New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX - G4 Cube

[neilhart]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

... deleted .....
Once we have tried speedstepper, another thing to do would be to use an Apple DSDT and ioreg output and compare those with your board. Often some better functionality coems from copying the apple arrangements. I'd be happy to compare my MBA ioreg and DSDT against the Intel and make a few suggestions when I get a bit of time.
All best,

PS Just as a heads up even on my MBA I do still get some mild display artefacts from time to time, so that aspect may genuinely be an Apple issue.

I do not pretend to understand what I have accomplished. I acquired speedstepper for Lion 10.7.2 (from http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... 58611&st=0) and pushed on it until I learned how to get it to run. It completed successfully.

I then deleted the NullCPUPowerManagement.kext, rebuilt permissions and rebooted.

The system still boots. However there is no improvement in sleep.

What works:
Shutdown
Sound
Dual displays (DVI and HDMI)
Selectable resolutions
Video acceleration
Ethernet - Gig E
Networking - Screen Sharing and File Sharing
Printing - wireless to a Lexmark S600
USB 2 and USB 3

What does not work:
Sleep (and wake from sleep)
Sound over HDMI (this is not one of my objectives)

Not tested:
WiFi - have not purchased a mini-PCIE radio yet.
Bluetooth - have a dongle but have not tried it yet.
App Store
iCloud
Audio In (microphone)
Second SATA port
board headers other then the power switch pins

Summary:
I am gaining confidence. The system appears stable now and I am starting to plan a case of sorts to clean up my work table. I will also migrate my usual suite of applications over and see how the system handles real world work-day applications.

While it would be nice to have sleep working, I can live without it.

neil

 

[minihack]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

... deleted .....
Once we have tried speedstepper, another thing to do would be to use an Apple DSDT and ioreg output and compare those with your board. Often some better functionality coems from copying the apple arrangements. I'd be happy to compare my MBA ioreg and DSDT against the Intel and make a few suggestions when I get a bit of time.
All best,

PS Just as a heads up even on my MBA I do still get some mild display artefacts from time to time, so that aspect may genuinely be an Apple issue.

I do not pretend to understand what I have accomplished. I acquired speedstepper for Lion 10.7.2 (from http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... 58611&st=0) and pushed on it until I learned how to get it to run. It completed successfully.

I then deleted the NullCPUPowerManagement.kext, rebuilt permissions and rebooted.

The system still boots. However there is no improvement in sleep.

What works:
Shutdown
Sound
Dual displays (DVI and HDMI)
Selectable resolutions
Video acceleration
Ethernet - Gig E
Networking - Screen Sharing and File Sharing
Printing - wireless to a Lexmark S600
USB 2 and USB 3

What does not work:
Sleep (and wake from sleep)
Sound over HDMI (this is not one of my objectives)

Not tested:
WiFi - have not purchased a mini-PCIE radio yet.
Bluetooth - have a dongle but have not tried it yet.
App Store
iCloud
Audio In (microphone)
Second SATA port
board headers other then the power switch pins

Summary:
I am gaining confidence. The system appears stable now and I am starting to plan a case of sorts to clean up my work table. I will also migrate my usual suite of applications over and see how the system handles real world work-day applications.

While it would be nice to have sleep working, I can live without it.

neil

That's great Neil - to be honest I never use sleep in a desktop anyway....

If Speedstepper works, it might be interesting to try the enable p-states and c-states flags in your boot plist and see if this genuinely now gives some Mac-like powermanagement.

It sounds though that this board is pretty much as compatible as it can be without sleep. There are patches that can be applied for sound over HDMI on the forums (pretty sure Tony has a guide for it with the HD3000) and so that is probably a patch you could pop on yourself to get that aspect working.

Looking forward to the finished article

 

[slowjin]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

Neil and MiniHack-

I have been reading your posts while on hiatus, waiting for my parts, which came in last Friday. I will continue to update this post, but I was so excited with my current progress that I had to report:

Parts received:

Seagate 7200 RPM 500GB 2.5" HDD

Very quiet and fast (at least the first impressions are)

wifi: BCM94322HM8L

With all power off, I installed this to the half mini-PCIe slot. Two screws that come with the mobo were very easily stripped, but managed to get them off and used the two screws that came with the wifi card.

I commenced with a fresh installation of Lion using UniBeast and in under 20 minutes I have Lion up and running, and...

Wifi works OOB, I just had to have it connect to a secure network!!

Because my case does not have front USB ports, I have had to switch between keyboard and mouse to finish up, but this rocks! BTW I forgot to order antennas with the card but wifi speed is still bearable. Hope the speed gets better when the antennas are on, so I will have to follow up on wifi speed.

[UPDATE:] Just received my antennas (actually it was cheaper to purchase a mini PCIe to PCI converter with three antennas, so I have spare parts for next time), hooked them up and wifi speed is definitely great! On a company guest wifi network, 13Mbps download and 44Mbps upload. My profile was remembered and works OOB. Cannot be happier!!

My first round will be EasyBeast, but after I make a clone to a small partition I set aside, I will test the DSDTs down the road.

 

[minihack]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

Hi Neil, Slowjin,

I know this is not my project so please tell me to butt out if I am being a bit too pushy (!), but I was just wondering what audio solution you are using for this board.

