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

[Dilemma Prison]

Tossing out a couple random questions here; as that i am back to work'n on i680 issues again.

 

---- FIREWIRE STABILITY ----

 

1 ) . Does anyone have onboard firewire working; if so is it stable (can you transfer 10-20gigs of data without it dropping out / hanging / disappearing / kp'ing your system).

1b) . If your firewire is stable/unstable, when doing a all messages search in your logs do you get this error during boot :

4/1/10 1:56:50 PM kernel ERROR: FireWire unable to determine security-mode; defaulting to full-secure.

 

I never see this error on any of my vanilla macintoshes (even with add on firewire cards) but i get this error with the same cards and my built in firewire on my hack. My prior mac tech experience reminds me that full-secure mode normally only gets turned on when a macintosh is booting up with a firmware password set; it protects the firewire port from DMA intrusion, and is a enhanced security measure. I was wondering if this could lead to stability issues. I have not found a lot of documentation on this issue, outside of old 10.4 related stuff. I gather that a lot of folks aren't typically using tons of firewire devices on their hacks (I have a dozen that i would . .one day. .like to plug in ;/)

 

When looking around the forums i only found people complaining about that bit of log spam, but no real resolution. I am assuming that its something rare and nobody fixes it, easy and eluding me for one reason or another, or simply not documented anywhere in general. I'm kind of assuming that the resolution for this will involve some DSDT trickery or ID shuffling or something of that nature given that the same cards work differently in a hack vs. real mac.

 

-EDIT- Yeah, common issue after digging deeper on the forums w/ TI 8023 PHY. It's a bunch of DSDT patching.

 

---- SLEEP ----

 

2 ) If anyone has sleep working properly, what model of mainboard + nforce chipset do you have; what kexts/kext mods are you running, what have you modded your DSDT with, are you running in 32bit or 64bit mode?

[verdant]

See that's the thing. The screen saver is still moving, but I can't use my mouse or keyboard to get back to desktop, they just stop working. So I only choice is to manually restart it.

 

You're saying if i have that line in boot.plist, it would display debug info on screen, even though the screensaver is still running? I forgot to say that it only happens randomly.

 

That is what I am hoping for, that it will show a debug screen on top of whatever process/app has locked the system.......

[MasterTiiro]

Ok, I'll post the lockups if they happen again. I also wanted to ask you. My wireless card, Linksys w54gs, works "out-of-the-box", but I don't seem to see other computers on my wirelss network. Does this mean I'm missing something? I'm taking a liking to OSX, so it's kind of a hassle to reboot into Windows to access files every time.

 

That is what I am hoping for, that it will show a debug screen on top of whatever process/app has locked the system.......

[verdant]

Ok, I'll post the lockups if they happen again. I also wanted to ask you. My wireless card, Linksys w54gs, works "out-of-the-box", but I don't seem to see other computers on my wirelss network. Does this mean I'm missing something? I'm taking a liking to OSX, so it's kind of a hassle to reboot into Windows to access files every time.

 

Is your PC with OS X on it, connected to the Linksys w54gs wirelessly or via Ethernet cable?

[MasterTiiro]

Both. I have my own internet, which I connect using ethernet, and shared internet with roommates, which I connect using wireless. This wireless connection is where all the shared files are. I need/want to access it, but I don't see any computer under "network" place.

[verdant]

Both. I have my own internet, which I connect using ethernet, and shared internet with roommates, which I connect using wireless. This wireless connection is where all the shared files are. I need/want to access it, but I don't see any computer under "network" place.

 

Since you are connected to the Linksys modem/router via Ethernet cable, then to access files stored on the remote volumes on other computers connecting to your Linksys modem/router wirelessly, you should be able to go the Finder top menu bar and select Go > Connect to Server and you should see a pop-up window "Connect to Server" and in the Server Address: entry box, you should type (without "")

 

afp://"IP address" or "Computer netname.network domain name" without quotes to connect to a Mac

 

smb://"IP address/sharename" to connect to SMB/CIFS Windows servers and shared folders

 

nfs://"DNSname/pathname" to connect to a NFS server

 

ftp://"DNSname" to connect as an anonymous user to a FTP server

 

If you want other Mac and/or Windows users to access your OS X folders, you need to go to System Preferences > Sharing > Filesharing > Options to enable AFP, SMB and/or FTP sharing.......but note that SMB and FTP are not as secure as AFP sharing.....

