Hackintosh 10.5.5 Retail Rig - Starting at $305

[leglez]

Hmm which download link has the bootcd? There are like 3 or 4 download links not really sure which one to go for.

Edit: Nevermind I found it.

Edit: Can I restore BootCD onto a flash drive rather than burning it to a cd?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Zaap

Originally posted by: Kaido
Next time I'll try to release my updates in a slower fashion so we all don't feel bad about buying special hardware lol I bought a 5-pack of 1gb PNY sticks that are now completely useless lol.

Haha! Actually, I'm glad I got 'em- 8GB total for around $15- can't beat it. I paid $60 for an 8GB flash drive a year ago, now the things practically fall out of trees.

Plex- I'll be using that on the HTPC-Hack. I like how it works- it might even make me give up using Xlobby for the PC- which best front-end software I've used so far. No remote- but my trusty Belkin Media Pilot HTPC keyboard even has Apple keys in the right place.

From what I gather, the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P does work- someone on insanely did a retail install on it and only needed to patch audio.

The UD3P looks awfully nice...the only thing it really lacks over the EP45-DQ6 is the pair of 4x PCIe slots. I'm debating whether I need those or not. My plan is to use either my Quadro FX 5600 or an ATI 3870 for dual monitors for video editing, and then use the second 16x port for a Blackmagic HD Decklink card for A/V I/O. With the EP45, you could use dual video cards PLUS the Blackmagic card, but I don't foresee myself ever using more than two monitors. And at double price for only the addition of the 4x PCIe ports, I don't think it's worth it - the UD3P comes with 8 SATA, 8 USB, onboard Firewire, up to 16gb RAM, etc. Very very temping at $99

 

[frabjousdey]

Originally posted by: thepieces
Make sure under peripherals in the bios you have Usb keyboard support and usb mouse support enabled. If those are off they wont work.

Thanks! I did just that and it worked fine.

So I put the Hackintosh together by first using kaido's USB stick method, then upgrading it to a pure hard drive install. And it was working really well - perfect video with silky, silky dock animations and Expose transitions, working Ethernet, audio with no pops, all running faster than any other computer that I've ever had. (So thanks, kaido - this is the best guide around, period.)

Then, I broke it.

I put the system to sleep overnight to see if that would work. When I hit the power button the next morning, the following things struck me as weird:
- The USB external hard drives I had plugged in gave me the "Device removed" window you see when you yank them without ejecting them properly. That doesn't happen on my MBP after waking from standby. It detected them after a few seconds anyway.
- There was no wallpaper. This is the weird one. No dock, either. When I moused down to the dock, OS X redrew it and it showed up, and when I left-clicked and dragged on the desktop to make a selection box, it drew the wallpaper underneath the selected areas.
- All Core Image animations were choppier: dragging windows around, Expose, minimization... it had been super buttery smooth before, and now I could see it chugging a little bit.
- When I tried playing an AVI file through VLC, it crashed. It crashed so hard, the power button didn't turn off my computer. I had to turn off the power supply.

The above errors are persistent - they return after a reboot.

So... any ideas? Did standby fry my GPU or mobo? I tried reinstalling the 8800GT plist, but that did nothing at all.

I guess I could just avoid putting OS X into standby in the future (if I haven't somehow destroyed my hardware), but I'm surprised that it broke my rig so hard. Has anyone seen this before?

Here are the relevant specs:

DS3L
Q6600 + AC7 heatsink
2GB Patriot RAM, memtested overnight with 0 errors (got another stick but haven't tested/put it in yet to minimize confounding variables)
EVGA 8800GT overclocked with Akimbo cooler

Thanks guys.

EDIT:
I'm using a Lite-On SATA DVD drive, not the Pioneer mentioned in the guide, and the problems do not go away on reboot. So I think this is different.
Also, the BIOS is version F7 - it came like this and I haven't flashed it at all.

