[HowTo] Building my first OSx86 box...

[bofors]

Hmm .... I'm not experiencing any stability problems on my 10.4.5. setup, no spontaneous reboots or kernel panics whatsoever.

I just got another kernel panic. Although I think I would rather proceed diagnosing this on 10.4.5 instead of 10.4.3, I did try to find the panic log. It is supposed to be under /Library/Logs in a file called panic.log, but I see nothing there.

Having said that, my setup is simpler as I don't have the ADD2 card and dual screen (I got a 1440x900 widescreen panel instead, which I like very much) or an accelerated graphics card (onboard is fine for me

I might need to disconnect a panel and the ADD2 card to try to isolate the spontaneous reboot problem. I tested my RAM fairly thoroughly using the Rember program when I built this box and I still think it is good.

I don't want to burn more energy than necessary or have additional noisy fans for graphics performance which I don't need).

I am now starting to use this machine rather intensively, running both cores under full load for long periods of time and possibly constantly. So, I guess this is going to turn into an OSx86 box stress test.

[StickyDigits]

Bofors,

 

Your using your second monitor off your ADD-2 DVI card - Do you notice any real diffrence between your DVI output and your VGA output quality wise. Is it worth getting the the ADD-2 card for a single display just to get the DVI-D output? Would it work in a single display setup?

 

Just wondering if it's worth the time hunting one down.

 

Thanks.

[Hitesh]

i disabled the beam sync ..but my scores are still the same ... .. anyways i was just making a cheap intel rig for my office .... could youll recommend a decently good intel configuration for under 300 $ only for the cpu..i have the monitor and everything.

[bofors]

Do you notice any real diffrence between your DVI output and your VGA output quality wise.

I notice perhaps a slight improvement in the quality of DVI display, but nothing significant and it might depend on the quality of the display being used.

Is it worth getting the the ADD-2 card for a single display just to get the DVI-D output?

ADD2 cards are really cheap and if you are unhappy with your VGA output it might be worth a shot.

Would it work in a single display setup?

Absolutely, this is what Apple did with the Developer Transition Kit.

 

 

i disabled the beam sync ..but my scores are still the same ...

Hmm... what is your Xbench score?

anyways i was just making a cheap intel rig for my office .... could youll recommend a decently good intel configuration for under 300 $ only for the cpu..i have the monitor and everything.

I am not exactly sure what you need here. If you want a cheap CPU to run OSx86, just get the cheapest Intel you can buy with SSE3, like the Celeron D 310 for like $50. Otherwise, the motherboard situation is the same. For OS X, I consider one GB of RAM to the minimum for decent performance.

[StickyDigits]

Thanks Bofors for the info. I found one used off Ebay at $5 + shipping. At that price it'seems rediculous not to give it a try.

 

Stability wise -- The system has been running for 3 days now and it seems stable at this point. I did have a problem initally with the power management features (they seemed to lock up the system or at least I did not figure out how to get it out of it's sleep mode) -- so after turning every thing off in system pref. - the system seems to work fine for long periods at a time.

 

PC Networking with windows is a joy. I'm now sharing files between a windows share drive and my Hackintosh. The network seems a tad slow but that might be due to my router (a cheap linksys internet gateway). I'll try a direct connect tonight using a cross wire and see if the speed is up to par.

 

[bofors]

Stability wise -- The system has been running for 3 days now and it seems stable at this point.

I just ran my box for about eight hours straight with both cores under full load and was surprised to find that it had not failed.

 

PC Networking with windows is a joy. I'm now sharing files between a windows share drive and my Hackintosh.

OS X also supports Samba printer sharing with Windows, i.e. connecting your OSx86 box to a printer being hosted on a Windows machine. In Printer Setup Utility.app -> Add Printer, while holding down the <option> key click More Printers button, click on top pop-up menu set to AppleTalk -> Advanced. Samba and other options is under the Device pop-up menu.

 

http://www.macosxhints.com/ is a good place to find these types of OS X tricks.

[RiceTea]

To your question concerning available RAM. I have seen a note indicating that some mobos support actually 8 GB of RAM when operating under a 64-bit OS and only 4 GB when not. I suppose yours is one of these. However, when 4 GB are installed under a 32-bit OS only 3.2 or 3.4 GB (can´t remember exactly) will be available. The logic behind this is behind me but at least it describes your observation...

[bofors]

Thanks Sammy, that seems consistent with what Shaughn suggested on the previous page. For the record, the I see 3.24 GB of RAM available to OS X.

