The Merged Hackintosh Thread

[blackscooby]

I've got a Dell Mini9. I only use it when traveling as I find the keyboard too small to use on a daily basic. I like the netbook, it's practical and fits my reason for purchase.

I did try OSX on it, but now has Vista cos I wanted to go back "legal" again.

Used inconjunction with a mini USB mouse it works well.

 

[mike5411]

He accepted but it was under the condition that only after I saw the machine in person and I approved of everything that I saw. Since it is a craigslist deal, I want to make sure that everything is as it appears to be.

 

[Aries326]

I just thought I'd share my experiences here.

My Dell 1525 came with Vista. I hated it. Now it runs on OS X 10.5.5 It runs at 1.87 ghz Dual Core with 4 GB of RAM and I added a bluetooth module on it for a bluetooth mouse. The only thing that doesn't work on it is the SD card reader. No matter, someone's found a fix for it on 10.5.6 which I haven't been able to get around to doing. This thing never crashes.

As for my desktop, I've got a Shuttle SG33G5 with a Q6600 OCd to 2.7ghz, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB HD, 750 GB HD, DVD-RW, 8800GT 512 MB. My desktop never crashes either. I have Plex running on it and it is connected to my 42" LCD so I use it as a "media center." I'm still researching on adding a video capture card to it.

I've been an Apple fan for years with my first one being a IIgs, then an LC and a PB5300. I've been away from Apple for years but you can bet my next computer will be one of those sweet iMacs. I hope they go with a Quad Core for the next generation iMacs.

 

[Pika]

Now it runs on OS X 10.5.5

You need to upgrade.

 

[localoid]

an update.... now its

FireWire GUID ffffffffffffffff is invalid!
FireWire GUID ffffffffffffffff is invalid!
...

any ideas?

Well, if things are working as they should you should see something like this (below) when you run sudo dmesg|grep 'FireWire' from Terminal:

FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 8024 PCI now active, GUID 660050c5000230f5; max speed s400

BTW, dmseg doesn't change or affect anything. It just reports the messages from the kernel during your last boot. Grep just parses out the entries that contain the string "FireWire".

If memory serves me correctly, the FireWire GUID is the identifier for your FireWire device, kind of like a MAC address is the identifier for your Ethernet card, etc. Looks like your system can't identify your FireWire card's chipset or maybe the card and/or the ports are fried(?)

Do you have another FireWire card you can try? Even an old Audigy Sound Blaster card with a FireWire port should work.

You could try unplugging all your FireWire drives, then booting and running dmesg to see what the FireWire messages are. Or boot that machine to another OS, Windows or Linux, etc., to see if another OS will recognize your FireWire card.

 

[iMpathetic]

You need to upgrade.

Why? That's what I'm running, no problems for me.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

InsanelyMac needs to not be broken...
Im in the process of sizing up a new system, IM needs to be up!

GIGABYTE GA-EP45T-UD3LR
G.SKILL 2 x 2GB DDR31333 (PC3 10666)
Core 2 Quad Q8400
GeForce GTS 250 1GB
Thermaltake V9 Black Edition Case
Thermaltake Purepower 600W

The case is a bit ugly, but if i get it with the PSU i save $50 bringing the total cost to $634.94. I can get $55 in mail-in-rebates with that as well, which takes care of the $35 shipping costs. I was trying to get the best i could under $700, but idk if i want to bump the gfx card up a bit seeing as OSX doesnt support most newer cards.
I have a bunch off HDDs around, so i dont need to buy one, and i have an IDE Superdrive i'll drop in it for a little bit of authentic Mac feel.
The only mac priced close to this is the Mini, and it would get destroyed by this build.

 

[DoFoT9]

Well, if things are working as they should you should see something like this (below) when you run sudo dmesg|grep 'FireWire' from Terminal:

FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 8024 PCI now active, GUID 660050c5000230f5; max speed s400

hmm interesting. never saw anything like that, however that was when the card wasnt working.. see last reply for more details.

BTW, dmseg doesn't change or affect anything. It just reports the messages from the kernel during your last boot. Grep just parses out the entries that contain the string "FireWire".

ok damn, i thought it must have been something to 'notify' the computer of any new firewire devices of the sort, obviously not.

If memory serves me correctly, the FireWire GUID is the identifier for your FireWire device, kind of like a MAC address is the identifier for your Ethernet card, etc. Looks like your system can't identify your FireWire card's chipset or maybe the card and/or the ports are fried(?)

so my error must of meant that no FW devices were detected.. thats why they wernt working, makes sense.

