[erik]

After testing out a lot of methods, this one was the only one that worked.

If you get a kernel panic when installing Snow Leopard to the hard drive, reboot using the -v -x cpus=1 -x32 flags.

How to Install Snow Leopard on a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P System

-by Thunderclap82

Introduction
The vast majority of install guides I’ve found online for Core i7 systems have been systems built with the Gigabyte GA-EX5-UD5 motherboard. While these guides are helpful to me, they aren’t 100% accurate as I have the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard. With every install guide I’ve tried I’ve had some success.

Then I discovered Digital Dreamers X58 Mobo Patch Installer. This worked beautifully for me when I originally set up my OS X 10.5.8 Leopard system. Since Snow Leopard’s release the creative genius behind this application has fixed it to be Snow Leopard ready. As of this writing the X58 Mobo Patch Installer is a Release Candidate and while I had hoped I would experience the same simple install process as the Leopard version I didn’t. That’s not to say the program isn’t helpful and very useful. It is. We just need to make a couple of modifications during the install process.

I’m going to assume you have a basic understanding of OS X. Because of this I will not give you step-by-step instructions of how to format your drive with Disk Utility and other basic tasks.

Requirements
- a clean HFS formatted hard drive
- X58 Mobo Patch Installer RC
- a working version of OS X 10.5.8 Leopard (preferably on your current Hackintosh)
- a retail copy of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (While Apple is bullish in demanding that OS X only be installed on their hardware, it’s no excuse not to support them and their work. Don’t pirate a copy. Maybe if we support them they’ll realize an official release of OS X for PC’s might not be such a bad idea. This would also make our lives a hell of a lot easier.)
- a USB stick (not required)

Installation/Upgrade Guide
If you have a USB stick I strongly recommend copying X58 Mobo Patch Installer to it. It will make using the above application easier to use when going between the two OS’s.

It is also recommended that you have the drive Snow Leopard will be installed to connected to the first SATA port on your motherboard. This will only work if you have a currently built Hackintosh. If you don’t connect the drive via Firewire.

1. Format the Snow Leopard drive in Disk Utility. Make sure it is one partition and is GUID formatted. Name it something that will differentiate it from your other drives. I went with Snow Leopard.

2. Run X58 Mobo Patch Installer and enter your password when asked.

3. Select your Snow Leopard target volume when asked and choose Main system partition.

4. Install the bootloader (#2) and choose PC-EFI_v10.2. This is Snow Leopard compatible.

5. Set the partition as active (#3).

6. Run the Retail DVD installer (#4). This will start an install program off your copy of Snow Leopard. When prompted, choose to install the OS to your Snow Leopard drive. Choose Customize and UNCHECK “Printer Support”, “Additional Fonts” and “Language Translations”. Optional: if you want Rosetta compatibility and Quicktime 7 go ahead and check those. Click Install.

7. After the install is complete go back to the X58 Mobo Patch Installer and run kext/kernel installer (#5). For now leave this all alone.

8. Run Update boot caches (#6).

9. Reboot (#18).

10. Now, if you’re currently running a Hackintosh system on reboot hold down the Delete key and enter your BIOS. In here change your drive boot order so that Snow Leopard is first. You can now move onto Step 12.

If you are on an Apple Mac now is time to move the drive to your Hackintosh. Remember, connect it to the first SATA port on the motherboard. Once done, boot up your system and enter the BIOS.

11. We need to make some changes in your BIOS so Snow Leopard runs properly. Navigate to:

- Advanced BIOS —> Hard Disk Boot Priority: Change your Snow Leopard drive.
- Integrated Peripherals: Change SATA RAID/AHCI Mode to AHCI, Change USB Keyboard Function to Enabled, and Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode to AHCI

