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

Edit: updated to include Multibeast piece I had left out and to add info on battery icon kexts.
Please use the latest kexts file called HP 8440p kexts under the Downloads - Miscellaneous section.
This newer file has the same kexts as the first one I posted and also the battery kexts.

Edit: included Macdrive step to format USB stick before copying iATKOS dmg to it using Transmac

Overview
I have managed to get a complete functional Lion system on the HP 8440p. My model has an i5-520m 2.4 ghz processor, the Nvidia NVS 3100m graphics card, 1600 x 900 screen resolution, and a 250 GB 7200 rpm drive.

All core functions I would care about work:
- HP webcam,
- stickpoint in keyboard,
- trackpad, as mouse and also scrolling function on right side
- IDT audio, volume up and down buttons, but mute button does not work. It sounds actually better than under w7...
- USB ports
I can definitely confirm that the webcam, microphone and speakers work very well for FaceTime.

At this point, the built-in functions that do not work are:
- Sleep / speedstep capability of the processor and chipset (not sure if this can be worked out)
- the internal wifi card I have, an Intel 6200 so I'm using an external Airlink 101 and getting a Rosewill Mini N2 also. These require a simple download over the regular ethernet port of the driver and utility. I am actually using the Rosewill N1 software with the Airlink USB wifi dongle without issues. It seems to perform better than the Airlink utility I loaded first.
- the SD card reader in the front side.

Not tried and not sure:
- have not hooked a VGA monitor up with cable but do not plan to use that anyway
- do not have a Firewire device to test

Performance
- the overall performance is great, graphics are all smooth also
- there are no suspicious log items under the Kernel section under System Report - Logs
- Geekbench score is 4679 on this config.

Process comments
I had made an attempt prior to Lion about 6 months ago without success. I followed the procedure on tonymac86 labelled "Mostly Successful 10.6.5..." by snoop244. After numerous attempts, I walked away from the project. It did however begin an education on the inner workings of OSX, which I knew nothing about previously.

With the launch of Lion, I followed the developments in this world and noticed iATKOS L2 10.7.2 and decided to give it another try. In sharp contrast to earlier, I am amazed how easy it was to get the base system working. While I did not code anything myself, I hope that it is useful for people to not have to figure out which specific kexts may work on their 8440p.

The kexts included in the zip file in the Downloads sections make the system essentially fully functional, with only the wifi piece requiring an external inexpensive add-on. So thanks to all the people who modified and posted the kexts I was able to utilize. These work specifically on my model of 8440p, I hope they do for others too.

I am providing all the details so we can hopefully establish if this is a repeatable process for other 8440p models with similar configs. The only repeatable process for laptops that I have seen is for the HP Probook 4530s/4430s series with the HD3000 graphics. Tonymacx86 also just wrote about it. I was very tempted to just buy a 4530s or 4430s but decided to attempt an OSX install one more time....

So if you already have an 8440p and want to experiment with OSX, I think it can be a great platform that is very comparable and in some ways better than the Macbooks (1600x900 resolution, matte screen, trackpoint pointer on kb which I love, 2 drive bays which I use for dual-booting OSX and W7, for example)

Disclaimer
My memory is fuzzy regarding some parts of the install process but I believe I captured all the key pieces here. I also specifically encountered kernel panics (blue screen of death equivalents) when I was working on finding the right voodooHDA kext for sound. This required me to re-do the install, but I noticed that that overlays what is already there and leaves things like documents in tact. So I am trying to describe the process as if I knew all along what the right steps and kexts were that I needed, except that is not how I did it myself. So please keep that in mind and provide comments to correct information if it does not work.

That said, I can assure you that the 8440p is working great without kernel panics or other problems. I just FaceTimed with three people and it all works fine!

