Official CustoMac Mini 2012 Guide and Notes (in progress)

[canyoncliffs]

@Canyon - does your sleep wake work?

Sleep works great. I'm on the "H" motherboard, so I can't vouch for the "Z" you have listed in your profile.

The only issues I seem to have are a weird resolution thing on startup with my 720p TV that goes away after a quick sleep/wake and I am not able to Airplay to my 720p Apple TV.

 

[keste]

Did you use MultiBeast with the same options turned on as in post #1 ?

Assuming you did, in the system, preferences, network panel, try to add an ethernet network interface by clicking on the + button, then select "Ethernet" in the option menu and click create. Configure this new ethernet interface as required, then click on Apply.

About the audio: in the system preferences, audio panel, check in the Output tab if you see the HDMI output. If it is not listed there was a problem with your MultiBeast setup. Make sure it is selected here and as the selected output in the Sound Effect tab. The HDMI handshake seems to occur only once the first sound is produced, so if you play a short sound (such as the sound effects listed in the sounds preferences), it is possible that you will not hear it simply because it is done playing before the handshake has completed. Make sure you are using the bottom HDMI port.

Regarding the display full of odd lines: I got this on HDMI video out using other resolutions than 1080p; it disappears when I play with the underscan slider in the display properties (this is the only visible effect I get for this slider).

Thanks Boom,

Yes I use MultiBeast with exactly the same options turned on as in post #1.

-The most frustrating problem come from the ethernet ports. I tried to add an ethernet network interface by clicking on the + button, but no ethernet in the option menu. I just have -PAN Bluetooth-, -DUN Bluetooth-, -VPN-, -PPPoE- and -6 to 4-..

-Regarding the display, thank you it was very easy to fix the problem. Thank you !
-Regardinf the HDMI audio, I've seen HDMI output in the Output tab. For now I'm setting my computer with the "without DSDT" option but before when I did it with the DSDT option it wasn't either. I will try with an other time with the DSDT.
-I haven't any USB3 device to test the USB3 speed but when I blug an USB2 device it doesn't work -no effect-.

Thank you for your help

 

[DBP]

Arg, I think I've tested every combination of connecting from 1-3 of:

• 1440x900 DVI monitor (Samsung)
• 1920x1200 HDMI monitor (Dell U2410)
• 1280x800 HDMI projector (Epson EB-W6, has HDMI audio)

This includes trying each HDMI device in each port.

Despite the i3-3225 being described by Intel as supporting 3 displays, I can only get 2 displays working at the same time. Plug in the 3rd and nothing happens. Unplug one of the others and that screen comes alive.
Not a major problem at the moment, but disappointing.

Also I haven't seen HDMI audio appear: installing other kexts is a job for another time. Also when I have only HDMI connected I end up with a garbled signal at the login prompt. Sometimes unplugging/replugging the HDMI will fix it, sometimes it results in a different type of garbled. The projector does re-scale 1080p input but I think it may be involved in this failure mode somehow. Both of these issues will be problems for when this machine goes to the lounge and only has a TV for a monitor.

In the meantime I'm back to a working DVI+HDMI dual-monitor step. Interestingly the BIOS seems to mirror the DVI image to the top HDMI port until OS X initialises. Doesn't seem to happen with the other HDMI port.

 

[tonymacx86]

Just added this to the Original Post:

Mini-PCIe Card alternatives:
The H77N and Z77N include a mini-PCIe card slot with an Intel mini-PCIe card capable of both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Please note that only the bluetooth features of this card are available under OS X. There are alternate cards you can stick in your mini-ITX board for full native Airport. Check out these links for details:

[Guide] Airport - Half Mini PCIe (Atheros)
toleda's excellent guide to choosing an alternate Atheros card for WIFI
1. Atheros AR9280 and AR9380
a. AR9280 - 2.4/5 GHz 802.11n, 2 Stream, 300 Mbs
b. AR9380 - 2.4/5 GHz 802.11n, 3 Stream, 450 Mbs

100% Vanilla MINI PCIe WiFi Card tested on 10.6.8, 10.7.4, 10.8.1 (Broadcom)
Mad audi scientist's excellent guide to choosing an alternate Broadcom mini PCIe card for WIFI

 

[boum]

Thanks Boom,

Yes I use MultiBeast with exactly the same options turned on as in post #1.

-The most frustrating problem come from the ethernet ports. I tried to add an ethernet network interface by clicking on the + button, but no ethernet in the option menu. I just have -PAN Bluetooth-, -DUN Bluetooth-, -VPN-, -PPPoE- and -6 to 4-..

Hmmm this sounds like a network driver issue. When you select the Linux2Mac drivers in MultiBeast, it will launch a separate installer near the end of MultiBeast processing. You need to go through this network installer and select either the "release" or the "debug" version of the driver to install. Once the Linux2Mac driver installer has completed, it will ask to reboot the machine, which is the correct thing to do once MultiBeast has completed.

