Installing OSX on an AMD Athlon machine?
 

Hello all, Before I get started...yes i did search and im sorry if my problem/question has been asked before. Ok, so I have been trying to install OSX for a while now...I have tried Kalyway and I get the waiting for root device error. I just want to know what is the best install for my machine and if someone can tell me step by step how to install it. here are my specs:

AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ Socket AM2 (940)
ECS Nettle 2 Motherboard
NVIDIA nForce 430 chipset
North Bridge NVIDIA MCP61 Revision A3
South Bridge NVIDIA MCP61 Revision A3
NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-H653N SCSI CdRom Device
1- 320 gb SATA HD (running vista)
2- 320 gb SATA HD (not used, want to use for OSX)
3- 320 gb external HD (used for iTunes & other media, but wil use for OSX if needed)

First, post those specs in your signature so later on people aren't asking you for this kind of info.

Second, consider upgrading your video to something that will support Core Imaging and Quartz Extreme... see the HCL here. I'd recommend something with at least 256MB dedicated video RAM. Try choosing from further down in the list... you'll also see just how easy it was for some people to get theirs working by looking through this list.

I would give Leo4Allv3 a try as you have the nForce4 chipset (MCP 61 - - same as mine). I used to use Leo4Allv3 and found it to be a good starting OSx86 distro (esp. for the board you are going to be installing on). Alternatively, you can select LawlessPPC. Advantages and Disadvantages to each are far and few between.

Some problems you will run in to with your setup: SATA DVD-writing does not work in OS X with the nForce chipsets... we are working on this as Apple is just now switching over to the MCP67 in their Macbook and Pro laptops and soon in the iMac and Mac mini. Another problem is your 6150 does not support CI/QE so you will not have a "nice" display for a while (until you upgrade like I advised above). You can still get resolution support through various other methods (those can also be viewed at the HCL above).

When you go to install, make sure you use a boot flag (during the DVD boot press f8, then during the countdown press any other key... this hanging prompt screen is where you will enter the boot flags)... use the boot flags remember to include the spaces in between.
The DVD should boot up and you should be able to access Disk Utility (in the Utilities menu up top) after selecting your installing language. Now to set up your HD.

First, make sure you select the correct drive (I'm glad to see you've got a dedicated drive for OS X).
select the drive (not a partition within the drive) and then click on the Partition Tab.
you'll see the Options button at the bottom. Select "GUID Partition Table" from this new window and select OK. Rename your HD to something useful (OS X, MacHD, Leopard, etc... you get it) and then change the Volume Scheme from "Current" to "1 Partition"... the Format should also be "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Now once you Apply this you can exit DiskUtility... the installer window will show up and you can go through your setup. Right after selecting Where you will install it you will see a "Customize" button in the lower left corner. You want to click this (otherwise it won't be able to work on your board after installing) and make some selections. As far as what you want to install, select only the bare essentials for now. The "nForce Test" is no longer a "testing" modification to the chipset... it works so use this. Don't select any Audio or Video changes for now.

Install and reboot to the HD (eject the DVD during the reboot).

Again during the countdown, press a key and enter the boot flag "-s" and then enter the following (in yellow) code:
this will restart the computer and you can boot it normally. Now just enter the password for root (or sys admin as it shows up) and enter OS X. Go to System Preferences in the Dock and click Users. Create a new user for yourself and logout and back in to your new account.

(The reason I have you removing those files is because in the earlier versions of them, they caused kernel panics, so we remove them and in doing so, we get rid of the problem.
Also, by running "touch /var/db/.AppleSetupDone" we are bypassing the account creation loop that likes to occur with the MCP 61 (as well as many others). Because we are bypassing this, we needed to create a root password so you could login.)

Now let us know that it works and we can help you move on from there to get everything else working and updated.

check out my post here, it might help you:
http://www.infinitemac.com/f5/how-to...-5-5-on-t1774/

Ok, so thank you for writing this, but instead of simply pointing to your own install method (yes I've seen you doing this in many other threads), simply try to offer advice in the thread you ARE in right now by referencing parts from your other one.
This forum is about helping other people get OSx86 installed on THEIR systems, not glorifying yourself. Thanks.

