Voodoo Kernel - Release candidate is out now
 

Download here

Lots of goodies specially for AMD users! Grab your RC package and read the documentation for more info.

Errata - Documentation update.

Page 5
- List of contributors, testers list inadvertently omitted sckevyn for helping test the SSE3 emulator
- The IRC server is incorrect, please reverse the subdomain and domain names.
- Suggested kexts: def --> dfe
- Getting in touch: mailing list address inadvertently omitted: http://groups.google.com/group/xnu-dev/topics

AMD users please update to the latest 10.5.5 updates. 10.5.4 and lower might face problems.

Discussion commenceth ---

Works great keep up the Good Work!!!

Hi thanxx a lot .. i was on the site every day to don't miss the release :-)
Will start testing this evening !


What means "Suggested kexts: def --> dfe" ??

steffx

Just correcting a typo in the docs.

@mercurysquad:

What for 'problems' could apperar in systems lower than 10.5.5? I can't update and did not found a proper working 10.5.5 image for my AMD system yet.

In 'About this Mac' it shows '2.9 GHz Intel Core Duo'. In System Profiler is shown correctly 'Dual Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 185'. Is this a problem of the kernel or of the System.kext which was posted from R0GUE ? The 'AboutThisMac'-Fix from the Leo4All DVD doesn't work.

It is possible to activate hardware virtualization for AMD CPUs with this kernal? If the K8/K9 Athlon/Opteron-Series (Socket 939) support this at all. This would be neccessary for Parallels 4.

I have the same problem with processor info. Instead of "Opteron 180" it says "2.4 GHz Intel Core Duo". It worked fine with BETA 2.

Otherwise, this is great update. Runs in 64-bit mode, and I'm happy that system can be updated directly, without any patching for AMD.

Thanks people for the great work.

just linking back to what has been said here:

if i just edit my boot.plist to boot from my voodoo kernal instead of my mach_kernal i shouldnt have any problems should i? in terms of it being replaced via updates.

sorry dont worry about this, i was reading through the documentation and found my answer :)

"another name different from the default. Software updates from Apple frequently update
the default kernel, which might overwrite the Voodoo kernel and result in an un-
bootable system. "

so it basically means if i just edit the boot.plist or i enter voodoo into my computer at startup it should boot fine. Cheers

AMD processors are identified by the kernel as either Core Solo or Core Duo. Otherwise some things like Silverlight installer don't work. It doesn't have any other significant effect.

Random application crashes have been reported. This is an issue with our custom-dyld built for opcode patcher support, so make sure you are using latest 10.5.5.

The update has a kernel and the intelcpupm kext etc. which need to be avoided. You can follow the Intel guides to update to 10.5.5. Please make a backup first, however, just to be safe.

An direct update to 10.5.5 via Apple Software Update crashed at about 12% on a test system, I tried two attempts. Update my main system wouldn't be useful because it was messed up even with kernel 9.3.0, random kernel panics and hangs and so on. Are there special files (kexts etc.) which should be replaced if a user can't update?

Yesterday I had two crazy crashes while filling my memory to test the 64bit-adapted NForce driver: Logic and MainStage crashed shortly after, but the crash report shows only ??? in the list.

Do you want to fix the 'About this Mac' thing? I don't know, if parts of the system don't recognize the processor correctly some things may not work like they should.

It seems that my applications did not become obsolete ...

I'm happy ! :)

Will I be able to install from a retail 10.5.1 dvd and upgrade _after_ the install, or do I need an updated retail dvd?

Updating is basically the same as always. ;)

All this kernel does is erase the distinction between AMD and Intel users, meaning you can follow a guide previously written only for Intel machines an in *theory* everything should go just as well.

You still have to take precautions so your machine doesn't crash, if for example IntelCPUManagement gets loaded, you still need to make sure that you re-install the kernel if it's overwritten by an update, etc, etc.

What Dies said. In fact I can confirm that the crash at 12% was because of AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext -- I hosed my system recently because of just that (and I have an Intel Pentium M..). So in short for updating, follow Intel guides, don't just blindly run software update for critical updates. The kernel erases distinction between AMD and Intel -- NOT between vanilla and patched setups.

Also @naquaada. re: processor identification. AMD is identified as Core Solo or Core Duo on purpose. For that part of the kernel, we had the option to report the processor either as one of Apple-supported CPUs, or report it as Unknown. There is no way to identify the cpu as anything else. Unknown doesn't work for some apps (installers specially) so we went with Intel Core..

Zephyroth your excellent utility is not yet obsolete but I'd recommend re-channelizing your expertise to other areas than cpuid patching, as 100% parity between intel & amd is a goal of Voodoo. Which means all opcode patching related bugs will be fixed with high priority.

People are incorrectly assuming that the kernel allows them to update straight from software update - this is only true as much as for non-vanilla Intel users. From what I gather, your utility still does a whole lot of things apart from patching CPUIDs, so the utility is still relevant. Feel free to get in touch with us if you need more detailed info about the kernel and its workings.

