Mountain Lion on E6400 in 5 Steps!

[Darvinko]

As per Hervé's advice, when I have a slow shutdown issue on my E6500, rebuilding the caches and repairing permissions resolves the issue along with a reboot.

[zionlion]

As per Hervé's advice, when I have a slow shutdown issue on my E6500, rebuilding the caches and repairing permissions resolves the issue along with a reboot.

 

 

Do you have AppleACPIPlatform kext in /E/E and in /S/L/E?

 

Does your kextcache get re-created when you do a myFix (full)? Look at the file timestamp. The kext cache is normally in /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup folder.

 

I would also do a "repair permissions" for your OS X partition in Disk Utility. You could have issues there.

 

I can verify some benefit from the suggestion to do a "repair permissions" for your OS X partition in Disk Utility. My e6400 had WINDOWS 8 on a 256 GB SSD in one primary partition. I  recently decided I wanted a dual boot hackintosh and the excellent instructions in this forum was of great help. The hardest part was finding all the right tricks to be able to partition my SSD for ML without having to reinstall WINDOWS 8. I now have WINDOWS 8 & ML 10.8.3 dual booting with the chameleon boot loader. My ML 10.8.3 is working swimmingly except for a few minor issues I can live with. Sleep mode works great (using DaFOB original post method), but I was having a problem with freeze of the cursor and inability to type text input for the password entry box when I logged out (It would work after waiting for some time...maybe 3 to 4 minutes). After doing the repair permissions on my OS X partition, that problem has gone away and I get near instantaneous logoff and ability to log back in. My other minor problem is long shutdown/reboot times. I haven't tried the rebuilding of caches yet to see if it addresses that problem. I'll report back on that when I get the chance. The other thing I did notice and saw mentioned in some prior thread is the error message that sometimes popup after installing software update. After I installed ML 10.8.3, iTunes and two other SW (I' can't remember the names) needed updating. I updated the first two and got no errors. iTunes updated and ended with the message "An error occurred while installing the updates.(103)". When I started iTunes it was the latest version, so I know it updated just fine. This was before I did the repair permissions on my OS X partition, so perhaps that iTunes error wouldn't have occurred if I had done repair permissions first.

 

BTW, I had also built my flash drive using the FakeSMC and SMBios mods that DaFOB posted a couple posts back (10 May 2013), which is based on Herve's instructions. It's working great!

 

Anyhow, thanks for all the great info in this forum and I hope I can help someone else out if they have any question on my configuration.

[zionlion]

*** Reader warning ***  This is a bit long and not very interesting and mostly has to do with Shutdown behavior / issues (and is not necessarily related to the FakeSMC posted above)

 

Ok, I updated FakeSMC and smbios.plst (and did a myfix quick)

I then shutdown and start up and had no apparent issues (no real testing done though), so I do a shutdown again and here is where the fun begins...

As happens frequently it does not shut down but eventually goes to the login screen (with mouse frozen). i type my password (although no characters are displayed in the password box) and hit enter and as usual nothing happens.  So instead of hard powering off as usual I decided to wait and see if it will sleep (planning to do a cold boot when it is asleep by holding down the power button).  BUT after a while I look back at my screen and I am at the desktop and mouse is working !?!?!   WTH !?!? I have never tried this before or had this happen before so I don't think or know if it is related to the FakeSMC change (but who knows).  Anyway, I try shutdown again and it starts taking a along time again.. so I just wait.  Eventually it "appears to go to sleep" as the screen goes black but it is still on (fan on, hd light flashing occasionally, bluetooth light on, power button light solid).  I wait about a minute and then move mouse and click mouse button,  screens comes on and shows grey, mouse pointer is gone but now the "grey apple spinning wheel" is displayed and then after about a minute the logon screen appears.  Again with frozen mouse.   I type in my password and hit enter (even though no characters are displayed when typing the password) and wait.  After about 3 or 4 minutes, guess what, I am back at the desktop and all appears to be fine.  This time I do a myfix full and then try shutdown again.  It is taking a long time again and eventually (as usual) screen goes blank but it is still on.  I decide to try one more time and click the mouse button.  The screens comes on full grey with no mouse pointer and grey spinning wheel as usual, after a minute the logon screen appears and I type my password, hit enter and wait.   As usual after 3 or 4 minutes I am back on my desktop.  This time I try a myfix quick, then try Sleep BUT Sleep does not work (nothing appears to happen) I twice more with the same result.  Having had a enough I say what the heck and try "Restart".  I can barely believe it but It shuts down quickly !!!   BUT on restart the "Dell BIOS check" goes very slowly so I hit F12 to check out the BIOS settings (which all look fine as far as I can remember except for Lan which is on PXE and I disable this, apply and exit)  One other thing, my USB mouse was not working / allowing me to navigate the BIOS setup screens which I remember working in the past...

