Pro Tools LE 7.4 won't open sessions on Snow Leopard (10.6.7) Hackintosh

[philbagg]

Hey guys. So I finally got a hackintosh up and running! It runs like a dream (except for a slight problem with airport - but if I update, it won't work)... Anyway, that's not important right now!

So I have Pro Tools 7.4, and 8 (free upgrade all that time ago). Instead of waiting for 8 to download from Avid, I thought I'd do a quick check to see if 7.4 works with my Hack. It doesn't.

Install went fine, cs update went fine (although it doesn't mention the cs update in the "About Pro Tools" section....) and the program itself boots fine (quickest it's ever booted in fact). The problem I have is when I'm opening sessions. It'll show the usual status window (building edit window etc. etc.) and then get perpetually stuck there until I have to force quit it due to lack of response... Any idea what might be causing this? I'm able to use the MBox 2 for everything else and it runs smooth.

Specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-UD2H
Processor: AMD Phenom X3 8650 (triple core)
RAM: 4gb DDR2
Graphics: NVidia Geforce 9500 GT

I've got 4 hard drives in the computer - First is my Snow Leopard OS (although I think it's in the last sata port), and I've got another HFS+ one in there, and two more (NTFS). I've also got 2 external drives - one NTFS, and one partitioned (one FAT32 and one HFS).
I've also got a DVD drive. Wireless card is a TP-Link (something).

Here's my SL install method (in case it matters):
My install method (after many fails) was to use the Nawcom Mod CD and Snow Leopard (10.6.0) Retail. Left the customization at default settings (it picks the best ones for the pc). Formatted my drive as Journaled, GUID partition scheme. Install went ahead. Booted into the system. Installed Legacy Kernel 10.7.0, backed up my /System/Library/Extensions folder, ran the 10.6.7 combo update from Apple (didn't restart yet), then ran multibeast 3.9.0. The tutorial I followed told me to check the following:

*System Utilities

*Drivers & Bootloaders>Kexts & Enablers>Miscellaneous>ElliottForceLegacyRTC
*Drivers & Bootloaders>Kexts & Enablers>Miscellaneous>EvOreboot
*Drivers & Bootloaders>Kexts & Enablers>Miscellaneous>IOUSBFamily Rollback
*Drivers & Bootloaders>Kexts & Enablers>Miscellaneous>NullCPUPowerManagement

*Drivers & Bootloaders>Bootloaders>Chimera v1.5.4 r1394

*Customization>System Definitions>Mac Pro>MacPro 5,1

*Customization>tonymacx86 Classic

*OSx86 Software

So I did all that, rebooted, and the system wouldn't boot from the HD. I assumed it was the Chimera bootloader I checked in Multibeast, so I booted from the Nawcom Boot CD (graphics weren't working properly - 1024x786 etc.) and airport wouldn't work.

So I deleted "IO80211Family.kext" from my System/Library/Extensions/ folder, and used my backed up kexts from 10.6.0 to reinstall "IO80211Family.kext" using Kext Utility. Rebooted (with the CD again), and Airport worked fine again.

So I went online and downloaded "Chameleon RC5.pkg" (can't remember the site I got it from), installed it, and I was able to boot once again from the HD, with everything working. Haven't had any problems except for this Pro Tools issue (and the slight Airport issue which I don't mind too much).

Any ideas?

 

[Steenamaroo]

I think it's just not supported pal.
Avid have the compatibility grids, and the most recent mention of 7.4 is along side mac osx 10.5.4

There are various reports of people saying it has worked on their snow machines but the general rule is it shouldn't.

8 will be fine though.

What's your airport issue?


DId you mean kernel version 10.7.0 or the kernel from lion? How come you aren't using the vanilla 10.8.0 kernel?

 

[philbagg]

Ah I knew you'd come through Steen. I'll try 8 tomorrow, although I'm gettin worried about my stability now. Turned it on today and airport wouldn't turn on. So I removed PT and replaced the kext again and rebooted. It worked. Although i got a few odd graphics glitches, chrome crashed a few times, youtube videos run very choppy (unwatchable) and finally the entire OS crashed. Might have to reinstall.

My airport issue WAS (gotten worse obviously) that it would lose signal every so often til I had to keep running network diagnostics, especially when downloading larger files.

And the kernel is DARWIN 10.7.0, not osx 10.7.0 ... Will the vanilla kernel work with amd? I'm no expert at this stuff, i dont even know what a kernel is. And why should i use vanilla?

 

[Steenamaroo]

Sorry, that's my bad. You said it was AMD, i should have twigged.

Stick with what you've got then kernel wise

With regard to graphics, what's your state of play? Are you stuck at 1024x768? and do you have hardware acceleration?

If you're not sure, is the apple menu bar transparent?

