NewEgg Deal On Supermicro Atom 330 Server

[PH]

Promo code EMCJJJJ29 gets you a brand-new (not "open box") SUPERMICRO SYS-5015A-H 1U Intel Atom 330 Dual-Core 1.6GHz Dual Gigabit LAN Server Barebone for $199.99 with free shipping (usually two days to West Coast locations, guaranteed to be three days to other locations).

This is the same enhanced server product on which I have most recently reported.

DSDTs are posted on tonymacx86's site for any RAM combination, but 2 GB or 4 GB makes the most sense. The NewEgg and Supermicro specs state that 2 GB is the maximum, but this is not correct, as I have proved, and I am presently running 4 GB.

Lion-compatible using UniBeast and mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1, and runs Lion and Server Lion flawlessly, 10.7, 10.7.1 or 10.7.2, whatever floats your boat.

Also runs Ubuntu or your choice of Linux, but with the price of Server Lion being so attractive, I an see no reason not to use Lion as the basis of a server.

The NewEgg pages for this product are featuring two of my reviews of this product, and it would certainly appear that NewEgg is no longer shy about discussing OSx86 on their site.

[faithie999]

thanks for the heads-up!

does this come WITH the atom processor and WITHOUT memory? just want
to be sure before i think further about buying one.

thanks

ken

On Nov 11, 12:08 pm, PH <peterh...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> Promo code EMCJJJJ29 gets you a brand-new (not "open box") SUPERMICRO
> SYS-5015A-H 1U Intel Atom 330 Dual-Core 1.6GHz Dual Gigabit LAN Server

> Barebone<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101262&nm_mc...>for $199.99 with free shipping (usually two days to West Coast locations,

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> does this come WITH the atom processor and WITHOUT memory? just
> want to be sure before i think further about buying one.

This is a complete "barebones" product.

As such ...

RAM is not included.

Use your choice of 1, 2, 3 or 4 GB, but 2 GB as 2 x 1 GB or 4 GB as 2 x 2
GB is recommended as this enables the dual channel function of the
Northbridge.

Hard drive is not included.

Use your choice of HD. I used 1 TB as that's what I had available, but 2
TB is also good and most probably 3 TB.

If you want internal RAID, then the optional 2 x 2.5" drive carrier is
required, and the drives would necessarily be limited to 750 GB each. Or 1
TB each, if you can find those.

Everything else is included in the product, including 19" rack mount ears
(standard) and slides (optional, but included with the product) or nothing
at all for desktop mounting (in which case 3M-type stick-on feet would be
required ... available at any hardware store).

This is the high-end Atom 330 server, the one with 2 x gigabit LANs and
the availability of an optional PCI-e "riser" card for external RAID or
"port multiplier" cases.

All you have to do is add RAM and a hard drive and in thirty minutes can
you have Server Lion running on your desktop or in your rack.

Software support is through my DSDTs and tonymacx86's UniBeast +
MultiBeast, but it is my DSDTs which give you the best MacOS X support (I
have not tried a non-DSDT installation, but that might work, too).

Use Lion and Server Lion applications from the Apple store.

Nothing else to buy.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> Software support is through my DSDTs and tonymacx86's UniBeast +
> MultiBeast, but it is my DSDTs which give you the best MacOS X support (I
> have not tried a non-DSDT installation, but that might work, too).

I have previously posted the "Guide" to build one of these.

Software required includes an external instance of Snow Leopard or Lion
(either will work).

Software also required includes:

1) UniBeast (I used 1.0.0),

2) mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1 (this is the 10.7.1 kernel from the open
software repository which has been modified to support atom processors),

3) the DSDT for your desired RAM configuration (1, 2, 3 or 4 GB),

4) MultiBeast for Lion,

5) Lion.app (from the Apple store ... I don't recommend so-called
"torrents"), and, optionally,

6) Server.app (also from the Apple store; this turns an instance of Lion
into Server Lion).

For the techies out there, the only kexts in /Extra/Extensions is
fakesmc.kext and, optionally, IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext.

The mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1 completely eliminates the need for all those
weird kexts which try to fool the system into believing it is something it
isn't.

The Supermicro Atom 330 will report itself as:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac12,2
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo <---- This is certainly a key factor
Processor Speed: 1.6 GHz <---- OK, its a SLOW Core 2 Duo, but it is H-T
Number of Processors: 1 <---- There are actually two processors, each
with one core
Total Number of Cores: 2 <---- Each core supports two threads, so four
total threads
L2 Cache (per Core): 512 KB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 533 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MultiBeast.tonymacx86.com
SMC Version (system): 1.30f3

[PH]

Did anyone get one of these?

[mosslack]

On Nov 12, 2011, at 2:48 PM, PH wrote:

Did anyone get one of these?

I would have, but unfortunately didn't have the extra $$$. Just got my daughter married off last night. 8^)

Just a message from mosslack...

_________________________________________

The Boys <+> TBIE <+> Hack List <+> Personal Blog

[Kris Tilford]

On Nov 12, 2011, at 1:55 PM, mosslack wrote:
>
> On Nov 12, 2011, at 2:48 PM, PH wrote:
>>
>> Did anyone get one of these?
>
> I would have, but unfortunately didn't have the extra $$$.
> Just got my daughter married off last night. 8^)

How much dowry did you have to cough up?

[pete...@cruzio.com]

>> I would have, but unfortunately didn't have the extra $$$.
>> Just got my daughter married off last night. 8^)
>
> How much dowry did you have to cough up?

LOL ... I would love to have had daughters. Hell, I would love to have had
sons.

Not to be, it seems.

[mosslack]

Just a couple of pigs and a chicken.

[mosslack]

I have both, daughter is an angel, son is a… well, I can't really say a devil, he has after all provided me with several grand children to spoil. 

[phubai]

Thanks for the info. I think this will do nicely what I am interested in. As I understand you install Lion and then update to Lion Server, correct? I also appreciate and will look at your guide as well.

--phubai

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> Thanks for the info. I think this will do nicely what I am interested in.
> As I understand you install Lion and then update to Lion Server, correct?
> I also appreciate and will look at your guide as well.

Thank you for your kind words.

I partitioned the 1 TB hard drive (no reason to buy a SATA III drive as
the mobo's SATA channels are SATA II) as follows:

1) Lion, 20 GB,

2) Lion Backup, also 20 GB, and

3) the entire remainder of the drive as Lion Data.

All were (and still are) HFS+ Journaled.

I did the install of Lion 10.7 using the UniBeast 1.0.0 technique, with
that flash drive being made on another system which had Snow Leopard. Of
course, the installation method was modified because of the need for
mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1.

I also applied the 10.7.2 Combo Update to Lion, using a DVD copy as the
source of the update. The update is HUGE, almost 1 GB.

Now, after Lion tested out in each and every respect, I did the following:

1) I cloned Lion to the Lion Backup partition, then

2) I applied the Server Lion update to the Lion Backup partition, and

3) I thoroughly tested the Server Lion system.

Only after all of the above, I finally cloned the Lion Backup partition
(which was really Server Lion) to the Lion partition, tested that and then
renamed all the partitions to Server Lion (from Lion).

I performed all of the above with the belief that 2 GB was the maximum
storage configuration.

However, after reading Intel's specification for the 945GC chip, I
realized that it was the only one of that family which supported 4 GB.

Of course, the NewEgg AND the Supermicro specifications both stated that
only 2 GB was supported.

Anyway, I pressed on and installed 2 x 2 GB = 4 GB, and the machine's BIOS
menus WOULD recognize 4 GB, but MacOS X would fail to boot.