So here we go. The core process steps boil down to the following phases:

Items needed, software to download on windows 7 PC
- a USB keyboard and a USB mouse, standard PC models, as the kb/trackpad do not work OOB but require a kext
- two USB sticks, one for a faster way to install OSX, the other for the transfer of kexts
- Download iATKOS L2 via torrent
- Download Macdrive trial version
- Download TRANSMAC to W7 PC
- Download dmg2img to convert dmg file to iso file
- Registration on this site to download the latest kext zip file I posted in the Downloads / Misc folder
- Registration with tonymacx86 so you can download Multibeast

Preparation of OSX DVD and USB stick with OSX image on windows 7 PC
- Convert the iATKOS L2 DMG file to an iso file with dmg2iso (simple syntax, see their help /?)
- Burn the new L2 iso to a DVD – this will be used as a boot disk, similar to iBoot
- Install Macdrive and reboot PC
- Insert the USB stick you will use for the iATKOS image
- Go to Computer and right click on the USB stick drive
- Select Macdrive format option and create the Mac HFS Journaled format on the stick
- Having the USB stick in Mac format will allow Transmac to recognize it in the next step
- Use Transmac to format USB stick with the dmg – this will be used to install the Lion OSX faster
- I think you just right-click on the USB stick name in the left panel and select "format with image" and you pick the iATKOS dmg file for this directly.
- you now have the DVD to start the boot process and the USB stick to make the whole deal much much faster to do.

Preparation of kexts files on yet another USB stick
- copy the un-zipped folders of the HP 8440p zip file to another USB stick, which should be FAT32 format
- download Multibeast from the tonymacx86 site and also copy the files to the USB stick
- you now have this ready to go for the post-installation steps

Install process on laptop
- Connect a usb keyboard and mouse to the hp 8440p as laptop kb/trackpad do not work
- Load Iatkos L2 disk in normal DVD upgrade bay
- Insert the USB stick with same image in a USB port
- Boot off DVD through F9 boot options
- After iATKOS menu shows up, press eject button on optical drive so DVD sticks out and is no longer active
- Move arrow to icon for USB stick as source of the OSX image, this will make the process much faster to install OSX
- For boot options of Iatkos, I used: busratio=18 graphicsenabler=yes npci=0x2000 arch=i386
(The ratio is for my i5-520m processor, yours may be different)
- Use Disk Utility at the beginning of the install process to erase the partition on your drive
- Create a new one and format HD for use as Mac HFS Journaled (top option in list I think)
- select the logical options in the install process (register later, do not transfer, etc)

Add Ethernet connectivity
- Insert the USB stick with the kext files into HP laptop which is now running OSX
- Click Finder, then Go in menu at top of screen and then select Computer to see Lion HD icon
- Click on name of USB stick with Ethernet kext
- Right click on kext file and click copy
- Click Back arrow to go up one level and see Lion HD icon again
- Click on Lion HD icon and then System, then Library and then Extensions
- Folder should have many kexts in it - right click Paste Item
(This is where OSX drivers are located)

Select some Multibeast options
- Click Finder to navigate to the USB stick
- Click on the Multibeast installer package you also copied on the stick previously
- Under Miscellaneous, select ElliottForceLegacyRTC, EvOreboot, FakeSMC, NullCPUPowerManagement
- Click Continue and then Install

Confirm Ethernet connectivity
- connect laptop directly to network with Ethernet cable
- Reboot machine by clicking Apple icon in top left and selecting Shut Down or Restart
- Press power button to start laptop again if needed
- Go to Apple icon and press About this Mac – System Report - Ethernet cards
- confirm successful load of Ethernet kext in systems report
- Click on Safari and go to some website to check connectivity

Get ready to install additional kexts to fix remaining functionality
- - in Finder on the laptop, click Go and then Utilities
- Navigate to the Tools folder, select Champlist by double clicking
- This was installed by iATKOS
- click on the Kext utility and change the Destination to System/Library/Extensions (S/L/E)
- leave this program open
- right click on the Finder icon in the dock and select New Folder Window to open another Finder window

