Hackintosh 10.5.5 Retail Rig - Starting at $305

[mosslack]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: mosslack

Originally posted by: scootermaster
Does anyone have one of those digital i/o brackets and an UD3P or [preferably] a DS3L? I want to test digital in. I have a guitar effects pedal and I was wondering if the SPDIF in works under hack/garageband and the like.

Thanks!

What bracket is this scooter? If it is something that came with the mobo I probably have one that I'm not using. I have both the DS3L and the UD3P, but I don't use anything other than the regular ol' line out. I think you are on the west coast so maybe there is someone closer. Let me know.

The ES2L, for example, has digital audio output pins (SPDIF out via 3 pins on the motherboard). Some boards have 5 pins - three for digital output, 2 for digital input. If you buy a combo digital audio input/output bracket, then it has a 6-pin jack with one hole blocked out, so it's a 5-pin jack physically. So that way you can get digital audio input on your board. I'll be checking into this a bit later on my boards.

Yeah I didn't remember what the extra bracket was for in the box for the UD3P, but I just looked and it's for a couple of eSATA ports with a molex power port in the middle. There are a couple of extra cables also, what are they? One looks like maybe firewire?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: mosslack

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: mosslack

Originally posted by: scootermaster
Does anyone have one of those digital i/o brackets and an UD3P or [preferably] a DS3L? I want to test digital in. I have a guitar effects pedal and I was wondering if the SPDIF in works under hack/garageband and the like.

Thanks!

What bracket is this scooter? If it is something that came with the mobo I probably have one that I'm not using. I have both the DS3L and the UD3P, but I don't use anything other than the regular ol' line out. I think you are on the west coast so maybe there is someone closer. Let me know.

The ES2L, for example, has digital audio output pins (SPDIF out via 3 pins on the motherboard). Some boards have 5 pins - three for digital output, 2 for digital input. If you buy a combo digital audio input/output bracket, then it has a 6-pin jack with one hole blocked out, so it's a 5-pin jack physically. So that way you can get digital audio input on your board. I'll be checking into this a bit later on my boards.

Yeah I didn't remember what the extra bracket was for in the box for the UD3P, but I just looked and it's for a couple of eSATA ports with a molex power port in the middle. There are a couple of extra cables also, what are they? One looks like maybe firewire?

eSATA connectors & power plugs for the rear jack.

 

[mosslack]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: mosslack

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: mosslack

Originally posted by: scootermaster
Does anyone have one of those digital i/o brackets and an UD3P or [preferably] a DS3L? I want to test digital in. I have a guitar effects pedal and I was wondering if the SPDIF in works under hack/garageband and the like.

Thanks!

What bracket is this scooter? If it is something that came with the mobo I probably have one that I'm not using. I have both the DS3L and the UD3P, but I don't use anything other than the regular ol' line out. I think you are on the west coast so maybe there is someone closer. Let me know.

The ES2L, for example, has digital audio output pins (SPDIF out via 3 pins on the motherboard). Some boards have 5 pins - three for digital output, 2 for digital input. If you buy a combo digital audio input/output bracket, then it has a 6-pin jack with one hole blocked out, so it's a 5-pin jack physically. So that way you can get digital audio input on your board. I'll be checking into this a bit later on my boards.

Yeah I didn't remember what the extra bracket was for in the box for the UD3P, but I just looked and it's for a couple of eSATA ports with a molex power port in the middle. There are a couple of extra cables also, what are they? One looks like maybe firewire?

eSATA connectors & power plugs for the rear jack.

Bummer, I just ordered an eSATA to eSATA cable the other day to facilitate the transfer of data to my server RAID. That's what I get for not looking to see what was in the box!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: mosslack

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: mosslack

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: mosslack

Originally posted by: scootermaster
Does anyone have one of those digital i/o brackets and an UD3P or [preferably] a DS3L? I want to test digital in. I have a guitar effects pedal and I was wondering if the SPDIF in works under hack/garageband and the like.

Thanks!