(BTW - it was a good How-To... but this needed to be said)

regarding your thread... there are other ways of doing this... like getting the voodoo kernel running with the proper kexts, then installing the updates (without needing to patch) via the Apple Software Update.

first I would like to say thanks for telling me what to do and giving me some suggestions to help me install OSX. Im going to try to install Leo4allv3 as soon as it downloads. Is there anything else that I need to do so I can dual boot vista and leopard?

i know...but on the voodoo kernel website it says that it's not recommended to run the kernel on osx version prior to 10.5.5

i tried just that first (install the voodoo 9.5 kernel on 10.5.2 and then update (via apple software update) to 10.5.5), and i got a kernel panic in the middle of the update.

can i put use my distro in every thread on here lol

While I realize you are poking fun here, this is something that has kind of thrown me off for a while. I like that people are willing to help here; that IS the whole point of the forum. You've offered a lot of help without always referring to your distro or a How-To. I am simply asking those who help (in this case it just happens to fall on lemn... no offense bud) to give a little more than just a link to his (working) How-To by realizing that every system is a little different and the people who come here asking for help may not realize there is a step that will not work (or a missing step) for them in a general How-To. Thats all.

Don't get me wrong, I think its fine to point out methods that have worked well... but after a little digging for info elsewhere on the net, you can probably help someone out a little better to be more specific.

Right now, probably nothing except keep researching your system components and double-checking throughout this forum and others to see how people got issues resolved. Since you are going to be booting these from separate Hard Drives, does your BIOS give you the option to start up with a different (selectable) HD on boot? (for example, I need to press f12 near the end of the BIOS boot)

yeah i agree there is 2 much just put a link up atitude around here and to many users not doing the initial research or reading the first steps that are hi-lighted on here. eg still waiting for root device. Not to mention not even finding out what chipset is on their motherboard. If they dont know that it wont make any difference wether they use he right distro or not

Yeah if i go into the BIOS it lets me select which drive to check first or to boot from, and if want to boot from a CD/DVD. Also, do I need to change and jumpers or anything inside my machine??

well this wasn't quite what I meant. here is a different method...

You can use the windows bootloader to select at startup which system to boot.

Copy the chain0 file from on your OS X HD to your windows drive's root directory (ie. C:\chain0)

Now boot into windows and addto your Windows bootloader.

Go into your BIOS and ensure that your Windows HD is the one that is selected to boot. When you turn the computer on, you should get a menu for

Windows
Mac OS X

You can choose either, and once you select and press enter, it should automatically boot into the desired OS. No other settings required. I've used this method in the past and you can also change the default system to either drive using the windows bootloader.

Ok, cool, thanks. I will definitely do this if and when I install OS X. Now i just gotta wait for Leo4all to finish downloading. But just one more thing..(sorry for im a newbie at this kind of stuff) How do I insert that code? Or can you give just a little more detail..sorry

In XP you just manually edit the boot file on your C:\
or navigate through the Control Panel to System -> Advanced tab -> Startup and Recovery "Settings" -> Edit button... either way it is the same file. :-)

I'm checking right now if it is different in Vista as I haven't used Vista in a while.

ok, thanks :)
now im just waiting on the download.

ok its done downloading. now im burning the iso.

Thanks for the heads up... I'm going to be offline for a while since I have to go pick up my wife from the airport a few hours away. I should be online tomorrow if you need any more help... but there are also tons of other qualified (at least in my opinion) people at this forum who can help you out.

Also, ** burn it at a slow speed **

4x or slower is best.

Can someone please help me?? The install was going fine it was going through all the white text with the black screen and it got stuck at: CODE SIGNING: cs_invalid_page: p=144 [lssave] clearing CS_VALID

boot with "-f -x -v cpus=1" to try and circumvent any issues with the hardware detection.

yeah I booted with those flags but I got that error. It also said something about not being able to mount the disk or something like that

Your DVD device is a SATA device right? is the BIOS option for AHCI turned on?

