[GUIDE] Snow Leopard Vanilla Retail Guide for GA-P35-DS4 and other related boards

[Stellair]

Hi tseug,

Excellent guide! I'll will follow as soon as I can burn the snow.dmg on a dual layer and can change my 4870 multiport for a 4870 dual dvi

 

Do you have raid also installed because I want to put OSX on 2x disks and 1x disk with Win7

Thanks

[knightzerox]

Thank you for the great install package! Just an FYI to anyone that wants to know, this also works for :

 

Gigabyte P35-DS3R

 

My Nvidia 8800 GS with 380mg Ram loaded fine as a 8800 GTS 320 mg ( Using EFI Studio to add display )

Sound worked, looked like ethernet card was detected. Zero issues.

 

Also, I changed the boot.plist to x86_64 to try and see if 64 bit worked. It booted in but just before loading I saw a few warnings. I checked sound, video etc and everything was still detected and working fine.

 

I just need a driver for my wireless card ( Aerolite+, trying stock Tiger drivers in a moment ) and I'm set =] Thank you.

[tseug]

Thank you for the great install package! Just an FYI to anyone that wants to know, this also works for :

 

Gigabyte P35-DS3R

 

Thank you. I've added it to the list.

 

My Nvidia 8800 GS with 380mg Ram loaded fine as a 8800 GTS 320 mg ( Using EFI Studio to add display )

Sound worked, looked like ethernet card was detected. Zero issues.

 

Also, I changed the boot.plist to x86_64 to try and see if 64 bit worked. It booted in but just before loading I saw a few warnings. I checked sound, video etc and everything was still detected and working fine.

 

AppleHDA.kext will complain a lot at boot up when using the 64-bit kernel, but audio still works, so I wouldn't worry about it. I don't use the 64 bit kernel myself as I don't see the point, but in testing I haven't been able to find any problems running the 64 bit kernel. I've read somewhere that VMWare Fusion does not work with the 64-bit kernel.

 

Hi tseug,

Excellent guide! I'll will follow as soon as I can burn the snow.dmg on a dual layer and can change my 4870 multiport for a 4870 dual dvi

 

I think I've mentioned it once or twice but please buy Snow Leopard.

 

Do you have raid also installed because I want to put OSX on 2x disks and 1x disk with Win7

Thanks

 

I don't know if RAID will work. I seem to recall reading somewhere that additional patches is needed in DSDT.aml, but I can't be sure.

 

EDIT: The problem is the Chameleon installation. There is a difference between RAID and non-RAID installation.

[knightzerox]

One more clarification, the install worked using the actual Retail disk of Snow Leopard in case anyone runs into issues for the p35-DS3R motherboard.

 

Wireless cards Info:

 

The Aerolite+ USB wireless adapter does not work in Snow Leopard using the drivers provided from their site. The 10/4 drivers do work on 10.5.x

 

The D-Link WUA-1340 however DOES WORK in Snow Leopard. You will have to download and install their 10.4 drivers and do a restart but it is a working USB adapter. Note also that it adds a new preference pane to System Preferences for you to use to connect your wireless. Also unplug it and replug it in if it doesn't detect it after restart.

 

Thank you again.

[CmCd01]

Trouble with MBR... I thought things were good with my original install, but repairing permissions in Disk Utility identified many problems. I had performed the intall process from a 10.5.7 partition using a modified OSInstall.mpkg, in order to install to a multi-partition MBR disk (for dual-boot XP, OS X). Reading that installing SL from a 10.5 setup causes problems, I ran the BSD.pkg, but that didn't help, might have hurt matters - system froze up.

 

I decided to re-install 10.6 from a 10.6 partition (using a backup of my initial install). I used the new tseug-SL_BootCD and Snow Package installer and things seemed to install fine, until I rebooted. The Chameleon setup seems wrong - I get KPs when I select my 10.6 partition in Chameleon. But when I use Chameleon on the BootCD, I can boot my 10.6 partition fine.

 

I'm confused... But I wonder if the Installer installed Chameleon in a way not compatible with my MBR configuration, if the Installer assumes a GPT disk. Not sure if that would make a difference... but I'm pretty sure the Chameleon that is being booted off the disk is not the Chameleon that is configured on the 10.6 partition (e.g., it's not selecting the default drive or theme I've specified in the Boot.plist). I'm not sure where it's picking it up from.