What bracket is this scooter? If it is something that came with the mobo I probably have one that I'm not using. I have both the DS3L and the UD3P, but I don't use anything other than the regular ol' line out. I think you are on the west coast so maybe there is someone closer. Let me know.

The ES2L, for example, has digital audio output pins (SPDIF out via 3 pins on the motherboard). Some boards have 5 pins - three for digital output, 2 for digital input. If you buy a combo digital audio input/output bracket, then it has a 6-pin jack with one hole blocked out, so it's a 5-pin jack physically. So that way you can get digital audio input on your board. I'll be checking into this a bit later on my boards.

Yeah I didn't remember what the extra bracket was for in the box for the UD3P, but I just looked and it's for a couple of eSATA ports with a molex power port in the middle. There are a couple of extra cables also, what are they? One looks like maybe firewire?

eSATA connectors & power plugs for the rear jack.

Bummer, I just ordered an eSATA to eSATA cable the other day to facilitate the transfer of data to my server RAID. That's what I get for not looking to see what was in the box!

You're okay, it's an internal SATA to eSATA cable so you can plug one of your motherboard's SATA ports into the eSATA backplate from inside the case. You'll still need one for the outside

 

[mosslack]

Yeah, the NexStar SATA HD dock I have has an eSATA port on the back also, makes it very nice to connect a bare HD via USB or eSATA.

 

[Hernandito]

Originally posted by: Kaido

ES2L is a great system, it's actually the cleanest install out of all three since you currently don't have to patch audio for upgrades Yeah, you can run pure vanilla with a PCI NIC & USB sound card, although if you're streaming HD media files, I'd recommend going with a Gigabit adapter ($9.99 on Newegg) and supporting network - every since I upgraded to Gigabit, all of my HD streaming problems have gone away (hiccups and slow starts and whatnot).

Yup, just disable the onboard stuff in BIOS. As far as the sound card, yeah, losing front audio is a bummer, but knowing that you have pure OS X install on your hard drive helps make up for it I'm hoping that Chameleon RC2 fixes the Block Storage and Mkext bugs, as well as the default boot drive bug from USB stick (I've heard you can overcome this by playing with the numbers - like doing hd(2,2) in the Boot Plist instead, even though that's not the actual # of the drive).

Not a drinker but thanks for the offer :thumbsup: Cheers from Hartford!

I figured out how to resolve the default drive. On the bootlist, there is an entry

<key>Default Partition</key>
<string>hd(0,2)</string>

The way I figured out which HD it was on, I booted with the 123 CD and at the prompt, I started hitting 80, seeing which drive (x,y) number preceded the Drive name. If it was the wrong drive, I hit "esc", then 81 and so on until I found the right one.

In my setup, I plug drives in and out depending on what I am playing with at the moment, so this drive number changes. It is not big deal to hit a key and then arrow to the right drive.

I am a little bummed that XP does not boot from RC1 (neither did EFIx btw). XP is kind of my main workhorse system, (3D, CAD, etc.) therefore I am stuck hitting the F12 key super fast. I did read about the XP fix on InsanelyMac, but it requires adding a partition at the start of my XP drive. I am not ready to chance this with my bread and butter system.

I am not really ready for an HTPC, but while I have the knowledge fresh about this, I thought I should put a cheap system together. I am actually thinking about putting a wifi card because I don't have any wiring to my living room. While I am on the subject, if I want to boot from USB on the ES2L, which files do I need on the Extra/Extensions folder?

I should get all the parts by Friday.... can't wait.


EDIT: BTW, I was able to create an install package to copy the proper kexts to the SLE folder. This should make it very easy to restore the system. Worked very nicely. I am now trying to create a DVD with INSTAHackintosh, which will include the SEL kexts and the 10.5.7 upgrade, we'll see it it works. I also copied the LegacyIOAHCIBlockStorage.kext to the SLE, and it cured the orange drive icons.

Now I am getting adventurous.

Thanks,

H.

