- Joined
- May 20, 2010
- Messages
- 63
- Motherboard
- GA-P55A-UD4 F15
- CPU
- i5 750
- Graphics
- ASUS EAH 4890
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Hello everyone. Now that I successfully installed Snow Leopard on my system I want to share the knowledge with you.
This guide will give you a fully working Snow Leopard with audio, LAN, sleep, GFX acceleration QE/CI working. However, I didn't test dual-monitor yet and HDMI is not (really) working.
I did not invent ANY of the presented methods, but I did quite some reading and research to make the system fully working.
Here are the system specs:
One word on the case. I like the it very much. It's beautiful yet it doesn't have any fancy bling bling. We're building an apple after all, right?
The Fractal tower has a lot of drive bays, it has cable management and mounts for up to six fans, with two preinstalled, one at the back panel and one in front of the hdd's. I added another two of their Fractal Design 140mm fans, one at the bottom and one right at the top, which makes sense as the memory tends to be quite hot.
Fractal Designs PSU was also a good buy, it's quiet and it's modular. Only thing I really don't like about it is that the SATA power connectors on the cables should be installed the other way round. (See pics and you know what I mean)
The whole system is quiet and cool with no component hotter than 45°C / 113°F.
I didn't benchmark it yet but as soon as I do I will add the score.
Added some pictures so you can see how it looks like.
So far so good, let's start and install the system.
STEP 1: BIOS
First of all you've got to update your BIOS to the current version, which is F11. This is crucial as you will kernel panics when attempting to sleep if you don't.
The update files are available at the Gigabyte homepage as self extracting zip's, in other words they're exe's. This can be a headache if you're already using a mac, like I am. Therefore I uploaded the contained BIOS file for you. You CAN install the BIOS from within Windows but I strongly suggest using an USB stick. That way you also don't need a working Windows installation. Just follow this guide. You should load optimized defaults before and after the update. I also suggest you to save a copy of your current BIOS, just in case.
Next we will set up your BIOS for the installation. You basically follow tonymac's guide with some additions. For example we want to set our memory to the faster CL7 settings. I made pictures of all the relevant BIOS pages for your convenience.
Now before we proceed with the installation:
STEP 2: Installation
Note: You can and should always refer to tony's iBoot + MultiBeast as the install is nicely documented there. Be aware though that we will need to change some steps to make the OS running on our system.
Insert iBoot Supported into your optical drive and reset the computer. When the chameleon screen appears insert the Snow Leo DVD and hit F5. Now before starting the boot process, type -x to start in safe mode. This is important!
Now use disk utility to setup your HDD with GUID partition table and format it with Mac OS Extended Journaled. (see tony's) You can uncheck additional install options before starting the install, if you want to.
Now after the install you should see the installation succeeded screen. Hit reboot.
Put iBoot back into the disk drive. At this point I never was able to open the drive and swap cd's, however you can always power the machine off and on again to quickly swap cd's at the beginning of the boot process.
When chameleon loaded, select Snow Leopard (or whatever you named your install partition) and again type -x for safe mode. Boot and finish the install.
STEP 3: Update, MultiBeast, enabling GFX support
You should now be seeing the Mac OS desktop. Good job, we're halfway through!
Connect your USB drive and copy all the files to the desktop.
Install the 10.6.3 Combo Update. Do not reboot!
Open MultiBeast. Select:
Go to /System/Library/Extensions, locate ATI4800Controller.kext, ATIFramebuffer.kext and ATISupport.kext and back them up in a separate folder - just to be sure.
Replace them with the provided kexts. This will enable full graphics support. Again, do not reboot yet.
Open MultiBeast again, select system utilities and start it. You will see an error stating that ATI4800Controller.kext was not installed correctly and that it is not usable. I'm not sure about this one, but I went on with the installation and my system turned out okay. If someone knows, please drop me a notice!
No rebooting yet!
Follow tony's instructions to replace your kernel with the 10.3.1 Vanilla Kernel.