 

Tseug, could you explain how the Installer is installing Chameleon? Before your latest Installer, when I installed Chamelon manually, I ran the Chameleon installer from the 10.5.7 partition and selected as a target the new 10.6 partition - that worked as expected.

[knewsom]

I tried this, and sadly, the SnowLeopard DVD would not recognize after booting from the CD. Any insight as to why?

 

Edit: I've got a hunch why - it's not a SATA DVD drive?

[tseug]

I decided to re-install 10.6 from a 10.6 partition (using a backup of my initial install). I used the new tseug-SL_BootCD and Snow Package installer and things seemed to install fine, until I rebooted. The Chameleon setup seems wrong - I get KPs when I select my 10.6 partition in Chameleon. But when I use Chameleon on the BootCD, I can boot my 10.6 partition fine.

 

I don't understand what you did. If you install from an already running 10.6, use "open ...OSInstall.mpkg". Then run the installer on the same volume. Then modify Boot.plist with your EFI-string. Then reboot and boot to the installing volume. No need for the Boot CD.

 

This works with GPT, but MBR might be different.

 

Tseug, could you explain how the Installer is installing Chameleon? Before your latest Installer, when I installed Chamelon manually, I ran the Chameleon installer from the 10.5.7 partition and selected as a target the new 10.6 partition - that worked as expected.

 

I used the method specified in the docs to Chameleon RC3. This will also be apparent in the log.

 

 

 

 

I tried this, and sadly, the SnowLeopard DVD would not recognize after booting from the CD. Any insight as to why?

 

Edit: I've got a hunch why - it's not a SATA DVD drive?

 

Yes, I believe this is a problem.

 

There might be a way around it. Maybe you should try some of the other boot CD's out there.

[zapoutix]

when i burn the boot cd i get this

 

 

cdboot: init

cdboot: file size: 0004B860

cdboot: reading sectors: 00000098

cdboot: loading.......................

cdboot: done

 

 

it then doesnt do anything

 

what am i doing wrong?

 

thnaks

 

i had exactly the same problem, it's because you are using an IDE CRROM reader.

i switch the IDE CDROM to usb and it works.

[CmCd01]

I don't understand what you did. If you install from an already running 10.6, use "open ...OSInstall.mpkg". Then run the installer on the same volume. Then modify Boot.plist with your EFI-string. Then reboot and boot to the installing volume. No need for the Boot CD.

 

This works with GPT, but MBR might be different. I used the method specified in the docs to Chameleon RC3. This will also be apparent in the log.

Install.log shows the Installer installed Chameleon to rdisk2s2 - should have installed to rdisk3s2 where I was running the Installer from (disk2 is a XP dynamic disk I used as a part of RAID for data storage for XP)! I am now unable to boot from the XP partition, even using the BootCD (when I select XP from Chameleon I get a blinking cursor in top left of a black DOS screen). My guess is the MBR on the disk is corrupted. I'm not sure how to recover from this. I reran just the Chameleon RC2 installer package from the new 10.6 on rdisk3s2, but it didn't improve anything. I don't think the Installer works for MBR, would have been better for me to be able to run Chameleon independently and select the proper partition.

 

To clarify, here's how I installed 10.6:

1. Boot into a backup 10.6 partition (rdisk3s6) via the BootCD

2. "open /.../OSinstall.mpkg" and installed 10.6 (to rdisk3s2)

3. Restarted and used BootCD to boot into new install (rdisk3s2) following your instructions #4 #5

4. Installed GA-P35-DS4 Snow Leopard Installer

5. No changes to EFI strings because I have an ATI video card

6. Restarted - Chameleon loaded from disk but gave KPs; restarted with BootCD and booted the new install (rdisk3s2)

[tseug]

Install.log shows the Installer installed Chameleon to rdisk2s2 - should have installed to rdisk3s2 where I was running the Installer from (disk2 is a XP dynamic disk I used as a part of RAID for data storage for XP)! I am now unable to boot from the XP partition, even using the BootCD (when I select XP from Chameleon I get a blinking cursor in top left of a black DOS screen). My guess is the MBR on the disk is corrupted. I'm not sure how to recover from this. I reran just the Chameleon RC2 installer package from the new 10.6 on rdisk3s2, but it didn't improve anything. I don't think the Installer works for MBR, would have been better for me to be able to run Chameleon independently and select the proper partition.

 

Could you post the result of running the command 'df' in a terminal? Note that the numbers of the disks can change when rebooting.

