Ultimate OS X 10.4.X Install Guide!

[swif]

Everyone seems to be having a number of problems when it comes to installing Mac OS X 10.4.6 on their Intel computers (you may be discovering these problems for other versions; 10.4.X). I hope this guide will be all-encompassing for every problem people are discovering -- I've encountered most every problem.

 

STEP ONE: Obtain a Mac OS X 10.4.6 JaS DVD image (usually found on a torrent search engine... I used demonoid.com)

 

STEP TWO: Burn this image to a DVD+/-R

 

STEP THREE: Boot from the DVD and run the installer. Continue through options until you are shown a start-bar type bar at the top of the screen that includes the word 'Utilities'. Click 'Utilities', then 'Disk Utility'. Remove all partitions and reformat your hard drive with your HFS+ filesystem, along with a partition named whatever you want. I used 'OSX10-4-6' without the quotes, but as long as you REMEMBER what you typed, you'll be fine. When you're finished partitioning, close the Disk Utility and continue on with the installation.

>> What your problem could have been: If you don't make the OS X partition a primary (and first) partition on the system, it can be difficult to set it to boot with this partition.

 

STEP FOUR: When you are prompted to actually install OS X, do not click the 'Install' button. Instead, click 'Customize'. Check the very bottom option, which includes 'SS#' patches, where # is 2, 3, etc. The description mentions patches for Intel and AMD systems. This is important.

>> What your problem could have been: People who don't install these patches during install will experience the boot screen with the light gray background, gray Apple logo and what has been dubbed 'the spinny thing'. Eventually you'll see a circle with a slash through it which is universal for 'stop' or 'cancel', and you cannot go any further.

 

STEP FIVE: Finish installing OS X and reboot, KEEPING YOUR OS X INSTALL DVD INSIDE THE COMPUTER. When you boot from the DVD again, wait for that start-bar type bar at the top of the screen, go to 'Utilities', then 'Terminal'. At the prompt, type the following, without quotes: 'cp /mach_kernel /Volumes/OSX10-4-6/'. Notice that I used 'OSX10-4-6' because this is what I named my partition. If you named your partition something with spaces, this is fine, but you would need to format the command as follows; let's say I named my partition 'Mac OS X 10.4.6'. The command would change to: 'cp /mach_kernel /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ 10.4.6/'. Notice the backslash ( \ ) before every space. This is used in terminal to escape the space character and let the computer know that it is part of the name of the partition, not a break in arguments for the cp command.

>> What your problem could have been: Usually people would understand or find out that they weren't installing the Intel patches during installation, and select this option when using 'Customize'. The problem was, for some reason the OS X installer would not use the correct Intel kernel, which is a HUGE problem. The system would start to load all of the HFS+ files (you would just see a lot of text on a black background scrolling very fast), and then the system would reboot and start all over. This copies the correct kernel to the partition and fixes the problem.

 

STEP SIX: Lastly, download some sort of Live Linux boot CD and burn it. It's not hard to find out how. Make sure you have fdisk available from the terminal of the boot CD. Most people that have been troubleshooting are very competent and know how to get fdisk. When you boot from this CD or Floppy, run fdisk on your hard drive like this: 'fdisk /dev/hda', obviously without quotes. Type 'p' and press enter, listing the partitions on the hard disk. When you have the number (listed to the left of each partition) of the Mac OS X partition, type 'a', press enter, and then type the number of the partition in question, press enter, and then type 'p' and press enter again to make sure you see an asterisk ( * ) next to the partition in question. This means that the partition is now bootable. Reboot and enjoy your Mac OS X, with no troubleshooting!

>> What your problem could have been: When booting, you get nothing but 'b0 error'. This is just Mac OS X telling you in its own confusing way that the partition is not set to 'active', or 'bootable'.

 

-----------------

 

If anyone has any questions, you can obviously post in the forum or e-mail me at: alex.arsenault AT gmail DOT com. Hopefully this solves any problems all these poor users keep asking that had the same problems as I did. Everyone helped out a little bit, but I just concatenated it all into one big tutorial. Props really go to everyone else in these forums, who know what they're doing. I didn't figure it ALL out on my own.

 

Good luck!

 

Alex Arsenault (swif)

[Ravi7791]

Great guide. Thanks! They should add this to the installation guide list at the Wiki.