Install keyboard and trackpad kexts in S/L/E, make sure to select right destination in kext utility
- in the top menu, select Go and then Computer
- navigate to Lion (or whatever you called the drive) and then again to S/L/E folder
- if it is in the folder, delete AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext by right clicking and selecting move to trash
- do same for ApplePS2Controller.kext
- click on USB stick with kexts in left panel of Finder window and navigate to HP 8440p kexts folder you copied there
- navigate to 1448-PS2Synaptics-Keyboard-32+64 folder
- click and highlight the first kext and drag it over to the Kext Utility you have open in another window
- drop it and click the install button
- do the same for the next one so you have effectively replaced the two original files with the two from the USB stick
- close all windows
- go to the Apple icon at the top left and select restart
- disconnect the USB keyboard and mouse
- let the machine restart
- confirm that keyboard, stickpoint and trackpad work.
- I had to set the mouse sensitivity to Slow under Tracking Speed in the Mouse panel under System Preferences under the Apple icon menu to get the trackpoint speed to be just right for the screen size.
- scrolling a large webpage for instance with your finger on the right side of the trackpad also works.
- special gestures that are possible on an original trackpad do not seem to work (not a big deal IMO)

Install sound in S/L/E folder, make sure to select right destination in kext utility
- have the Champlist kext utility ready as described above, destination S/L/E again
- install the AppleHDADisabler.kext first by dragging it over and clicking install
- reboot again, not sure if necessary but can't hurt
- get windows and kext utility ready again for VoodooHDA.text
- install in the same fashion as above
- navigate to the USB stick in Finder and right click the VoodooHDA.prefpane file
- navigate to S/L/PreferencePanes folder and right click to Paste item
- reboot machine

At this point, there should be no Kernel Panics, the machine should load OSX just fine and sound should work. The volume buttons below screen work but the mute button does not. It does display that is is muting but the sound level does not change. The microphone works, webcam works, Facetime works, etc.

Note: the VoodooHDA kext in the file I uploaded is a special one that was modified for HP machines by someone. It is not just the normal one from the project library. I have found that VoodooHDA files can easily mess up your install, so for the HP 8440p with the IDT audio chip, use the file from the zip file I provided, unless you can find a better one, then let me know!

Install three kexts to enable battery/power icon in menu bar
- use the kext utility in Champlist, go use Finder – Go – Utilities – Tools – Champlist
- select Kext utility, select S/L/E as the destination
- select Back up Original Kexts as option
- Click the Finder icon in the dock and locate the kexts folder with the HP 8440p kexts
- Click and drag each kext from the Battery folder to the Kext utility and select Install
- The AppleACPIPlatform is an earlier version, pre Lion, that enables the battery icon
- The AppleACPIBatteryManager kext is also required.
- Last but not least, install the VoodooBattery kext again with the Champlist kext utility into S/L/E
- Under the Systems Preferences tab (under Apple icon), go to Energy Saver and select Show Battery Status in menu bar to display the status icon
- Just in case, also repair the permission with Finder – Go – Utilities – Tools – Kext Utility (different from the utility that is part of Champlist, which installs kexts.
- Once the repair permissions process is complete, restart the machine to load the new kexts
- Once rebooted, confirm the correct display of the battery status and select the preferred display mode, percentage or time.

Result
At this point you have a very stable and fully functioning OSX 10.7.2 system. I did apply the few regular updates that were available and they worked fine. I have no idea what will happen when 10.7.3 comes out and you apply the update.

Disclaimer
I am only interested in this project to evaluate the usability of OSX and Mac solutions prior to purchase of an original Apple system. I already own 5 Apple devices, but not a Macbook or OSX device. So before I make that decision, I want to be fully aware of the benefits of OSX over w7 or Linux. BTW, a new favorite Linux distro is Zorin.

I also continue to use Windows 7 on the same machine, booting off an SSD in the Upgrade Bay, where I installed a module for SSD or harddrives in place of the standard DVD module. When I boot, I hit F9 to select either Windows or OSX. So for now, I have great flexibility and can evaluate OSX at my leisure.

Thanks to all others who made this possible.
The effort to figure out how to get my 8440p to work properly took many hours of research and trial and error, generally late at night or overnight. I hope to save others time, as I found only two references to partially successful attempts for this model elsewhere, one from the SL days and one under Lion but that person indicates they sold their machine and bought a Macbook instead now. I wanted to provide the same level of detail as snoop244 who documented the SL install process.

I welcome any revisions and changes to the procedure to define the exact process that works for the 8440p with the Nvidia NVS3100m card. (not sure if regular Intel HD graphics would work for instance)

Good luck.

