ASUS P6T on 64-bit Snow Leopard 10.6
Comments(58) The ASUS P6T is one of the less expensive LGA 1366 motherboards at the moment. It features some cool overclocking BIOS settings, FireWire, external E-SATA onboard port, and is SLI/CrossFire-capable. SLI/CrossFire is the main difference between the P6T and the P6T SE but you could always cross flash the P6T SE into a P6T to get SLI support. I put a Core i7 920 CPU in it and populated three of the six RAM banks with 2 GB Patriot Viper DDR-3 DIMMs. This baby has OSX86 written all over it, it screams to be run on Snow Leopard :-)
You probably should have at least some OSX86 experience to understand what I’m talking about in this post. This is not an installation walkthrough, I just list the important points you need to take care of when running SL on the ASUS P6T. If you need installation support, please refer to the appropriate OSX86 forums.
There are quite a few catches when installing Snow Leopard (SL) 10.6.0 on an ASUS P6T motherboard. One thing that’s very important to me is that I’m able to use the vanilla XNU kernel. Vanilla simply rulez. It makes updating so much easier. With the ASUS P6T that’s no problem. Even sleep works with no additional kernel extensions. No kernel boot flags are needed with this board. I used one of the many USB stick based installation guides on the net. I’m using Chameleon v2 RC3 as EFI boot loader on the USB stick and on my SL installation drive.
One thing you may want to stay away from are DSDT.aml files created with DSDT-Patcher. DSDT-Patcher creates useful DSDT files for many boards but my P6T doesn’t seem to be one of them. If I use DSDT.aml created with DSDT-Patcher 1.0.1e the kernel always hangs early in the boot process:
Oct 12 00:28:20 localhost kernel[0]: IOAPIC: Version 0×20 Vectors 64:87
Oct 12 00:28:20 localhost kernel[0]: IOAPIC: Version 0×20 Vectors 88:111
It just wouldn’t boot any further. Only when I took out all the DIMMs leaving only the first bank populated I eventually was able to boot. But who wants to use only 2 GB of RAM in a nice triple-channel board?! After hours of experimenting I finally found the culprit: it’s DSDT-Patcher! The modifications the patcher adds to the DSDT are not compatible with my P6T board. That’s when I started to use the “vanilla” DSDT file. You can also use DSDT-Patcher to create the vanilla DSDT file. Call the GetDSDT script that comes with DSDT-Patcher. It will create a file named dsdt.dat. I renamed it to DSDT.aml and saved it to /Extra. Now I was able to start up SL with 6 GB of RAM for the first time. Use iASL (it also comes with the DSDT-Patcher archive) to decompile the DSDT.aml to the human-readable version which usually has the extension .dsl.
If you notice slow drive access on S-ATA > port #1 drives you will need to apply some IRQ modifications in your DSDT.dsl. See this thread for more information or just grab my DSDT below which has this IRQ patch already applied.
- DSDT.aml for ASUS P6T – ready to use with boot loader
- DSDT.dsl for ASUS P6T – human-readable version (mind you, I didn’t say human-understandable version)
- com.apple.Boot.plist for Chameleon v2 boot loader (yeah, I prefer that legacy logo too :-)) for SL installation drive
Hardware
I’m only using S-ATA/P-ATA drives, I don’t recommend using the IDE port.
- Flash BIOS revision v1004. This is essential! The provided DSDT below may not work properly in case you use an older BIOS version.
- Disconnect all unneeded drives
- Make sure your installation drive is connected to the first SATA port which is SATA1 on the P6T
BIOS settings
Start off with resetting to default settings.
- Set storage to AHCI
- Enable ACPI 2.0 support
- Enable ACPI APIC support
- Make sure the BIOS lists your installation drive as the first drive even if you boot from a prepared USB stick.
