Saturday, November 1, 2008

Still waiting for root device II


This post is a continue part of my previouse "Still waiting for root device" post that covered several solutions including:

  • use RD=DiskXsY darwin switch
  • BIOS configuration
  • flag OSX86 partition as bootable

this post will display more good options to get pass this error, starting with the simplest:


1. Download another distribution
the simplest solution is sometimes the less obviouse, although you probably thinking "what good can another copy of Hackintosh do for my hardware compatability error?" well the thing is that OSX86 is a shrinked OSX with hacked, tweaked, opensource drivers for a PC, this what makes you PC compatible with OSX, one distribution does not include the same drivers as the other, also versions of the same published contains different drivers, for instamce Leo4All_v2 may work on your machine but Leo4All_v3 might not. so be sure to download as much distributions you can until your problem is solved.


2. Plug USB/Firewire drive (even DiskOnKey)
another simple solution is to plug an external drive like a USB or Firewire drive or even a USB DiskOnKey (size doesn't matter, in this case anyway) in your USB port and reboot the system, with the Hackintosh OSX86 DVD in the DVD drive, once the darwin countdown appear press F8 in order to get the boot prompt and use the RD=DiskXsY switch (switch use is explained in this post in greater details) and point the disk number and partition number to the external drive. this solution is only to get the installtion started, not a permanent solution, after the installation is running you can choose different combination of drivers until the installed system will load without the need to use the USB plug trick.


3. Use External DVD
if you can access external DVD drive or a SATA drive then try using it, most of the times the problem is hardware inconsistency with the driver installed on the DVD, this means that you might have a DVD that the booting driver set (this set is different then the driver it contains in order to install on your system) includes SATA harddrive driver, and your harddrive might be SATA but the DVD is IDE, and ofcource it can be vice versa, that the HD is IDE and the DVD is SATA and driver is one of them (IDE/SATA), so try to make it consistent, use the same HD and DVD type (even by plugging external DVD so it will be USB instaed of SATA or IDE) and find a distribution that will load them.


4. Play with Master/Slave settings
sometimes when your PC contains IDE hraddrive and IDE DVD you need to play with the master slave configuration (use this option only if you know what it means, this option involve openning the PC case and play with harddrive/DVD jumpers)


5. More darwin swiches to try
there are more swich you can try beside rd=diskXsY, you can read about them in this post, try these next swiches: platform=X86PC -x -f cpus=1, try them in different combinations until you succeed.


6. Create an HFS+ partition prior to the installation
if the installation cannot find your root device although you tried previouse sulutions then try creating an HFS+ partition and point to it using the rd=diskXsY at boot time.


from windows create a partition of AF type (HFS+ type), do it like this:

  • from windows press Start->run and write: cmd and press enter
  • write diskpart and press enter

  • write: list disk (it will display all available HD)

  • select the number of the one you want to install Leopard on like this: write: select disk NUM_OF_DISK and press enter (replace NUM_OF_DISK with the number of the disk you want)

  • next write: list partition and press enter

  • it will display all the partitions on that disk, now delete the partition you planed to install on like this: delete part NUM_OF_PART and press enter (replace NUM_OF_PART with the partition you wanted to install leopard on), if you don't have such partition then skip to the next part

  • create a partition of the AF type like this: write: create partition primary id=AF and press enter

  • write: active and press enter

  • reboot and try to load the installation from the DVD again

7. Copy the Extensions folder from DVD to the Harddrive
this solution is for all of you that got the "Still waiting" error after the installation processed finished and first reboot occurred. if this is your case then it means that you have succeeded to boot into the DVD inorder to install (so the correct drivers for your system reside in the DVD boot extensions folder) but when you finished installing the drivers you selected they just won't boot and the Still waiting for root device appears, then all you have to do is to copy the DVD boot extensions folder into your installed copy and by that boot from your harddrive using the DVD drivers, do it like this:


boot from the install DVD, from utilities menu item select the terminal and write the following commands, but replace the word Leopard with your installation partition name (you set it during installation):
cd /System/Library
mv /Volumes/Leopard/System/Library/Extensions /Volumes/Leopard/System/Library/Extensions.bak
cp -R Extensions /Volumes/Leopard/System/Library
cd /Volumes/Leopard/System/Library
chmod -R 755 Extensions
chown -R 0:0 Extensions

after this the system should be able to boot on its own, you may need to flag the partition as bootable read how to do this here.