Do you have another FireWire card you can try? Even an old Audigy Sound Blaster card with a FireWire port should work.

unfortunately not

You could try unplugging all your FireWire drives, then booting and running dmesg to see what the FireWire messages are. Or boot that machine to another OS, Windows or Linux, etc., to see if another OS will recognize your FireWire card.

i booted into windows and it saw the firewire device but the firmware wasnt working for it. M$ help linked me to one of their webpages saying to take out the FW card, so i did that and plugged it back in.. it SEEMS to have worked for the time being, both osx + xp can read ALL drives, however i have to have them turned on b4 i turn on the computer... a minor inconvenience (ill just never turn them off ) any ideas why they arent detected once the computer is actually on?

thanks for all your help

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

If your system.kext isnt the same version as your kernel it causes the same problem you are having, but with usb drives instead of firewire. Idk if it could be related.

 

[DoFoT9]

If your system.kext isnt the same version as your kernel it causes the same problem you are having, but with usb drives instead of firewire. Idk if it could be related.

any easy way to check this?

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

I think theres an easy way to check with the terminal, but IM is still down....
You might be able to check the kext's info.plist. Right-click on it, 'show package contents', and look for the info.plist. The version should be in there somewhere. 10.5.7's kernel version is 9.7.0, so look for that.

 

[DoFoT9]

I think theres an easy way to check with the terminal, but IM is still down....
You might be able to check the kext's info.plist. Right-click on it, 'show package contents', and look for the info.plist. The version should be in there somewhere. 10.5.7's kernel version is 9.7.0, so look for that.

im running 10.5.5, too scared to update in case something goes wrong

 

[fastforded]

I& hackintosh

any news? interested in I7 hackintosh....

new to apple os x.

any suggestions/help appreciated

 

[fastforded]

I7 hackintosh build

interested in I7 hackintosh....

new to apple os x.

any suggestions/help appreciated....

 

[flopticalcube]

You'll have better luck at the forums of InsanelyMac. From what I know, OSX still doesn't play well with the i7.

 

[localoid]

any easy way to check this?

Navigate to your /System/Library/Extension folder. Double click on System.kext -- open the Info.plist file in Property List Editor (or a text editor like TextEdit). The version number should match your kernel version number, for example "9.5.0", etc. Running the command uname -a in Terminal will show the kernel version number.

The 10.5.7 update will normally install kernel 9.7.0 (along the 9.7.0 System.kext). But most of the non-vanilla kernels (like Voodoo) are still at 9.5.0. If you're running kernel 9.5.0, just make sure you're using a ver. 9.5.0 System.kext and you'll be fine. Otherwise, find your old (v.9.5) System.kext and install it as you would any other kext... (backups are your friends).

 

[MacUser2525]

Navigate to your /System/Library/Extension folder. Double click on System.kext -- open the Info.plist file in Property List Editor (or a text editor like TextEdit).

About This Mac --> More Info --> Software --> Extensions option will show you the version as well.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

interested in I7 hackintosh....

new to apple os x.

any suggestions/help appreciated....

I wouldnt go for it quite yet. I think the vanilla 10.5.7 kernel works well with i7 cpus, but if you run into a problem with it you dont have any other kernel choices. The Voodoo team is putting i7 support in their next release so i would at least wait until then. You will probably want a good video card to go with it like a GTX 2XX, and i dont think any of those work yet. The GTS series works fine, but if you are going to spend alot on a cpu it doesnt make sense to drop a $150 video card in it.
If its your first hac i wouldnt jump into something as iffy as this. Build yourself a core2quad rig and get the feel of it. A Q6600 is plenty to run osx smoothly, so unless you plan to do massive video editing or do some insane gaming on the windows side, the i7 just isnt necessary.

 

[DoFoT9]

Navigate to your /System/Library/Extension folder. Double click on System.kext -- open the Info.plist file in Property List Editor (or a text editor like TextEdit). The version number should match your kernel version number, for example "9.5.0", etc. Running the command uname -a in Terminal will show the kernel version number.

The 10.5.7 update will normally install kernel 9.7.0 (along the 9.7.0 System.kext). But most of the non-vanilla kernels (like Voodoo) are still at 9.5.0. If you're running kernel 9.5.0, just make sure you're using a ver. 9.5.0 System.kext and you'll be fine. Otherwise, find your old (v.9.5) System.kext and install it as you would any other kext... (backups are your friends).

About This Mac --> More Info --> Software --> Extensions option will show you the version as well.

thanks for the input guys, the info.plist file says im running version 9.4.0

i might try to update to 10.5.7 when i download the combo update for the rest of the computers in the house, of course ill backup though haha.

also, i cant get the DVI port working on my 8500GT (using a VGA CRT monitor so i have a DVI->VGA connector). any ideas? the VGA port on it works fine.

thanks once again.

 

[MacUser2525]

thanks for the input guys, the info.plist file says im running version 9.4.0

i might try to update to 10.5.7 when i download the combo update for the rest of the computers in the house, of course ill backup though haha.

Backups are always a good idea what I always do when updating is clone my install to an external USB drive then install the combo update to it put the boot loader on there as well then boot into it to check for problems. Once I confirm that everything still works as it did before the I install the combo onto the main drive, if not working properly then you have that drive to keep messing with till you get it right.

also, i cant get the DVI port working on my 8500GT (using a VGA CRT monitor so i have a DVI->VGA connector). any ideas? the VGA port on it works fine.

thanks once again.