- Set DDR-3 rate to reflect correct memory timing (optional)
- Disable JMicron ATA (optional, unless you use those additional S-ATA ports)
- Disable ASUS Express Gate (optional, but it’s useless anyway)
- Disable IEEE 1394 (optional, unless you need FireWire)
Minimum kexts
The minimum kernel extensions to get a bootable OSX86 are:
- fakesmc.kext (see netkas.org for latest SL version)
- OpenHaltRestart.kext (needed for proper shutdown/restart)
- AHCIPortInjector.kext and IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext are not needed
Optional kexts
Optional kernel extensions:
- Marionez’ AppleHDA.kext – Probably the easiest way to get sound from that Realtek ALC1200 chip. Install it using Kext Helper to /S/L/E. Download it here. If the volume meter works but you’re not hearing any sound, check your sound preferences if line out is selected.
- JMicronATA.kext- (if you’re using those additional S-ATA ports)
Once everything is up and running: remove fakesmc.kext from /Extra/Extensions and install it using Kext Helper to your SL installation partition. This will speed up booting. I deliberatly run my OSX86 PC in 64-bit kernel mode so there’s no RAM page swapping when the OS accesses the memory above 4 GB.
There’s one more thing…
Bonjour discovery doesn’t work out of the box. That’s why you may not (reliably) see other Macs in your network. Or why you’re unable to pair your Apple TV to your iTunes Library. Apparently, the onboard network chip doesn’t see any multicast network traffic. One way to fix this is to put the network interface into promiscuous mode. See here for details. Promiscuous mode is just a temporary solution until a proper multicast fix will be available, i.e. a working 64-bit version of RealtekR1000.kext.
Check out this implementation of the RealtekR1000 LAN driver. It’s working for the RTL8168C/8111C LAN chip in 64 bit mode and multicast is working as well, which means, no more troubles seeing other Apple devices on the network. There is some support for this driver in this thread over at insanelymac.com.
Looking for kexts? Here’s the kext package I’m using on my P6T based system.
You may also be interested to read:
- Snow Leopard 10.6 on MSI Wind U100 netbook
This is not a how-to guide, tutorial or walk-through, I just list the kexts and settings needed to get Snow Leopard 10.6.0 or 10.6.1 up... - Kexts for ASUS P6T mainboard
Here are the kernel extensions I’m using on my ASUS P6T (non SE, non Deluxe) mainboard to run Mac OS X 10.6. I’m not planning... - MSI Wind U100 netbook: How to update to 10.6.2
Because Apple didn’t release the Darwin 10.2.0 XNU sources (the kernel in Mac OS X 10.6.2) yet (as of 11-14-09), there’s no way to re-enable Atom...
By the way, updating to 10.6.1 was a breeze. I’m looking forward to 10.6.2 as it’s going to bring a new Darwin kernel version (10.2.0). I hope everything will as run rock solid as with the current 10.0.0 kernel.
I have the same system setup but unable to get OSX up and running under vmware 6.5 or 7 workstation. I wonder if you are able to create the vmware image and upload it via torrent or somewhere to download?
Any chance you could recommend one of the USB stick guides to follow? I have the same board and was looking into trying this out. There appears to be a few guides… Was just going to pick one and run with it, but if one worked better for you all the better.
Thanks
@Jason: I started off with this one:
http://www.insanelymac.com/for.....pic=189052
…to create a bootable USB stick with SL on it but I did not use their kexts and scripts.
Cheers,
Jan
Updating to 10.6.2 was a breeze again, everything is still working as expected.
Hi
Ive been trying to get osx snow leopard on my pc for a few days with no success.
My machine is
P6t (normal) bios 801
i7 920
nvidia gtx 295
6gb ram
Which guide could you solidly recommend for installing osx? I have tried one which was for the se board, but someone had modified it for p6t (normal) . I had no success. What i need are. Concrete bios settings, installation files and installation method.
I hope you can help, getting rather desperate to get this to work. Dont feel like spending on a new mac, just yet!
Thanks again
Alexdbad
Alexdbad, you’ll find the BIOS settings in this post. I don’t know if there are any P6T guides out there in the OSX86 community. Installing a Hackintosh from retail DVD can be a pretty time consuming adventure sometimes. It involves a lot of digging, reading, searching, trying, experimenting, tuning…
Cheers,
Jan
Alexdbad,
I have the same exact setup as you (minus the GFX card).