It was then that I realized that the Supermicro's DSDT had hard-coded the
RAM size.

Several tests later, using Ubuntu, and I was able to calculate the values
for the DSDT which would enable any of 1 GB, 2 GB, 3 GB or 4 GB to be
installed in the Supermicro.

I am now permanently running 4 GB in my Supermicro, and I intend on
keeping it that way.

I will most likely be buying the PCI-e 8x "riser" card so that I can run
one or two eSATA drive cabinets, using "port multipliers".

In this way, I can have up to 8 x 3 GB = 24 GB of external storage.

[PH]

After FINALLY receiving the pair of 1 GB DDR2 sticks (the package was apparently lost or mis-routed twice), I tested every possibly configuration from 1 GB to 4 GB.

All tested positively, although 1 GB is not recommended as the kernel's RAM disk is smaller than Lion prefers it to be.

Additionally, it turns out that the first OperationRegion statement, which defines the amount of RAM which is installed to the DSDT and, thereafter, to MacOS X, is NOT a linear function of the installed RAM size, and as we know from earlier mis-steps, Lion DEMANDS that this statement be absolutely, positively accurate.

So, the 1 GB and 3 GB DSDTs had to be corrected and recompiled and, of course, tested, which I did this morning.

Now, EVERY possible configuration has a DSDT and each and EVERY one has been tested.

I have uploaded the corrected folder with all DSDTs to the tonymacx86 site, where my Guide and errata have been posted.

To review, 1 GB DOES work, but is not recommended for everyday use; 2 GB is fine, and 2 x 1 GB = 2 GB is a better 2GB configuration than is 1 x 2 GB = 2 GB as dual-channel mode will be used; 3 GB is OK, but this will also force single-channel mode; and 4 GB is excellent.

I will most likely stick with 4 GB, but should my P45 system need some RAM for testing, I can quickly substitute 2 GB in the Supermicro Atom 330 Server and use the 4 GB in the P45.

Now, as to DSDT residence and testing, I have all FIVE DSDTs in the Supermicro's /Extra folder: 1GB-dsdt.aml, 2GB-dsdt.aml, 3GB-dsdt.aml, 4GB-dsdt.aml and dsdt, where dsdt.aml is my PREFERRED configuration, either 2 GB or 4 GB.

Booting an alternate DSDT is simply a matter of specifying the following, for example, at boot time: DSDT="3GB-dsdt.aml".

[PH]

Here ...

http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?p=236227#p236227

... is the link to the complete scoop on the Supermicro Atom 330
Server's DSDT and links for downloading them (modified for MacOS X).

[faithie999]

the supermicro i ordered early in the week arrived while i was away
for a few days, so now all i need is to come up with some memory.

in reading the specs on the new egg site, am i right in assuming that
533 mhz memory is the best buy, since faster memory will be limited by
the system bus speed of 533 mhz?

thanks!

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> the supermicro i ordered early in the week arrived while i was away
> for a few days, so now all i need is to come up with some memory.

Eggs-cellent!

> in reading the specs on the new egg site, am i right in assuming that
> 533 mhz memory is the best buy, since faster memory will be limited by
> the system bus speed of 533 mhz?

The Intel Atoms, most, anyway, are designed around a 533 MHz front-side bus.

PC2-4200 is the specification of the two 1 GB sticks which I bought from a
P45 system for this project.

DDR2 800 MHz is the specification of the two 2 GB sticks which I borrowed.
By my reading of the specifications, this is PC2-6400.

No matter, PC2-4200 is 533-1/3 MHz and PC2-6400 is 800 MHz, and the 945GC
will tolerate sticks in any order and in any capacity.

You really should get two matched sticks, if possible, as this will ensure
dual-channel RAM support.

The PC2-4200 RAM was bought simply to "prove" the 1 GB, 2 x 1 GB = 2 GB
and 3 GB configurations, so I bought based upon price, including shipping.

Happily, the PC-4200 worked well with the PC-6400.

The Atom 330 is sort of tied to 533 MHz (really, 533-1/3), anyway.

Once your Supermicro is up on Lion or Server Lion, you should be happy
with it.

Two gigabit E-net LANs are provided so you could, theoretically, allocate
one for (external) Internet access, through a DSL or cable modem and one
for (internal) Intranet access, through a local router, and then use the
Supermicro for controlling access to your entire site.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> PC2-4200 is the specification of the two 1 GB sticks which I bought from a
> P45 system for this project.
>
> DDR2 800 MHz is the specification of the two 2 GB sticks which I borrowed.
> By my reading of the specifications, this is PC2-6400.

Oops!

The PC-6400 (800 MHz) sticks were the ones I borrowed from a P45 for this
project.

The PC-4200 (533.33 MHz) sticks were the ones I bought from an eBay seller
...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2GB-2x1GB-PC2-4200-DDR2-Desktop-RAM-/120815520970

... for this project.

I can see by his most recent listing that his price has increased by a
dollar or so.

No matter.

What he provided me was two "matched" sticks (identical in every respect),
and either or both worked perfectly in the subject Supermicro Atom 330
Server product.

Should you want 2 GB, then I would recommend this item.

But, as I have proved, 2 x 2 GB = 4 GB is fully supported by this product,
and that is what I am using, and that is what I would recommend.

I have NOT done any testing of the ICH7R beyond 1 TB drives, but I believe
it should be good to at least 2 TB, if not 3 TB.

Not withstanding the above comment, this Supermicro product will accept a
PCI-e "riser" card ...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101390

... which can accommodate a SATA RocketRAID JBOD/RAID enclosure and
"bundled" card (the card is SATA III but the enclosure is SATA I) ..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132034

... which is supported natively by MacOS X Lion, and which I am already
using on other systems (a Shuttle SH67 and aGigabyte P67).

The RocketRAID 622 card will support two external enclosures, each with up
to four drives, and that is what I have, and use, although not presently
on the Supermicro Atom 330 Server.

When NewEgg runs an EggBeater special on these subsystems, the price comes
down to $109.99 and the shipping becomes "free".

MacOS X Lion (and probably also Snow Leopard) will see the all the drives
as individual drives, should that be your choice, which is what I have
elected to do (all are MacOS X-compatible HFS+ journaled drives).

[faithie999]

peter--thanks for the detailed information!!

On Nov 20, 9:35 pm, peterh...@cruzio.com wrote:
> > PC2-4200 is the specification of the two 1 GB sticks which I bought from a
> > P45 system for this project.
>
> > DDR2 800 MHz is the specification of the two 2 GB sticks which I borrowed.
> > By my reading of the specifications, this is PC2-6400.
>
> Oops!
>
> The PC-6400 (800 MHz) sticks were the ones I borrowed from a P45 for this
> project.
>
> The PC-4200 (533.33 MHz) sticks were the ones I bought from an eBay seller
> ...
>

> http://www.ebay.com/itm/2GB-2x1GB-PC2-4200-DDR2-Desktop-RAM-/12081552...

[phubai]

Good information! I received mine last week, and also had to order memory. I thought I had memory, but didn't. I appreciate your link, dsdt, etc. I'm looking forward to setting it up with Lion server, and I want to use it as a firewall as well, with the WAN using one ethernet port and the LAN the other. It'll be a great learning opportunity for me as well.

Thanks!

--phubai

[pete...@cruzio.com]

Welcome!

The two dual eSATA bracket and cable kits which I ordered from HK arrived
this morning.

I ordered TWO as they are VERY inexpensive and I expected that perhaps one
might arrive have a kinked SATA cable, leading to possible intermittents.

This proved to be true. One of the two had a visibly kinked cable, but not
necessarily intermittent (I have not yet tested it, and I may not).