I have added a new kexts zip file in the Download section
Since I posted the install procedure and the corresponding kext file, I have figured out how to make the battery icon work. Not having an icon at all is not handy on a laptop, even if I use mine plugged in a lot, so I am pleased this now works also. The installation procedure in the first post is updated and now includes the battery related info.

Similarly, I have updated the procedure to include some options from Multibeast.
Since I did a bunch of this stuff in the middle of the night when I first worked on the install, I believe I may have missed a step in the installation documentation related to Multibeast. I have no idea how critical this is and there have not been replies to confirm the process or surface issues. So please follow the full procedure above, including the steps using Multibeast, because I definitely see them among the kexts on my machine under S/L/E.

I would highly welcome comments and feedback on the full procedure to finalize a re-usable procedure for people wanting to do this.

Thx

Hi
I'm trying to follow your guide. But firstly i can't get the USB to show up in Transmac. So i kinda skipped that step.
But when i install iATKOS_L2 on my HP8440p. My EliteBook have everything the same but with the Intel intergrated graphics with low res screen.

My problem is that i get stuck at the loading screen. I checked in -v and tried -f -x etc. Even tried the cpus=1 which worked on my old laptop.
Can't get past the loading screen after install, first boot up.
Any suggestions?

Merix,
Since you did not mention this bootflag, I would try graphicsenabler=yes and also busratio=18 or whatever applies to your cpu. I think you have to divide your CPU mhz by 133 (base mem speed) to determine the busratio. Mine is 2.4 ghz, s0 2400 / 133 = 18.

However, I have no idea if the Intel built-in graphics card can work. I know the new HD3000 graphics cards do, but that is not in your machine.

As far as the busratio goes, I think I had some re-starts where having the busratio included seemed to make a difference. Now that the system is working, I do not have to add any flags at start-up and I see that Chameleon is taking care of it.

Maybe others with your config can chime in. Again mine has the NVS3100m card, which I have certainly also seen in other OSX installs as successful.

Good luck.

Edit: the main process in the first post now includes a step for Macdrive to prepare the USB stick prior to copying the iATKOS dmg image to it with Transmac.

Original post/reply:
Also try arch=i386 as an additional boot flag.
Also, in situations like this use the -v flag for verbose output of the boot process, so you have a chance of seeing what goes wrong if it does.

That helps with searches in forums or to ask questions.....
Again, the graphics card is a big deal for OSX...

Your comment about Transmac jogged my memory. It may be necessary to use Macdrive (download trial version) to format the USB stick first in Mac format (HFS Journaled) before Transmac would recognize it.

If someone else can confirm that, I will update the guide above to correct it.

Thanks for the feedback and for trying, I like the HP 8440p a lot and really like the flexibility of switching between a Windows SSD drive and the original drive with now OSX on it.

Good luck.

Hello,

My HP 8440p has an i7 620M processor, 8Gb RAM, 320Gb Hard Drive and otherwise identical to your (hans6408) model it seems.

However with 3 minutes to go installing, both on the iATKOS L1 and L2 I get the same error message something about 'base10.7.2.pkg' failed to extract a file... and then the installer says that installation has failed. I'll type the exact message upon my next attempt if you can help.

Originally Posted by navrit

Hello,

My HP 8440p has an i7 620M processor, 8Gb RAM, 320Gb Hard Drive and otherwise identical to your (hans6408) model it seems.

However with 3 minutes to go installing, both on the iATKOS L1 and L2 I get the same error message something about 'base10.7.2.pkg' failed to extract a file... and then the installer says that installation has failed. I'll type the exact message upon my next attempt if you can help.

Hi Navrit,

Couple of questions, couple of suggestions...

Out of curiosity, were you successful in creating the USB stick with the OSX image, so you can use that for the install by switching from DVD to USB after booting off the DVD?

Did you boot off the DVD when you got the error or the USB when the error happened?

I'd really like people to be able to successfully use this process to end up with a nice usable machine, so I appreciate your post!


For suggestions:

Your processor at 2.66 ghz has a busratio of 20 (20 x 133 = 2666) so use bootflag of busratio=20 when you kick off the install after the initial boot off the DVD.

Also use the arch=i386 bootflag for the install, along with the graphicsenabler=yes flag.

