El Capitan install quickly going south

[ghettosoak]

Hi! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I built my Hackintosh from scratch late 2012 (with Mountain Lion), and it looks like it's time to upgrade to El Capitan. I built it a few years ago, so I've forgotten much of what I did then to get it running; but it ran with boot flags 'npci=0x3000 darkwake=1', and was an exemplary build. It uses a Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 motherboard with FD firmware, which I've gathered requires the Legacy boot mode; and two XFX Radeon HD 6870 cards, one of which I have unplugged for the process. I built the computer with Chameleon last time.

I backed everything up, prepared my USB (with Multibeast El Capitan 8.0.1, and Unibeast 6.1.1) and got to it. I decided to do a fresh install of the OS instead of going the upgrade route. Everything goes swimmingly, until after I run the Unibeast installer, at which point things go sideways. Again, I ran it through the Legacy mode. Simply booting the computer brings it to the Apple logo with the loading bar, where it never loads. Running verbose mode shows that it gets as far as '[ PCI configuration begin ]'; but neither npci=0x2000 nor npci=0x3000 do anything: then I get only as far as 'SMC: Successfully Initialized', and 'RTC:', respectively.

I've tried just about every other boot flag configuration that I can think of – including 'GraphicsEnabler=No', 'darkwake=0', 'nv_disable=1', and a slew of others. Worryingly, '-x' won't even get me into safe mode, it only gets me as far as '[ PCI configuration begin ]'. To actually get into the OS to do anything, I need to boot into the main drive from the recovery USB. I guess it's a good sign that it will boot?

Luckily, I've got a bit of time I can throw into this before I need my computer back for work, but said time is quickly diminishing. What am I doing wrong? Please let me know if there's anything that I've forgotten to add here.

Thank you SO MUCH for your help. My computer is still the envy of everyone I know, and it would not be possible without this community. <3

 

[Robbish]

Have you got Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 rev1.0 or rev 2.0 ?
If you have rev 2.0 then you can update your BIOS to firmware version UA9 which is a UEFI BIOS
Without this then you will have to select the Legacy option in UniBeast when installing OSX El Capitan.

 

[ghettosoak]

Hey Robbish, thanks for your reply.

Indeed, I made both the USB in Legacy mode, and installed Unibeast in Legacy mode. It still doesn't work.

Thanks again for your help, though!

 

[Going Bald]

try with PCIRootUID=0 and PCIRootUID=1 in your boot-args.

 

[Khan]

I have the same board and Graphics. Try using attached config.plist and DSDT and SSDT attached in your Unibeast USB. If it boots you need to also put them in your HDD.

 

[Khan]

I do not remember if I used MBR partition Unibeast USB for this MOBO also because I was doing both the X58A UD7 AND this GA Z68AP D3. I had two different Unibeast USB installers at the time. If above does not work try http://www.tonymacx86.com/el-capita...-os-x-el-capitan-x58a-ud3r-2.html#post1112257. It is for the X58A but may also work for the Z68AP.

 

[ghettosoak]

Holy cats! Thank you all so much for your responses!

@Going Bald, I tried both args individually, and together, and neither of them worked. I only got as far as [ PCI configuration begin ].

@Kahn, curiously enough, my new install doesn't have an /Extra folder in the root of the drive – but even when I made my own, no combination of any of the linked files worked. The first batch got me as far as [ PCI configuration begin ], and putting the second config.plist in only got me as far as 'RTC: Only single R' before it froze.

ARGH

&& as an offshoot to this story, I tried @Robbish's advice of upgrading the BIOS to UA9, but it wouldn't take. It's a Rev 2.0 and everything, but it kept giving me 'BIOS ID Check Error'. Boy, I just can't win for losing here... :c

Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP HERE!!!!

 

[ghettosoak]

UPDATE!

IT'S WORKING!!

But only because I went this route instead: http://www.tonymacx86.com/el-capita...upported-intel-based-pc.html#alt_post_install

Specifically, the Legacy Boot Mode - Root (Clover_v2.3k_r3320_Legacy_Root.pkg) route.

Hope this helps anyone else who gets stuck.

Again, MASSIVE thanks to everyone who chipped in here – it's nice to know that you're not completely lost in the dark.

 

[Robbish]

&& as an offshoot to this story, I tried @Robbish's advice of upgrading the BIOS to UA9, but it wouldn't take. It's a Rev 2.0 and everything, but it kept giving me 'BIOS ID Check Error'.

Not sure what method you use for updating your BIOS so here's how i do it ;

• Download the UA9(UEFI BIOS) update for GA-Z68AP-D3 (rev. 2.0) from Gigabyte here

NOTE: the BIOS file that you download from Gigabyte has a .exe extension so you need to unpack the BIOS files from the .exe file using Stuffit Expander for Mac. Once extracted, this will give you a folder containing 3 files.

• Copy the extracted BIOS file Z68APD32.Ua9 onto a FAT32 formatted USB flash drive
• Boot into UEFI BIOS interface
• Select Q-Flash and perform the BIOS update (Q-flash will guide you what to do).

 

[Khan]

Holy cats! Thank you all so much for your responses!


@Kahn, curiously enough, my new install doesn't have an /Extra folder in the root of the drive – but even when I made my own, no combination of any of the linked files worked. The first batch got me as far as [ [/COLOR]PCI configuration begin ], and putting the second config.plist in only got me as far as 'RTC: Only single R' before it froze.


Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP HERE!!!!

/Extra does not exist anymore in Clover. The DSDT and SSDT files go in your root /EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched. With the DSDT and SSDT in place I used audio_cloverALC-110_v1.0f script from tolled to get sound. I think using Multibeast 8.0.1 will also work for sound.