 

[Flufflesworth]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: wicktron
I'd like to know how to upgrade from 10.5.5 (USB stick method) to 10.5.7. I don't want to brick my system. Booo

1. Make a full, working backup
2. Install 10.5.7 (from Software Update or else download the Combo Update)
3. If it works, yay...if it fails, just restore your backup!

You can also install the bootloader & drivers to your hard drive and ditch the USB method if you'd like

Hi, I tried this and it didn't quite work.

I'm running the original Kaido recipe, as it were, a P35-DS3L, version 2.0 with F8 bios, running 10.5.5 still using USB boot stick method.

Having just upgraded to iLife 09 and Safari 4 on my MacBook I decided it's time to move the Hackintosh forward.

I cloned the drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, and I can boot the clone just fine. When I applied the 10.5.7 combo update, it rebooted and got past the gray Apple screen, went to the resolution switch and rebooted, went part way and froze up with the "You must restart your computer" text.

I have erased the clone and re-cloned it to try again when I get home from work tonight. Can you offer any particular advice? BTW I'm using the built-in ethernet and USB audio via an old iMic.

Thanks for any pointers!

 

[mosslack]

Originally posted by: Flufflesworth

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: wicktron
I'd like to know how to upgrade from 10.5.5 (USB stick method) to 10.5.7. I don't want to brick my system. Booo

1. Make a full, working backup
2. Install 10.5.7 (from Software Update or else download the Combo Update)
3. If it works, yay...if it fails, just restore your backup!

You can also install the bootloader & drivers to your hard drive and ditch the USB method if you'd like

Hi, I tried this and it didn't quite work.

I'm running the original Kaido recipe, as it were, a P35-DS3L, version 2.0 with F8 bios, running 10.5.5 still using USB boot stick method.

Having just upgraded to iLife 09 and Safari 4 on my MacBook I decided it's time to move the Hackintosh forward.

I cloned the drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, and I can boot the clone just fine. When I applied the 10.5.7 combo update, it rebooted and got past the gray Apple screen, went to the resolution switch and rebooted, went part way and froze up with the "You must restart your computer" text.

I have erased the clone and re-cloned it to try again when I get home from work tonight. Can you offer any particular advice? BTW I'm using the built-in ethernet and USB audio via an old iMic.

Thanks for any pointers!

Might be a graphics card/refresh rate issue, I experienced this on my UD3P and it took forever to figure out. What card/refresh rate/monitor are you using. What I had to do in order not to get that message was to change my refresh rate to 60 Hz instead of it's normal 75 Hz before I did the 10.5.7 update. That allowed me to boot back up into 10.5.7 and then change my resolution. BTW, the only refresh rate listed in 10.5.7 on mine is 60 Hz, all of the others are grayed out. HTH

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Flufflesworth

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: wicktron
I'd like to know how to upgrade from 10.5.5 (USB stick method) to 10.5.7. I don't want to brick my system. Booo

1. Make a full, working backup
2. Install 10.5.7 (from Software Update or else download the Combo Update)
3. If it works, yay...if it fails, just restore your backup!

You can also install the bootloader & drivers to your hard drive and ditch the USB method if you'd like

Hi, I tried this and it didn't quite work.

I'm running the original Kaido recipe, as it were, a P35-DS3L, version 2.0 with F8 bios, running 10.5.5 still using USB boot stick method.

Having just upgraded to iLife 09 and Safari 4 on my MacBook I decided it's time to move the Hackintosh forward.

I cloned the drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, and I can boot the clone just fine. When I applied the 10.5.7 combo update, it rebooted and got past the gray Apple screen, went to the resolution switch and rebooted, went part way and froze up with the "You must restart your computer" text.

I have erased the clone and re-cloned it to try again when I get home from work tonight. Can you offer any particular advice? BTW I'm using the built-in ethernet and USB audio via an old iMic.

Thanks for any pointers!

USB stick method? That's old, old, old! Switch to the HDD-based method ASAP!