 

[frabjousdey]

Other miscellaneous notes on surprises in the installation process, for the n00bs of the future:
- As noted above, even if the BIOS responds to your USB keyboard, the BootCD might not. If that's the case, go into the BIOS Input Peripherals menu and turn on keyboard USB support.
- After installing, if you need to get into the Leopard DVD to restore something or change your partition setup with Disk Utility, you'll need to insert the BootCD first, boot off of that, replace it with the Leopard DVD, type in [fe] as the boot drive, etc. Just like you did during installation.
- Windows balked at installing on a secondary partition in my boot drive. I'm pretty sure you need a separate physical hard drive to do it, due to the way that OS X creates partitions. Too bad.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: frabjousdey
Other miscellaneous notes on surprises in the installation process, for the n00bs of the future:
- As noted above, even if the BIOS responds to your USB keyboard, the BootCD might not. If that's the case, go into the BIOS Input Peripherals menu and turn on keyboard USB support.
- After installing, if you need to get into the Leopard DVD to restore something or change your partition setup with Disk Utility, you'll need to insert the BootCD first, boot off of that, replace it with the Leopard DVD, type in [fe] as the boot drive, etc. Just like you did during installation.
- Windows balked at installing on a secondary partition in my boot drive. I'm pretty sure you need a separate physical hard drive to do it, due to the way that OS X creates partitions. Too bad.

That's detailed in the BIOS settings in the guide on the first post of this thread:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7618939/BIOS-Settings

This is why I'm making a video...it's too much reading and people miss stuff completely lol. A quick walkthrough would be MUCH more helpful in getting this system setup, I think.

Regarding dual-booting, my recomend method is simply to use 2 hard drives and press F12 during POST to choose between them. It's not the most elegant solution, but there's no bootloader headaches associated with it. InsanelyMac has an entire section dedicated to Multi-Booting and Virtualization, if that tells you how much fun it is lol:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showforum=104

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: frabjousdey

Originally posted by: thepieces
Make sure under peripherals in the bios you have Usb keyboard support and usb mouse support enabled. If those are off they wont work.

Thanks! I did just that and it worked fine.

So I put the Hackintosh together by first using kaido's USB stick method, then upgrading it to a pure hard drive install. And it was working really well - perfect video with silky, silky dock animations and Expose transitions, working Ethernet, audio with no pops, all running faster than any other computer that I've ever had. (So thanks, kaido - this is the best guide around, period.)

Then, I broke it.

I put the system to sleep overnight to see if that would work. When I hit the power button the next morning, the following things struck me as weird:
- The USB external hard drives I had plugged in gave me the "Device removed" window you see when you yank them without ejecting them properly. That doesn't happen on my MBP after waking from standby. It detected them after a few seconds anyway.
- There was no wallpaper. This is the weird one. No dock, either. When I moused down to the dock, OS X redrew it and it showed up, and when I left-clicked and dragged on the desktop to make a selection box, it drew the wallpaper underneath the selected areas.
- All Core Image animations were choppier: dragging windows around, Expose, minimization... it had been super buttery smooth before, and now I could see it chugging a little bit.
- When I tried playing an AVI file through VLC, it crashed. It crashed so hard, the power button didn't turn off my computer. I had to turn off the power supply.

The above errors are persistent - they return after a reboot.

So... any ideas? Did standby fry my GPU or mobo? I tried reinstalling the 8800GT plist, but that did nothing at all.

I guess I could just avoid putting OS X into standby in the future (if I haven't somehow destroyed my hardware), but I'm surprised that it broke my rig so hard. Has anyone seen this before?

The only thing that is normal is the "Device removed improperly" message - this happens on a Hackintosh when you put it to sleep with a USB drive attached and then wake it up. I'm not really sure why, other than Macs handle sleep different than PCs do - S3 sleep basically turns off the entire system instead of doing a hibernation type thing like Macs do, it seems a little bit more of a "deep sleep" than real Macs. So that's a perfectly normal thing for a Hackintosh.

The other errors - wallpaper, VLC crashing, choppy animations - sounds like a video card problem. This isn't normal behavior. Can you turn off overclocking of your video card? One possibility is that your video card behaves normally, but after being woken from sleep it screws up because of the overclocking.

