(mostly) successful Leopard install on ECS 945GCT-M/1333

[ducman]

So Fry's had a sale on the ECS 945GCT-M with an Intel E2180, and I decided to give it a try. I found some posts that made it sound like the 945GCT-M would be a very compatible board. Apparently there are several versions of this board, though. The one that was included on the sale was the 945GCT-M/1333 v3.0, which turned out not to be quite as good a choice as I had hoped.

 

This board has

North Bridge: Intel® 945GC (good, very compatible)

South Bridge: Intel® ICH7 (good, very compatible)

Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (works, very compatible)

IDT 92HD202 8Ch-HD audio (oops, can't find anything about that!)

Realtek RTL8101E 10/100 LAN (oops, only post I find are bad!)

A guy with an eye patch and a peg leg gave me a disk labeled KALYWAY Leopard 10.5.1, so I put the E2180 on the board, added two 1Gb sticks of RAM, an old IDE hard drive and a Pioneer DVR-111D IDE DVD burner that has served me well for several years.

 

I had a bit of trouble booting things up, at first. The DVD booted after I tweaked my BIOS settings based on this link: http://netkas.org/?page_id=26

 

I had no trouble partitioning the drive GUID, and the installation seemed to go well until the very end, when I eventually got a error saying the system couldn't be installed. After several hours of trying things I realized that the installer log messages sounded like it might have had some trouble with the boot record. That lead me to this topic: installing EFI v8

 

I was able to follow the simple instructions under "Method Number 2: Starting with out Tiger or Leopard," to install EFI and get the system to boot.

 

Once in, the system recogized the built-in GMA950 just fine, and I immediately had accelerated graphics and Quartz Extreme support, as well as all reasonable resolutions on my Dell LCD display.

 

However, I didn't have either Ethernet or sound working. I spent another hour or two looking for references to that Realtek chipset, when I had the bright idea to check the Realtek support site. What do you know, there's a Mac driver on the site that's supposed to support that chip under Mac OS X 10.4.10: Realtek support site

 

I downloaded and installed the driver and rebooted. Now my on-board ethernet works, too!

 

Things were working well enough now that I went ahead and installed some software, let Software Update download and install several updates, and got things set up the way I like them. Overall I'm pretty happy with how well this thing is working. Sleep even works, sort of. If I "sleep" the machine, it doesn't recognize any keyboard inputs to wake up, but pressing the power button wakes it up, and every thing works just fine after waking, so I figure that's probably good enough.

 

I think I'm going to just have to give up on that IDT 92HD202 audio chip and buy a USB adapter. Can anybody recommend a cheap one that works well with Mac OS X?

 

So, overall, I'd say that if you're looking for a really cheap Hack, the ECS 945GCT-M works pretty well, but definitely go with a v1.0, if you have a choice. The v3.0 I ended up with is not nearly as well supported.

[ddd123]

I have an ECS 945gct-m, and sound and ethernet were working right from the Kalyway install. I chose Azelia Audio out option when installing. Ethernet worked without doing anything.

[ducman]

I have an ECS 945gct-m, and sound and ethernet were working right from the Kalyway install. I chose Azelia Audio out option when installing. Ethernet worked without doing anything.

 

I thought the key was that it's a 945GCT-M, but there are different versions of the board. You probably had v1.0, which had a Realtek RTL8100C for the on-board LAN and a Realtek ALC883 for the on-board audio. I got a v3.0, which comes with a Realtek RTL8101E LAN chip and an IDT 92HD202 audio chip, instead. I didn't see any posts warning of that possibility when I was checking, so I'm trying to make sure people understand there may be differences in a board that otherwise appears to be supported.

[doggyworld]

Thanks for this Ducman.. This was VERY helpful. I just got the same combo from you at Fry's and am doing the same thing at this moment. Hopefully after this, I can figure out how to install Windows XP to dualboot using GUID.

 

Also.. I didn't have to do anything with the Network card.. it was automatically installed from the Kalyway 10.5.1 DVD. Sound still doesn't work though, but I have a cheap external USB sound device that works using the C-Media chipset.

[pieisawesome]

EDIT: Nevermind, removed the U3 stuff, and it detected the drive.

 

I got a hold of the same Fry's combo and ran into the same issue saying the system couldn't be installed, so I went ahead with installing EFI v8. I'm having a bit of an issue with the USB drive not being seen. After I input "cd /Volumes/123/" into the terminal (with 123 being the label of the USB flash drive) I get "no such file or directory." Am I missing something? The drive is FAT32. Could it have anything to do with it being a U3 systems drive?

