Snow Leopard on ECS 945CGT-M/1333 V3.0

[gtemkin]

[Note: Please see posts below from swinte about using MyHack install. MyHack install is easiest way for SL on ECS 945CGT-M/1333 MB.]

 

I'm a noobie when it comes to knowing why things work so a bunch of what I did may be completely unnecessary. Previously tried several installs with vanilla kernel but never could get very far so here's what's worked for me. This MB is a common and inexpensive one that Fry's repeatedly had on sale over the last year or so. I've read a lot about mixed success installs with 10.5.x and nothing yet about 10.6, YMMV. I used the 2 drive install method. My first drive was named TempDrive, my second drive was named Snow.

 

My Specs:

ECS 945CGT-M/1333 V3.0 MB with 7-11-2007 BIOS

4GB DDR2 Memory

Core2Duo 2.69GHz

XFX 8400GS 512MB PCI-e Display card

PCI Firewire card

PATA Pioneer CD/DVD

(1) PATA HD [has my 10.5.8 install] and (3) SATA HD

 

Connections

 

TempDrive - Primary Master

Snow - Secondary Slave

 

BIOS settings

 

CPU TM Function - Enabled

Max CPUID - Disabled

Execute Disable Bit - Enabled

Intel Speedstep - Auto

Enhanced Halt - Enabled

Intel Vitualization - Enabled

APIC Mode - Enabled

High Performance Event Timer - Enabled

 

Started with spammon's guide at: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=183220 and arya's guide which spammon refers to at: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=181876

 

From my existing 10.5.8 startup drive, partitioned a spare 160GB SATA drive GUID and installed Chameleon 2.0-RC2 and swapped in the boot file linked by arya, (RC3?)

 

Then Terminal: sudo chown 0:0 /Volumes/TempDrive

 

Installed Snow Leopard by Terminal: open /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg In Installer, made sure to select my TempDrive and Custom Install to not install any printer drivers (Install would fail if any printer drivers were selected)

 

Made dsdt.aml file and installed at / (later removed without any negative effect so it may not be needed).

 

Replaced mach_kernel with mach_kernel.test7 renamed as mach_kernel.

 

I did not use the Extras folder that Chameleon provides. I prefer to have a single location for kexts so I'm not confused by having duplicate kexts in different places.

 

The kexts and kernel I used were from the links provided by spammon and arya.

 

To /System/Library/Extensions/ installed the following Kexts

 

AHCIPortInjector.kext

AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext

AppleRTC.kext

ATAPortInjector.kext

Disabler.kext

fakesmc.kext

IOACPIFamily.kext

IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext

IOATAFamily.kext

IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext (modified by removing ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext from within this pkg)

JMicronATAInjector.kext

NullCPUPowerManagement.kext

OoenHaltRestart.kext

PlatformUUID.kext (modified to include TempDrives UUID)

SleepEnabler.kext

VoodooPowerMini.kext

 

To /System/Library/Extensions/ removed the following Kexts

 

Extensions.mkext

ATIFramebuffer.kext

ATIRadeonX1000.kext

ATIRadeonX1000GA.plugin

ATIRadeonX1000GLDriver.bundle

ATIRadeonX1000VADriver.bundle

ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin

ATIRadeonX2000GLDriver.bundle

ATIRadeonX2000VADriver.bundle

ATISupport.kext

NVDANV40Hal.kext

NVDANV50Hal.kext

NVDAResman.kext

NVSMU.kext

 

Then installed the following plists to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

 

smbios.plist (modified to include TempDrive's UUID)

com.apple.Boot.plist [copied from my 10.5.8 install (I liked the 8 second Timeout I previously had, gives me more time to escape to the command line)]

 

Repaired permissions by Terminal commands:

 

cd /

sudo chown -R root:wheel /volumes/TempDrive/system/library/extensions

sudo chmod -R 755 /volumes/TempDrive/system/library/extensions

sudo diskutil repairpermissions /volumes/TempDrive

sudo touch volumes/TempDrive/system/library/extensions

 

Restarted computer and held down F8 to select TempDrive for start up and held down F8 again at Chameleon display to drop down to Chameleon command line. (no prompt, just allows you to start typing)

 

Typed -v -x at command line and hit return and after a lot of scrolling text and a few lengthy pauses, Snow Leopard starts. As spammon says, just get this install up and running to the most basic level because it's just going to be used as a stepping stone to your final install on another drive.

 

Repeated the same exact installation technique to my final Snow drive, except as follows:

 

All installations were made with TempDrive as my startup drive. (Install Snow leopard from Snow Leopard)

Manually installed Chameleon 2.0-RC3 per the Chameleon Readme file because my Snow volume was 1TB.