Been awhile since I used a CRT but the methods I know of that people use are the NVinject/Kush, EFIStudio or the ACPI/DSDT patcher. The last is the one I use now for my 8800gt the DSDT.aml it generates can fix a number of other problems as well and used the EFIStudio method with a string in the com.apple.Boot.plist for the card. The thing I think you will find that is your problem is the NVCAP setting not being correct for your connectors you may want to check around on the insanelymac.com or netkas.org to see what experience others have had getting it going.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

thanks for the input guys, the info.plist file says im running version 9.4.0

i might try to update to 10.5.7 when i download the combo update for the rest of the computers in the house, of course ill backup though haha.

also, i cant get the DVI port working on my 8500GT (using a VGA CRT monitor so i have a DVI->VGA connector). any ideas? the VGA port on it works fine.

thanks once again.

Just download the voodoo kernel package, theres a 10.5.5 system.kext in there. Install it with KextHelper, reboot, and see what happens.

 

[DoFoT9]

Backups are always a good idea what I always do when updating is clone my install to an external USB drive then install the combo update to it put the boot loader on there as well then boot into it to check for problems. Once I confirm that everything still works as it did before the I install the combo onto the main drive, if not working properly then you have that drive to keep messing with till you get it right.

im not one for backing up, but your solution sounds ideal! i coincidentally have a partition on one of my firewire (my firewire ports seem to be working now) drives it will fit everything nicely i hope!

Been awhile since I used a CRT but the methods I know of that people use are the NVinject/Kush, EFIStudio or the ACPI/DSDT patcher. The last is the one I use now for my 8800gt the DSDT.aml it generates can fix a number of other problems as well and used the EFIStudio method with a string in the com.apple.Boot.plist for the card. The thing I think you will find that is your problem is the NVCAP setting not being correct for your connectors you may want to check around on the insanelymac.com or netkas.org to see what experience others have had getting it going.

i scored 2x17" CRTs of the same type at the same time, so i couldnt say no (upgrading from 1x15incher seemed awsome!). they do the job. i have read that apple uses a reverse connector to displays (or something of that effect) - could this possibly be the problem? ill give your method a try, thanks heaps

Just download the voodoo kernel package, theres a 10.5.5 system.kext in there. Install it with KextHelper, reboot, and see what happens.

the latest voodoo package? as in 9.6.0 this?? seems ok to me. im not at home, ill try it 2morrow

btw hoping to upgrade my 8500GT to something with a tad more folding power. possibly a 9600GT, 9800GT.. mmmnnn..

 

[MacUser2525]

im not one for backing up, but your solution sounds ideal! i coincidentally have a partition on one of my firewire (my firewire ports seem to be working now) drives it will fit everything nicely i hope!

That would be good for a Time Machine backup device but you cannot boot from firewire on a PC it needs to be USB or at least I have never heard of one that has a firewire drive as a boot option in the BIOS anyways.

i scored 2x17" CRTs of the same type at the same time, so i couldnt say no (upgrading from 1x15incher seemed awsome!). they do the job. i have read that apple uses a reverse connector to displays (or something of that effect) - could this possibly be the problem? ill give your method a try, thanks heaps

Definitely I have used two monitors for so long don't think I could ever go back to a single on my main machine. Could be that is where the nvcap comes into play if I understand the idea correctly it tells the driver how to communicate with the ports.

 

[DoFoT9]

That would be good for a Time Machine backup device but you cannot boot from firewire on a PC it needs to be USB or at least I have never heard of one that has a firewire drive as a boot option in the BIOS anyways.

ARGH! how annoying! lucky its a tri FW400/FW800/USB enclosure then isnt it!!

Definitely I have used two monitors for so long don't think I could ever go back to a single on my main machine. Could be that is where the nvcap comes into play if I understand the idea correctly it tells the driver how to communicate with the ports.

oh two monitors is a must!!! my MBP has it + a 19inch, my PC/hack has the two CRTs (only one using OSX though unfortunately). its so worth it. i would love to get the X3100 onboard graphics working on my PC aswell so that i can possibly tri screen it up.

actually now that i think about it, the onboard graphics dont work either.. i hate to ask, but any ideas?

haha

 

[MacUser2525]

ARGH! how annoying! lucky its a tri FW400/FW800/USB enclosure then isnt it!!

Yes indeed otherwise you would be out of luck.

i would love to get the X3100 onboard graphics working on my PC aswell so that i can possibly tri screen it up.

actually now that i think about it, the onboard graphics dont work either.. i hate to ask, but any ideas?

haha

A lot BIOS's disable the on-board video when using a stand alone card in the machine so that may not be possible, I have seen people with laptops with it working so desktop might be doable by itself.