Running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.x on ASUS X53SC Laptop

I recently bought this ASUS X53SC Laptop and the very first thing i wanted to do was install Mac on it. I am an Hacktint0sh user and i love it more than a real Mac. What i would like to share in this blog is how did i manage to get Lion running on this Laptop and what were the problems i faced.

1) “still waiting for root device” solution/fix which worked for me

I went for iAtkos L2 because my retail USB installer didn’t work for this very popular error “still waiting for root device”. All the common solutions i found on the forums, none of them helped me initially. But the surprise was, even iAtkos L2 also got stuck on the same error. That’s when i understood that even the retail USB installer would have worked if i am able to solve this error. So there was obviously something else which was causing this problem. AHCI was enabled by default in my BIOS as that was the most common solution found on the net so solve this error. One more solution given was to enable/disable Legacy USB support, but as we all know Laptop BIOS’es have all such options disabled.

Finally the solution which made the installer move forward was rd=disk1s1 -x -v

I was so happy when i saw the installation welcome screen. Big sigh of relief! The reason for disk1s1, because the internal Laptop hard disk was referred to as disk0. So somehow the installer started and i carried out the common steps required for setting up Lion. After the installation succeeded, it was time to boot from the internal hard disk. Since i had used iAtkos for installation, chameleon got installed by default in the same step. But once again i was greeted with the same “still waiting for root device” error. This time it was frustration when i saw it.

According to the install, i had Windows 7 already running on the first partition on my disk along with an extra 100 MB partition which windows creates. So that means I had installed Lion on the 3rd partition of my disk. So once again i tried the option which helped my external USB installer work, rd=disk0s3, but hard luck this time, it didn’t work.The only option which worked for me is no more working. 🙁

After again scratching the head for some solution, i restarted the installation from the external USB and this time i selected additionally the AHCI option from the customize window in iAtkos and what can i say, it worked. I need to see what that option did, but most probably it’s the AHCI injector. Now i was able to complete the rest of the steps like providing personal details, username/password, timezone and others.

Apart from this i also remember, i had to use PciRoot=0 instead of PCIRootUID=0 or 1, but now it’s all mixed up, did the AHCI option from iAtkos solved my problem, or did this chameleon option solved my problem? I am going to try a fresh retail install very soon to confirm but for the time being, no more waiting..i am happy 🙂

I will update this post with more information on the progress i made further.

02) 03-April-2012. Intel HD 3000 Artifacts and Mirroring Problem

Sometimes, it’s so difficult to make things work and especially when you don’t have the knowledge and that’s exactly what happened this time. My next task was to make the Graphics work smoothly. The device id of the HD Graphics is 116, so I thought myself lucky, but that wasn’t to be the case. Till date, I haven’t been able to solve the artifacts and the mirroring problem. Tried all possible options found across different forums, from kext editing to DSDT patching, nothing fixed it up for me. I think I need to live with it for some more time till someone finds a more concrete solution. Everytime I play the game of Chess, it hangs after 2 moves. Although all other features are working smoothly. So I believe, QE/CI is working but not 100% though.

In between I managed to install Mountain Lion Developer Preview 1 to see what’s new and yes I can confirm the artifacts are still there, but the game of Chess didn’t hang at all. So let’s hope artifacts also go away for ever very soon.

And for me mirroring is a must. After editing the connector table, extended display works without any problem but as soon as I select the mirroring option, it freezes with no further log, just a nice blue color screen. I found on one forum that mirroring is working over HDMI port, so that’s why I’ve ordered a HDMI Male – VGA Female adapter. Once it reaches, I will confirm if this is true. My main purpose of mirroring is to be able to connect to Projectors for my training sessions.

Edit: Didn’t work. The HDMI-VGA Female Adapter didn’t work for me.

03) 27-June-2012. Mountain Lion – No rope to climb further

I think i am able to convince enough that instead of investing 40k in buying this laptop, i should have rather added another 10k to buy a real mac. Till DP 2, i was able to install and run it on this laptop, but since DP 3 and DP 4, it’s otherwise. It simply freezes when it’s time to load the Graphics. The new AGPM has something to do with this, i am sure. Only if i boot in safe mode (-x) i am able to log into the system. So one more disappointment on the floors for me.

The whole journey is taking a U-turn and i don’t know what to do. Nothing is working smoothly on this i7 Quad Core Sandybridge hardware. As of now i reinstalled 10.7.3 on it just for the sake of it.

I sincerely miss my Lenovo B450 Laptop which was a 100% Mac compatible laptop. Miss you baby!

This entry was posted in Mac.

