Shuttle SH55J2 Observations (Alas, VERY critical)

[PH]

The subject product was received on schedule at 3:55 pm PST this day
(Thursday, 9/23/2010). "Three day" guaranteed delivery; "two day"
actual delivery.

The major components from my Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H were transferred to
this new box. Processor, video card, optical drive, hard drive, RAM.
You get the picture.

Initial impressions:

1) A well thought-out SFF machine,

2) Alas, Shuttle went back to an all-steel chassis, with sparing use
of aluminum, instead of the former all-aluminum chassis,

3) The biggest POS DSDT I have yet seen; nothing like their previous
DSDTs, and not a lot on which to base a Snow modification; reminds me
more of an MSI or ASUS DSDT ... pure POS,

4) The relocated PCI-e 16x video slot does NOT allow for a standard-
sized PCI card, such as a Mini-PCI-to-PCI WiFi card, UNLESS the video
card is one of those which is "fanless"; be forewarned!, and

5) The external CD/DVD eject button does not fully contact my optical
drive, hence I must do this manually.

Two immediately obvious issues:

1) The DSDT erroneously uses the reserved word _T_0; this may be fixed
by changing _T_0 everywhere to T_0, using DSDTSE and

2) The DSDT erroneously sets the MUTE variable to unusual, possibly
illegal values; this may be fixed by changing 0xXXXX (any value at
all) everywhere to 0xFFFF (all ones), again, using DSDTSE.

Additional issues, not show-stoppers:

1) The high-speed USBs are strangely set to 0x001D0000 and 0x001A0000,
rather than the usual 0x001D0007 and 0x001A0007, and

2) The best mapping is: 0x001D0000 ==> EHC2; 0x001A0000 ==> EHC1;
0x001D0001 ==> UHC1, 0x001D0002 ==> UHC2, 0x001D0003 ==> UHC3,
0x001A0001 ==> UHC4, 0x001A0002 ==> UHC5 and 0x001A0003 ==> UHC6.

There IS a SATA device tree present, but it is strange, and has only
two devices, almost as if the IDE0 device tree was simply renamed
SATA, a la tonymacx86, from its former IDE0 or IDE1 (only IDE0 ==>
SATA is actually correct, BTW).

There is no apparent HDEF device, nor anything which resembles an
audio device; no AC97, no MC97, no AZAL; nothing. One WILL have to be
added!

Build quality is as usual for Shuttle ... very good to excellent.

Alas, there were physical scratches on the front panel where one would
not expect them. On three out of the four specific cases, a plastic
overlay may be removed, thereby presenting an unscratched surface, but
the main control panel does not have an overlay, so it will remain
scratched. Very un-Shuttle like!

As is usual for Shuttle, the BIOS is shipped down-level (103), and may
only be updated to the current level (106) by using a bootable USB
floppy drive with MS-DOS or DR-DOS and the various DOS-based files
which Shuttle USA provides. The one downloadable folder contains DOS,
Win and Win7 BIOS update files, but only the DOS version is actually
needed. Alas, you MUST have a DOS or Windows system in order to unpack
these files.

One final nit ... the new, almost all-steel SFF unit, is fractionally,
about 1/16" to 1/8", NARROWER than the previous, all-aluminum, SFF
units, such as the SP35P2V2. It is also about 1/4" shallower, too.

Good thing I have several completely functional P35-based Shuttles, as
I do not think this H55-based Shuttle is going to be on my "most
wanted" list.

YMMV, of course.

[PH]

It was easy enough to adjust the DVD drive ... move the four screws
from the third holes (shown in the manual) to the slots, and move the
drive forward about 1/8".

The external button on the Shuttle's bezel is adjustable left and
right to accommodate various DVD drive eject button positions. The
actuator was all the way over to the right, thereby completely missing
the drive's button. A simple adjustment, which requires that the
Shuttle's bezel be temporarily removed, was all that was required.

I've done a lot of work on the DSDT.

I think I have it nearly where it needs to be, at least initially.

It is an AMI BIOS, so its DSDT doesn't easily accommodate the "AMAC"
stuff which has proved to make Snow support so easily implemented on
Hacks.

This will require a tonymacx86 "iBOOT Supported" installation, which I
know can be done using either a 10.6/10.6.0 or a 10.6.3 DVD. I will
try using a 10.6.3 DVD.

Turns out I was wrong about the overlays. There are overlays on all
four panels, including the main control panel, so all of those
scratches can be eliminated simply by removing the overlays.

Progress is being made.

Perhaps I will have something working by the weekend.

One thing is certain, although this is nominally an H55 machine, it
cannot use a boot drive from a Gigabyte H55 or P55 machine. The DSDTs
are just too different.

The reason the iBOOT Supported CD seems to work is its RAM disk has
just about every kext known to man on it.

[PH]

Well, it boots into the 10.6.3 install, which I subsequently updated
to 10.6.4.

Used MultiBeast and my own DSDT.

Networking and sound don't work as yet, but these are relatively small
potatoes as these are ALC888 and RTL8111 and are quite well known.

At least my DSDT is working, and that is a REALLY BIG thing.

This DSDT does not have much of the AMAC stuff, but it does have
enough of it.