The "Unofficial" Empire EFI Support Thread
 

Hey Guys

I thought of making this forum a bit cleaner by starting official Empire EFI Support Thread. since the other forum decided to do censorship (hooray for the Great Wall of Censorship) . I've decided to come here and start a support thread. Its a mutual relationship , as in InfiniteMac would get more users and in return I can get to seek peoples opinion , and reduce the number of e-mails I get about it.

I do hope that the administrators wouldn't mind if I start a topic here. If a written consent is needed , I'm sure to write it in more

anyway , so go on , spur your problems or what-so-ever that we are facing to improvise it and make it easier for people to use Empire EFI !

Thanks

Prasys, Thanks!
 

I have been partially successful with empire efi. I use ati, and am just understanding the elements of staying the choice of ati. I succeeded with v1.7 and ati x1600 and 10.6.0 + your upgrade to 10.6.2! I've spent 126 hours trying to use other ati cards with snow leopard, failing with yours and Netkas' info and guides. I understand more on kexts thanks to you for your blog, but don't understand enough to make hd3650 work outside of 10.5.8 or hd4670 work in snow leopard. I'm not asking you for a hardware solution other than direction to a forum or irc. Please understand that as a neophyte that's trying to learn on my own, that #radeonhd irc and insanelymac are less than understanding or helpful. Thank you jmacie

I get the memory allocation error. Should I try the older version?

]Monty[

I had great success with the hardware in my sig. Only thing was i had no video using the gtx260 so i had to put in my old 8800gs for the install and then swap in the gtx260 and follow PCwiz's guide to get it working. If we can find a way to get the gtx260 working in vesa for the install it would be awesome. Swapping it out sucks.

@ jmacie - you'll have to follow netkas' guide and get his bootloader. I can't be much help as I don't know much of how these 4xxx series card do work exactly.

@ monsteroyd - try version 1.01 instead

@ InteliMacPro - I'll try to see if i can get VESA to work with gtx2xx series. Nvidia would be pretty stupid if they removed vesa support for it. I'll see if i can get some tricks to make it to work in VESA.

That's awesome prasys, thanks! Just wanted to add that the version I used was the beta for the X58 chipset and not v. 1.08 which may have worked with my gtx 260 from the sound of it. I might download the new version tomorrow and try an install on a separate partition just to see if it works. I wanted to do this anyway to make fixing issues like the sleepenabler.kext issue after updating to 10.6.2 easier. The version I had was what was up a week or so ago.

I tried EE (AMD version), and got Still waiting for root device error when booting OSX SL 10.6 DVD.

Then I tried booting DVD with -v -f -s -x and I got KP sayin' somethin' about pmap_memory_steal.

Guess it's kernel thats bugging me or?

Specs are in the sig.

Having the problem where SuperNForceATA wouldn't load correctly, leaving me with a still waiting error.
Hope you could rebuild the image with a 'proper' kext?

P55
 

Hi, I have just bought an i7/P55 intel system, it will be shipped on friday.

Is it possible to use Empire EFI on such system, for what I understood it goes only on X58 platforms. Is it right?

Tnx

i have download the empire EFi iso..unfotunately the booting always restart it self after mounting doned...did i do something wrong...i have retail snow leopard purchased from store $50sgd...

so plz anybody..help...can u guy give a very workin empire efi please..

my spec..
AMD Turion x2
ATi Radeon HD4200
Atheros AR5B93
AR8131 Gigabit Lan
ALC888S

sucessful install with ideneb 10.5.8 with workin soundcard but with weird sound..except wifi,and ethernet not workin..Like to try SL...

i just need very working Empire EFI...!!!

Yes , it works with i7/P55 . There is a special P55 version


@pαuℓzurrr , I am doing that. I am doing more researchs on AMD System
@ ULTIMATI - download the special AMD version. That one should work and should do the trick


Oh there is anew version which I've uploaded. It includes fix for ATI 48xx card. I've included the new ati kexts ,so those with 48xx , 46xx , 47xx , would not have any problems at all

Memory Allocation Error
 

I tried the regular 1.08 version on a Gigabyte G41M-es2L with a quad core Q8400 and got the M.A.E. I then tried the version 1.08 for the i5, i7 quad cores and it booted and loaded retail S.L. I then added the nvidia enabler kexts and it recognized the 8400GS with 1 GB memory just fine, but I have no on board sound and it can't tell me anything about the ram. Will version 1.01 boot a q8400? What do you do about wireless USB network adapters? Thanks!!!!