[RiceTea]

A question by myself (probably already addressed): Do you have confirmation that your dual processor stuff is actually recognized/supported/used by apps like PS (being not UniBin etc.)?

[Hitesh]

Hmm... what is your Xbench score?

 

I am not exactly sure what you need here. If you want a cheap CPU to run OSx86, just get the cheapest Intel you can buy with SSE3, like the Celeron D 310 for like $50. Otherwise, the motherboard situation is the same. For OS X, I consider one GB of RAM to the minimum for decent performance.

 

xbench score 81.67

 

just need a cheap machine with osx86 ....celeron d is good .. mobo ?

[bofors]

ok, the base patch plus the amd_enabler kernel patch works for me. well sort of, sse3 is now displayed in the system profiler but it's still displaying my cpu as 4Ghz.

 

I just spent the last hour trying to get a minimally patched 10.4.4 install following Maxxuss' instructions. The situation appears the same as when I tried to use a minimally patched kernel in 10.4.5. First I get the the CPUID panic and that goes away with the Maxxuss' CPUID patch, but then I get another panic which does not go away with Maxxuss' RTC patch.

 

I am now thinking that I am just going to run with Myzar's pre-patched 10.4.5 as it appears that some AMD patching is in fact necessary for Maxxuss' system to work.

 

A question by myself (probably already addressed): Do you have confirmation that your dual processor stuff is actually recognized/supported/used by apps like PS (being not UniBin etc.)?

I do not know for a fact if Rosetta runs PPC apps multi-threads, but I would assume it does as I should just translated the detachment of a new thread of execution just like it translates everything else (except perhaps Altivec). Otherwise the x86 apps certainly use both cores if they are multi-threaded.

 

just need a cheap machine with osx86 mobo ?

I am not sure what the cheapest decent OSx86 motherboard, perhaps some 915 chipset with a GMA 900.

[Bearcat]

I just spent the last hour trying to get a minimally patched 10.4.4 install following Maxxuss' instructions. The situation appears the same as when I tried to use a minimally patched kernel in 10.4.5. First I get the the CPUID panic and that goes away with the Maxxuss' CPUID patch, but then I get another panic which does not go away with Maxxuss' RTC patch.

 

I am now thinking that I am just going to run with Myzar's pre-patched 10.4.5 as it appears that some AMD patching is in fact necessary for Maxxuss' system to work.

 

I found this post by MacApprentice:

 

Got a crazy thing tonight : My CPU is a Pentium D 920 wich got all the feature (MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, EM64T, NX bit, you name it!!) and i got the kernel to work with the base patch +... No NX!!!

This is crazy, it's even on Intel website, 920D is announced NX capable.

Do I loose anything by applaying the no nx patch? If I don't I'll live with it but it's weird o_O

 

He only used base patch + no NX, after unpatching the AMD stuff, but without unpatching the AMD stuff, it might work with base patch + amd enabler + noNX

[StickyDigits]

A question by myself (probably already addressed): Do you have confirmation that your dual processor stuff is actually recognized/supported/used by apps like PS (being not UniBin etc.)?

 

I can confirm that in 10.4.5 the dual processors are recognized and supported. I don't have a copy of PhotoShop to test it with, but the few things I have that need rosetta seem to be using both cores (or at least the OS seems to be taking care of distributing the load between the 2 cores).

 

[Hitesh]

Does this mobo support OSX86 ?

Its got ATI graphics built in

http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/d101ggc/index.htm

[bofors]

I found this post by MacApprentice:

He only used base patch + no NX, after unpatching the AMD stuff, but without unpatching the AMD stuff, it might work with base patch + amd enabler + noNX

 

Thanks Bearcat, I will give that a shot. The other possible lead I have on solving the problem is that I am not using fixing permissions with chown/chmod. Maxxuss' instruction do not specifiy this but rather indicate that Disk Utlity is to be used to fix permissions and that may not be working correctly.

 

Does this mobo support OSX86 ?

Its got ATI graphics built in

http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/d101ggc/index.htm

The prices I saw for that motherboard were absurd and otherwise I would avoid it. I really think you want to stick with either an Intel 915 or 945 chipset and either an Intel GMA 900 or 950 integrated graphics chip. I would look for a discounted 915 motherboard with GMA 900.

 

I have read a lot of complaints about Asrock boards in general and in particular their Dual series (AGP/PCIe), you should look for something like this but from another manufacturer:

 

http://cavemonkey50.com/2006/01/the-perfec...86-motherboard/

[Hitesh]

perfect will go buy a 915 chipset intel mobo tomm.....start with my rig..thankkyou

[StickyDigits]

Hi Guys...