Asus P6T (reg) bio 0801
i7 920
Nvidia 8800GTS 640mb
8gb Corsair XMS3 1600mhz DDR3
My bios settings:
Storage (1st page) -> ACHI
Enable ACPI
3rd page -> Onboard Devices -> Jmicron -> Enabled w/ ACHI
Use this guide:
http://www.insanelymac.com/for.....pic=189052
With these files instead:
http://redirectingat.com/?id=2.....f6e8ebb871
To get to 10.6.2 follow this guide:
http://www.aymansworld.com/fil.....7c5-4.html
Hope that helps!
I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but I can’t get past Waiting for DSMOS…
I followed the directions above. Replaced the dsdt with the one from here and waiting for dsmos
Replaced dsdt and removed dsmos.kxt and still waiting for dsmos.
p6t with 0801 bios. ACHI with acpi enabled.
Someone please help. this is insane!
Actually forget what I wrote up there. The problem was the drive I was installing to had a previous bootloader in there causing some confusion. Once I formatted the drive it went away.
Just one question. Are you replacing the dsdt from the file linked above with the one on this website? Are you doing anything else or just formatting a usbstick and restoring sl on there. Then running boot prep from the p6t essentials from the link above. Did you make any changes?
Thanks
Hi –
Thank you for posting this. I am, however, having problems just getting into install.
When I boot and the USB drive initiates, I get the legacy boot screen and the spinning circle, which goes on for some time. Then it simply freezes and then – nothing. It just all hangs like that.
I created my USB installer by following this post:
http://prasys.co.cc/2009/09/in.....-easy-way/
I also included your DSDT.aml, DSDT.dsl, and your com.apple.Boot.plist in the USB install’s /Extra folder. All kext requirements you mentioned above are there.
Could you please help me out?
Thanks!
Hi, on the P6T this usually happens when your boot drive is not on the first SATA port and/or AHCI is not enabled. If that doesn’t help, try to boot in verbose mode (-v) and post your findings in one of the OSX86 community boards. I’m sure someone will be able to help you.
Cheers,
Jan
i got SL installed but upon reboot the USB stick goes back into install mode and my HD with Sl installed on it is not coming up. I can go into disk utility from the OSX installer and see my HD as a startup disk but it does not come up after reboot. What do i need to do to make this SL disk work? Thanks so much for the info so far which got me to this point.
AB
acbionic, do you see the created SL HD partition when you boot from your USB stick in the blue partition selection screen with the chameleon on top?
When I do the install i see it but after the install in done and i restart it just goes back into the install screen. You said to make sure you use Sata port1, but the drive only comes up on port 0. When i put it on port one its not seen by the Osx installer.
Just use the first SATA port, it’s labeled SATA 1 on all P6T boards, there is no SATA 0. From the distance it’s really hard to tell what’s missing. Usually, after the installation is complete, you just boot into Chameleon with the USB stick, (remove the USB stick after Chameleon shows up to make sure you can’t continue with the stick), and select the HD in Chameleon and that should boot into the Mac OS UI. There’s no way you land back at the Mac OS installation screen in that case.
if i remove the Extra folder from the USB stick then I fet the CHameleon screen to choose my HD, I choose my SL drive and the wheel just keeps spinning it never boots up OSX properly. What am I missing?
Regards,
AB
If you have the ASUS P6T board and if you have to remove the Extra folder on your USB stick so your HD shows up in Chameleon, there’s something seriously wrong in the first place.
After the initial installation it’s impossible to successfully boot without the kexts in /E on your USB stick because those kexts are needed.
Thanks for that info. i do have the p6t board. If something is wrong any clue on how I might go about trying to fix it? WHen the extra folder is present on my USB stick, i’m stuck in the install loop. When I remove the EXTRA folder from the stick both the USB stick and my HD show up. But I can not get the HD to boot into OSX. Which additional kexts do I need to get my HD to boot normally? As you can tell this all is new to me, so be gentle.
Warm Regards,
AB
I’m afraid, I’m running out of ideas. You may want to ask in the OSX86 scene forums for further advice.
