Asus N56VZ-S4035V

[barrgoss]

I followed some links I googled about booting ML from an MBR drive. I had the unibeast usb drive plugged in, a second usb drive and directions. Booted from the unibeast and ran disk utility. Created a gpt on the second usb drive and made the entire ssd drive into an mbr. Then I installed ML on the second usb drive. Once that was done, I booted back into unibeast usb and ran disk utility again. From there I "restored" from the gpt drive to the mbr drive. Shut down the laptop and unplug the second usb drive so once again I had only the unibeast usb and the ssd. Booted up and used the ssd drive with -x. Once ml was running I ran multi beast and installed fake smc and system definition MacBook Pro 8,1. I install the bootloader yet. I may try something different later tonight.

I've been keeping 2 copies of my org.chameleon.Boot.plist running. One as a working copy and one as a backup so I don't have to reinvent the wheel when I eventually start over. This is the contents of my org.chameleon.Boot.plist that's working so far:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Default Partition</key>
<string>hd(0,1)</string>
<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>ForceHPET</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GenerateCStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GeneratePStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1920x1080x32</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-f darkwake=0 -force64</string>
<key>Legacy Logo</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Quiet Boot</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>SystemType</key>
<string>2</string>
<key>USBBusFix</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>UseNvidiaROM</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>VBIOS</key>
<string>Yes</string>
</dict>
</plist>

And this is smbios.plist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>SMbiosdate</key>
<string>21/03/12</string>
<key>SMbiosvendor</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>SMbiosversion</key>
<string>MBP91.88Z.00D3.B00.1203211536</string>
<key>SMboardproduct</key>
<string>Mac-6F01561E16C75D06</string>
<key>SMfamily</key>
<string>MacBook Pro</string>
<key>SMmanufacturer</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>SMproductname</key>
<string>MacBookPro9,2</string>
<key>SMserial</key>
<string>xxxxxxxxxxxx</string>
<key>SMsystemversion</key>
<string>1.0</string>
</dict>
</plist>

I x'd out my serial number. So I'm back to trying more stuff... hope this is helpful.

 

[barrgoss]

Installed chimera and removed the unibeast usb drive and rebooted. Low and behold it works... sort of. It goes to the gray apple screen and hangs. The other thing is that my bios changed so that booting goes straight to the ssd even if I plug the unibeast stick back in. A quick bios change and get the bootloader screen back. I still have to use the -x option to get the ssd to completely boot.

If anyone knows a quick way to edit a file somewhere so the -x is automatically passed to the loader, that would be cool.

In the meantime, it's off to work...

 

[priyana]

will this work in your chameleon config file
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-x</string>

or in your case
<string>-x -f darkwake=0 -force64</string>

 

[AjiGilee]

will this work in your chameleon config file
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-x</string>

or in your case
<string>-x -f darkwake=0 -force64</string>

More Simple:
boot with -x
delete geforce.kext in S/L/E
ta..daa.. OS X ML loaded no black screen

 

[iPerri]

i have ML running on my ASUS N56VM pretty easily now..
no flags needed but i can only get to my ML partition by booting from
my usb installer then choosing the ML partition..

ran multibeast and tried a standalone chimera installer but my bios wont
read the GUID partiton of OSX on my HDD, i tried installing to MBR also wont read the bootloader
its not a boot0 error. when i power up without the usb installer in it sees it
and i get this when its not in (SEE PIC BELOW)

i tried the boot0 error fix to see if that would do anything and got nothing

only way i got it to actually boot by its self was i installed ML to a 16gb usb3 drive
did my tweaks to get ML to boot without flags then did the boot0 fix and bam it worked
so not really the boot0 fix but same idea.. i took the boot files and kexts from the
usb installer using unpkg, then installed those to my usb3 ML HDD and it worked

tried the same thing on my ASUS HDD and got nothing, so i donno what to do..
well i gotta wait now till my replacement laptop gets in from ASUS since my was fried haha

i was in my bios and restored the defaults i clicked save/exit and at the same time pulled my
usb3 drive out and shes toast! dont tell asus but i pulled the laptop apart, pulled the battery off
the main board to do a cmos reset and still nothing which is weird cause its sumwhat powering up still,
black screen, NO ASUS LOGO, HDD spins but doesnt boot, the led for drive actitive doesnt flicker at all
oh well asus took it back and they shipping a new one out but hopefully i find
a fix for my boot issue by then

 

[barrgoss]

Sorry for the edit... I forgot to quote the post that my response is for.

"More Simple:
boot with -x
delete geforce.kext in S/L/E
ta..daa.. OS X ML loaded no black screen"



Not sure what you mean here. I don't have a black screen.