 

If anyone is interested getting or trying out a DVI-D card on the cheap contact the following fellow off ebay -- Mark Hobbs mark4@swbell.net

 

The card in question is the Silicon Image Orion ADD-N dual pad x16 PCI-e Dell J4570 (the same one Bofors is using in his current setup)

 

Compatible with the Intel GMA900 & 950 -- DVI-D output upto 1920x1200 at 60hertz. After verification, the GMA950 is limited to 60 hertz at higher resolutions but you have 0 artifacts & 0 hassles in 10.4.5. For the time being, definitly the easiest way to go for your Hackintosh. You can support 2 monitors a a time (1 vga & 1 DVI-D).

 

He's got a dozen or so of these cards in half hight and full height configuration available. He sells them $4.99 + shipping ($4 US, $8 Canada) and he accepts PayPal. If your thing is Dell, he's has a great deal of refurbished parts available at what seems to be dirt cheap prices.

 

[bofors]

Do you notice any real diffrence between your DVI output and your VGA output quality wise. Is it worth getting the the ADD-2 card for a single display just to get the DVI-D output? Would it work in a single display setup?

Looking through this thread, I found that I had made a few posts regarding an observation that my ADD2 DVI output was of higher quality than the VGA. These posts start here:

 

http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?sh...ic=7393&st=135#

[bofors]

I am now running an unmodified install of Myzar's pre-patched 10.4.5 full-time. I am taking the "if it aint' broke don't fix it" logic over the minimal patching philosophy for now.

 

My baseline Xbench is the low 90's. Do to variation in my Xbench score it is unclear what affect if any enabling Quartz Exterme 2D has. XBench seems to generate a low score on it's first run. Turning off Beam Sych I get this:

Results	106.39	
System Info		
	Xbench Version		1.2
	System Version		10.4.5 (8G1454)
	Physical RAM		4096 MB
	Model		ADP2,1
	Drive Type		WDC WD360GD-00FLC0
CPU Test	62.04	
	GCD Loop	85.41	4.50 Mops/sec
	Floating Point Basic	72.38	1.72 Gflop/sec
	vecLib FFT	44.06	1.45 Gflop/sec
	Floating Point Library	61.55	10.72 Mops/sec
Thread Test	153.44	
	Computation	140.97	2.86 Mops/sec, 4 threads
	Lock Contention	168.35	7.24 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test	106.08	
	System	90.17	
		Allocate	57.13	209.81 Kalloc/sec
		Fill	126.69	6159.97 MB/sec
		Copy	126.98	2622.72 MB/sec
	Stream	128.82	
		Copy	123.92	2559.60 MB/sec
		Scale	125.61	2595.08 MB/sec
		Add	134.02	2854.93 MB/sec
		Triad	132.28	2829.85 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test	110.27	
	Line	99.97	6.66 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
	Rectangle	91.61	27.35 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
	Circle	92.28	7.52 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
	Bezier	93.74	2.36 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
	Text	342.65	21.43 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test	182.00	
	Spinning Squares	182.00	230.88 frames/sec
User Interface Test	199.28	
	Elements	199.28	914.61 refresh/sec
Disk Test	70.66	
	Sequential	112.20	
		Uncached Write	103.69	63.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	116.79	66.08 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	107.04	31.33 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	123.41	62.02 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Random	51.57	
		Uncached Write	18.04	1.91 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	125.15	40.06 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	124.32	0.88 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	163.87	30.41 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

However, in attempt to avoid or otherwise isolate the source of any kernel panics or spontaneous reboots, I am planning to run with Beam Sych. enabled. I plan to play some videos in VLC later, which repeatedly panic 10.4.3. Apple's DVD Player now works in 10.4.5.

 

I have noticed that Maxxuss' instructs to use the 10.4.3 version of IOATAFamily.kext in 10.4.4/5 and I wondering if this is why I am still unable to set up an internal SATA RAID array. I am wondering if the 10.4.3 IOATAFamily.kext is really necessary for my hardware and plan to see what happens if I use the 10.4.4 IOATAFamily.kext instead.

 

One more thing, it seems that using Disk Utility to repair permissions does not work. I mean that the permissions that it says are being fixed appear to be broken in subsequent runs. What is the story with this?

[bofors]

I plan to play some videos in VLC later, which repeatedly panic 10.4.3.