I noticed from a quick google that it is ALC892 codec and there are plenty of people who have already gone the route of patching AppleHDA.kext and DSDTs to get Apple audio functioning and so from there the HDMI audio patching is quite feasible.

If you like I'd be happy to do the needed extra patches, but these two links would tell you all you need:http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=162&t=32327 and
http://www.osx86.net/view/1975-applehda_alc892_for_10.7.2.html

If currently you are using voodoohda then these edits and mod.s to the AppleHDA.kext should give you native and fully functional audio. In some case the actual pinconfig values might vary even for the same codec and it may be that some tweaking is needed but I would fully expect that the above two posts would get you at least 90% of the way with AppleHDA (and I personally hate voodoohda as it is often a cause of KPs).

Hope this is helpful and I really want you to succeed with this board as it is on my "maybe I'll buy it" list.



EDIT: Sorry for my stupidity I see you are running the enabler for audio. I will in any case throw together a audio patched DSDT so you can compare results....I'm a bit bored tonight and trying to avoid work so this'll distract me.

 

[slowjin]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

Hi Neil, Slowjin,

I know this is not my project so please tell me to butt out if I am being a bit too pushy (!), but I was just wondering what audio solution you are using for this board.

I noticed from a quick google that it is ALC892 codec and there are plenty of people who have already gone the route of patching AppleHDA.kext and DSDTs to get Apple audio functioning and so from there the HDMI audio patching is quite feasible.

If you like I'd be happy to do the needed extra patches, but these two links would tell you all you need:http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=162&t=32327 and
http://www.osx86.net/view/1975-applehda_alc892_for_10.7.2.html

If currently you are using voodoohda then these edits and mod.s to the AppleHDA.kext should give you native and fully functional audio. In some case the actual pinconfig values might vary even for the same codec and it may be that some tweaking is needed but I would fully expect that the above two posts would get you at least 90% of the way with AppleHDA (and I personally hate voodoohda as it is often a cause of KPs).

Hope this is helpful and I really want you to succeed with this board as it is on my "maybe I'll buy it" list.



EDIT: Sorry for my stupidity I see you are running the enabler for audio. I will in any case throw together a audio patched DSDT so you can compare results....I'm a bit bored tonight and trying to avoid work so this'll distract me.

Quite fine by me, as I will eventually get to trying sound via HDMI etc. For the time being, I am using the ALC892 kext with AppleHDArollback in MultiBeast, and for what it's worth, sound works fine through my PC speakers.

BTW, this project has been an 'under the table' project without my wife's knowing, so parts acquisition as well as working on this have had to take a backseat until I reveal, get the tongue lashing followed by reluctant approval, which i hope to get on Christmas.

I have no experience in modifying or patching DSDT, but it is on my 'next to learn' list, so really appreciate yours and Neil's help and work so far.

Here are some pics of my rig in progress:

DH61AG - Half mPCIe Wifi.JPG

DH61AG - Top View Inside.JPG

DH61AG - Top - Front View Inside.JPG

DH61AG - Top - Front View ClosedUp.JPG

 

[lore]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

BTW, this project has been an 'under the table' project without my wife's knowing

who's not

 

[opty]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

nice project and very interested.

I've seen couple reviews on the board and immediately i was saying to myself this would be a cool little hackintosh board and there it is.

slowjin you got a link for that pretty looking case?

what do you think of this case?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129095

 

[slowjin]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

nice project and very interested.

I've seen couple reviews on the board and immediately i was saying to myself this would be a cool little hackintosh board and there it is.

slowjin you got a link for that pretty looking case?

what do you think of this case?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129095

Thanks, Opty. Neil kick-started this thread and miniHack has contributed significantly so far.

Link to more info on my case:

http://viako.com/viako/product.asp?acode=A040

I contacted these guys directly ([email protected]). They are constantly making changes to their cases so what is pictured on the link may not be exactly what you get. It may be best to provide pics of the exact case configurations if you do go fwd with a purchase. Expect DHL fee of around $40 USD. It seems as though this company is shifting focus more towards industrial/embedded systems, but my experience with Viako has been positive and I was able to work out some non-standard combinations of their offerings.

WRT the case, if you look up demon19 at InsanelyMac, he is trying to put this board into a real Mac Mini case. That option might be of interest to you as well.

With the case I have so far, temps are a bit higher than I have seen with my other hacks, running ~38C idle with lid open but inching up to ~41C with lid closed based on Temperature Monitor app readings. The setup is very quiet though, and higher temps may be a trade-off.

 

[rubbleboat]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

I'm trying to find out whether I could install the board in a TRAVLA C138 casing or another model of the same brand (I like their style). In order to choose the right model I need to know the max height of the board once the fan is installed.

Would you mind providing here the height of the heatsink as measured from the board surface to its tip once properly installed on the board?

Thanks,

David.

 

[neilhart]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

I'm trying to find out whether I could install the board in a TRAVLA C138 casing or another model of the same brand (I like their style). In order to choose the right model I need to know the max height of the board once the fan is installed.

Would you mind providing here the height of the heatsink as measured from the board surface to its tip once properly installed on the board?

Thanks,

David.

The Intel stock CPU cooler that came with the i3-2125 is 2.0 inches above the surface of the MB. The Gelid low profile cooler is specified as 28 mm (1.1 inches) here at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835426028

neil