Cheers
Jan
Hi Jan,
can you contact me (I provided my email in the form) I have a special proposition to make to you. (but wasn’t able to find any contact form anywhere else … probably because there isn’t any :)
thanks
Cheers
A.
Thanks to you I did get this far. So you did give me a gimmer of hope. I think i’m just a few edits away from getting this hack to work. If you come across anything you think might help i would be greatful if you pas it on. I’ll check the OSX86 furoms for more info.
peace & Blessings,
AB
Hey~ I got the USB stick to boot but it keeps freezing when I load disk utility….. any ideas?
In my case this always happened when the target disk was not on SATA 1 (the first SATA port).
Cheers,
Jan
Hey Jan, Thanks for the tip….. I just tried it still not working…… freezing on gathering information in disk utility
Andrew, are you using the latest BIOS revision for the P6T? Is the DSDT.aml in /Extra? Also disconnect all other drives from SATA.
Hey Jan, Ya I disconnected all the other drives and it seems to be working nicely now
I have the latest bios 904 so I hope the DSDT.aml still work install as we speak
Personally, I had some problems with the provided DSDT.aml on the latest BIOS (904?), so I compiled my own instead.
Basically, I used DSDT_Patcher, then removed all lines that start with “alias” at the beginning (to get all cores working), and freed an interrupt (to fix slow SATA speed). You can download it here if you want: http://www.mediafire.com/?ynrlx5n0zmi (if you want the source, I will give it to you)
Keep in mind that this particular one only works for i7-920.
hey all. thanks a ton for everything.
for those who have posted i thank you.
for those using the posts, don’t give up I did it! YOU CAN TOO.
i have asus pt6 bios 801, core i7 920 overclocked to 3.5GHz 12 gigs ram nvidia gtx 260. this site was MAJOR help for the DSDT finds. i also spent about a week reading all about chameleon and hackintosh sites/boards. my machine now successfully triple boots to win7 64 ubuntu 9.10 64 and snow leopard. my machine won’t fully shut down via snow leopard, weird,
and i still really don’t have a rock solid grasp of how chameleon works. i installed/used guides from other sites and this sites files to fashion (not compile,,,,,i think) a usb stick with it chamelon 2 rc3 on it. i have tried cloning this usb thumb drive to another stick of same size, and after changing all bios settings, it fails… that puzzles me… i want to get a working backup so i can further explore chameleon especially for rc 4’s available skins and the ability to hide non os drives. i guess i’m not sure what is on my thumb drive and what is on snow leopards partition and how they talk to each other. i assume in my install i never used the 200 meg efi… anyone’s help would be appreciated
but lastly like how mr. trick77 stated, go vanilla and no other way… my question is , is it safe to upgrade to 10.2.x? straight up if so i will, i am currently waiting to get that uncloneable fob cloned, and want to make sure i don’t have to change anything on chameleon’s end before updating.
thanks all and best of luck.
bowen.b.junk at gmail.com
trick77 have you gone to chameleon 2 rc4 yet?
does your machine shutdown properly?
Ben, I just installed RC4 and my P6T still shuts down as it did with RC3. One advantage of not using a pre-prepared OSX86 distribution is that you should be able to upgrade your P6T Hackintosh without any problems. But eventually, it also depends on the hardware you use on top of the P6T and what components Apple changed in the upgrade. I usually write a short post on this blog if a new upgrade works with the P6T.
As for the shutdown issue you may want to try this: try booting with all other disks disconnected from SATA. Does that fix the problem? You may also want to boot with the -v flag. The verbose mode shows the shutdown sequence and I’ve seen some situations where OS X is unable to unmount certain partitions. I have this problem with my SATA DVD from time to time as well but haven’t found a fix for it so far.
Cheers,
Jan
using RC4, i read somewhere that the only difference was replacing the .boot file, and then being able to add extra lines of code in your com.apple…. files in the extra folder to enable themes, and hiding unwanted drives. i’m wondering if that’s the case or do you need to “compile/build and reinstall” thanks for the time.
You just need to copy the file named boot to the root directory of your OS X partition (and to the USB stick) to use RC4. That’s it, no need to compile/build. You have to modify the plist if you want to use the RC4 features though.