When I boot with the unibeast usb drive plugged in, I get the os/device choice menu. I arrow over to ML then type on the keyboard "-x" without quotes, hit enter and Mountain Lion boots up to the login screen. If I power up the laptop without the unibeast usb stick plugged in, it boots straight to the gray Apple logo. No beach ball or timer of any kind... it just sits there at the apple logo. I was looking for a way to automatically pass the argument "-x" straight to the loader so I don't have to type it in. So when I don't have the unibeast stick plugged in, the OS will automatically boot with the -x option. Almost everything behaves nicely when I boot -x.

Thanks.

 

[barrgoss]

Been investigating the built-in ethernet port. Using system info software found here: http://www.osx86.net/view/1479-system_info.html I determined that the ethernet card in the n56vz is:

Ven ID Vendor Dev ID Device Class Subclass
1969 Atheros Communications 1091 Unknown device Network controller Ethernet controller

So the important info is 1969:1091. This is an AR8161. Searching for kext's for this device was very disappointing. In fact, the only thing I found out there is from: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/alx

Linux has a driver called alx. If anyone reading this is a whiz kid at porting drivers, very bored and looking for a challenge... I offer you this: port the linux alx driver to an OS X kext. Or, we can wait and see if Atheros ever graces us with a certified kext for this device.

*********************************************************************************************************

I also took a look on the inter-web for a wireless card driver. After reading some of the reviews out there, I'm not sure I want to get a driver for this card:

Ven ID Vendor Dev ID Device Class Subclass
168c Atheros Communications 0032 AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter Network controller Network controller

The same network card is in the Asus Zenbook and the review from here: http://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index...e&sort=0&page=5&slug=asus-zenbook-ux21-review states the following:

[h=3]by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/22/2011 8:00:00 PM
"Networking Performance: Wireless & USB Ethernet[/h]ASUS integrated a very small Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 802.11b/g/n WiFi solution into the UX21. Unfortunately the specs of this particular radio aren't anything to write home about. It supports only 2.4GHz and a single spatial stream, limiting its performance to 72Mbps with 20MHz channels and 150Mbps with 40MHz channels. Unfortunately Apple's AirPort Extreme only supports 40MHz channels on the 5GHz band so my testing was limited to 20MHz channels at 72Mbps. Real world performance is obviously significantly lower than that, I measured about 50-60% of the link rate for most transfers within 10 feet of the AP. That works out to be around 5MB/s over 802.11n. If you can connect using 40MHz channels however, expect to see about twice the performance. ASUS is limited by the availability of 1/4 length PCIe WiFi solutions since the Zenbook uses that form factor. Apparently a 2x2:2 version is due out next year; we'll hopefully see it in time for the second generation Zenbook."

At the end of the article it reads there may be a possibility of a new, dual band card presumably from Atheros due out this year, (based on the date of the article.) Whether or not such a radio would fit inside the case of the n56vz, in place of what's there now, AND, if it would work with the board's infrastructure....??? Or Plan B; look around for a replacement radio that's out now that might work in this laptop and that has drivers available.


Let me know if all this is too much information. I can be quiet too.

 

[barrgoss]

will this work in your chameleon config file
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-x</string>

or in your case
<string>-x -f darkwake=0 -force64</string>

Hey there,

I did try this but no joy.

Keep thinking and suggesting though!!

Thanks.

 

[barrgoss]

Hey there,

I did try this but no joy.

Keep thinking and suggesting though!!

Thanks.

It turns out you were right, to a point. I ended up cutting-and-pasting those lines in my org.chameleon.Boot.plist file so they appear first. When this file is parsed, the kernel flags need to be the first things encountered. Now when I boot straight into ML it doen't hang up at the apple screen.

Thanks again!!

 

[barrgoss]

I looked into why I (and others) are having problems getting our ML installations to boot from the hard drive once ML is finished installing. My reading has taken me to sites about UEFI making it easier to use bootloaders to boot OSX, as well as linux and even windows. So for giggles, I bought a caddy and put in the drive that came with the n56vz and has windows 7 on it. I booted up to win7 and used a free partitioning software to look at how windows is partitioned these days. Again, low and behold, windows has an efi partition (among others,) and all partitions are gpt!

I'm going to try and post a screen shot and see if the upload process works:



Not sure if the picture will show up or not but it just shows how windows has implemented booting from an efi partition. In the AMI bios that comes on the n56vz, Asus has locked out some options but there is still one option available that I didn't understand fully until reading this stuff today. The option is "Launch EFI Shell from file system device." I think this is the key to having an efi shell loaded on agpt partition, that will allow bootloaders to work from my ssd. I'm going to do some experimenting and will let you know the progress.

If I'm going down a path here that any of you have already taken, please let us all know what you found. Thanks.