Hackintosh 10.5.5 Retail Rig - Starting at $305

[Zaap]

Ah, same here with MSI boards. The MSI Pro-E system I built for a friend doesn't have working sleep, nor does the recent MSI X58 Platinum (non-SLI) Hack for another friend. (Thankfully, neither of them cares).

Also found out during my adventures with the MSI X58 that the MSI X58 Platinum SLI -though it seems identical- doesn't play well with the same Hackintosh methods at all. )

I had fun with a brief venture into MSI territory, but methinks I'll stick with Gigabyte from here out. (At least until something tempting crops up again!)

Any word on a P67 Sandybridge Hack? I just ordered the parts for my first P67 build- (i7 2600K, GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3, 16GB DDR3, GTX 460 1GB, etc...) If I get the chance, I'll see what if anything happens trying to Hackintosh it- but I only have a day or two to mess with it before I'll turn it over to its owner with a fresh install of Win7 x64.

 

[Zaap]

Wow, no sooner did I order it, newegg is out of the 2600K and all Gigabyte P67 mobos. *whew*

 

[mosslack]

I also tried editing the com.boot.apple.plist file, which was fun getting it to let me boot. I ended up sudo'ing and using vi(m), which I couldn't remember a single vi command! The entries looked correct, but Chameleon didn't seem to do anything differently. I loaded up an example one that I'll have to compare later.

I always use Pico or Nano, whichever is handy, as vi and other Unix editors are so darned difficult to use.

 

[mosslack]

Yeah, I've tried a couple different SleepEnablers, the pmVersion trick, various DSDT patches, nada. The UD3P works like a champ with the DSDT mods for sleep, but my X58-based stuff doesn't. That's really the only thing that's bugging me about the MSI, too (well that and reboot on shutdown, but that's a different story haha).

My MSI reboots fine, but won't shutdown. I've been reading a lot about DSDT fixes but so far everything I've tried hasn't help. Apparently it's the same area which deals with sleep, but darned if I can figure it out. Gigabyte DSDT's were so simply, but MSI is like a whole different animal!

 

[scootermaster]

Wow, no sooner did I order it, newegg is out of the 2600K and all Gigabyte P67 mobos. *whew*

Is this because they're all buggy, and Intel is recalling them?

 

[Ka0t1x]

Wow, no sooner did I order it, newegg is out of the 2600K and all Gigabyte P67 mobos. *whew*

I'd be really wary of building a Sandy Bridge on the P67 chipset ATM, especially for a customer.

 

[Zaap]

Wild. Now all P67 mobos and CPUs are deactivated newegg. According to endgadget:

...an Intel customer service representative indicating that this recall only affects "some desktop boards based on Intel P67 chipset,"

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/31/intel-finds-sandy-bridge-chipset-design-flaw-shipments-stopped/

But my newegg order shipped, so we'll see. I'm not too worried- the build is for a very close friend- if there's a recall on his hardware, I'll just return the stuff and we'll build whatever is the substitute. It's not like I'd leave him hanging with hardware that's going to eventually bomb out.

 

[Aikouka]

I always use Pico or Nano, whichever is handy, as vi and other Unix editors are so darned difficult to use.

I was mostly looking for an editor that I could start up from the command line while sudo'd, so I'd have write access to the file. I noticed that the OSX text editor was called "textedit", but doing "textedit com.boot.apple.plist" didn't work (textedit wasn't a valid command).

 

[mosslack]

I was mostly looking for an editor that I could start up from the command line while sudo'd, so I'd have write access to the file. I noticed that the OSX text editor was called "textedit", but doing "textedit com.boot.apple.plist" didn't work (textedit wasn't a valid command).

Yeah, both Pico and Nano are Unix/Linux command line (terminal) text editors. They are just must easier to use than VI as their commands are listed below the edit window. nano is included with OS X AFAIK, at least it comes up for me when I go into terminal and type nano. Of course to edit you would need SUDO as well.

Also don't forget that the com.apple.Boot.plist file is in the /Extra folder and you need to be case specific.

 

[Kaido]

Any word on a P67 Sandybridge Hack? I just ordered the parts for my first P67 build- (i7 2600K, GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3, 16GB DDR3, GTX 460 1GB, etc...) If I get the chance, I'll see what if anything happens trying to Hackintosh it- but I only have a day or two to mess with it before I'll turn it over to its owner with a fresh install of Win7 x64.

Yeah, the 32GB RAM support looks awfully enticing. I wonder how long until we get 8GB DIMMs. Although they'll probably be mad expensive...I just built my dad an X58-based engineering rig with 24 gigs of RAM, which ran $190 shipped for 6 x 4GB. Getting pretty dang cheap nowadays. That eVGA SR2 board has been calling my name for awhile too...unofficially it supports 96GB RAM, which is just ludicrous, and they have Snow working on it already. Dual 6-cores, mmm.

I'll wait for a vanilla kernel before jumping over to Sandy Bridge. I know someone over at Tonymac has it working already with a modded kernel, though. Also, they found out what the reason for the recall was - a bad transistor that affects the SATA 3Gbps ports:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/01/intel-sandy-bridge-chipset-flaw-identified-as-a-rogue-transistor/

 

[Aikouka]

Okay, I got the Chameleon changes working... sort of. Default Partition and Hidden Partition doesn't seem to work... unless I got the key text wrong or something dumb like that. I did adjust the timing to 10 seconds, which is much better than 1 second .

