Hackintosh 10.5.5 Retail Rig - Starting at $305

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Zaap
VoodooPower is something that's added separately, not with anything in your kits? I would hate to find out anyone I've set up a system for recently is experiencing Kernel Panics- though I haven't heard anything.

It's in some of my more modern ZIP sets. Basically you need a kext to handle Shutdown/Restart on a Hackintosh. It used to be OpenHaltRestart by Pystar, then SuperHai released VoodooPower, but then I started getting KP's on my rigs about 1-2 times a week (ALL of them), so I removed it a few days ago and haven't crashed since. Also, I have a new OpenHaltRestart that has all the Psystar "advertising" removed, so you don't see it when you boot up

If you setup a system for someone using a kit update that has VoodooPower in it, it's really simple to find out and fix. Just snag Mkext Tool here:

http://pcwizcomputer.com/index...=view&id=151&Itemid=48

Use the "View Contents" tab to see what's inside your Extensions.mkext file in the Extras folder on the root of the boot drive. If VoodooPower is in there, you can make just make a new Mkext using this tool with OpenHaltRestart instead. Or simply replace the Mkext with my next package update...as soon as 10.5.7 is out and I test it, I'm putting up a new thread with the kit using OpenHaltRestart. I can post the kext directly tomorrow if you need it sooner (not on my workstation atm).

 

[Zaap]

Excellent, thanks!

 

[Jack Flash]

Originally posted by: Gymnae
Ah I would contribute, but I don't want so sign up for one entry. So you could add:
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4850 with netkas 10.5.7 beta drivers with CI/QE and native resolution but no wake from system sleep. Fix for shaking screen: from netkas.org. For DVI Output: Attach DVI-VGA Adapter to the ports farthest away from the Mobo

Hah yes I go through the same thing with my 4850. Here's hoping 10.5.7 fixes things up a bit.

 

[Gymnae]

As far as I've read VoodooPower is there to enable nice things like ACPI and SpeedStep and OpenHaltRestart does what its name implies, enable smooth shutdown and restarts - that's why I installed both kexts. I might be wrong here

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Gymnae
As far as I've read VoodooPower is there to enable nice things like ACPI and SpeedStep and OpenHaltRestart does what its name implies, enable smooth shutdown and restarts - that's why I installed both kexts. I might be wrong here

VoodooPower = OpenHaltRestart + SpeedStepping. The problem is, it doesn't work perfectly on all motherboards - on some it KP's right away, on the UD3P & DS3L it KP's a couple times a week, and on other boards it works perfectly. It's not a big deal to lose SpeedStepping because it's a desktop, not a laptop. I just preferred using VoodooPower because it wasn't from Psystar, but someone has edited the OpenHaltRestart kext to remove the Psystar tags, so I'm back to using that

Edit: Yeah, using VoodooPower & OpenHaltRestart is redundant - you only need one. I'd go with OpenHaltRestart

 

[negatv]

can you point me to the openhaltrestart you are referring to.. My box kernel panics every week or so, and if this fixes it, that would be great. Thanks,

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: negatv
can you point me to the openhaltrestart you are referring to.. My box kernel panics every week or so, and if this fixes it, that would be great. Thanks,

Make sure you remove VoodooPower or else you will keep getting Kernel Panics!

http://www.mediafire.com/file/...enHaltRestart.kext.zip

The odd thing is, it seems to have fixed the UUID errors on my DS3L. My UD3P didn't have problems with it to begin with, but both of my DS3L's did. I checked the logs and don't have any new UUID errors. My wife's rig gave her a Time Machine backup error when she woke it from sleep, but I checked the logs and it didn't have an error message, so it seems to be related to system sleep now. The other DS3L is on 24/7 and hasn't had any TM backup errors since I installed OpenHaltRestart and removed VoodooPower. I'll be very happy if VoodooPower really was the culprit for the UUID errors

 

[negatv]

Thanks, I just rebuilt the Extensions.mkext in /Extras and will try when it out when I get home (remote now). Overall the box (DS3L in a G5 case, check it out at http://www.erebos.net/project-dorkpro/) has been pretty solid, but had thrown a KP randomly every week or so.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: negatv
Thanks, I just rebuilt the Extensions.mkext in /Extras and will try when it out when I get home (remote now). Overall the box (DS3L in a G5 case, check it out at http://www.erebos.net/project-dorkpro/) has been pretty solid, but had thrown a KP randomly every week or so.