I watched a DVD movie in VLC (although Apple's DVD Player now works) and had no kernel panics in 10.4.5. I would expect about two in 10.4.3.

[bofors]

I have noticed that Maxxuss' instructs to use the 10.4.3 version of IOATAFamily.kext in 10.4.4/5 and I wondering if this is why I am still unable to set up an internal SATA RAID array. I am wondering if the 10.4.3 IOATAFamily.kext is really necessary for my hardware and plan to see what happens if I use the 10.4.4 IOATAFamily.kext instead.

So, I drop the 10.4.4 IOATAFamily into my 10.4.5 install and it seems to work just fine, but still no internal RAID.

[Hitesh]

hi bofor ....i see you know the best deals around ,, could you tell me where is the best deal for a 36GB raptor 10000k ? also ive never ordered online ..i buy it here locally in india ....but this hard disk aint available ..so give me a little knowledge about how much are the charges for sending it to india if i order from new egg or somewhere ? is there like a lot of duty charges ?

[bofors]

First, I must say that I think it is mistake to buy Raptors at the moment for these Intel D945 motherboards which support SATA 300 (3.0 Gbps, aka SATA II). We discussed this issue in this thread before:

 

http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?sh...ic=7393&st=160#

 

For SATA 300, it is much better to go with an SATA II drive like the Hiatchi 7TK250: http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/har...7K250/index.htm

 

Frankly, I think it is stupid that Raptors do not have an SATA II interface yet, and when that changes they may be worth buying for SATA II machines.

 

Now with respect to India, I have no idea about international shipping and duty. Some American vendors deal internationally, some don't. When I have looked into these issues before, it usually turns out to be best to buy from a vendor in your own country. The other thing is that since you are closer to where these goods are made, China, Taiwan and etc., I would suspect there are "factory outlets" that you could tap. I would recommend that you consult with other Indians, there must be Indian hardware forums.

[Hitesh]

First, I must say that I think it is mistake to buy Raptors at the moment for these Intel D945 motherboards which support SATA 300 (3.0 Gbps, aka SATA II). We discussed this issue in this thread before:

 

http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?sh...ic=7393&st=160#

 

For SATA 300, it is much better to go with an SATA II drive like the Hiatchi 7TK250: http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/har...7K250/index.htm

 

Frankly, I think it is stupid that Raptors do not have an SATA II interface yet, and when that changes they may be worth buying for SATA II machines.

 

Now with respect to India, I have no idea about international shipping and duty. Some American vendors deal internationally, some don't. When I have looked into these issues before, it usually turns out to be best to buy from a vendor in your own country. The other thing is that since you are closer to where these goods are made, China, Taiwan and etc., I would suspect there are "factory outlets" that you could tap. I would recommend that you consult with other Indians, there must be Indian hardware forums.

 

 

thankz bofor the hitachi's are available here ,so i guess u just saved me alot of money ....thankz again..

 

is there a difference between these 2 drives ? if there is which one to buy ?

http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_techsp...asterid=8351965

 

http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_techsp...asterid=7831125

[bofors]

is there a difference between these 2 drives ? if there is which one to buy ?

http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_techsp...asterid=8351965

 

http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_techsp...asterid=7831125

 

Although "sku" numbers are different, they have the same specification, so they are effectively the same drive. Perhaps one is a revision of the other, or such.

 

While we are the subject of hard drives, I want to say one more thing about why people should not buy Raptors.

 

Drive speed is not determined by RPM alone, but rather angular velocity. Angular velocity is RPM times the distance from the center of the disk spindle. While RPM and magnetic data density are constant, the angular velocity varies as the drive head moves across the platter.

 

This means that a slower RPM hard drive, like the 7.2K RPM Hitachi, is actually faster than a 10k Raptor when the Hitachi is reading near the outside edge of the disk and the Raptor is near the inside edge of the disk. Since Raptor are so much smaller, 36 GB or 76 GB, it is much better idea to just get a 250 GB and partition it, as partitioning starts at the edge of the disk and proceeds inwards.

 

So, if you want fast disk access, just get a 250 GB and make the make the first partition small like say 36 GB. Your performance from that partition will easily beat a 36GB Raptor and of course you will have an extra 200 GB to work with for about the same price.

 

I usually set up my disks with several small "high partitions", like 20 GB each, first, so they are near the edge of the disk, for operating system installation, applications, important data, and then have some larger slow partitions, last so they are near the center of the disk, for media files like movies and my music library.