D830 Nvidia Hi Res Install 10.6.x where x<8 -- fixes

[wai]

D830 Nvidia NVS140 Graphics HiRes Screen (1920x1200) A17 BIOS

 

A few notes to save others some aggravation for the title scenario. The "plug and play" bootpack and EDP payload for this scenario does not work for installers before 10.6.8 (i.e. most of them).  My installer is the original retail disk (10.6.0).

 

1. DO NOT TRY TO CREATE AN INSTALLER FOR 10.6.x USING MyHack 3.3.1! It can destroy the system you build it on (yeah, the perfectly good host system you just use to create the thumb drive). This is a known bug and I won't even try to guess why 3.3.1 is still the current version and there is no warning on the download page for it.

 

2. Download and alter the bootpack from OSXL for 10.6. For installers before 10.6.8, you must remove both AppleACPIPlatform.kext and Patched_10.7_AppleRTC.kext from the Extensions folder or your machine will probably not boot. Do this before you install the Extra on the installer thumb drive.

 

3. Use another method to create the installer. I used Disk Utility to restore the retail disk to the thumb drive and then used the OTHER MyHack options one at a time to install Chameleon and the modified Extra to the thumb drive. This description is intentionally not detailed and you should look for the details elsewhere if you need them. YMMV

 

4. Perform the installation and tell MyHack to use the Extra from the thumb drive for the hard drive too.

 

5. Go through the first boot nonsense and then do the 10.6.8 combo upgrade. DO NOT REBOOT YET!

 

6. Find that copy of AppleACPIPlatform.kext you removed earlier. Put it back into the Extensions folder in Extra and run MyFix quick.

 

7. Leave Patched_10.7_AppleRTC.kext out or the machine may hang on boot. It doesn't seem to hurt anything to leave it out but, once again, YMMV. I'm sure someone else will explain why it's needed but my machine wouldn't boot with it.

 

8. Reboot and try EDP if you're brave (you may have to remove the patched RTC file again)

 

9. Your touchpad performance may suck. Turn off all gesture options in the control panel. Better?

 

10. Your audio may not work. Download the installer package for voodooHDA_MAV (yes, MAV). Run it and let it install. Run MyFix as always. (http://sourceforge.net/projects/voodoohda/files/VoodooHDA_V286_MAV.pkg.zip/download). there's a newer version there now but I haven't tried it.

 

11. Use safe mode (-x boot arg) if you wedge your machine and need to play with the Extra file contents. If that won't work either, go back to your installer, boot it, and reinstall the more vanilla Extra and build from there (you may need to get that ACPI kext in there for it to work, so make a copy of the Extra on the thumb drive with the ACPI kext in it to use in an emergency on a 10.6.8 upgraded machine. Just name it something other than 'Extra').

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

 

[Hervé]

Several of the above statements are incorrect, I guess due to lack of knowledge.

 

For instance, the AppleACPIPlatform kext mentioned is actually v1.3.5 or v1.3.6 which comes respectively from 10.6.7 or 10.6.8. These kexts are not expected to work with 10.6.0 or 10.6.3 (the retail versions outside 10.6.8) of course and, clearly, no need to place such kext in /E/E for 10.6.7 or 10.6.8... There is actually no need for those kexts in Snow Leopard at all, the vanilla kexts will do nicely. The rollback to SL's AppleACPIPlatform kext is needed for Lion and ML.

 

The patched AppleRTC kext is required to avoid CMOS reset and will not do any harm at all, quite the contrary...

 

For SL, it's now been long stated that myHack v3.1.2 should be used, not v3.3.1 due to a known bug. The older version is available on request.

 

True, the provided default bootpack is certainly incorrect and the default EDP settings not optimised. That's already been raised but the EDP and bootpack clean-up exercise started last summer has not completed yet.

[wai]

Herve,

 

I appreciate your willingness to provide a lot of support here (for free). Knowledge is a funny thing. It's very hard for someone who already has it to remember what those without it need to know.

 

My post was motivated by a cheerful following of the prescribed process to install 10.6 on my machine, only to have a non-booting paperweight as a result. It was actually a side hint in a post by you that suggested the ACPI kext should be removed for releases prior to 10.6.8. That lead me to believe it was needed for 10.6.8. If it's not needed at all, why is it there?

 

As for the RTC kext, it caused harm, it prevented booting until I removed it on a hunch. I suppose I could try putting it back now that I'm at 10.6.8 (I don't remember doing that experiment).

 

MyHack is a special topic all its own. You say, "it's now been long stated that myHack v3.1.2 should be used" but I only found that out after using it failed because nowhere in following the very explicit instructions here has anyone added a simple "NOTE: For 10.6...". Fortunately it didn't break my system. Please ask whomever curates the procedure pages to put a note there to warn people that 3.3.1 is dangerous and tell them how to get the older version. The fact, that the prior version is recommended, but only available by special request, is truly confusing. Is it really easier to field individual requests than to just put up a download link with a note that you should use that version for 10.6?