z68, amd hd 6850 hangs on installer everytime

[taylorwatson18]

I have tried several methods that people claim are fixes to the white screen on the installer.. None have worked.

Here are some things I tried.

- Booted in verbose mode
- deleted ati6000kext from uniboot
- used intel graphics 3000 instead

Everytime I try something like that it gets to the white apple screen with the loader and then it freezes.

Any ideas because I'm out...

I have also reinstalled the ML install on the USB 3 times.

 

[envisioned]

I too was getting stuck at the white screen with the mouse cursor. I have a HD 6870. What did the trick for me was deleting the ATI6000 kext and booting with the " GraphicsEnabler=No -v string " ,omit the quotes.

 

[taylorwatson18]

I too was getting stuck at the white screen with the mouse cursor. I have a HD 6870. What did the trick for me was deleting the ATI6000 kext and booting with the " GraphicsEnabler=No -v string " ,omit the quotes.

It installed on my partition but now it disappeared from the chimera boot screen. Its just the USB and my lion partition left.

 

[jjmvt84apple]

@taylorwatson18 - had the same problem. Probably a framebuffering issue, and as envisioned said the graphicsenabler=no worked well with the install. However, after the install I ran into a similar problem and was not able to get QE/CI with my HD 6570. It seems to be something related to the ati6000.kext which needs to be modified for the 6xxx series cards. At any rate, to boot I used the framebuffer specific to my card AtiConfig=Pithecia and AtiPorts=3. Once I was booted into ML, I installed the kexts found here: ATI6000controller.kext for Mountain Lion GM - Downloads - OSx86.net. I also modified the org.chameleon.boot.plist accordingly. Now, I have full QE/CI in ML and no boot problems.

 

[taylorwatson18]

@taylorwatson18 - had the same problem. Probably a framebuffering issue, and as envisioned said the graphicsenabler=no worked well with the install. However, after the install I ran into a similar problem and was not able to get QE/CI with my HD 6570. It seems to be something related to the ati6000.kext which needs to be modified for the 6xxx series cards. At any rate, to boot I used the framebuffer specific to my card AtiConfig=Pithecia and AtiPorts=3. Once I was booted into ML, I installed the kexts found here: ATI6000controller.kext for Mountain Lion GM - Downloads - OSx86.net. I also modified the org.chameleon.boot.plist accordingly. Now, I have full QE/CI in ML and no boot problems.

Sorry but I got some of that, Could you explain a little more? The frame buffer part I was really lost. I don't do this a whole lot so I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to doing this.

 

[jjmvt84apple]

No prob. Not an expert in this stuff either, but several days ago I read a thread that covered this issue in which macman said that the problem was likely due to framebuffering. What it seems to boil down to is that the new Ati6000.kext that replaces the older ati kext has some issues identifying the HD 6xxx cards in ML. So, in order to boot, you need to point the system to the correct framebuffering personalities for your card. See this for a brief explanation: tonymacx86 Forum • View topic - ATI/AMD 5xxx & 6xxx Graphics Cards Framebuffer Personalities. And this link: tonymacx86 Forum • View topic - HD6570 dual monitors / framebuffer personality issues

Sorry, I don't know enough about the kexts to really define the problem, but essentially to boot, you need to find the correct framebuffer personality for your card. I believe Tonymac lists the possible personalities in the first link. Once you match up the correct personality (mine for instance, pithecia) with your card then you need to enter it as a boot flag, such as AtiConfig=Pithecia. You may also need to define the number of ports on your card because macs don't come with numerous display ports, so in my case I had to also enter the bootflag AtiPorts=3 (for 3 ports, i.e., 2 DVI + 1 HDMI).

After I successfully boot using -v GraphicsEnabler=No AtiConfig=Pithecia AtiPorts=3 PCIRootUID=1, I proceeded to replace the kexts with the modified kexts in the following link: ATI6000controller.kext for Mountain Lion GM - Downloads - OSx86.net. I did so using KextUtility. Additionally, I added the boot flags I previously mentioned to org.chameleon.boot.plist in the /Extra folder.

 

[SithToast]

This may sound strange but... When I ran into this problem with my 6870, all I did was power cycle my PC. When my pc woke up, I had the actual installer screen! I did not have to edit any of my files or do any hoodoo with kernel flags.

 

[jjmvt84apple]

Nah, not strange at all. Others have had similar experiences putting their systems to sleep and then waking them. But, this doesn't seem to solve the problem with all cards and framebuffering personalities

 

[taylorwatson18]

Actually one more question. So If I shutdown and boot with these new frame buffers. How to I locate my ML drive. It has installed correctly but it disappeared from chimera so how can I boot into it if it disappeared.

 

[jjmvt84apple]

Sorry, forgot to add that you may need to delete the ATI6000Controller.kext from System/Library/Extensions on the USB that you installed the mountain lion installer as the kext can be problematic for some. You may need to use a show all files utility to do this. Also, you'll want to either add back the original ATI6000Controller.kext or a modified one for your card such as the one I provided in one of the links above.

As far as where your ML drive is once you've installed it to your HDD, if I had to guess (and again, I'm no expert...just done 4 builds now), it sounds like the installation either didn't install correctly, or the read/write permissions are screwed up since you're not able to see the drive. Make sure the drive is still set as the first boot priority in your bios. Otherwise, I'm not sure what else to recommend.