So, the one which was apparently good in every respect was installed in
the Supermicro Atom 330 Server, thereby giving me two eSATA connections,
which on the surface may seem to be laughable as I have not yet attached
the top cover, therefore the two related iSATAs, and an additional iSATA
are still accessible (I have not yet elected to go with the dual 2.5"
internal SATA drive carrier and with RAID, and I may not).

I am liking this system better and better.

For a firewall or a basic server, one really doesn't need LOTS of
computing power, but two 1.6 GHz cores, each of which has hyper-threading
and EM64T, and 2 GB of RAM and 1 TB of disk storage is nothing to laugh
at.

Then, given a clean and fully operational Server Lion install with ALL
software updates and Server tools, all the latest-and-greatest from Apple
Inc, what can one ask more of for a firewall and an e-mail server?

[phubai]

On Nov 21, 3:28 pm, peterh...@cruzio.com wrote:

> I am liking this system better and better.
>
> For a firewall or a basic server, one really doesn't need LOTS of
> computing power, but two 1.6 GHz cores, each of which has hyper-threading
> and EM64T, and 2 GB of RAM and 1 TB of disk storage is nothing to laugh
> at.
>
> Then, given a clean and fully operational Server Lion install with ALL
> software updates and Server tools, all the latest-and-greatest from Apple
> Inc, what can one ask more of for a firewall and an e-mail server?

Exactly! It may be more than I'll ever need in fact. I'm impressed
with it's potential for sure.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

>> and EM64T, and 2 GB of RAM and 1 TB of disk storage is nothing to laugh

I MEANT 4 GB, the maximum for the 945GC which this product has.

Other 945s, MOST, in fact, have a 2 GB maximum.

[faithie999]

ok, i'm stumped.

the bottom line is that after the install, booting from the HD
(without the usb stick inserted), and using verbose boot, the first
part of the boot (where there is a listing of the kexts being loaded)
completes, but then at the beginning of the second phase of the boot,
after 6-8 lines of text which flashes by too fast to read, the system
reboots.

i have tried to install on two different HD's, with identical results.

now to back up:

i followed Peter's guide (in the tonymac thread) to the letter.

i prepared the unibeast usb stick using my purchased copy of 10.7.2.

at the bios screen, i selected "default options", and then changed IDE
to AHCI and changed the boot order so USB booted first (i also
subsequently tried selecting "optimized defaults", made the same two
changes, with the same result).

booting from unibeast, i partitioned the SATA HD, one partition, GUID.

the install proceeded to normal completion.

upon reboot, i selected the Unibeast installer, and boot proceeded to
the normal "set up your mac" series of screens.

i placed the dsdt from the Unibeast USB on the desktop and ran
multibeast 4.1.0, userDSDT, system utilities, lnx2mac enet driver.
multibeast proceeded to normal completion. lnx2mac proceeded to
normal completion.

before restarting, i copied the atom kernel from unibeast USB to the
root of my HD. i replaced the boot.plist created by multibeast with
the same from Unibeast USB (plist edited per peter's instructions).

performed shutdown, removed unibeast USB, and restarted. as mentioned
at the beginning of this message, the first part of the boot (kext
loading) proceeded normally but system rebooted after about 6-8 lines
of the second phase of the boot.

performed shutdown, reinserted unibeast USB. upon restart, i chose
Unibeast, and system booted from the HD as expected.

i would like to inspect the boot log to see what those 6-8 lines say.
where can i find it?

any other suggestions?

thanks in advance!!

kem

[faithie999]

forgot to mention that i am using 2 X 1GB memory, and i am using
peter's 2GB dsdt

On Nov 22, 2:00 pm, faithie999 <faithie...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> ok, i'm stumped.
>
> the bottom line is that after the install, booting from the HD
> (without the usb stick inserted), and using verbose boot, the first

> piart of the boot (where there is a listing of the kexts being loaded)

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> ok, i'm stumped.
>
> the bottom line is that after the install, booting from the HD
> (without the usb stick inserted), and using verbose boot, the first
> part of the boot (where there is a listing of the kexts being loaded)
> completes, but then at the beginning of the second phase of the boot,
> after 6-8 lines of text which flashes by too fast to read, the system
> reboots.

Something isn't right.

I remember that I had to pull the HD out of the Supermicro once or twice,
mount it in an eSATA/USB 2.0 dock and perform some magic on the
installation using another Lion system, most probably my P67.

I didn't have to do that with my P35, P45, P67 or H67 installations of
Lion, so methinks it has something to do with the kernel. OR, the boot
loader.

Additionally, originally I had copied the Atom kernel over to the USB
stick and to the HD as mach_kernel, and that proved to be troublesome.

The installation was a success, but Software Update... would not work.

Turns out that Software Update... checks mach_kernel for a match on the
particular update, and, for example, the update to 10.7.1 will be dimmed
(i.e., not selectable) if mach_kernel is really mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1.

So, I went back and renamed mach_kernel to mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1,
changed the appropriate plists, restored mach_kernel from the USB stick
and the updates went well.

10.7 [ AKA, 10.7.0 ] doesn't care if you are booting
mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1, and neither does 10.7.1 nor 10.7.2, but they DO
care if mach_kernel matches the candidate update.

Now that I think about it, I seem to recall that I had an issue with the
/Extra folder, and I pared it down to just fakesmc and
IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector, although the second one is not mandatory.

I am sorry you are having these difficulties.

While I endeavored to make my Guide as complete and as accurate as
possible, I DID trip over myself in the naming of the kernel and my
"mid-course corrections" in that regard may have made the Guide less
accurate than it could have and SHOULD have been.

With Lion, I have found that an unexpected reboot after all the kexts have
been listed has more to do with the boot loader itself than it does with
the installed system.

For the Supermicro Atom 330 Server project, I tried to do it tonymacx86's
way and use his latest Chimera and his preferred renaming of the plists,
and their contents.

I specifically recall that Kakewalk 4 was not satisfactory (it rebooted
exactly or almost exactly as you described), but that the
then-newly-released UniBeast 1 worked quite well for me.

It may well be that the easiest solution ... although not a general one
... for the Supermicro Server is to duplicate a known-good instance of
Lion, and then use showallfiles to allow manually modifying the duplicate
to accommodate the Atom 330.

In this specific respect, it is the /Extra folder which needs special
attention as that is where the DSDT and the plists reside. The kernel is,
of course, in the root of the file system.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but I am having difficulty in reconstructing
the comedy of errors (really, terrors) in building a fully working
Supermicro Atom 330 Server system on 10.7.2 with all updates and no
reliability or functionality issues, whatsoever.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> forgot to mention that i am using 2 X 1GB memory, and i am using
> peter's 2GB dsdt

2 GB, either as 2 x 1 GB (dual-channel) or as 1 x 2 GB (single-channel)
use the same DSDT, the one I originally released BEFORE I went hog-wild
and decided to "tickle the tail of the dragon" and try every possible RAM
configuration, including the two which BOTH NewEgg and Supermicro said
were impossible, Intel's 945GC specification not withstanding.

2 GB is the practical minimum for a Lion system, although 1 GB will work,
just not very well as the boot loader is thereby forced to reduce the size
of the RAM disk into which it loads the kexts.

It doesn't appear to have these issues with 2 GB, 3 GB or 4 GB.

