Hackintosh 10.5.5 Retail Rig - Starting at $305

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: silverpig
I followed the guide on the insanelymac forums for the kalyway install. I started with leo4all 10.5.2, then kalyway updates for 10.5.3 and 10.5.4.

Coolio, glad to hear you're still enjoying it! FYI I have a special software installer coming out to make the driver installation easier, along with an EFI Strings tutorial update for the bump to 10.5.5. I was supposed to release it Monday but I still need a rev1.0 motherboard tester, although no one has responded, so I'll probably just go ahead and release it anyway.

 

[Zaap]

Kaido, you're the hardest working guy in Hack-business! I gotta say, I really appreciate all your efforts also.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Zaap
Kaido, you're the hardest working guy in Hack-business! I gotta say, I really appreciate all your efforts also.

Meh, I just document the process But thanks! hehe. Personally I still wish that Apple would release either a Mac Pro Lite or a Cube 2...if I could slap 4 hard drives in it and it was around $1,000, I'd definitely be excited about it. Hackintoshes will always be quirky, even if it's only in terms of being able to upgrade in the future with software updates. Having a similar rig with official Apple support would be wonderful. But, unfortunately, I don't see it happening. I think Apple will leave that up to EFI-X, heh.

 

[leglez]

Well I did 8 passes with memtest with no errors, and I tried unplugging my ethernet. Still no luck

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: leglez
Well I did 8 passes with memtest with no errors, and I tried unplugging my ethernet. Still no luck

Did you install the Combo update or the Delta update?

 

[leglez]

The combo I believe... it was the one you posted in the first post. http://tinyurl.com/67vgba

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: leglez
The combo I believe... it was the one you posted in the first post. http://tinyurl.com/67vgba

Please boot with -v and post a photo of your screen when it locks up.

 

[leglez]

Ok here is the image: Here It didn't give any diagnostics for some reason.

The one thing I did notice that I forgot to mention was when booting after booting to the flashdrive it tells me to choose a hard drive and I have the option of 80 or 81. I only have 1 hdd plugged in when I am booting the the flash drive. So I always pick 80.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: leglez
Ok here is the image: Here It didn't give any diagnostics for some reason.

The one thing I did notice that I forgot to mention was when booting after booting to the flashdrive it tells me to choose a hard drive and I have the option of 80 or 81. I only have 1 hdd plugged in when I am booting the the flash drive. So I always pick 80.

Er, the flash drive does? Immediately this screams "somethings wrong" to me. Only the BootCD shows 80 or 81; the flash drive shows the actual names of the drives and partitions. Hop online and we'll start from scratch, there has to be a flash drive error, bios setting that was missed, or something. Don't worry, we'll fix it

 

[harshk]

So I finally have 10.5.5 installed, as well as all the tools/drivers mentioned in this post. However, the System Preferences shows that QE/CI are not supported. I installed the nVidia 880GT 512MB drivers. Anyone else have the same issue?

 

[Kmax82]

My motherboard will be here tomorrow, so I'll finally be able to give this a shot on Saturday.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: harshk
So I finally have 10.5.5 installed, as well as all the tools/drivers mentioned in this post. However, the System Preferences shows that QE/CI are not supported. I installed the nVidia 880GT 512MB drivers. Anyone else have the same issue?

Try re-installing using EFI Studio and be sure to include the Ethernet before writing to the com.apple.Boot.plist.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Kmax82
My motherboard will be here tomorrow, so I'll finally be able to give this a shot on Saturday.

Whoohoo, can't wait!

 

[Kmax82]

Just realized that I don't have a wireless card for this thing.. what's the best wireless card to get?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Kmax82
Just realized that I don't have a wireless card for this thing.. what's the best wireless card to get?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Wirel...93892674QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Sophie424]

Just got my hardware put together, pretty much following to the letter, and it powers up fine ... Am about to get started with step 1 of the procedure. Fingers crossed ... Sophie

 

[Sophie424]

Ok, first question ... about BIOS upgrade :-(

Hitting TAB takes me to Post-screen, which says:
Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG ...
Intel P35 BIOS for P35-DS3L F7

Does that mean I'm at F7 BIOS already and don't need to upgrade BIOS? (I could not find anywhere else to specifically check BIOS version #).

If I still need to upgrade: when I download the F7 upgrade and install it I get 3 files: autoexec.bat, flashSPI.exe, and P35DS3L.F7. Do I put all 3 into my USB stick? And last: when I put the flash drive into the mint-new computer, reboot, and hit <End> for Q-Flash, I cannot see the USB stick.

