Can't get to 32-bit mode
 

I have been trying for hours to solve this problem and can't figure it out.

I have a nearly flawless Snow Leopard installation on my Asus P6T Deluxe V2 system, but it only works in 64-bit mode. This is fine for pretty much everything except one major issue, which is wireless cards... none of them work with 64-bit.

When I try to boot with the -x32 flag (using Chameleon), it goes to the normal boot screen and panics after awhile. With -v it always hangs at ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin, however I don't think this is the problem because lots of people have this item failing while booting, but it doesn't give them problems.

I CAN successfully boot with -x32 -x (safe boot), however it always kernel panics within 5-10 minutes and numerous other things don't work (wireless does, though).

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So the problem is that I can boot to 32-bit mode only using the -x flag, and it hangs without it. I have no idea why. Any ideas?

its like I Arch something now... i cant remember though..

Yeah, I installed Chameleon 2 RC3 and tried booting with arch=i386 -legacy. The result was fcsk failing, some messages about kext loading disabled, cpu halted, and then the system shuts down.

try arch=x86_32

Information:
arch=i386 -legacy : Boots into 32 Bit Kernel Mode AND!!! 32 Bit App only
arch=i386 : Boots into 32 Bit Kernel Mode , 64 BIT Apps can run also

So normally use NOT the -legacy !

If I recall arch=i386 wont' work with Chameleon 2 RC3

For me arch=i386 is working CH RC 3 and also know as usual 32 Bit flag since RC 2.
The other flag is arch=i386_X64.
For my knowledge flag arch=i386_32 is not used by any bootloader.

I tried arch=i386 and arch=i386_x64 boot flags, and both seem to load everything but hang towards the end of boot after loading ethernet texts. Usually the last item is ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin having a timeout error, but I still don't think this is the problem.

What GPU ? It can be that GUI is shown but you cant see it !!
What happens if you type in kernel flags arch=i386 -v -x ?
So you have an multi system (Leo + Snow Leo) on one HD (2+ partitions) ?
If yes, perhaps wrong /Extra conten is used - which partition is active ?(means must you press F8 to select the Snow Leo or not) .

-x boots, but I always get kernel panics within a few minutes and random things (like Spotlight) don't work.

GPU is nVidia GTS 250, and I think it's working properly since I can see all the necessary things for it being successfully loaded with -v.

My SL installation has a drive all to itself, the Leopard install I referenced was on a different drive entirely.

I would recreate the Extensions.mkext. Mostly random KPs are because of an damaged .mkext.
start with -x arch=i386
start terminal
sudo -s
kextcache -v 1 -t -l -a i386 -m /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext /System/Library/Extensions

Do you have any /EXTRA folder ?
Then also update .mkext there
kextcache -v 1 -t -l -a i386 -m /Extra/Extensions.mkext /System/Library/Extensions

If you have an MBR partitioned HD (not GUID) Chameleon + PC EFI cant work with subfolders 10.5/10.6 remove them.

If you have GUID (EFI) partitioned HD your EFI partition (200 MB) must be mounted to get the above update of mkext worked. Also your path to the .mkext on efi must be chaned for that command line kextcache.