[ducman]

Turns out my install wasn't as successful as I had hoped. One of the key things I wanted out of Leopard was Time Machine. I added the second hard drive, and it seems to work just fine, but Time Machine doesn't work and the console shows an error number 18. I've found a couple threads about similar problems, and I've tried all the things they suggest (mostly installing IONetworkingFamily.kext or that plus some other kexts from ToH), but no luck. The thing seems to work just great, but no Time machine.

 

If anybody gets time machine working with this board, please post what you did!

[pieisawesome]

Ugh, now the install won't boot, just a black screen with a flashing cursor. Gonna erase and format the drive and see what happens...

 

EDIT: Seems I messed up in installing EFI 8. Everything isntalled, got into Leopard, but after installing the nvidia drivers and restarting, I get a black screen and pointer cursor (not flashing cursor). Upon further research, it seems my 7900 GTO isn't supported. Oh well, back to windows, at least until I get a supported card or I find a fix.

[ducman]

OK. I was having no success with fixing Time Machine after hours of trying, so I decided to reinstall from scratch. I'm much happier with the results this time!

 

Here's what I did:

 

1. I downloaded PC_EFI V8.0

NOTE: I had a lot of trouble with Apple's new xattr quarantine stuff because I downloaded the EFI package with Safari. Reading the man pages for "ditto," I noticed that it has a new option to remove the quarantine attribute. I highly recommend using ditto to get rid of the quarantine attributes, as it is much simpler than all the {censored} I went through on the first few trys.

Be sure to check all the files you use for a permissions string that looks like this:

-rwx------@ 1 installer dude 7179398 Jan 25 18:28 efi pack.zip

That @ sign tells you that you have a problem, and you have to fix it before you can use the file.

2. With one SATA drive and one IDE DVD drive connected, I booted Kalyway 10.5.1.

 

3. I went into disk utility and partitioned my SATA drive into 1 partition, GUID layout. We'll call this partition MAIN, it was /dev/disk0s2.

 

4. I chose both vanilla kernel options, no video driver options, AZALIA out, the realtek network option and the GUID bootloader.

 

5. When Kalyway finally finished its thing I rebooted and confirmed the new installation would start.

 

6. Then I shut down and connected my second SATA hard drive, then rebooted into the Kalyway installation. I used Disk Utility to partition that drive with one, GUID partition. We'll call this partition BACKUP, it was /dev/disk1s2.

 

7. I put in my Leopard retail disk and opened a terminal window to enter these commands:

cd /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/Packages

open OSInstall.mpkg

8. I then ran the normal Apple install on the BACKUP partition.

 

9. After the Apple install finished, I installed EFI on that drive, manually:

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1

./startupfiletool /dev/disk1s2 boot_v8

dd if=guid/boot1h of=/dev/disk1s2 bs=512 count=1

dd if=guid/boot0 of=/dev/disk1 bs=400 count=1

10. I then used the postpatch.sh script from the EFI package as a manual for replacing some kext files. I didn't replace the kernel but I did replace all the kexts with ones in the EFI package. Then I crossed my fingers and rebooted.

 

11. I used the BIOS option to boot off the second drive, and a totally vanilla appearing Leopard install came up! I ran Software Update and rebooted a couple of times to bring things up to date.

 

12. I told Time Machine to use the first hard drive, MAIN, as the backup disk and started a backup. It started! I didn't even need the IONetworkingfamily.kext I had downloaded. I killed the backup after a few minutes.

 

13. I used Disk Utility to reformat the MAIN drive as 1 GUID partition. I then copied the whole BACKUP partition to MAIN:

ditto -v -X / /Volumes/MAIN/

14. Just to be safe, I re-installed EFI on the MAIN disk. This was probably unnecessary, but it only takes a few seconds to run the same commands as above, but for /dev/disk0s2. I crossed my fingers and rebooted again. It worked! Now I could boot off either SATA drive via BIOS.

 

15. Now built-in video and built-in ethernet work. The sound control panel looks like sound should be working, with "HD Audio Output" as the device available. However, I still don't have sound out of any of the jacks on the back or front of the case. But the main thing is that Time Machine is working just fine. In fact I have managed to do what I hoped might be possible: I have a second, bootable hard drive with a full, easy to restore backup of the main drive. If the main drive fails, it should be easy to replace it, boot off the backup drive and use Time Machine to restore.