Yup if it's the once-a-week KP, then it's your VoodooPower (99% most likely). Just reboot with your new Mkext and you should be gold

Edit: Also LOL @ "Dork Pro", we should start a club with Mac Pro mods named that, hahhaha, great work!

 

[akatsuki]

Originally posted by: akatsuki
When booting, after the grey apple screen, the display goes dark, the mouse cursor appears eventually and if i move the mouse it will go to the login screen. This is new behavior and I am not sure if it is related to me doing the Time Machine fix with UInstaller....

Other behavior that is a bit odd is that iTunes hangs post sleep invariably with a completely unkillable process. Usually hoses the iTunes library file too.

Other than those couple of things, seems to be pretty stable.

 

[Gymnae]

I would love to move my Hack into a Mac Pro / G5 case, but they are so expensive...

 

[negatv]

I think I spent $50 on mine. Have to scour craigslist for reasonable people selling ones with bad logic boards. When the logic board goes on a G5 it's usually too expensive to be worth the money to fix, unless you have a source for a known good one.

If I was motivated, I could probably sell off the good bits on ebay and make that money back. (video card/powersupply/etc)

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: akatsuki

Originally posted by: akatsuki
When booting, after the grey apple screen, the display goes dark, the mouse cursor appears eventually and if i move the mouse it will go to the login screen. This is new behavior and I am not sure if it is related to me doing the Time Machine fix with UInstaller....

Other behavior that is a bit odd is that iTunes hangs post sleep invariably with a completely unkillable process. Usually hoses the iTunes library file too.

Other than those couple of things, seems to be pretty stable.

We need to go over your system in detail sometime, you've been having some really odd problems that need to be addressed (like the login screen thing).

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: negatv
I think I spent $50 on mine. Have to scour craigslist for reasonable people selling ones with bad logic boards. When the logic board goes on a G5 it's usually too expensive to be worth the money to fix, unless you have a source for a known good one.

If I was motivated, I could probably sell off the good bits on ebay and make that money back. (video card/powersupply/etc)

I'd really like to see someone come out with an adapter kit for x86 boards for the Mac Pro case series - like an aluminum mounting plate with the appropriate wiring harnesses and backplate frame inserts. That'd be so awesome

 

[Gymnae]

Originally posted by: negatv
I think I spent $50 on mine. Have to scour craigslist for reasonable people selling ones with bad logic boards. When the logic board goes on a G5 it's usually too expensive to be worth the money to fix, unless you have a source for a known good one.

If I was motivated, I could probably sell off the good bits on ebay and make that money back. (video card/powersupply/etc)

Good call, maybe I look out for a sweet deal. I could ask around at some creative agencies. In Germany craigslist isn't that big yet. But isn't it hell to fit a ATX Board with all the stuff in there?

I second on Kaido's request for a mod kit. That would make things a lot easier

 

[negatv]

I didn't document it very well on my page, but I used a cheap foxconn case that I cut apart to use for mounting the motherboard into the case. The unique feature about this case was that it didn't use a whole slide out motherboard tray, but just a removable plate that slots onto the base which lines everything up (slots/ports,etc).

This allowed me to just hack the standard atx case apart and mount the bits I needed into the g5 case. Swapping motherboards I just to detach the motherboard mounting plate and snap it back in.

I'm positive that my 2nd conversion would be much nicer But I'm satisified with it, and it looks great from 3 out of 4 angles.. I have since added dual quiet 120mm fans to keep the thing cool.

 

[akatsuki]

We need to go over your system in detail sometime, you've been having some really odd problems that need to be addressed (like the login screen thing).

