Is it impossible to install vanilla 10.5.6 on a Dell Optiplex 745 ? Vanilla 10.5.5 ok

msingh · #1 07-01-2009, 01:13 AM

Hello

Intel Q965 Express chipset.
ICH8

I have now tried this twice. Latest, following these instructions to the T :

http://www.charl13dontsurf.com/?p=87

and

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/ind...post&p=1018748

I have an EFI partition. Even placed the following kexts into it :

AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext (from working 10.5.5)
and
IntelCPUPMDisabler.kext (from generic.iso).

I used the boot-132 method to install 10.5.0, upgraded in steps (10.5.0 -> 10.5.2 -> 10.5.4 -> 10.5.5). I used the combo 10.5.6 update dmg.

I use Chameleon 10.0.12 (I think). I have a patched DSDT.

I also went through all the steps in :
http://netkas.org/?p=78

For all my pains, I still get the "Still waiting for root device" error.

Fortunately, I had the foresight to make a carbon copy clone, and used dd to restore the disk to what it was.

Someone, please help me, or check my method. I want to install iWork 09. I do not even want to go to 10.5.7 given the mess it is making of my Macbook (heating and hangs).

Thanks.

thorazine74 · #2 07-01-2009, 09:45 AM

"Still waiting for root device" got nothing to with what you did, its about your chipset's SATA or IDE controller not being detected. For Intel ICH, if it doesnt support AHCI, you would need a patched IntelPIIXATA.kext with support for your ICH8, try the one by Dune you can find it at insanelymac.

msingh · #3 07-01-2009, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thorazine74

"Still waiting for root device" got nothing to with what you did, its about your chipset's SATA or IDE controller not being detected. For Intel ICH, if it doesnt support AHCI, you would need a patched IntelPIIXATA.kext with support for your ICH8, try the one by Dune you can find it at insanelymac.

Hello,

I am afraid that is not it.

I tried this today. Copied drivers from

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/ind...&mode=threaded

for 10.5.6. Added them to the EFI partition. Recreated the Extensions.mkext in /Volumes/EFI/System/Booter. Removed the AppleVIAATA.kext as suggested.

Got the same error (Still waiting for root device).

Then booted in with the retail DVD (using the boot-132). Fired up terminal.

Copied the given drivers over the IOATAFamily.kext in /System/Library/Extensions, deleted Extensions.mkext, rebooted with -s -v -f. Same error.

I checked the original AppleVIAATA driver. The Info.plist contains ICH-8 support. It also contains some extra strings. In desperation, I copied it back to EFI and the System extensions.

Still the same error.

I liked your response, because you suggested something new. I am afraid that it is not working out. Any other ideas ?

Now I am trying to restore back from the clone.

Voyn1x · #4 07-01-2009, 09:02 PM

Your post has conflicting information, the guides you linked reference Kalway, but you also mention Boot132.

You should try the Chameleon 2.0 installer, as it contains legacy kexts for ICHx support which you can optionally install. You shouldn't need to touch the main partition at all.

Briefly, for a retail vanilla install you need to:

Use Boot132 to install using the retail dvd
After installing, continue using Boot132 for the first boot
Download and install all available updates
Restart, again using the Boot132 disk
Download the Chameleon pkg installer, choose 'install to EFI partition' option when installing
Mount EFI partition
Copy over required kexts to /Extra/Extensions or mkext to /Extra - you'll find the Legacy ICHx kexts here
Reboot without Boot132 in drive

msingh · #5 07-01-2009, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voyn1x

Your post has conflicting information, the guides you linked reference Kalway, but you also mention Boot132.

You should try the Chameleon 2.0 installer, as it contains legacy kexts for ICHx support which you can optionally install. You shouldn't need to touch the main partition at all.

Briefly, for a retail vanilla install you need to:

Use Boot132 to install using the retail dvd
After installing, continue using Boot132 for the first boot
Download and install all available updates
Restart, again using the Boot132 disk
Download the Chameleon pkg installer, choose 'install to EFI partition' option when installing
Mount EFI partition
Copy over required kexts to /Extra/Extensions or mkext to /Extra - you'll find the Legacy ICHx kexts here
Reboot without Boot132 in drive

Hello,

I used boot-132 generic iso to install 10.5.0 from Retail DVD.

