- Joined
- Dec 12, 2010
- Messages
- 8
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
My Hackintosh Experience:
Basic Spec:
Gigabyte H55M-USB3 Rev 1.0 (bios as received F2)
Intel i5-750 2.66Ghz (2.8 with TurboBoost on)
Palit Geforce 240 GT 512mb graphics card
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 RAM
32gb HDD
Sata DVD-RW
Optional components:
Belkin FD7001 Wireless G card, Broadcom BCM4306 based
Edimax EW-7711In Wireless N PCI card, RaLink 3060 based
Edimax EW-7711UAn Wireless b/g/n USB Wifi dongle
Aims:
• Vanilla install
• Apple update compatible
• Wifi connectivity
• End result suitable for kids and wife without constant maintenance, our Mac-Mini has been faultless for general use for the past 2.5 years in comparison.
Install method:
Update F2 BIOS to F11 bios, use Stuffit Expander 2010 to extract bios file to USB HDD drive. BIOS Update using Gigabyte Qflash method. Initial failure to find USB HDD, go into exiting bios, load "optimised defaults", F10 and reboot, eventually found the USB HDD on Yellow USB ports, but it eventually worked.
Reload "Optimised defaults" in BIOS.
Set all available options to AHCI, set HPET to 64-bit
iBoot 2.6 Into SL 10.6.3 retail DVD
NO Combo update
MultiBeast 3.1 with following options:
I have tried a number of different configurations and the first time I went straight in with the 10.6.6 combo update and 64 bit Kernel but I found the system took a long time to boot in comparison to a test legacy system I tested a pre baked DVD OSx86 install with. I've had mainly problems with WIFI support and in 10.6.3 my Belkin card appears to be natively support, something which is lost with the 10.6.6 update. At this point I purchased the Edimax parts, partly because I knew they had *some* OSx86 support, and I knew the USB dongle was confirmed to work which, and also because I was ordering at 8pm last Thursday and those particular parts could be with me the next morning enabling me to get going over the weekend, and also they were cheap, cheap enough to not worry about selling them for a loss on the Bay after some testing.
Notes on system at this point:
• Stuck for 20seconds at "Loading operating system" [SOLVED]
• Fast boot to desktop, much faster than my tests with 10.6.6 fast shutdown.
• USB works, onboard RT audio works, firewire works, USB3 Ports listed.
• Single monitor connected, if I change the display resolution with the Displays dialog I get stuck on the pale blue scream, however plugging in a DVI to VGA adaptor into the DVI port on the GeForce card snapped the display back, if I left the adaptor in place, and change RES again, I get the blue screen, unplugging the adaptor gets me back to the desktop, at the correct RES. I don't remember having this issue with 10.6.6 at all on either GraphicsEnabler=Yes or using NVEnabler. Same with 32 bit or 64 bit kernel although monitor is picked up in 32bit correctly but not in 64bit.
• With single monitor on VGA port, Colour calibration in expert mode doesn't give realtime feedback, but does change when finished (so not really workable).
• Sleep works, but loses mouse, unplug and replug mouse will fix (32 and 64 bit)
• With the above BIOS settings the CPU is running flat out in turboboost mode with no Speedstep or similar.
• With two monitors connected, both resolution and colour correction work as expected on both monitors. I suspect the problem lies with the fact that the DVI port is the primary output.
Notes on general method so far:
⃠When at the install and testing stage, there's a lot of secondary authoring, so use an easy password to save time!
⃠The use of Mutlibeast is not intuitive in some ways. For instance, it doesn't keep a record of the last installed options, so every time you run it the options are all blank. However what complicates this is that just because you don't have option "X" checked, it doesn't remove that option. Instead you have to check the opposite option or remove Kext and run the system utilities. This isn't immediately clear and it could be much improved by implementing a .conf or similar to keep track of what you're doing when
Getting Connected:
I simply plugged my BCM4306 based Belkin PCI card in and the it was found as an airport card straight away, of course this is still 10.6.3 and I know it doesn't work in 10.6.6! Doesn't seem to work 100% as I still have to manually connect, and from the menu bar it says "Airport Not Configured" even after you've manually connected.
Tweaking:
To get the turbo boost to ramp down and the speedstep to work, go into the Gigabyte BIOS:
MB Intelligent Tweaker->Advanced Frequency Settings->Advance CPU Core Features.
Turbo Boost Tech [Enabled]
CPU Cores enabled [All]
C1E [Enabled]
C3/C6 [Enabled]
CPU Thermal Mon [Enabled]
CPU EIST FUnc [Enabled]
Bi-Direct PROCHOT [Auto]
They are mostly set to Auto by default.
