you enough.

You have the time you need.

Don´t want to push you.

 

I´ll be here waiting for your file no matter how long it takes.

 

Cheers.

 

EDIT

 

Verd, if I install Dr.Hurt Unofficial RC3 installer in my LEOPARD partition would I be able to boot my 10.5.8 partition fine or will I have problem???

[juanmacrack93]

My two cents:

 

this is what I used to get sound working: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=188349

 

It works even better than in leopard (mic sound is much louder and more clear)

 

Cheers

 

Juanma

[verdant]

For sure I remember to change the boot file.

 

I already tried doing the installer this 2 ways:

 

> RC1 + PC EFI 10.1 = KP on install (fakesmc v1)

 

> RC2 + RC3 boot file = KP on booting (fakesmc v1)

 

* As the description of fakesmc on the guide, I don´t believe it woud make much difference between v1 or v2...

 

Cheers.

 

 

 

 

Wow. You rock.

I can´t thank you enough.

You have the time you need.

Don´t want to push you.

 

I´ll be here waiting for your file no matter how long it takes.

 

Cheers.

 

EDIT

 

Verd, if I install Dr.Hurt Unofficial RC3 installer in my LEOPARD partition would I be able to boot my 10.5.8 partition fine or will I have problem???

 

Yes AFAIK

[breakingbad]

Yes AFAIK

 

Yes?

Yes to boot fine or to have problems???

 

Cheers.

[juanmacrack93]

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: UNKNOWN.

 

Check this files. Sorry for the poor quality. Mobile VGA Camera.

 

 

Hey, it's the exact same error i had. (you can check that in other comment i did)

 

Have you tried with chameleon 2.0 rc3 and rc3 boot file (the one inside the i386 folder)?

 

Hope you can get it to work!

[breakingbad]

Hey, it's the exact same error i had. (you can check that in other comment i did)

 

Have you tried with chameleon 2.0 rc3 and rc3 boot file (the one inside the i386 folder)?

 

Hope you can get it to work!

 

Yeah mate.

Already tried all Chameleons with all combinations of boot files available.

I will follow verdant´s advice about the nForceLAN.kext that he recently posted in #1 post.

 

Check session G and J.

 

Cheers, better saying "tears".

 

EDIT

verd, the procedure you told me about is really this G and J session from the guide?

And... can I delete the nForceLAN.kext from the existing installer or should I create the installer again?

Let me know.

 

C ya.

[psilocybin]

Which IRQs did you end up having to change in your DSDT?

 

 

 

I assume you are running Snow Leopard on an nForce chipset + Intel CPU MOBO.......if so, give more details if you want any help.........

 

installed via USB drive. Have duly working 10.5 install having the problems with 10.6. 7900gtx works great when booting with -x and the efi string. If I don't boot in safe mode the screen hangs on a blue screen slightly flashing

 

Running snow leopard nforce 7 board.

[verdant]

Yes?

Yes to boot fine or to have problems???

 

Cheers.

 

 

Here is the procedure for booting SL from a Leopard volume Chameleon bootloader screen......

 

1. Install Chameleon 2.0 RC3 onto your Leopard volume using Dr. Hurt's Installer or run dj nitehawk's Pre-Install Automator v1.1 script just to install Chameleon 2.0 RC3

 

2. Google search for netkas' PC_EFI v10.3 boot file and download it

 

3. Replace the Chameleon 2.0 RC3 boot file with netkas' PC_EFI v10.3 boot file

 

4. In your Leopard volume, you will now have an /Extra directory, containing an Extensions folder (containing Disabler.kext.....?) and a Themes folder (as usual when installing the Chameleon bootloader.....)

 

5. Now into the /Extra directory on your Leopard volume, add a new folder named 10.6

 

6. Inside 10.6 add a folder named Extra, and inside this folder add a folder named Extensions

 

7. Inside /Extra/10.6/Extra/Extensions, place copies of the kexts from the /Extra/Extensions folder on your SL volume

 

8. Inside /Extra on your Leopard volume, place a copy of the com.apple.boot.plist from the /Extra directory on your SL volume, which should contain the graphics EFI string for your video card to enable full functioning with hardware acceleration, multiple resolutions and resolution switching etc. in SL.......