8. Change the ATA driver on the DVD
this last suggestion is very good but very hard to nail. it involves hacking the IOATAFamily.kext. this is the kext that is responsible for the attached hardware on your machine (ATA= AT Attachments, SATA = Serial ATA) like IDE hard drives or CD/DVD we will insert your controller Vendor ID and Device ID to it. follow these instructions:


  • boot into windows

  • open control panel

  • find your Disk controller

  • right click and choose properties

  • chose the Details tab

  • the first line contains something like this: PCI\VEN_30BE&DEV_004A...

  • Vendor id is the 4 characters after the word: VEN_

  • Device id is the 4 characters after the word: DEV_

  • write on a paper the sting like this: 0x + VendorID + DeviceID (without plus or space for instance this example should be like this: 0x30BE004A)

  • next stage involve using MacDrive and some util that will mount your install DVD ISO file (like alcohol), you need to mount the DVD after installing MacDrive that allows you to access Mac file system,

  • cd into the folder:

  • make sure you have at least these folders in there: AppleGenericPCATA.kext AppleOnboardPCATA.kext IOATAPIProtocolTransport.kext AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext AppleVIAATA.kext AppleNForceATA.kext IOATABlockStorage.kext

  • also make sure you have the folder: /System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext (if you use a JMicron controller and IDE hard drive)

  • next open in an editor the file: /System/Library/Extensions/IOATAFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleVIAATA.kext/Contents/Info.plist

  • find this tag: <>IOPCIPrimaryMatch< /key >

  • after it you will find a tag: <> with allot of strings like you wrote on the paper in it.

  • add your string (one you wrote on the paper, but first make sure it is not already there, if it is - abort this step (Solution 8) completely) with a space between it to the others (location isn't matter as long as it is in the tag like the others)

  • save it

  • delete the file: /System/Library/Extensions.mkext

  • save the ISO file with these changes, burn it onto a DVD, boot from it with -F at the darwin prompt.

hope all these solutions help you,
ShayBC.


You might want to read these related posts:
Still waiting for root device
Darwin Boot Options
Download Hackintosh OS X Leopard
Blinking cursor after OSX86 install
Restore bootable partition

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Make secondary install bootable


This post explain how to make a Leopard (hackintosh) secondary install bootable, any computers that has more then one OSX86 installd have a primary install and secondary install, a secondary install can be install on USB driver, Disk-On-Key, another partition, as long as you can boot more then one OSX86 on that computer, that means that you will load the working OSX86 and from there repair the non-bootable OSX.
for only and primary install read this post.

please note that this proccess will work for MBR and GUID partition scheme, if you don't know what this means, or want to learn how to check which of the two partition scheme you have then you can read this post.

in order to make your secondary partition bootable, please follow these next steps:
1. boot into your working OSX86 partition
2. download this file and extract it, for this post i will extract it in the root folder / so now i have a folder named: /MakeBootable
3. make sure you know what partition scheme you have (MBR or GUID)
4. open terminal (Applications->Utilities) and write the following commands
5. sudo -s (and write your password)
6. cd /MakeBootable (this is the folder you downloaded and extracted at step 2)
7. diskutil umount force /Volumes/Leopard (replace the word Leopard with your non-bootable drive name)

the result should look like this:

Volume Leopard on disk1s1 forced unmounted

if you don't know the name of the drive (that is non-bootable) then you can write this:
mount -t hfs

then you get a list of all known drives in your system the result should look like this:
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
/dev/disk1s1 on /Volumes/Leopard (hfs, local, journaled)

