MiniHack Core i5-4430 - Zotac H87 ITX 8GB RAM - GT 240

[minihack]

MiniHack Core i5-4430 - Zotac H87 ITX 8GB RAM

Minihack's Build: Core i5-4430 - Zotac H87 8GB RAM GT 240 -

Components

Zotac H87 ITX-Wifi
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DXFG0EO/

Intel i5 4430 Processor
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CO8T9VC

Stock Cooler (for the moment)


Already Owned

2 x 4GB sticks of Corsair Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004E0ZKLQ

160GB drive (already owned)

USB 16GB thumb drive

OS X 10.8.4 from Apple App store

Case - to be iMac G3 case eventually...

Silverstone SFF 450W PSU
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=342


Comments.

I decided it was time to try out Haswell as mainly I wanted to do the case mod and secondly I am looking to incorporate into my build the Retina screen from a MacBook Pro and using the conversion board from here: http://dp2mbpr.rozsnyo.com. Incredibly these screens have a resolution of 2880 x 1800 and my old boards simply cannot support that. HD4600 however will (when officially OS X supported) get to that level and so this build will evolve as support for the graphics becomes easier.

The graphics card I am using at the moment is one I have had for a few years and it is brilliantly supported out of the box for an OS X build. No need to worry just plug it and play and it will still outperform HD4000.

Power supply is great and fits the case beautifully. A full ATX supply could go in, but with a SFF model that is also modular things are a lot easier.

The combined wifi/bluetooth card does not work, so needed to be swapped out for compatible half height card and a BT dongle that I have "borrowed" from another of my builds temporarily.

The install method I used was a variation of the temporary install method here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...lation-guide-haswell-systems-10-8-4-only.html

The problem was though that I could not seem to get this method to work right. So instead I used my 16GB thumb drive as the target for a clean install of 10.8.4 from my MacBook Air and then ran, in this order - MultiBeast (selecting only UserDSDT + nullcpupowermanagement.kext); HaswellHelper and then (probably not necessary) Chimera 2.2.0 on the target USB drive so as to make a complete bootable system.

The thumb drive booted fine to the Zotac board desktop and I then cloned the install to the internal 160GB drive (and ran Chimera 2.2 on that to make it bootable).

So while this install method was a little bit unusual, it still used all the tools on this site and worked fine for me. Perhaps something went wrong with my Unibeast install attempts?

When I then had a bootable system without DSDT I extracted the DSDT from the system, patched it to compile and then applied the patch from toledas post here:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/hdmi-audio/100492-easy-guide-ml-uefi-hdmi-audio.html

The current status of the build then is that I have a functioning H87 build with HDMI audio over my GT 240, QE/CI graphics (via the GT240), wifi and BT using my replacement half card and USB dongle.

This is giving me now a good 100% workable starting point to wait for Haswell power management and internal graphics to be supported - once that is available the system will be fully OS X compatible.

I will upload my DSDT etc in a later post.

EDIT 7 October.

The key to function for this board under 10.8.5 and in the future under 10.9 is/will be using a patched bios.

While under previous versions of OS X power management was taken care of by AppleIntelCPUPowermanagement.kext this is not true for 10.8.5 (and presumably also Mavericks) when released as it is now managed by the mach_kernel itself at least as far as Haswell is concerned. See the post by Pike R Alpha on his blog: http://pikeralpha.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/xnu-cpu-power-management/

This means that patching the power management kext or using nullcpupowermanagement.kext to block it will have no effect and unless your bios is naturally compatible then, in the words of Pike:

"_xcpm_core_scope_msrs is defined as 0xE2 so it seems like people with a locked (UEFI) BIOS are screwed once again"

So to overcome this you need (a) an unlocked bios - or to have it unlocked - and (b) to have it patched for power management. A very kind person called Fix It Felix over on a forum we cannot link unlocked and patched the latest Zotac bios and patched it for me and I have attached the results of that unlocking and the utility for flashing it here.

Once this is done, the instant reboot issue is eliminated and installation itself can be undertaken in the conventional way.

Flashing the bios

To flash the bios it is probably safest to do it from DOS on a USB stick. There are various ways to make a DOS bootable USB. I used a Windows utility called rufus.exe, obtainable from here: http://rufus.akeo.ie

Once you have a bootable USB stick you can then drag the bios file and the flashing utility (attached) to the stick and boot into DOS.

This command will then back up your original bios:

afudos bios.bin /o

and after that has completed this command will flash your bios unlocked:

afudos A2870719.bin /gan

If this goes well and uninterrupted (do not deviate from the process) then your Zotac bios is now unlocked.

Many thanks again here to Fix It Felix for his patience and goodwill in helping me get over this hurdle with 10.8.5 and for the expected benefits this will bring to 10.9

I will post a more complete guide to the rest of the process once we have a Mavericks public release.

Guide to Installing Mountain Lion 10.8.5

0. Flash your Bios as per above.

1. From a Mac with a valid App store account, update the Install Mountain Lion App to version 10.8.5 (see http://www.tonymacx86.com/382-update-your-os-x-mountain-lion-app-10-8-5.html )

2. Download Unibeast 2.1 (or later). Plugin and format your USB drive to Mac OS (extended) journaled and in options choose Master Boot Record. Run Unibeast pointing it to install on your USB drive.

3. Plugin your USB stick and, using integrated graphics (yes, it works), start up your Zotac - I used the HDMI port - and press delete to enter the bios. In bios use the arrow keys to skip along to the boot screen and then go down to the Hard Disk Boot Priority section and set the USB drive as first boot device.

4. When you get to the Unibeast device selection screen make sure your USB device is selected and enter the boot key "-x" (without the quote marks).

