10.6 install problems

deesto · #1 12-17-2009, 04:39 PM

I have a SATA partition running 10.5.8 with an AMD CPU. I'm trying to install 10.6 to an IDE disk using a retail DVD install image, and I'm running into problems.

When I copy the retail image to a USB stick, patch it with myHack, and reboot to install, the installer sees only USB disks. I added the recommended kexts to Extra/Extensions on the USB stick, fixed permissions etc., and retried, but no joy. My BIOS does not present an ACPI option for SATA.

When I try to install from the USB image to the IDE disk while running in my 10.5.8 partition on SATA, the installer gets to a certain point and fails on "could not extract files from package BaseInstaller". I find the BaseInstaller package within the image and try to install it directly, and I get the same error. Does this indicate a bad install disc? Would be interesting since I used the same disc to install 10.6 on a MacBook with no trouble. But if so, would it be possible to get this file from elsewhere?

Finally, I've tried installing from an Intel/AMD modded image by Hazard, and this seems to almost work, but it hangs after completing and trying to exit the installer. Rebooting into this partition results in a CPU mismatch kernel panic. Running Marvin's AMD Utility from my 10.5.8 partition results in a hung system. also tried zeph's AMD Patcher, which runs fine but does so silently and does not give the option to run on another partition. So I've tried to run this after rebooting with an install disc and running 'open AMD\ Patcher.app" in a terminal but this fails too.

Any ideas on how to approach any of these roadblocks?

Thanks!

deesto · #2 12-18-2009, 03:30 PM

Here's what I've been able to do so far:

Wiped out and reformatted the SL partition (IDE disk)
From Leopard (SATA partition), ran the DVD installer (not an image, but the actual DVD, which was the only way I could get past the package error) and installed to the SL partition
ran myHack on the SL partition, including Chameleon and the chocolate kernel
Added a bunch of suggested kexts to /Extra/Ext (including a hacked AppleATA kext, without which my partition would not boot)
Created a custom smbios.plist and added it to /Extra, including my SL partition's UID
Created a custom dsdt.aml and added it to /Extra
Customized com.apple.Boot.plist in /Extra, including an EFI string for my graphics card (GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB)
Fixed permissions, etc.

Current results:

SL partition boots (after about 10 minutes of mostly blue screen)
Full graphics resolution, but not sure about QE/QI (not listed in hardware profile, where it usually at least says "not supported", here they aren't listed at all)
No sound (Realtek on-board ALC888), despite AppleHDA and enabler kexts in /Extra
Leopard partition would no longer boot, due to kernel panic. I solved this by renaming mach_kernel to chocolate_kernel, but that seems like a dangerous hack. I would like to know how to get this partition to use its own boot options instead of those in the SL partition.
Firewire profile says "unable to list devices"
System will not restart/shutdown: it goes through the process and displays "safe to shut down" but doesn't do it (this is also a problem in the Leopard partition)

Other than that, I think it looks okay, but I'd like to solve the above problems and be able to somehow test how solid the installation is before trusting it. Any ideas on this?

Thanks.

deesto · #3 12-20-2009, 02:42 AM

Thanks for the help so far ...

Anyway, I'm getting closer ... with some additional modifications, I now have sound. But modifying the yukon info.plist in ionetworkfamily.kext with my device info didn't help with ethernet. Before, in Profile->Hardware->Ethernet displayed my raw hardware info, and now is says there are no PCI cards installed.

The system boots super fast (about a minute to X, including mostly verbose text output, as opposed to about 6 minutes in Leopard), but for the first few minutes it displays only the mouse and a snapshot of the desktop on which you can't click anything (although the clock in the menu bar keeps moving, nothing else can be clicked). And reboot/shutdown still doesn't work, but that is the least of my concerns after everything else.

I've attached all the logs and info I can think of (up to the maximum 5 allowed attachments), in hopes someone has some suggestions on getting ethernet, firewire, etc., working with a kext, dsdt, or otherwise. Thanks for your help.