 

Note: When booting into Leopard, the com.apple.Boot.plist file in Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration is loaded over this com.apple.Boot.plist......this is my guess......

 

You should now have something similar to this (although you may have additional kexts as required for your MOBO....):

 

 

9. To boot into your Leopard volume......do so as normal.......the Leopard volume icon will be framed.......so just press Return.....

 

10. To boot into your SL volume, use your arrow keys to frame the SL icon.....then press Return

 

To see what is happening, you can boot with -v......

 

IF you have error messages and/or KPs appearing then boot with

mach_kernel arch=i386

 

(the KP may have occured because you are running Leopard with the Voodoo kernel......the bootloader will/may look for mach_kernel.voodoo...... it depends how your Leopard com.apple.Boot.plist has been set up to load the Voodoo kernel.......also arch=i386 will ensure that SL boots in 32bit mode.......)

so that the boot: prompt appears in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen....

boot: mach_kernel arch=i386

then press Return......

 

Hopefully, you will now boot into SL........

 

ALTERNATIVELY if you don't like typing in the "mach_kernel arch=i386" boot flags to boot SL, then you can install, set up and use (hopefully successfully....) xiezhy's Boot Think (version 2.3.18 currently......), which is an alternative bootloader to Chameleon 2.0.....

[verdant]

installed via USB drive. Have duly working 10.5 install having the problems with 10.6. 7900gtx works great when booting with -x and the efi string. If I don't boot in safe mode the screen hangs on a blue screen slightly flashing

 

Running snow leopard nforce 7 board.

 

This is because SL only supports particular graphics cards......see post #1 Part A........

 

Yeah mate.

Already tried all Chameleons with all combinations of boot files available.

I will follow verdant´s advice about the nForceLAN.kext that he recently posted in #1 post.

 

Check session G and J.

 

Cheers, better saying "tears".

 

EDIT

verd, the procedure you told me about is really this G and J session from the guide?

And... can I delete the nForceLAN.kext from the existing installer or should I create the installer again?

Let me know.

 

C ya.

 

Please clarify which procedure you mean because I have mentioned so many my head is buzzing......the latest procedure I am sorting out involves the Chameleon bootloader........?

[breakingbad]

FINALLY MATE !!!

 

Im writing to you of my SNOW LEOPARD install.

 

Your procedure worked in the first try.

 

Its working fine.

I still have to configure keyboard to Brazilian ABNT2 format. Thats why Im writing every thing without right punctuation.

Only few is meant to work.

I have one little package to turn my keyboard into brazilian abnt2 format that I use in my Leopard install... it will work for Snow Leopard too?

 

Here goes one picture:

 

 

Thank you so very much verd. Without your knowledge and endless support I could never install Snow Leopard.

As someone already said, youre Dr. House of Insanely Mac. Thank you so much.

 

Cheers.

bb.

[verdant]

FINALLY MATE !!!

 

Im writing to you of my SNOW LEOPARD install.

 

Your procedure worked in the first try.

 

Its working fine.

I still have to configure keyboard to Brazilian ABNT2 format. Thats why Im writing every thing without right punctuation.

Only few is meant to work.

I have one little package to turn my keyboard into brazilian abnt2 format that I use in my Leopard install... it will work for Snow Leopard too?

 

Here goes one picture:

 

 

Thank you so very much verd. Without your knowledge and endless support I could never install Snow Leopard.

As someone already said, youre Dr. House of Insanely Mac. Thank you so much.

 

Cheers.

bb.

 

Glad to help and that it worked for you at the first attempt.......

 

I would now like to spend time to get sound and sleep working on my own MOBO, as I think I have covered all the major bases in my thread to help others get SL installed and booting/running alongside Leopard on their nForce MOBOs......or do you think I have missed something.....?

 

What about SL on your MBR/HFS+ partition.....?

[breakingbad]

Glad to help and that it worked for you at the first attempt.......

 

I would now like to spend time to get sound and sleep working on my own MOBO, as I think I have covered all the major bases in my thread to help others get SL installed and booting/running alongside Leopard on their nForce MOBOs......or do you think I have missed something.....?

 

What about SL on your MBR/HFS+ partition.....?

