I have the ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe NVIDIA nForce 780a SLI MOBO and have not been successful loading OSx86 on my system. I have tried iAtkos 4a, Zephyroth for Phenom, Kalyway 10.5.2, and Leo4All Version5 (Server Retail). I get the furthest with iAtkos, but still no success. Please inform me of your setup if similar and what you did to get it up and running. Thanks!!!!!

my new phenom system has a ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe with the nForce 480a chip. I have tried to install LawLessPPCPhenomLeo10.5.4

after load darwing without problems the system enter a loop trying to access to the hard drive displaying this mesage "Still waiting for root Device", in the bios configuration the HDD is set as SATA in IDE mode, the problem shuld be solved changing to a Legacy IDE MODE instead, however this option is not in the bios setup.

I think that the easiest solution is to install an IDE HDD to jump the "Still waiting..." message and install the lawlessPPC release.... I have not triyed this step yet, but you can find more info in the following link.

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/in...or_root_device

I ended up buying an IDE HDD to try for these disc, but at the time, this LawlessPPC was not out. So my rig is set up to try. I am downloading now and will try as soon as it's done. I'll keep you posted here. Thanks.

So I Have the same motherboard as you. I downloaded the LawlwssPPCPhenom .ISO. I Unplugged all of my SATA Hard drives and plugged the IDE drive in as slave, and then the DVD drive in as master. All the kexts load and it still gets the "Still waiting for root device" loop. It is also getting hung up on my USB ports plugged into my mobo. So I tried unplugging those. Still no luck. LEt me know what you think. You are the first person I've come across who has my motherboard. Let's work together on this.

One thought I have is using the kexts for the phenom from the LawlessPPC and putting them in the iAtkos4A install. That install disc has gotten the furthest for me. It sees the disc, and installs. It just does not boot after the install. Just a thought. I would not know where to begin doing such a thing but it's a thought.

how are you booting the drive? any boot flags? I would boot using "-f -x -v" to try to lighten the need for everything to be supported (ie. network, full graphics, etc.) and to allow you to see where it is hanging.

-f : forced Extensions folder load
-x : safe mode
-v : verbose mode

Lawless made a great distro and it supports a ton of systems. Have you tried it via SATA connections? have you gone into the BIOS to edit any configurations? sometimes those can be tricky.

---

I will try as soon as I get home from work. Thanks for the advice.

I have tried a SATA drive. Definitely does not work. I don't even have a settings in my BIOS to make it show up as IDE. And as far as boot flags, I'm not sure what those are. Everything "seems" to be going fine except the "still waiting for root device" deal.

I report back as soon as I try after work. Thanks again.

boot flags are placed at the boot prompt before executing the com.apple.boot.plist file to start OS X and give the system a "heads-up" to know how you want to start up... when your computer is showing a countdown (right after your BIOS logo screen) press any key (or f8 or whatever it says when booting up a DVD/CD) and then simply input that string of "-f -x -v"

By messing with the BIOS, you aren't looking to make the system think a SATA connection is an IDE connection... we are trying to look into AHCI issues. also, by making your system boot in any legacy mode (at least for starters until we get things installed).

Best of luck

---

So there are no settings in MY bios for AHCI settings or legacy settings that I could find. I looked through ever page and sub-page in my bios. Could these be named anything else?

So I booted the cd with the prompts "-f -x -v" and now I do not get the "still waiting for root device" but it just hangs after a bunch of text. There are a bunch of crazy numbers and then it says-

Backtrace continues...

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:
Not yet set

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.4.0: Mon June 9 19:30:53 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.5.20~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: System Product Name

then I get nothing. I need help. I'm running 10.5.5 on my MSI wind and love it and NEED it on my rig at home. Ugh. Thanks for everything so far though.

-BBBruno

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place here. Any other help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!

Take a picture of the text, when you got kernel panic, and upload it here. Then perhaps somebody can help you with this problem.