 

My problem was that OSX would not start up. It gets to Mac OSX Logo and says "Loading Mac OSX" or something similar but the bar doesnt even start (just a tiny bit of blue comes up)

 

Could this because I installed the wrong SEE2/3 patches? Is it safe to install both SEE2 and SEE3?

[kev]

hi, i did step 5 and it still get a wall of text that scrolls down very fast then restarts. this is what appears when i entered "cp /mach_kernel/Volumes/diskOs2/":

usage: cp [ -R [ - H | -L | -P]] [-f | -i | -n] [-PV] src target

cp [ -R [ - H | -L | -P]] [-f | -i | -n] [-PV] src1...srcN directory

 

i have a P4 sse2 cpu

and i made sure that i checked the last box (sse2/ sse3) in customize. how can i fix this problem?

[Swad]

Thanks for the guide! Feel free to add this to the list of installation guides on the wiki!

[Georgiles]

I have OSx on separate HDD and I can boot only from DVD. The partition is bootable, primary .... everything.

If I boot from HDD I get black screen and a blinking coursor.

[aarong]

Thanks for the guide.

 

Currently at step one, waiting for the torrent to finish d/l. 19.7% done after like 3 days.

 

Anyone willing to send me a copy of their boot dvd?

[KellyKelly]

im dont get what STEP6 say

[BillyGoat]

hi, i did step 5 and it still get a wall of text that scrolls down very fast then restarts. this is what appears when i entered "cp /mach_kernel/Volumes/diskOs2/":

usage: cp [ -R [ - H | -L | -P]] [-f | -i | -n] [-PV] src target

cp [ -R [ - H | -L | -P]] [-f | -i | -n] [-PV] src1...srcN directory

 

i have a P4 sse2 cpu

and i made sure that i checked the last box (sse2/ sse3) in customize. how can i fix this problem?

 

You're missing a space.

 

cp /mach_kernel /Volumes/diskOs2/

[waremaster]

This seemed like a lot of steps to getting this up and running. I got the jas 10.4.6 image burned it booted to it did the disk utility set the drive up as MacHD erased it then closed the disk util then proceeded to do a custom install selecting the appropriate options for my system and clicked install. When that finished I ended up with an almost fully functioning system.

 

My system specs are

 

Dell Optiplex GX520

 

P4 3.2

1 gig of ram

2 80 gig Hd's (1 for mac osx) (1 for windows xp) f12 during startup selects which drive I boot too.

Realtek lan card as the internal Broadcom gigabit 57xx does not work in osx.

Onboard Video GDM900 fully functional running at 1280x1024 on an nec lcd.

 

sound required a small bit of customization but nothing difficult.

 

 

Dell Optiplex GX520 onboard audio howto:

 

1. Install OSX

2. open terminal

3. Type: sudo su <enter>

4. enter password <enter>

5. type: cd /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAC97Audio.kext/Contents/PlugIns/ <enter>

6. type: nano AppleAC97AudioIntelICH.kext/Contents/Info.plist <enter>

7. look for a part of the file where:

 

 

<key>ICH6 AC97 Audio</key>

{

.

.

<Key>IOProbeScore</key>

<string>0x266e8086</string>

.

 

}

 

8. and change <string>0x266e8086</string> into <string>0x27de8086 0x266e8086</string> (thus add 0x27de8086 to the line)

9. type: <ctrl>-x to exit and say yes when it asks you to save the change

10. after exit back to prompt type: kextload AppleAC97AudioIntelICH.kext <enter> you should get smthing like "kextload: AppleAC97AudioIntelICH.kext loaded successfully

11. check for the sound it should work now....

12. back to the terminal prompt type: rm /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache <enter>

13. type: kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions <enter>

14. reboot!!!

15. Enjoy the sound (sound is fully operational inputs/outputs/mic in the front and the back are working)

 

 

Thank you too the original poster for that.

 

after that was done I have a fully working system.

 

What I dont understand is te part about copying the mach kernel after the install. am I missing someting here?

 

 

Waremaster

[swif]

This seemed like a lot of steps to getting this up and running. I got the jas 10.4.6 image burned it booted to it did the disk utility set the drive up as MacHD erased it then closed the disk util then proceeded to do a custom install selecting the appropriate options for my system and clicked install. When that finished I ended up with an almost fully functioning system.

 

My system specs are

 

Dell Optiplex GX520

 

P4 3.2

1 gig of ram

2 80 gig Hd's (1 for mac osx) (1 for windows xp) f12 during startup selects which drive I boot too.

