No network connectivity after Snow Leopard install...

[silentecho]

Hello, Hackintosh community!

Okay, I am at my wits end with my hackintosh install. It is my first build, and am dealing with a frustrating issue. I've done all the homework, read every forum thread I can find, installed [uninstalled, and re-installed] multiple times and no luck.

I am trying to get connected to a network after doing the process install of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. I have everything installed and the OS is running. I still have to run the OS from iBoot-Ivy-Bridge, but I read that was normal until I did a full Unibeast install of Mountain Lion. However, I can't get to the internet to get Unibeast or Mountain Lion! Here's my system specs:

Intel i7-3770 LGA1155 77W Ivy Bridge processor
GIGABYTE GA-Z77MX-D3H mobo
Corsair Neutron 256GB SSD
Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3

Here's what I have done, so there is no confusion as to what needs to be done:

I have...

... tried booting using iBoot 3.3.0 - failed;
... tried booting using iBoot Ivy Bridge - succeeded [as noted above];
... installed the 10.6.8 Combo Update [as directed in the installation walkthroughs I have followed];
... tried using Multibeast 3.10.1 - installed drivers, but nothing works.

Now, here is the break down of everything else I have done to try and fix this. The motherboard in question required me to install Windows7 on the machine, first, to do the chipset driver installation. This did not make itself apparent in the beginning. Anyway, ran the chipset driver install, then re-installed Mac OS X SL. [Yes, I installed SL after building the machine, thinking it would be fine. False.] I figured that would work, in getting me onto the internet after I installed the drivers via Multibeast 3.10.1. No so. Spent 5+ hours doing research to find the issue. As I reflected back on the chipset driver install [yes, I have a near photographic short-term memory], I realized that the network driver was not Realtek; so the drivers in Multibeast 3.10.1 would not work. My driver is Atheros on the motherboard. So, I went looking for a solution and found a thread recommending trying to install the Multibeast 5.5.3 driver for Atheros Ethernet drivers. Every time I try, the install fails. I went in search of a stand-alone installer for the driver in question [Shailua's ALXEthernet v1.0] and found a post, made by Shailua, on InsanelyMac [http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...eros-ar813132515261627172-driver-for-107108/] with a walkthrough for terminal installation of the kext. However, it doesn't seem to work.

The orange light on the ethernet port is blinking [slow, once every two seconds] which basically says that the driver is in place. I get a connection indicator from my router that there is something there, but there is no connectivity. Here's the rub: if I install Windows, I'm gold; for obvious reasons. But, the point of the money spent was to own a Mac without paying the Mac price...

I know this is a long one, but detail is good, right? It makes it easier to narrow down help. However, here are my stipulations for the help: 1. I am not a coder, so unless you are willing to give me a step-by-step walkthrough on the exact process to get the drivers installed and recognized, I am not going to be able to follow that approach. 2. I am not buying more hardware for this build. I spent the last 7 months doing 100+ hours of research to make sure that I knew what I was getting into and ensuring that the parts I purchased were compatible to one another and were going to make this build efficient. Therefore, I am not purchasing a stand-alone Ethernet card to make this work. 3. If there is nothing, outside of the assistance that would be rendered by stipulations 1 and 2, that can be done, this build as a Mac is on hold until I get my hands on a real Mac and can do the thumb drive boot process with Unibeast and Mountain Lion. I will be migrating back to Windows so I don't sit on a paperweight until then. Assembling the hardware is easy, troubleshooting is getting beyond my pay-grade.

I humbly appreciate any help I can get, but I can't afford more parts and cannot do this the coder's way without in-depth assistance. If I am asking the improbable [never impossible], so be it.

I thank y'all in advance for anything/everything you can do to help!

Respectfully,

SilentEcho

 

[totenkopf4]

Silentecho

First off welcome and sorry you are having such issues. But I am surprised that this was the motherboard of choice as we have had postings on this motherboard in many of the forums about the oddities of this motherboard and difficulties discovered.
Those Oddities are VIA sound chipset and the Aetheos Network.

As you know its working 100% in Windows 7 so we know hardware is good.
As to getting this to work w SL so you can get to the Apple App store this will be the problem as you mentioned in your post. Which By the way is very logical and clearly communicated.

In reading you post I notice that you use the MultiBeast after the install of the OSX Combo Update file.

One item to know is the we do not recommend using the Multibeast program for Ivy Bridge installs, you should be able to use the iBoot Ivy Bridge cd as you boot device select the SL install drive after 10.6.8 is installed and using the boot switches :

-v PCIRootUID=0 GraphicsEnabler=No

then press enter on the volume OSX is installed to and get to the desktop - login - and then check to see if the network is working using the Apple browser Safari.