First, I want to thankPrasys for his time and effort in creating Empire EFI, although I've yet to taste success using it to install Snow Leopard (retail DVD). I have the same motherboard (MSI X58 Platinum SLI) and CPU (Core i7 920) as InteliMacPro, yet I kept getting "waiting for root device" message. I've have tried every version of Empire EFI I could find. I've also tried installing from different DVD drive connected to the system via IDE cable and still stuck at the same message. I've run out of idea what to try next. Any help/suggestion is appreciated. :'(

Kernel panic here with 1.08 (AMD edition) on Asus A8N-E and Opteron 180.

myhack bootloader
 

i have successfully installed snow leopard with Empire EFI 1.01. Boots with the Empire disc in the drive no problem. I can not get it to boot with myhack, however. i have tried selecting and deselecting items in the setup program to no avail. Myhack screen comes up at boot and spins forever. I really wouldn't mind booting thru Empire, but i haven't got sleep working either, so the thing runs full bore all the time. Empire EFI is great work. i appreciate your help

p5q se2 with MAC bios
PNY 9400GT video
voodoohd kext

Boot with -v and check where it hangs. If it hangs in waiting for root device. I want you to open Empire EFI CD , go to extras and open preboot.dmg , inside there go to Extra/Extensions and copy IOATAFamily and some patched kext to your /Extra/Extensions adn re-run pfix.sh and it should work. Most likely its related to your SATA kext !

Urhiness , I'll look into it. Mind to tell me whats the controller of your IDE. I do hope its not jMicron

bditman, empire eFI limits to 1GB of ram by default. There are few reasons why to this. If you want to get full support , install chameleon and prepare kexts and get it to boot. An easier method would be by using say umm myHack

maya77, Again i need the screen shot of the kernel panic otherwise its hard for me to troubleshoot

FATAL ERROR: JavaScript garbage collection failed because...
amd athlon 64 x2 mobility
ati sb700
if someone can help
Installer Log:
http://rapidshare.com/files/314652826/Inst...v-2009.rar.html
thanks

I cant connect to yours blog prasys.co.cc
 

Hi!
I have an AMD motherboard (790GX) with a Phenom II 665 and a Radeon 4890. I want to try the empire efi 1.8 AMD version but I cant find information or guide to do it. Your blog address its not working, whear can i find information? Do you know if my system will work with Empire-Efi 1.8 AMD?
Thanks

Well i tried out the bootcamp utility on your blog, and it worked at partitioning my hard drive wonderfully. I then proceeded install win7 and now can't boot into OS X :-/ I tried the original Empire EFI disc to boot into my OS X partition, but it's the wrong kernel. I then downloaded the new 1.08 with gtx 2xx support and it booted fine but then i again get no video, so the gtx 260 issue remains. Had any luck with that?

thanks pradeesh, it worked. i had tried pfix previously, but turns out it did not work launching from the GUI. ran it through terminal and now i am booting straight to 10.6.2
--ugh--somehow sleepenabler got back in there and buggered up the whole mess. i am going to start over from scratch and post my results. i didn't see that pfix installs kexts to extra/customextensions until after i started my re-install. live and learn

I really need someone with AMD to test me out , if you're willing to lend the PC in ense that I can control it remotely , let me know. I need to gather few things from AMD , especially a dsdt table

InteliMacPro , i really need your dsdt and your video bios dump if possible. I am on 8600GT and pentium d. So I am playing guessing game , as I am assuming few things are constant

Plus mysql table is giving me problems. I am looking for someone whos good in mysql as well.

I am working on another build of AMD , dont worry

Sure i can do that. How do I dump my video bios?

Take a look at NVEnabler thread over at projectosx. Give that a go , remove efi strings and let me know if NVEnabler does the trick for you. If it does then we would have a chance of getting 260GTX to work and yes. NVEnabler could dump your rom as well :P

Plus I've added a new version for AMD folks. Hopefully it works for them :P

[quote=prasys;40546]I really need someone with AMD to test me out , if you're willing to lend the PC in ense that I can control it remotely , let me know. I need to gather few things from AMD , especially a dsdt table

ok just say how and when

empireefiv_108_amd2
Installer Log:
http://rapidshare.com/files/31705677...-2009.txt.html
amd athlon 64 x2 mobility
ati sb700

Looking for Assistance
 

Removed my post, since I was able to fix my problem.