[steadybootleggin]

hey ducman. are you a sheet metal worker? is ''ducman'' supposed to be ''ductman''?

 

just curious ........

[MjP99]

I was doing an install with the same ECS 945GCT-M/1333 board when I read your article... It helped me alot! Thank you for it.

 

 

M

[trixrabite]

okay heres a little something for you guys you need to use the AppleHDA patcher tool located at AppleHDA patcher tool

basicly dropped into linux and did a codec dump says its a Sigmatel STAC9227, but doesn't look like any of the other codec dumps I've seen out for that same driver on the AppleHDA patcher page. After the dump is applied using v1.20 speaker icon shows up in the desktop and in the control panel Sound appears to work but doesn't. I find it very interesting that this detects Internal speakers but doesn't play out of external speakers or headset jack. hopefully me posting this will give people a heads up and get this working so I won't have to monkey around with having to get the stereo out stuff working by myself anyone willing to chime in and tell me what I've done wrong.

 

btw: I am using a 945GCT-M/1333 w/ E2200 proc frys deal 2gb memory and ATI Radeon X1650 Pro with 512mb in case anyone is wondering.

92HD202.txt

[ktheurer]

EDITED: February 24 2008

NOTE: The updated information is in green.

From a personal message from one of you, I noticed that the download link in the original post is not working anymore!

 

So I decided to upload to my rapidshare premium account, this is the link:

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/94571044/Audio_Setup_Sigmatel_9220.zip

 

PD: Don't ask me to upload in another download service, since I won't.

 

Well I have the ECS 945GCT-M/1333 with sound right now and installing Final Cut!!!

 

Check this post: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=78113 (The download link is not working, but feel to check if there are other files for you).

It is in spanish but basicly what you have to do is:

 

1. Download the files, click on the link in the post and you download a zip file with all you need.

 

2. Unzip the file in the Hackintosh.

 

3. Copy the AppleHDAPatcher v1.16 to the desktop.

 

4. Drop the Codec Dump 9221 D file on it, it is the *.txt file. (This will take some time, since it also fixes permissions of the partition).

5. Restart

 

6. Now copy the AppleHDA.kext file in SYSTEM/LIBRARY/EXTENTIONS, backup the original file first.

 

7. Load the DISK UTILITY and repair permissions on the partition and restart.

 

8. You should have sound right now, the only funny thing is that the sound comes out from the MIC connector (RED/PINK one), but you have sound.

Edited February 24, 2008 by ktheurer

[=-Devin-=]

okay heres a little something for you guys you need to use the AppleHDA patcher tool located at AppleHDA patcher tool

basicly dropped into linux and did a codec dump says its a Sigmatel STAC9227, but doesn't look like any of the other codec dumps I've seen out for that same driver on the AppleHDA patcher page. After the dump is applied using v1.20 speaker icon shows up in the desktop and in the control panel Sound appears to work but doesn't. I find it very interesting that this detects Internal speakers but doesn't play out of external speakers or headset jack. hopefully me posting this will give people a heads up and get this working so I won't have to monkey around with having to get the stereo out stuff working by myself anyone willing to chime in and tell me what I've done wrong.

 

btw: I am using a 945GCT-M/1333 w/ E2200 proc frys deal 2gb memory and ATI Radeon X1650 Pro with 512mb in case anyone is wondering.

 

Hey, is this a version 3 board?

[doggyworld]

Well I have the ECS 945GCT-M/1333 with sound right now and installing Final Cut!!!

 

Check this post: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=78113

 

It is in spanish but basicly what you have to do is:

 

1. Download the files, click on the link in the post and you download a zip file with all you need.

 

2. Unzip the file in the Hackintosh.

 

3. Copy the AppleHDAPatcher v1.16 to the desktop.

 

4. Drop the Codec Dump 9221 D file on it, it is the *.txt file.

 

5. Restart

 

6. NOw copy the AppleHDA.kext file in SYSTEM/LIBRARY/EXTENTIONS, backup the original file first.

 

7. Load th DISK UTILITY and repair permissions on the partition and restart.

 

8. Ypu should have sound right now, the only funny thingm is that the sound comes out from the MIC connector (RED/PINK one), but you have sound.

 

That worked perfectly for me just like you said. I now have audio working through the mic input.

 

Although this does kind of throw me for a loop when I dual boot to windows.