Cheers,
Jan
Btw. it took me months until I figured what was really going on with kernels, kexts, bootloaders, DSDT and all that stuff. A working vanilla install from scratch in just one week is quite an achievement :)
Hi!
When I boot and the USB drive initiates, I get the legacy boot screen and not the spinning circle..and it doesn’t go on…it freezes…why?
HD is in sata port #1!
instead…using p6t essentials original files of http://www.insanelymac.com/for…..pic=189052 guide…all goes on and start utility disk..installatio goes well but kernel is 32 bit..not 64 bit!
HELP ME please..THANK YOU!
Help!!!
..when i boot usb stick with dsdt.aml given in this site…boot stops with this message:
IOAPIC: Version 0×20 Vectors 88:111
what can i do?
help me please
sorry man, no idea
@ Luca, are you sure to use the correct bios version and the correct settings?
what would realy be awsome is if someone with a normal P6T board (not se not delux) would make a link with only the files needed to make all the components of the board work i have gotted it to install with remakable spped using sata not ahci but it dosnt see the dvdrw drive and i had no ethernet I was able to get sound to work using the voodoo kext but never was able to find a kext for my GTX 295 also it recognised that i had a I7 920 cpu and the clock it was at but couldnt get all the cores to show up.
Im willing to trade secrits and help the comunity but someone who has a working setup needs to start posting there own links instead of posting old broken links!!
Im so tired of reading through an install guide just to find out all the links to the files needed are broken.
also Im not using a premade cd I own my own retail copy of SL and I think everyone should!
btw the previus post about brokem link was not directed twords anyone of you its directed tward another website that has many tutorial with links to kext files that are all broken unfortunaly there the links to the kext files i think i need.
would it be posable for one of you with a 100% working system to post a link to a zip that includes:
boot loader thats being used
all kext files needed to make P6T fully functional at 64 bit
a brief install guide?
OPG, you’ll find the kexts I’m using here:
http://trick77.com/2010/01/19/kexts-for-asus-p6t/
There’s no guarantee that they work on your system as well though. I haven’t seen many reports from users who got a GTX 295 running in OS X, as this card is not present in any Mac today.
Cheers,
Jan
thank you very much I was able to boot SL by using the method here http://www.insanelymac.com/for.....pic=187151 but have isues with video
I a lil cunfused on what vanila kernal is is the method im using, using the vanila kernal?
As I said, I don’t think the GTX 295 is supported.
Vanilla means the original kernel, not a recompiled kernel. If you’re using the retail DVD you’re automatically using the vanilla kernel.
Ok im at 10.6.2 seems like all that dont work is video i can use the card but get crap res
I found a link that explains how to do it but its all gibberish to me
the link is http://www.insanelymac.com/for.....pic=184318
P6T
I7 920@3.6
GTX 295
12 gig OCZ Gold ddr3 1600
4 SATA drives all working in IDE mode
but for some reason I cant get my SATA DVDRW drive to be seen by Snow Leopard I even hooked up a regular IDE DVDRW and it dont see it but if I switch to AHCI the SATA DVDRW works fine are any of you aware of a kext that will solve this?
Oh yeah and thanks to Jan for posting the kexts once I get this drive working in IDE mode Im going to run some benchmarks and il post results
After further research and snooping i was able to get my hackintosh working fully with Snow Leopard retail, Asus p6t, i7 920 CPU, Egva 9800 GTX 512 mb, 12 GB ram and two SATA drives.
Thanks to all you guys and dolls out there, i finally used EMPIRE EFI to reboot into SL after the install. For my Nvida card to work correctly download Netkas -Enabler_for_Nvidia_and_multiple_ATI_cards.pkg from his web site.
That’s it in anut shell.
Happy hackintosh,
AB
can someone upload an iso of the boot loader
Jan, thanks for your help and everyone else’s to. I’ve got Snow Leopard 10.6 up and running. I’ve been unable to update to 10.6.2 successfully, always kernal panic. How did you do your update?
shifter, I’ve never experienced a KP with this board, not in 10.6.0 nor .1 or .2. Are you sure you don’t have any kexts installed from a previous installation? Are you using the kexts from the package above, including DSDT? Can you post the KP message?
