ASUS G750JX / OSX Mavericks INSTALL GUIDE

[Bozzified]

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Secondly: any piracy discussion whatsoever will result in a ban. End of.


NEW INSTRUCTIONS FOR 10.9.2:
I posted new instructions and all the stuff you need for 10.9.2 pretty much vanilla install here
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?39406-ASUS-G750JX-OSX-Mavericks-INSTALL-GUIDE/page20

PREFACE:

This is not 100% final installation as I'm still working with audio and wireless radios and I'm trying to get the Chameleon bootloader to show up from the BIOS when I boot so I don't have to use USB stick to get boot loader.
THIS IS FIXED and working - SEE UPDATE

A great thing about installing on ASUS G750JX is that almost all things that were in previous installation guides here on TonyMac forums under Laptop Mountain lion support > G750JX are unnecessary. This is as close to vanilla installation as I could get.

Touchpad also works. You will however need to hook up ethernet cable to laptop so you have ethernet until I figure out how to get wireless radios working.

One thing to note is that you will need to have on one of the hard drives Windows 8 installed and on that installation of Windows 8 you will need to download some kind of NFS+ support for Windows 8 (I use bundle from Paragon with NFS+ and NTFS support so I can have NTFS support in OSX and NFS+ in Windows 😎 but I think since that's a paid product you can use anything else that will just read NFS+ partitions in Windows 8.

ASUS G750JX I have flashed a bios 208

So without much writing here's what I did.

BIOS SETTINGS
go to ADVANCED and disable VT-d
go to BOOT and disable Fast Boot
Underneath Fast Boot, enable Launch CSM
You should now see a new option: Launch PXE OpROM policy. Enable this option. This allows your computer to boot via Legacy BIOS not UEFI.

INSTALLATION:

Standard Unibeast preparation:

1. On a mac download the Mavericks installation from App Store
2. Follow the steps for Unibeast and create a USB stick - Select Laptop support in addition to OSX 10.9 Mavericks App Store install
3. Once you have created and finished Unibeast USB stick preparation make sure you download the patched 10.9 kernel from step 13 and replace the mach_kernel on the USB stick with the one you download (you might have to show all files in OSX you are working on to see mach_kernel file on the root of USB drive), put the USB stick into your ASUS 750JX and boot from it
4. On bootloader screen, pick Unibeast Installer (no flags needed) and hit enter
5. It will take a bit, so be patient and OSX installer will show up
6. Go to Disk Utility > Do the standard Create Partition on a second drive > Make it GUID Partition > MacOS Extended Journaled and call it Mavericks
7. Exit Disk Utility and continue with installation



8. Once the installation finishes you will get a message how OSX Mavericks can't set the startup disc. This is FINE! Don't worry.
9. Now, restart and boot back into Windows 8
10. Install in Windows 8 NFS+ support
11. Restart and boot again into Windows 8
12. Once you have booted into Windows 8 now you should see the Mavericks volume and all the files there
13. Download this patched kernel (UPDATE: this is now recommended patched kernel by RehabMan: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mavericks-laptop-support/114677-haswell-early-reboot-mavericks-locked-msrs... ) as it allows Sleep and UseKernelCache to work properly (OLD one - do not use this unless you have problems with RehabMan's http://www.osx86.net/files/file/3631-kernel-os-x-mavericks-109-amd/ )
14. Open Mavericks volume in Explorer and overwrite mach_kernel with the one you downloaded
15. Restart and boot from the USB stick
16. Pick OSX Mavericks HDD volume and hit enter
17. OSX Mavericks will welcome you with the setup screen - follow through on standard process (iCloud might give you a funky message but that's not a big deal)



18. Welcome to OSX Mavericks on ASUS G750JX! 🙂





UPDATE:

Once you install the Mavericks you want to run the latest Multibeast 6.0 (see TonyMac) before the restart.

What you will be installing is the following:



The idea here is to have Chameleon and everything else installed into S/L/E, modify the SMBIOS.plist and have local hdd Extra folder.