[faithie999]

thanks.

i suspect a bootloader issue.

the process i am now using for a successful boot is to have the
unibeast USB installed, and BIOS set so that USB boots first.

then when the chameleon screen appears with unibeast on the left
(since it has boot priority) and my HD on the right, i click on the HD
to highlight it, then press enter to start the boot.

the HD activity light doesn't glow immediately, leading me to believe
there is something being accessed from the USB stick (i don't have an
activity light on that particular USB stick), and then after several
seconds, the HD activity light begins flashing, as the boot is taking
place and proceeds successfully.

it's not the end of the world to need to have the unibeast USB
installed to boot, since this box will be a server and will presumably
be turned on 24/7.

i must also point out, since i know you're a big fan of sleep (ha
ha!!) that with the addition of SleepEnabler_10_7_1.kext installed in
s/l/e, sleep works perfectly!!

just for fun, i will try a new install using my preferred method--
using rboot (from tonymac) and a vanilla lion 10.7.2 usb installer
stick prepared the "normal' way from my purchased lion 10.7.2
download. i'll report on that when i do it.

thanks!

[pete...@cruzio.com]

>> With Lion, I have found that an unexpected reboot after all the kexts
>> have
>> been listed has more to do with the boot loader itself than it does with
>> the installed system.

THIS is where npci=0x2000 and the PCIRoot flags can be helpful.

[faithie999]

well, i've thrown in the towel (sort of).

i didn't want to always have a usb stick tied up as a boot helper, but
i didn't want to spend hours/days figuring out why my lion install
wouldn't boot from the HD without the assistance of the Unibeast usb
stick.

i partitioned my HD with a 6 gb first partition and the rest of the
capacity as the second partition.

i used my unibeast usb stick to install lion on the second partition.

then i removed the HD from the supermicro and attached it via usb to
my hackbook. i created a unibeast installer on the first (6gb)
partition.

then i installed the HD back into the supermicro. upon booting, when
the chameleon screen appears, i select my lion installation and it
boots properly.

now i will enter the world of learning about home servers and what
interesting things i can do with one!

[mosslack]

On Nov 23, 2011, at 5:58 PM, faithie999 wrote:

well, i've thrown in the towel (sort of).

i didn't want to always have a usb stick tied up as a boot helper, but
i didn't want to spend hours/days figuring out why my lion install
wouldn't boot from the HD without the assistance of the Unibeast usb
stick.

i partitioned my HD with a 6 gb first partition and the rest of the
capacity as the second partition.

i used my unibeast usb stick to install lion on the second partition.

then i removed the HD from the supermicro and attached it via usb to
my hackbook.  i created a unibeast installer on the first (6gb)
partition.

then i installed the HD back into the supermicro.  upon booting, when
the chameleon screen appears, i select my lion installation and it
boots properly.

now i will enter the world of learning about home servers and what
interesting things i can do with one!

I've been at this hacking thing a long time now and one thing I've learned is that the 1st partition should always be your boot partition. I know I've heard others say this or that works also, but it's been my experience if you want it to work to make OS X the first partition. What was the original proposed use for the 6 Gb first partition?

[Kris Tilford]

On Nov 23, 2011, at 4:58 PM, faithie999 wrote:

> i didn't want to always have a usb stick tied up as a boot helper, but
> i didn't want to spend hours/days figuring out why my lion install
> wouldn't boot from the HD without the assistance of the Unibeast usb
> stick.

You changed your BIOS to select the HD 1st instead of the USB?

You're probably using Chimera, but I'd recommend trying the latest
Chameleon using Chameleon Wizard as an installer.

[Kris Tilford]

On Nov 23, 2011, at 5:19 PM, mosslack wrote:

> one thing I've learned is that the 1st partition should always be
> your boot partition.

I agree. And if you screw up and install a bootloader to two different
partitions it can be a problem.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

>> i used my unibeast usb stick to install lion on the second partition.
>>
>> then i removed the HD from the supermicro and attached it via usb to
>> my hackbook. i created a unibeast installer on the first (6gb)
>> partition.
>>
>> then i installed the HD back into the supermicro. upon booting, when
>> the chameleon screen appears, i select my lion installation and it
>> boots properly.
>>
>> now i will enter the world of learning about home servers and what
>> interesting things i can do with one!
>
> I've been at this hacking thing a long time now and one thing I've learned
> is that the 1st partition should always be your boot partition. I know
> I've heard others say this or that works also, but it's been my experience
> if you want it to work to make OS X the first partition. What was the
> original proposed use for the 6 Gb first partition?

My installation of Lion on my Supermicro was two 20 GB partitions followed
by the entire remainder of the drive as a common data partition. All were
HFS+ Journaled.

The first non-EFI partition should be your primary MacOS X boot partition.

The second and third non-EFI partitions may be Windows and FAT (shared
Windows/MacOS X data partition), respectively, should you want to try dual
booting.

The next partition should be your secondary MacOS X boot partition.

You may have additional MacOS X partitions, say, for testing.

The last partition should be your MacOS X-only data partition.

I think 30 GB is a better size than 20 GB for the two MacOS X partitions,
but that is 20-20 hindsight.

As I reported, I partitioned my Supermicro 1 TB hard drive as 20 GB, 20 GB
and the entire remainder as HFS+ journaled.

I installed Lion on the first partition.

I screwed-up on the naming of the kernel (reported in greater detail
earlier) so I elected to pull the HD and use an existing Lion
installation, most probably my P67, to fix it.

I MAY have installed the boot loader at this point, under the P67, but I'm
not sure. I was not taking notes at this point, but I should have been in
retrospect.

I reinstalled the HD in the Supermicro and it booted OK.

I CCC-ed the Lion boot partition to the second, backup partition.

I applied the 10.7.2 Combo Update from a DVD.

I installed Server Lion, probably from a DVD, but it is small enough, 26.5
MB, that I may have used a USB flash drive.

I tested the Server Lion update and it was fine.

I CCC-ed the Server Lion to the second, backup partition and checked it
out by booting it.

As everything checked out, I renamed the Lion and Lion Backup partitions
to be Server Lion and Server Lion Backup. I also renamed the Lion Data
partition to be Server Lion Data.

I am sure I had to pull the Supermicro's hard drive at least once in order
to fix the kernel name problem. I may have installed Chimera at that time,
or I may have done it at another time, requiring the hard drive to be
pulled a second time.

It was only after the Supermicro was working 1000 percent (sic) that I
screwed it down using those special, very small-headed black screws which
Supermicro provides for the purpose.

This, then, is a reconstruction, and is probably what I most likely did.

Update ...

The dual iSATA to eSATA cables arrived the other day from HK.

One was installed in the Supermicro with the SATA port allocation as follows:

PRT0 - 1 TB boot drive

PRT1 - reserved for possible internal RAID (would require the dual 2.5"
drive carrier accessory kit)

PRT2 - eSATA

PRT3 - eSATA

I have a "watch" set on the PCI-e 4x "riser" accessory, just in case
NewEgg comes down on the shipping charges. I would then use this "riser"
for a RocketRAID 622 PCI-e 1x JBOD or RAID card.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

I guess those of us who elected to buy the subject product got lucky.

NewEgg now lists it as "out of stock".

But not "deactivated".

Meaning, it may come back in stock at a later date.