Cheers,
Jan
Jan, I used the guide and kext from eric r’s post. Maybe thats the reason? When I went to follow the 3rd link of his for the update, I couldn’t really figure it out. I am a complete beginner and had SL up and running in a week but only because I followed instructions here. On my own it would have taken months also. Hence, why I really need to understand what I’m doing. I’m still trying to get my head around everything. If I get another kernal panic I’ll try and post it.
shifter, I’m afraid I can’t help because I’m not familiar with this installation guide. I know that if you use the kexts and DSDT from my post and do a vanilla install (I admit that this is pretty hard for a beginner) it just works. Never had any issues when updating.
Cheers,
Jan
I have successfully built two hack pro’s to 10.6.2 with the i7-920 on the ASUS P6T with no problems.
My current build (third machine) is using the new i7-930 with new 1201 bios from asus. 10.6.0 loads great, but when I upgrade to 10.6.2 I get a kernel panic on reboot. I am not doing anything different other than CPU and Bios… Any thoughts or help???
Thanks.
Pete
P6T, i7-930, 12gigs Corsair 1600, Corsair 60gig SSD
Good News! I got everything working and I’m on 10.6.2. I went from scratch and used your kext but made my own DSDT.aml. I didn’t modify it though (need to study that a whole lot more). I used the same usb stick for the install with the method you linked in the 4th post but used Chameleon V2 RC4. I didn’t end up with an /Extra folder so I made one and put the DSDT in there along with your com apple boot plist that I modified because I’m dual booting with Windows 7. I dont have a smbios plist though. Is this a big deal? I’ve heard its mostly cosmetic but maybe theres more to it. At any rate everything is running great! I have not done so yet but I’m assuming its ok to use software update for safari and other things. Please let me know if its not. Thanks for yours and everyones informative post here :)
shifter
I forgot to mention, I needed to boot x32bit because I have a RME soundcard with only 32bit mac kext. The monitor ressolution was wrong though so I used nvinject kext and all was good.
Pete, it’s not the BIOS as I just updated to 1201 and everything still works as with the older version.
Cheers,
Jan
I am running the identical setup as you Jan but may have missed something on the install as everything seems to have installed properly and I am running a 10.6 with excellent video once I swithched to a BFG GTX 260 video card. Sleep mode works flawlessly but I am unable to get the system to Restart or Shutdown properly. The other issue I have is that when running the Disk Utility it takes awhile to get all of my drives to show up. I am also going to try moving my SATA DVD drive to one of the jmicron ports as I get slow response from the other SATA ports.
I am very hesitant to upgrade to 10.6.2 until I get my other issues resolved first. After that my ext plan would be to get a dual boot to work with my Win 7 x64. I currently have to press F8 to select which OS I am going to as the Chameleon R3 will show my Mac OSX properly but shows my Windows RAID as two seperate HDs.
Thank you so much for all of your guidance and help.
Cheers,
Michael
Michael, I had the Disk Utility problem as well but the problem disappeared as soon as I made sure the Mac OS drive is on the first (non-JMicron) SATA port. I’m 97% sure that’s why shutdown/restart don’t work as well. Actually, they would but OS X is unable to unmount your drives. Try booting with -v flag to see if it hangs while unmounting after clicking shutdown/restart.
Are you using my DSDT too and the latest 1201 Bios version?
Cheers,
Jan
To be honest, I had forgotten which DSDT I had installed. The Mac OS drive was/is on the very first SATA port (Port 1).
Last night I used the posting from Flee:
http://www.fleebailey33.org/20.....dated.html
Together with the fix for the ALC1200 after updating to 10.6.2 and everything is working smoothly. Was a bit surprised as to how smoothly things turned around. I believe that I may have actually had a big mess with the different kexts that by switching to a clean install and the post I mentioned above it just seemed to fall into place.
I am a complete noob and feel like I just got lucky. I hate not knowing what the issue was though.
I am running the 1201 version of the Bios as well.
Cheers,
Michael
Glad it works for you!
Cheers,
Jan