Mac OS X could not be installed on your computer

[silentmac]

Hello everybody.
I got some problems when I tried to install the 10.5.2 disk

In the beginning of the install I get the message:
Install Failed
Mac OS X could not be installed on your computer
The installer could not install the software because there was no software found to install.

Click restart to restart your computer and try again.
I can not figure out what's causing this error. The disc is fine, i verified the image and the burnt DVD.. I'm using high quality Verbatim DVD-R and burnt at 4X (slowest avalible).
My drives show up as 128GB but I figured that was a common problem that I could solve later..

I haven't had any problems with 10.4.5 10.4.6 or 10.4.8..

I have one GUID partition that I make using Disk utility on the disc.

Hardware:
AMD A64 3500+
DFI Infinity RS482 (SB 400 chipset)
Gigabyte X1600Pro SilentPipe II PCI-E card
2 GB PC3200 RAM
160GB Samsung ATA drive (for OS)
400GB Samsung ATA drive (for storage)
NEC Optiarc DVD±RW DL

I got every part of this setup to work in Tiger.

I'm really out of ideas, and would really need your help on this one...
Any thoughts?


TIA
/Chris

[cybland]

Hi silentmac,

It seems that the problem lies with your NEC DVD. As far as I know Optiarc is S-ATA DVD. There is a known issue with S-ATA drives. Try to install from P-ATA (IDE) drive or try to boot the install disk with -v switch (press F8 in Darwin and enter -v) to see what error message you'll receive.

[silentmac]

Actually the DVD is IDE..
I read somewhere that I could try to disable ACPI before installing. Gonna do that as soon as I get home from work.
I'm also thinking about injecting the VIAATA kext as it seems strange that the disks are reported as 128GB..

[cybland]

silentmac,

I’ve just realized that you have famous X200/SB400 chipset. There are many reports that Leo can’t be installed on that chipset although DoiX has claimed here (http://osx.kbot.de/comments.php?DiscussionID=543&page=1#Item_7) that he has managed to do it.

[silentmac]

Oh crap.. it seems likely though.

When I turned the ACPI off I got a Kernel panic as soon as the dvd started loading.
I guess I might be out of luck on this :/

I'll try injecting the kexts that made my chipset work in Tiger.
Otherwise it's 10.4.x for me until my next upgrade...

[zeitgen]

The same problem. Now with 10.5.2. Rev 2.
Occasionally, i was able to install 10.5.1 and 10.5.2 rev1 but rev2 causes this error.

[silentmac]

rev2 worked for me. The problem was caused by missing drivers for the southbridge. try injecting kexts that work with your hardware..

also, I cannot install on a GUID partition, I have to use MBR...

[zeitgen]

i've got nforce4 which must be working, i guess(

[Helikutt]

I had the same problem. For me installer fails when it installs fixGuid (use installer log in installer to see where it fails)

Here's how I managed to install rev.2 using GUID partition

Step 1
Create GUID partition using rev.1 DVD

Step 2
Install Leopard and drivers using rev.2 DVD - do not select any bootloader - install should be ok.

Step 3
Restart and boot with rev.2 DVD
Hit F8 and enter -s

Step 4
Enter following lines

cd /usr/standalone/i386
dd if=./guid/boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY (replace X with Leopard disk number & Y with Leopard partition number)
dd if=./guid/boot0 of=/dev/diskX (replace X with Leopard disk number)
./startupfiletool -v /dev/rdiskXsY (replace X with Leopard disk number & Y with Leopard partition number)

restart

and everything should work

Some steps might not be needed - but thats the way I got it to work

Helikutt

[zeitgen]

thank you.
gotta give it a try..

[DaMarsMan]

I had this same problem. I had Rev1 installed fine so I formatted and installed Rev 2 and it looks like the fixed GUID breaks the installation. However, instead of reinstalling without GUID option I just rebooting and did the -s GUID install. Hopefully there was nothing else happening after the error. If there was I should probably reinstall without any boot loader.

[Helikutt]

I wasn't able to install the guid after broken install.
I don't remember exactly but there was some kind of aligment error when i executed this line:
dd if=./guid/boot0 of=/dev/diskX

I got this two times so I decided to use rev.1 disk as much as possible.