If you are going to use Clover as boot see install notes in the post later in this thread so you can take out USB stick booting completely and adjust some location of some kexts and how to use the config file I included in the files.

Thanks to PeanutButterSpice and slayer2333 from TonyMac forums for trying as well on this and giving me ideas on what to do to get this working without it I would have probably not been able to look at the right place to make this work.


UPDATE 01:

Got audio and wifi working fine now!

The trick was that ASUS G750JX is using Broadcom chip.. in order to to make it recognized in Mavericks you have to update the IDs in the IO80211Family kext.. You go in and go into Plugins and update the IDs inside AirPortBrcm4360.kext > info.plist to include the following:

pci14e4,43b1
pci14e4,4331
pci14e4,4353
pci14e4,432b

Adding these will enable your Wifi.

The audio is working with VoodooHDA 2.84.

The problem I'm having is with hardware acceleration on GTX770M.. the card it properly recognized and working just fine but when I play videos HTML5 or Flash it doesn't matter it crashes it.. I can watch videos just fine if I disable hardware acceleration in Flash but H.264 HTML5 videos will not work for some reason.

Suggestions are welcome!

CUDA installs fine though.

UPDATE 2:

And I finally solved the last issue with hardware acceleration. I changed the System Definition to Mac Pro 5.1 and now everything works great.


The only last thing that remains is to get BIOS to recognize the SSD with the OSX Mavericks installation so I can boot without the USB stick boot loader. But that's really a minor issue.

Amazing! This ASUS G750JX is now an OSX Mavericks BEAST!


UPDATE 3:

The loading without the USB stick has been resolved now. I am using Clover. I will write up the guide for this as I'm still fine tuning things.

UPDATE 4:

I have used RehabMan's patched kernel (here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mavericks-laptop-support/114677-haswell-early-reboot-mavericks-locked-msrs...) and indeed things are working MUCH better. UseKernelCache is working and I have increased my boot times now to desktop in about 10 secs instead of 30+. One side effect is that I don't see USB 3.0 recognized after installing GenericXHCI kext. Looking into this.

UPDATE 5:

Bluetooth 4.0 is now working as well. You have to enable the ASUS G750JX broadcom bluetooth IDs in BroadcomBluetoothTransport kext. We are fortunate because the Bluetooth in this laptop is BCM4352 so it's compatible fully with OSX Mavericks.

To enable go:
0. Find the IOBluetoothFamily.kext in S/L/E and copy it to desktop
1. Show Package Contents on it
2. Go into Plugins and show package on BroadcomBluetoothTransport
3. Open info.plist file and locate this entry:

Broadcom2045FamilyUSBBluetoothHCIController_P

CFBundleIdentifier
com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport
IOClass
BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport
IOProviderClass
IOUSBDevice
idProduct
33293
idVendor
1452


4. Right above this entry and after

IOKitPersonalities


(So in between those put the following)

Broadcom2046FamilyUSBBluetoothHCIController_3404

CFBundleIdentifier
com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport
IOClass
BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport
IOProviderClass
IOUSBDevice
LMPLoggingEnabled

idProduct
13316
idVendor
5075



5. This is it, SAVE and use Kext Wizard or similar to install and overwrite the existing IOBluetoothFamily.kext in S/L/E

6. Reboot and voila.. You have Bluetooth 4.0


NEW INSTRUCTIONS FOR 10.9.2:
I posted new instructions and all the stuff you need for 10.9.2 pretty much vanilla install here
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?39406-ASUS-G750JX-OSX-Mavericks-INSTALL-GUIDE/page20

[AAndrei]

Got it working, most things are just fine, audio works but:

It seems there are two audio output lines (analogic), one of them is for front speakers (under the screen's asus logo, between hinges) while the other one is for the "bass" speaker under the touchpad.
Is there an option to "mux" those two outputs?

Also, what about thunderbolt?
Tried with my Sonnet Echo Express SE connected and nothing, tried with my eGPU + Sonnet Echo Express SE and still nothing, did hot plug and also rebooted with everything connected but is not working, thunderbolt is just not visible.