 

For sure mate. You covered every little step on the way to make SL works on nForce mobo chipset. I am asking myself if anything more could be done and the answer is: NO. You did everything. Every F*** thing you cover with your GUIDE. You

 

About the MBR/HFS+ partition, didn´t tried yet. But you can count on me to do it and post all results for it in every step of the way. I wish I could help you with many things a lot more but I´ll help you with what I can do.

 

My sound is not working too. I found one possible solution in InsanelyMac, but seems that the file works only on x64 mode.

 

Cheers.

 

P.S. - Keyboard layout to ABNT2 Brazilian is solved. Fast and easy.

Can I upgrade to 10.6.1 without problems via Software Update or just can't?

[verdant]

For sure mate. You covered every little step on the way to make SL works on nForce mobo chipset. I am asking myself if anything more could be done and the answer is: NO. You did everything. Every F*** thing you cover with your GUIDE. You

 

About the MBR/HFS+ partition, didn´t tried yet. But you can count on me to do it and post all results for it in every step of the way. I wish I could help you with many things a lot more but I´ll help you with what I can do.

 

My sound is not working too. I found one possible solution in InsanelyMac, but seems that the file works only on x64 mode.

 

Cheers.

 

P.S. - Keyboard layout to ABNT2 Brazilian is solved. Fast and easy.

Can I upgrade to 10.6.1 without problems via Software Update or just can't?

 

Yes......

 

OK I will now focus on sound and sleep issues on my MOBO and in the process maybe help others by what I figure out......

[juanmacrack93]

FINALLY MATE !!!

 

Im writing to you of my SNOW LEOPARD install.

 

Your procedure worked in the first try.

 

Its working fine.

I still have to configure keyboard to Brazilian ABNT2 format. Thats why Im writing every thing without right punctuation.

Only few is meant to work.

I have one little package to turn my keyboard into brazilian abnt2 format that I use in my Leopard install... it will work for Snow Leopard too?

 

Here goes one picture:

 

 

Thank you so very much verd. Without your knowledge and endless support I could never install Snow Leopard.

As someone already said, youre Dr. House of Insanely Mac. Thank you so much.

 

Cheers.

bb.

 

Hey! You finally got it to work! It was kinda hard, wasn't it?

[breakingbad]

Hey! You finally got it to work! It was kinda hard, wasn't it?

 

Yeah bro.

It's a very hard process. I have to recognize that Verdant worked much more than me for sure. Thanks again verd. You rock.

Well, I believe that now that everything is discovered, new installation attempts will be much easier and with less trouble since the hard work is done, agree?

 

So, if you wanna make things work, follow the guide and pay attention to the new process to make SL installation boots fine and I hope you get a working system running smooth. Mine is smooth until now.

 

@verdant

 

Mate, as you know, I am a stubborn and curious kiddo and after upgrading to 10.6.1 I decided to try booting normal, without flags (only -v: to see what happens) and for my surprise, Snow Leo booted fine. No need to mach_kernel arch=i386. Just booted fine. Was this suppose to happen??? If not, seem that good news is on the way.

 

 

Cheers.

bb.

[verdant]

Yeah bro.

It's a very hard process. I have to recognize that Verdant worked much more than me for sure. Thanks again verd. You rock.

Well, I believe that now that everything is discovered, new installation attempts will be much easier and with less trouble since the hard work is done, agree?

 

So, if you wanna make things work, follow the guide and pay attention to the new process to make SL installation boots fine and I hope you get a working system running smooth. Mine is smooth until now.

 

@verdant

 

Mate, as you know, I am a stubborn and curious kiddo and after upgrading to 10.6.1 I decided to try booting normal, without flags (only -v: to see what happens) and for my surprise, Snow Leo booted fine. No need to mach_kernel arch=i386. Just booted fine. Was this suppose to happen??? If not, seem that good news is on the way.

 

 

Cheers.

bb.