 

[Zaap]

The GA-G41-ES2L runs OSX fine. First installed two partitions, each from a 10.5.4 disk without a hitch. (If you value your time, always do TWO complete installs, not just one.) On restart, I hit the 'setup loop' due to oddball network chip. Easily bypassed by using the "Graphic Mode"="640x480x32" flag, which bypasses setup. From there, no problem upgrading to 10.5.7. The main issues with this board are the onboard network and audio. I didn't try exhaustively, but I wasn't able to get either to work with any methods I did try, driver files, or EFI strings. Works great with a PCI network card and USB audio though.

Overall I wouldn't expressly recommend the G41 board. The chipset does run cooler and uses less power than the G31, though. The system is perfectly stable and fast, using a Q8400 CPU. (I didn't use the 2600XT, but a cheap 7300GT.) Also it'll take 8GB of RAM in mATX, though currently I can't find an 8GB solution for less than $140 per 4GB stick- not really worth it as of now, but maybe in the future. I am pondering replacing my G31 board with this since I can live with the USB audio and PCI ethernet- haven't decided yet.

Update: Tried the Ethernet driver included in the DS3L kit, and it worked.

 

[metzler555]

Can someone with the UD3P help me out.. this is non OSX related but I need to know where I can find my serial number on the board. My board just died and I need to RMA with Gigabyte, but I can't seem to find the serial number and I sent in my UPC part of my box for the rebate. The Gigabyte website says its either by the CPU socket or the last PCI slot, but I have no serial number. The serial number is supposed to start with SN.... then your numbers. I don't want to know your serial number I just want to know where I can find mine. Oh also, there is supposed to be a barcode under it. So if anyone could help me that would be great!

 

[mosslack]

Originally posted by: metzler555
Can someone with the UD3P help me out.. this is non OSX related but I need to know where I can find my serial number on the board. My board just died and I need to RMA with Gigabyte, but I can't seem to find the serial number and I sent in my UPC part of my box for the rebate. The Gigabyte website says its either by the CPU socket or the last PCI slot, but I have no serial number. The serial number is supposed to start with SN.... then your numbers. I don't want to know your serial number I just want to know where I can find mine. Oh also, there is supposed to be a barcode under it. So if anyone could help me that would be great!

Looking at the image viewer on the NewEgg website for that board, I see a bar code sticker with a number on it just to the rear of the blue PCI Express slot. I looked closely at the entire board and that is the only thing I saw that remotely resembles what you are looking for. HTH

 

[metzler555]

Originally posted by: mosslack

Originally posted by: metzler555
Can someone with the UD3P help me out.. this is non OSX related but I need to know where I can find my serial number on the board. My board just died and I need to RMA with Gigabyte, but I can't seem to find the serial number and I sent in my UPC part of my box for the rebate. The Gigabyte website says its either by the CPU socket or the last PCI slot, but I have no serial number. The serial number is supposed to start with SN.... then your numbers. I don't want to know your serial number I just want to know where I can find mine. Oh also, there is supposed to be a barcode under it. So if anyone could help me that would be great!

Looking at the image viewer on the NewEgg website for that board, I see a bar code sticker with a number on it just to the rear of the blue PCI Express slot. I looked closely at the entire board and that is the only thing I saw that remotely resembles what you are looking for. HTH

Oh i forgot to mention I did look there. THanks for the observant idea though! Yeah weird thing is, it doesn't start with SN, and it isn't 12 characters long. It also doesn't have the year/week in the first 4 characters. So I am thinking that isn't the number.

 

[Hernandito]

Hi Kaido,

Could I impose on you once more in guiding me with the files I would need to put on the thumb drive with the ES2L motherboard and Chameleon RC1? I have the your kit already, and I noticed that you label some files going in the Extras folder and some in the Kext folder (I assume SLE). But my goal was to have a complete vanilla OSX drive with everything "Extra" on the thumb drive. I am planning to use the on-board network and audio. I am reserving the $8 USB audio and Netgear NIC for my UD3P.