[kTrn42]

i bought http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=195_TEW-648UBM, to resolve the Wifi issue.

i'am still looking to fix iCloud/iMessage/.. my last issue so far

[fschoenfeldt]

snipestech wrote:
Thanks first of all
Question anybody dualbooting from the same drive ?
Is it possible ?
I have a Samsung Mz Pro 256Gb would be nice if I could dual boot.

Hey man, I have Windows 8.1 installed on my 1TB HDD, 600GB partition and Mac OS X installed on another partition.

The problem is, I just cant get Clover working, I have to boot it from the USB Stick.. sadly.

[Bozzified]

fschoenfeldt wrote:
Hey man, I have Windows 8.1 installed on my 1TB HDD, 600GB partition and Mac OS X installed on another partition.

The problem is, I just cant get Clover working, I have to boot it from the USB Stick.. sadly.

The problem your installation works with Chameleon and not with Clover is probably because Chameleon is using EXTRA folder when booting up and with Clover it's not. Also are you using my Clover config.plist from the zip file?

Did you:

1. Install all of the kexts I attached into S/L/E of your hard disk Mavericks as well as putting it into Clover>EFI>Kexts>10.9 folder?
2. You have to install all the kexts in S/L/E and use Kext Wizard to fix permissions and rebuild cache. Otherwise your Mavericks HDD installation might be using old cache and even though you copied the files to S/L/E they are not registered. One way is to try to use UseKernelCache=No to boot but I just say install all the kexts in S/L/E on HDD MAvericks.

[fschoenfeldt]

Bozzified wrote:
The problem your installation works with Chameleon and not with Clover is probably because Chameleon is using EXTRA folder when booting up and with Clover it's not. Also are you using my Clover config.plist from the zip file?

Did you:

1. Install all of the kexts I attached into S/L/E of your hard disk Mavericks as well as putting it into Clover>EFI>Kexts>10.9 folder?
2. You have to install all the kexts in S/L/E and use Kext Wizard to fix permissions and rebuild cache. Otherwise your Mavericks HDD installation might be using old cache and even though you copied the files to S/L/E they are not registered. One way is to try to use UseKernelCache=No to boot but I just say install all the kexts in S/L/E on HDD MAvericks.

Yeah, I did it 1:1 as in your guide described.

I'm using Kext Wizard for installing kext's to SLE, I'm fixing permissons and re-creating cache everytime, just in case of, even though it takes damn long.. 😄

I'm using the EFI Partition of Windows but this shouldn't be a big deal.
I'll now try to create a 1GB FAT32 Partition, install Clover on it, and then set the flag to "boot", to have a "clear" one.
Will edit this post once I'm finished, let's see..

---

[/HR]

EDIT 1: Well.. I created a 1GB FAT32 Partition in PartedMagic, called it "BOOT" set its Flag as 'boot' and removed the 'boot' flag from the Windows EFI Partition "SYSTEM", but it's not recognized by Mac, so I can't use it for clover. Sucks. Installation of Clover on the Mac partition fails, error:

Clover EFI installer log - Tue Nov 12 16:29:10 CET 2013
Installer version: v2k r2298 EFI bootloader
======================================================
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:       Microsoft Basic Data SYSTEM                  314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2: DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC               943.7 MB   disk0s2
   3:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data OS                      698.7 GB   disk0s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS MACINTOSH HD            209.7 GB   disk0s5
   6: DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC               21.5 GB    disk0s6
   7:                        EFI BOOT                    1.0 GB     disk0s7
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
   1:               Windows_NTFS                         500.1 GB   disk1s1
mount_msdos: /dev/disk0s1: Resource busy

ERROR: can't mount ESP partition (disk0s1) !
Check that the partition is well formated in HFS or Fat32.

To format as HFS use command like:
sudo newfs_hfs -v EFI /dev/rdisk0s1

For format as Fat32 use command like:
sudo newfs_msdos -v EFI -F 32 /dev/rdisk0s1

The log clearly shows, there is a partition called "BOOT" (flags: boot).. So I can't understand the problem..