To Review : No to MultiBeast when installing SL onto Ivy Bridge hardware ( this applies to Haswell as well)

During the install and boot up we use only the iBoot Ivy Bridge CD.

We use the command switches listed above for all boot ups and will use these for the Mountain Lion install as well.

Also You should know what the BIOS version is that is installed onto the motherboard. Some users have had to down rev the BIOS file to and earlier version. Suggest doing some research on these facts.

I did a search in Google w these terms "ga-z77mx-d3h hackintosh" got several links relating to questions about this motherboard. Here is one
http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-buil...-d3h-th-rev-1-0-core-i5-3570k-16gb-ram-2.html
But this is the version w ThunderBolt connection and yours does not have that (has a TH at the end) their are several other links in the treads in this posting that maybe of interest.

I also did a search in Google using these terms "ga-z77mx-d3h + snow Leopard" note the Plus sign - got some links on this as well.
But some of these are not using SL to install but instead they are using a Mountain Loin thumb drive - which if you have any friends or relatives that have an iMac ( one w a Intel I series CPU) then you can make the thumb Drive on their hardware.

One Short post states that he used the -x switch ( safe mode) to install then ram MultiBeast
the thread ends but you may find some info here...http://www.tonymacx86.com/snow-leopard-desktop-support/56335-10-6-3-gigabyte-z77mx-d3h.html

You may find info on this hardware on sites such as OSX86.net
http://www.osx86.net/files/file/185-ga-z77mx-d3h-f15-dsdt/
where he lists a DSDT and used BIOS F15

In reviewing the issues you have getting SL installed it maybe more advantages if you asked some workers if they have a Mac that you can use for about and hour or two....
As getting SL installed could be a problem that as you said maybe above you pay grade....
Tote

PS I did check w Tony and he tells us that this iBOOT CD for Ivy Bridge has the network driver and should work OOB so to speak.

So Try again w/o MultiBeast and see what happens.

 

[totenkopf4]

Silentecho

More links just to make sure your aware of them - read and watch a video ...

http://www.tonymacx86.com/snow-leop...x-10-6-snow-leopard-ivy-bridge-based-pcs.html

video

http://www.tonymacx86.com/340-snow-leopard-mountain-lion-ivy-bridge-installation-video-guide.html

tote

PS do note that certain BIOS switches are turned off or disabled. Or are set to Certain specific settings !
Boot from Network - Virtualization switches are disabled , Video selection and size set to internal only and 64 megs ram. Are the ones I make reference too. Use no video card only the DVI connector or the HDMI not VGA


PPS Also what is the hardware version of your motherboard - most of these are version 1.0 - I just want to know - its printed on the Box or the Motherboard itself.

 

[totenkopf4]

Silentecho

More links just to make sure your aware of them - read and watch a video ...

http://www.tonymacx86.com/snow-leop...x-10-6-snow-leopard-ivy-bridge-based-pcs.html

video

http://www.tonymacx86.com/340-snow-leopard-mountain-lion-ivy-bridge-installation-video-guide.html

tote

PS do note that certain BIOS switches are turned off or disabled. Or are set to Certain specific settings !
Boot from Network - Virtualization switches are disabled , Video selection and size set to internal only and 64 megs ram. Are the ones I make reference too. Use no video card only the DVI connector or the HDMI not VGA


PPS Also what is the hardware version of your motherboard - most of these are version 1.0 - I just want to know - its printed on the Box or the Motherboard itself.

Silentecho

Also when you reboot after the install of the OSX 10.6.8 Combo Update which will be about 1.09 GB in size when downloaded,
You need to use the f switch to force OSX to load the new KEXTS that are in the Combo Update.

SO after you install the Combo OSX update for 10.6.8 then reboot - add this to the line of switches you are using....

-v PCIRootUID=0 GraphicsEnabler=No -f

This has always helped me in the past and I use it today when I install updates etc.
You will only need to do it once when you update. Or when a Kexts are installed / replaced!!!!!

Also You should use the Disk Utility program in your Utilities folder under Applications and check system permissions repair for the OSX volume you using. So Do this before you reboot.!!!

 

[silentecho]

Tote,

If it is all the same to you, I will respond to all of your replies at once. :]

I appreciate all of your support, a lot of this is wonderful help! I, unfortunately, don't have the available time [as of this post] to try everything out so, if you will forgive me, I won't be able to let you know if there was any success until the weekend. However, please know that I will let you know if I had success with anything you have offered. On that note, I will answer your two questions:

1. What version is my motherboard? According to the box it is rev. 1.0

-and-

2. Why did I purchase this board? My first spec was discontinued before I could make the purchase [I began the build research back in April 2013 and had to piecemeal the purchases as I had available funds]. When I went on a re-hunt for a new board, this was the best on I could find for the money. It loved the reviews on it, and it allowed me to save money on the overall build because of the built in ethernet, HD audio/video configurations. In hindsight it is my fault for not looking at the network drivers in Multibeast to cover my bases. Even if I didn't need Multibeast [which, again, was an oversight on my part].

