GA-Z77X-UD3H - Freeze during preinstall - Solved

[Zyphrax]

Hi,

The last few hours I've been trying to install Yosemite, but I couldn't get to the installer.
I have a GA-Z77X-UD3H motherboard and I am using Unibeast 5.0.

The Problem
I would get to the first gray screen with simple Apple logo and progress bar, but then it would freeze.

After that I formatted my USB stick again, went back to Unibeast and tried the install with legacy USB components. To my surprise this got me past the point of freeze to the real installer, but my USB devices wouldn't work (and it's kinda difficult to install Yosemite without mouse and keyboard).

Solution - Step 1 - Get to the installer
So I formatted my USB stick once more...
1. Back to Unibeast, normal install without legacy USB or laptop components
2. Download kExt Beast of this (tonymacx86) website
3. Download the latest GenericUSBXHCI, you can find it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/genericusbxhci/
4. Extract the GenericUSBXHCI kext to the desktop (or kExt Beast won't be able to find it)
5. Run kExt Beast and select the USB stick as target
6. Reboot and boot from USB
7. Yay installer now works

Solution - Step 2 - Get Yosemite installer to continue
The installation went fine, but after I tried to continue my Yosemite setup and would end up with the freeze again. No problem, we can fix that too...
1. I restarted and booted from the USB again
2. Choose the original setup
3. Instead of going through the setup again, I opened up a Terminal
4. Copied the GenericUSBXHCI.kext folder from /System/Library/Extensions to the half way finished Yosemite installation (/Volumes/Yosemite in my case, same path)
5. Set ownership and permissions:
chmod -R 755 GenericUSBXHCI.kext
chown -R root:wheel GenericUSBXHCI.kext
6. And I made sure that the kext wouldn't be blocked: Edit AppleKextExcludeList with vi, find GenericUSBXHCI and change the version to your kExt version (1.2.7 in my case)
7. After that a reboot and the Yosemite installer will continue without any problems

In the release notes of Unibeast 5, it says that GenericUSBXHCI was removed, which is probably causing this problem (http://www.tonymacx86.com/449-unibeast-5-0-update.html)

I hope that this will at least save someone else a few hours of work

 

[hananias]

You definitely help me get past the installation freezes, but after the first boot to the install disk. I get to my desktop, and am able to install multibeast, but after reboot it freezes in the boot progress bar...That is when I get lost in your tutorial.

Can you give a little more detail as to what you do exactly?
What is the exact command line to copy from USB to Boot disk?

But thanks to you, now I have hope to have Yosemite also working next to my macbook air.

 

[Zyphrax]

For Yosemite you have to provide an extra boot parameter to make sure that your (unsigned) KEXTs aren't blocked by OSX, by indicating that you are running in developer mode.

- Boot with the USB stick
- Select your OSX drive (not the installer)
- Hit spacebar
- Add the boot argument: kext-dev-mode=1
- Also add -v for verbose so that you can see where it freezes (if it freezes)

I decided to go with Clover instead of Chameleon/Chimera. It is more work, and takes a while to understand, but it gives you more control over your system (plus a must have if you want iMessage / FaceTime to work). If I have some spare time I'll try to post a guide.

Edit: I noticed I didn't fully answer your questions.

You can treat the KEXT as a folder, so the copy command would look like:
cp -R /System/Library/Extensions/GenericUSBXHCI.kext /Volumes/Yosemite/System/Library/Extensions

"Yosemite" is the name of the drive your are installing Yosemite to.

 

[mattglobal]

I'm using the same motherboard. I've followed all your steps but I still can't get to the installer. I get the initial Apple icon and loading and then nothing. I've tried multiple USB ports, shifted from my 3.0 to USB2 ports and still nada.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Jithin.C.V]

I'm using the same motherboard. I've followed all your steps but I still can't get to the installer. I get the initial Apple icon and loading and then nothing. I've tried multiple USB ports, shifted from my 3.0 to USB2 ports and still nada.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Boot with flag -v and post a clear photo of the entire frozen screen.

 

[Zyphrax]

The -v option might indeed be useful to see where it stops.

I think I had a similar problem when I switched to the Clover bootloader.
In my case there was something wrong with the OSX Install.

Try the steps I describe here for creating the Installation Media:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/yosemite-desktop-support/144907-clover-post-installation-kexts-2.html

 

[mattglobal]

Thanks. I got beyond the initial nothingness by running the USB with

-x GraphicsEnabler=Yes npci=0x2000

And then was able to upgrade to Yosemite, but then when trying to get back into complete the installation on reboot, I got a kernel panic. I may try again later today.

 

[mattglobal]

The -v option might indeed be useful to see where it stops.

I think I had a similar problem when I switched to the Clover bootloader.
In my case there was something wrong with the OSX Install.

Try the steps I describe here for creating the Installation Media:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/yosemite-desktop-support/144907-clover-post-installation-kexts-2.html

Thanks. I've never gone the Clover route but I may try it today.