Enable dual screen support on AMD Radeon 6870 under OS X 10.8

To enable the dual screen support on a multi-monitor Hackintosh equipped with an AMD Radeon HD 6870 under OS X Mountain Lion (this works with the current 10.8.4 too), enter the following shell code into your Terminal session:

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x00\x04\x00\x00\x04\x03\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x12\x04\x05\x01\x00\x04\x00\x00\x04\x03\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x22\x05\x04\x02\x00\x08\x00\x00\x04\x02\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x11\x02\x06\x04\x00\x02\x00\x00\x14\x02\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x03\x05\x04\x00\x00\x00\x04\x02\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x11\x02\x01\x03|\x00\x04\x00\x00\x04\x03\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x12\x04\x04\x01\x00\x04\x00\x00\x04\x03\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x22\x05\x05\x02\x00\x08\x00\x00\x04\x02\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x11\x02\x06\x04\x00\x02\x00\x00\x14\x02\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x03\x05\x04\x00\x00\x00\x04\x02\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x11\x02\x01\x06|g' /System/Library/Extensions/ATI6000Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/AMD6000Controller

This is a single line of a code, mind you. After the patch completes, rebuild the system cache using the following commands or any other method you prefer:

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
kextcache -system-caches

Reboot, and you’ll have dual screen support.

Updated fix for “Still waiting for root device” on OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion

Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion update to 10.8.3 has yet again modified the IOAHCIFamily.kext, resulting in a failed boot with the “Still waiting for root device” for only a small fraction of users compared to almost everyone with the 10.8.2 version. Most probably Apple techs have increased the enumeration delay, allowing for more devices to register properly. If you are one of these that are unable to boot properly after updating to OS X 10.8.3, check first if you still have /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext (it was missing on one of our machines after updating to the 10.8.3). There is also a known firmware incompatibility for Intel X25-M SSD owners, so if you own one and your system boots from it, you’ll need to update your SSD firmware. Otherwise, apply the patch listed below.

WARNING: Don’t copy-paste everything into the Terminal at once, do it one line at a time. Pasting the whole code at once will result in the second half of the commands being used as your password at the first sudo command.

The following commands place a backup of the unmodified binary before patching it.

cd /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS
sudo mv IOAHCIBlockStorage IOAHCIBlockStorage.orig
sudo cp IOAHCIBlockStorage.orig IOAHCIBlockStorage
sudo /usr/bin/perl -pi -e 's|\xcb\x57\x00\x00\xee\x03|\xcb\x57\x00\x00\xea\x01|g' IOAHCIBlockStorage
sudo /usr/bin/perl -pi -e 's|\x74\x0e\x48\x8d\x3d\x72\x94\x00\x00|\xbf\xc8\x00\x00\x00\x90\x90\x90\x90|g' IOAHCIBlockStorage
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

This fix has been made possible due to countless hours spent by bcc9 from InsanelyMac forums reverse-engineering Apple’s work and his original script.

Updated fix for “Still waiting for root device” on OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion

Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion update to 10.8.2 has modified the IOAHCIFamily.kext once again, resulting in a failed boot with the “Still waiting for root device” error on the console. The previous fix won’t work, as well.

Here is the updated fix for 10.8.2’s version of IOAHCIFamily.kext. Don’t copy-paste everything into the Terminal at once, do it one line at a time. Pasting the whole code at once will result in the second half of the commands being used as your password at the first sudo command.

The following commands place a backup of the unmodified binary before patching it.

cd /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS
sudo mv IOAHCIBlockStorage IOAHCIBlockStorage.orig
sudo cp IOAHCIBlockStorage.orig IOAHCIBlockStorage
sudo /usr/bin/perl -pi -e 's|\x8b\x4a\x00\x00\xeb\x03|\x8b\x4a\x00\x00\xe8\x01|g' IOAHCIBlockStorage
sudo /usr/bin/perl -pi -e 's|\x74\x0e\x48\x8d\x3d\x72\x92\x00\x00|\xbf\xc8\x00\x00\x00\x90\x90\x90\x90|g' IOAHCIBlockStorage
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

Update: Updated fix for “Still waiting for root device” on OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion

This fix has been made possible due to countless hours spent by bcc9 from InsanelyMac forums reverse-engineering Apple’s work and his original script.

Building an Ivy Bridge Hackintosh with Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H and Intel i7-3770k

With Ivy Bridge based Apple computers and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion out, it’s time to build an Ivy Bridge Hackintosh! Below is my walkthrough for building a capable workstation that can run both Windows and OS X. But first, meet the components of this build:

Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H-WB WIFIIntel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 6 MB Cache LGA 1155Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM FanCorsair Vengeance 16 GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz DIMM MemoryCrucial 256 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/sPowerColor ATI Radeon HD6850 1 GB DDR5 PCI-Express Video Card

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