 

[frabjousdey]

Originally posted by: Kaido
The only thing that is normal is the "Device removed improperly" message - this happens on a Hackintosh when you put it to sleep with a USB drive attached and then wake it up. I'm not really sure why, other than Macs handle sleep different than PCs do - S3 sleep basically turns off the entire system instead of doing a hibernation type thing like Macs do, it seems a little bit more of a "deep sleep" than real Macs. So that's a perfectly normal thing for a Hackintosh.

Oh, okay. That's no problem.

The other errors - wallpaper, VLC crashing, choppy animations - sounds like a video card problem. This isn't normal behavior. Can you turn off overclocking of your video card? One possibility is that your video card behaves normally, but after being woken from sleep it screws up because of the overclocking.

Hmm... well, the video card is this guy. It's factory-overclocked, so I wouldn't know how to un-overclock it. If it's not a standard vanilla 8800GT, I can see how putting it to sleep might have unintended consequences.

I think I'll start over from scratch tonight and just avoid the sleep function from now on. If the video card still gives me problems, I'll RMA it. It's refurbished from eBay.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: frabjousdey

Originally posted by: Kaido
The only thing that is normal is the "Device removed improperly" message - this happens on a Hackintosh when you put it to sleep with a USB drive attached and then wake it up. I'm not really sure why, other than Macs handle sleep different than PCs do - S3 sleep basically turns off the entire system instead of doing a hibernation type thing like Macs do, it seems a little bit more of a "deep sleep" than real Macs. So that's a perfectly normal thing for a Hackintosh.

Oh, okay. That's no problem.

The other errors - wallpaper, VLC crashing, choppy animations - sounds like a video card problem. This isn't normal behavior. Can you turn off overclocking of your video card? One possibility is that your video card behaves normally, but after being woken from sleep it screws up because of the overclocking.

Hmm... well, the video card is this guy. It's factory-overclocked, so I wouldn't know how to un-overclock it. If it's not a standard vanilla 8800GT, I can see how putting it to sleep might have unintended consequences.

I think I'll start over from scratch tonight and just avoid the sleep function from now on. If the video card still gives me problems, I'll RMA it. It's refurbished from eBay.

Oh, I see. In that case count it out, several of my cards over factory overclocked and are fine.

Could be because it's refurbished - might have had intermittent issues like you're experiencing now.

If you're planning on doing a fresh install, please use my "Final Draft" guide posted 10 or 15 posts back. Install Leopard like normal using the BootCD or USB stick method, but then install 10.5.5 + the Software Kit according to my latest instructions (DSDT, Chameleon, Kext Helper, Taruga, EFI Studio, OSx86Tools). Then report back if you have sleeping or other problems.

 

[frabjousdey]

Will do. Thanks!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: frabjousdey
Will do. Thanks!

This new method is super-cool...provided the IDE fix works (just needs lots and lots of testing), then this it's ready for final release. I have some more stuff to add to the overall kit, but now we have:

+ 10.5.6 support (vis DSDT)
+ Faster booting (Bootloader on the hard drive)
+ Cloning capabilities (use Superduper then Chameleon, done)
+ IDE support (HDD & DVD drives)
+ No audio "pop" on stereo analog output
+ 100% Ethernet
+ PS/2 support (keyboards & mice, plus wake from sleep via PS/2)
+ EFI Strings
+ Easy installation (swap discs to install Leoaprd, install update + drivers, reboot)
+ Easy updates (just re-install Taruga if audio breaks)

Whew! So that only leaves the legacy ports unsupported (Parallel, Serial, Floppy). I actually don't know for sure whether those work or not because I don't have any Parallel or Serial devices and don't have an internal floppy, haha. If you do need Parallel or Serial, you can buy a Mac-compatible PCI or PCIe card, and if you need Floppy, you can get a USB floppy drive. Or you could test the onboard ports and let me know, but so far no one I've talked to has any of those things lol.

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: frabjousdey
Will do. Thanks!