I just tried the chameleon 2.0 RC1 (the latest) package installer and installed it on to my pre-existing EFI.

I now get Still waiting for root device error even for 10.5.5. Now I have to repair my EFI by removing the three extra kexts that chameleon installed.

Well, its worse than that. It refuses to boot even with the generic iso cd. Now I need to use a Retail DVD to remove the /Extra directory because I had stupidly installed these on to Macintosh HD prior to doing the EFI install.

Recovered after the steps above. Back to 10.5.5.

A clarification - I cannot set AHCI mode for my SATA disk. Maybe that is related to all of this.

Voyn1x · #6 07-01-2009, 10:43 PM

Can you do

Code:

diskutil list

in terminal and post the output here. Also can you please post the full contents of /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions

I presume you formatted the drive GUID before installing. Is the drive SATA, if so did you check for an AHCI option in the bios?

What I find strange is that the Boot132 kexts work but not from the EFI partition...

Am I right 10.5.5 works without the Boot132 disk?

msingh · #7 07-01-2009, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voyn1x

Can you do

Code:

diskutil list

in terminal and post the output here. Also can you please post the full contents of /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions

I presume you formatted the drive GUID before installing. Is the drive SATA, if so did you check for an AHCI option in the bios?

What I find strange is that the Boot132 kexts work but not from the EFI partition...

Am I right 10.5.5 works without the Boot132 disk?

Thanks for your help so far.

I believe that I have ended up confusing you guys.

This is what this machine has seen so far :

1. Used boot-132 method to install 10.5.0 (using Retail DVD).
2. Upgraded to .2-> .4 -> .5.
3. I created an EFI partition using various tutorials around (manually). For instance, I used http://www.ihackintosh.com/2009/04/h...meleon-20-rc1/. The funny thing is that I used the same chameleon version - did not use the extra kexts, but the same boot (no GUI installation), and the EFI works. I also used a bit of common sense info from munky's post on insanelymac. Installed the contents of boot-132 generic.iso initrd.img to /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions.
4. I have some plist files :

$ ls -ltrh /Volumes/EFI/Extra/
total 64
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root admin 1.7K Jun 4 13:25 smbios.plist
drwxr-xr-x@ 7 root admin 238B Jun 4 13:25 Themes
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 409B Jun 17 12:04 com.apple.Boot.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 4.2K Jun 18 10:37 com.apple.network.identification.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 6.8K Jun 19 10:04 preferences.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 907B Jun 19 10:04 com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1.3K Jun 22 16:39 NetworkInterfaces.plist
drwxr-xr-x 24 root wheel 816B Jul 1 14:22 Extensions

5. Added in some extra kexts for my AR5005G card to EFI as well as System extensions (I had a hard time getting that to work).
6. Added in some extra sound kexts (AC97 and Azalia) to the above two locations. Even tried the patched AppleHDA from Taruga. No go. The device shows up, but no sound. No worries. This is a work machine. I do not need sound in my work. So, I am letting things stand as they are.
7. Upshot - the system boots properly (10.5.5) without any CD rom in the drive, with the EFI partition. I cannot hibernate and resume (always get the too old a sleep image message on boot). On attempting to sleep (I have smart sleep panel thing installed), the system makes a clicking sound, and then comes back. Due to unclean loading of the AR5005G kext, the system usually freezes at this point. I simply power off normally when I am done. I would like to have hibernation work at some point, but it is not a show stopper.

Now, I want to upgrade to 10.5.6 since I want to install iWork 09. I know there is a way to mess around with plists and make the installer think it is 10.5.6, but I do not want that. I have patched my DSDT and have a DSDT.aml file in my /Volumes/EFI as well as /.

Getting back to what you asked :

I did partition using the GUID scheme.

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *149.0 Gi disk0
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 50.9 Gi disk0s2
3: Apple_HFS 97.7 Gi disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Private *97.7 Gi disk1

Don't worry about disk1/disk0s3 - it is just my truecrypt volume that contains all the user data - necessary since I am messing with the Macintosh HD so much.