Do not use Migration Assitant to migrate everything from your 10.5.X installation. There must be items that are incompatible 'cause it hosed my first installations. I've been performing fresh application installs to make sure everything is put on "clean".

After successful startup of Snow, I Used EFI Studio to modify the com.apple.Boot.plist file for my graphics card.

Copied back the NVIDIA extensions listed below to get full graphics support:

NVDANV40Hal.kext

NVDANV50Hal.kext

NVDAResman.kext

NVSMU.kext

Used Disk Utility to repair Permissions after successful startup.

Installed printer drivers from Optional Installs on Snow DVD.

 

Additional items,

 

I disconnected all extraneous USB devices. If they were connected during the install, I'd get various hangs. Afterwards connecting them up didn't cause any issues.

Several of the helpful utilities for setting permissions or Readme file instructions might lead you to think you were doing things right just by following their examples, but unless you're paying attention to all the path modifications you have to make, you might not be doing what you think your doing. In other words, double check your work when invoking commands.

 

Hope this helps someone.

 

Gregg

 

New news: I just performed a Software Update to 10.6.1 without any problem]

[swinte]

Thanks for the post! I'll give this a try today. So far my efforts on getting this board to boot have been fruitless so I'm excited to see someone's been able to get this to work.

[swinte]

I tried following the steps you outlined and the guides you had linked to but was unsuccessful (I must have been missing a step somewhere). I was getting frustrated so I tried the "MyHack" Installer at http://osx86.sojugarden.com/installer/ and voila, it's booting now! When I've got a couple minutes I'll post more info on the steps I'm using to get Snow Leopard going and the exact hardware I'm using. Still fighting the sleep and audio stuff.

[gtemkin]

I tried following the steps you outlined and the guides you had linked to but was unsuccessful (I must have been missing a step somewhere). I was getting frustrated so I tried the "MyHack" Installer at http://osx86.sojugarden.com/installer/ and voila, it's booting now! When I've got a couple minutes I'll post more info on the steps I'm using to get Snow Leopard going and the exact hardware I'm using. Still fighting the sleep and audio stuff.

 

I'd almost given up getting SL working on this MB and now we have a couple of good installs. That's great! Yesterday I blew up my SL trying one more time to use Migration Assistant (MA). MA worked for "Users" and "Other Documents and Files" but after perfoming an "Applications" transfer, SL had a fit and wouldn't restart. I must have an application that's doesn't like SL. I never did try the "Settings" migration.

 

Did you use the Vanilla or Chocolate kernel option described on MyHack? I'd like to keep things Vanilla if at all possible and if you've had sucess there, I'd try MyHack to get mine back up and running.

[swinte]

I'd almost given up getting SL working on this MB and now we have a couple of good installs. That's great! Yesterday I blew up my SL trying one more time to use Migration Assistant (MA). MA worked for "Users" and "Other Documents and Files" but after perfoming an "Applications" transfer, SL had a fit and wouldn't restart. I must have an application that's doesn't like SL. I never did try the "Settings" migration.

 

Did you use the Vanilla or Chocolate kernel option described on MyHack? I'd like to keep things Vanilla if at all possible and if you've had sucess there, I'd try MyHack to get mine back up and running.

 

Yeah, I'd just about given up as well! I'm really excited the community is making progress with Snow Leopard on this board since it was such a cheap, easy option with Leopard.

 

For my install I used the Vanilla kernel. I installed Snow Leopard onto my 1 TB drive from another Snow Leopard system via terminal using command "open /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg". Once that finished I ran the MyHack installer and picked the logical sounding install options. Then I swapped the drive over to my 945GCT-M/1333 v3.

 

One thing to note, I do have a hacked BIOS installed (from the big Leopard install thread at http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=82928). This was necessary to get Leopard going for me awhile back, not sure if it's necessary on Snow Leopard anymore. This was the only meaningful difference I saw between your setup and mine.

 

I didn't even attempt the migration assistant, I just manually reinstalled from a backup.

 

Next steps: figuring out audio and sleep support.

[swinte]

FWIW the options that I am using in MyHack 1.0 RC4.1 are as follows:

• com.apple.Boot.plist
  
• GraphicsEnabler
  
• AHCIPortInjector.kext
  
• AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext & IOATAFamily.kext
  
• FramebufferDisabler.kext
  
• IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext
  
• JMicronATA.kext
  
• LegacyAppleRTC.kext
  
• NullCPUPowerManagement.kext
  
• OpenHaltRestart.kext
  
• PlatformUUID.kext
  
• Sleepenabler.kext
  

From what I read at http://www.projectosx.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=682, I'm thinking that if I get my DSDT built and patched properly I won't need the AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext & IOATAFamily.kext option anymore.

[hagfish]

For those having problems with sound.. Try voodoohda

[Henrik C]

This looks promising!

