Legacy CPU Testers Needed

Shaneee

Shaneee

The AMD Guy
Staff member
Administrator
Mar 13, 2020
2,443
11
1,408
212
33
Scotland
amd-osx.com
CPU:
Ryzen 5 5600X
Some of you may know the name AnV from older AMD kernels. He's still active and has written an updated kernel for High Sierra on legacy systems.

The current CPUs should be supported by it but I'd guess more interested in the older ones,

Older Intel Processors:
FAMILY_PENTIUM_4:
All older Intel Pentium 4 processors (Desktop).

FAMILY_PENTIUM_M:
All older mobile Intel Pentium M processors (Laptop).

INTEL_PENRYN:
All older Intel processors with 45-nanometer microarchitecture.

Older AMD Processors:
AMD K8 (Ext.Family 0x0f = 15):
All older AMD K8 processors with 64-bit processor technology (such as Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, and Opteron).

AMD K10 (Ext.Family 0x10 = 16; Ext.Family 0x12 = 18):
All AMD K10 processors with 64-bit processor technology (such as AMD Phenom and Athlon X2/X4 series).

Newer AMD Processors:
AMD APU (Ext.Family 0x6 = 6; Ext.Family 0x14 = 20; Ext.Family 0x15 = 21)
AMD APU Athlon 5350 (Ext.Family 0x16 = 22):
All newer AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), including the AMD APU Athlon 5350. These are a combination of
CPU and GPU cores on a single chip for desktops, laptops, and embedded systems.

Newer AMD Ryzen Processors:
AMD Ryzen (0x17 = 23):
All AMD Ryzen processors of the latest generation of AMD desktop processors based on the Zen microarchitecture.
Click to expand...

I myself have an old K8 AMD CPU system but it's GPU isn't PCI-E and not supported past Leopard from what I can tell so I can't test this myself. If you've got an older system and are willing to test the kernel either visit InsanelyMac to download and report back to AnV or Spakk, who built the kernel from AnV's source. Or I'll upload to the end of this post and you can report back here.

Thanks in advance :)

www.insanelymac.com

AnV XNU 14.0.0 legacy kernel

I have built the very first kernel. It is fully supported. Patch is included. XNU-14.0.0-AnV.zip
www.insanelymac.com
 

Attachments

  • Like
Reactions: denisū, hiepgia and craighazan
this is right up my ally as I have a Pentium 4 system with pci-e
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shaneee
I also have an AMD Athlon x64…nothing like a single thread
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shaneee
where do we start. I do have a Nvidia GT 730.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2519.jpeg
    IMG_2519.jpeg
    2.1 MB · Views: 9
  • camphoto_351212254.jpeg
    camphoto_351212254.jpeg
    3.8 MB · Views: 9
  • IMG_2493.jpeg
    IMG_2493.jpeg
    3.7 MB · Views: 9
  • Like
Reactions: denisū, craighazan and Shaneee
You'll need to make an offline USB installer so that the kernel can be replaced. Check the InsanelyMac thread for Spakks instructions on replacing the kernel.
 
  • Like
Reactions: denisū and backinblackx86
Okay, I understand. I will assemble the Pentium 4’s and Athlon 64 on the work bench, let’s get this party started.
 
these machines do not support UEFI so I will need to educate myself on legacy booting
 
Last edited:
Hi everyone, i don't know if this still relevant.

I ended up with this hardware by accident, and since I was curious to test it, I decided to give it a try.

I’m trying to get macOS High Sierra (10.13.6) running on a very old AMD system (K8 / Sempron), and I’ve made significant progress, but I’m currently stuck during late boot, After Random Seed +++++ then reboots.

Tried a lot of flags and no luck.
Main combinations:

-v cpus=1 busratio=9 keepsyms=1 debug=0x100

Also tested variations of:
  • busratio=9 to 15
  • npci=0x2000 / 0x3000
  • acpi=off
  • -x
  • nv_disable=1

️ Hardware​

  • CPU: AMD Sempron 3000+ (Socket 754, K8, single-core, ~1.8 GHz)
  • Chipset: SiS 761GX
  • RAM: 2GB DDR1
  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 550 (Polaris)
  • Storage: 120gb SATA SSD (running in IDE or RAID mode, no AHCI available)
  • BIOS: Legacy (no UEFI, no AHCI option)

️ Bootloader​

  • Clover (Legacy) and also tested with Enoch (Chameleon)
  • Same behavior on both bootloaders

Install method: Clone Disk​

I can't make the installer, It wasnt possible to rebuild the prelinked kernels.
I made a clone from the disk image using SuperDuper! As recommended, by Spakk.

Kernel & System Setup​

  • Using the mentioned AnV AMD kernel for High Sierra (10.13.6) @Shaneee
  • Included patched System.kext
  • Prelinkedkernel built successfully on a working macOS environment (VM)
  • Replaced IONetworkFamily.kext with 10.13.3 @Shaneee version from InsanelyMac (as recommended for prelinked build)

Kexts: Clover​

Currently testing with minimal setup in clover:
  • FakeSMC.kext
  • NullCPUPowerManagement.kext
  • SuperVIAATA.kext (for legacy IDE/SATA controller)

❓ Questions​

  1. Has anyone successfully used the AnV kernel on AMD K8 (Sempron / Socket 754) with High Sierra?
  2. Could this be:
    • TSC sync issue (would VoodooTSCSync help on single-core CPU?)
    • APIC incompatibility despite lapic_kernel?
    • GPU initialization issue with Polaris on such old platform?
  3. Any recommended:
    • busratio values for K8?
    • additional kernel flags specific to legacy AMD?
  4. Is RX 550 viable on this setup, or should I temporarily switch to an older GPU for installation?
  5. And a lot more... ahahha


1771991561776.png1771991597299.png
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
✖
  AdBlock Detected
Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks some useful and important features of our website. For the best possible site experience please take a moment to disable your AdBlocker.