Need to boot into 32bit to get MSR Tools to work to confirm this all works, but the important bit is the EIST function to get the voltage to ramp up and down with the frequency demand to bring the temps down and allow the speeds to be high when required. I did notice that if you try overclocking, you need to keep the bus multiplier at 20, at 19 it doesn't use the turbo boost and at 21 of course it's locked in the turboboost mode. Using the above settings I have overclocked to 3.6 Ghz with speedstep working and it will rise to 3.8 in turbo boost (not exact numbers but you get the idea). Geekbenched at about 8300 but I was only interested to make sure the OC was working after reading reports of slow overclocked systems, it was in those other posts that I ready specifically about the EIST so not my find. I've since ended up with something much more mild.
Update to 10.6.6
Using the 10.6.6 Combo Update (btw the "combo" update means it rolls in all previous updates, which I missed when I was searching in a hurry for 10.6.6 update, so make sure you get the combo if you're upgrading more than one increment) I updated the system. At the "restart" prompt I tried to again run MultiBeast but it came up as having failed, tried again, but something. Went for a reboot and it seems okay but as expected the airport has gone, so outgoes the BCM card.
Booting to 32bit kernel MSR tools shows speedstep is working and I can see the freq bob up and down, going as low s 1.2Ghz, the voltage follows too.
Fire up MultiBeast again and reuse exactly the above settings with the exception of the software, failed again…. But everything is working so I'll look at that in more detail later. Running just the System utilise and Audio Kexts it runs through okay.
Fitted the RaLink based Edimax PCI b/g/n card, it uses a 32bit driver (listed as RT2860 etc) as it's a 10.5 Leopard based driver, but it installs okay (brings up a kept error the first time due to bungled method of kext installation by installer) but reboot and reinstall just to be sure and then it fires up okay and I can easily connect to my wireless network.
Notes for 10.6.6:
• Still a 20second wait till the system starts to boot. Aaaaaargh! [SOLVED]
• This time around the system seems better and snappier, I can only assume that in all the messing about with WiFi cards, my original 10.6.6 install was somehow borked.
• BCM4306 Wifi card no longer works, not going to bother sorting as the real fix is to get a genuine Apple Mini PCIe card and a PCIe adaptor card.
• Until I get the genuine apple card, the RaLink based card is okay, but the adaptor show up only as a Ethernet card and requires the RaLink wireless until which is pretty clunky and doesn't seem to want to auto-connect on boot initially, but another reboot after the profile is set seems to be fine. Straight into wifi connection with no user interaction required.
• RaLink Card takes a few seconds (20 at a guess) to reconnect after wake
• Sleep now works perfectly, no loss of mouse or keyboard or mouse on wake
• Speedstep and turbo boost appears to work fine in 32bit, can't check in 64bit
• Audio works as before
• With the system as described, doing a shutdown and then (soft) power on results in the secondary display losing the red channel, and forgetting the resolution. Also the RaLink card cannot connect. If I sleep/wake I get red channel back on the screen, but still in 1024 rather than 1280, a second sleep/wake brings the WiFi card to life.
SOLVED Boot delay!!
Bit of a noob alert I guess, just a case of the boot order set to CD-ROM->HDD->USB HDD which just left a long wait for the CD-ROM drive. I changed it to HDD->Disabled->Disabled and poof nice quick boot up. You can always press F12 to boot from somewhere else. A quick search brought this up, I would have looked earlier but I have been messing with WIFI cards for a while
Tidy up:
A few important things to go through and I can get on with just using the machine.
• Software Update - although I've got the OS up to date, things like iTunes and iWork & iLife (once installed) need updating too. I've not run into any troubles with those
• Overclock - It's nice and fast as it is, but a simple upping of the base clock to 140Mhz from 133 brings a sensible increase in speed without having the cooler (Akasa Freedom Tower) fan go flat out all the time. As much as a like a quick computer, coming from genuine Apple hardware I've learnt to appreciate a near silent workspace. Remember to make sure the advanced CPU Core Functions are set to get the most from your overclock.
Possible Tweaks:
• Not sure on GraphicsEnabler=Yes vs NVEnabler. They both seem to work and it's not clear how they differ. The NVEnabler appears to be a kext with injection whereas the GraphicsEnabler is injection at the bootloader stage. Or at least that's how it appears. I would welcome any comments on this subject.
• Case mods to keep the noise down
• Genuine Airport Card and adaptor. Lets face it, the menu bar airport menu is quite user friendly, and it means full 64bit kernel again. Although maybe RaLink will improve their software and update the driver.
• Fix shutdown and boot issues, haven't checked what it's like from complete hard power off so suspect some issue with residual power on PCI cards.
