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ASUS G750JX / OSX Mavericks INSTALL GUIDE

Bozzified
Level 7
ASUS Statement: Please note this activity voids the Apple EULA you agree to on purchasing the software. ASUS does not endorse this activity in any way. However, beyond buying an ASUS laptop and software pre-installed, ASUS does not dictate what end-users do with their notebooks. Equally, ASUS does not make any specific component choices for OS', or provide warranty or support beyond those shipped with its notebooks. No ASUS rep will comment here. If legal objections are raised it is liable to be removed at any time and without notice.

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
835,100 Views
893 REPLIES 893

x70xchallengerx
Level 8
edit: continued updates from original post:

UPDATE 6:

So, the progress so far is following:

1. GPU works natively QE/CI (Superb performance)
2. Hardware acceleration issue resolved (I am now using SMBIOS iMac14,2). I have modified the AppleGraphicsPowerManagement kext to include iMac14,2 profile and used Mac Pro 5,1 GPU settings there in order to get the hardware acceleration working. Works great now (power management though might be iffy and probably blasting the GPU at full speed - I don't care about this and it works great but it might be an issue for you if you are planning on using this laptop unplugged as a "portable" laptop - this laptop is anything but portable )

3. Touchpad works (albeit no gestures) - I tried Elan Touchpad drivers for OSX and patching that and works great and all but the gestures and touchpad is not the amazing pinnacle of technology so it works wonky, gestures don't get recognized properly and the way these guys made these gestures they are just weird so I took it off. Also I had issues with left and right touchpad buttons not working. I'm using standard VoodooPS2Controller by Rehabman for Synaptics now and it works great. No gestures but I guess it works as it should. I mean I have mouse plugged in anyhow. For those rare instances where I need to have touchpad running this is more then great.

4. Wifi/Bluetooth/Ethernet all work (see previous updates)

5. SD Card works awesome.. Recognized just fine (but needs some adjustments)

6. Thunderbolt not recognized - still try to see if I can make this work (haven't even tried yet)

7. Battery/Charging information (not really working - I included the battery kext from someone - I think it's also Rehabman but it's not working properly as it requires some DSDT fixes to be unique - I'll look more into this - not a prirority now as I use my G750 plugged in nonstop wherever I go)

8. Power Sleep/Shutdown/Restart works - you lose backlight on keyboard and it's a bit wonky but it works. I think it also reacts to the lid being down and turns it off but I find it to be a bit wonky overall.. Well better working than not I guess no matter how.

9. USB 3.0 is fully recognized (it was never really a problem - I messed with settings in BIOS and I lost it.. make sure you put XHCI under USB to SmartAuto)

10. Haven't tried HDMI/displayport outputs so can't tell you if it's working or not but assuming the GTX 770M is fully recognized natively without patching anything I would say it probably works fine.

11. SSD TRIM recognized fine.

12. Sound works fine with VoodooHDA 2.8.4 and PreferencePane but it will cut out after sleep (look for VoodooHDA deamon to get that resolved - I haven't installed deamon so can't confirm)

That's about it though.. I think we are like 99% fully operational with some trade-offs but if you live with those (I think they are not a huge deal considering what this laptop is and how you use it).

I am including in this update all my files in the first post as I have patched (kexts, smbios.plist, mach_kernel mentioned in the initial install just in case Rehabman's url goes down and Clover config file).

AWESOME!! Great guide! Can't wait to try it. Also can't wait for sound and wifi to be figured out 😜 How is boot times to windows with this boot configuration? I can usually cold boot to win 8.1 login in about 4 seconds flat :cool:
Asus G750JW-DB71

gazzacbr
Level 10
@Bozzified: great job, thanks for sharing. i will give this a try real soon.
for previous installs on my acer i installed to an external guid/hfs+ then cloned the drive back on to an internal ssd mbr partition.
fixed with multibeast and all was well.
i will try the same as i dont want to use a whole disk for os x.
EDIT: oh, i remembered that i have an Atheros AR9485 wifi chip and i dont think that is supported, only the AR9285.
if ethernet is working thats ok for me at home and in the office anyway.
@x70xchallengerx: come on. this guy has done some great stuff and shared it all here and you are asking about boot times...sheeesh
fyi, windows 8 is not a cold boot anyway. you will have to disable fast boot which is only the same as sleep. otherwise if you try to dual boot with os x (or anything else) you will get file corruption.
Asus G750JX-CV050H||GTX770M||24GB ram||120hz 3D screen||
1TB Samsung 840 EVO SSD||500GB Crucial M4 SSD||500GB Crucial M4 SSD in DVD Bay
free bag and mouse :cool:
win 8.1||win 7||win xp||server 2008||os x mavericks||linux mint 16