Now you may reboot. =)
Eject iBoot before you do.
STEP 4: Audio
You won't need the -x flag this time at startup. Just let the machine do it's work and voilà , there is your system with sleep and full QE/CI. Now we will activate audio.
You need to update your DSDT.aml according to MacMan's post here. The process is a bit painful, so I uploaded my DSDT.aml for you. Replace yours at /Extra/ with this one. Note that this DSDT is specific for this very mainboard!
Open MultiBeast once again and select System Utilities and Advanced Options > Kexts > Audio > AppleHDA 10.6.2. Install and reboot.
That's it! Congratulations, you now got your fully working Hackintosh! Enjoy!
(Don't forget to reinstall that extra 4 Gigs of memory now. I know, you wouldn't )
NEXT STEPS
I'm not completely done with my install yet. But the following will be rather cosmetically. I want to find out how to alter chameleons looks and how to activate the apple boot screen. But this should be rather easy.
If you're planning on also installing Win7 have a look here. I suggest buying a second HDD as the one HDD method sounds complicated.
What is more you should think about backing up your fresh install now. That's why I installed three HDDs. However I'm not sure yet what would be the best method to do so as I'd like to use that drive to back up not only the OSX installation but also data from OSX and Win7.
Allright, thanks for reading. Good luck and have fun!
- cgXR
This guide will give you a fully working Snow Leopard with audio, LAN, sleep, GFX acceleration QE/CI working. However, I didn't test dual-monitor yet and HDMI is not (really) working.
I did not invent ANY of the presented methods, but I did quite some reading and research to make the system fully working.
Here are the system specs:
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- CPU: Intel i5 750 4x2,67 GHz[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- Graphics Card: Asus EAH 4870/2DI[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- RAM: Kingston HyperX DIMM 8 GB DDR3-1333 Quad-Kit[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- HDD: 2x WesternDigital WD6401AALS 640GB Black Caviar Series, 1x WD3200AAKS 320GB Blue Series[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- Case: Fractal Design Define R2 Black[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- PSU: Fractal Design Newton R2 650W[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- Optical drive: LG CH8LS10 BluRay-Reader/DVD-Burner Combo[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- CPU Cooler: Scythe Shuriken Rev. B[/*:m:xwnp527v]
One word on the case. I like the it very much. It's beautiful yet it doesn't have any fancy bling bling. We're building an apple after all, right?
The Fractal tower has a lot of drive bays, it has cable management and mounts for up to six fans, with two preinstalled, one at the back panel and one in front of the hdd's. I added another two of their Fractal Design 140mm fans, one at the bottom and one right at the top, which makes sense as the memory tends to be quite hot.
Fractal Designs PSU was also a good buy, it's quiet and it's modular. Only thing I really don't like about it is that the SATA power connectors on the cables should be installed the other way round. (See pics and you know what I mean)
The whole system is quiet and cool with no component hotter than 45°C / 113°F.
I didn't benchmark it yet but as soon as I do I will add the score.
Added some pictures so you can see how it looks like.
So far so good, let's start and install the system.
STEP 1: BIOS
First of all you've got to update your BIOS to the current version, which is F11. This is crucial as you will kernel panics when attempting to sleep if you don't.
The update files are available at the Gigabyte homepage as self extracting zip's, in other words they're exe's. This can be a headache if you're already using a mac, like I am. Therefore I uploaded the contained BIOS file for you. You CAN install the BIOS from within Windows but I strongly suggest using an USB stick. That way you also don't need a working Windows installation. Just follow this guide. You should load optimized defaults before and after the update. I also suggest you to save a copy of your current BIOS, just in case.
Next we will set up your BIOS for the installation. You basically follow tonymac's guide with some additions. For example we want to set our memory to the faster CL7 settings. I made pictures of all the relevant BIOS pages for your convenience.
