Intel's New Sandy Bridge and Mac OS X

Posted by tonymacx86 on Monday, January 03, 2011
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UPDATE: Mac OS X 10.6.7 Update for early 2011 MacBook Pros delivers native support for Sandy Bridge CPUs.

Today Intel lifted the Non-Disclosure Agreement on it's new Sandy Bridge LGA 1155 next generation performance chipset and CPUs.  The good news is, we've already successfully installed Mac OS X Snow Leopard!
The bad news is, until Apple uses these CPUs, it's a bit of a science experiment, as you'll need to use a "patched" non-standard Darwin kernel in order to boot the system.  For those of you buying new systems anyway, we're opening a special section of the forum dedicated to Sandy Bridge.
PLEASE NOTE:  Sandy Bridge CPUs and chipsets are not currently supported natively by Mac OS X Snow Leopard. We can't recommend Sandy Bridge systems yet, as there is no official support.  Hence, please don't view this as buying advice.  We're providing this as a service for early Sandy Bridge adopters- and don't recommend using a patched kernel for the long-term. The vanilla kernel is a much more desirable solution for a stable system.

The patched kernel used for these experiments is based on the Mac OS X 10.0.0 kernel that has been altered to run on unsupported CPUs by Qoopz and the ProjectOSX team.

How to Install Mac OS X on Intel's Sandy Bridge

1. Download iBoot Legacy
3. Install Combo Update - DON'T REBOOT
5. Download and install BridgeHelper
4. Run MultiBeast, checking EasyBeast
6. Reboot

-Legacy kernel by Nawcom, AnV, and Azimutz
Kernel used: Darwin Kernel Version 10.6.0: Sun Jan  9 16:40:36 EST 2011; legacy kernel v6 :xnu-1504.9.26/BUILD/obj/RELEASE_X86_640nawcom10.6.0

It's gonna be an exciting year!  Stay tuned for updates.  Good luck, and have fun!

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

New Unified Realtek Onboard Audio Solution: ALC8xxHDA

Posted by tonymacx86 on Tuesday, December 28, 2010
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Introducing MacMan's ALC8xxHDA.kext, a single combined LegacyHDA replacement for Realtek ALC888, ALC887/888b, ALC889, ALC885/889a, and ALC892 high-definition audio codecs.  In order to initiate audio, this driver must be combined with a DSDT from the DSDT Database or HDAEnabler.  For any codecs other than the native ALC885/889a, AppleHDA Rollback must also be used.  All options now available in the latest MultiBeast.

To update from an existing MultiBeast LegacyHDA + AppleHDA rollback:
  1. Delete LegacyHDA from /Extra/Extenisons
  2. Open MultiBeast
  3. Select ALC8xxHDA + AppleHDA Rollback + System Utilities
  4. Reboot
To update from an existing MultiBeast VoodooHDA:
  1. Delete VoodooHDA from System/Library/Extensions.
  2. Open MultiBeast
  3. Select ALC8xxHDA + AppleHDA Rollback + System Utilities
  4. Reboot
Realtek ALC888, ALC887/888b, ALC889, ALC885/889a support:
OUTPUTS: Analog Front Headphone/Green Line-out, Orange Line-out, Grey Line-out, Digital SPDIF-OUT
INPUTS: Analog Pink Microphone, Blue Line-in, Digital SPDIF-IN
Realtek ALC892 support:
OUTPUTS: Analog Front Headphone/Green Line-out, Digital SPDIF-OUT
INPUTS: Analog Pink Microphone, Blue Line-in, Digital SPDIF-IN
Please report your results with this new method in the forum.  Special thanks to complx for the ALC8xxHDA logo.  Enjoy!

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

MultiBeast 3.0 Update

Posted by tonymacx86
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Today MultiBeast was updated to version 3.0.  We've made quite a few structural changes, including enabling all choices, so no options are greyed out.  The downside to this is you can now choose to install everything within a category.  Only check the top level choice and the specific sub-choice options.  Checking the category, or root option will most likely corrupt your installation by installing unwanted or unneeded options.