Realtek lan card as the internal Broadcom gigabit 57xx does not work in osx.

Onboard Video GDM900 fully functional running at 1280x1024 on an nec lcd.

 

sound required a small bit of customization but nothing difficult.

Dell Optiplex GX520 onboard audio howto:

 

1. Install OSX

2. open terminal

3. Type: sudo su <enter>

4. enter password <enter>

5. type: cd /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAC97Audio.kext/Contents/PlugIns/ <enter>

6. type: nano AppleAC97AudioIntelICH.kext/Contents/Info.plist <enter>

7. look for a part of the file where:

<key>ICH6 AC97 Audio</key>

{

.

.

<Key>IOProbeScore</key>

<string>0x266e8086</string>

.

 

}

 

8. and change <string>0x266e8086</string> into <string>0x27de8086 0x266e8086</string> (thus add 0x27de8086 to the line)

9. type: <ctrl>-x to exit and say yes when it asks you to save the change

10. after exit back to prompt type: kextload AppleAC97AudioIntelICH.kext <enter> you should get smthing like "kextload: AppleAC97AudioIntelICH.kext loaded successfully

11. check for the sound it should work now....

12. back to the terminal prompt type: rm /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache <enter>

13. type: kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions <enter>

14. reboot!!!

15. Enjoy the sound (sound is fully operational inputs/outputs/mic in the front and the back are working)

Thank you too the original poster for that.

 

after that was done I have a fully working system.

 

What I dont understand is te part about copying the mach kernel after the install. am I missing someting here?

Waremaster

 

To get sound working, the above method does not work properly in most cases. The one thing you must do FIRST, is change directory (cd) to /System/Library/Extensions . . .

 

cd /System/Library/Extensions/

 

then, type this:

 

chmod -R 755 AppleAC97Audio.kext/

 

then:

 

chown -R root:wheel AppleAC97Audio.kext/

 

THEN continue to edit everything, load the .kext using the guide quoted.

 

Also, you do not need to remove (rm) the kext file. you can just rebuild the cache using:

 

kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions/

 

Otherwise, this worked properly on my machine.

 

-Alex Arsenault (swif)

[Conroe Mac]

Ahh, if only it were that simple. This will all work assuming complete compatibility. What are the odds your hardware is not supported.... pretty good heh.

[swif]

Ahh, if only it were that simple. This will all work assuming complete compatibility. What are the odds your hardware is not supported.... pretty good heh.

 

I think it's safe to say that to get the best operating system available out there running on a computer it's not supposed to (for free, at that), it's pretty damn good that a "hacked" version of this OS can still support SOME sound drivers.

 

Regardless, this worked for _me_, and has worked for most others with onboard audio.

 

-Alex Arsenault (swif)

[Ryuichi Sakuma]

Thanks ill remember to us this when i attempt to install OSX again. I got three versions of the boot disc and all of them get me to the grey screen with the apple and then i get the circle with the slash through it though. Anyone know why my pathetic laptop is doing this to me?

[Mukund]

it took me around 22 days to download it.

 

ur download rate is faster. nJ0!

[CHmodzs]

Hi guys,

 

My PC is IBM Thinkcentre A51, all hardware is working perfectly except the LAN card (is Broadcom Gb 57xx) and just little problem on my sound card AudioAC97 with device id is 266e which already exist on osx. the problem is the sound just working when i plug the headset jack. this pc is built-in internal speaker. does anyone can help me how to fix this so i can use my internal spekaer and oh the mic it's not working too.

 

 

thanks for the help and sorry for my bad english

 

Best Regards

[GBK.Xscape]

Hey everyone i dont know why a DVD + RW wouldnt work. i used it and it turned out just fine for me. its better than wasting a perfectly good dvd on this. Just use a dvdrw and erase once your done. if there is a reason why you shouldnt use can someone let me know in a PM.

[Proximus]

so that means if I want to install MacOS i have to delete all other data on disk? I have already several partitions on disk including AF-type (Mac OS extended (Journaled)) reserved for OSX installation, but when installing it doesnt show me any partition for installation and when I go to Disk Utility application if I try to make a partition it warns me that all other volumes on disk will be destroyed with making a partition even if that partition is made in free space...

and one more question, can OSX be installed on external USB disk?

 

EDIT: i found the way to install without destroying all volumes on disk, I selected the volume for instalation and just erased it... now I have partition for MacOS rdy...