[Installation problem] XPS 420 iAtkos 10.5.5

[innervision]

Hey all,

I've been able to install 10.5.5 on my XPS 420, but it doesn't actually boot into the OS successfully. It just hangs at the grey Apple logo until I'm forced to restart.

System specs:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Video: ATI Radeon 3870
Audio: Intel 82801I HD Audio Controller / ATI Radeon HD 3870 Audio device
Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n
RAID bus controller: Intel 82801 SATA RAID Controller

For the installation, I used these settings:

iATKOS v5i Main System
PC EFI V9
AppleDecrypt
(added SMBIOS-EFI)
9.5.0 Kernel Voodoo
Stock ACPI Modified
Disabler.Kext
ATI
SATA/IDE > Intel SATA
NTFS-3G

If any other information is required to determine what the problem could be, just let me know and I'll look at my system again.

I really appreciate any help.

[Voyn1x]

Boot in verbose mode using -v and post where it stops here.

[innervision]

Thanks for the response.

It stops at "Still waiting for root device"

[Voyn1x]

It can't find the hard disk. You need to make sure you've installed the right driver for your southbridge.

[innervision]

How can I verify that? Which driver (and what exactly is the southbridge)?

[innervision]

Out of these settings, which would be the driver(s) referring to the southbridge?

iATKOS v5i Main System
PC EFI V9
AppleDecrypt
(added SMBIOS-EFI)
9.5.0 Kernel Voodoo
Stock ACPI Modified
Disabler.Kext
ATI
SATA/IDE > Intel SATA
NTFS-3G

[Voyn1x]

IDE/SATA, for example you might have a ICH7 or ICH9. It should say somewhere in your manual or on the dell website.

[innervision]

Where else could I check? The hard drive it is installed on didn't come with this machine, and it didn't come with a manual.

Is there a Linux command to display that sort of information? Or a hardware scanner for Windows/Linux?

[innervision]

Using a program called siw.exe, I have determined that my southbridge is ich9r.

I don't see that listed under the options for installation though; here are the available ones (under System drivers):

SATA / IDE
-- Intel SATA
-- Intel AHCI SATA
-- JMicron
-- nForce SATA
-- VIAATA

Speedstep
-- Intel Speedstep a
-- Intel Speedstep b

Laptop Battery
ext2fs
NTFS-3G

Which of these represents an ich9r southbridge?

[innervision]

Just an update, I retried the installation with the same settings, except this time I changed my SATA / IDE setting from "Intel SATA" to "JMicron", but I still get the same error in verbose mode: "Still waiting for root device".

Any ideas?

[Voyn1x]

You might find a fix in this thread (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=77371&st=60&p=935670&#entry935670), it has a few possible solutions involving the bios.

[thorazine74]

Are you booting from a SATA disk? Try setting the SATA as AHCI in the BIOS and you should be able to boot from it.

[Undead Surfer]

I think the one you are looking for is:-

Intel AHCI SATA

Have a try with that one and let me know if it works.