If I get enough time, I'm going to try this on my board as well. Running a Core2Duo E6550 (I think, can't really remember if I changed from the E4550 or not), as well as a generic PCI FW400 card.

Looks like my wireless cards won't work properly, I have an Airlink with RaLink chipset, but the RaLink application you need to use is 32-bit only, so from what I understand it'll cause some problems. Not sure about this though, feel free to correct me.

 

Anywho, any suceess with Bluetooth? I have a generic Bluetooth dongle that works fine in Leopard, and I just got a <$3 BBT dongle from DealExtreme:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11866

 

When I try this with Leopard, it won't show any desktop picture, but I'm hoping this will work nicely with Snow Leopard.

I know this is a far shot, but it would be awesome if someone had experience with this particular BT dongle.

Going to post my results here as soon as I'm finished installing, by the way.

[Henrik C]

All right, progress!

(This was done on a real MBP)

After creating a DMG from my SL retail DVD, I restored it to an external Firewire disk. Downloaded and installed MyHack. Checked the box for AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext & IOATAFamily.kext, and then went to my desktop, pressed Get Information on the disk, and checked "Ignore ownership on this volume."

Plugged it in, hit F8 a couple of times, and now I'm installing as we speak. Will get back with how this works later.

[swinte]

I used kexthelper to install VoodooHDA and now my audio is working great! I'd tried following the DSDT patching guides first but couldn't figure them out.

 

Still not having any luck with connecting to other AFP volumes via bonjour. I tried the new R1000.kext from another thread and no luck there.

 

Also not having any luck with patching my DSDT to remove the need for patched IOATAFamily.kext. Any DSDT experts here that want to jump in and help?

[gtemkin]

Re-did my install using myHack and it worked great. Got everything working at this point except sleep.

 

I have an AirLink wireless N PCI card and didn't have any problem getting it running after using the STA_RT2860 D-1.0.0.0a UI-1.4.8.0_2007_11_26 installer for Tiger.

 

Thanks much swinte for the myHack find. we're solidly in SL now.

 

Gregg

[Henrik C]

@gtemkin: Which Airlink 101 card do you have?

Is it the AWLH6080 by any chance?

[ismaelgualdi3]

Re-did my install using myHack and it worked great. Got everything working at this point except sleep.

 

I have an AirLink wireless N PCI card and didn't have any problem getting it running after using the STA_RT2860 D-1.0.0.0a UI-1.4.8.0_2007_11_26 installer for Tiger.

 

Thanks much swinte for the myHack find. we're solidly in SL now.

 

Gregg

 

So you recommend myHack guide and installer or the guide you did? I would like to try SL on this motherboard and collaborate with my experiencie in order to do the best installation possible...

 

What about updates of SL? Is this installation stable so we could upgrade to 6.2, 6.3 etc.?

 

Another thing... does Time Machine works? before i tried once in leopard and crash my system and never tried again...

 

Thanks...

[gtemkin]

@gtemkin: Which Airlink 101 card do you have?

Is it the AWLH6080 by any chance?

 

Yes, it is an AWLH6080.

 

So you recommend myHack guide and installer or the guide you did? I would like to try SL on this motherboard and collaborate with my experiencie in order to do the best installation possible...

 

What about updates of SL? Is this installation stable so we could upgrade to 6.2, 6.3 etc.?

 

Another thing... does Time Machine works? before i tried once in leopard and crash my system and never tried again...

 

Thanks...

 

The my Hack method is much, much easier and the better way to go for the long term (vanilla install). I'll edit my original post to say that so others can go directly to that method. Far as I can tell, it's very stable.

 

I haven't tried a Time Machine backup yet because my SL install is being recognized as a new machine and Time Machine wants to start a totally new archive on my backup drive, where there's no more room. I'm sure there are edits I can find to fix this but i'll probably just wipe my current backup disk and start afresh. I don't think there'll be any problems.

[swinte]

I have been using Time Machine without incident for several days now. In general, everything feels quite stable and I'm not running into any odd issues except for sleep and AFP access.

 

Not sure I'm quite brave enough to try 10.6.2 just yet. I'm hoping the MyHack installer is updated soon since I know at least one of the kexts currently included (sleepenabler) isn't 10.6.2 ready.

[hagfish]

I have been using Time Machine without incident for several days now. In general, everything feels quite stable and I'm not running into any odd issues except for sleep and AFP access.

 

Not sure I'm quite brave enough to try 10.6.2 just yet. I'm hoping the MyHack installer is updated soon since I know at least one of the kexts currently included (sleepenabler) isn't 10.6.2 ready.