Cheers
Paul
Basic Spec:
Gigabyte H55M-USB3 Rev 1.0 (bios as received F2)
Intel i5-750 2.66Ghz (2.8 with TurboBoost on)
Palit Geforce 240 GT 512mb graphics card
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 RAM
32gb HDD
Sata DVD-RW
Optional components:
Belkin FD7001 Wireless G card, Broadcom BCM4306 based
Edimax EW-7711In Wireless N PCI card, RaLink 3060 based
Edimax EW-7711UAn Wireless b/g/n USB Wifi dongle
Aims:
• Vanilla install
• Apple update compatible
• Wifi connectivity
• End result suitable for kids and wife without constant maintenance, our Mac-Mini has been faultless for general use for the past 2.5 years in comparison.
Install method:
Update F2 BIOS to F11 bios, use Stuffit Expander 2010 to extract bios file to USB HDD drive. BIOS Update using Gigabyte Qflash method. Initial failure to find USB HDD, go into exiting bios, load "optimised defaults", F10 and reboot, eventually found the USB HDD on Yellow USB ports, but it eventually worked.
Reload "Optimised defaults" in BIOS.
Set all available options to AHCI, set HPET to 64-bit
iBoot 2.6 Into SL 10.6.3 retail DVD
NO Combo update
MultiBeast 3.1 with following options:
Code:
• UserDSDT Install using F11 DSDT from Database
• System Utilities
⃠Rebuild Caches
⃠Repair Permissions
• Drivers & Boot Loaders
⃠Kexts & Enablers
⃠Audio
⃠Realtek ALC8XX
⃠ALC8XXHDA
⃠AppleHDA Rollback
⃠Disk
⃠JMicron36x
⃠Jmicron36x SATA
⃠Miscellaneous
⃠USB 3.0 - NEC/Renesas
• Customization
⃠Boot Options
⃠32-bit Apple Boot Screen
⃠System Definitions
⃠Mac Pro 4.1
• OSx86 Software
⃠AllI have tried a number of different configurations and the first time I went straight in with the 10.6.6 combo update and 64 bit Kernel but I found the system took a long time to boot in comparison to a test legacy system I tested a pre baked DVD OSx86 install with. I've had mainly problems with WIFI support and in 10.6.3 my Belkin card appears to be natively support, something which is lost with the 10.6.6 update. At this point I purchased the Edimax parts, partly because I knew they had *some* OSx86 support, and I knew the USB dongle was confirmed to work which, and also because I was ordering at 8pm last Thursday and those particular parts could be with me the next morning enabling me to get going over the weekend, and also they were cheap, cheap enough to not worry about selling them for a loss on the Bay after some testing.
Notes on system at this point:
• Stuck for 20seconds at "Loading operating system" [SOLVED]
• Fast boot to desktop, much faster than my tests with 10.6.6 fast shutdown.
• USB works, onboard RT audio works, firewire works, USB3 Ports listed.
• Single monitor connected, if I change the display resolution with the Displays dialog I get stuck on the pale blue scream, however plugging in a DVI to VGA adaptor into the DVI port on the GeForce card snapped the display back, if I left the adaptor in place, and change RES again, I get the blue screen, unplugging the adaptor gets me back to the desktop, at the correct RES. I don't remember having this issue with 10.6.6 at all on either GraphicsEnabler=Yes or using NVEnabler. Same with 32 bit or 64 bit kernel although monitor is picked up in 32bit correctly but not in 64bit.
• With single monitor on VGA port, Colour calibration in expert mode doesn't give realtime feedback, but does change when finished (so not really workable).
• Sleep works, but loses mouse, unplug and replug mouse will fix (32 and 64 bit)
• With the above BIOS settings the CPU is running flat out in turboboost mode with no Speedstep or similar.
• With two monitors connected, both resolution and colour correction work as expected on both monitors. I suspect the problem lies with the fact that the DVI port is the primary output.
Notes on general method so far:
⃠When at the install and testing stage, there's a lot of secondary authoring, so use an easy password to save time!
⃠The use of Mutlibeast is not intuitive in some ways. For instance, it doesn't keep a record of the last installed options, so every time you run it the options are all blank. However what complicates this is that just because you don't have option "X" checked, it doesn't remove that option. Instead you have to check the opposite option or remove Kext and run the system utilities. This isn't immediately clear and it could be much improved by implementing a .conf or similar to keep track of what you're doing when
Getting Connected:
I simply plugged my BCM4306 based Belkin PCI card in and the it was found as an airport card straight away, of course this is still 10.6.3 and I know it doesn't work in 10.6.6! Doesn't seem to work 100% as I still have to manually connect, and from the menu bar it says "Airport Not Configured" even after you've manually connected.
Tweaking:
To get the turbo boost to ramp down and the speedstep to work, go into the Gigabyte BIOS:
MB Intelligent Tweaker->Advanced Frequency Settings->Advance CPU Core Features.
Turbo Boost Tech [Enabled]
CPU Cores enabled [All]
C1E [Enabled]
C3/C6 [Enabled]
CPU Thermal Mon [Enabled]
CPU EIST FUnc [Enabled]
Bi-Direct PROCHOT [Auto]
They are mostly set to Auto by default.