This new method is super-cool...provided the IDE fix works (just needs lots and lots of testing), then this it's ready for final release. I have some more stuff to add to the overall kit, but now we have:

+ 10.5.6 support (vis DSDT)
+ Faster booting (Bootloader on the hard drive)
+ Cloning capabilities (use Superduper then Chameleon, done)
+ IDE support (HDD & DVD drives)
+ No audio "pop" on stereo analog output
+ 100% Ethernet
+ PS/2 support (keyboards & mice, plus wake from sleep via PS/2)
+ EFI Strings
+ Easy installation (swap discs to install Leoaprd, install update + drivers, reboot)
+ Easy updates (just re-install Taruga if audio breaks)

Whew! So that only leaves the legacy ports unsupported (Parallel, Serial, Floppy). I actually don't know for sure whether those work or not because I don't have any Parallel or Serial devices and don't have an internal floppy, haha. If you do need Parallel or Serial, you can buy a Mac-compatible PCI or PCIe card, and if you need Floppy, you can get a USB floppy drive. Or you could test the onboard ports and let me know, but so far no one I've talked to has any of those things lol.

Okay, well, turns out my fan issue was just the fan wire hitting the fan. Yes, I'm an idiot.

What sort of temps are acceptable in a case, by the way?

And I'm ready to go...I've been reading this thread since the beginning (obviously) and maybe I'm missing something, but I can't seem to find one single unified set of instructions. Unless it really missing something, most of this stuff references either USB method or switching from the USB method. Unless it really is as simple as sticking in the bootCD and then popping it out and booting from the HD with the Leopard install.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: scootermaster
Okay, well, turns out my fan issue was just the fan wire hitting the fan. Yes, I'm an idiot.

What sort of temps are acceptable in a case, by the way?

And I'm ready to go...I've been reading this thread since the beginning (obviously) and maybe I'm missing something, but I can't seem to find one single unified set of instructions. Unless it really missing something, most of this stuff references either USB method or switching from the USB method. Unless it really is as simple as sticking in the bootCD and then popping it out and booting from the HD with the Leopard install.

Hah, it happens to the best of us

Anywhere from 20C - 60C is fine for case temps. It totally varies based on CPU temp + how many HDDs you have and how powerful your video card is, as well as room temperature.

Hop on AIM, I'll walk you through.

 

[Kaido]

I accidentally put the old EFI Studio with only like 10 video card options in the Final Draft package. Just use the EFI Studio from the original package. The final version will have the expanded EFI Studio installer.

edit: Will have a newly-expanded EFI Studio installer with an option for the Quadro FX cards

 

[Zaap]

Originally posted by: Kaido
And at double price for only the addition of the 4x PCIe ports, I don't think it's worth it - the UD3P comes with 8 SATA, 8 USB, onboard Firewire, up to 16gb RAM, etc. Very very temping at $99

Yes, but don't forget your experience with the (looked equally promising) EP45-DS3R. I went with the DQ6 over the EP45-DS3R because I'd rather not deal with luck of the draw getting a cheaper board that works perfectly.

That said, the UD3P might have perfect build quality across the whole run- I hope so. So long as Gigabyte doesn't discontinue it in the next 3 seconds (another really annoying habit of theirs) then I hope to be building future Hacks with it.

As for PCIe 4x slots- it's funny, because I've never actually used one as a 4x slot on any board I've owned- I only use 1x cards in them anyway. (Haven't needed any item sold as a 4x slot card). So for me, both boards pretty much have -functionally- the same 7 slots.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Zaap

Originally posted by: Kaido
And at double price for only the addition of the 4x PCIe ports, I don't think it's worth it - the UD3P comes with 8 SATA, 8 USB, onboard Firewire, up to 16gb RAM, etc. Very very temping at $99

Yes, but don't forget your experience with the (looked equally promising) EP45-DS3R. I went with the DQ6 over the EP45-DS3R because I'd rather not deal with luck of the draw getting a cheaper board that works perfectly.

That said, the UD3P might have perfect build quality across the whole run- I hope so. So long as Gigabyte doesn't discontinue it in the next 3 seconds (another really annoying habit of theirs) then I hope to be building future Hacks with it.