8. now write the command:
dd if=./mbr/boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY bs=512 count=1
(replace the letter X with your non-bootable drive number and the letter Y with your non-bootable partition number, in this example it will be: rdisk1s1)
also if you have MBR partition scheme then leave the word mbr as written in the example, if you have a GUID partition scheme then write guid instead of the mbr word then it should look like this: dd if=./guid/boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY bs=512 count=1

the result should look like this:
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes transferred in 0.008498 secs (60250 bytes/sec)
9. write the command:
dd if=./mbr/boot0 of=/dev/diskX bs=400 count=1
(replace the letter X with the number of the non-bootable disk, in this example it will be 1 then for this example it should look like this: disk1)
also if you have MBR partition scheme then leave the word mbr as written in the example, if you have a GUID partition scheme then write guid instead of the mbr word then it should look like this: dd if=./guid/boot0 of=/dev/diskX bs=400 count=1

the result should look like this:
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
400 bytes transferred in 0.018606 secs (21498 bytes/sec)

10. write the command:
diskutil umount force /Volumes/Leopard
(replace the word Leopard with your non-bootable drive name)

the result should look like this:
Volume DiskOnKey on disk1s1 forced unmounted

11. write the command:
./startupfiletool -v /dev/diskXsY ./boot_v8
(replace the letter X with your non-bootable drive number and the letter Y with your non-bootable partition number, in this example it will be: disk1s1)

the result should look like this:
HFS+ filesystem detected
Looking for 1 word free
reading 4096,4096
Marking word 196
writing back 4096,4096
allocated blocks 32 at start 6272


now the disk should be bootable and should be able to boot on his own, you may do the steps in this post or this post as a completeing procedure in order to make sure that the OSX is the first partition to boot from.

Shay.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Make primary install bootable



how to make a primary installation OSX partition bootable?
sometimes you are going to need a solution for a non bootable partition that was previousely bootable or after successful installation the partition remain non-bootable.

please note that the solution sugested here is for a primary installtion, which means it is for the main and only OSX installation on your computer and you have no way to boot into another OSX system. although it is possible to restore a secondary OSX installaion to be bootable again using this method, there is a simpler solution and it is described at this post.

primary installaion = the first and only OSX installation on your computer.
secondary installation = second (or greater) installation of OSX type (means you have more then one OSX installed on your computer) a disk-on-key/external USB/Firewire drive can be considered a secondary installation for this matter.

also note that this post is for MABR partition scheme (and not for GUID partition scheme). if you don't know what MBR or GUID partition scheme means then please read this post first.

in order to make an OSX86 partition bootable follow these next steps:
1. boot leopard DVD into Single Mode (you can red how to do that here)

2. type the next commands at the command line:
cd /usr/standalone/i386
ls


the result of these two lines should be a list displaying all the files in the i386 folder,
please make sure that at least these files exist:
boot0
boot1h
boot_v8
startupfiletool


if these files does not exist they can be copied from the installation DVD, in order to copy the files from the DVD use the method explained in this post. the files can also be downloaded from here.

3. if this is the case then type:
dd if=./boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY bs=512 count=1
(replace the X letter with the drive number that the OSX is installed on, the first drive is 0 the second is 1 and so on. replace the Y letter with the OSX partition number, the first partition is 1, the second partition is 2 etc. example: my computer has only one drive so my drive number is 0, and i have windows installed on the first partition and OSX on the second partition, so my OSX partition should be 2, therefor my parameter should be: rdisk0S2)

you should see an output result similar to this:
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes transferred in 0.008498 secs (60250 bytes/sec)


4. now type this command:
dd if=./boot0 of=/dev/diskX bs=400 count=1
(replace the X letter with the OSX drive number, first drive is 0, second drive is 1 etc. also please note that it is diskX and not rdiskX as the previouse command)

you should see an output result similar to this:
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
400 bytes transferred in 0.018606 secs (21498 bytes/sec)


5. type in the next command:
./startupfiletool -v /dev/diskXsY ./boot_v8
(replace the X with the number of the OSX drive and Y with the number of the OSX partition)

you should see an output result similar to this:
HFS+ filesystem detected
Looking for 1 word free
reading 4096,4096
reading 8192,4096
reading 12288,4096
Marking word 510
writing back 1288,4096
allocated blocks 32 at start 81856


now the disk should be bootable and should be able to boot on his own, you may do the steps in this post or this post as a completeing procedure in order to make sure that the OSX is the first partition to boot from.

