"No entry" symbol?

[Liam Proven]

Just out of curiosity I tried booting the new PC I got recently from
Freecycle with iBoot 3.3 and Snow Leopard today. (Core 2 Quad Extreme,
8GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 230, Creative SB Audigy.)

It got further than any other PC I own ever has & I am now wondering
if this might fly.

I get the Apple, then the spinner, then after a minute or so, I get a
small white "no entry" symbol, offcentred but overlaid on the grey
Apple.

Now I did not do the recommended full prep: I didn't pull the
soundcard or take out half the RAM.

But I did try disconnecting everything but my mouse and keyboard - no
difference.

Is this likely to be a fatal problem? Is there any way round it?

Is there any point in trying to boot my PowerPC Mac's Leopard external
drive on the machine instead of the Snow Leopard DVD?

--
Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lpr...@cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lpr...@hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884

[mosslack]

On Nov 12, 2012, at 5:51 PM, Liam Proven wrote:

Just out of curiosity I tried booting the new PC I got recently from
Freecycle with iBoot 3.3 and Snow Leopard today. (Core 2 Quad Extreme,
8GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 230, Creative SB Audigy.)

It got further than any other PC I own ever has & I am now wondering
if this might fly.

I get the Apple, then the spinner, then after a minute or so, I get a
small white "no entry" symbol, offcentred but overlaid on the grey
Apple.

Now I did not do the recommended full prep: I didn't pull the
soundcard or take out half the RAM.

But I did try disconnecting everything but my mouse and keyboard - no
difference.

Is this likely to be a fatal problem? Is there any way round it?

Is there any point in trying to boot my PowerPC Mac's Leopard external
drive on the machine instead of the Snow Leopard DVD?

If I'm not mistaken, this symbol indicates the Still waiting for rood device error. You can do a verbose boot to make sure, just type -v at the boot prompt. You can visit the HQ-A troubleshooting page for more info on this error. HTH

From the main system of mosslack...

______________________________

Alt-OS <+> GG <+> TBIE <+> Hack List

[Liam Proven]

On 12 November 2012 23:01, mosslack <hackin...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> If I'm not mistaken, this symbol indicates the Still waiting for rood device
> error. You can do a verbose boot to make sure, just type -v at the boot
> prompt. You can visit the HQ-A troubleshooting page for more info on this
> error. HTH

Thanks for that - it's encouraging news.

When I have more time, I'll pull the sound card and half the RAM,
update the BIOS, disconnect the EIDE hard disks, fit an empty SATA
drive and try again.

[mosslack]

On Nov 12, 2012, at 7:08 PM, Liam Proven wrote:

On 12 November 2012 23:01, mosslack <hackin...@gmail.com> wrote:

If I'm not mistaken, this symbol indicates the Still waiting for rood device

error. You can do a verbose boot to make sure, just type -v at the boot

prompt. You can visit the HQ-A troubleshooting page for more info on this

error. HTH

Thanks for that - it's encouraging news.

When I have more time, I'll pull the sound card and half the RAM,
update the BIOS,  disconnect the EIDE hard disks, fit an empty SATA
drive and try again.

Sounds like a plan, let us know how it goes.

[Liam Proven]

On 13 November 2012 00:14, mosslack <hackin...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Sounds like a plan, let us know how it goes.

I shall!

I would be very happy if I could turn this box into a Hackintosh. I do
like Ubuntu a lot but there are some things about OS X I prefer, and
all my Macs are PowerPC and getting a bit limited these days - no
modern Flash or Java, shrinking choice of browsers & other apps, etc.

I only really want Snow Leopard - although I do like some of the
features of the newer versions, there are also quite a lot of things I
don't much like.

Also, about the only commercial app of any form I use is Microsoft
Office, and the last version I like is 2004 - I do not care for the
newer versions and do not want to upgrade. That ties me to SL, but at
least that means that I should have nothing to fear from system
updates breaking things!

[mosslack]

On Nov 12, 2012, at 7:19 PM, Liam Proven wrote:

On 13 November 2012 00:14, mosslack <hackin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sounds like a plan, let us know how it goes.