Everyone else please note that you can run prepatched binaries no problem, but it doesn't mean the kernel will not disassemble each binary as it is loaded (since we have no way to tell whether the binary is already patched or not unless we load it). This means you won't gain any performance by prepatching your whole HDD. Since on-the-fly is really very fast, the amount of time you'll spend reading the HDD, patching binaries and rewriting it back to disk will probably be longer than what the opcode patcher will take in total during average usage. If you still insist on prepatching manually and don't want to use the patcher at all, boot with patcher_opts=0.

I'm not sure about this. In System Profiler the processor is detected correctly as AMD Opteron, in 'About this Mac' (I'll shorten it with 'ATM' now) is it Intel Core Duo. If a program/installer needs system information, from which source it will take them? From there where System Profiler gets it or from there where ATM gets it? What about the tools from zephyroth and PCwiz which could write custom text in the processor and memory fields in ATM? I never had a tool which doesn't working because of an unknown processor, and only the Parallels installer checked for an Intel CPU. But this was easily to remove. I think the most people would like a correct cpu name in ATM. An kernel option for this would be better, so that the cpu is detected either as 'unknown', 'Intel' or the correct type. BTW, what is the option to specify the maximal usable memory?

For users which have problems with a kernel panic directly at the start, try booting with -f to fix all kernel extensions, this works for me. I added it in apple.com.boot.plist, my system actually crashes nearly all ten minutes, no matter which kernel. It's rather frustrating.

I will still work on cpuid patching, for my own knowledge and for some people who experience trouble with this kernel or who can't install EFI (which I think is necessary to use the voodoo kernel).

At the moment I'm learning Objective-C which, I think, is a good idea if I want to create applications for Mac OS. :)

Sure but not now. I prefer to learn alone as much as possible before !

And thanks for the work you and your team have done, I wanted a kernel like this one when I created my first release of Mac OS X !

OK. Explanations follow.

You see it from the user-visible program perspective. In the kernel there are sysctl keys for cputype, cpu family, cpu model, cpu vendor string, cpu brand string. Then there is the cpuid instruction itself. And a couple other methods.

System Profiler is a mess itself, it does some cpuid itself, takes some values from sysctl, and so on. While fixing some bugs I found that the "cpu type" sysctl key is used by installers to check whether they are running on intel or PPC.

That is just cosmetic. There is a text file which can be freely modified and has nothing to do with the kernel.

Others did. Silverlight installer is one. You also say Parallels. These will only work on "Intel" cpu, not powerpc. They do not KNOW about an AMD possibility.

Sure. Use one of the tools to modify what you want to be displayed. The text string is trivial.

Not at all. Kernel option so that people read "AMD Opteron" in about this mac? Why is about this mac important at all when you are fully aware that 50% of your CPU's functionality is running emulated as intel?

And second, we do NOT have the option to identify the CPU correctly. It's either Unknown, OR an Intel CPU. The kernel, the programs, installers and kexts do NOT know about anything else. I will paste that part of the code so it will be clearer:

The part which sets the cpu type:
And the part where these cpu types are defined (these are the only choices we have). Even if we add some values here, it means nothing because we cannot change all the hundreds of programs or kexts which use the apple stock values:

Why do people care about what it says for CPU?
This is a mean-less thing as it is just something that tells you what CPU you have and doesn't effect how the system runs
If people would just look at the big picture and see what mercurysquad and company have made and accomplished and be happy that they can run a system without patching and do the things that Intel user that run vanilla can do is quit a feat

Great Job on the kernel

On the AppleIntelPowermanagment.kext just get the null kext that way you don't have to worry about it when you update

I can sum it up as this you dont run an amiga emulator and complain that it detects the cpu as a 68000 instead of a xeon

Yeah, I found a problem with Beta 2 and 10.5.2 where if my printer was turned on OS X would Kernel Panic.
Works great for 10.5.5 though. Can't wait to try this update with 64-bit!:) Thanks, and keep up the good kernel work!
And FYI Zephyroth, I'll keep using your updater anyway. Can't hurt to pre-patch your installs as a fail-safe if nothing else.:)

EDIT: Okay, so I installed it and took out the -legacy boot flag. It boots just fine but I'm not getting that (allegedly) telltale "Run in 32-bit mode" option in Get Info for any applications.
And my CPU now shows as a Core Duo. Meh, I can edit that when it starts to bug me. Hasn't affected the performance any.

32 or 64 bit ?
 

hi .. i just updated to rc1.
now i wanna know if my system runs in 64bit-mode.
stupid question may be ..but how can i find out ?

steffx

when you boot up using "-v" it is found in one of the top lines. If it isn't showing up, that doesn't mean it isn't doing it though... See Leo4All.com for bhast2's post about how he is running in 64bit mode and he shows you how he knows it.