Please do not upload or redistribute MultiBeast to any other sites.   
Full list of changes:
  • Restructured menus: Advanced Options now separated into Drivers & Bootloaders and Customization.
  • Updated Chameleon 2.0 RC5 - Prerelease to r668.
  • Updated Chameleon 2.0 RC5 - ATI Experimental to r679.
  • Updated Chameleon post install script to correctly install on a dual boot system.
  • Added tonymacx86 theme Remixed by complx to Themes.
  • Changed EasyBeast and UserDSDT to install tonymacx86 theme Remixed by complx.
  • Removed all CPU-specific smbios.plist definitions.
  • Removed Chameleon 2.0 RC4 by AsereBLN 1.1.9
  • Replaced all Legacy88xHDA kexts with the new unified ALC8xxHDA kext.
  • Replaced LegacyAppleRTC with ElliottForceLegacyRTC for 32/64 bit support.
  • Updated EasyBeast and UserDSDT to use Chameleon 2.0 RC5 - Prerelease.
  • Updated EasyBeast to use ElliottForceLegacyRTC instead of LegacyAppleRTC
  • Added iMac11,2 and iMac11,3 System Definitions
If this utility has helped you, please consider a contribution to support further MultiBeast development.  Thanks in advance, and enjoy!

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

Building a CustoMac: CustoMac Mini

Posted by tonymacx86 on Thursday, December 09, 2010
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It used to be that any tiny system was too underpowered to be a real workstation.  Mini-ITX systems with Atom processors and integrated graphics are no good for gaming or HD, let alone having enough horsepower to run professional applications.

Over the past year, many manufacturers have put out Socket 1156 (Intel Core-i3/i5/i7 compatible) Mini-ITX motherboards, completely changing the custom mini-build landscape.  Now one can build a tiny powerhouse capable of running a full-sized graphics card, and a modern quad-core CPU. 

The transition to 1156 has also altered people's ideas of an HTPC, as now your television can be the centerpiece of a very fast, and quiet computer build.  We've put together the following spec build based on a rig that was contributed to the site earlier this year.  It's meant to be a jumping off point for further customization, but if purchased verbatim would work 100% with audio + video through HDMI. This system is fully supported by iBoot + MultiBeast.

CustoMac Mini
Core i3-540 - Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 - NVIDIA GT 240 1GB - 4GB DDR3 RAM
$616.96

CPU: Intel Core i3-540 3.06GHz $109.99


Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 $104.99

Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc 8X SATA DVD+/-RW Slim $39.79

RAM: OCZ 4GB DDR3 1333 (2 x 2GB) $61.99

Adapter: Micro Sata to Sata (for Slim Optical)  $14.99
Operating System: Mac OS X Snow Leopard $26.99


Optional Accessories
NOTE: Only MODEL NO: ACB10us v1.0 will wake from sleep.



Optional Upgrades
    For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

    MultiBeast 2.6 Update

    Posted by tonymacx86 on Sunday, December 05, 2010
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    Today MultiBeast was updated to version 2.6.  The major change in this release is Chameleon 2.0 RC5 Prerelease r651.  This new version provides more comprehensive NVIDIA 4xx "Fermi" GraphicsEnabler support.  We have also decided to use the latest RC5 as the default bootloader for EasyBeast and UserDSDT going forward.

    Please do not upload or redistribute MultiBeast to any other sites. 

    Full list of changes:
    • Updated Chameleon 2.0 RC5 Prerelease to r651
    • Removed PC-EFI 
    • Updated EasyBeast and UserDSDT to default to Chameleon 2.0 RC5 Prerelease
    • Renamed Advanced Options -> Kexts -> Graphics -> PCI Root ID Fix -> For Chameleon 2.0 RC4 by AsereBLN to For Chameleon 2.0
    If this utility has helped you, please consider a contribution to support further MultiBeast development.  Thanks in advance, and enjoy!

    -tonymacx86 & MacMan

    For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!