Again, I appreciate your help, and will be putting all of the efforts you suggested through their paces to get things ironed out. I do have a friend with a Mac that may be able to help me with getting a thumb drive install of ML set up. If that goes through, I shouldn't have any issues, correct? Will I need Mulitbeast with ML even though my CPU is Ivy Bridge or will that be a moot point?

One last round of questions, I am a little confused about the boot switches. As I said, I am not a coder so it is a little foreign to me. Are boot switches what I would load in during the phase where the screen shows iBoot and my OS load, before I hit enter? If so, if I load them once will that be all? I am trying to get to the point where I can push the power button and the system loads on it's own. I want to be able to switch the boot order to my SSD first and it will load without external help. I just want to learn how this will work, and whether I am going to get to that point; or if I am going to have to figure out a way to load a small thumb drive with the boot protocol and leave my disc drive open for my use.

I appreciate any continued support with this effort to get a stable Hackintosh. :]

Respectfully,

SilentEcho

 

[totenkopf4]

Silentecho

I won't be able to let you know if there was any success until the weekend.

That will be fine is you want to look at this this weekend.
and thank you for updating that your Motherboard is Hardware version 1.0 which should give us a better OSX Mountain Lion install that a Snow Leo one.

I do have a friend with a Mac that may be able to help me with getting a thumb drive install of ML set up. If that goes through, I shouldn't have any issues, correct? Will I need Mulitbeast with ML even though my CPU is Ivy Bridge or will that be a moot point?

This good news that your friend has a mac - hopefully one that will allow you to download OSX ML. You may want to ask him has he upgraded to ML and what OSX he is on. Please note that some Mac hardware will not upgrade to ML due to their design or older hardware that they were built with.
If you need to read the guide on how to make the thumb drive see this link www.UniBeast.com

Again do purchase and use a 16 GB USB Thumb Drive that is spec 2.0 not spec 3.0. Please see if you can find a SanDisk unit as these work well for me, Costco has a special on them. But they should be available at other locations as well. If you don't find a SanDisk then another name brand will work.

As to the use of the program known as MultiBeast - this program is used for all of our installs and we will need to use this after we install Mountain Lion. This utility installs options such as sound and network kexts which match the hardware we have. Also this will install a bootloader for us. You need to know that some of the kexts that Apple uses in the Mountain Lion install are for Apple hardware and not generic or clone systems.
Suggest reading info at www.MultiBeast.com plus other locations that you can Google.
So we do use MultiBeast.

As to the command switches or whats know as Boot switches - these are code prompts that mean specific instructions to the Kernel; the Kernel is the Operating Systems core of instructions and coding that make OSX run.
Apple uses these for troubleshooting when needed but for us they give us added flexibility to use clone hardware IE generic Motherboads (GigaByte) etc.

Now how we ACCESS THESE AND IMPLEMENT THEM.
These switches are passed to the kernel when it loaded, How we do use the command line. If you were around when DOS was popular then the old DOS prompt C:> was and is known as the command line. which is where we would instruct dos what to do next. If you not familiar w DOS then this is similar to when you open a windows Command Line or call Command.com from the Windows Run Bar.

SO how do we do it - when we select the iBoot or the USB drive a bootloader loads up - we see this as the TonyMac red Apple. We then would select the partition or volume that has the Mac OS installer and then just hit enter. This would result in a panic most likely. As we need to pass certain instructions to the kernel

So when we are at the Volume selection we hit the spacebar (my choice) other keys that work as well and do the same thing. And we will get a command line - this is the line where we type our commands into.

Now you system will consist of a few items - one a cpu. two a motherboard w bios configured, one hard drive and one media drive, a usb keyboard and mouse.

We do not use a video card as we are using the basic install method to get the hack up!
So the CPU has HD4000 for video we attach our monitor to the DVI or HDMI connector not VGA.

Insert the USB drive and boot from this by using the BIOS Boot selector option to select the USB drive.

On the video screen we get the red icon - and the OSX install partition - which should be highlighted - at this point we press space bar and enter our string of boot switches.

Which for the install of Mountain Lion will be - as seen here.

-v PCIRootUID=0 GraphicsEnabler=No

All of the letters are entered and also the Case must match, don't forget the dash's and equal signs.

Again if you get the USB drive made w ML installer installed upon it - do read some of those other links that are in the older posts - as these cover your Motherboard and what they did.