Shay.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Honey i'm home

hi,


i know that i have been away for several month from the blog, but in my defenece i have to say it was for the greater good, i took the time to create a hebrew blog and a forum that helped a hundred people or so, small group, i know, but in israel it is alot.
i wish to revive this blog but i am thinking of writing more on mac related issues tips, tricks, applications review site spoted etc. ofcource that i will also write posts regarding hackintosh, the thing is that hackintosh subjects are hard to find since most have been written and covered allready, most of my work is support people through email or forum, i have decided to add donation button so it will keep me motivated, if you find my work helpfull please consider donating, i hope i can help you guys more this way.

if you wish you may send me mail and request issues to cover on the blog, kind of a wish list, also there are about 4-5 mail i received and yet to answer but be sure i will get to them on the comming weekend.
thanks guys for reading this blog, drop me a line and let me know what you like most about it.
Shay.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Install Package from terminal

this post will explain how to install packages from command-line interface (terminal or Single User mode),

where to get packages?
first thing you need to do is get the package, if you have downloaded it then cd to its location for instance:
cd /Users/shay/Downloads
if you have it only in the leopard install dvd then cd to the packages location like this:
cd /Volumes/Leo4Allv3-10.5.2/System/Installation/Packages
Note: your dvd name will probably be different then "Leo4Allv3-10.5.2"

next you should create a temp folder where you can work at:
mkdir /mytemp
and copy the desired packages to there:
cp -R powermanagement.pkg
and move to the folder (so each command you execute will be executed in relative to that folder):
cd /mytemp

what is a package?
a package is a compressed file or folder (can come in two forms), that can be executed due to its extensions pkg.
after execution a graphical installer will be launched and after several clicks a script will install files and folders into your hackintosh/Mac system.

how to extract package?
the package file can be extracted into a folder form using a command line tool named pkgutil,
you can check if your package is a flat file package or a directory package like this:
try to: "cd powermanagement.pkg"
if the result is: "-bash: cd: powermanagement.pkg: Not a directory"
then you are dealing with flat file, in order to install it from command line you need the folder form so lets convert it to a folder form, you do it like this:

pkgutil --expand powermanagement.pkg powermanagement_ex.pkg

so now you may "cd powermanagement_ex.pkg" successfully.

what's inside a package?
if you look inside the pkg folder (from finder right click and choose "Show Package Contents") or from command line using the cd command you will find the next folder structure:


the most important files are:
Archive.bom - this file contains information of what is the content of the package, where it should be installed, etc.
Archive.pax.gz - this is the actual content of the package zipped (this is where we are heading)

you may sometimes find in folder Resources a shell scripts that should be run pre install and post install these scripts handle creation of folders, deleting temp files, fix permissions etc.

how to extract package content?
you can expand the Archive.pax.gz in order to get the files and copy them to the destination folder manually (and by that install the package) like this:

(the first cd command is adviced so files and folder extracted will not overwrite existing system files and folder, ofcource you may want to create a new folder and cd to it instead of the myTemp folder)

cd /mytemp
gzip -d powermanagement_ex.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz
pax -r '*' <>

the result will be the contents of the package sorted in the destination folders at the current directory, in this example:


how to manually install the package?
after extracting the content you need to copy each file to its destination,
this package for instance, have System as root of files meaning the kext files should be on your hard drive at /System/Library/Extensions etc.
the simplest way to "install them will be to copy the whole tree like this:

cp -R /mytemp/System /

this will tell leopard to copy the current folder System into the root (so if it exist it will populate it if not it will be copied)

last thing to do is to go over the post install script and see if there are other actions need to be taken as part of the install process, display the content of the script like this:

cat powermanagement_ex.pkg/Contents/Resources/postinstall | more

in this case the script will look like this:

so in this case we need to copy the files to system (we already done that), and fix permissions, a faster way will be to do this:
chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions
chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions

or even safer like this:
diskutil repairPermissions /System/Library/Extensions

Summary
so lets go over the commands we need to do in order to install powermanagement.pkg from command line:
cd /Volumes/Leo4Allv3-10.5.2/System/Installation/Packages
mkdir /mytemp
cp -R powermanagement.pkg
cd /mytemp
pkgutil --expand powermanagement.pkg powermanagement_ex.pkg
gzip -d powermanagement_ex.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz
pax -r '*' <>always use pacifist or packageutil or simply double click the pkg file if you are in GUI in order to install the package.

is there a difference between manual install and GUI automatic install?
yes, during GUI install the installed package is registered in mac install database and a receipt is kept there with the information of the installed files, location etc. this info may come handy when you want to reinstall, uninstall, or verify that the install is intact.

more then that most install create backup and allow uninstall feature in a later time, although you can do backup, a complex install makes uninstall process almost impossible.