Try the following for Atheros AR9485

I suggest you copy the IO80211Family.kext to your desktop from S/L/E

1. Show packages on S/L/E on IO80211Family.kext and look under plugins
2. Locate there AirPortAtheros40.kext and Show Package contents there
3. Locate the info.plist and locate Atheros Wireless LAN PCI entries:


pci168c,30
pci168c,2a
pci106b,0086
pci168c,1c
pci168c,23
pci168c,24

and add the following under these

pci168c,32
pci168c,0032

These are the addresses for the Atheros AR9485


Save the changes and then use KextWizard to install this kext into S/L/E so it will properly overwrite the original one and then rebuild cache and repair permissions (KextWizard has that option under the first tab in it)

Once you have that done, reboot and see if the Atheros AR9485 works and you see notification that you have Wifi and then go to System Preferences under Network and you should see Wifi there and enable it.

You should also see under System Information and under Software/Wifi whether or not OSX Mavericks recognized AR9485

I don't have that wireless radio (I though I have so I did my research first) but I realized that I have broadcom one so I made changes to the samIO80211Family.kext but under a different kext in plugins, not Atheros but Broadcom one and added the addresses of my wireless radio and it worked like a charm.

Try it, not sure if it will work but it might as OSX Mavericks has support for Atheros wifi.

Haha wasn't trying to belittle this guys amazing work! I mean as far as I know, they haven't even got os x working on the G74/G75 series yet?? Idk haha. Either way, can't wait to get this going! Also what I meant by cold boot was just when the computer was completely off, like from battery removed after shut down etc, SSD's are the knees of the bees. :cool:

I just gotta get my hands on one of my friend's MBP's 😛 you can create the uniboost usb with a VM though can't you??

Thanks again brosstradamus! this thread needs stickied asap


gazzacbr wrote:

@x70xchallengerx: come on. this guy has done some great stuff and shared it all here and you are asking about boot times...sheeesh
fyi, windows 8 is not a cold boot anyway. you will have to disable fast boot which is only the same as sleep. otherwise if you try to dual boot with os x (or anything else) you will get file corruption.
Asus G750JW-DB71

gazzacbr
Level 10
hi, mavericks installs ok but i cannot get it to restart from hd 😞
i swapped the kernel with rehabmans and repaired permissions.
booting from usb i get to:
NVIDIAStartup: Official
ACPI_SMC_Platform.....
WARNING: IOPLAtform... this is an unknown CPU model - power management maybe incomplete....
NVDAG100Hal loaded and registered
[AGPM Controller] unknownPlatform
....
DSMOS has arrived
[IOBluetooth...] -- completed

and then black screen 😞
if i set graphichenabler=yes i get a grey screen

did i miss something?
is the bluetooth connected to the wifi, which i know is not going to work oob.

@x70xchallengerx: good idea about this thread being sticked, if it is not banned...
Asus G750JX-CV050H||GTX770M||24GB ram||120hz 3D screen||
1TB Samsung 840 EVO SSD||500GB Crucial M4 SSD||500GB Crucial M4 SSD in DVD Bay
free bag and mouse :cool:
win 8.1||win 7||win xp||server 2008||os x mavericks||linux mint 16

You have to boot into Windows 8 and replace the mach kernel on your MAvericks installation.. install HFS+ support in Windows on your other hard drive and boot into it, replace the mach_kernel on Mavericks partition and reboot again.

Then boot from the USB STICK as you still need Chameleon bootloader as your hard drive won't be visible in BIOS yet due to UEFI not being available on the Mavericks drive (you will need Clover for this) and when you boot from USB stick (Unibeast one) you boot into Mavericks on your hard drive from there. I hope that's what you are doing.