Thanks!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Sophie424
Ok, first question ... about BIOS upgrade :-(

Hitting TAB takes me to Post-screen, which says:
Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG ...
Intel P35 BIOS for P35-DS3L F7

Does that mean I'm at F7 BIOS already and don't need to upgrade BIOS? (I could not find anywhere else to specifically check BIOS version #).

If I still need to upgrade: when I download the F7 upgrade and install it I get 3 files: autoexec.bat, flashSPI.exe, and P35DS3L.F7. Do I put all 3 into my USB stick? And last: when I put the flash drive into the mint-new computer, reboot, and hit <End> for Q-Flash, I cannot see the USB stick.

Thanks!

Yes, that means you're at the F7 BIOS already and don't need to upgrade.

 

[Sophie424]

Just looking ahead (though I'm still waiting at BIOS upgrade step) ... When setting up the USB stick with boot132, should the folders be:

Desktop>BOOT132>com32, doc, dos, ..... ? That's what I have right now.

Thanks!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Sophie424
Just looking ahead (though I'm still waiting at BIOS upgrade step) ... When setting up the USB stick with boot132, should the folders be:

Desktop>BOOT132>com32, doc, dos, ..... ? That's what I have right now.

Thanks!

Sent you a PM, hop online and I'll walk you through.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Kmax82
Just realized that I don't have a wireless card for this thing.. what's the best wireless card to get?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Wirel...93892674QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks.. I think I'll hold off. Wireless isn't that important, and I don't need to spend $40 on that right now.

I do appreciate it though.

 

[Pneumothorax]

Kaido
I put together a P35-DS3L using your guide with the following config

Power Supply: PC POwer and cooling 700w
Motherboard: GA-P35-DS3L
Processor: Intel Q9550 penryn
Memory: Trascend 2GB DDR2-800 x 2
SATA DVD: 20x DL Lite-on with Lightscribe ($26)
SATA HDD: WD 1TB
Video Card: EVGA 8800GTS with 512mb
I followed your install and everything worked great, main problem is my graphics is slow
here's a copy of my graphics system info

Graphics by NVIDIA:

Chipset Model: Graphics by NVIDIA
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0600
Revision ID: 0x00a2
ROM Revision: NVinject 0.2.1
Displays:
Display Connector:
Status: No display connected
DELL2407WFPHC:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Software
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Not Supported

I tried using both DVI outputs
and I still can't get core image or QE to work. Any thoughts?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Pneumothorax
I followed your install and everything worked great, main problem is my graphics is slow
here's a copy of my graphics system info

Graphics by NVIDIA:

ROM Revision: NVinject 0.2.1

It looks like you tried to install NVinject. Did you use NVinstaller to setup your card? Just delete the NVinject kext and use EFI Studio only. Be sure to re-apply the Ethernet again as well.

 

[sindows]

I've been doing some reading and I have no idea what these terms mean and what they're associated with. Can anyone clarify for me?

Ktext
EFI(I know this is the "equivalent to a bios but thats about it)
kernal
boot132
chameleon
boatloader
darwin

There might be a few more I'm missing but these are the big ones...

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: sindows
I've been doing some reading and I have no idea what these terms mean and what they're associated with. Can anyone clarify for me?

Ktext
EFI(I know this is the "equivalent to a bios but thats about it)
kernal
boot132
chameleon
boatloader
darwin

There might be a few more I'm missing but these are the big ones...

Kext = Driver (Software needed to make hardware work)
EFI = New version of BIOS that Mac uses (and some Windows computers too), stands for "Extended Firmware Interface". We use this to emulate the "Mac BIOS" to fake out Leopard into booting and handling system commands
kernal = core of operating system
boot132 = method of putting EFI & kexts on a USB stick, separate from
chameleon = a bootloader for Hackintosh
boatloader = the part of the operating system software that allows the OS to boot up
darwin = Unix foundation of Leopard

Warning: If you aren't familiar with what a kernel or bootloader is, building a Hackintosh probably isn't for you. I don't want to scare you off or discourage you or anything, but a Hackintosh isn't a normal, conventional computer - it's a bunch of hacked pieces of software strung together to resemble something like a Mac. You can't typically just run system updates - for example, the 10.5.6 Apple Update breaks the current method of installation and will require even more system upgrades for the BOOT132 system.

Anyway Hackintosh is more of a computer enthusiast project than anything else. However, if you're willing to learn, don't mind running into problems or struggling to deal with them, and constantly learning about how to apply patches for system updates, then it's definitely a fun project to pursue. I would NOT recommend using a Hackintosh for business and again would warn first-timers that it can prove to be a rocky road. However the state of the art right now is pretty good, to the point where you can buzz out and pick up a copy of Leopard, prep your system and a USB stick, and go to town. So - if you're still in, keep asking questions and I'd be more than happy to answer to the best of my knowledge