Shay.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

What is MBR and GPT?

If you have encountered a disk problem in hackintosh then, you might came across the terms MBR which is an acronyms for Master Boot Recored and GPT which is an acronyms for GUID Partition Table.

every hard drive is separated into partitions, even if it has only one partition it has a table describing that mapping, that mapping contains data like: how many partition on the drive, what is the size of each partition, what is the starting address of each partition etc. the partition table info can be described in two manners (actually more but we are interested only in these two), the one is MBR and the other is GUID, this manner is named Partition Scheme.

the partition schemes differ from one another by the way it holds the addressing of the partitions (CHS vs LBA), and by the max size they support for each partition, where is the boot recored kept etc. MBR is used in PC that uses a BIOS, GUID is used in computers that support EFI (like Mac). you can read more about it here.

when you install a hackintosh you need to prepare a partition for OSX, if it is a new partition on existing (already partitioned, from windows) disk, then there is no doubt you have an MBR partition scheme (well 99%), but if you prepare the disk from the OSX installation using the Disk Utility, then you have an option to choose from 3 types (MBR, GUID, Apple Partition Table Scheme).

Note 1: Apple Partition Table is not good scheme for a bootable HD for hackintosh, it is mostly for PPC.
Note 2: if you choose to repartition your hard drive from the Disk Utility or any other tool, it will cause loss of all information on that hard drive (including any Windows flavor you have installed on it).

you can repartition your hard drive from leopard installation or existing leopard installation in this way:
open Disk Utility.
right click on the drive you wish to partition from the left hard-drive tree, and choose the "Partition" option.


from the "Volume Scheme" drop-down menu choose the number of partitions you would like to create on the disk.


from the lower "Options..." button choose the desired partition scheme, i would suggest MBR.


if you would like just to know what partition you are currently using then open "Disk Utility".
and from the left hard-drive tree choose the drive you wish to query, (Note: the drive and not its partitions)



then look at the right lower corner next to the label: "Partition Map Scheme" and you will see your partition scheme (Master Boot or GUID)


Shay.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Leopard 10.5.2 in Hebrew


not sure how interesting it is for this blog (more related to my hebrew blog), but i have recently found a package that updates Leopard 10.5.2 interface to fully hebrew interface (it looks strange but some people may like it).


the package works with other versions as well but it supports only half of the available strings (i tried it on a 10.5.3 hackintosh), i haven't found any problems, the only thing that bothered me is that there was no uninstall script, and since the package only adds a hebrew lproj folders to the appropriate applications, bundles, kext, and utils, then it is only a matter of removing them,

i created an uninstall script, backup and restore script for the hebrew lproj that exist before the package install, it will create a folder named "Backup" in the root drive.

before you install:
  1. backup using Time Machine
  2. create a user with english only interface
  3. download the file from this link

to install write these lines in the terminal:
  1. cd /path/to/downloaded/folder
  2. ./backupHebrew.sh
  3. enter your password and press enter
  4. execute the install package: LeopardHebrew.10.5.2.pkg
  5. restart the computer (it may take a minute longer to load, just this time) and if you set your interface to hebrew, you will see hebrew interface.
to uninstall write these lines in the terminal:
  1. ./UnInstallLeopardHbrew.sh
  2. enter your password and press enter
  3. reboot
  4. if problems with hebrew interface occurres (that did not happened before the install) then write:
  5. ./restoreHebrew.sh
more screenshots are available at my hebrew forum at this post,
hope this will be of some use to some one,
Shay.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

OSX86 Library



today Tim Smart published his site "OSX86Library" on insanelymac, the site is meant to be a an HCL database for osx86,
the main idea behind it is to allow people about to buy a new computer to consider the ultimate hardware compatible with OSX86. (like psystar does), the site is still under construction but you can already submit your hardware list, there is an eye candy UI involved you should check it out.

