Thread: Successful install of iATKOS L2 10.7.2 on HP 8440p - detailed process description

Hi Alainvg,

That is awesome - congratulations!

About the install process....
Was this the first time you tried to convert your HP 8540p or do you have prior hackintosh experience?
Were there any steps in the install guide that need additional clarification or modification?
Did you use the USB stick option for the fast install or the DVD only scenario?

About the results....
What is your processor and screen resolution?
What is your Geekbench score?

Also, glad to hear about the dual boot capability which leaves Windows in place and adds OSX to the drive.
I figure quite a few people are hesitant to work on their machine if they do not have a spare drive available, so that is great to know that the whole process does not require people to give up the Windows system they already have.

Again, I simply bought the module that converts the optical bay into an additional harddrive bay so Windows and OSX are completely separate, but if iATKOS can make the same effect happen on 1 drive, that's great!

One suggestion for others who are considering all this would be to check out the e-sata drive option.
I just thought of that the other day, because that is probably an even easier option to use, even if it requires buying a new enclosure that has that port on it in addition to probably USB or firewire.

What I am asking is that if anyone has an external drive with an e-sata port, could you please use the installation guide in the first post and see if you can make a functional OSX86 machine on the external e-sata drive?
Logically speaking, it should work as I would doubt that the SATA port will appear different to the OS, but that is what needs to be confirmed.

Another interesting question in that scenario is if you can install OSX on the e-sata enclosure first and then move the physical harddrive to the normal inside bay or optical bay HD module later, without system or booting problems once the drive is on those sata ports?

In any case, any observations from other people who are installing iATKOS L2 on their HP 8440p or 8540p are highly welcome!
Thanks Alainvg for your post to this group.

Well, to answer your questions: my laptop has an Intel Core i5-540M and it's running in 1600x900 resolution. Geekbench indicates 4817. Not too bad I think.

About the USB stick: that didn't work for me. I wasn't able to transfer the dmg image to USB but that must be my bad . So installation is done from DVD which indeed needs some time to complete.

I must say that 'kexts' seem to be *VERY* fragile. I had to reinstall iATKOS L2 already 2 times because I messed up some kexts (kernel panic) ... It's very dangerous to experiment ... Although most of the available devices on my laptop seem to work now as they should - even the onboard USB3 is OK - audio is *NOT*. I can't change the volume although the volume up/down keys change on my display (but sound remains constant). That is something that I need to resolve, if I find the time

Didn't you have that issue with your sound card? Or if you know a solution, feel free to post!

Edit: Has just been resolved! Sound volume is OK now!

Thanks again for your effort!

Alainvg,

Glad to hear the sound is now solved. Were you using the voodooHDA kext which is in the file I uploaded?

I tried several sound kexts and what you described happened to me also at first, where the volume up and down seems active and even shows the screen display but did not change the sound at all. The version in the uploaded file works fine for me, except that the mute button does not work. The sound itself sounds better than under Windows, so this driver gets better results somehow.

As far as kexts being fragile and Kernel Panics, I only had that with the various sound related voodooHDA files I tried. Since I included the one that works in the uploaded file, people should not experience Kernel Panics or have to reinstall anything if they follow the described process, I would think....

Which brings me to this question - what is your specific model then? I am not aware of the HP 8440p line having USB 3.0 ports, as that came with Sandy Bridge chipsets in 2011 I think. Or did you not mean USB 3.0 when you said "even the onboard USB3 is OK"?
Do you have the 8440p or 8540p or something newer that this also works on?

Hmm no, the provided sound kext did not work as desired. I had to change a parameter within the kext package and reboot. That solved the issue.

I have indeed 2 USB3.0 ports on the right side of my 8540p (that use the Renesas kext).

OK, that makes some sense then, in terms of what you described in your earlier post. My model, the 8440p, must have some minor low level differences then as compared to the 8540p. Looking at some of the specs, you have the NVS 5100m with 1GB graphics, versus the NVS 3100m in my model. Also, there are USB 3.0 ports in yours but not in mine with USB 2.0 only.

Either way, it sounds like overall the machine is sufficiently comparable, with the exception of the sound situation that required a different kext parameter. What did you change in the kext package?

As stated, I too had the most trouble with the sound piece, leading to kernel panics or things not working as they should. Once sound was working correctly with the right kext, life was good.