Similarly to the UD3P STICK DRIVE, My first assumption would be that all the files below would go in the Extras/Extensions folder on the thumb drive.

* AppleDecrypt.kext
* Disabler.kext
* OpenHaltRestart.kext
* LegacyAppleIntelPIIXATA.kext
* AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext
* RealtekR1000.kext
* AppleHDA.kext
* ALCinject.kext

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Hernando

 

[Raul Puke]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Zaap
Once again, nice work!

Is natit the current best way of installing drivers for the 2600XT? Tonight I may attempt to get a 2600XT going on my beater machine if I can figure out the drivers. I've got the $99 fanless one.

Thanks! This 2600XT driver is the best:

http://www.mediafire.com/?hqmzj1zjlz2

It supports DVI, HDMI, and S-Video/Composite using the Apple video adapter. You will need an Nvidia card for the initial setup, or else use the Hard Drive method to install OS X & the driver beforehand (I've only used the Nvidia card method and can confirm that that works).

forgive me if this has been answered but my eyes are bleeding reading all these post..
ok to the point...
will the 2600XT driver work for the hd 2600pro. fanless also... i think it should work, i just dont want to do some thing dumb

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Raul Puke

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Zaap
Once again, nice work!

Is natit the current best way of installing drivers for the 2600XT? Tonight I may attempt to get a 2600XT going on my beater machine if I can figure out the drivers. I've got the $99 fanless one.

Thanks! This 2600XT driver is the best:

http://www.mediafire.com/?hqmzj1zjlz2

It supports DVI, HDMI, and S-Video/Composite using the Apple video adapter. You will need an Nvidia card for the initial setup, or else use the Hard Drive method to install OS X & the driver beforehand (I've only used the Nvidia card method and can confirm that that works).

forgive me if this has been answered but my eyes are bleeding reading all these post..
ok to the point...
will the 2600XT driver work for the hd 2600pro. fanless also... i think it should work, i just dont want to do some thing dumb

Don't know honestly, I only have the 2600XT to work with (Apple "says" that specific card is the only one that works with S-Video out in the 2600-series, although I don't know if it's *limited* to that).

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Hernandito
Hi Kaido,

Could I impose on you once more in guiding me with the files I would need to put on the thumb drive with the ES2L motherboard and Chameleon RC1? I have the your kit already, and I noticed that you label some files going in the Extras folder and some in the Kext folder (I assume SLE). But my goal was to have a complete vanilla OSX drive with everything "Extra" on the thumb drive. I am planning to use the on-board network and audio. I am reserving the $8 USB audio and Netgear NIC for my UD3P.

Similarly to the UD3P STICK DRIVE, My first assumption would be that all the files below would go in the Extras/Extensions folder on the thumb drive.

* AppleDecrypt.kext
* Disabler.kext
* OpenHaltRestart.kext
* LegacyAppleIntelPIIXATA.kext
* AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext
* RealtekR1000.kext
* AppleHDA.kext
* ALCinject.kext

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Hernando

#1, you can't put Audio/Network drivers on the USB stick due to the way they load
#2, for some reason BlockStorage doesn't load from /Extras
#3, the current release of RC1 doesn't load Mkexts properly from the USB stick (so just unpack the kexts inside using Mkext Tool and put them in the Extensions folder on the USB stick)
#4, you don't need SMBIOSEFI because you're using the SMBIOS Plist on the USB stick (it's in the Extras folder in the package I linked, just leave it there)

So basically, as it stands today, if you want a 100% Leopard HDD you have to do the following:

1. Get USB audio (disable onboard audio - onboard driver cannot load from USB)
2. Get PCI network (or PCI/USB Wifi, and disable onboard networking - onboard driver cannot load from USB)
3. Get rid of AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext (we use SMBIOS Plist on the stick now, easier to configure and doesn't have to be on the HDD in SLE)
4. Your drives will be orange (the BlockStorage kext won't load in RC1 from /Extras, not on USB or HDD - must be installed to SLE on HDD)
5. All kexts must be in /Extras/Extensions on the USB stick (Mkexts don't load properly)
6. Keep your HDD's Boot Plist vanilla & put the modded one on the USB stick