Now before we proceed with the installation:
- Get yourself a (legally bought) copy of OSX Snow Leopard[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- Make sure you've got no more than 4 GB Ram installed. Use the second and the fourth RAM port, from left. If you already installed all the RAM and the CPU Cooler is blocking you from removing the module on the very left, no problem, just leave it hanging there and push it back in later.[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- Prepare some USB mass storage with all the files you will need. These are MultiBeast, MacOSX 10.6.3v1.1 Combo Update found on tonymac's blog and the three ATI kexts as well as the DSDT.aml I supply with this post.[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- Download iBoot Supported from tony's blog and burn it (you can use disk utility if you're on a mac)[/*:m:xwnp527v]
STEP 2: Installation
Note: You can and should always refer to tony's iBoot + MultiBeast as the install is nicely documented there. Be aware though that we will need to change some steps to make the OS running on our system.
Insert iBoot Supported into your optical drive and reset the computer. When the chameleon screen appears insert the Snow Leo DVD and hit F5. Now before starting the boot process, type -x to start in safe mode. This is important!
Now use disk utility to setup your HDD with GUID partition table and format it with Mac OS Extended Journaled. (see tony's) You can uncheck additional install options before starting the install, if you want to.
Now after the install you should see the installation succeeded screen. Hit reboot.
Put iBoot back into the disk drive. At this point I never was able to open the drive and swap cd's, however you can always power the machine off and on again to quickly swap cd's at the beginning of the boot process.
When chameleon loaded, select Snow Leopard (or whatever you named your install partition) and again type -x for safe mode. Boot and finish the install.
STEP 3: Update, MultiBeast, enabling GFX support
You should now be seeing the Mac OS desktop. Good job, we're halfway through!
Connect your USB drive and copy all the files to the desktop.
Install the 10.6.3 Combo Update. Do not reboot!
Open MultiBeast. Select:
- GigaBeast => GA-P55A-UD4[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- System Utilities[/*:m:xwnp527v]
- Advanced Options => OSx86 Software => ShowAllFiles[/*:m:xwnp527v]
Go to /System/Library/Extensions, locate ATI4800Controller.kext, ATIFramebuffer.kext and ATISupport.kext and back them up in a separate folder - just to be sure.
Replace them with the provided kexts. This will enable full graphics support. Again, do not reboot yet.
Open MultiBeast again, select system utilities and start it. You will see an error stating that ATI4800Controller.kext was not installed correctly and that it is not usable. I'm not sure about this one, but I went on with the installation and my system turned out okay. If someone knows, please drop me a notice!
No rebooting yet!
Follow tony's instructions to replace your kernel with the 10.3.1 Vanilla Kernel.
Now you may reboot. =)
Eject iBoot before you do.
STEP 4: Audio
You won't need the -x flag this time at startup. Just let the machine do it's work and voilà , there is your system with sleep and full QE/CI. Now we will activate audio.
You need to update your DSDT.aml according to MacMan's post here. The process is a bit painful, so I uploaded my DSDT.aml for you. Replace yours at /Extra/ with this one. Note that this DSDT is specific for this very mainboard!
Open MultiBeast once again and select System Utilities and Advanced Options > Kexts > Audio > AppleHDA 10.6.2. Install and reboot.
That's it! Congratulations, you now got your fully working Hackintosh! Enjoy!
(Don't forget to reinstall that extra 4 Gigs of memory now. I know, you wouldn't
)NEXT STEPS
I'm not completely done with my install yet. But the following will be rather cosmetically. I want to find out how to alter chameleons looks and how to activate the apple boot screen. But this should be rather easy.
If you're planning on also installing Win7 have a look here. I suggest buying a second HDD as the one HDD method sounds complicated.
What is more you should think about backing up your fresh install now. That's why I installed three HDDs. However I'm not sure yet what would be the best method to do so as I'd like to use that drive to back up not only the OSX installation but also data from OSX and Win7.
Allright, thanks for reading. Good luck and have fun!
- cgXR