The only big problem I'm having is that dual monitor support is very flaky in normal mode (but not in safe mode). OSX is actually setting me up with the extended desktop, as I can move my mouse off the right side of the screen (but not the left). The thing is, my second monitor is only displaying a clone of the first monitor. Could this just be a problem with the 5800-series KExt? That could explain why it worked in Safe Mode but not normal mode (as I assume Safe Mode does not use the KExts similar to how Windows uses default drivers).

 

[Kaido]

Okay, I got the Chameleon changes working... sort of. Default Partition and Hidden Partition doesn't seem to work... unless I got the key text wrong or something dumb like that. I did adjust the timing to 10 seconds, which is much better than 1 second .

The only big problem I'm having is that dual monitor support is very flaky in normal mode (but not in safe mode). OSX is actually setting me up with the extended desktop, as I can move my mouse off the right side of the screen (but not the left). The thing is, my second monitor is only displaying a clone of the first monitor. Could this just be a problem with the 5800-series KExt? That could explain why it worked in Safe Mode but not normal mode (as I assume Safe Mode does not use the KExts similar to how Windows uses default drivers).

Make sure you're running the latest Chameleon, which is V2-RC5-REV699. They didn't add support for Hidden Partition until V2-RC4. You may just have an older version of the bootloader, which doesn't have support for that feature yet. Here's a link to the thread where they keep the latest installers:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=231075

What video card do you have (brand, model, vram), which driver are you using, and how do you have the monitors connected?

 

[Aikouka]

What video card do you have (brand, model, vram), which driver are you using, and how do you have the monitors connected?

I have a XFX Radeon 5870 1GB ( Newegg ). I'm using the ATi Enabler that is in the latest MultiBeast to make it work. The monitors are connected via DVI for the first one and VGA for the second one. The second one is the one that is cloning instead of "expanding."

 

[Kaido]

I have a XFX Radeon 5870 1GB ( Newegg ). I'm using the ATi Enabler that is in the latest MultiBeast to make it work. The monitors are connected via DVI for the first one and VGA for the second one. The second one is the one that is cloning instead of "expanding."

VGA usually has bad results on Hackintoshes fwiw.

 

[Aikouka]

VGA usually has bad results on Hackintoshes fwiw.

I honestly don't have much of a choice other than not using it at all. This monitor is one of Samsung's infamous 201BW monitors that is known for having bad capacitors in the DVI "area", which causes your monitor to lose signal randomly when you connect it via DVI.

But if VGA doesn't work well with Hackintoshes, why did it work fine in Safe Mode? Maybe it'd be better if I just enabled those default graphics then. I'm not trying to play games on this... at the most, I'd just want to do a little iOS development.

 

[Emulex]

the 5870 and 5770 are natively supported. esp if you flash the bios to mac - otherwise you have to wait for boot to complete to get screen.

iirc the first fermi (460) is supported but not never GF chipsets yet. out of the box without touching anything.

 

[Aikouka]

the 5870 and 5770 are natively supported. esp if you flash the bios to mac - otherwise you have to wait for boot to complete to get screen.

That's strange, I couldn't even boot the install with my 5870 + Snow Leopard disc. I had to switch to the 8800GT, install OSX and then run MultiBeast to install the ATiEnabler thing.

EDIT:

Woops... installing the new Chameleon broke my build :\. I'm assuming whatever I did to get my 5870 working was undone when I installed it?

 

[Kaido]

Curious - anyone running HDMI on Snow Leopard? I just tried a 7200GS in 32-bit mode and got fuzz using a DVI to HDMI cable. Looking for a good, cheap HDMI-capable 64-bit card in Snow.

 

[mosslack]

Not exactly cheap, but HDMI works fine on my 9400GT. I would venture to say an 8400GS would be fine, but I haven't actually tried it with mine.

On a different subject, anyone here use the SiliconDust HDHomeRun-Dual? I am considering whether to bundle this with the HQ-A project system which is an HTPC this year.

 

[HeXen]

Macbuntu for the easy way out. love it. Tried hackintosh for a while, all hassles considering, i'm pretty happy with macbuntu.

 

[Kaido]

Not exactly cheap, but HDMI works fine on my 9400GT. I would venture to say an 8400GS would be fine, but I haven't actually tried it with mine.

Thanks! Out of curiosity, do you know if VGA works on the 9400GT?

 

[mosslack]

Thanks! Out of curiosity, do you know if VGA works on the 9400GT?

Yep, that is one thing I test everyday as each one of my 9400GT's are hooked up a different way. One HDMI, one DVI and one VGA. They all work great! I needed to test that so when I add the 3 new monitors I know they will work as well. Of course $$$ is the big holdup on that project as I have to do some electrical work in my room before I can safely add 3 more widescreen monitors.

 

[mosslack]

Macbuntu for the easy way out. love it. Tried hackintosh for a while, all hassles considering, i'm pretty happy with macbuntu.

I tried other Mac OS X themed distros of Linux and was not very happy at all with them. Give me OS X every time even with the hassles. Of course too each his/her own.

 

[Kaido]

Yep, that is one thing I test everyday as each one of my 9400GT's are hooked up a different way. One HDMI, one DVI and one VGA. They all work great! I needed to test that so when I add the 3 new monitors I know they will work as well. Of course $$$ is the big holdup on that project as I have to do some electrical work in my room before I can safely add 3 more widescreen monitors.

Which model 9400GT's do you use? I want to make sure I get a compatible model! :awe:

 

[mosslack]

NewEgg had a special deal on these when I set up my MSI system, buy 3 at a special price, so this is what I bought:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127412

They are out of stock/deactivated now, but you can at least see what worked for me.