Okay... here is my full system as it stands right now:

Hardware:

1. Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P Rev 1.1 Bios F9
   CPU - Intel E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz
   RAM - 2 x Transcend JM800QLU-2G R
   Video Card - Sparkle SX95GT1024D2-3D 9500GT
   Case - Rosewill TU-155 II with power supply and extra Scythe S-Flex SFF211F fan.
   HD - 2 x Western Digital Caviar Black Series 1TB
   DVD - Lite-On IHAS324-08 RT
   Card Reader - Sabrent 68in1 Card Reader
   Monitor - Dell 2005FPW
   Keyboard - Kensington Slim
   Mouse - Logitech

Using onboard audio and ethernet.

Software:
I followed the instructions as directed in the mediafire file you posted a couple pages back. The only thing I did that wasn't mentioned was I used the 8600GT string to enable my 9500 GT and I also marked the Ethernet EFI String (Time Machine Fix).

The the Mkext tool, I made a list of all the kexts installed in Extensions.mkext which you can download here.

Console:
This console error message appears about once a second:

4/22/09 Apr 22 | 11:59: 12 AM kernel Sound assertion "0 != result" failed in "/SourceCache/AppleHDA/AppleHDA-162.1.37/AppleHDA/AppleHDADriver.cpp" at line 2742 goto handler

So let me know if there is anything else that would be helpful...

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: akatsuki
This console error message appears about once a second:

<4/22/09 Apr 22 | 11:59: 12 AM kernel Sound assertion "0 != result" failed in "/SourceCache/AppleHDA/AppleHDA-162.1.37/AppleHDA/AppleHDADriver.cpp" at line 2742 goto handler

So let me know if there is anything else that would be helpful...

Hackintosh sound drivers are terrible from a system standpoint. From a user standpoint, they work, but to the system they are loaded with errors. If you boot with -v, you'll see some, then do shutdown and watch the sound assertion go at it - it can add an extra minute or two to the shutdown, instead of being instant, which annoys me. For me, the $7.99 for the USB sound card was more than worth it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16812186035

But again, it's not essential. If you have good headphones, you'll be able to tell a difference though - onboard sound can pick up hardware noises from your system, like when I was booting off a Raptor, the chirp-chirp-chirp of the hard drive was amplified, but with the USB sound card that went away.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: akatsuki
This console error message appears about once a second:

<<4/22/09 Apr 22 | 11:59: 12 AM kernel Sound assertion "0 != result" failed in "/SourceCache/AppleHDA/AppleHDA-162.1.37/AppleHDA/AppleHDADriver.cpp" at line 2742 goto handler

So let me know if there is anything else that would be helpful...

Hackintosh sound drivers are terrible from a system standpoint. From a user standpoint, they work, but to the system they are loaded with errors. If you boot with -v, you'll see some, then do shutdown and watch the sound assertion go at it - it can add an extra minute or two to the shutdown, instead of being instant, which annoys me. For me, the $7.99 for the USB sound card was more than worth it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16812186035

But again, it's not essential. If you have good headphones, you'll be able to tell a difference though - onboard sound can pick up hardware noises from your system, like when I was booting off a Raptor, the chirp-chirp-chirp of the hard drive was amplified, but with the USB sound card that went away.

I would give my left *cough* for X-Fi support on the Mac.

 

[akatsuki]

Hooray! Black screen problem determined!

So, if I unplug my iPod shuffle and iPhone, there is no black screen before the login window appears. This console log shows when my iPod is plugged in, at about 1:08 there is an error in the log, then the black screen stays for about 3-4 minutes before the login window appears. (Note: I did a quick find and replace on the log to abbreviate the Sound assertion error mentioned above to HDA Error in my previous post to eliminate clutter and also redacted user info.)

So this is a very weird problem. Not sure why there is a problem with having an iPod plugged in at boot time at all... Now I just need to figure out what is going on with that.

Anyone else have an iPod Shuffle 2nd gen that is plugged in to its dock at boot? How about both an iPod Shuffle and iPhone? I will do a couple of boots with each in turn and both to see if it is one or the other and edit this message.

