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!