Anyway after saving the Bios change I let it boot and It appears to start normally and I logon as usual and it all appears fine.  I do sleep, it works so I wake it with usb mouse click after 10 seconds, I then wait about another minute (for HD activity to slow/stop) and do a shutdown.  Ugg, It takes a long time... but it eventually shuts down !! yea!! 

 

This is a standard "Mountain Lion on E6400 in 5 Steps" build direct to 10.8.3 (with Dell Bios A32)

 

I will continue to do testing (especially of the Restart) and see if I can come to any solid conclusions.

 

One more thing...On my install of ML, I could not play DVDs until I used the patched DVDPlayback.framework from this link: http://www.tonycrapx86.com/mountain-lion-desktop-support/65533-solved-valid-dvd-drive-could-not-found-70012-mountain-lion.html

[Bronxteck]

failing installs of osx updates is caused by kernel cache not being generated. hence the long boots and shutdowns. check to see if you have AppleACPIPlatform.kext in E/E and in S/L/E if you do remove the one in S/L/E and run a myfix. there are other kexts that can cause the issue also but thats the main one.

[zionlion]

failing installs of osx updates is caused by kernel cache not being generated. hence the long boots and shutdowns. check to see if you have AppleACPIPlatform.kext in E/E and in S/L/E if you do remove the one in S/L/E and run a myfix. there are other kexts that can cause the issue also but thats the main one.

 

I'll try this. I did see AppleACPIPlatform.kext in both E/E and S/L/E.

 

But I'm not sure of the 'best practice' myfix procedure after I have ML up and running. Do I use my USB installer to boot and run myfix after I make a change in my SSD ML installation? or do I install myhack on my ML hackintosh then run it from there?  Thanks.

[Hervé]

If you installed using our guide, you already have myHack installed on your system. Take a backup of your AppleACPIPlatform kext in /S/L/E and remove it. Then go to Applications, run myHack and select myFix (full) on your ML HDD/partition.

 

At the end, before you reboot, check your kextcache file to verify if cache was re-created or not.

[zionlion]

If you installed using our guide, you already have myHack installed on your system. Take a backup of your AppleACPIPlatform kext in /S/L/E and remove it. Then go to Applications, run myHack and select myFix (full) on your ML HDD/partition.

 

At the end, before you reboot, check your kextcache file to verify if cache was re-created or not.

 

I tried this and overall, things have gotten worse, though shutdown is now quick. I saw that the kextcache was recreated before I did a restart based on the timestamp of files in /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup. On restart after doing myfix, my computer would not boot. After a bunch of trial and errors using one flag at a time I was only able to boot using npci=0x3000 (I had no npci flag before, which I understand means it defaults to 0x2000). But even after getting ML up, I have issues I did not have before. For example, sleep still sleep the computer, but  now it won't wake up properly since the screen stays blank even while I can hear the fans running and I have to power cycle the laptop to get back into ML. Should I go back to what I had with AppleACPIPlatform kext in /S/L/E and npci=0x2000?

