Mac OS X on x86 Hardware 2008–2024 Technical Archive
InfiniteMac OSx86 › Leopard 10.5 › AMD 740G? Help please.
7,193 reads · 2009-03-25 – 2009-10-20
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AMD 740G? Help please.

I'm trying to install OSX86 on my Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 system. I believe the chipset is SB700 (740G). Now I've heard several people had success with the 780Gs, but I'm wondering which distro would work best on the 740G (or if they're the…

Primary Author
@moodlifter Published 2009-03-25
Collection
Leopard 10.5
Archival Footprint
7,193 historical reads · 4 curated field notes (from 10 dispatches) · 2009-03-25 – 2009-10-20
Credited Voices (5)
@moodlifter (5)@Ali C. (2)@Zeblade@xXrkidXx@punk_zappa

I'm trying to install OSX86 on my Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 (giga byte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=2813&ProductName=GA-MA74GM-S2) system. I believe the chipset is SB700 (740G). Now I've heard several people had success with the 780Gs, but I'm wondering which distro would work best on the 740G (or if they're the same in the end). I noticed that one of the people in this thread ↗ has had success with the same motherboard I have in Kalyway, but it doesn't seem like he injected the SB700 kext into it. Does the latest Kalyway have the kext already?

Author Updates & Technical Revisions

Follow-up dispatches by @moodlifter

Author Update #1 @moodlifter 2009-03-25

Ah, forgot to mention, iPC did NOT work on my system (couldn't even detect my IDE drives--installed on my SATA drive in AHCI mode and just spat out a black screen even after booting with -v, -x, and/or -F switches).

Did you inject the SB700 kexts on the DVDs you burned?

Might as well list out my specs:

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition
Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2
RAM - Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
GPU - Sapphire GeForce 9800GT

Author Update #2 @moodlifter 2009-04-01

No such luck with iPC again. I get this when I try installing without video drivers:

I get the "no smoking" sign without booting with -v.

Kalyway--even without injected drivers--just flat out reboots my computer for some reason, after loading Extensions.mkext (or so it says). Even booting with the -x and -F switches doesn't help (just reboots the computer right after loading all the kexts). I'm ruling out bad burns as I've tried with multiple DVD drives and DVD-R brands on both accounts. And the MD5 hashes match as well. Really discouraging as someone in that thread above has had luck with an identical motherboard.

Help!

Author Update #3 @moodlifter 2009-10-19

Going to try again tonight with iPC and iDeneb. Hope it works...

Author Update #4 @moodlifter 2009-10-20

Okay, update: I was able to get iPC running successfully on the machine, only thing missing is sound and video from my 9800gt. NVinject didn't work (got a "resolution not supported" message on my monitor), neither did grabbing EFI strings (?) from OSX86tools. I was able to delete NVinject, but I'm not quite sure how to reverse the latter, so I'll probably re-do the installation. Again.

Synthesized Community Field Notes

4 technical responses curated from 10 original dispatches

Field Note #1 @Ali C. 2009-03-25

Mileage varies with the SB700 and Kalyway, I venture to guess. One copy I burned loads fine on my mobo (GA-MA78GM-S2H), while another copy of the same distro (10.5.2) throws back a "still waiting for root device" error.
iPC may also work, but I haven't tried it yet. While the 740G is *much* less common than the 780G, the southbridge (SB700) is the same and thus, the northbridge shouldn't matter. Then again, I'm not entirely sure on this. I am sure, however, that the southbridge is the make-or-break factor when you pop in that DVD. The other stuff doesn't matter if your southbridge can't be recognized by OS X.

Field Note #2 @Ali C. 2009-03-25

It DID install on your SATA drive, but you got a black screen? If it's booting to the Apple logo, you're getting the spinny thing (or scrolling text in -v), then it suddenly goes black, it's more likely a graphics card issue. -x should resolve it, but then again, there's times when that didn't work for me, either, and it was still a video problem.
Retry iPC on the SATA drive, but this time, make a point of installing NO video kexts. Uncheck any and all graphics related kexts in the "Customize" page, otherwise select whatever you did last time, and give it another try at installing.
True, this is going to most likely mean no QE/CI, but that can be resolved after you're sure everything else works as opposed to getting slapped in the face with a black screen at boot.

(And no, I didn't inject anything into my DVDs.)

Field Note #3 @xXrkidXx 2009-05-17

boot into single user mode and remove Extensions.mkext
(with ur kalyway install)

then try booting again

Field Note #4 @punk_zappa 2009-10-19

If I may suggest Leo4All AMD only kernel. It worked great on my 790GX.

Corroborated & Participated: @Zeblade
Sources & Contributor Provenance (5 credited usernames · Thread #2434)
UsernameDossier ContributionDispatchesActive Window
@moodlifterPrimary Author52009-03-25 → 2009-10-20
@Ali C.Contributor22009-03-25
@ZebladeContributor12009-05-16
@xXrkidXxContributor12009-05-17
@punk_zappaContributor12009-10-19