Need to boot into 32bit to get MSR Tools to work to confirm this all works, but the important bit is the EIST function to get the voltage to ramp up and down with the frequency demand to bring the temps down and allow the speeds to be high when required. I did notice that if you try overclocking, you need to keep the bus multiplier at 20, at 19 it doesn't use the turbo boost and at 21 of course it's locked in the turboboost mode. Using the above settings I have overclocked to 3.6 Ghz with speedstep working and it will rise to 3.8 in turbo boost (not exact numbers but you get the idea). Geekbenched at about 8300 but I was only interested to make sure the OC was working after reading reports of slow overclocked systems, it was in those other posts that I ready specifically about the EIST so not my find. I've since ended up with something much more mild.
Update to 10.6.6
Using the 10.6.6 Combo Update (btw the "combo" update means it rolls in all previous updates, which I missed when I was searching in a hurry for 10.6.6 update, so make sure you get the combo if you're upgrading more than one increment) I updated the system. At the "restart" prompt I tried to again run MultiBeast but it came up as having failed, tried again, but something. Went for a reboot and it seems okay but as expected the airport has gone, so outgoes the BCM card.
Booting to 32bit kernel MSR tools shows speedstep is working and I can see the freq bob up and down, going as low s 1.2Ghz, the voltage follows too.
Fire up MultiBeast again and reuse exactly the above settings with the exception of the software, failed again…. But everything is working so I'll look at that in more detail later. Running just the System utilise and Audio Kexts it runs through okay.
Fitted the RaLink based Edimax PCI b/g/n card, it uses a 32bit driver (listed as RT2860 etc) as it's a 10.5 Leopard based driver, but it installs okay (brings up a kept error the first time due to bungled method of kext installation by installer) but reboot and reinstall just to be sure and then it fires up okay and I can easily connect to my wireless network.
Notes for 10.6.6:
• Still a 20second wait till the system starts to boot. Aaaaaargh! [SOLVED]
• This time around the system seems better and snappier, I can only assume that in all the messing about with WiFi cards, my original 10.6.6 install was somehow borked.
• BCM4306 Wifi card no longer works, not going to bother sorting as the real fix is to get a genuine Apple Mini PCIe card and a PCIe adaptor card.
• Until I get the genuine apple card, the RaLink based card is okay, but the adaptor show up only as a Ethernet card and requires the RaLink wireless until which is pretty clunky and doesn't seem to want to auto-connect on boot initially, but another reboot after the profile is set seems to be fine. Straight into wifi connection with no user interaction required.
• RaLink Card takes a few seconds (20 at a guess) to reconnect after wake
• Sleep now works perfectly, no loss of mouse or keyboard or mouse on wake
• Speedstep and turbo boost appears to work fine in 32bit, can't check in 64bit
• Audio works as before
• With the system as described, doing a shutdown and then (soft) power on results in the secondary display losing the red channel, and forgetting the resolution. Also the RaLink card cannot connect. If I sleep/wake I get red channel back on the screen, but still in 1024 rather than 1280, a second sleep/wake brings the WiFi card to life.
SOLVED Boot delay!!
Bit of a noob alert I guess, just a case of the boot order set to CD-ROM->HDD->USB HDD which just left a long wait for the CD-ROM drive. I changed it to HDD->Disabled->Disabled and poof nice quick boot up. You can always press F12 to boot from somewhere else. A quick search brought this up, I would have looked earlier but I have been messing with WIFI cards for a while
Tidy up:
A few important things to go through and I can get on with just using the machine.
• Software Update - although I've got the OS up to date, things like iTunes and iWork & iLife (once installed) need updating too. I've not run into any troubles with those
• Overclock - It's nice and fast as it is, but a simple upping of the base clock to 140Mhz from 133 brings a sensible increase in speed without having the cooler (Akasa Freedom Tower) fan go flat out all the time. As much as a like a quick computer, coming from genuine Apple hardware I've learnt to appreciate a near silent workspace. Remember to make sure the advanced CPU Core Functions are set to get the most from your overclock.
Possible Tweaks:
• Not sure on GraphicsEnabler=Yes vs NVEnabler. They both seem to work and it's not clear how they differ. The NVEnabler appears to be a kext with injection whereas the GraphicsEnabler is injection at the bootloader stage. Or at least that's how it appears. I would welcome any comments on this subject.
• Case mods to keep the noise down
• Genuine Airport Card and adaptor. Lets face it, the menu bar airport menu is quite user friendly, and it means full 64bit kernel again. Although maybe RaLink will improve their software and update the driver.
• Fix shutdown and boot issues, haven't checked what it's like from complete hard power off so suspect some issue with residual power on PCI cards.
Cheers
Paul