 

To clarify, here's how I installed 10.6:

1. Boot into a backup 10.6 partition (rdisk3s6) via the BootCD

2. "open /.../OSinstall.mpkg" and installed 10.6 (to rdisk3s2)

3. Restarted and used BootCD to boot into new install (rdisk3s2) following your instructions #4 #5

4. Installed GA-P35-DS4 Snow Leopard Installer

5. No changes to EFI strings because I have an ATI video card

6. Restarted - Chameleon loaded from disk but gave KPs; restarted with BootCD and booted the new install (rdisk3s2)

 

That should work, but this should be easier:

 

1. Boot into a backup 10.6 partition (rdisk3s6) via the BootCD

2. "open /.../OSinstall.mpkg" and install 10.6 (to rdisk3s2)

3. Install GA-P35-DS4 Snow Leopard Installer (Specify to which disk you want it to install to)

4. Restart. You should not need the boot CD if you boot to the correct disk.

[CmCd01]

Could you post the result of running the command 'df' in a terminal? Note that the numbers of the disks can change when rebooting.

 

Here is 'df'

thebox:~ machname$ df

Filesystem 512-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on

/dev/disk3s2 71682024 10249816 60920208 15% /

devfs 244 244 0 100% /dev

map -hosts 0 0 0 100% /net

map auto_home 0 0 0 100% /home

/dev/disk5s1s2 21200 21200 0 100% /Volumes/SL Boot

/dev/disk3s1 61432496 35969856 25462640 59% /Volumes/XPsys

/dev/disk4s3 1177571824 889122904 288448920 76% /Volumes/xDATAhfs

/dev/disk4s4 250469232 108923832 141545400 44% /Volumes/xDATAntfs

/dev/disk3s5 51150896 23446288 27704608 46% /Volumes/Progfiles

/dev/disk3s6 260574232 26033896 234540336 10% /Volumes/MacXtra

/dev/disk3s7 109081280 13911216 95170064 13% /Volumes/XPdata

/dev/disk2s3 238579648 57284864 181294784 25% /Volumes/iDATAhfs

/dev/disk2s4 16777216 12990528 3786688 78% /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD

 

EDIT: This shows disk2 is a GPT disk, not the XP dynamic disk I initially indicated.

 

And, any thoughts on how to fix the MBR?

[tseug]

Here is 'df'

 

OK. I can see absolutely no reason why it shouldn't work, except that its MBR.

 

And, any thoughts on how to fix the MBR?

 

Not really. An XP repair disk might help you. I agree that an independent Chameleon installer would be better, but the Chameleon folks have not released one, and the one on this site works similarly to mine.

 

It would like to have confirmed that it installs to the wrong disk with MBR, as the numbers can change at boot up. That would require you to check which are the correct disk just before running the installer and then check in the log whether they match up or not.

[CmCd01]

OK. I can see absolutely no reason why it shouldn't work, except that its MBR.

 

Not really. An XP repair disk might help you. I agree that an independent Chameleon installer would be better, but the Chameleon folks have not released one, and the one on this site works similarly to mine.

 

It would like to have confirmed that it installs to the wrong disk with MBR, as the numbers can change at boot up. That would require you to check which are the correct disk just before running the installer and then check in the log whether they match up or not.

The good news - I discovered the machine was booting off the wrong disk, using the Chameleon on my 10.5.7 install producing the KPs. The disk order had somehow been swapped in the BIOS during the installation process (I had been monitoring the BIOS during the install but missed that). Replacing disk3 to first in the list booted from the proper Chameleon on disk3 and I booted successfully into the 10.6 install.

 

The bad news is my XP partition is corrupted. When I selected it from the "correct" Chameleon, I got further into the XP boot process than before; but, apparently my NTFS partitions have problems because CHKDSK was launched before I reached the XP login and executed on several of the NTFS partitions and restarted the machine. When I booted XP again I got a login prompt but entered a cycle of never actually entering Windows and then being presented the XP login window again and again.

 

I'm uncertain whether your Installer installed Chameleon to the correct disk - although my guess is that it did. The problem is that I re-ran the Chameleon RC2 installer package subsequently against the correct disk3, so I'm not sure if the Chameleon files are there because of your Installer or the Chameleon one. If it wasn't your Installer that corrupted XP, the other explanation is my having tried the new "native" NTFS read/write drivers in Snow Leopard, which I've subsequently seen reports of corruption.

 

Sorry for taking up all this space here, but this has been frustrating. I should have good XP backups, so hope to have that side restored with some more work.

