The Merged Hackintosh Thread

[kasakka]

How do you best recommend doing this? And can I get it from the 10.5.8 update instead since that might be newer?

I'm using the integrated soundcard.

Yes you could try the 10.5.8 updater. Mount it and then open the .pkg file inside it using Pacifist. The files you want are the ones with GeForce, NVDANV, NVDAResman or NVSMU in the filename.

You could try disabling your soundcard, if you're using some additional kext to get it running. I haven't tried the EFI-X thingy so I don't know how it works its magic.

 

[DoFoT9]

I completely removed nvInfect and cleared all caches. I then went ahead and used OSX86Tools to add the GFX string to the boot.plist. I used the 8800 GT code because the only 9800 one they had was the 9800 GTX. I think 9800 GT is closer to what I have, correct?

Still isn't working.

they are basically the same card, one would assume that it would work...

id start trying other hardware, do you have another GPU?

maybe the RAM is bad? etcetc

 

[Softy]

There are several good and easy to follow guides on the net - i linked to one for a P35 based system some posts above. Just read the post of the thread starter and follow it step by step - done. The next 35 pages are about how to get 1345 different GFX cards to work or problems after the last update.

Well I'll of course look at it. But so far, I've found the processes described by people to be cryptic. It's the details of the syntax of the "step by step" instructions that I have trouble figuring out. Perhaps it'll turn out to be incorrect. But my assumption is that once I get through the process of figuring out what's what with this process, using various different hardware items will probably not present me with many problems.

I may end up doing an install using one of the older methods that require the drivers be patched, etc. for a particular hardware configuration, and then the whole ball of wax gets cooked into a working install by the method. But what I really want is to know how the more modern methods work using things like boot-132, parallel kext folders, GUI question askers, etc., and then make myself a hard disk-based "hackintosh-making machine" where I can generate OS X versions for whatever combinations of hardware I want (or at least can find drivers for).

The problem i see with that is that you want to start on hardware where documentation and drivers seem to be scarce. And after that (the hard part) doing the "easy" installs on P35/P45/X58. I think most of "us" only know how to get their own board working.

The main obstacle in building a Hackintosh is that people want to install OSX on their old Pentium IV Dell instead of getting compatible and well documented Hardware.

My guess is that the P5LD2-VM is probably one of the most "compatible" (Mac-like) of all PC motherboards ever made, especially when a Core 2 Duo CPU is installed in it. Again I could be wrong about that. But if I can't get to where I can make P5LD2-VM-based hackintoshes, and P5W DH-based ones, I probably won't bother with doing any other ones. My primary reason for making the machines at all is to utilize this pile of old hardware that I have here. If I'm looking at going out and buying new hardware, I'd be better off just buying a few iMacs or something. But if by going through the process of doing those P5LD2-VM and P5W DH hackintoshes, I become familiar enough with the process, I'll no doubt then continue building them for myself (including using newer i7 stuff), instead of buying new Macs for the machines that I need.

 

[dukebound85]

i dunno, the p35-ds3l board is a piece of cake to get working

 

[maccompaq]

i dunno, the p35-ds3l board is a piece of cake to get working

Unfortunately, they are getting to be hard to find.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

i dunno, the p35-ds3l board is a piece of cake to get working

Its what i have in my current hac. Everything was going great until the 10.5.8 update which broke my sleep. I still cant get it working correctly. Great board though, everything works great.

 

[thunderclap]

Huh... now the computer hangs on restart. It closes OS X and then, when it should do the memory check and everything, it just stays a black screen. I have to actually press the Reset button on the computer. Now how did that happen? *sigh*

 

[dukebound85]

Its what i have in my current hac. Everything was going great until the 10.5.8 update which broke my sleep. I still cant get it working correctly. Great board though, everything works great.

10.5.8 broke sleep on mine as well

Not a deal breaker by any means though!

Only downside to this board is
1) no firewire...though I can always add it
2) only support for 8 gigs of ram

 

[DoFoT9]

10.5.8 broke sleep on mine as well

Not a deal breaker by any means though!

mine could never sleep, not that it bothers me THAT much.. (fans stay on and stuff)

any quick tips to try to get it working?

 

[dukebound85]

mine could never sleep, not that it bothers me THAT much.. (fans stay on and stuff)

any quick tips to try to get it working?

well in 10.5.7 i was running voodoo and it worked with that

however, the kernel was on 9.5 whereas its now 9.8

I decided to go back to mach and maybe thats why sleep broke?

Id have to mess around with it to see if that was the case though

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

You could try OpenHaltRestart and see if it helps.

 

[DoFoT9]

well in 10.5.7 i was running voodoo and it worked with that

however, the kernel was on 9.5 whereas its now 9.8

I decided to go back to mach and maybe thats why sleep broke?

Id have to mess around with it to see if that was the case though

i see, im still on 10.5.4- too lazy to backup and upgrade. its iAtkos so it probably will break it.

You could try OpenHaltRestart and see if it helps.

thanks! i will try that

 

[Softy]

i dunno, the p35-ds3l board is a piece of cake to get working

Maybe it would be if I had one.

 

[dukebound85]

i see, im still on 10.5.4- too lazy to backup and upgrade. its iAtkos so it probably will break it.



thanks! i will try that

you should REALLY move on to boot 132 man

 

[DoFoT9]

you should REALLY move on to boot 132 man

i know i know, i will when i RAID0 two HDDs ok lol? im not exactly sure of the steps to do it.. will have to search for a guide.