I can't create any partition in Mac, it loads and loads after clicking "apply"..

---

[/HR]

EDIT 2: Well, I removed the present Mac Installation, wanted to do a clean install, removed the partition and added a new HFS+ one. Tried to install it on that, installer was like "nope, you cant".

Now I flagged my Windows-"SYSTEM"-Partition as "boot" again and now I'm fully on windows again. However, there's still a "CLOVER" folder on my "SYSTEM"-Partition but I'll ignore it.. For now.

I'm out, but will have a look in this thread from time to time. cheers x

[cristian_g]

hello 🙂 . want to install it but i have couple of questions:

- do i need to update to last bios version?
- can it be installed on same partition with windows (like ubuntu) or do i need a separate partition? how big and which format?

thanks 🙂

[cruzin_cruzing]

cristian.g wrote:
hello 🙂 . want to install it but i have couple of questions:

- do i need to update to last bios version?
- can it be installed on same partition with windows (like ubuntu) or do i need a separate partition? how big and which format?

thanks 🙂

1. Yes, update your BIOS.
2. Mac has to be installed on a different partition. It needs to be Mac OS X Extended-Journaled or HFS+ format.

[gazzacbr]

Hi, sorry for spamming this thread yet again.
i have just tried a basic install using the very clear instructions in the first post on the original 250SSD.
the installer is Unibeast using 10.9 fresh from the apple store.
when i get to step 16. thats where it goes wrong. exactly the same as all the other installation combinations i have tried.

fschoenfeldt wrote:
...The problem is, I just cant get Clover working, I have to boot it from the USB Stick.. sadly.

but can you boot to the hd without -x?

the installer will not get to the startup screen. only a black screen. for 10mins. :mad:
i can only powerdown.
when i restart from usb installer i can only get to the setup screens with -x.
exactly the same as the several 'working' installs i have already :mad:
the only differences between my G750JX seem to be the wifi/bluetooth and the 3D screen. i updated the bios to 208.
or could there be something else????? basic specs are in my sig.
i have actually never been able to boot any hd from usb installer or direct without either -x or removing the NV or GE kexts.

after installing Clover the result is exactly the same!!!!! Clover works but will only boot Mavericks by removing the NV or GE kexts.

i am out of ideas 😞

p.s. to avoid the nastyness of using windows 8 😛 to replace the mach_kernel you can just boot from the installer usb and use the terminal, e.g.
find the name of your Mavericks disk/partition
# mount
# cd /Volumes/"name of your Mavericks partition"
# mv mach_kernel mach_kernel_ORIG
# cp /mach_kernel . (there is a dot here)

[fschoenfeldt]

gazzacbr wrote:
Hi, sorry for spamming this thread yet again.
i have just tried a basic install using the very clear instructions in the first post on the original 250SSD.
the installer is Unibeast using 10.9 fresh from the apple store.
when i get to step 16. thats where it goes wrong. exactly the same as all the other installation combinations i have tried.

Try to change the BIOS Setting of XHCI-Pre Boot to => Disabled, it worked for me.

Try to use a USB 2.0 Stick. I personally could NOT start the installation/boot with a 3.0 USB Stick.

Try to use all your USB Ports.

I know this is obvious, but when moving the mach_kernel via Terminal, be sure to copy from source to destination, not vice versa.


When all this doesnt work, please insert your USB Stick, move the cursor to the Installation media and type in "-v Wait=Yes" (without the quotation marks), then hit Enter.

"-v" (verbose) will print all information on your screen
"Wait=Yes" will stop the process once Darwin is reached.


That's all I know, Cheers x

[cruzin_cruzing]

fschoenfeldt wrote:
Hey man, I have Windows 8.1 installed on my 1TB HDD, 600GB partition and Mac OS X installed on another partition.

The problem is, I just cant get Clover working, I have to boot it from the USB Stick.. sadly.

Install Clover on the Mac Partition. Mount the EFI Partition using Clover configurator, go into the EFI\Microsoft\Boot Folder and rename the bootmgfw.efi to anything but that and it should force Clover to boot.