 

Yes......it should do.......if it is reading the SL com.apple.Boot.plist.......HOWEVER, in my guide procedures I will generally ensure that certain actions are forced to happen at boot up (even if they should do so automatically) so that error messages and/or KPs do not appear BECAUSE I know that readers of this thread trying the procedures will PANIC/WORRY if they see any error messages and/or KPs when they first try following any of my procedures.....LOL

[breakingbad]

Yes......it should do.......if it is reading the SL com.apple.Boot.plist.......HOWEVER, in my guide procedures I will generally ensure that certain actions are forced to happen at boot up (even if they should do so automatically) so that error messages and/or KPs do not appear BECAUSE I know that readers of this thread trying the procedures will PANIC/WORRY if they see any error messages and/or KPs when they first try following any of my procedures.....LOL

 

OK mate.

You're the guy.

 

Cheers.

 

P.S. - Later I'll check if Sleep works here and will test either nForceLAN NIC and FireWire that are disbled in BIOS option.

[verdant]

OK mate.

You're the guy.

 

Cheers.

 

P.S. - Later I'll check if Sleep works here and will test either nForceLAN NIC and FireWire that are disbled in BIOS option.

 

What about your audio.......working yet.....?

[breakingbad]

What about your audio.......working yet.....?

 

Hi.

Yep !

Sound is working full and nicely. Already configured sound to work even on 5.1 channel. Mic is working too. Could see the level meters moving up and down on Sound Pref Panel.

Keyboard layout for my ABNT2 format working smooth either.

 

Only nForce onboard NIC wasn't recognized by system even with nForceLAN.kext installed.

Enable FireWire again and was recognized by Network Pref Panel without problems.

 

Seems like system is running nice. A bit faster that my Leopard partition.

 

Next step: try to clone the SL GPT to a MBR partition and see if works.

 

News on that so soon.

 

EDIT

Verd, as I told you, posting the results on cloning SL partition to MBR/HFS+. Take a look. Boot stucks with this message:

 

ApplenForceATA: CH1 DRV0 wrote 0x20 to offset 0x59.

 

Remember that I only booted -v flaged.

 

Cheers to all.

bb.

[verdant]

Hi.

Yep !

Sound is working full and nicely. Already configured sound to work even on 5.1 channel. Mic is working too. Could see the level meters moving up and down on Sound Pref Panel.

Keyboard layout for my ABNT2 format working smooth either.

 

Only nForce onboard NIC wasn't recognized by system even with nForceLAN.kext installed.

Enable FireWire again and was recognized by Network Pref Panel without problems.

 

Seems like system is running nice. A bit faster that my Leopard partition.

 

Next step: try to clone the SL GPT to a MBR partition and see if works.

 

News on that so soon.

 

EDIT

Verd, as I told you, posting the results on cloning SL partition to MBR/HFS+. Take a look. Boot stucks with this message:

 

ApplenForceATA: CH1 DRV0 wrote 0x20 to offset 0x59.

 

Remember that I only booted -v flaged.

 

 

Cheers to all.

bb.

 

1. Did Disk Utility or CCC 3.21 complete the cloning without any errors....?

 

2. Did you install the Chameleon RC bootoader + PC_EFI V10.3 files to your SL MBR/HFS+ partition after cloning SL to it....?

 

3. Did you boot into the SL MBR/HFS+ partition with -v -f.....?

[samdelgado]

Hey everyone,

 

Unfortunately every attempt to get this working on my EVGA 780i has failed. I ended up buying a gigabyte mobo that people are reporting 100% success with. I wish you all the best, and want to thank Verdant especially for his extraordinary work here. If I end up not selling the 780i I might use it on a different computer and I will be back here I am sure.

 

Sam

[verdant]

Hey everyone,

 

Unfortunately every attempt to get this working on my EVGA 780i has failed. I ended up buying a gigabyte mobo that people are reporting 100% success with. I wish you all the best, and want to thank Verdant especially for his extraordinary work here. If I end up not selling the 780i I might use it on a different computer and I will be back here I am sure.

 

Sam

 

Sorry to hear that that.......did my nForceSLBoot132DVD for SATA DVDRW work or not.....?

 

Breakingbad has success finally.......

 

Even though you have joined the Intel chipset/CPU MOBO camp.......drop by and let us know how you get on with it.......then when you feel refreshed, try putting SL on your 780i MOBO again (if you have not sold it......) to remind you just how fortunate you are.......

 

All the best

verdant