I shall!

I would be very happy if I could turn this box into a Hackintosh. I do
like Ubuntu a lot but there are some things about OS X I prefer, and
all my Macs are PowerPC and getting a bit limited these days - no
modern Flash or Java, shrinking choice of browsers & other apps, etc.

I only really want Snow Leopard - although I do like some of the
features of the newer versions, there are also quite a lot of things I
don't much like.

Also, about the only commercial app of any form I use is Microsoft
Office, and the last version I like is 2004 - I do not care for the
newer versions and do not want to upgrade. That ties me to SL, but at
least that means that I should have nothing to fear from system
updates breaking things!

From the sound of your original description, it should be a compatible system. It's my guess that it's related to the drive you are booting from. I seem to recall some problems with SL where the boot device was very picky. I had to resort to a DVD drive connected via USB in a few cases, but it's been awhile since I did anything with that version of OS X. 

My pentium 4 server runs 10.6.8, but I got lucky and used the same hard drive as when I was using an Intel motherboard. It works very well and is extremely stable.

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> I get the Apple, then the spinner, then after a minute or so, I get a
> small white "no entry" symbol, offcentred but overlaid on the grey
> Apple.

The "no entry" symbol (circle with a slash through it) is an indication
that the boot process timed out.

Reboot specifying -v and then monitor the messages which are produced.

You'll probably see "still waiting for root device" or another, related
message, appearing periodically.

After a while the boot process times-out and it is at that point that the
"no entry" message is generated if the machine wasn't booted using -v.

This is also possible with an incompatible version of OS X.

Apple is now doing a lot more checking of machine type, including board
model and serial number.

Fortunately, the OSx86 guys have figured out Apple's numbering scheme, so
the appropriate files are created which match your machine's definition,
such as MacPro3,1, etcetera.

[Liam Proven]

Interesting. Thanks for that.

I tried an alternative route - I attached a PATA DVD-RW drive instead.
This booted into the install program.

The snag is that Disk Utility cannot see my SATA hard disk.

I have Googled the issue. The problem is that the BIOS on my board
(Asus P5K-SE) does not have an option to set the SATA controller to
AHCI mode. The only selection is IDE.

OS X can't drive it - so it can't see my hard disk and can't boot off
a SATA DVD-RW drive.

This is quite exciting progress - I have never got a PC to boot as far
as the OS X installer or disk utility before.

I tried a PCI SATA controller but that didn't work either. It's a
cheap 2-disk RAID thing and I guess it doesn't do AHCI either.

Apparently, AHCI was disabled after BIOS version 04xx. I have 1104. I
need 6004 or above to support my CPU, a Core 2 Extrem Q9650.

There is a documented workaround by deliberately flashing the wrong BIOS.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/2027-How-to-crossflash-P5K-to-P5KR-BIOS-and-enable-AHCI

But I am not keen on the sound of it!

I have also today found this, but it sounds a bit scary too:
http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-solved-How-to-add-AHCI-mod-to-ASUS-P5K-SE-bios-not-EPU

[mosslack]

There is a special kext which was used with the HP DC7800 due to it's age which allows the SATA drives to be seen by OS X. That system also has no way of setting the AHCI mode and therefore has the same problem. Of course that systems was booted via a USB flash drive, so adding the necessary kext into the /Extra folder on the flash drive was not a problem. Adding it to a boot CD would be more difficult.

This is quite exciting progress - I have never got a PC to boot as far
as the OS X installer or disk utility before.

It can also be very frustrating when you make progress and then hit a brick wall.

I tried a PCI SATA controller but that didn't work either. It's a
cheap 2-disk RAID thing and I guess it doesn't do AHCI either.

Apparently, AHCI was disabled after BIOS version 04xx. I have 1104. I
need 6004 or above to support my CPU, a Core 2 Extrem Q9650.

I find it odd that they would disable AHCI in a later BIOS, it's usually the opposite. 