[noin]

Worked great for me on my GA-EX38-DS4! (almost)

 

Only a few things.. I didn't have a DL disc around so I restored the SL dvd to a free partition instead. The SL install went flawlessly using the SL boot cd.

The GA-P35-DS4 Snow Leopard Installer failed and the log didn't say anything useful (might be I wasn't looking hard enough) so I downloaded the installer sources, ran snow.rb manually and saw that it complained about my dual lan ports (the EX38 has two). I only ever use the first one so I edited one line in the find_pex method in patcher.rb to ignore the second port and then snow.rb ran perfectly.

 

Also I skipped the EFI studio part cos I got the ATI HD stuff from netkas instead.

 

Everything has been running perfectly so far. With other guides I'd have KP's and whatnot often enough while doing almost anything but with this it's been rock solid for 6 hrs straight now.

Installed all the software updates including 10.6.1 and didn't have single problem.

It was a special joy to have audio working with no effort on my part, with other guides I had to go through untold weird combinations of kext+dsdt to get my 889A working.

 

All in all, great stuff, thanks!

[FatMcNasty]

Good guide and worked on my GA-EP35-DS3L. Except for Sound, which is the Realtek ALC888 chip.

[akiro.yamamoto]

Great Job

Arigatou Gozaima{censored}a

 

I'm using a P35-DS3R this guide works!

[tseug]

Worked great for me on my GA-EX38-DS4! (almost)

 

Only a few things.. I didn't have a DL disc around so I restored the SL dvd to a free partition instead. The SL install went flawlessly using the SL boot cd.

The GA-P35-DS4 Snow Leopard Installer failed and the log didn't say anything useful (might be I wasn't looking hard enough) so I downloaded the installer sources, ran snow.rb manually and saw that it complained about my dual lan ports (the EX38 has two). I only ever use the first one so I edited one line in the find_pex method in patcher.rb to ignore the second port and then snow.rb ran perfectly.

 

I've relaxed the exception handling a bit, so you should be able to use the installer now. Let me know if it works

 

 

Good guide and worked on my GA-EP35-DS3L. Except for Sound, which is the Realtek ALC888 chip.

 

I've added an experimental installer for ALC888. I can't test it, but please try it and report back

 

Guide updated.

[LS8]

I installed 10.6 on my EP45-DQ6 using tseug's installer, everything works fine, including 10.6.1 via Software Update. Some commands in Terminal show following error - what is it? This does not appear on my P35-DS4, which was installed with the older version of tseug's installer (with RealtekR1000.kext in /S/L/E). Can it be network card related? EP45-DQ6 has four network cards but I have only one enabled in BIOS, the three other cards are disabled.

 

Administrators-Mac-Pro:~ admin$ sudo diskutil info /
2009-09-14 22:37:36.455 diskutil[601:e07] _CFGetHostUUIDString: unable to determine UUID for host. Error: 35

[tseug]

I installed 10.6 on my EP45-DQ6 using tseug's installer, everything works fine, including 10.6.1 via Software Update. Some commands in Terminal show following error - what is it? This does not appear on my P35-DS4, which was installed with the older version of tseug's installer (with RealtekR1000.kext in /S/L/E). Can it be network card related? EP45-DQ6 has four network cards but I have only one enabled in BIOS, the three other cards are disabled.

 

Administrators-Mac-Pro:~ admin$ sudo diskutil info /
2009-09-14 22:37:36.455 diskutil[601:e07] _CFGetHostUUIDString: unable to determine UUID for host. Error: 35

 

I have these as well. It doesn't seem to create any problems. I'm not sure what UUID it is referring to, but I'm guessing it's not network related. Try the PlatformUUID kext (for example available here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=181903). I'll try it at some point, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

EDIT: It seems to work. I'll incorporate it into the installer when I find the time.

 

Also, why is the modified ifconfig installed to /usr/local/bin/ifconfig? On my MacBook Pro it is located at /sbin/ifconfig.

 

It is customary in the unix world to install executables that are not part of the distribution to a local directory. To be absolutely strict, it should be installed in /usr/local/sbin, but I couldn't be bothered The launchd descripter I use are from the same guy that patched the ifconfig file and it refers to /usr/local/bin so I just put it in there instead of modifying it.