5. Follow the general installation instructions as here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/61-unibeast-install-os-x-mountain-lion-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html

6. When installation ends it will probably hang on a white screen for a while. Let it hang, it will eventually re-start.

7. On restart you will need to boot using your Unibeast key. However at the device selection screen select your fresh install and type in "-x" again as this will be needed at this time.

8. You should get through the set up pages all the way through to the desktop.

9. If you have not replaced your wifi card you will not have wifi (buy a compatible card on eBay picking one from here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/network/58146-guide-airport-half-mini-pcie.html ). You also will not have graphics acceleration (yet).

10. Download multibeast5.5.2 or newer and fire it up and for the moment just select the USER DSDT or DSDT FREE option.

11. Run Multibeast. When it has finished go into the Extra folder, and replace the two plists with the ones from the zip folder - these are my current plists and they allow me to reboot quickly and give the identity of one of the latest Haswell iMacs.

Edit 8 October: Power management
See my post here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-buil...ac-h87-itx-8gb-ram-gt-240-a-2.html#post676011 and the one after it for details of getting correct CPU recognition, better power management and faster load times . [ credit to Pike R Alpha and his work]

To be continued.....

 

[minihack]

Okay, attached is the original DSDT and the one that has been patched to compile correctly and to include the HDMI graphics card patch.

 

[minihack]

Just a quick update (well, more of a comment really). It looks like this might not be the ideal board for a 10.9 build. So if anyone from Zotac might be reading this, perhaps you might consider a bios update - soon - for future compatibility!
This comment comes from an avid user of your products (Zotac 9300 wifi, Zotac Z77 ITX, Zotac GT 240).

EDIT: 8 OCTOBER. FLASH YOUR BIOS - SEE POST 1

 

[minihack]

Users beware.

Just because you got Haswell working on 10.8.4 using the Haswell Helper it doesn't mean 10.8.5 will automatically work for you.

To use 10.8.5 I need a patched kernel.

The attached package is what I found works for me.

It is the Haswell Helper kernel plus 4 kexts from 10.8.4.

With this I can boot and I have also got full internal graphics support using injected AAPL,ig platform id.

EDIT: 8 OCTOBER PLEASE ignore the above advice as it is far more important (and a better solution) to flash your bios so as to be compatible with new mach_kernels for OS X - see my updated post 1 for details.

 

[mindhormone]

With this I can boot and I have also got full internal graphics support using injected AAPL,ig platform id.

Could you please explain what you mean by this statement?

Thanks..

- - - Updated - - -

Do you mean that you injected the IGPlatformID in Chimera for HD 4000?

 

[minihack]

Yes, exactly - although for HD5000.

I used an SSDT to do that, but with the latest version of Chameleon/Chimera ( http://www.tonymacx86.com/377-chimera-2-2-update.html ) it can be also done with no need for an DSDT/SSDT.

 

[bikinifarm]

Users beware.

Just because you got Haswell working on 10.8.4 using the Haswell Helper it doesn't mean 10.8.5 will automatically work for you.

To use 10.8.5 I need a patched kernel.

The attached package is what I found works for me.

It is the Haswell Helper kernel plus 4 kexts from 10.8.4.

With this I can boot and I have also got full internal graphics support using injected AAPL,ig platform id.

MiniHack;

I followed your steps for my intel motherboard Haswell set-up. I managed to boot it up, but unfortunately, due ACPI dependencies, subsequent boots required -x flag (failed kernel cache build due to missing dependencies).

I also managed to use the built-in video using Chameleon 2262 and the following flag in org.chameleon.Boot.plist

<key>IntelAzulFB</key>
<string>10</string>

After booting, I switched back to the 10.8.5 kernel, and upon reboot, the rig went right back to reboot loop. So, looks like there is nothing to do until a modified kernel becomes available. Thanks for posting this info.

 

[minihack]

MiniHack;

I followed your steps for my intel motherboard Haswell set-up. I managed to boot it up, but unfortunately, due ACPI dependencies, subsequent boots required -x flag (failed kernel cache build due to missing dependencies).

I also managed to use the built-in video using Chameleon 2262 and the following flag in org.chameleon.Boot.plist

<key>IntelAzulFB</key>
<string>10</string>

After booting, I switched back to the 10.8.5 kernel, and upon reboot, the rig went right back to reboot loop. So, looks like there is nothing to do until a modified kernel becomes available. Thanks for posting this info.

Thanks for confirming.

If you have any luck or breakthroughs, please do post. But for the moment I would definitely not class this as a "compatible" motherboard and I am thinking of selling mine on as I am not happy with a board that can only boot with a patched kernel.

I wonder whatever happened to the planned launch of the Zotac Z87 board....

By the way, which processor are you using?

 

[bikinifarm]

This is my hardware:

Corsair 400R case.
Intel DH87MC ATX motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 8Gigs
i5-4670k
OCR 600W modular power supply
Nvidia 8800GT video card. (recycled)

The motherboard is great. I have a write-up about it, and I had posted the link in my previous post here, but it looks like links to other competing sites are being removed. I will send you the link, in case you are interested.

 

[minihack]

Thanks for that - received the link.

So your experience on the Intel board is the same as for my Zotac board effectively. By that I mean that it looks like the vanilla mach_kernel for 10.8.5 (and presumably upcoming 10.9) causes the re-boot cycle, but that a patched kernel (patched the way that MacMan patched for the Haswell Helper or the way Pike R Alpha patched it) will allow to boot.

Interestingly it seems that (though we cannot see until the mach_kernel for 10.8.5 becomes opensource) when Apple enabled Haswell support it was done in a way that is more selective - exclusive - and that seems to block some boards, rather than simply adding "Haswell" to the group of supported processors.

Like I said though I don't look forward to continuing to battle with this board if it looks like it will not be properly supported so it is living on borrowed time before it goes onto the well known auction site.