You can see why I'm not real keen about doing a USB-only release just yet...eventually I'd like to post that as an option, but RC1 has a few niggly little bugs that I don't like. So to recap:

1. SMBIOS Plist on USB stick, ditch SMBIOSEFI
2. Modded Boot Plist on USB, stock Boot Plist on HDD
3. Kexts only on USB, no Mkext (bug)
4. Orange drives since BlockStorage can't run from Extras in RC1 (bug)
5. No modifiers on USB stick, they won't work (namely onboard Audio & Ethernet)

Themes are nice, once configured, and the default boot drive switch in the Boot Plist doesn't work correctly from the USB stick in the currently RC1 release. So that's about it. The nice thing about running your bootloader from a USB stick:

1. Visual boot selection - choose Windows, Linux, or Mac with icons
2. Default boot drive - easily switch your default OS
3. 100% bone-stock Leopard drive - easy to clone, backup, etc.
4. Upgrading drives, cloning, adding new OS's, whatever - it's all easy since your bootloader is on it's own mini-drive, completely separate from any operating system.

In an ideal world, here is what I would like to see in the future:

1. Working boot selector from USB (Chameleon 2)
2. Theme resolution auto-detect based on the Boot Plist native res (Chameleon 2)
3. Fixed BlockStorage - silver drives from USB (Chameleon 2)
4. Updated R1000 - no 20-second wakeup from sleep, loadable from USB (Psystar or dev)
5. Voodoo Audio for ALC chipsets - 883, 888, 889a - and loaded from USB (Voodoo Team)
6. Mkext loading from USB (Chameleon 2.0)

I'd also like to see my Core 2 Quad show up as an Intel chip (for Silverlight - only dual-core Pentiums do, not Core 2 chips) and better support for multi-format partitioned hard drives (like an MBR drive with HSF+ & FAT32), although I don't know if that will ever happen.

Anyway HTH. Just unpack the Mkext from the ES2L plugin you want and throw it in with the other kexts to the /Extra/Extensions folder on your USB stick.

 

[Kaido]

Hey, any of you having 8400GS problems, please give this a try: (remove your EFI Strings)

http://netkas.org/?p=104

 

[PCTC2]

Shot in the dark, blindfolded and hung upside down, but if someone has a Hackintosh with a Q9400, with VMware Fusion and a Windows installation, could you open CPU-Z and see if it tells you that you have a Q9400 Engineering Sample? Mine's giving me that I have an ES and I want to see if it's the VMware Virtualization software that's giving it the wrong CPUID chain.

EDIT: I should add that I don't have Windows as bootable partition and the boot-camp partition is messed up and I don't have another license key for my Windows XP x64 bootcamp and Win7 won't install without a system partition.

 

[mosslack]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Hey, any of you having 8400GS problems, please give this a try: (remove your EFI Strings)

http://netkas.org/?p=104

I may give this a try on my test partition after a bit. FWIW, I have my eVGA 8400 GS back in my UD3P now and working fine under 10.5.7. Strangely limited to only 1 refresh rate (60 Hz), all others grayed out. Of course this is using the string from the Uinstaller. Will let you know if I try it. Still working on my server project for the time being...

 

[Hernandito]

Originally posted by: Kaido

#1, you can't put Audio/Network drivers on the USB stick due to the way they load
#2, for some reason BlockStorage doesn't load from /Extras
#3, the current release of RC1 doesn't load Mkexts properly from the USB stick (so just unpack the kexts inside using Mkext Tool and put them in the Extensions folder on the USB stick)
#4, you don't need SMBIOSEFI because you're using the SMBIOS Plist on the USB stick (it's in the Extras folder in the package I linked, just leave it there)

So basically, as it stands today, if you want a 100% Leopard HDD you have to do the following:

1. Get USB audio (disable onboard audio - onboard driver cannot load from USB)
2. Get PCI network (or PCI/USB Wifi, and disable onboard networking - onboard driver cannot load from USB)
3. Get rid of AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext (we use SMBIOS Plist on the stick now, easier to configure and doesn't have to be on the HDD in SLE)
4. Your drives will be orange (the BlockStorage kext won't load in RC1 from /Extras, not on USB or HDD - must be installed to SLE on HDD)
5. All kexts must be in /Extras/Extensions on the USB stick (Mkexts don't load properly)
6. Keep your HDD's Boot Plist vanilla & put the modded one on the USB stick

You can see why I'm not real keen about doing a USB-only release just yet...eventually I'd like to post that as an option, but RC1 has a few niggly little bugs that I don't like. So to recap:

1. SMBIOS Plist on USB stick, ditch SMBIOSEFI
2. Modded Boot Plist on USB, stock Boot Plist on HDD
3. Kexts only on USB, no Mkext (bug)
4. Orange drives since BlockStorage can't run from Extras in RC1 (bug)
5. No modifiers on USB stick, they won't work (namely onboard Audio & Ethernet)

Themes are nice, once configured, and the default boot drive switch in the Boot Plist doesn't work correctly from the USB stick in the currently RC1 release. So that's about it. The nice thing about running your bootloader from a USB stick:

1. Visual boot selection - choose Windows, Linux, or Mac with icons
2. Default boot drive - easily switch your default OS
3. 100% bone-stock Leopard drive - easy to clone, backup, etc.
4. Upgrading drives, cloning, adding new OS's, whatever - it's all easy since your bootloader is on it's own mini-drive, completely separate from any operating system.

In an ideal world, here is what I would like to see in the future:

1. Working boot selector from USB (Chameleon 2)
2. Theme resolution auto-detect based on the Boot Plist native res (Chameleon 2)
3. Fixed BlockStorage - silver drives from USB (Chameleon 2)
4. Updated R1000 - no 20-second wakeup from sleep, loadable from USB (Psystar or dev)
5. Voodoo Audio for ALC chipsets - 883, 888, 889a - and loaded from USB (Voodoo Team)
6. Mkext loading from USB (Chameleon 2.0)

I'd also like to see my Core 2 Quad show up as an Intel chip (for Silverlight - only dual-core Pentiums do, not Core 2 chips) and better support for multi-format partitioned hard drives (like an MBR drive with HSF+ & FAT32), although I don't know if that will ever happen.

Anyway HTH. Just unpack the Mkext from the ES2L plugin you want and throw it in with the other kexts to the /Extra/Extensions folder on your USB stick.

Thank you Keido!! The setup with the thumb drive worked very nicely.

A couple things worth noting. On the ES2L, with a completely vanilla HDD, booting from thumb drive; the onboard network works!! No kexts installed to SLE.... I can browse the web very nicely, I can see my Windos machines on the network. I cannot see my other Mac, but this could be because I have not set it up.

In bios, I had to change On-Chip Primary IPCI IDE to "enabled" otherwise the bootloader would not show the hard drive.

I guess since this board does not have AHCI, the drive icons are the normal color (not orange).

I am off to make audio work by installing the pertinent kexts to SLE. I am also going to try tackle setting the default boot drive from the boot.plist. I may have a trick for this.

I hope I have made some discoveries that prove worthwhile to the community.

Thanks again.


Hernando

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Hernandito
Thank you Keido!! The setup with the thumb drive worked very nicely.

A couple things worth noting. On the ES2L, with a completely vanilla HDD, booting from thumb drive; the onboard network works!! No kexts installed to SLE.... I can browse the web very nicely, I can see my Windos machines on the network. I cannot see my other Mac, but this could be because I have not set it up.

In bios, I had to change On-Chip Primary IPCI IDE to "enabled" otherwise the bootloader would not show the hard drive.

I guess since this board does not have AHCI, the drive icons are the normal color (not orange).