 

You see an icon for the shared disk on your OS X Desktop after a successful connection......

 

Furthermore, SL allows you to use the form afp://<server>/<share>/<path> to mount a sub-directory of the given share point..........

 

Also see here......

[Der_Neger]

Hi,

 

i have big problem.

 

My System contains a ASUS P5N-E SLI with 1406 bios, 4 Sata HDD's, 1 IDE CD/DVD Rom, 4Gb OCz Ram, Nvidia 6200 128mb, Nvidia 6200 256mb and usb Pci card. I have checked my bios settings with them in the .pdf, but i'm unable to boot snow leopard. I have installed Snow Leopard with the snowosx dvd in another PC which runs snow leopard. I used the kext from

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t=#entry1306089

Please help me i'm trying for hours but nothing is running.

[verdant]

Hi,

 

i have big problem.

 

My System contains a ASUS P5N-E SLI with 1406 bios, 4 Sata HDD's, 1 IDE CD/DVD Rom, 4Gb OCz Ram, Nvidia 6200 128mb, Nvidia 6200 256mb and usb Pci card. I have checked my bios settings with them in the .pdf, but i'm unable to boot snow leopard. I have installed Snow Leopard with the snowosx dvd in another PC which runs snow leopard. I used the kext from

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t=#entry1306089

Please help me i'm trying for hours but nothing is running.

 

Remove one of your GeForce 6200 graphics cards.........and make sure that in /Extra/Extensions you have: (I am assuming you have a USB keyboard and USB mouse.......if not you will need PS/2 kexts, i.e. AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext

and ApplePS2Controller.kext)

 

fakesmc.V2.kext

NullCPUPowerManagement.kext

OpenHaltRestart.kext

PlatformUUID.kext (Not needed with Chameleon 2.0 RC4)

nForceLAN.kext

AppleNForceATA.slash.kext or AppleNForceATA.AnV.kext (from my Snow_Support_Files_v2.2), or AppleNForceATA.64AnV.kext (from Breaking News).....see post #1......

 

and that in /Extra or / or both, you have your RTC patched DSDT.aml file.......

 

and in /Extra, you have a SMBIOS.plist file and a com.apple.boot.plist file containing:

 

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>-v arch=i386</string>

 

and see what happens when you boot........

 

BTW is your HDA audio chipset a ADI 1988B or a Realtek ALC883......?

[Der_Neger]

Remove one of your GeForce 6200 graphics cards.........and make sure that in /Extra/Extensions you have: (I am assuming you have a USB keyboard and USB mouse.......if not you will need PS/2 kexts, i.e. AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext

and ApplePS2Controller.kext)

 

fakesmc.V2.kext

NullCPUPowerManagement.kext

OpenHaltRestart.kext

PlatformUUID.kext (Not needed with Chameleon 2.0 RC4)

nForceLAN.kext

AppleNForceATA.slash.kext or AppleNForceATA.AnV.kext (from my Snow_Support_Files_v2.2), or AppleNForceATA.64AnV.kext (from Breaking News).....see post #1......

 

and that in /Extra or / or both, you have your RTC patched DSDT.aml file.......

 

and in /Extra, you have a SMBIOS.plist file and a com.apple.boot.plist file containing:

 

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>-v arch=i386</string>

 

and see what happens when you boot........

 

BTW is your HDA audio chipset a ADI 1988B or a Realtek ALC883......?

 

Hi,

 

thanks for your help but i didn't get it. It's a Realtek 883. Maybe it's why i have no dsdt.aml but on my other machine i didn't need it it runs fine also after update from 10.6.2 to 10.6.3

[verdant]

Hi,

 

thanks for your help but i didn't get it. It's a Realtek 883. Maybe it's why i have no dsdt.aml but on my other machine i didn't need it it runs fine also after update from 10.6.2 to 10.6.3

 

Which parts of my post are you unsure of?

Have you read post #1 yet, about the need to patch the DSDT to prevent the CMOS reset issue etc.?

What is your other PC?

[Der_Neger]

Which parts of my post are you unsure of?

Have you read post #1 yet, about the need to patch the DSDT to prevent the CMOS reset issue etc.?

What is your other PC?

