Dell Precision Workstation T5400 - "Still waiting for root device"

[Dominik]

HI guys!

 

I have just upgraded my PC at home from a Dell Dimension 9150 running 10.6.3, to a Dell Precision T5400, with a view to running Lion (or later if it would work) from a retail copy of OSX using myHack.

 

I had researched and this was one of the most compatible, budget, high-spec PCs I could find.

 

It has 2x 2.8 Quad-core Xeons, 12GB EEC 5300F RAM, 500GB 7200 SATA HDD (GUID Partitoned) - for Mac OS Lion, 80GB 7200 SATA HDD (MBR) - For Win7 Unltimate. I use the Dell boot menu to select the Mac HDD at the moment, as the Windows drive is in SATA0. I was planning to switch them over once Mac was working corrently..

 

I have successfully INSTALLED myHack onto my Mac HDD, using an 8GB USB Pen Drive. I used the Generic myHack Extra install.

 

Looking at the System Information within the Install Boot, the system is recognised as a Mac Pro 3.1, with most of the hardware identified - I am aware I need install VoodooHDA for the sound and a patched kext for the network,

 

However, when I restart following the successful install, the boot hangs on "Still Waiting for root device". The line which shows the system retrieving the root device suggests the ACHI controller hasn't been identified, but I haven't changed it since the install.

 

I have even tried booting the HDD from the USB drive's configuration of Chameleon, and a CD copy of Chameleon.

 

Can anyone suggest why I can't get my system to boot? I have exhausted my 5-6 years experience with Hackintosh with this one... It just doesn't make sense.

 

Thanks in advance

[Hervé]

1st of all,  check that your HDD mode is set to AHCI in BIOS. Then, try  and boot with Chameleon boot option PciRoot=4 as it's very probably the value set in this workstation's BIOS DSDT table (it's the case with most Dell's high-end PCs and workstations).

 

If you don't use a patched DSDT file, once you manage to boot the OS to dekstop, extract your raw DSDT with a tool such as Chameleon Wizard or DSDTEditor so that the default PCI root value (i.e. UID of device PCI0) can be changed to 0. This will avoid the need to specify the value at boot time, 0 being the default value for Chameleon bootloader.

 

Can you list your exact system specs (exact Intel Xeon CPU model, chipset, graphics card, LAN card, etc.)?

[Dominik]

I tried booting with PciRoot=4, but it still hangs.

 

My specs are:

2x Intel E5440 (2.8 GHz Quad-Core Xeon)

(Currently) 2x 2GB Crucial ECC Matched DDR2 5300F 677MHz

"Intel 5400 Chipset" - in Win7

"Intel ESR2 SATA AHCI Controler" - in Win7

nVidia Quadro NVS 290 Graphics Card - Dell OEM

Ethernet is the onboard Broadcom 57xx Gigabit controler

I have a PCI USB controller for a bluetooth module - both worked fine under SL.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Hervé]

Try additional Chameleon boot options such as npci=0x2000 or 0x3000.

[crnibaron]

Hi Guys,

 

I also have dell T5400, and have a problem to make Yosemite to work

My dell specification is:

2x intel xeon 5430

32gb ddr 2

amd radeon 6950/70 (with dual bios inside)

wd blue 640 disk with installed Yosemite.

 

 

When I boot with chameleon and one dsdt from net  (dell precision 690) a have a white screen, when I try to boot from clover I have still waiting for root device.

 

Can you anybody to help me (to sent me a good DSDT fro my dell) or to give me some useful information have to make my system to work with chameleon or clover (nevermind)

 

Thanks,

Goran

[Hervé]

Why would you use the DSDT of a Precision 690? You should never do that sort of thing (use another computer's DSDT) unless the systems are very closely related and based on the same hardware (like Inspiron 530 and Vostro 200 or Latitude D630 and D830 for instance).

 

Try a manual installation with Chameleon and then extract your DSDT from BIOS; we'll then see if to needs patching.

[crnibaron]

I tried with DSDT from Dell Precision 690 and have white screen, when I try with my DSDT extracted from windows or from MaciASl I dont have nothing, I tried to compile my DSDT for error but I cant, I can boot Yosemite in chameleon in  -x (safe boot mode).

[Hervé]

You only extract a DSDT if you intend to patch it; otherwise it's useless, Chameleon can read it from BIOS directly. Post your raw extracted DSDT and we'll see what we can do with it. You also need to extract your IOReg using a tool such as IORegistryExplorer. Download it and save the output to a file. Post that file too and tell us which version of IORegistryExplorer you used.

 

Ideally, you should try and boot without DSDT and a default bootpack that will have the outmost minimum kext set: FakeSMC + PS2 controller + NullCPUPowerManagement eventually. You could always download myHack v3.3.1 and extract the generic bootpack found inside the app.

[crnibaron]

Hi ,
I will put on here few files: DSDT extracted from windows .bin file, DSDT extracted from Mac OS X Yosemite (safe boot) from program DPCI Manager, My IO Registry report (software version 2.1, and Darwin Dumper report (if you need),
 
Thanks

Dell T5400 DSDT extracted from Win 8.1.rar

DSDT dellT5400 from DPCI Manager MacOsx.rar

Goran’s Mac Pro IORegExplorer V2.1.rar

DarwinDumper_2.9.8_Chameleon_2.3_X64_Yos_Goavisual.zip

[Marszczak]

Keep the thread alive guys. I've got t5400 dual xeon running Mavericks like a dream. Used myhack to install with generic kext. Used patched kext for network but couldn't get audio to work - never mind. What I discovered is that one need to physically disconnect all drives and disable in bios apart from Os hdd. Once OS X is installed one can re-enable all drives. Regarding Yosemite - also can't get it to work not in safe mode - minusX is required to get rid of the biggest lag I've ever seen But -x of course is causing other issues. I'd love to see a Yosemite installation manual for t5400. I can help with Mavericks if anybody interested.