 

I'm kind of curious about the procedure for a full TM restore with the myhack install.. I know with the old one, all you had to do is do the regular restore and then reinstall darwin. Since this is "vanilla" I guess you could just do a regular full restore and not have to worry bout anything else? dunno

[swinte]

Quick update: after installing Bonjour64 both AFP and other Bonjour based services such as iTunes music sharing are now working properly. You can pick it up at http://www.kexts.com/view/125-bonjour64:_a...4-bit_snow.html Thanks to Weaksauce12 for putting this together; I'd link directly to his site but it's blocked for some reason.

 

This is definitely not as optimal of a solution as a kext or DSDT patch, so if anyone has any other ideas here please jump in.

[ismaelgualdi3]

Quick update: after installing Bonjour64 both AFP and other Bonjour based services such as iTunes music sharing are now working properly. You can pick it up at http://www.kexts.com/view/125-bonjour64:_a...4-bit_snow.html Thanks to Weaksauce12 for putting this together; I'd link directly to his site but it's blocked for some reason.

 

This is definitely not as optimal of a solution as a kext or DSDT patch, so if anyone has any other ideas here please jump in.

 

Does it works in 32 bit mode? Because it´s says that it for 64-bit Snow.

 

I have just 2GB RAM, so for the moment there is no reason to use Snow Leopard under 64 bit.

 

Another question, with this mobo, when I shut down leopard (10.5.1 to 10.5.8) several times it doesnt shut down completely, some fans was still working and you can hear some things working or turned on. Is there a kext or something anyone installed to solve this problem?

 

Thank you in advance.

[gtemkin]

Upgraded to 10.6.2 using software update. Made mods suggested on netkas.org but had multiple kernel panics on restart. Re-installed MyHack with SleepEnabler.kext unchecked. Restarted and everything seems fine now.

 

Gregg

[swinte]

Does it works in 32 bit mode? Because it´s says that it for 64-bit Snow.

 

I have just 2GB RAM, so for the moment there is no reason to use Snow Leopard under 64 bit.

 

Another question, with this mobo, when I shut down leopard (10.5.1 to 10.5.8) several times it doesnt shut down completely, some fans was still working and you can hear some things working or turned on. Is there a kext or something anyone installed to solve this problem?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

I'm running in 32 bit mode and Bonjour64 works fine. From chatting with hagfish it sounds like he's not having the Bonjour/AFP etc. problems that I am at all, so maybe it's just something weird with my setup.

 

Not sure on the Leopard shut down issue, that was never an issue for me. If you haven't already, check out the big Leopard thread for this motherboard here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=82928 Maybe some there has some ideas.

[hagfish]

Upgraded to 10.6.2 using software update. Made mods suggested on netkas.org but had multiple kernel panics on restart. Re-installed MyHack with SleepEnabler.kext unchecked. Restarted and everything seems fine now.

 

Gregg

 

How did you reinstall the myhack? Did you have to redo the usb stick without sleepenabler, boot with the usb, then reinstall to system HD? Just curious how you fixed it when you were getting kp's

[gtemkin]

How did you reinstall the myhack? Did you have to redo the usb stick without sleepenabler, boot with the usb, then reinstall to system HD? Just curious how you fixed it when you were getting kp's

 

You should be able to startup off of any working startup drive (USB or HardDrive - I don't think it needs to be an SL drive), run MyHack from there and point the install towards your SL drive. Select all the same extensions you previously used but don't select SleepEnabler.kext. That's it.

[hagfish]

You should be able to startup off of any working startup drive (USB or HardDrive - I don't think it needs to be an SL drive), run MyHack from there and point the install towards your SL drive. Select all the same extensions you previously used but don't select SleepEnabler.kext. That's it.

 

Thanks, just tryin to think about the best way to do it without having to take out the drive and put it in another machine to fix.. It's a real PITA to get to.

[OSXtotheZ]

Re-did my install using myHack and it worked great. Got everything working at this point except sleep.

 

I have an AirLink wireless N PCI card and didn't have any problem getting it running after using the STA_RT2860 D-1.0.0.0a UI-1.4.8.0_2007_11_26 installer for Tiger.

 

Thanks much swinte for the myHack find. we're solidly in SL now.

 

Gregg

 

For sleep have you tried moving your USBPWR jumper. Its on the motherboard near the yellow/black 4pin plug. Thats what got sleep working for me but I'm just running 10.5.8 retail install.

[swinte]

For sleep have you tried moving your USBPWR jumper. Its on the motherboard near the yellow/black 4pin plug. Thats what got sleep working for me but I'm just running 10.5.8 retail install.

 

Great find! I'll have to give this a shot tonight in Snow Leopard. I've been busy with other projects for a couple weeks and haven't had a chance to play with this board much lately.

 

Out of curiosity, were there any BIOS settings that you had to tweak? Also, what BIOS version are you running?