 

My other Pc is Asrock P43Twins1600, 8800gts 320, 4gb ram, creative 2zs, 2 sata hdd's and one sata dvd. Today i have updated to 10.6.3 without any issues (installed with Snowosx.iso). I'm not sure about the dsdt.aml i don't know how to compile one myself

[verdant]

My other Pc is Asrock P43Twins1600, 8800gts 320, 4gb ram, creative 2zs, 2 sata hdd's and one sata dvd. Today i have updated to 10.6.3 without any issues (installed with Snowosx.iso). I'm not sure about the dsdt.aml i don't know how to compile one myself

 

Post #1 in this thread explains in detail just what you need to do to install OS X Snow Leopard on a Series 6 or 7 nForce chipset + Intel CPU MOBO..........just follow it step by step......starting with HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE........and you will find "PART B. Generating and modifying the DSDT.aml file specifically for your MOBO"......

[RaMDaY]

Hello everyone. I have Snow Leopard 10.6.3 running on my EVGA 780i with an X9650 and 4 gigs of DDR2 800 Ram. My problem seems to be the system hangs under heavy read load of the processor. I can still move the mouse but the "beach ball of death" is on the screen just spinning away. I've found doing the following tasks trigger this.

 

1) Encoding video with Mpeg Streamclip.

 

2) Trying install Office 2008.

 

3) In uTorrent, checking a bunch torrent data to resume downloading at the same time.

 

I've tried several different NforceATA kexts because I remember reading something about a problem with having 4 gigs of ram however none of them have fixed this issue. Any help on this matter would be appreciated.

[verdant]

Hello everyone. I have Snow Leopard 10.6.3 running on my EVGA 780i with an X9650 and 4 gigs of DDR2 800 Ram. My problem seems to be the system hangs under heavy read load of the processor. I can still move the mouse but the "beach ball of death" is on the screen just spinning away. I've found doing the following tasks trigger this.

 

1) Encoding video with Mpeg Streamclip.

 

2) Trying install Office 2008.

 

3) In uTorrent, checking a bunch torrent data to resume downloading at the same time.

 

I've tried several different NforceATA kexts because I remember reading something about a problem with having 4 gigs of ram however none of them have fixed this issue. Any help on this matter would be appreciated.

 

Include

debug=0x100

in your com.apple.Boot.plist Kernel Flags string and post the screen output from any lockups when doing all of the above.......

[Der_Neger]

Post #1 in this thread explains in detail just what you need to do to install OS X Snow Leopard on a Series 6 or 7 nForce chipset + Intel CPU MOBO..........just follow it step by step......starting with HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE........and you will find "PART B. Generating and modifying the DSDT.aml file specifically for your MOBO"......

 

ok thanks i will look for part b. thank you for your fast help. :D :D

[MasterTiiro]

Thanks for this! Using this in conjunction with workgroup input, I was able to see my network.

 

Maybe you can answer my last question - I remember you said that if I want to burn DVDs, that I should get a PATA drive. So my question is the SATA drive not supposed to work at all on Nforce MB, or is it just the burning function? I ask this because my SATA can't even read disc. I see the drive in System Profiler and Disk Utility, but nothing happens whenever I put a disc in, burnt or original.

 

If it doesn't work at all with SATA drives then I'll try and go find a PATA drive. I don't do a lot of burning, but I watch a lot of dvd movies. I'd prefer not to waste money on a PATA optical drive if I can help it. I'd rather donate to you for your help instead. Speaking of which, how would I donate to you if I ever have some extra cash lying around?

 

Since you are connected to the Linksys modem/router via Ethernet cable, then to access files stored on the remote volumes on other computers connecting to your Linksys modem/router wirelessly, you should be able to go the Finder top menu bar and select Go > Connect to Server and you should see a pop-up window "Connect to Server" and in the Server Address: entry box, you should type (without "")

 

afp://"IP address" or "Computer netname.network domain name" without quotes to connect to a Mac

 

smb://"IP address/sharename" to connect to SMB/CIFS Windows servers and shared folders

 

nfs://"DNSname/pathname" to connect to a NFS server

 

ftp://"DNSname" to connect as an anonymous user to a FTP server

 

If you want other Mac and/or Windows users to access your OS X folders, you need to go to System Preferences > Sharing > Filesharing > Options to enable AFP, SMB and/or FTP sharing.......but note that SMB and FTP are not as secure as AFP sharing.....

 

You see an icon for the shared disk on your OS X Desktop after a successful connection......

 

Furthermore, SL allows you to use the form afp://<server>/<share>/<path> to mount a sub-directory of the given share point..........

 

Also see here......

[verdant]

Thanks for this! Using this in conjunction with workgroup input, I was able to see my network.