Even though I'm not getting the "Run in 32-bit mode" option, Geekbench declares my Hack is indeed running in 64-bit. So I take it that it is anyway. *cheers*
EDIT: To confirm you're running in 64-bit mode, you have to "Get Info" on Chess.app, not just any .app. And there the telltale checkbox is. Two thumbs up for the voodoo kernel coders! :)

i upgraded too at this kernel... first reboot kernel panic, then reboot again and all fine.
Some applications crash...
My cpu it's seen correctly but doesn't run in 64bit mode (as report Geekbench) and system profiler see my Hackintosh as:

Nome modello: iMac
Identificatore modello: iMac7,1
Nome processore: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+
Velocità processore: 2.86 GHz
Numero di processori: 1
Numero totale di nuclei: 2
Cache L2: 2 MB
Caratteristiche CPU: FPU VME DE PSE TSC MSR PAE MCE CX8 APIC SEP MTRR PGE MCA CMOV PAT PSE36 CLFSH MMX FXSR SSE SSE2 HTT SSE3 CX16
Memoria: 2 GB
Velocità bus: 220 MHz.
Before was seen as Hackintosh.
System is upgraded to 10.5.5 version and system kexts are 9.5 ones.
Where is the trick?

Strange that yours is showing as an iMac...anywho...
Did you disable the -legacy boot flag in Boot.plist?
No crashes here but mine shows as an Intel Core Duo. Perhaps it didn't install correctly for you? :(

this is my boot.plist

<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string></string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>5</string>
</dict>
</plist>

You have to test with the 64bit version of geekbench which needs a registration key. Free version comes only with 32bit version enabled.

This is a public service announcement :P --
AMD processors are identified as Intel Core Solo/Duo on purpose.

So something is wrong in mine hack?

nothing is WRONG people...
read the entire thread and you'll understand that it is simply aesthetics that are being referred to here.

The kernel works... just use it correctly.

So i don't need any other kext? only the kernel update as for other voodoo's releases? is it right? thanks...

No. Yes. Yes. You're welcome.

Thanks 2 you and all this great forum.

Loved it... absolutely loved it.
I wish all replies could be that easy. :cool:

Worked for me =) thanks. fixed photoshop cs4 and quicktime for me.

Just makeing sure because it looks this way... The kernel is just for fixing problems right?
We can't update using apples software updater if we use AMD still right?

Parallels4 is perfectly working now.. with the old kernel was not permitting to install without tricks...

The new kernel works great! I don't know if the speed has increased but the system feels much more snappier (AMD Athlon 64 3200, 10.5.5).

Thanks to developers for their great work and of course to Zephyroth!

Many greetings from Berlin and a happy first advent

anyone with a non patched system (meaning no binary's patched) you used the retail to install on amd
or you used a custom dvd but didn't use the amd patches

If you could please see if marvin's runs in it
first try in 64 bit mode
next try in 32 bit mode(-legacy)

This has to be tested on a system that has nothing patched in the binary's
like you stuck the retail disk in and installed or used boot 132 to install

Yes, indeedy, as I found out when trying to use OSX86Tools to change the readout and having nothing happen, then reading the bit of code you posted and saying DOH! *facepalm*
Is there some non-aesthetic reason for this change from beta 2? J/W, because it would be nice if it were still open to modification. No biggie if you have reasons not to leave it that way. It's just aesthetics, after all. :)

Does it matter which System.kext I am using when testing RC?
If so which is the one recommended?

Thanks

self-explanatory. I would use the system.kext file provided by Rogue in the beta2c thread though just to be on the safe side.

Me too... using Rogue kexts, but my machine is seen as imac 7.1...
Anyway, this kernel seems rocks... stable and speedy.
Boot time seems to be the same.

also... get the IntelCPUPMDisabler.kext so the 10.5.5 apple update (non-patched) won't cause kernel panics.

http://leo4all.uni.cc/Grabup/11b1e25...09f9e595e8.png


Greekbench scores

Great benchmarks...

so..... i´ve installed the voodoo kernel rc1 with the install method 2. i edit my boot.plist to mach_kernel.voodoo. i replaced the system.kext with the 9.5.0 system.kext file provided by Rogue in the beta2c thread, installed the IntelCPUPMDisabler.kext, AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext and restarted. LawlessPPC 10.5.4 works fine with the new kernel.

in the next step i installed the apple software update 10.5.5. but after a restart i get the error message:

i tried to boot with the flags -v -x -f and leopard starts to the point where i can see the blue sreen and then stops.

i have the same error with the iDeneb v1.3 10.5.5

what´s the problem? i hope anybody can help me and sorry for my english again. :confused:

THX

Motherboard Name: Asus M3A-H/HDMI
CPU Typ: TripleCore AMD Phenom 8450
Motherboard Chipset: AMD 780G, AMD K10
RAM: 2048 MB (DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM)
USB Controller: ATI SB700 - OHCI USB Controller
Sound: Realtek ALC888/1200 @ ATI SB700 - High Definition Audio Controller
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT (512 MB)
Network: Realtek RTL8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter PCI

sounds like a graphics error... I think you might need to remove (or at least move) the GeForce kexts from /System/Library/Extensions/ folder. boot with the boot flag "-s" Now you'll need to fix your graphics (EFI or injector kexts)

Do you have dsmos.kext or AppleDecrypt.kext installed? If not, install one of those.