MCP68 (Nforce 630a) Serial ATA

[digitizedsoul]

Hi all,

Just transferred from Insanelymac. Had a thread there for days on this subject with no response whatsoever.

I booted the iPC 10.5.6 dvd, detected my sata & ide drives just fine (ide dvd drive) and i was able to partition AND install to that drive.

However when rebooting, waiting for root device........

Tried rd=disk1s2 (my drive / parttion) but no luck. Also tried getting mac drive since my IDE drive has vista on it, copying my sata controllers PCI id into applenforceata.kext info.plist and still nothing.

Any ideas? Am I missing something? How does the kernel on the dvd support it, but not the installed one? (Voodoo)

I tried two installations, one with each of the nforce driver choices.

[cmdshft]

Check your BIOS settings. I'm not familiar with nForce chipsets, only VIA and Intel, so I apologize if I can't be of more help. One of the most common problems is the mode your SATA controller is in. Take a look, switch it around to IDE mode if it's in AHCI mode and see if that does the trick (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't).

That's as best as I can personally offer, as I said.

[digitizedsoul]

Yeah i have them in AHCI mode now. I tried IDE, and that produced the same results with it being detected just fine by the DVD, but waiting for root device after install.

Is it controlled by the applenforceata.kext or appleviaata.kext? I see via ata loading when the DVD is booting, and it sais "VIA SATA", but that kext doesn't seem to ever load on the boot from the drive despite my having selected it during the install.

[cmdshft]

Well, you can't have VIA on an nForce board. If you selected VIA reinstall without it and only using the nForce chipset drivers and/or fixes that are available.

What is your exact hardware? I need model numbers, please.

[digitizedsoul]

First of all thanks for helping me mate, and if you have a donation link for your release let me know.

My system is a Shuttle SN68SG2. Uses an Nforce630a / GeForce 7025 video (MCP68) chipset. My other details are in the first post, like how i'm not using the onboard video due to lack of acceleration, etc.

I know it isn't a VIA chip, so thats why it seemed strange that the only difference in the bootup text of your iPC dvd, and booting from my sata drive up untill it stops is the presence of that kext. That is just my guessing at work :)

I know the nforce drivers included in the release were good up to MCP67, but since i'm MCP68 i feel that may be the issue. I saw a couple success stories (literally a couple) on the 10.5.2 HCL for this chipset, but none were using SATA.

[digitizedsoul]

Going to try this now:
http://pcwizcomputer.com/ipcosx86/?p=176&cpage=2#comment-879

[digitizedsoul]

Well I tried the above PPF, matched the MD5, burned & installed with NO via driver this time (but with the NEW nforceataTEST.kext that wasn't there before) and WOW did it install faster.
I'd say at least 40-50% faster then the pre-ppf'd disc in the exact same configuration.

Sadly however, no combination of rd= or other flagging can get past the waiting for root device again on boot from the sata HD...

[digitizedsoul]

Still no solution on this yet. Any ideas guys? Evidently something changed in the new KEXT because the install was so much faster and that was the only thing different.

[digitizedsoul]

I have tried nearly everything I can to figure this out, but with my limited knowledge of how to compare what i'm installing, versus what the DVD contains when it boots is keeping me from determining the root cause.

For some strange reason I think that possibly the sata controller on this particular motherboard is a VIA chip due to the presence of a VIA SATA kext load when the DVD boots that is not present when the system boots from the HD. I even tried installing with this kext, but that didn't help. Still it seems strange.

Any assistance in this comparison or the issue in general would be fantastic

[kocoman]

you need to make sure

1) not installing from a DVD-ROM drive (must be writable somehow cdr or dvdr)
2) install the nforceata driver in the iolibrary on the dvd disc

[digitizedsoul]

Well the DVD boot works, it is after install I get no detection of SATA devices.

How would adding something to the DVD help? Just curious really..

THANKS for the reply either way!

[digitizedsoul]

Could REALLY use some help here guys, i'm trying to add yet another chipset to the compatibility list, as well as gain a working system.

Just for the record, i tried the iPC install on an intel ICH7 based Dell yesterday, and after choosing what I KNOW to be the correct chipset driver (ich7 is easy enough) it STILL wouldn't boot from HD after. Same problem as my nforce here, waiting for root device.

Now I KNOW i chose the right one, what is going on here??????

[digitizedsoul]

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=109645


Hmmm I KNEW the appleviaata.kext was the driver. Looks like there IS a VIA chip on an nforce b oard hara!!!

[digitizedsoul]

Still nothing. I just copied / pasted the .kext folder into /system/extensions and overwrote everything. Is that right? Followed by -x -f -v ?

Stil lwaiting for root device..

[digitizedsoul]

UPDATE:

NOTICE TO ALL MCP68 + NfORCE630a / GeForce7025 / Shuttle SN68SG2 USERS!!!!!

In order to properly detect SATA on our platform using iPC, you must use the AppleVIAATA.KEXT NOT the AppleNforceATA.KEXT

I have not yet determined if applenforceata is still required for the cd drive and other IDE devices, but i'll figure that out shortly.

[Phi]

Well in my acer aspire 5520 the internal HD or DVD-CD drive is not detected either, they are SATA. I installed thru kalyway on external usb drive, install ok, boot ok (23 sec!) but still no HD or DVD-CD drive. My chipset is mcp67, my hardware report attached.
Any clue about the SATA kext I should use?

[jfisher007]

I have the exact same chipset as you, digitizedsoul and I am using iPC 10.5.6. I have one IDE HDD and one IDE DVD burner. I cannot get this to work. Right after the install I get this message:
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x001A429B): Unresolved kernel trap (CPU 0, Type 14=page fault), registers:
CR0: 0x8001003b, CR2: 0x000000fb, CR3: 0x01123000, CR4: 0x000006e0
EAX: 0x0bfdcbb4, EBX: 0x0bfdcb80, ECX: 0xffffffff, EDX: 0x0c12a800
CR2: 0x000000fb, EBP: 0x48353df8, ESI: 0x0971ab00, EDI: 0x0bfdcbb4
EFL: 0x00010206, EIP: 0x00592be9, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x0b490010

I also get a lot of the IOUSBOHCI OHCI controller will be unloaded messages.

What am I doing wrong? Any help will be greatly appreciated