 

Maybe you can answer my last question - I remember you said that if I want to burn DVDs, that I should get a PATA drive. So my question is the SATA drive not supposed to work at all on Nforce MB, or is it just the burning function? I ask this because my SATA can't even read disc. I see the drive in System Profiler and Disk Utility, but nothing happens whenever I put a disc in, burnt or original.

 

If it doesn't work at all with SATA drives then I'll try and go find a PATA drive. I don't do a lot of burning, but I watch a lot of dvd movies. I'd prefer not to waste money on a PATA optical drive if I can help it. I'd rather donate to you for your help instead. Speaking of which, how would I donate to you if I ever have some extra cash lying around?

 

Glad you have got your network recognition sorted.......

 

Unfortunately, the AppleNForceATA kexts currently available do not enable SATA DVDRWs to work well (i.e. read/write CDs and DVDs) with most nForce chipset MOBOs.......some may be able to read/write disks (but I have no information from posters in this thread or my other two nForce chipset MOBO threads, as to which chipset MOBOs this applies to......I guess it is probably AHCI-compliant chipset MOBOs such as the 630i MCP73 chipset MOBOs, which do not have to use the AppleNForceATA kext.....), while some can read but not write, whereas others can only read but do not do so reliably and others can neither read nor write disks.......furthermore, the MeDevil AppleNForceATA_Test kext which claims to address the SATA DVDRW issue, does not work with > 3GB RAM.......you have to use maxmem=3072 in com.apple.Boot.plist when you have > 3GB RAM installed....... So, that is why a PATA DVDRW is recommended.........

 

Thanks, I appreciate your wish to donate.......there is a donation link at the bottom of my signature.......

[RaMDaY]

Include

debug=0x100

in your com.apple.Boot.plist Kernel Flags string and post the screen output from any lockups when doing all of the above.......

 

I add debug=0x100 like instructed and attempted to install Office 2008. I got the spinning beach ball problem but no screen problem. Samething when I try to encode video. Maybe I am entering it wrong into my boot.plist. I'm using the plist file found inside my Extra folder.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Default Partition</key>

<string>hd(0,1)</string>

<key>EHCIacquire</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Hide Partition</key>

<string>hd(2,1) hd(2,1) </string>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>debug=0x100</string>

<key>Theme</key>

<string>Default</string>

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>5</string>

<key>UHCIreset</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>USBBusFix</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>device-properties</key>

<string>d90300000100000001000000cd0300001500000002010c00d041030a010000000101060000030

101060000000101060000000101060000007fff04003a000000400032002c0068007700730065006e

0073006f0072002d0070006100720061006d0073002d00760065007200730069006f006e000000080

000000000000222000000400032002c006400650076006900630065005f0074007900700065000000

120000004e5644412c6770752d64696f64650e0000004e00560050004d00000020000000010000000

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001e00000072006f006d002d007200650076

006900730069006f006e000000090000003331373261100000004e005600430041005000000018000

00004000000000003000c000000000000070000000022000000400032002c002300730069007a0065

002d00630065006c006c0073000000080000000000000022000000400030002c00640065007600690

0630065005f00740079007000650000000b000000646973706c6179100000006d006f00640065006c

0000001a0000004e7669646961204765466f726365204754582032383014000000400030002c006e0

061006d0065000000120000004e5644412c446973706c61792d4120000000400032002c0063006f00

6d00700061007400690062006c0065000000160000004e5644412c73656e736f722d706172656e741

4000000400031002c006e0061006d0065000000120000004e5644412c446973706c61792d42120000

00400032002c00720065006700000008000000000000021c0000006400650076006900630065005f0

074007900700065000000100000004e5644412c4765466f72636520000000400031002c0063006f00

6d00700061007400690062006c00650000000e0000004e5644412c4e564d616326000000400032002

c0023006100640072006500730073002d00630065006c006c007300000008000000000000010e0000

006e0061006d00650000000f0000004e5644412c506172656e7422000000400031002c00640065007

6006900630065005f00740079007000650000000b000000646973706c617920000000400030002c00

63006f006d00700061007400690062006c00650000000e0000004e5644412c4e564d6163220000005

600520041004d002c0074006f00740061006c00730069007a00650000000800000000000040360000

00400032002c00680077006300740072006c002d0070006100720061006d0073002d0076006500720

0730069006f006e000000080000000000000214000000400032002c006e0061006d00650000001100

000073656e736f722d706172656e74</string>

</dict>

</plist>

[verdant]

I add debug=0x100 like instructed and attempted to install Office 2008. I got the spinning beach ball problem but no screen problem. Samething when I try to encode video. Maybe I am entering it wrong into my boot.plist. I'm using the plist file found inside my Extra folder.