I'm not 100% with the wireless thing, but if your having graphics problems i can certainly help.


edit*
What's your process for adding kexts? are you using an automated tool, or running the chmod/chown commands?
Repairing permissions before reboot?

There's a good chance the network kext just didn't load on reboot.

 

[philbagg]

With regard to graphics, what's your state of play? Are you stuck at 1024x768? and do you have hardware acceleration?

If you're not sure, is the apple menu bar transparent?

Nope, my graphics card is supported natively I think. I'm at full res (1440x770 I think). I have no idea what hardware acceleration means, but the apple menu bar is slightly transparent. (My desktop is blue and I can see a blue tint through it if that's what you mean)... Jeez hate sounding like a noob but I've very little idea about graphics.

Also, as for the glitches, it was like there were cracks in the screen, like it took a bad knock. (It didn't actually.) There'd be like green/purple scribbly lines across the page, or at one point, the clock in the menu bar was completely blacked out.

I read on InsanelyMac (I think, or maybe it was tonymacx86) that some guy was having the same problem with youtube videos. Don't think it was ever solved but one reply was to check the adobe flash version, that there was a bad version going around.

What's your process for adding kexts? are you using an automated tool, or running the chmod/chown commands?
Repairing permissions before reboot?

There's a good chance the network kext just didn't load on reboot.

For adding kexts? I pinned Kext Utility (I'm assuming you're familiar) to the dock, and I just drag the kexts I want to install into the Kext Utility icon, type my password, and let it do it's business before I reboot. I believe that does the whole job of repair permissions etc... but should I repair permissions anyway?

With regards to repairing permissions, do I repair permissions on the entire system hard drive?

 

[Steenamaroo]

Nah That's cool man. The above checks out.

You're probably right about the flash thing. Firefox doesn't play vids for me (black screen) but I use safari so it's no problem.

Permissions repair covers the whole drive. It's an automated function in disk utility.

Kext util does the full job, but sometimes it's worth running full permissions repair anyway to be honest.

It gives you a list of things that were repaired, so if you see anything to do with your network kexts, then you might have got lucky.
Doesn't do any harm.
Give it a blast

 

[philbagg]

Thanks man. I'll check it out and get back to ya! Although I'm thinking a clean install might be needed first.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Really?

I always went with "if it boots, it's fixable", but definitely each to their own man.

 

[philbagg]

Yeah but this isn't your straight forward PC or Mac, it's a hybrid of some sort

I think the PT installations I've been running on it have messed it up a bit... Seriously, before that everything worked fine. Now the graphics messin up, that issue I had with airport, and youtube vids bein messed. I'll give it a shot anyway!

 

[Steenamaroo]

Suppose it can do now harm.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[philbagg]

Suppose it can do now harm.

Let us know how you get on.

Ok, just on the Hack now. I've got PT8 on a USB thumb drive now. But before I tried that, I wanted to check the flash player problem. Uninstalled flash, reinstalled it, made sure hardware acceleration was enabled in flash settings, cleared the browser cache/cookies. Still very choppy/jerky video.

Any idea what it might be? I've seen this problem on an actual Mac Pro (PowerPC processors), so could it be the lack of Intel processors?

 

[Steenamaroo]

Try v11 from here unless you have it already.

I've read before about permissions issues with flash installations.

A few people had success either repairing permissions or uninstalling flash, rebooting, installing again, repairing permissions in Disk Utility, then finally rebooting again.

See what that does.

 

[philbagg]

I have version 11 (the latest)... Just did a verify of my permissions, does this look normal or terrible? Please tell me terrible, the computer's performing TERRIBLY (crashes everywhere), and I wanna pin it on something

 

[Steenamaroo]

That's great. It has found incorrect permissions and has repaired them.

If you run it again it should find nothing, but more importantly, if you restart things might work again!
Maybe not though! That's the game! lol.

Edit, you might get recurring reports about Java. That's a known issue. I get those too.

 

[philbagg]

Right, I verified (as you saw), then repaired, and now I'm verifying again, and a lot of stuff keeps coming up.

Should I boot into the install disk and try it from there?

 

[Steenamaroo]

Hmm, idk if it makes any difference tbh.

Restart and see how it performs now. I'm gona have a google.

 

[philbagg]

Nope, it's f00ked! I'm gonna reinstall :/ ... I'll be back in a while when I've done with this. Let me know how ya get on with yer google! How's weather up north BTW? Feckin cowld down here, I'm as stuffed up as chicken

 

[Steenamaroo]

Sorry bout that dude. Best of luck.

She's coul up here too. lol All happed up to the bag here, scarf and all out! lol. That's us for for 4 or 5 months now

You're clear of the flooding yeah?

 

[philbagg]

Yeah man thank god! I'm happy that the least of my worries right now is a hackintosh