Please help Pradeesh or anyone
 

ok, this is the 3rd time I've had to bother you. I still can not get more than 1gb of ram and 1 core of my Q6600 working. Because I can only boot with empire efi cd, or if I take the com.apple.boot.plist from the cd. I tried removing the boot flags maxmem and cpu=1. Tried removing, different kexts. Tried editing smbios, com.apple.boot.plist. I think I have a working DSDT. I just cant figure this out. Is what happens, is when I boot the screen goes to a blue screen with the mouse pointer, sometimes it will flash to my desktop quickly then flash back to blue, then black screen. Everything works fine when I limit the ram and cpu, with your boot.plist. Sucks not using all my memory, and other cores though. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

P35-DS3R
Q6600
4GB DDR2
10.6.2 with empire efi
9800gt
sata DVD and HD

Well in that case you need to fix DSDT regarding your cores , try doing step by step. First dont limit the ram and check if it boots. Then try removing cpus=1 limit. You'll have to do step by step. the reason why I made it such a way is to prevent crappy Motherboards with poorly written BIOS to get some weird issue. This can be worked on once you've installed OSX. I know DSDT is not something to easy to fix. On the other hand do give VodooTSC a chance , it might fix core syncing issues that you're facing as well.

@ pipko - could you use pastebin instead. I can't download it from rapidshare

empireefiv_108_amd2
Installer_Log_6-Dec-2009.txt
Installer Log:
http://pastebin.ca/1705273
http://filebin.ca/pcfvrt
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E9W6E11F
http://www.MegaShare.com/1662507
amd athlon 64 x2 mobility
ati sb700

I have a dell 435MT with 4850 Radeon card; I believe It probably has a Jmicron SATA inside of it because I get "Still waiting for root device" error; I've tried changing the ports around and still nothing :S

Any reccomendation on what to do? I can install Leopard off iAtkos 7 distro for some reason but this doesn't work :/

Ahci?
 

Are you running your drives in AHCI Mode? Instead of IDE.

The bios has no AHCI options whatsoever :/ I think it's prob. stuck in IDE.

i burned empire efi and snow leopard retail dvd and started installing but i got install failed http://www.infinitemac.com/../../ima...lies/frown.png , i tried again and i got the same message :
http://i19.servimg.com/u/f19/12/79/10/67/img_0010.jpg
I am installing into a usb hdd ( it's an internal hdd and connected with ide to usb connecter ) , active , primart and formatted to one guid partition .
I don't know what is the proplem , so i took a screenshot from the installer log which describe the error it may help :
http://i19.servimg.com/u/f19/12/79/10/67/img_0011.jpg
Thanks http://www.infinitemac.com/../../ima...c/progress.gif

stops loading on "still waiting for root device" just after the firewire error.

LEND My AS4540 For test..
 

Prasys..i would like to lend my my lappy for your test...remotely

i too have the same problem, even left it running for an hour, and i still kept getting the same message.. played around with the BIOS settings, changed the sata mode to AHCI and yet it didn't work.. can anyone help us?

EDIT: even tried using all the flags (-v, -s, -x, -f) but still, nothing

Well , did it install. Select the right options without anything i.e printers. The installation would generally fail , its normal. Make sure it installed 100%. Its because OSX can't bless the drive

MNG , whats your controller. If jMicron I'm sorta out of luck. I'll see what I can do. Please do let me know your controller

where to install gfx kext or Audio, or any other kext ?
 

Hi Prasys,

I use your boot132 cd to install SL, but i need to add other kexts for my onboard Intel gma950 and audio alc 883 to the E/E folder then rebuilt the extensions.mkext but it didn't work. so what is a proper way to do that. Thank you for your time and knowledge.

I got install failed @ ALMOST 60% , not all files were copied , I tried normal , legacy and ( lined ) ICH9R/M users version as i have ICH9R Contoller and intel G33 Chipset , Asus IPIBL-LB Motherboard .
I choosed only base system and additional fonts .
When i restared ( after install was failed ) i booted from the usb hard disk ( which i am installing snow leopard to ) and i got nothing just black screen , when i inserted empire efi cd i didn't see my hfs+ partition .
Note Again : I am installing to iternal hard disk connected via ide-to-usb connecter .
I posted a full summary of my computer by everest ultimate and attached it , it maybe useful .

@prasys IDE controller

EDIT: i've downloaded other versions of the EFI, i found that the legacy EFI v1.08 works for me

noob here :) I used the legacy cd and retail sl disk install worked great. The only issue is my usb ports will only work if I boot with the legacy disk then select my osx drive in the boot loader. If I just boot from the HDD with the my hack bootloader my usb ports do not work. Is there something I can check to see if I need to install or flag to fix this?