Keep in mind that I did a completely clean install. Meaning I installed WIndows 8 on the 1tb drive and I installed OSX on SSD. If you are mixing partitions it can be anything.


So after the installation happens and the installer reboots you can't get into Mavericks or you can boot into Mavericks after the installation procedure finished but after you reboot from OSX you can't get into it again?

One thing I need to update in the guide, 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:

Wow, the forum has a limiti of characters so I can't post anymore in my initial post.. that's bizarre. Anyhow:

UPDATE 6:

So, the progress so far is following:

1. GPU works natively QE/CI (Superb performance)
2. Hardware acceleration issue resolved (I am now using SMBIOS iMac14,2). I have modified the AppleGraphicsPowerManagement kext to include iMac14,2 profile and used Mac Pro 5,1 GPU settings there in order to get the hardware acceleration working. Works great now (power management though might be iffy and probably blasting the GPU at full speed - I don't care about this and it works great but it might be an issue for you if you are planning on using this laptop unplugged as a "portable" laptop - this laptop is anything but portable 🙂 )

3. Touchpad works (albeit no gestures) - I tried Elan Touchpad drivers for OSX and patching that and works great and all but the gestures and touchpad is not the amazing pinnacle of technology so it works wonky, gestures don't get recognized properly and the way these guys made these gestures they are just weird so I took it off. Also I had issues with left and right touchpad buttons not working. I'm using standard VoodooPS2Controller by Rehabman for Synaptics now and it works great. No gestures but I guess it works as it should. I mean I have mouse plugged in anyhow. For those rare instances where I need to have touchpad running this is more then great.

4. Wifi/Bluetooth/Ethernet all work (see previous updates)

5. SD Card works awesome.. Recognized just fine (but with some adjustments in AppleStorage kext)

6. Thunderbolt not recognized - still try to see if I can make this work (haven't even tried yet)

7. Battery/Charging information (not really working - I included the battery kext from someone - I think it's also Rehabman but it's not working properly as it requires some DSDT fixes to be unique - I'll look more into this - not a prirority now as I use my G750 plugged in nonstop wherever I go)

8. Power Sleep/Shutdown/Restart works - you lose backlight on keyboard and it's a bit wonky but it works. I think it also reacts to the lid being down and turns it off but I find it to be a bit wonky overall.. Well better working than not I guess no matter how. 🙂

9. USB 3.0 is fully recognized (it was never really a problem - I messed with settings in BIOS and I lost it.. make sure you put XHCI under USB to SmartAuto)

10. Haven't tried HDMI/displayport outputs so can't tell you if it's working or not but assuming the GTX 770M is fully recognized natively without patching anything I would say it probably works fine.

11. SSD TRIM recognized fine.

12. Sound works fine with VoodooHDA 2.8.4 and PreferencePane but it will cut out after sleep (look for VoodooHDA deamon to get that resolved - I haven't installed deamon so can't confirm)

That's about it though.. I think we are like 99% fully operational with some trade-offs but if you live with those (I think they are not a huge deal considering what this laptop is and how you use it).

I am including in this update all my files in the first post as I have patched (kexts, smbios.plist, mach_kernel mentioned in the initial install just in case Rehabman's url goes down and Clover config file).

Bozzified wrote:


Keep in mind that I did a completely clean install. Meaning I installed WIndows 8 on the 1tb drive and I installed OSX on SSD. If you are mixing partitions it can be anything.

[/img]


What you are saying is that if I partition my 256gb SSD (128/128) for windows / Mavericks its possible it won't work? I really don't want to boot from HD any os.

Drask wrote:
What you are saying is that if I partition my 256gb SSD (128/128) for windows / Mavericks its possible it won't work? I really don't want to boot from HD any os.


Well it's a bit tricker.. it gets more complicated because Windows modifies the boot of the drive and if you want to run Clover it will get a bit messy.

If you want to have bootloader from USB stick and then pick your Mountain Lion it should work fine and you would be using Chameleon only. Just keep in mind that you have to be extra careful with the Clover because the instructions I put basically work with pure drives as it puts EFI info into boot sector.