Yeah the DVD device is SATA..How do I turn that on? I've never really messed with the BIOS

the easiest way to dual boot (since you have more than 1 hdd), would be to install leo on one hdd and vista or whatever on another one. usually on newer mothertboards, pressing F8 at boot will bring up a boot menu where you can choose which drive you want to boot from.
i know it's not the most elegant way, but it will work 100% and it's really easy.
be sure to have the drive you want to install leo on sata1. i get the "still waiting for root device" if the drive is not on sata1.
i don't know about you dvd drive, it says in your sgnature it's scsi, i have an ide dvd and in order to make it work i had to install it as a master on the first connector on the cable (strange, i know).


see guys, this time i did not link to my other post :)

PS: whay would anyone think i tried to "glorify" my install? it's not like i made the distro, i just became intimate with google in order to make it work :)
i linked to my post since i thought that there are other informations there that might interest, and also i don't really have much free time, that's all. and i only did it twice, not "many" times :)

what do you mean by sata1? How do I put the hd I want to put Leo on sata1? And what about the DVD drive??

as they say, a picture is worth 1000 words :)

sorry for my poor photoshop skills.


PS: you should also try the newest distro available, iPC osx by pcwiz. there is a thread on this forum about it, from what i've read it should be very easy to install and it's already at 10.5.6 with the latest voodoo kernel.

Hey Lemn... I wasn't trying to tear you down earlier. Sorry if it came across that way. I've just seen too many people pass through trying to get their name out there without actually doing much to help out. I'm glad to see you are contributing and passing on some knowledge so keep it up.

Merry Christmas.

I'd have to agree with Lemn here. You're signature is telling us conflicting info.

don't worry about it man. i manage a board myself (has nothing to do with computers), so i know how it is. glad i can help out somebody, i know it's not easy to find info about this stuff.

merry christmas to you and to everyone here.

Ok I still cant get this to work. Ive tried Both kalyway and Leo4allv3 and I still cant get it to install. On kalyway I get the waiting for root device error. and on leo4all it says something about not being able to mount the disk or something like that.

Hi There... I'm not the most experienced on here but i recently had similar problems... Although i finally got Leo4LL to finally work. I actually found the latest lawlessPCC distro to work almost perfectly for me. Waiting for root device error is almost always that it can't find your Sata HD. I would suggest checking which customizations you are selecting when installing and maybe try different SATA ports.. if you're not sure which one is SATA 1

do you have a spare usb disk? (even a 8gb+ usb stick should do)

in this case you could test-install on the external disk.
if u got problems with sata, install on usb should still work.
and with a running system (external) you have an advantage to get it running on the sata drives.


btw: i recomend trying lawless distro (and the new iPC), as these work fine with my setup.
(ok, it is based on a different chipset, with my old nforce board i ran zeph R2)

Since you seem to have the same chipset as I have you can try the following:

This is based on my experience with the iPC Public release but you might find the same options in other distro's. I have no complete system yet but at least this got me to booting OSX properly. After that you need to reboot with options "-v -f" (and optionally "-x" for safe mode)

At the install options, only enable the "Voodoo" kernel and the "AppleNForceATA" driver listed under "Chipsets" (In iPC there are two, one has a label "testing", I noticed no difference between them).

Good luck.

Yeah I've tried the iPC Public release distro but I get the waiting for root device error. Ive tried disconnecting the other HD from the SATA port and my external HD, only leaving the blank HD, the one for OS X. But no matter what I cant get to the installation screen. Also can someone tell me how to turn on the AHCI mode?? the only distro I havent tried is Lawless. Im currently downloading it..

is it not due to the fact its a sata dvd drive on an nforce chipset do you not have an ide/ata dvd drive to try it with

no I dont..im a little tight on money right now.

The difference between the two AppleNForceATA kexts are that the old one barely works with DVDs in the drive once installed. the "test" one actually isn't a testing kext anymore... it actually works better and if being used in a system will allow that system to read DVDs better than the old.

ok I finally got to the Mac OS X installation screen with the purple background and the language select screen using the iPC distro with the nforce patch. But I cant use my mouse or my keyboard? Is it because it is PS/2 or what is it??

most probably if you have a usb lying around you can plug in at any time

yeah i went out and bought a usb mouse and keyboard. so hopefully it will work now

OMG!! I finallly got it working! With much help from nfoav8or, lemn, LawlessPPC, & McMadd who helped me find the right distro. Ok now that I've got a working install can someone help my get me internet, sound, and my PS/2 mouse & keyboard working? Thats all I need to get a perfect install!;)

Problem
 

Hi. I have de same pc that ulisses 609. Anybody can tell me who is the correct distro that i have to install. Im installing ipc 10.5.6 and at the end of instalation show me a error. Any idea please?? Sorry for my english, but im spanish!!! Thank you in advance!