Yes

@skew , type USBFix=y in Chameleon boot or add that to your USBplist. If you are not sure how to do this there is a how to somewhere in this forum

@MNG , great

@aatkco , umm i'll look into it , install without additional fonts , etc

What I can do?
empireefiv_108_amd2
Installer_Log_6-Dec-2009.txt
Installer Log:
http://pastebin.ca/1705273
amd athlon 64 x2 mobility
ati sb700

I did , unfortunatley install failed @ 10 Minutes Remaining - i thought it will complete .
What i have to do ?
There is another thing , when i put empire efi cd and boot from it i didn't see the usb drive's partition which i am trying to install snow leopard to , i am wondering if it remains disappeared after installing successfully ( oneday maybe it will ) how can i boot snow leopard then ?
1. it's installed ! when i try again and open disk utility i see that the used space is only 5 GB , not all files were copied .

2. ok , i tried but it seems like my mobo doesn't have ide connecters for the hard disk ( they are all sata ) , i'll ask you a question : if i bought internal sata hard disk and connected it as slave ( my current hard disk is master ) will empire efi read it and install will succees ? please answer me ASAP /

Help me ppl

Hi prasys, thanks for your great EmpireEFI. I was able to successfully install the x58 version and it works about 95% which I am happy with. I was wondering if you could help me figure out why after I install the myhack package everything goes bad, the only thing that works good after the myhack is I am able to access my ntfs drives, with the plain x58 install I cant access my drives. If I dont install the myhack, OSX wont boot automatically and I have to run the EmpireEFI cd everytime to boot into OSX.

thanks for any info

Hp dv8
 

All

Is there anyone who can help me???? Since Friday I own a HP DV8-1080, fast machine however very very though to get SL installed.

Tried everything but unfort. without success. Finally I came across Empire EFI which helped me install SL however I cannot but into SL (System installed from retail DVD with any errors)

On booting I do get a kernel panic (boot options: cpus=1 busratio=20), with the following extensions in the backtrace:

- AppleAPIC
- PS2Controller
- AppleACPIPlatform
dependency IOACPIFamily enIOPCIFamily

Anyone who can help?????

Thx

Tom

Thx

Well, i tried with the legacy issue.
My chipset is an Intel G33, as far as i know its supported, but there are no advanced options about drives in my bios(blame Dell...).

I'm sorta out of luck, or is there a way to get passed the error?

Swapped my harddrive from SATA port 0 to 1, but that didn't help.

Hey I also Ran into this same error last night Im using the latest Empire EFI 1.08 on a Asus P5W DH Deluxe. It let me format my drives but got to about 30% before it failed. Hey Prasys on your blog you say to try a different verison of the EFI if one doesn't work, I want to try the 1.01 version because thats the version that someone used in a guide that Im using and it worked for them. But on your site the link to rapidshare is down is there some way I can get the 1.01 from you or is there another place I can download it to see if it works?

Thanks

thank you,

I just finally installed, iPC 10.5.6. Final w/PPF patch v1.1. Success. I updated the bootloader to the Chameleon 2 RC4 build 648 last nite, and then ran across a thread from Shadow, referencing EmpireEFI, plus someone that works for the 'other' OS vendor had mentioned using EFI to install S.L. 10.6. I thought, wow, that's beyond me because I have a nForce430 MCP61 chipset and AMD Phenom X3 8400. This was the prevailing thought, when I first attempted installing iDeneb 10.5.x and iATKOS v7, which I could not get to work on my system. Then after reading a few days of other information and re-reading HCL for each updated version of Leo, I thought, I have to try another version, iPC worked for me, but had to try many patches before getting to actually run right. Not to confuse the real issue, for posting.

The problem I run into is updating to 10.5.8 combo Mac update. I've read over Netkas's guides. I would assume to use both 10.5.7 and 10.5.8 because I'm attempting 10.5.6 to 10.5.8 without 10.5.7. So skipping one because 10.5.8 is out and would be preferred by me.

After reading your blogsite briefly scanning the important parts, especially for me because I'm interested in updating without having to patch this and that, backup these /System/Library/Extension and then copy them back overwriting something I could use, plus the voodoo1 kernel 9.5. I wanted a simple solution.

According to your work, (this based it seems on Sno Leo) your application would take care of all the passing data to Apple without all these headaches and stuff.

Would your application work in my case to update iPC 10.5.6 to Mac Combo Udate 10.5.8?

Thanks
Best wishes
Stu