[faithie999]

thanks for the suggestions/info. i know what i have kluged together
isn't optimal.

again, i decided to do this because after installing lion using
unibeast, and running multibeast after install, the thing wouldn't
boot. it crashed/reset just into the "second phase" of the boot
process (after loading the kexts). it would only boot if i first
booted using the unibeast usb, then selecting my lion install at the
chameleon screen

i will use chameleon wizard to experiment with other versions of the
bootloader.

when i have some more time, i will do another clean install, not using
multibeast, and create my own /extra folder, install chameleon, and
see what happens. however, today the priority is cooking!

happy thanksgiving to all

ken

[mosslack]

On Nov 24, 2011, at 6:39 AM, faithie999 wrote:

happy thanksgiving to all

ken

Right back at you and anyone else celebrating this feastive holiday.  8^)

[mosslack]

On Nov 24, 2011, at 6:39 AM, faithie999 wrote:

again, i decided to do this because after installing lion using
unibeast, and running multibeast after install, the thing wouldn't
boot.  it crashed/reset just into the "second phase" of the boot
process (after loading the kexts).  it would only boot if i first
booted using the unibeast usb, then selecting my lion install at the
chameleon screen

From your description, I'm not totally sure where the KP is happening. If booting verbose, at what point does this happen? If not verbose, is the clock spinning, plain gray screen, etc. If you do the clean install, be sure the Lion (boot) partition, the one you will actually boot into, is the first partition on the hard drive. Don't be confused by Peter's mention of the EFI partition as this is NOT visible when using Disk Utility. The EFI partition is always present as the first parition (200 Mb) when using a GUID partition scheme, but is only visible when using a lower level format tool like Gparted or during the Windows installer. 

Generally I believe UniBeast uses the latest Chimera bootloader so functionally, it should not be any different on the USB key or the hard drive. Be sure the hard drive is set to be first in the BIOS as that is where the system looks for a bootloader. I generally set my systems up this way from the start and then just use whatever 'F' key is used on your system to choose a different boot device when booting from a USB flash drive. 

As others in the group may be using this same system, be sure to let us know how the clean install goes. Bootloaders have always been a fascinating part of this hobby for me personally and I'm always curious as to the reasons why when something goes amiss.

[faithie999]

thanks.

i started with a clean install--using the unibeast usb stick prepared
with my purchased 10.7.2 download.

i formatted with a single partition (GUID). after installing, but
before rebooting, i ran multibeast (user dsdt, using the correct dsdt
from peter) copied the atom kernel to the root of the lion partition
and copied the plist (modified per peter's instructions) from the
installer stick to the lion extra folder.

booted verbose--the "first part" of the boot (where all the kexts are
loaded) proceeded normally. then when the "second" part begins (the
screen font changes to a slightly larger size), about 6 lines quickly
scroll by and the the system reboots.

is the boot information stored in a log somewhere, so i could find out
what those 6 lines say?

my decision to install unibeast on a small (first) partition and then
install lion to the second partition is merely a workaround till i
(we!) get this figured out. while it is klugey, it is working fine
for now.

[mosslack]

On Nov 24, 2011, at 10:24 AM, faithie999 wrote:

is the boot information stored in a log somewhere, so i could find out
what those 6 lines say?

I don't know that all of it will be available, but you can view the system.log (/var/log/system.log) and see what it has to say. You can use Console for this purpose if you don't wish to do it in Terminal.

[mosslack]

On Nov 24, 2011, at 10:24 AM, faithie999 wrote:

booted verbose--the "first part" of the boot (where all the kexts are
loaded) proceeded normally.  then when the "second" part begins (the
screen font changes to a slightly larger size), about 6 lines quickly
scroll by and the the system reboots.

This sounds more like a kernel problem to me as I had nearly the same problem when I was trying to boot the Zotac mini ITX system. It would boot as long as I used iBoot legacy, which uses a non-standard kernel. What does your org.chameleon.Boot.plist look like? 

These are also funny b/c the one seen first is the one which sets the stage for booting. IOW, if you have 2 partitions on a hard drive, and try to boot the 2nd partition, the org.chameleon.Boot.plist in the /Extra folder of the 1st partition will be used to boot, no matter what is contained in the one in the /Extra folder of the 2nd partition. This is b/c the bootloader gets this info before it knows which partition you will ultimately boot up in. I would say this is your problem as the 6 Gb partition was originally empty and therefore no Boot.plist file was found.

[faithie999]

when i did the original install (single partition) i copied the
boot.plist from the unibeast stick to the lion extra folder, and then
the unsuccessful boot followed. maybe there's a hidden file in the
extra folder of the unibeast stick that isn't present in the lion
install. when i do another clean install on a different HD (after
dinner; i'm the cook today) i will copy the entire extra folder (which
contains the plist as edited per peter's instructions) to the new lion
install, rather than copying just the plist.

[mosslack]

On Nov 24, 2011, at 11:07 AM, faithie999 wrote:

when i did the original install (single partition) i copied the
boot.plist from the unibeast stick to the lion extra folder, and then
the unsuccessful boot followed.    maybe there's a hidden file in the
extra folder of the unibeast stick that isn't present in the lion
install.  when i do another clean install on a different HD (after
dinner; i'm the cook today) i will copy the entire extra folder (which
contains the plist as edited per peter's instructions) to the new lion
install, rather than copying just the plist.

Just remember, the new install should be on the 1st partition, there should be no blank partitions before it. Otherwise you will be in the same situation and the bootloader won't know which kernel to load. I am so familiar with this problem from the netbook days when everyone was trying to multiboot OS X and Windows on a single drive. They would try to put the Windows partition first, which works fine for Windows, but not when using Chameleon to boot OS X from. The only way it worked was when a Windows bootloader was used to transfer control over to the OS X bootloader. 

Bootstrap bootloaders on PC's basically go to the BIOS first. From there control is transfered to the 1st sector of the hard drive (or whatever device is indicated in BIOS). If the code there points to Chameleon as the boot loader, Chameleon then looks for the Boot.plist file in the /Extra folder of the 1st partition. If it's not there, Chameleon attempts to load OS X using the defaults, which include the standard kernel in OS X. If the CPU is not recognized by the kernel the system is rebooted in an endless loop until you make changes to fix it or shut off the power.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> These are also funny b/c the one seen first is the one which sets the
> stage for booting. IOW, if you have 2 partitions on a hard drive, and try
> to boot the 2nd partition, the org.chameleon.Boot.plist in the /Extra
> folder of the 1st partition will be used to boot, no matter what is
> contained in the one in the /Extra folder of the 2nd partition. This is
> b/c the bootloader gets this info before it knows which partition you will
> ultimately boot up in. I would say this is your problem as the 6 Gb
> partition was originally empty and therefore no Boot.plist file was found.

This is precisely on-point.

Recently, I mucked about on my EM64T, but SSE3 Shuttle P35 (the proc is a
Pentium 4 541, 3.2 GHz with H-T).

Partition 1 (assuming the EFI partition is 0) was Leopard SSE4

Partition 2 was Snow Leopard SSE3

Partition 3 was Leopard SSE4

Partition 4 was Snow Leopard SSE3

As long as I left Partition 1 alone, I could boot Snow Leopard SSE3 from
either Partition 2 or Partition 4

I got a little too cute and erased the system from Partition 1.

Now nothing would boot.

I pulled the hard drive and CCC-ed Partition 2 to Partition 1.

Reinstalled the hard drive and it still would not boot.

I pulled the hard drive again and installed Chimera 1.4.1 on Partition 1.

Reinstalled the hard drive and now any partition which has MacOS X
installed, which is now only SSE3 versions of Snow Leopard, will boot.

Alas, Partition 1 is "special" and it MUST have a bootable MacOS X system
on it otherwise none of the other partitions are likely to be bootable.

The best course of action (in my now very humble opinion) is this:

1) make Partition 1 twice as large as you want it to be,

2) make the entire remainder of the hard drive a data partition to be
shared amongst MacOS X partitions,

3) install MacOS X on Partition 1 and ensure that it is working properly,

4) go back and "resize" Partition 1 to about one-half of its size,

5) "add" Partition 2 using the area freed-up by the "resize" (the number
of the data partition will change to 3),

6) CCC Partition 1 to Partition 2.