Enjoy.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Leopard version list


hi,
i have compiled this list to help you not download "the wrong version" so i hope this "map" can guide you to a better release and build.

osx86 releases available:
iATKOS_v1.0i.iso (10.5.1)
iATKOS_v1.0iR2.zip (PPF (patch) so the 10.5.1 ISO will convert to 10.5.2)
iATKOS_v2.0i this is an 10.5.2 release
Leo4allv3final
KALYWAY_LEO_10.5.1intel_SSE2_SSE3.zip (Kalyway 10.5.1 for Intel and AMD)
kalyway_Leopard_DVD_intelSSE3_9a527 (Kalyway 10.5.1 9a527)
kalyway_hack_10.5.2ComboUpdate (updates kalyway 10.5.1 to 10.5.2)
Kalyway_10.5.2_DVD_Intel_Amd.iso (new - published on 10.04.08)
JaS OsX86 10.5.2 Intel SSE2 SSE3.iso (JAS comeback)
Leopard-10.5.2-AMD-EFI.iso (Zephyroth Leopard 10.5.2 for AMD)
ToH_x86_9A581_RC2.iso ( Mac OS X 10.5.1 Leopard ToH -RC2 SSE3 SSE2 Intel)
BrazilMac-9a581-Patch.zip (old BrazilMac-9a581-Patch patch real leopard DVD)


Leopard builds, status and release dates (compiled from MacRumors):

9A24110.5 Developer Preview (August, 2006)
9A241e10.5 Developer Preview (September, 2006)
9a28310.5 Developer Preview (October, 2006)
9a30310.5 Developer Preview (November, 2006)
9a32110.5 Developer Preview (December, 2006)
9A32610.5 Employees Preview (December, 2006)
9A34310.5 Developer Preview (January, 2007)
9A37710.5 Developer Preview (March, 2007)
9A377a10.5 Developer Preview (March, 2007)
9a41010.5 Developer Preview (April, 2007)
9A46610.5 WWDC07 Preview (June, 2007)
9A49910.5 Developer Preview (July, 2007)
9A500n10.5 Developer Preview (August, 2007)
9A52710.5 Developer Preview (August, 2007)
9A528a10.5 (Server) Developer Preview (August, 2007)
9A528d10.5 Developer Preview (September, 2007)
9A55710.5 Release Candidate (September, 2007)
9A55910.5 Release Candidate (September, 2007)
9A58110.5 Gold Master (October, 2007)
9A58110.5 Retail (October, 2007)
9b1310.5.1 Developer Preview (November, 2007)
9b1610.5.1 Developer Preview (November, 2007)
9B1810.5.1 Release Candidate (November, 2007)
9B1810.5.1 Update (November, 2007)
9C??10.5.2 Developer Preview (December, 2007)
9C1610.5.2 Developer Preview (January, 2008)
9c2310.5.2 Developer Preview (January, 2008)
9c2710.5.2 Developer Preview (January, 2008)
9c3010.5.2 Developer Preview (February, 2008)
9c3110.5.2 Release Candidate (February, 2008)
9c3110.5.2 Update (February, 2008)
9d1010.5.3 Developer Preview (March, 2008)
9D1110.5.3 Developer Preview (April, 2008)
9d1210.5.3 Developer Preview (April, 2008)
9D1910.5.3 Developer Preview (April, 2008)
9d2210.5.3 Developer Preview (April, 2008)
9d2310.5.3 Developer Preview (April, 2008)
9d2710.5.3 Developer Preview (May, 2008)
9d2910.5.3 Developer Preview (May, 2008)
9d3410.5.3 Release Candidate (May, 2008)
9d3410.5.3 Update (May, 2008)
9E610.5.3 Developer Preview (June, 2008)
10A9610.6 Developer Preview (June, 2008)


in order to find what build you have installed:
1. open the apple menu
2. choose "About this Mac"
3. press "More Info..."
4. choose "Software" node from the left tree
5. look at "System Version"

Shay.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Google Analytics June 08

here is this month analytics report, and there is also a pdf and xml format attachments at the bottom of the post.



Analytics_apple2pc.blogspot.com_2008.pdf
Analytics_apple2pc.blogspot.com_2008.xml

Enjoy.