There is a documented workaround by deliberately flashing the wrong BIOS.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/2027-How-to-crossflash-P5K-to-P5KR-BIOS-and-enable-AHCI

But I am not keen on the sound of it!

I have also today found this, but it sounds a bit scary too:
http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-solved-How-to-add-AHCI-mod-to-ASUS-P5K-SE-bios-not-EPU

Sounds like a good solution if it still supports your CPU.

-- 

Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lpr...@cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lpr...@hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884

[Kris Tilford]

I read both the forum threads on cross-flashing & mod-BIOS flashing
and neither reported any issues of consequence, so either of these
options would appear sound.

It's not clear to me what methodology you're using for installing OS
X, but I think you should be using a distro, one of the iATKOS
versions would likely be best.

Did you see this install guide for your PC?:
<http://www.uphuck.ggrn.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=2161>

[Liam Proven]

On 14 November 2012 17:13, Kris Tilford <ktil...@cox.net> wrote:
> I read both the forum threads on cross-flashing & mod-BIOS flashing and
> neither reported any issues of consequence, so either of these options would
> appear sound.

I'll give it a bash.

> It's not clear to me what methodology you're using for installing OS X, but
> I think you should be using a distro, one of the iATKOS versions would
> likely be best.

iBoot 3.3 + a retail 10.6.0 DVD. I have Multibeast burned and ready
should I get it to install.

> Did you see this install guide for your PC?:
> <http://www.uphuck.ggrn.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=2161>

Thanks for the added info - I will check it later when I am home.

I did try a few years ago with Kalyway 10.5 but I never persuaded it
to install on anything.

[Liam Proven]

Quick update...

I managed to reflash with the modified BIOS from bios-mod.com that
allows you to enable AHCI.

It's actually the 050x BIOS for the different Asus P5K-SE EPU model.

I had to follow the instructions here:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/2027-How-to-crossflash-P5K-to-P5KR-BIOS-and-enable-AHCI

... only the download site for AFUDOS 2.11 is gone, so I found it
elsewhere. Only v2.11 supports the undocumented /n switch for
flashing a different BIOS.

This done, I could enable "Native" SATA mode.

The problem is, things are now worse. A normal load of OS X from DVD
using iBoot kernel panics within about 5sec - either the spinner does
not appear or it appears, makes a rotation or two, stops half way
round and then it kernel panics.

I have tried, separately and together:
-x
-PCURootUID=1
-GraphicsEnabler=No

In any permutation with -x, it loads for a long time on a black screen
but eventually the grey Apple logo appears and then it kernel-panics.

I've tried disabling EIDE, sound and network - not better.

[mosslack]

It would be exremely helpful if you did a (-v) verbose boot so that you can see exactly what the KP is all about. 

From the main system of mosslack...

______________________________

[Liam Proven]

On 14 November 2012 23:16, mosslack <hackin...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> It would be exremely helpful if you did a (-v) verbose boot so that you can
> see exactly what the KP is all about.

OK, I'll try that tonight.

I know how to do this stuff with keystrokes on a Mac, but not with
switches in iBoot.


Anyone happen to know - can you buy a cheap PCI/PCI-E adaptor that
does AHCI? I wish I'd known about this when I bought the fake-RAID one
I tried but that was for a different project, using Linux, where
compatibility is not an issue. It only cost me about £3/$5 though. :)

[faithie999]

i did some googling to see if i could find a pci-e SATA card, mac os x compatible, bootable, AHCI. 

i ended up finding this, after doing some reading on an insanelymac.com forum thread about cards with the ASM1061 chip.  other forums confirmed that the ASM1061 chip is mac os compatible, and bootable.  what isn't 100% confirmed (altho there was one citation of this) is whether the card's bios supports AHCI.