Did you run MultiBeast several times on the same system drive? You need to manually clean up what the previous MultiBeast run did before re-running it again, else you can end up with conflicting options being installed together.

 

[keste]

Hmmm this sounds like a network driver issue. When you select the Linux2Mac drivers in MultiBeast, it will launch a separate installer near the end of MultiBeast processing. You need to go through this network installer and select either the "release" or the "debug" version of the driver to install. Once the Linux2Mac driver installer has completed, it will ask to reboot the machine, which is the correct thing to do once MultiBeast has completed.

Did you run MultiBeast several times on the same system drive? You need to manually clean up what the previous MultiBeast run did before re-running it again, else you can end up with conflicting options being installed together.

Yes it lauch a separate installer and I select "release" version every time. I reboot after.
Regarding the few driver I selected, I always took care and I clean up manually the previous kexts I've put with multibeast before to install an other kext. I just needed to do it for the ethernet kexts.
But I never tried the "debug" version. I do it right now... who knows

 

[boum]

Yes it lauch a separate installer and I select "release" version every time. I reboot after.
Regarding the few driver I selected, I always took care and I clean up manually the previous kexts I've put with multibeast before to install an other kext. I just needed to do it for the ethernet kexts.
But I never tried the "debug" version. I do it right now... who knows

Let me know how it goes. Perhaps you'll have better luck with the RealTek drivers?

I am still trying to figure out what exactly is preventing my machine from sleeping correctly... I can confirm that with a clean install, 1x 80 Gb hard drive, i3 3225, 2x 4GB ram and nothing else, display connected to lower HDMI out, with 10.8.2 & identical MultiBeast options as post #1, manually triggered sleep works, wake up takes several minutes and auto-sleep does not work.

Just did another clean install, this time using the RealTek drivers, and both manual & auto-sleep appears to work, wake up has no delay. So I guess it will be RealTek drivers for me.

Now I'll try to reconnect my BluRay drive to see if sleep will still work.

Edit: well apparently the auto-sleep works at least *sometimes* with MultiBeast settings in post #1. The BluRay drive seem to have a contribution in my system sleep issues, but even when it is disconnected I still get wake-ups that take several minutes.

 

[OOST]

from a stability and performance perspective - the best build ever, I'm using mainly for AUDIO mixing, and not getting the latency issues i was experiencing with every previous build,

build to boot - took about an hour - installed OS X mountain lion on RUNCORE Pro V 2.5 Sata 3 MAX SSD

installed using onboard graphics, then switched to an old GeForce 210 - Graphics Card i bought for $20,

not one crash or panic to date, outperforms previous builds on the ASROCk X58 i7 , the ASUS 54 laptop, and the old 2009 mac mini , from a stability perspective and runs natively

Its AWESOME!

 

[pk-viper]

Help - stuck on loading the OS.

I have the basics of this build trying to install OS-X. Z77N Mobo (with Arteros wifi PCIe card), i7-3770, GeForce GT 640 graphics card, SanDisk Extreme SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD, trying to load Mountain Lion. I am installing with the graphics in

I got the Mobo settings from here. I got to the Chimara boot screen, but when selected, I could not get to the Install screen outright, had to use -x and -v to get there, but did get there. First install hung after splitting my Wifi, iCloud and iTunes accounts, re-"formatted" the dirve in accordance with Unibeast, used -v and -x again. Made it through the install and got to the OS, downloaded and installed Multibeast (no DSDT). Shut the computer down and cannot get back to the OS - I hang with the grey Apple screen and the waiting circle. Hung for >15 minutes.

Tried getting back using the chimara boot and -x -v again and cannot get back to the desktop.

Ideas to try?

Thanks for the help.

 

[boum]

Help - stuck on loading the OS.

I have the basics of this build trying to install OS-X. Z77N Mobo (with Arteros wifi PCIe card), i7-3770, GeForce GT 640 graphics card, SanDisk Extreme SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD, trying to load Mountain Lion. I am installing with the graphics in

I got the Mobo settings from here. I got to the Chimara boot screen, but when selected, I could not get to the Install screen outright, had to use -x and -v to get there, but did get there. First install hung after splitting my Wifi, iCloud and iTunes accounts, re-"formatted" the dirve in accordance with Unibeast, used -v and -x again. Made it through the install and got to the OS, downloaded and installed Multibeast (no DSDT). Shut the computer down and cannot get back to the OS - I hang with the grey Apple screen and the waiting circle. Hung for >15 minutes.

Tried getting back using the chimara boot and -x -v again and cannot get back to the desktop.

Ideas to try?

Thanks for the help.

I think I would try removing the graphics card and boot using the onboard video. If this works, then it confirms that your issue is related to the GeForce; in this case I can't really give you another advise than checking threads specific to this card and consider installing the official nVidia driver package for 10.87.2 (there is a thread for this too) to see if it helps.