Here are some SPECIAL conditions for dual booting with Widows 7.

1) make Partition 1 the size you want it to be (not twice the size),

2) make Partition 2 the size you want Windows 7 to be (NTFS),

3) make Partition 3 the size you want your shared Windows 7/MacOS X data
partition to be (FAT),

4) make Partition 4 the same size as Partition 1,

5) make Partition 5 the entire remainder of the drive and use this for
shared MacOS X data only.

The reason for this is Widows 7 and anything which Windows 7 will see MUST
have partition numbers which are below 5 and the actual Windows 7
partition takes two partition numbers, one is apparently for the swap
partition.

As MacOS X is usually the primary OS, anyway, and as the first partition
MUST be MacOS X for the boot loader to work properly, your backup MacOS X
partition(s) MUST be AFTER the Windows partitions.

If you try to be cute and place the shared Windows 7/MacOS X data
partition after your backup MacOS X partition, Windows will not see it as
it has a partition number which exceeds 5.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> Bootstrap bootloaders on PC's basically go to the BIOS first. From there
> control is transfered to the 1st sector of the hard drive (or whatever
> device is indicated in BIOS). If the code there points to Chameleon as the
> boot loader, Chameleon then looks for the Boot.plist file in the /Extra
> folder of the 1st partition. If it's not there, Chameleon attempts to load
> OS X using the defaults, which include the standard kernel in OS X. If the
> CPU is not recognized by the kernel the system is rebooted in an endless
> loop until you make changes to fix it or shut off the power.

AND, in the case of the Supermicro Atom 330 Server, the kernel is a
special one.

It is named mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1

However, you can get into all kinds of trouble by renaming it mach_kernel,
the default kernel name for MacOS X.

Yes, the system might boot, but then again it might not, particularly
after attempting a Software Update...

Software Update... attempts to prevent this sort of trouble by matching
the kernel's data to the data within the update itself. No match and the
update will not be allowed.

As long as mach_kernel remains whatever version of mach_kernel matches the
version of the OS, it is perfectly fine to have a mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1
around, which Software Update... will never check, but which the bootstrap
loader will always go to as the kernel flags point to it.

I have exactly the same issue on my Pentium 4 541 system. In this case,
mach_kernel is still there, but the bootstrap loader always loads
mach_kernel_non-atom, which is a special kernel for SSE3 but not SSSE3
Intel processors, and then only for Snow Leopard.

It doesn't matter if the kernel is hidden, or not. Normally, mach_kernel
IS hidden.

[mosslack]

On Nov 24, 2011, at 12:33 PM, pete...@cruzio.com wrote:

However, you can get into all kinds of trouble by renaming it mach_kernel,
the default kernel name for MacOS X.

This make the location of the Boot.plist all the more important so that updates can be performed and the system still boots the proper kernel.

[faithie999]

peter--could you pls send me a copy (copy and paste into a reply to
this msg is fine) of your org.chameleon.Boot.plist

thanks

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> peter--could you pls send me a copy (copy and paste into a reply to
> this msg is fine) of your org.chameleon.Boot.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>arch=i386 npci=0x2000 PCIRootUID=1</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>No</string>
<key>Instant Menu</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Legacy Logo</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GenerateCStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GeneratePStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>
</dict>
</plist>

And, for good measure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>SMfamily</key>
<string>iMac</string>
<key>SMproductname</key>
<string>iMac12,2</string>
<key>SMboardproduct</key>
<string>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</string>
<key>SMserial</key>
<string>xxxxxxxxxxxx</string>
<key>SMbiosversion</key>
<string>MultiBeast.tonymacx86.com</string>
</dict>
</plist>

[faithie999]

peter--thanks.

copied and pasted both boot and smbios.plist, same result (reboot)

i thought i could learn something from the system.log or kernel.log
after the unsuccessful boot. i removed the HD, attached to my
hackbook, looked in /var/log/system.log and /var/log/kernel.log but
there were no entries for the most recent boot. not sure why.

i'm just about out of ideas. the last thing i can think of is to ask
you what bootloader and version you're using?

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> i'm just about out of ideas. the last thing i can think of is to ask
> you what bootloader and version you're using?

Whichever one was provided with the release of MultiBeast Lion Edition ...
it was 4.0.3.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> i'm just about out of ideas. the last thing i can think of is to ask
> you what bootloader and version you're using?

Here's how my Supermicro BIOS is setup:

Boot Features --> HPET Enabled

IDE Configuration --> Configure as AHCI, SATA before PATA

Super IO --> serial ports are disabled

System Memory --> Populated size 4096 MB, Available size 3576 MB

Northbridge Configuration --> Video Function Select --> 128 MB

I used Chameleon Wizard to read what it thought was my boot configuration.

It said the boot loader was Chimera 1.5.4 r1394.

I thought I had deleted the PATA device from the DSDT, but I didn't.

For MacOS X, HPET and AHCI is pretty much mandatory.

I suppose video could be reduced to 64 MB.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> peter--could you pls send me a copy (copy and paste into a reply to
> this msg is fine) of your org.chameleon.Boot.plist

Here's some additional information which could be helpful.

Using showallfiles.app and selecting SHOW, the following boot files are
found on the first Lion partition:

boot (not hidden, but probably should be)

mach_kernel (hidden, and presumed to be 11.2)

mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1 (not hidden and known to be 11.1 with changes for
atom)

The same is true of the second Lion partition, which was CCC-ed from the
first.

Either partition will boot as specified using the <- or -> keys on the
keyboard.

I suspect, but do not know for sure, that there is another boot file in
the EFI partition of the Supermicro's hard drive. I suspect that your
Supermicro hard drive may be missing that boot file.

I also suspect that your system, which is requiring the USB flash drive to
be present, is using the boot file which is in the EFI partition of the
flash drive as the first phase of the boot loading process, and only after
you select the target partition is control being transferred over to the
boot file on that hard drive partition.

[PH]

Apparently, the Supermicro Atom 330 Server ...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101262 /
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101262R

... has now been "deactivated", meaning it may NEVER return.

No matter. It is most probably available from others.

Sad, as this was perhaps the very lowest cost true server product
which was 100-percent compatible with Server Lion.

[faithie999]

sounds like a promising lead.

how would i go about inspecting and "fixing" the EFI partition?

thanks in advance

[mosslack]

On Nov 26, 2011, at 4:03 PM, faithie999 wrote:

sounds like a promising lead.

how would i go about inspecting and "fixing" the EFI partition?

thanks in advance

On the group files site is a utility for this purpose. It's called UpdateEFI and can be downloaded here:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?rbk2v241cuyqyqb

[mosslack]

On Nov 26, 2011, at 4:03 PM, faithie999 wrote:

sounds like a promising lead.

how would i go about inspecting and "fixing" the EFI partition?

thanks in advance

Oops, bad link, try this one instead:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?r8jf22326o84rhb

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> Oops, bad link, try this one instead:
>
> http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?r8jf22326o84rhb

UpdateEFI2, a completely new utility, is available ...

http://www.insanelywind.com/forum/download/file.php?id=1619

... here.