 

There are a number of points about your com.apple.Boot.plist to note:

 

1. You should only need USBBusFix=Yes because it enables both the EHCI and UHCI fixes, while EHCIacquire=Yes enables the EHCI fix and UHCIreset=Yes enables the UHCI fix.

 

2. For the <key>Kernel Flags</key> string, you should always include arch=i386, so put

<string>arch=i386 -v debug=0x100</string>

[RaMDaY]

Holy {censored}! After making those adjustments in my plist, file Office installed no problem. Maybe its was because I was installing it from a USB DVD drive. I'm going to try to encode some video and see what happens. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a number of points about your com.apple.Boot.plist to note:

 

1. You should only need USBBusFix=Yes because it enables both the EHCI and UHCI fixes, while EHCIacquire=Yes enables the EHCI fix and UHCIreset=Yes enables the UHCI fix.

 

2. For the <key>Kernel Flags</key> string, you should always include arch=i386, so put

<string>arch=i386 -v debug=0x100</string>

[verdant]

Holy {censored}! After making those adjustments in my plist, file Office installed no problem. Maybe its was because I was installing it from a USB DVD drive. I'm going to try to encode some video and see what happens. Thank you.

 

No problem........

 

Once everything is working 100%, you can remove debug=0x100 but also -v if you wish. However, you need to keep arch=i386 in order to boot in 32bit mode..........at least until a fully functional 64bit AppleNForceATA kext becomes available........

[RaMDaY]

Woo. Thanks a bunch.

 

I just encoded some video, unRared using stuffit and they worked fine. I only had one torrent to test resuming with and it worked so for now I'm going to assume everything is ok. The real testing will be once I get Final Cut installed. Now the only two things left to worry about is my sata DVD drives and the clock. From what I read there is nothing really I can do for the DVD drives but wait until some writes working drivers. As for my clock issue, I cannot get it it to sync with my bios and Windows partition. I have windows set to sync on reboot but cannot seem to find a way to do that with OSX unless I use a third party application which I rather not do. Someone suggested I try OSX Time Sync Fix by Zephyroth however, I installed it and it doesn't seem to change a thing. Any ideas?

[MasterTiiro]

I still get random lockups. I seem to get it from CPU intensive usage, but sometimes even just watching videos on the browser can trigger it. Whenever I get lockups, I'd wait for 5 minutes before I manually reboot the system, but still couldn't see any debug info on screen. What am I doing wrong?

 

Here's my current com.apple.Boot.plist:

com.apple.Boot.txt

[Dilemma Prison]

Getting onboard firewire to work on my EVGA i680 : Utter Failure.

 

I had no luck with any adaptation of the documented DSDT patches to get the onboard firewire (TI 8023 chipset) working reliably. (it would detect drives, transfer data and hotplug without a dsdt and with the basic dsdt config i used, but it would kill not transfer more than 10 gigs of data before freezing the system completely or causing usb to drop out. (it was random)

 

I had similar results with other TI based PCI addon cards. (another 8023 and a 8024)

 

I find this rather odd, given that if my memory serves the 8024 is used in actual macs.

 

I had -complete- success w/ no dsdt modifications with a old lucent/agere chipset. Hotplug works and i get 40 MB/S throughput.

 

Some fluke of the drivers or the nature of the TI chipsets doesn't like my particular build. *shrug*. Just tossing this out there in case someone runs into similar issues.

[Dawid Mostert]

Hi all,

 

After a long struggle, I managed to get SL to install on my P5N32-E SLI motherboard

 

Everything is working except for network??? Can't seem to get that to work? Any advice?

 

I'm using Chameleon 2.0 RC4 with PC EFI 10.6 (latest). I use the -x32 boot flag, but everyone seems to recommend arch=i386. What is the difference? On that topic - it would seem IMPOSSIBLE to boot into 64bit mode?

 

I've also lost audio again after the update to 10.6.3 - Any pointers on getting that back?

 

My 8800GTS Graphics card "just seems to work"? Not 100% sure from the notes if I need to mess with EFI and stuff??

 

 

Oh, I managed all of this without access to another mac - Took me long enough!!

 

Thanks,

D.