having said that, if it were me i would take a chance on this--around 8 UK pounds with free shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-eSATA-2-SATA-3-0-to-PCI-E-PCI-Express-Card-Adapter-Converter-6-0Gbps-ASM1061-/170921633911?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item27cbb92877


good luck

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> i ended up finding this, after doing some reading on an insanelymac.com
> forum thread about cards with the ASM1061 chip. other forums confirmed
> that the ASM1061 chip is mac os compatible, and bootable. what isn't 100%
> confirmed (altho there was one citation of this) is whether the card's
> bios
> supports AHCI.
>
> having said that, if it were me i would take a chance on this--around 8 UK
> pounds with free shipping.
>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-eSATA-2-SATA-3-0-to-PCI-E-PCI-Express-Card-Adapter-Converter-6-0Gbps-ASM1061-/170921633911?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item27cbb92877

That is one of the better card designs:

1) ASMedia chip set, supported using the MultiBeast "Third-party SATA"
kext, so NOT BOOTABLE, and not available until OS X has successfully
booted,

2) jumpers which allow selections of: two iSATA III ports, two eSATA III
ports, or any combination of one iSATA III port and one eSATA III port.

The price is pretty good, too.

[faithie999]

peter--thanks for adding that info.

since it's not bootable, it's not what liam needs.

are you aware of a pci-e SATA card, with AHCI support, that is bootable?

[Liam Proven]

Indeed - TFTI!

Different question:

If, once I've installed it, I run Multibeast & it installs drivers,
would it work to install to an EIDE disk, patch, update & so on then
copy that end result to SATA?

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> are you aware of a pci-e SATA card, with AHCI support, that is bootable?

Since the supporting AHCI support must, necessarily, come from a kernel
extension, the answer is NO, I am not.


Indeed, in a recent (and failed) attempt at hacking an H77M UEFI mobo
(ASRock, which I usually will try first, as they are very often a "value"
leader) I immediately discovered that the chipset's SATA III ports were
non-bootable using the installer tools which I had available to me.

Moving the hard drive port from the first 7-series SATA III port to the
first 7-series SATA II port at least allowed me to boot the flash drive
installer AND to see the hard drives.

Forewarned it forearmed.

I am not, at least not any time soon, going to try another 7-series Hack!

The 6-series has ENOUGH difficulties, thank you very much!

[mosslack]

I don't believe, but cannot say with absolute certainty that MultiBeast has any drivers/kexts that will allow your system to see the SATA drives. IOW, if iBoot doesn't have them, then more than likely they are not available via Tonymacxi86. 

As I mentioned earlier, the special kext (AppleIntelPIIXATA2.kext) needed to see the drives was gleaned from the iAtKOS L distro when we hacked the DC7800. This same kext should work for your situation once OS X has been installed on a hard drive. Please note, this can be a hard drive connected via USB which would make it easier for some, but if you are using on an internal IDE drive, then the kext would need to be added to that install prior to using CCC or SuperDuper to clone the drive to a SATA hard drive.

In my opinion, you would be much better off downloading and burning a copy of iAtKOS L or L2 to a DVD and make sure your system will boot and recognize your hard drives before you invest a lot more time with this system. If this proves successful, you can either just install the from the iAtKOS DVD or go back to your retail SL DVD. 

Another option is the make a USB version of iBoot and add the special kext to the /Extra folder on it. This should allow you to see your hard drive once booted. I believe there are instructions on Tonymacx86 to make a USB flash drive version of iBoot, but I don't know off hand where it is. I have done it and it works, but it's been a long time since I did it. 

[Liam Proven]

On 16 November 2012 03:20, mosslack <hackin...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I don't believe, but cannot say with absolute certainty that MultiBeast has
> any drivers/kexts that will allow your system to see the SATA drives. IOW,
> if iBoot doesn't have them, then more than likely they are not available via
> Tonymacxi86.
>
> As I mentioned earlier, the special kext (AppleIntelPIIXATA2.kext) needed to
> see the drives was gleaned from the iAtKOS L distro when we hacked the
> DC7800. This same kext should work for your situation once OS X has been
> installed on a hard drive. Please note, this can be a hard drive connected
> via USB which would make it easier for some, but if you are using on an
> internal IDE drive, then the kext would need to be added to that install
> prior to using CCC or SuperDuper to clone the drive to a SATA hard drive.
>
> In my opinion, you would be much better off downloading and burning a copy
> of iAtKOS L or L2 to a DVD and make sure your system will boot and recognize
> your hard drives before you invest a lot more time with this system. If this
> proves successful, you can either just install the from the iAtKOS DVD or go
> back to your retail SL DVD.
>
> Another option is the make a USB version of iBoot and add the special kext
> to the /Extra folder on it. This should allow you to see your hard drive
> once booted. I believe there are instructions on Tonymacx86 to make a USB
> flash drive version of iBoot, but I don't know off hand where it is. I have
> done it and it works, but it's been a long time since I did it.