EDIT: Seems to be the iPod Shuffle that is the problem.

Console audio problems

But again, it's not essential. If you have good headphones, you'll be able to tell a difference though - onboard sound can pick up hardware noises from your system, like when I was booting off a Raptor, the chirp-chirp-chirp of the hard drive was amplified, but with the USB sound card that went away.

I haven't had any problems with sound as of yet, so I may just get to seeing if there is a good ACL889A solution out there before buying anything. This thread seems to have some suggested solutions and also seems to offer the potential of getting all the audio ports on the back of the UD3P working correctly.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
I would give my left *cough* for X-Fi support on the Mac.

Hey, quit whining - at least we're getting GT200/4000-series support in coming months

But in all seriousness, yeah we need more and better audio options for Mac. The problem is that Macs all come with good-quality onboard audio systems, which include digital audio input and output jacks, so there's not really a need for consumer-grade external sound adapters, just professional (i.e. expensive) stuff. The $8 analog USB sound card is a lucky break, but I really wish we had a $30-ish digital audio adapter for 5.1 and digital stereo connections

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: akatsuki
Hooray! Black screen problem determined!

So, if I unplug my iPod shuffle and iPhone, there is no black screen before the login window appears. This console log shows when my iPod is plugged in, at about 1:08 there is an error in the log, then the black screen stays for about 3-4 minutes before the login window appears. (Note: I did a quick find and replace on the log to abbreviate the Sound assertion error mentioned above to HDA Error in my previous post to eliminate clutter and also redacted user info.)

So this is a very weird problem. Not sure why there is a problem with having an iPod plugged in at boot time at all... Now I just need to figure out what is going on with that.

Anyone else have an iPod Shuffle 2nd gen that is plugged in to its dock at boot? How about both an iPod Shuffle and iPhone? I will do a couple of boots with each in turn and both to see if it is one or the other and edit this message.

Console audio problems

But again, it's not essential. If you have good headphones, you'll be able to tell a difference though - onboard sound can pick up hardware noises from your system, like when I was booting off a Raptor, the chirp-chirp-chirp of the hard drive was amplified, but with the USB sound card that went away.

I haven't had any problems with sound as of yet, so I may just get to seeing if there is a good ACL889A solution out there before buying anything. This thread seems to have some suggested solutions and also seems to offer the potential of getting all the audio ports on the back of the UD3P working correctly.

I have a 2nd-gen iPhone & a 2nd-gen Shuffle (the square one with buttons); I'll try them both on my DS3L & UD3P systems tonight.

 

[akatsuki]

I have a 2nd-gen iPhone & a 2nd-gen Shuffle (the square one with buttons); I'll try them both on my DS3L & UD3P systems tonight.

After testing a couple of combinations, it seems to be the shuffle for me. If I boot while the shuffle is plugged into its dock, I get the dark display for about 3-5 minutes before it gives up and goes to the login screen.

 

[akatsuki]

I haven't had any problems with sound as of yet, so I may just get to seeing if there is a good ACL889A solution out there before buying anything. This thread seems to have some suggested solutions and also seems to offer the potential of getting all the audio ports on the back of the UD3P working correctly.

Been paging through the mentioned thread, and it seems very promising - e.g. the console error is apparently related to the digital output setting. Seems like it should be possible to dump the USB sound device and get the ALC889a working. I will do some experimenting and report back.

 

[mosslack]

Been playing with my new USB HD switch (so I can backup one system while using the other) and I decided to use the SD Smart Update option instead of the default erase and copy. The main reason was to see if the backup would still be bootable once the copy operation was complete and I'm happy to report that it is. Also found that it is no longer necessary to use the BIOS options to boot with the USB HD as the new Chameleon 2.0 picks up on the fact that there are more boot options and displays those as well as the ones on the internal HD. Just make sure the drive with Chameleon 2.0 is first in the boot priority BIOS setting and you should be all set to boot into whichever OS you desire. Very cool.