[faithie999]

i think i have figured it out (for my system, at least!)

i won't bore you with my umpteen unsuccessful troubleshooting
attempts.

i finally decided to copy the Extra folder in its entirety from my
Unibeast USB stick to my fresh Lion HD install, replacing the Extra
folder created by multibeast. it booted fine.

to determine what made the difference, i unhid the contents of the
relocated extra folder (unibeast sets it to Hidden when it prepares
the usb stick) and decided to start removing the extensions one at a
time. my first try was to remove the nullcpupowermanagement.kext.
and, that was the key! without it, the boot exhibited the same
troublesome behavior--crashed back to reboot just after the "second
phase" of booting started.

i don't know if this is optimal, but i think it will get the job done.

thanks for all the suggestions along the way!!

ken

[faithie999]

for my future reference, what does UpdateEFI/UpdateEFI2 do, and how do
you use it?

thanks!

On Nov 26, 8:42 pm, peterh...@cruzio.com wrote:

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> for my future reference, what does UpdateEFI/UpdateEFI2 do, and how do
> you use it?

These are SUPPOSED to "mount" the EFI partition as something which you can
inspect and/or modify.

I HAVE NOT been able to get either to do that.

[mosslack]

I believe if you cannot get access to that partition it has not been used for that purpose, AFAIK. IOW, it hasn't been formatted.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> i think i have figured it out (for my system, at least!)
>
> i won't bore you with my umpteen unsuccessful troubleshooting
> attempts.
>
> i finally decided to copy the Extra folder in its entirety from my
> Unibeast USB stick to my fresh Lion HD install, replacing the Extra
> folder created by multibeast. it booted fine.
>
> to determine what made the difference, i unhid the contents of the
> relocated extra folder (unibeast sets it to Hidden when it prepares
> the usb stick) and decided to start removing the extensions one at a
> time. my first try was to remove the nullcpupowermanagement.kext.
> and, that was the key! without it, the boot exhibited the same
> troublesome behavior--crashed back to reboot just after the "second
> phase" of booting started.
>
> i don't know if this is optimal, but i think it will get the job done.

Glad to hear that you've finally got your Supermicro up and booting
without needing special help.

UniBeast usually builds an /Extra folder with a lot more kexts than a real
mobo is likely to need.

Here is what UniBeast built for one of my installs (NOT the Supermicro):

/Extra/Extensions ...

AHCI_3rdParty_SATA

EvOreboot

FakeSMC

IONetworkingFamily

IOUSBFamily

IOUSBMassStorageClass

JMicron36xATA

NullCPUPowerManagement

/Extra ...

org.chameleon.Boot

smbios

/Themes

dsdt

Here is what I pared my Supermicro's /Extra folder down to:

/Extra/Extensions ...

FakeSMC

IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector

NullCPUPowerManagement

The remainder of the /Extra folder is pretty much as above.

Yes, is is a good idea to hand-build the contents of the /Extra folder of
UniBeast and then to copy it over to the installed system (UniBeast may
either copy over an abbreviated /Extra folder or it may fail to copy
anything within it).

For a system, such as the Supermicro Atom 300 Server, which needs a
special DSDT, you know you are going to have to add the dsdt.aml file
within /Extra and at least FakeSMC and NullCPUPowerManagement.
IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector is a kext which simply causes the hard drive
icons to be displayed as silver rather than as yellow.

In particular, for a system which needs a legacy kernel, you will have to
manually copy the kernel into the root of the UniBeast USB flash drive and
the installed file system, too. You MUST leave mach_kernel alone as it is
used to check during various phases of the update and/or installation. In
the beginnings of my experiences with the Supermicro, I renamed
mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1 to mach_kernel, and that got me into a bootable
system alright, but none of the Software Updates... would apply. Renaming
mach_kernel back to mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1 and copying over the real
mach_kernel, and updating org.chameleon.Boot to refer to
mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1 got the Software Updates... to apply correctly,
both the 10.7.2 Combo Update, which is just over a GB, and the
subsequently found updates, such as the Brother printer update, and
others.

I believe most of my above observations were discussed when you first
reported having problem with your Supermicro.

[faithie999]

peter--you answered the question i was about to ask: whether your
supermicro has nullcpupowermanagement.kext installed or not. i had
all the other bits right--leaving mach_kernel alone, not renaming
mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1, using the correct dsdt for a given memory
config.

what caused me all the head-knocking-against-wall was that i used the
"userdsdt" option in multibeast 4.0.3, which only installs one kext:
fakesmc.kext.

"easydsdt" option installs many other kexts, including
nullcpupowermanagement.kext.

since i had a your dsdt i chose the userdsdt option, never giving
thought to kexts i might need to add.

do you think there might be a dsdt edit so that
nullcpupowermanagement.kext isn't required?

thanks for all your hard work in creating the dsdt's and guide, as
well as the tip on the availability of the supermicro on newegg.

ken

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> do you think there might be a dsdt edit so that
> nullcpupowermanagement.kext isn't required?

In my experience, not all mobos can get by without NullCPUPowerManagement.

My Gigabyte P67 can. It has a very late Award BIOS DSDT, modified by
tonymacx86 for MacOS X compatibilty, and further modified by me for
further improved MacOS X compatibility.

My Shuttle H67 cannot. It has a very late AMI BIOS DSDT, modified by me
for MacOS X compatibility.

My Shuttle H67 came just before my Supermicro, and the Supermicro also has
an AMI BIOS DSDT.

I suppose what happened was I utilized the "lessons learned" on several
previous AMI BIOS DSDTs (a number of ASRocks and several late Shuttles)
and came up with my AMI BIOS DSDT Hacking Guide, which I originally
published on tonymacx86's site, and after users had reported that they
were being "blocked" from downloading my Guide, I brought it over to H
Q-A.

It has not substantially changed, and I now pretty much do new DSDTs from
memory, without referencing the AMI BIOS DSDT Hacking Guide.

There are FAR FEWER things to worry about on an AMI BIOS DSDT as Award
made some fairly significant mistakes on their DSDTs, mistakes which
allowed Leopard to work, but Snow Leopard would always fail. And, of
course, if Snow Leopard fails, Lion will also fail.

(In fact, Leopard often can work without a DSDT at all ... MacOS X will
simply read out the BIOS's DSDT and use it as-is).

But, Snow Leopard (all versions, 0 through 8) and Lion (at least versions
0, 1 and 2, but version 3 will soon be coming out) require a squeaky-clean
DSDT, particularly where the RTC is concerned.

You will know your DSDT is wrong on Snow Leopard and Lion if you get a
"CMOS Has Been Reset" error when you shut-down MacOS X and you are forced
to accept the CMOS defaults, which WON'T allow MacOS X to boot OR you
elect to manually re-enter all those defaults, which WILL allow MacOS X to
boot.

This is because the length of a variable was set to 0x04 rather than 0x02,
and Snow Leopard and Lion are using the two bytes which follow the 0x02
for their own purposes as the amount of NV-RAM (namely, CMOS) is quite
limited on PCs and Snow Leopard and Lion need lots of NV-RAM to store its
parameters across a reset or a power-off. Probably across a sleep as well.

AMI did not make this mistake on its DSDTs!

But, AMI needs lots of help in other areas as it produces DSDTs which
cannot be compiled using our old-faithful DSDTSE DSDT compiler (the
"professional" DSDT tools which Intel and Microsoft license to its
motherboard manufacturer clients are much more forgiving).

Typical AMI BIOS DSDT errors include:

1) _T_0 and related errors, as a leading underscore indicates a "reserved
word",

2) the usual error that almost everyone makes on _WAK and also Local0,
Local0 where the first Local0 has to be replaced by Zero,

3) SBUS device is missing or named incorrectly,

4) LPCB is named incorrectly (this is the "low pin count bus" chip which
every PC mobo has and which maps all the old devices from the PC/AT days
into a single chip which can ride on the Southbridge and provide floppy
and UART/USART support with a minimum of pins),

5) and also procedures which return values for ALMOST every eventuality,
but which DO NOT return a default value (as the default will never be
encountered, anyway, it is a simple matter to parse the entire decision
tree of the offending procedure and stick in a Return (Zero) statement
which thereby establishes the default return value).