I hadn't heard of iAtkos before, but from a quick Google, it appears
to be a "distro" of Lion, is that right? I was really after Snow
Leopard because I want to run Office 2004. It needs Rosetta, which
needs 10.6. I don't have Office 2008 or 2011, although I might be able
to get one or the other - but I dislike the Fluent "ribbon"
interface...

[faithie999]

you want iAtkos S3, which is 10.6.3.

[Liam Proven]

On 16 November 2012 12:45, faithie999 <faith...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> you want iAtkos S3, which is 10.6.3.

Oh, cool, ta.

Is it possible to update it?

[mosslack]

On Nov 16, 2012, at 9:31 AM, Liam Proven wrote:

On 16 November 2012 12:45, faithie999 <faith...@hotmail.com> wrote:

you want iAtkos S3, which is 10.6.3.

Oh, cool, ta.

Is it possible to update it?

I believe it is, I know the iAtKOS L could be updated. If nothing else, all you really need is the special AppleIntelPIIXATA2.kext to allow your system to use a retail version. 

[pete...@cruzio.com]

> you want iAtkos S3, which is 10.6.3.

10.6.3 may be the last distro which works on some older laptops.

However, I have iATKOS L working on my Toshiba Satellite, after a fashion.

The caveat is one out of five times the transition from the boot loader to
the Desktop will fail. Simply rebooting usually, four times out of five,
anyway, will clear that up.

The iAKTOS Team has done a pretty good job of including support for
otherwise unsupportable, or at least difficult to support systems. A case
in point is the DC7800 where a special plug-in is needed for OS X to "see"
connected SATA drives.

Using an iAKTOS distro to get initial OS X compatibility, then "mining"
the distro for its unique support, and then going back and doing a
"retail" installation with that unique support added to the USB flash
drive installer is one way to go.

[Kris Tilford]

On Nov 16, 2012, at 9:36 AM, pete...@cruzio.com wrote:

>>
>> you want iAtkos S3, which is 10.6.3.
>
> 10.6.3 may be the last distro which works on some older laptops.

This is true, but for not the right reason.

The iATKOS S3 DVD boots into something closer to the iATKOS V7 in that
it boots a 10.5.6 system to install a 10.6.3 System. On my old Sony
VGN-240P with a working fully upgraded 10.5.8 System and a working
fully upgraded XP System I decided to erase the XP to attempt a Snow
Leopard install using iATKOS S3, which boots and installs fine. The
problem is that the Snow Leopard System lacks the ICH4 support, and
consequently wouldn't boot, and worse, it corrupted the bootable and
fully upgraded 10.5.8 System to where it both wouldn't boot, and
couldn't be repaired by Disk Utility.

I'm kinda pissed that iATKOS is using a Leopard 10.5.6 system to
install 10.6.3, and that a bootable installer results in an unbootable
system that corrupted my working system. I'm still messing with this,
my plan now is to use Terminal or Ubuntu Terminal from DVD to "dd" the
corrupted 10.5.8 System onto an external HD and repair it using
DiskWarrior, then clone it back to where it began and pray the repair
is bootable again. The reason for this is because I did so many things
that weren't documented, and I had no backup, so I'm stuck trying to
salvage the corrupted partition. Without a bootable System there's no
way to even start working on getting the Snow Leopard install to boot,
and AFAIK Snow Leopard on ICH4 may be nearly impossible, which is why
I'm trying.