Some News



sorry for not investing in the blog for the last month, but in my defense I am occupied with other hackintosh related matters including:



i am also working on a Hackintosh direct download driver site (hope to release it in the coming month, will release a link once it is up)

also i have decided to develop the LG keyboard driver and i have help from a developer from mexico goes by the name of apple.mla123, it will take some time until we release the first version.
we need some testers if you are willing to help please send me a mail and i will send you RC versions as they come out, thanks ahead for that.

I have also created osx86 search engine (that i added to the head of the blog) it took me a whole day to filter the list of related and up-to-date sites here are the site that i am indexing, i will keep it up to date as i come across new sites, also if you know of a site that would be good to index please let me know.


http://www.necnet.de/krass.man/Installers
http://www.neonkoala.co.uk
http://nvinject.free.fr
http://www.osx86library.com
http://pcwizcomputer.com
http://osx86tools.pcwizcomputer.com
http://chameleon.osx86.hu
http://windows-mac-osx86.qarchive.org
http://www.uphuck.com
http://www.macgeekblog.com/blog/archive/category/osx86
http://www.maconpc.org
http://www.maceee.com
http://osx86help.we.bs
http://www.maconlysource.com
http://netkas.freeflux.net
http://www.xplodenet.com
http://blogmarks.net/search/osx86
http://swik.net/osx86
http://my.macdotnub.info
http://www.engadget.com/tag/osx86
http://wordpress.com/tag/osx86
http://lifehacker.com/tag/osx86
http://pcwizcomputer.com/blog
http://leo4all.uni.cc/index.php
http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/index.php
http://forum.infinitemac.com
http://www.infinitemac.com
http://osx86leo4all.wikidot.com
http://www.osx86.theplaceforitall.com
http://osx86install.blogspot.com
http://osx86.wikidot.com
http://osx86.thefreesuite.com
http://forum.osx86scene.com
http://osx86heb.darkbb.com
http://apple2pc.blogspot.com
http://osx86heb.blogspot.com
http://dev4mac.blogspot.com
http://www.insanelymac.com
http://wiki.osx86.org
http://www.hackint0sh.org
http://wiki.osx86project.org
http://netkas.org


Shay.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Power Management on 10.5.3


10.5.3 update has ruin my Power Management icon in the menu bar, i fixed it using this method:


ether use this auto installer or use the manual method described here:

1. open terminal
2. write: sudo -s
3. enter password and press enter
4. write: vi /System/Library/Extensions/AppleACPIPlatform.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleACPIPowerSource.kext/Contents/Info.plist
5. press / (and don't press any thing else this will enter search mode)
6. write: com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform and press enter, it will locate the driver line
7. using the keyboard arrows goto the next line
8. press i (in order to enter edit mode)
9.change the value 1.1.0 to 1.2.1
10. press escape from the keyboard
11. press : (enter prompt mode)
12. write: w! (and press enter, it means write to disk even if read only file)
13. press : (to enter prompt mode again)
14. press q (to exit vi editor)
15. repeat steps 4 - 14 for the files:
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleACPIPlatform.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleACPIThermal.kext/Contents/Info.plist
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleACPIPlatform.kext/Contents/PlugIns/ACPIPS2Nub.kext/Contents/Info.plist
16. download this file to your Downloads folder
17. write: mv /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/PowerManagement.bundle /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/PowerManagement.bundle.10.5.2 (it will backup your old Power Management bundle)
18. write: cp -R ~/Downloads/PowerManagement.bundle /System/Library/SystemConfiguration
19. write: chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/PowerManagement.bundle
20. write: chmod -R 755 /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/PowerManagement.bundle
21. reboot
22. from finder goto folder: /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras
23. double click the file: Battery.menu

thats it, you should see the power icon in the menu bar,

Enjoy the power.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

How to Update Hackintosh 10.5.2 to 10.5.3

when you install your hackintosh you get a leopard OS X of a certain version i got mine from uphack iAtkos 10.5.1 yours might be different, check what version you have using the "About" dialog (from the menu bar apple press "About this Mac")


once you know what version you have, and if you have PC_EFI installed (EFI emulation, read here on how to check) Note: if you don't have EFI and Vanilla kernel you will break your system, causing it to constantly reboot, make sure you have vanilla kernel using EFI patch.