I am off to make audio work by installing the pertinent kexts to SLE. I am also going to try tackle setting the default boot drive from the boot.plist. I may have a trick for this.

I hope I have made some discoveries that prove worthwhile to the community.

Yah, Realtek Network is semi-supported by default in Leopard - Internet functions & Windows networking functions work out of the box, what doesn't work is AFP and Bonjour - so you won't see Apple shares or iTunes remote libraries without the R1000 kext in SLE.

The UD3P seems to act a bit strange with RC1 - some people have the BlockStorage working, apparently, as well as some other functions like Mkext. Maybe the ES2L doesn't have these bugs. Hopefully RC2 will be out soon!

As far as the Boot Plist goes, just keep changing the number until you find one that lets the HDD boot as default. It's doable, but the correct code doesn't work - you have to play with the numbers.

 

[mosslack]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Hey, any of you having 8400GS problems, please give this a try: (remove your EFI Strings)

http://netkas.org/?p=104

Preliminary testing indicates no change from using the strings on my system. I did the reinstall on my test partition, updated to 10.5.7, reboot, ran Uinstaller but did not check the Apply EFI String for video card. I did select everything else applicable however. Rebooted once more and the system came back up with a resolution of 1440x900. I thought this a bit odd being as I had not selected a video card. Installed the Enabler for Nvidia cards and rebooted once more. Once again it came back up with a resolution of 1440x900@75Hz. I used the displays pref panel to reset to the correct resolution for my monitor 1680x1050, but did not adjust the refresh rate. The display went to a blue screen, subsequent attempts at rebooting that partition brings up the You need to restart message, so nothing new here. I have no doubt that if I would have changed the refresh rate to 60Hz, the package would have worked fine. HTH

BTW, for this install I used my newly created 16 Gb Sandisk Cruzer micro flash drive with the Leopard install DVD on it. Worked fine. I hope to transfer the Boot 132 ISO to this drive also making it a completely self contained installer. It even has a 5+ Gb data partition for holding install related packages, etc. If I can get this to use the Boot 132 image and be bootable, I will give details on how I did it. :thumbsup:

 

[imported_jonnyc]

I'm still waiting at 10.5.6, new guides look awesome Kaido !
Do i have to know do the full reinstall to get to .7 ?
I think I tried installing .7 5 or 6 times before from complete reinstall to combo upgrade and each time my computer was left bricked. Granted this was on the old kit with the sound issues.

What's the process no to upgrade from .6 to .7 on the ud3p, should I just run UInstaller and tick off the mkexts and then install the combo or should I delete some files first from the old install ?

A little guidance would be a huge help. Im forever fearful of this .7 thing.

 

[tbJohnson]

Kaido, you are the man, but I am having probs with CI and QE.

I followed your guidlines exactly. from here.
http://leopardsoup.pbworks.com/ud3p_v11

my setup.

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P (F8 BIOS)
INTEL Q8300 Core2Quad (standard heat sinc)
4 GIG RAM
Sapphire RADEON 3870 DDR4 512MB (blue one)

Anyway, I used you guidline and got everything up to 10.5.7 running, using a NVIDIA to boot with and install. Then I used your UInstaller and installed what you said EXCEPT the video driver. I read on OSXPROJECT.ORG to use the NATIT.

It looks like I screwed up and I should have put the natit.kext driver in with your Uinstaller, instead what I used was a .pkg I found on insanelymac.com

Now when I try to install CI/QE apps it says that I have 0MB of RAM so I can't run any CI/QE apps. So I screwed it all up trying to write over my .pkg Natit attepts?

Anyway, I am on my 3rd try! First one I installed the 1.0 package and got the kernal panick, last install I screwed up my Radeon Drivers.

How should I install the 3870 drivers? Should I use your 3870.hex/kext from your Uinstaller?? Or should I use the natit.kext? And now that there are tons of natit.kext.. Which one should I use?

Waiting here with a clean 10.5.7 hoping you reply back before I screw it up again..

Thanks again for all your hard awesome work!!