25 thoughts on “Running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.x on ASUS X53SC Laptop

  1. Its almost 2 weeks and i amstill struggling with installation of mac os x in my laptop.
    My specification is:

    Specs:-
    Product Name g6-2130se
    Product Number A3W05PA
    Microprocessor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5-2450M
    Microprocessor Cache 3 MB L3 cache
    Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
    Memory Max Supports up to 8 GB DDR3
    Video Graphics AMD Radeon HD 7450M (1 GB DDR3 dedicated)
    Display 15.6″ HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366×768)
    Hard Drive 640 GB SATA (5400 rpm)
    Multimedia Drive SuperMulti DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support

    Still can’t figure out what the problem is …. 🙁

  2. i got an error mac os x version not yet set ehile installing on asus x53sc.iused every commands cpus=1 -f -F etc. but it didnt work pls tell how to get past

  3. Hi,
    I recently bought a dell alienware m17xR4, i73740QM, nvidia gtx 675m, 8GB DDR3 RAM!
    Will I be able to install mac on my laptop! I’m unble to get to the installer screen itself! I’ve been trying for about couple of weeks, various methods from various posts! the only thing I was reach maximum was with the “still waiting for root device”. If Mac could be installed on my laptop based on the configuration, is there any tutorial that you could spare me for the mac installation.

  4. i have the same laptop and i have tried almost all mac os x distros but not even on has worked for me.
    can you explain what you meant with (rd=disk1s1 -x -v) or where to write it?
    I have iATKOS_L2. but it still not working.

    • Please let me know what exactly is the problem you are facing. If you are booting from a DVD, then there is nothing to worry about. The problem of still waiting for root device appears only if you install from an USB drive and the option i mentioned worked perfectly for me. The internal hard disk is referred to as disk0, so the USB drive i connected would be referred as disk1, so rd=disk1s1 was to make sure it boots correctly from the pen drive which had iAtkos L2 on it. The above option you need to type when the chameleon bootloader appears. If you are booting from the DVD, you need to press F8 so that you can type your own options. But for a DVD installation, there is nothing to worry about, the installation should start. Let me know!

      • I got same error when i boot from iATKOS_L2
        (Error parsing plist file)
        and the laptop restarts.
        I tried many times but nothing changes.
        So what should i do now?

        My laptop is

        ASUS X53SC
        Prosessor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2201 Mhz
        4 GB RAM
        NVIDIA 520X .1 GB
        500 GB HDD
        OS = WINDOWS 7
        UBUNTU 12.04
        IT IS DUAL-BOOT WINDOWS.7 AND UBUNTU.

        • and here is more

          Error parsing plist file.
          Error encountered while starting up the computer.
          pausing 5 seconds….

          and the computer restarts.

          • Are you using an USB installer or through a DVD? Maybe some kext which you have included manually in E/E or S/L/E has a currupt info.plist file. Try deleting any such kext!

          • I am using a DVD.
            I download the DMG image file than converted it to ISO and burned it to DVD.
            But from where can i delete the KEXT file?

            And please can you tell me HOW TO BURN ISO FILE TO A USB DRIVE?

          • I need to know one more thing then. Are you preparing the installer using a Mac or Windows. If you are preparing the installer on Mac, there is no need to convert dmg to iso before burning it. Also you should burn at the lowest speed or else the installation will not work. I would recommend you go for USB, because it will be faster and your installation will be over in less than 15 mins. Like how we burn the dmg on a DVD, same step has to be used for burning the dmg on a USB stick. If you don’t have Mac to do this, you can install a VMware image of Lion so that you can do all this setup creation stuff.

          • I think you should then install Lion image in vmware first so that you can conveniently prepare the installer without errors.

          • Thanks for the help.

            One more thing.Do you know how to turn off virtualization-technologi in Bios?
            I can`t run mac os x on the VMware without turning off virtualization-technologi.

          • There is nothing i had to do like this. I am right now running 10.7.3 in Vmware 8 on Windows 7 without any problem!

          • Thanks for the help.

            And do you know what gone happen,if i buy a Mac os x retail DVD from store and try to install from it.

            I allready IBOOT on aDVD

          • SORRY I CLICKED COMMENT,BEFORE I WAS FINISHED WRITING.

            here again

            Thanks for the help.

            And do you know what gone happen,if i buy a Mac os x retail DVD from store and try to install from it with iboot dvd?

            I allready have IBOOT on aDVD.

            Do you think that gone work well?

  5. Please update your tutorial, i’m waiting becouse i’m in the same situation. Did you solve the problem with the video card?

    • Yes, Intel HD 3000 Graphics is working by default, but not 100% though. I am still facing all those artifacts issue. And the Optimus feature doesn’t works on hackintosh.

      • So, the nvidia 520MX doesn’t work.. hmm
        I hope you’ll solve the problems, I’m sure we are not the only two people who want to run os x on this powerful laptop. Sorry for my bad english hehe

        • Yes, nVidia Optimus is not supported by OS X. So the problem is even if 520MX gets recognized by the system, it wont support switching from the default Intel HD 3000 Graphics. I requested for the device id inclusion of the nVidia card in Chameleon and now in the latest version, the card is recognized as 520MX in Lion but of no use.

          • so i guess i should stop hoping to use in a full mode os lion on this laptop… how unlucky we are xD

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