When you start typing on the screen where it shows the harddrive picture, following the initial boot off DVD, anything you type will go on this text box line.

I would try:

-v busratio=20 arch=i386 graphicsenabler=yes

and see what happens.

The -v makes the boot "verbose" meaning that it will tell you what it is doing along the way.

Sorry if you already know all this - I have no way of estimating someone's knowledge and experience...

Again, thanks for the post.

I see no reason you cannot be up and running here shortly. (as long as you have the NVS 3100m graphics card of course)

Originally Posted by navrit

Hello,

My HP 8440p has an i7 620M processor, 8Gb RAM, 320Gb Hard Drive and otherwise identical to your (hans6408) model it seems.

However with 3 minutes to go installing, both on the iATKOS L1 and L2 I get the same error message something about 'base10.7.2.pkg' failed to extract a file... and then the installer says that installation has failed. I'll type the exact message upon my next attempt if you can help.

Navrit,

When I google "base pkg failed to extract iatkos" there are a few posts about this.
Some people say it could be a media error, meaning a problem with the file itself.

You may want to re-download the iATKOS L2 file again from say btjunkie.org for instance.
The one at the top of the list has lots of seeders and should download pretty quickly.
(I realize you had the same error on L1 and L2, so not sure how to explain that.)

ALSO, I did my install from the USB stick I created with the process described above.
That is more because I wanted to be able to do it multiple times if needed.
The DVD load process just seems to go a 1/3 of the normal speed and I got impatient.

So I would download the L2 image, use the USB process to create the stick and re-burn a new DVD with the same image.
Then use the DVD to just boot until the first menu and then switch to the USB stick for the real install process.
Not saying I'm sure there is an issue with the DVD boot for a full process, but the extremely slow loading is suspicious to me.
Maybe there is some low-level driver or buffer problem that is not a factor with the USB load.
I know this is reaching far, but I do have the distinct impression that every little detail matters with this OSX86 stuff.

I am typing this reply again on the hp 8440p laptop which is running fine, so it has to be possible for you too, assuming you config is substantially the same (meaning does not have Intel graphics but NVS 3100m).

Another stretch worth checking is the HP BIOS.
If you never did this, I would update it to the latest version as there have been several updates since 2010.
While I would be shocked if that makes a difference, updating it to the latest version (using Windows) and then using default settings is maybe worth doing regardless.

As you guessed I also have the NVS3100M and I have the latest BIOS release.

Fair enough, I did check the md5 hash though which is why I have doubts about the image being defective. Perhaps the DVD has a particularly bad scratch on it...

Either way, I'll download the file elsewhere and try again with the USB method as well. The problem which I had with the USB method was that the actual installer window didn't appear, the menu bar and 'Utilities' did work though.

Two more ideas:

1) I see some people on forums saying they had to burn the DVD at the slowest speed possible, like 2x. So if you have some more blank disks laying around, that may be a quick check to do.

2) Another even faster check is to add this flag to the boot process:

npci=0x2000

I see in the Chameleon utility on this machine now running OSX that this flag is set at boot time.
May as well throw that in your boot flags.

Having said that, the whole DVD process is too long and suspicious to me from the speed angle. This starts to introduce issues with the whole IDE/SATA/ACHI etc stuff having to do with drives and how they are seen by the kernel.

All that is bypassed from a low-level OS perspective when the USB stick is used.

TonyMac also has the USB Unibeast process which uses a stick instead of a DVD.
Again, I was just too impatient but I did not successfully install OSX off the DVD but off the USB stick.
I did it for speed reasons but perhaps there is a fundamental difference between the 2 that allows the USB method to succeed whereas the DVD method may not.

If I get courageous over the holidays, I may throw a small spare laptop drive in the bay and repeat the whole process to verify my own documentation.....
That way I can try if the DVD method even works on my machine or not.

Originally Posted by navrit

The problem which I had with the USB method was that the actual installer window didn't appear, the menu bar and 'Utilities' did work though.

What does this mean?

I used the DVD in the optical bay to boot and had the USB stick with the same image inserted in a USB port.
Then after booting, I pressed the eject button on the optical drive to "disconnect" the DVD and then used the arrow keys to switch to the USB stick as the source for the rest of the install process.