[LS8]

I found that this error means that OSX found no built-in network interface. Time Machine does not work also when no built-in network card is found. A workaround is to edit the /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist file - add a dummy network interface marked as built-in. I thing that the DSDT patch should mark the onboard network card as built-in, and I think that it works this way on my other machine (P35-DS4).

 

http://larsentechinnovations.com/blog/?art...t-error-35.html

[tseug]

I found that this error means that OSX found no built-in network interface. Time Machine does not work also when no built-in network card is found. A workaround is to edit the /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist file - add a dummy network interface marked as built-in. I thing that the DSDT patch should mark the onboard network card as built-in, and I think that it works this way on my other machine (P35-DS4).

 

http://larsentechinnovations.com/blog/?art...t-error-35.html

 

Well, Time Machine works fine here, with and without PlatformUUID.kext.

 

The ethernet patch may not be appropriate for GA-EP45-DQ6. I'm unable to test, but you might take a look at the DSDT generater sources and the How to Patch... guide referred to in post #1.

[LS8]

I don't understand the DSDT magic, can you see anything in this output? Thank you!

 

GA-EP45-DQ6

 

Administrators-Mac-Pro:patcher admin$ ./patcher.rb 
Loading Acpi table from file dsdt.dat
Acpi table [DSDT] successfully installed and loaded
Pass 1 parse of [DSDT]
Pass 2 parse of [DSDT]
Parsing Deferred Opcodes (Methods/Buffers/Packages/Regions)
................................................................................
.................................................................................
.................................................................................
.................................................................................
.................................................................................
..........
Parsing completed
Disassembly completed, written to "dsdt.dsl"

Intel ACPI Component Architecture
AML Disassembler version 20080926 [Oct  4 2008]
Copyright (C) 2000 - 2008 Intel Corporation
Supports ACPI Specification Revision 3.0a

Handling RTC Device...
Possible block below Device (RTC)
No patching needed
Done Handling RTC Device
Handling HPET Device...
Possible block below Device (HPET)
No patching needed
Done Handling HPET Device
Handling Local0...
No patching needed
Done Handling Local0
Handling WAK Method warning...
Possible block below Method (_WAK, 1, NotSerialized)
No patching needed
Done Handling WAK Method warning
Handling DTGP Method...
Possible block below Method (_WAK, 1, NotSerialized)
Possible block below Method (DTGP, 5, NotSerialized)
No patching needed
Done Handling DTGP Method
Handling GIGE Device (PEX0)...
No patching needed
Done Handling GIGE Device (PEX0)
Handling AZAL -> HDEF...
No patching needed
Done Handling AZAL -> HDEF
Handling HDEF Device (ALC889A)...
Possible block below Device (HDEF)
Possible block below Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
No patching needed
Done Handling HDEF Device (ALC889A)

Intel ACPI Component Architecture
ASL Optimizing Compiler version 20080926 [Oct  4 2008]
Copyright (C) 2000 - 2008 Intel Corporation
Supports ACPI Specification Revision 3.0a

dsdt_fixed.txt  3902:									 Return (One)
Warning  1099 -							Statement is unreachable ^ 

dsdt_fixed.txt  4035:								 If (LEqual (Arg2, 0x03))
Warning  1099 -					   Statement is unreachable ^ 

ASL Input:  dsdt_fixed.txt - 5760 lines, 191409 bytes, 2455 keywords
AML Output: dsdt.aml - 18386 bytes, 642 named objects, 1813 executable opcodes

Compilation complete. 0 Errors, 2 Warnings, 0 Remarks, 20 Optimizations

 

 

I am trying to reinstall the latest version of the installer, but it fails. Can I run the installer on the running partition or do I have to boot from another partition?

dsdt.dsl.zip

[tseug]

I don't understand the DSDT magic, can you see anything in this output? Thank you!

 

GA-EP45-DQ6

 

I am trying to reinstall the latest version of the installer, but it fails. Can I run the installer on the running partition or do I have to boot from another partition?

 

Apparently, your motherboard has a TPM device with a DSM method that annoys the static analyzer in the iasl compiler.

 

Unfortunately, the DSDT generator looks for a DSM method and once it is found, it believes it has already been patched.

 

Can you turn off the TPM device in BIOS?

 

By the way, you can run the installer from the another partition. The only thing you have to do then is to manually modify the power settings.

[Gloops92]

Hello,

Anyone installed 10.6.1 update ?

 

Gloops92

[tseug]

Hello,

Anyone installed 10.6.1 update ?

 

Gloops92

 

Yes. There should be no problem installing it from Software Update