Anyway, I am getting way off the point, so I will try and wrap this up.

No, I have NOT found a way to eliminate NullCPUPowerManagement.

It is either required or it is not.

If it IS NOT required, then including it doesn't get you into trouble.

However, if it IS required, then failure to include it will get you a KP
or worse.

A final remark.

My Shuttle H67 is generally a good machine, notwithstanding the fact that
its two ASMedia USB 3.0 chips (two rear ports, two front panel ports) are
completely useless as there is no USB 3.0 driver, but these ports work
fine on Windows 7, so that's a small mercy of some kind, and also the fact
that I cannot get ALC8xxHDA to work on it for the life of me.

Also, it requires NullCPUPowerManagement, whereas my Gigabyte P67 does not.

But, then, the Gigabyte is an Award BIOS DSDT whereas the Shuttle H67 is
an AMI BIOS DSDT.

Go figure!

[Louis Santillan]

PH,

What geekbench scores are you getting from these machines?

-L

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> What geekbench scores are you getting from these machines?

I have obtained a Lion/Server Lion textbook from Amazon and I am busily
perusing that book.

My goal is an e-mail server and a DNS, both using only Server Lion, which
I can use to replace my Internet service provider.

It's not that I am dissatisfied with them, far from it, but I want more
control. I will still use a static IP which is provided by them. What I
will be saving is a minimum of US$10.99 per month, a minimum of US$132,
for hosting and e-mail, plus I will obviously be able to provide other
services, too.

Also, I have paid-for, and have owned my own TLD (basically, my name,
which some poor fool let lapse, and which I snapped-up a few microseconds
after it had lapsed), for many years, and it seems now it the time to host
my own Internet presence.

The Supermicro Atom 330 Server, with 4 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage,
should be more than I really need.

The 4 GB of RAM was the basic issue for me, and with luck I was able to
overcome the stated 2 GB (by both NewEgg and Supermicro) RAM limit.

I presently have 1 TB of disk storage, but I am tempted to change to 1.5 TB.

[phubai]

Okay...my memory finally arrived. I've installed 4GB and have just booted the system with the USB drive. Well "just" is very relative....it's been 40 minutes and I'm still looking at the Apple icon....no installer....yet. When you said it takes a LONG time Peter, were you suggesting longer than 40 minutes hopefully?!

I've had this happen before, and will probably give it another 10 minutes, and then re-boot to it again. I'm anxious to get Lion installed!

--phubai

[Louis Santillan]

Set SATA to AHCI?

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>

[faithie999]

do a verbose boot and tell us where it's stalling

[pete...@cruzio.com]

5 to 10 minutes, maximum.

It is slow because USB flash drives can be very slow.

I have some which boot very fast, some which boot very slow.

Once the hard drive has been created and made bootable, things go pretty
fast.

[phubai]

And this may be my method of choice as well. I don't have a warm
feeling regarding multibeast right now, nor does it me I'm afraid. My
system, once installed will boot using the USB stick and enables me to
configure OS X, etc. After running multibeast and rebooting, selecting
the HD (Lion Server), I get the grey screen with the Apple logo and it
never goes any further. I went through this many times yesterday
evening, and spent a considerable amount of time verifying my
settings, the modifications, etc., but I noticed in doing this,
multibeast was inconsistent in terms of what it would install;
sometimes ignoring my input causing me to have to run it again to be
sure I had the nullcpupowermanagement.kext as one example. Since it
boots from the USB stick fine, I'm going to reinstall this evening and
copy the Extra folder in its entirety from the stick, to the HD,
possibly install chameleon, and not run multibeast at all to see what
happens. I just ran out of steam last evening and had to postpone
until today.

I really appreciate everyone's help and all of the posts have helped
in some way. I may not give up on multibeast, but I will spend a lot
of time trying to understand more of how it works and what it's doing.
Perhaps selecting easybeast and letting the others alone would be a
start.

--phubai

On Nov 27, 4:23 pm, faithie999 <faithie...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> i think i have figured it out (for my system, at least!)
>

[phubai]

Success! I just copied the Extras folder from the USB stick to the
Lion Server HD, and it booted without a problem. I haven't done the
10.7.2 update....yet....as I'm going to let it run for a couple of
hours while I go and make a living for awhile, but it looks good, and
I'm typing this from it now btw.

Also, I didn't install the Lnx2Mac gigabit E-net driver as Peter
suggested. I had ethernet connectivity and thought I'd do it later if
necessary. What would be the advantage of using these drivers as
opposed to what I have?

Thanks all!

--phubai

On Nov 30, 9:05 am, phubai <rjb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> And this may be my method of choice as well. I don't have a warm
> feeling regarding multibeast right now, nor does it me I'm afraid.

>

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> Success! I just copied the Extras folder from the USB stick to the
> Lion Server HD, and it booted without a problem. I haven't done the
> 10.7.2 update....yet....as I'm going to let it run for a couple of
> hours while I go and make a living for awhile, but it looks good, and
> I'm typing this from it now btw.

Congrats!

> Also, I didn't install the Lnx2Mac gigabit E-net driver as Peter
> suggested. I had ethernet connectivity and thought I'd do it later if
> necessary. What would be the advantage of using these drivers as
> opposed to what I have?

The Lnx2Mac driver covers more Realtek LAN chips than the regular one does.

If your LAN is working, no need for complications.

[phubai]

Thanks Peter..your guide made it all possible after all. I learned
quite a bit in the process. I also successfully updated to 10.7.2
without incident as well. I was so used to doing a lot of housework
after any upgrade, that I felt "empty" after this one! Good job on
figuring it all out.

I'd left it on all afternoon to see what would come of it, and made
the mistake of not changing my Energy Saver settings, so of course, it
went to sleep. Nothing I pressed, stared at (or rubbed in desperation)
would revive it but a hard reset. I was angry at myself for forgetting
that simple preference setting, but I was rewarded by the desktop
again when I rebooted. Based upon your experience with yours, I have a
good feeling about this little machine.

Next up...Lion Server purchase! Did you have to do anything special in
preparation? Or after the upgrade? I will check the Extra folder of
course to make sure the org.chameleon.Boot.plist includes everything
that it should, that mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1 is still in root
directory, and that my Extensions folder is still complete, and then
reboot into server. I've some reading to do as well, and hope you'll
let us know how your project is moving along. I don't want to pay
extra for a static ip address, or I'd try hosting my site locally as
well. Have fun with it, and thanks!

--phubai

On Nov 30, 1:22 pm, peterh...@cruzio.com wrote:
>
> Congrats!

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> Next up...Lion Server purchase! Did you have to do anything special in
> preparation? Or after the upgrade? I will check the Extra folder of
> course to make sure the org.chameleon.Boot.plist includes everything
> that it should, that mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1 is still in root
> directory, and that my Extensions folder is still complete, and then
> reboot into server.

Nothing special, except you will need to have a reliable Ethernet
connection as the application which installs Server Lion is only 27 MB and
lots of extras are automagically downloaded over the 'Net.

Also, you should download Server Admin Tools, a freebee from Apple, not
from the Apple Store.

Server Lion goes right on top of Lion, not replacing it as it did on
earlier server versions.

Therefore, the kernel and plist and all that stuff remain the same.

All you really have to do is make sure Lion is reliable and so also is
your 'Net connection.

You are absolutely correct, once you successfully apply Server Lion, it
will appear as such when it reboots.