 

[dukebound85]

i know i know, i will when i RAID0 two HDDs ok lol? im not exactly sure of the steps to do it.. will have to search for a guide.

what board do you have?

if you have a ds3l, i can tell you my steps

i didnt use any guide really

my "guide" i came up with is literally like 20 words lol and i could probably reduce even that amount

 

[DoFoT9]

what board do you have?

if you have a ds3l, i can tell you my steps

i didnt use any guide really

my "guide" i came up with is literally like 20 words lol and i could probably reduce even that amount

lol nah i have a GB GA-G31M-ES2L. works great!

 

[Donar]

My guess is that the P5LD2-VM is probably one of the most "compatible" (Mac-like) of all PC motherboards ever made, especially when a Core 2 Duo CPU is installed in it.

I don't know - what i meant is that i only found one guide for this board which uses a hacked install DVD and where people complain on the last site that the needed .kext downloads are down. Maybe it's all working (again)... but it looks like a bothersome install.

But hey why not take one of your caddys and a unused hard drive. Download the "Generic Boot 132" disc. Pop it in the DVD drive, see if it's boots up, replace with a retail copy of Leopard. Begin install, go for a walk, come back - Leopard greets you, or not. If leopard greets you, try out if everything is working fine or not. Maybe install Chamelon. Don't do any further software upgrades until you cloned the working "base install" to another hard disk. Report back.

Do you have a real mac you could connect your "Hack" disc to if anything goes wrong? -> For .kext deletion or maybe re- applying Chameleon.

 

[Softy]

I don't know - what i meant is that i only found one guide for this board which uses a hacked install DVD and where people complain on the last site that the needed .kext downloads are down. Maybe it's all working (again)... but it looks like a bothersome install.

But hey why not take one of your caddys and a unused hard drive. Download the "Generic Boot 132" disc. Pop it in the DVD drive, see if it's boots up, replace with a retail copy of Leopard. Begin install, go for a walk, come back - Leopard greets you, or not. If leopard greets you, try out if everything is working fine or not. Maybe install Chamelon. Don't do any further software upgrades until you cloned the working "base install" to another hard disk. Report back.

Do you have a real mac you could connect your "Hack" disc to if anything goes wrong? -> For .kext deletion or maybe re- applying Chameleon.

That sounds like a good idea. So how do I download a generic boot 132 disk (ISO image?)? I take it then that I would burn that to a DVD, then try to boot up the P5LD2-VM system on it, but that it will prompt me for a Leopard DVD at some point, then try to boot up and install that. Assuming that the result of that is that I can boot up the system, I should make an image of that drive. Yes, ok, I'll do that, then get back to you. Thanks.

And yes, I have a bunch of real Macs around here, and practically every other kind of system that one could likely imagine. What will Chameleon do for me?

 

[Softy]

Ok, I got as far as booting on the boot 132 CD, and it asks for the two digit boot device, but won't take numbers 80 through 85. So what should I type in? Is it asking for the CD drive or the hard disk that it's going to install onto?

 

[dukebound85]

Ok, I got as far as booting on the boot 132 CD, and it asks for the two digit boot device, but won't take numbers 80 through 85. So what should I type in? Is it asking for the CD drive or the hard disk that it's going to install onto?

google your board and the hexidecimal for your optical drive

for me it is 9f whereas my hdds are 80, 81, etc

you are booting off the install dvd so you need to point it to the dvd drive

 

[Donar]

Ok, I got as far as booting on the boot 132 CD, and it asks for the two digit boot device, but won't take numbers 80 through 85. So what should I type in? Is it asking for the CD drive or the hard disk that it's going to install onto?

It's asking where to boot from - for me it was just hitting enter twice (CD).
If it does not work for you - then please refer to the thread for your board i reported earlier and have a look at the given Bios configuratio in the first post.
Especially:
- BIOS EHCI Hand-off - ENABLED

If it's not working then - i can unfortunately not help you any further. By the way are you using a SATA DVD and HDD? The chances are high that IDE does not work.

Lend from the guide for my board...

Install Leopard:

1) Insert your newly burned CD into your drive, and choose CD-ROM as bootup device.

2) Once you get a prompt, exchange the CD with your Mac OS X retail DVD, wait a few seconds and press enter twice. You should now boot into the OS X installation.

 

[j26]

I've built the following;

Processor: Q8200 Quad 2.33
Motherboard: GA G31M-E2SL
Graphics: nVidia GeForce 9400GT
4 gigs ram
Bluetooth dongle
Belkin Wireless N usb adaptor
Firewire, which is some old pci card I had lying about (seems to be an Agere card)
10.5.6 running on a Boot 132 install

Installation was dead simple.

It all works fine (Geekbenck 5000+ on the 32 bit test), apart from heat, but I'll sort that with a couple of fans
(also have a MSI Wind with 1.6 Atom, 320 gig hd and 2 gigs ram running 10.5.4 using the MSI OXS disk)

I'm just wondering, should I expect any issues if I run software update and update to 10.5.8 on the desktop machine?

 

[j26]

google your board and the hexidecimal for your optical drive

for me it is 9f whereas my hdds are 80, 81, etc

you are booting off the install dvd so you need to point it to the dvd drive

9f worked for me too

 

[Donar]

I'm just wondering, should I expect any issues if I run software update and update to 10.5.8 on the desktop machine?

Always expect "issues" when updating, make a <bootable> backup of your working install with CCC or SuperDuper! before trying to upgrade. Boot from your backup, download the upgrade package install it on your "working install". Delete AppleIntelPowermanagement.kext before trying to reboot with the working install - if you do not - you will get a KernelPanic (99% sure).
Expect that sleep is not working anymore and to apply most patches again.