 

I'm on 945GCT-M/1333 v3.0!

[=-Devin-=]

That worked perfectly for me just like you said. I now have audio working through the mic input.

 

Although this does kind of throw me for a loop when I dual boot to windows.

 

I'm on 945GCT-M/1333 v3.0!

 

Haha, yea, that'll be an issue.

I'm gonna get a splitter, so my speakers hook up to it and split to both the Mic and Spkr output, and disable the Mic port in Windows (Don't use it anyway.)

 

Well, I'm gonna try it out then.

 

Hope it works out.

[doggyworld]

Ok.. apparently if you use the latest AppleHDA Patcher 1.20 and trixrabite's 92HD202 text file, it will also work after copying over the AppleHDA.kext file off the Mic input also. I can't seem to actually get any of the other ports to accept any input however.

[=-Devin-=]

Well, Mic port works for sound now.

Its most likely this way because most Mobo's go from left to right, Green, Pink, Blue

This one goes Pink, Green, Blue

 

Now if I could get XP to use the Mic port for sound instead, I'm happy.

[doggyworld]

Well, Mic port works for sound now.

Its most likely this way because most Mobo's go from left to right, Green, Pink, Blue

This one goes Pink, Green, Blue

 

Now if I could get XP to use the Mic port for sound instead, I'm happy.

 

Woohoo.. I found out that you can set the Mic port in XP to output also.

 

If you installed the drivers, in XP go to the IDT control panel and set the mic output to be used for Headphones. And now it works!

[trixrabite]

Hey, is this a version 3 board?

 

I believe it is a version 3 board, yes.

[aceshigh]

hey all, ive got the same ecs board and core2duo e2220 combo i picked up from frys. its v3. ive got corsair 4.4.4.12 mem (1gbx2) , a sata 300 hd, and an ata memorex dvd burner. im using onboard graphics .

ive had sucess starting up the kalaway 10.5.1 with efi, its torrent name was : " KALYWAY LEOPARD 10.5.1 intel SSE2 and SSE3 Only (with 512 MB of RAM)!!! efi v8 "

 

 

to extreme frustration, i can install but cannot get it to boot , when i do f8 then -v, i get stuck at "using 10485 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers. with a non blinking white block right under it. ive reinstalled like 10 times, with mbr and guid, with the efi bootloaders from kalaway and without.....plz help wtf am i doing wrong......

 

 

[doggyworld]

Not sure.. all I did was select custom install with Vanilla Kernel and MBR EFI. Also, make sure you set the No Execution bit in BIOS. That was it for me, but I was also using an IDE drive.

[aceshigh]

Not sure.. all I did was select custom install with Vanilla Kernel and MBR EFI. Also, make sure you set the No Execution bit in BIOS. That was it for me, but I was also using an IDE drive.

 

So did you have another OS on the HD or was it clean OSX 10.5.1? Have you done the terminal inputs as well? or juts boot from DVD and custom install with the checkmarks on the vanilla Kernal and MBR EFI? wtf is vanilla kernal btw? you didn't do the audio? and hows the usability/performance running on this setup? can this really be a replacement MAC?

[doggyworld]

I had Windows XP loaded already on the first partition and just did a direct installation with the Kaly DVD on the 2nd partition. I didn't check anything other than the Vanilla Kernel or MBR efi. Both video and network was automatically recognized. Sound was fixed a little later with the other posts. It runs pretty fast for me with 2gb of ram.

[aceshigh]

I had Windows XP loaded already on the first partition and just did a direct installation with the Kaly DVD on the 2nd partition. I didn't check anything other than the Vanilla Kernel or MBR efi. Both video and network was automatically recognized. Sound was fixed a little later with the other posts. It runs pretty fast for me with 2gb of ram.

 

thx for the help bro, but still im not getting anywhere. i cant imagine what im not doing right? u think the sata is the issue? ive already reinstalled a gazillion times. irony is i bought 4 of these combos to have them all be mac/pc hybrids.............im still stuck on #1.

[ducman]

thx for the help bro, but still im not getting anywhere. i cant imagine what im not doing right? u think the sata is the issue? ive already reinstalled a gazillion times. irony is i bought 4 of these combos to have them all be mac/pc hybrids.............im still stuck on #1.

 

See my post #8. Installing from PATA dvd drive to SATA hard drive definitely works. If you've fooled around with your BIOS, try resetting to defaults.