[zionlion]

I tried this and overall, things have gotten worse, though shutdown is now quick. I saw that the kextcache was recreated before I did a restart based on the timestamp of files in /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup. On restart after doing myfix, my computer would not boot. After a bunch of trial and errors using one flag at a time I was only able to boot using npci=0x3000 (I had no npci flag before, which I understand means it defaults to 0x2000). But even after getting ML up, I have issues I did not have before. For example, sleep still sleep the computer, but  now it won't wake up properly since the screen stays blank even while I can hear the fans running and I have to power cycle the laptop to get back into ML. Should I go back to what I had with AppleACPIPlatform kext in /S/L/E and npci=0x2000?

 

Okay, I have been experimenting some more to solve my slow shutdown issue.  I now have my system working with AppleACPIPlatform.kext removed from S/L/E and with UseKernelCache=Yes in /Extra/org.chameleon.Boot.plist. My kernel cache was created after a full myFix (see observations below). After multiple shutdown and reboots, checks of the Console shows no errors in the Console related to the kernel cache. Shutdowns average under 8 seconds and boot-up (from chameleon boot loader to login screen) average around 25 seconds. I'm okay with this.

 

Here are some of the observations from my experiments:

 

1. Shutdowns with the original ML AppleACPIPlatform.kext  (mine was v1.7)  in S/L/E, and UseKernelCache=Yes in boot.plist took minutes. From a console log, the main reason seems to be multiple trial and failures to read/write the cache (as many in the forum have observed).

2. UseKernelCache=No avoided most kernel panic boot problems and resulted in fast shutdowns (average under 8 seconds). Boot time average around 45 seconds. I would have settled for this option if I didn't get my setup working properly with UseKernelCache=Yes.

3. Removing AppleACPIPlatform.kext from S/L/E and rebuilding kernel/system caches (a full MyFix)  with UseKernelCache=Yes doesn't always work. I had a non-SSD magnetic HD with ML (basically a clone of my SSD install) for experimentation. On the magnetic HD, after removing AppleACPIPlatform.kext from S/L/E, removing all files in /S/L/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/, doing a full myFix, and then fixing permissions with Disk Utility, with UseKernelCache=Yes, I  would always get a KP on boot.  However on my SSD install, for reasons I do not understand, repeating the same procedure resulted in ML booting up without any kernel panic and a 'clean' Console after a multiple shutdowns and startup.

 

I've tried multiple times using the magnetic HD install of ML to make it boot using the same configuration as the SSD, but none of those tests have been successful. One difference between my SSD install and the magnetic HD is that I have the TRIM patch on the SSD install. I wonder if that made the difference.

[DaFOB]

I can also confirm Darvinko's findings in his thread that there doesn't seem to be any issues updating to 10.8.4.  I ran the update straight from the App store (from Software Update) and all went well.  Didn't have to modify or remove any kexts this time (yay!) -- probably because this was a small smaller update and there weren't significant changes.

 

As stated in the other thread, ignore the error at the end of the update.  Reboot, repair permissions and/or run a full myFix and all should be well.

[Darvinko]

I can also confirm Darvinko's findings in his thread that there doesn't seem to be any issues updating to 10.8.4.  I ran the update straight from the App store (from Software Update) and all went well.  Didn't have to modify or remove any kexts this time (yay!) -- probably because this was a small smaller update and there weren't significant changes.

 

As stated in the other thread, ignore the error at the end of the update.  Reboot, repair permissions and/or run a full myFix and all should be well.

 

I have updated my findings after Bronxteck pointed out an issue regard caches (which was seconded by Herve). The update placed a newer version of AppleACPIPlatform.kext in S/L/E (version 1.7), which conflicts with the version (1.3.5) in E/E, which will create issues with cache rebuilding. Best to delete the AppleACPIPlatform.kext from S/L/E (version 1.7), go into Application to MyHack and run a Full MyFix to rebuild permissions and caches to avoid problems.