EFI extensions :

$ ls -ltrh /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 SMBIOSEnabler.kext
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 AppleAC97Audio.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 ACPIPS2Nub.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 AppleACPIPlatform.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 AppleAzaliaAudio.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 AppleAPIC.kext
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 AppleAHCIPort.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 ApplePS2Controller.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 AppleNForceATA.kext
drwxr-xr-x 5 root wheel 170B Jun 4 13:29 AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 AppleGenericPCATA.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 AppleSMBIOS.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 dsmos.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 4 13:29 IntelCPUPMDisabler.kext
drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136B Jun 4 13:29 NVkush.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 17 14:36 IO80211Family.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 17 16:03 IONetworkingFamily.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 29 12:42 AppleHDA.kext
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102B Jun 29 13:43 HDAEnabler.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102B Jun 29 16:45 AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102B Jul 1 13:23 AppleVIAATA.kext

I mentioned this earlier. I do not have AHCI as a possible option in my setup. In BIOS SATA operation - my choices are Normal and Legacy. Legacy leads to the HD above not getting detected.

So, no AHCI.

Do I need to update my BIOS ?

aposdimi · #8 07-02-2009, 05:03 AM

Hi, I am having the same experience with 10.5.6 and Optiplex 745. iDeneb 10.5.5 installed with Patches worked like a charm! The trying to upgrade with iDeneb 10.5.6 upgrade has been impossible. I tried everything from the various posts, i.e. voodoo, chameleon x.12, DSDT patching, etc. etc. Nothing worked. I am getting the same error of "Still waiting for root device".

This is especially painful, because using the same known techniques on another computer I have (ASRock MB) I installed iDeneb 10.5.5 and then I upgraded to 10.5.6 and later to 10.5.7. No major issues, following the usual methods I did it and it worked fine!

My Optiplex 745, however, is my main PC, and I would love to get it upgraded. Watching and reading carefully to see if anyone can do it, and how!

Thanks,
Aposdimi

thorazine74 · #9 07-02-2009, 10:12 AM

I'm not familiar with munky's method (I found it unnecessarily complicated if you dont need to exchange disk between mac/pc) but with all those ATA kexts you have there it should boot.
You have many ATA kexts in your Extra but not the one for Intel ICH, Intel ICHx controllers work with a modded AppleIntelPIIXATA (with your device id, the vanilla one only has a couple of ids) and the vanilla IOATAFamily, the rest should not be needed at all. I would try to use fewer kexts if posible, just get rid of all the foreign ATA ones.
The difference between Normal and Legacy settings in ICH are not clear but I think in Legacy Mode you could be missing some ports (in legacy SATA behaves as a single IDE controller who can have at most 4 ports, if you have 6 SATA ports, 2 of them are disabled for compatibility; in normal mode you could have 2 different IDE Controllers, one with 4 ports and another one with 2 more ports). From what I know Apple kexts should work with normal mode.

msingh · #10 07-02-2009, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thorazine74

I'm not familiar with munky's method (I found it unnecessarily complicated if you dont need to exchange disk between mac/pc) but with all those ATA kexts you have there it should boot.
You have many ATA kexts in your Extra but not the one for Intel ICH, Intel ICHx controllers work with a modded AppleIntelPIIXATA (with your device id, the vanilla one only has a couple of ids) and the vanilla IOATAFamily, the rest should not be needed at all. I would try to use fewer kexts if posible, just get rid of all the foreign ATA ones.
The difference between Normal and Legacy settings in ICH are not clear but I think in Legacy Mode you could be missing some ports (in legacy SATA behaves as a single IDE controller who can have at most 4 ports, if you have 6 SATA ports, 2 of them are disabled for compatibility; in normal mode you could have 2 different IDE Controllers, one with 4 ports and another one with 2 more ports). From what I know Apple kexts should work with normal mode.

thorazine,

Thanks.

I had tried this earlier (see an earlier post in the thread). Then I tried to remove the AppleVIAata.kext, and I got the same error.

I think you are on the right track, as this root device error is logically a chipset error, and not an OS error (related to the power management).