Note: when using the none vanilla kernel in iAtkos 1.0i (upgrade) i got these crash screens after updating to Leo4Allv3 Final and restoring user/applications (thanks to my Time MAchine) i successfully managed to upgrade 10.5.3, so check the insanely forum for feed back from people before installing, and of course backup!





lets look at the 10 steps: 

1. first download the update from apple at this address with a size of 531MB. (DO NOT use Software Update it will not work!!)




2. backup your /System/Library/Extensions folder just in case restore is needed




3. open terminal and write these commands:

sudo -s

enter your password and press enter

while sleep 1 ; do rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext ; done

(this line should not return to prompt since this is a loop script)


it will check every 1 second if a file named: "AppleIntelCPUPowermanagement.kext " is found in the extension folder and when it appears it will delete it, the script will run and not return to prompt (do not kill/close it yet), if you wish to verify it is working, create new folder and rename it to: "AppleIntelCPUPowermanagement.kext " and then copy it to /System/Library/Extensions, it should be immediately deleted



4. install the downloaded package and let it finish







5. when the install end DO NOT press restart yet!




6. now stop the script by pressing control and C (ctrl+C) but do not exit sudo and do not close your terminal or you will not be able to get back and it will brake your system.


7. next you need to edit the apple restart script that checks if this is a hackintosh and decides if to start the system or display and error screen, you will tell the system to load directly to leopard, do this by:

cd /System/InstallAtStartup/scripts

and edit the script named '1'

vi 1


8. now the console will display the content of the file, using arrows scroll down to the end there you will find a line like this near the end:

kextload /System/Library/Extensions/Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext

press I (stands for insert) to enter edit mode




9. delete the value:

/System/Library/Extensions/Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext

and replace it with this value:

/System/Library/Extensions/dsmos.kext

press Esc to exit edit mode and press : to enter vi prompt and then write !w (stands for write changes to disk even if file is read only) and press enter, after that press : and write q (stands for quit) and by that you exit the vi.





10. now if you see any changed kext (in the /System/Library/Extensions folder, you can sort by date and see the latest from the update), if you want to change them back to your kext then you may restore them from previous backup step and finally press the Restart button on the install screen.



after restart it will boot to boot screen and perform another restart (without loading the leopard GUI), then it will boot into the blue screen (before login window) and will stay there for 3-4 minutes then the login window will appear and now you have 10.5.3 installed.


check the about dialog should look similar to this:



you should be also seeing the 10.5.3 trademark feature in the "Time Machine" Options:




i couldn't see this change on my "Time Machine" preferences but i have the Software update saying i am up to date and About dialog showing 10.5.3.


Enjoy.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Leopard 10.5.3 Update available for Mac


Apple released today the 10.5.3 update for leopard, it is available through the system update as a 420M download or via the Apple support site as 10.5.2 update or comboUpdate.


this release is not ready for hackintosh yet, but it will be soon enough, it include several bug fix, Time Machine improvements, Clearer images for Spaces, and some bugfix for other apps like iCal, mail etc.

the complete list of changes and download is available at these links:


Shay.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Apple OS X Server Admin Tools


if you haven't heard of Leopard Server 10.5.2 then you should know that there is such a release of leopard, a server side, note that there is no distribution yet for OSX86, but you can patch it using the old methods of brazilmac, also you can install some OSX86 release and then open the server dmg and install it (so i heard, never tried it).

but if it is the tools and apps that found on the server (and don't come with client leopard) you are looking for, then you can download the leopard server full version (about 6.5G) and extract the tools using pacifist and run them on your leopard.

apps included in the server release includes:
iCal Server
wiki
Podcast producer
Spotlight server
iChat Server
Mail services
Web Hosting
Directory
etc.

if you are looking for the cool blue aurora desktop image, it can be found here.

also if you would like to control your server from a remote leopard client then download the remote server admin tools, you can get it for free (apple give it away), it can be downloaded from version tracker at this link or directly from apple at this link.

after download has completed mount the dmg, and install the package it will install these tools:
Server Monitor
Server Assistance
Server Admin
Server Preferences
System Image Utility
Workgroup Manager
Xgrid Admin

here are the screenshots:













Enjoy.

 
the menu is from: Milonic DHTML menus