As for PCIe 4x slots- it's funny, because I've never actually used one as a 4x slot on any board I've owned- I only use 1x cards in them anyway. (Haven't needed any item sold as a 4x slot card). So for me, both boards pretty much have -functionally- the same 7 slots.

Yeah, I've heard wonderful, wonderful things about the EP45. The advantage of the 4x slots is mainly for RAID cards and specialty niche cards like the Blackmagic HD Decklink A/V I/O card. With the EP45, not only do I get a ton of ports and a max of 16 gigs of RAM, but I can run two dual-port video cards, a RAID card, and a Blackmagic card. And the entire thing would still cost less than a Mac Pro.

From what I've read, the DS3R isn't that great of a board (mixed reviews), but the UD3P has unbelievable reviews, plus all the professional reviewers say its supposed to be a great overclocker (something about the FSB is what I read over in Hot Deals on the $99 today).

Dunno, I still have mixed feels...I'll probably end up ordering both lol. I need a few more boards anyway.

 

[frabjousdey]

I came home to find that my computer had healed itself. Just like that girl on Heroes.

Scary.

Anyway, I installed the updated package. The only thing was that I couldn't find the Extra directory you mentioned in the last step.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: frabjousdey
I came home to find that my computer had healed itself. Just like that girl on Heroes.

Scary.

Anyway, I installed the updated package. The only thing was that I couldn't find the Extra directory you mentioned in the last step.

That's okay, no big deal. You're now ready for 10.5.6! Enjoy

 

[KeypoX]

Originally posted by: Kaido


That's okay, no big deal. You're now ready for 10.5.6! Enjoy

? Why do you say that is it coming out sooN? Im waiting for 4850 support hoping it come s in this update.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: KeypoX

Originally posted by: Kaido


That's okay, no big deal. You're now ready for 10.5.6! Enjoy

? Why do you say that is it coming out sooN? Im waiting for 4850 support hoping it come s in this update.

It's already been seeded to developers (thus the testing with DSDT). The seed was released October 23rd. Although there's no timeframe, I would expect to see it within the next two months, most likely in January around Macworld. Makes sense...announce new products, OS updates with improved functionality. Some Macrumors articles:

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/...rt-in-mac-os-x-10-5-6/

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/...-10-5-6-to-developers/

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/...-latest-10-5-6-builds/

No word on 4850 support...

 

[KeypoX]

yeah i saw all that . Was hoping a updated seed was released it has to have 4850 support in it if they will be in the next macs. Rigth?

Im getting sick of waiting...

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: KeypoX
yeah i saw all that . Was hoping a updated seed was released it has to have 4850 support in it if they will be in the next macs. Rigth?

Im getting sick of waiting...

If they ever come out with 4870 X2 support, that's just gonna be insane...the ultimate Hackintosh/Gaming rig...oh man..

 

[Kaido]

Upcoming Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H motherboard...looks like the ultimate mATX:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Pro...ductName=GA-E7AUM-DS2H

No ETA or price yet, but dang...16gb in an mATX :Q

 

[swilso]

I had everything going 100% using this method, my PCI wireless card (Asus WL-138G V2) didn't work initially after first install (10.5.0) I then updated to 10.5.5 and it was detected and worked find as apple airport. Although I did another update with a few things and noticed there was an airport update, now after installing this update my card is not seen at all back to how it was in 10.5.0. Anyone got any Ideas? PM would be great also.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: swilso
I had everything going 100% using this method, my PCI wireless card (Asus WL-138G V2) didn't work initially after first install (10.5.0) I then updated to 10.5.5 and it was detected and worked find as apple airport. Although I did another update with a few things and noticed there was an airport update, now after installing this update my card is not seen at all back to how it was in 10.5.0. Anyone got any Ideas? PM would be great also.

Sounds like the new Airport update killed support for your card. Try doing a re-install on a spare drive, get to 10.5.5, and snag that wireless driver, then install it on your updated 10.5.5 boot drive using Kext Helper.

 

[swilso]

I seen a previous user did -f to flush the cache, i tried this and it works when I boot up with the -f flag. Without -f leopard won't detect it? hmm. I was suprised because this card has shown great compatibility.