Can you confirm that your kernel logs, under About this Mac, System Information, Logs, Kernel Logs (I think) that there are no complaints from the system during a boot, and that things look clean?

BTW, I highly recommend doing the Color Calibration under the Monitor prefs panel. You'll be amazed how much better the 1600x900 screen looks under OSX than Windows.

Congrats again on your successful install and for sharing!

This is the link with the info I used:

Voodoohda Driver - Project OS X Forums

That solved my issue.

Thanks!

I have Windows 7 and have partitioned my drive (2x150gb), the problem I run into is after installation my computer doesnt boot in Lion. I've tried several BIOS changes but nothing seems to help. It just tries to start Lion and then its rebootin. I don't even see the Apple logo...

Great TUT!

Some suggestions from my install. The biggest one for me was not using the DVD. I understand this is a tut meant for those who dont have access to macs but for those who do may want to try installing a boot loader to save them time.
I skipped the step to burn a dvd and just installed chameleon boot loader to the usb device. I was also able to copy the dmg to the usb by restoring it it the usb drive in disk utility on my current hackintosh.

Besides that I was unable to find the kext that you said to delete. I used the old kext utility packaged in the 8440p kext package to install the kext for the mouse and keyboard and that worked successfully. That worked where the new utility did not.

Thanks again

Joe

Hi all,
I can't find these settings in BIOS, except the SATA Mode... Otherwise I have the default settings. As I said earlier I only see the apple logo briefly and then it all reboots again. iAtkos L2 with Chameleon as bootloader. Running this through USB. Any hint will be greatfully accepted.

Thanks

Execute Disable bit: Enabled
XD: Enabled
Limit CPUID Max: Disabled
Virtualization: Disabled or Enabled, try it.
Hyper-threading: Disabled or Enabled, try it.
HPET: Enabled
SATA Mode: AHCI

Originally Posted by Gladpants

Great TUT!

Besides that I was unable to find the kext that you said to delete. I used the old kext utility packaged in the 8440p kext package to install the kext for the mouse and keyboard and that worked successfully. That worked where the new utility did not.

Hi Joe,

I updated the guide to say "if it is there, delete etc..." so people do not get confused.
Again, since the guide is the result of me doing a bunch of stuff that ultimately worked, the one I say to delete may have been a left over from me doing something earlier rather than being there to begin with. Thanks for sharing so it is corrected.

What do you mean by "That worked where the new utility did not"? What new utility?

Otherwise, it sounds like things went well. What is your config and what does Geekbench show for results?

Thx

Originally Posted by phatboy82

I can't find these settings in BIOS, except the SATA Mode... Otherwise I have the default settings. As I said earlier I only see the apple logo briefly and then it all reboots again. iAtkos L2 with Chameleon as bootloader. Running this through USB. Any hint will be greatfully accepted.

Well, couple of things.

First, your results are NOT typical because you did something different than what is described in the guide.
THIS GUIDE is really meant to help people be successful by using a laptop model and config that it applies to and by following it.
Sorry, just want to keep the picture clear here for future readers that your problem is NOT an issue with the process but another issue.

Having said that, let's see if we can figure this out anyway.
What is your config? Is it the 8440p with NVS 3100m graphics card?

I would expect that IF your install was originally complete and successful, that your problem is somehow related to the flags and that once you boot successfully into OSX, that you can use the Chameleon load utility to make sure the flags are used each time, instead of having to do it manually.

If that is the case, I would first get the IATKOS L2 disk back out and reboot off it, until you get the first screen.
Then, I assume you would see the partitions, one of which should be OSX.
Move the cursor to it and type ALL the boot parameters that are required per the guide by just starting to type, so: -v graphicsenabler=yes, etc.
If the laptop keyboard does not work at that point still use the USB keyboard.

Also, read:
tonymacx86 Blog: Dual Boot Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard Using Chameleon
and similar posts.

Again, I would assume there is something simple that is not set right, you just need to figure out what it is.

Finally, if it is not something you can fix easily, I would consider scrapping the whole dual boot scenario to begin with. For a low cost, it is VERY EASY to make the HP 8440p a dual DRIVE machine using a HDD caddy for the optical bay.
That removes a major variable and gives you a lot more flexibility.
I really like the w7 SSD combined with the OSX hd all in the same box.