Press F10 to Save the BIOS and Reboot. (You will have to do this a couple of more times when you reboot. It’s an annoying bug in Snow Leopard, but we’ll fix it so that these settings stay saved soon.)
12. Let Snow Leopard start and follow the onscreen instructions. (If you want to migrate your Leopard install create a temporary account for now. I went with temp. You can try the Migration Assistant, but I prefer to make sure the OS installed and is working properly before wasting time migrating my old settings and applications.)
Once the account is created and the Snow Leopard desktop appears your system will probably crash with a kernel panic. This is normal. Simply reboot your system. Go into your BIOS and make the changes listed in Step 11 if necessary.
13. You should now see the bootloader screen. Snow Leopard should be defaulted, so press the down arrow key and Scroll to Single User Mode and press enter. Once the OS is done loading you’ll be at a prompt. Type:

/sbin/mount -uw /
chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions
kextcache -v -l -t -m /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext /System/Library/Extensions/
reboot

(Enter the blue command on one line.)

This SHOULD prevent future crashes during boot. Basically, we’re rebuilding the caches. If Snow Leopard crashes on boot again you probably need to disable Spotlight. To do this follow Step 13 and type instead:
sudo mdutil –a –I off
reboot
14. Check your BIOS again. If the settings have changed go back to Step 11. Once you’ve checked your BIOS reboot and let Snow Leopard start.

15. Once Snow Leopard starts (hopefully without any kernel panics) run the EX58_Mobo_Patch_Installer.

16. Run the kext/kernel installer (#5) again. Now we have to make a few changes. We need to change the audio and graphic kext files to /System. To do this simply enter its number and then press Enter. Then we need to move the Misc Patches to /Extra. It works the same way. Type the number and press Enter. When you’re done the two audio kext files and one graphic kext file should be installed to /System while the four Misc Patches are installed to /Extra. Run the kext installer and update boot cache.

17. Run the DSDT patcher (#7).

18. Reboot (#18).

19. Enter your BIOS one final time and make the necessary changes. Now that the DSDT patch has been applied you shouldn’t have to do this anymore. If you’re thinking of running this option earlier DON’T, especially if you’re not on your Hackintosh. This option creates a file with your systems specs. If you do this on any system other than your Hackintosh you won’t be able to boot into Snow Leopard.

You should now have a fully functioning copy of Snow Leopard working. If you want to migrate your Leopard users and applications over simply run Migration Assistant in Utilities.

Option #1: If you don’t want to see all the code while Snow Leopard loads navigate to /Extra and open com.apple.boot.plist. Find:

<string>-v -x32</string> and change it it <string>-x32</string>

Option #2: If your system supports 64-bit and you want to boot in 64-bit then remove the -x32 and add arch=x86_64

There is a lot of confusion over 32-bit and 64-bit in Snow Leopard. Unless you have an Apple Xserve the system automatically boots in 32-bit mode. This is not to say the OS doesn’t support 64-bit applications, it just means the kernel is 32-bit. What does this mean? Basically, it allows for support of more than 32GB RAM. If your computer can’t take more than 32GB RAM then I suggest leaning your system in 32-bit mode. This will not hinder 64-bit applications as the OS will happily run these at their full potential. If you decide you want the 64-bit kernel running anyway be aware you may suffer kernel panics, application errors and other system errors. This is because if certain kext files or applications can’t run in a full 64-bit environment then they won’t work.
Option #3: If you are trying to use expansion cards that Apple generally doesn’t support you will need to install special kext files to get Snow Leopard to see them. Download it here.

Quartz: Quartz is still a mystery to me in Snow Leopard. Some applications required Quartz GL enabled to be installed or run such as Apple’s Final Cut Studio. In Leopard there was a program called OSX86Tools that easily enabled this. In Snow Leopard this results in an error and Final Cut Studio won’t even load, so do not attempt to run this. There was also a way to enable Quartz GL in Terminal but I think this is the command OSX86Tools ran as the same thing happens.

In my testing as long as the graphic kext is in the /System folder (see step 15) Snow Leopard seems to support Quartz properly.

Special Thanks
It goes without saying that this guide would not be possible without Digital Dreamers program. He deserves a lot of credit for making our lives a little easier. Also, special thanks to BlackOSX. He wrote a terrific guide that is similar to Digital Dreamers installer but without the automation. Some of what I learned came from his guide.

[erik]

This needs to be updated.