Upgrade Leopard to SL

[thunderclap82]

Has anyone been able to upgrade their installation for Leopard to Snow Leopard?  I have the retail version, and I don't want to do a complete reinstall of the system and all my software.  An upgrade would be ideal but in my attempts thus far it doesn't seem to work.  I managed to get the OS installed, but now it crashes on boot.

[BladeRunner]

Has anyone been able to upgrade their installation for Leopard to Snow Leopard?  I have the retail version, and I don't want to do a complete reinstall of the system and all my software.  An upgrade would be ideal but in my attempts thus far it doesn't seem to work.  I managed to get the OS installed, but now it crashes on boot.

Well, there are several reasons why this might be happening.  Since you didn't say what process yu used to install your upgrade it is a bit hard to say for sure.  On the off chance that you just attempted to do a straight install./upgrade, here are some guides you might wish to read to help- get you going.

     http://www.projectsnow.net/index.php?/topic/18-guide-to-perfect-vanilla-snow-leopard-32-or-64-bit/

and

     http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=181903

You will see in both that yu need special boot loader files and likely a special copy of Chameleon to make SnowLeo run for you.

Good luck on your project.

[jflnyc]

I would stay away from trying to upgrade to SL from within your Leo installation.  It can be done with a usb stick containing both Chameleon and the install DVD image, but it's clunky.  I'd also stay away from within Leo to another HD (even if it's clean).  Again, it can be done, but you'll end up with KP's and other errors. 

The best way to go IMO is to do a clean install to a new HD using the usb stick with Chameleon and the install DVD image and then simply use migration assistant to bring over your apps, files, settings, etc., from your Leo disk.  The migration goes quickly.

The guide Bladerunner linked from insanelymac is really good if you have an EP45-UD3x mobo, although I prefer the usb stick install method.

[thunderclap82]

Thanks to both of you for the suggestion.  I was trying to create sort of a hybrid install, following the instructions laid out in one SL fresh install and trying to do it as an upgrade.  I think I got pretty close actually.  I don't have a big enough USB flash drive to put the SL DVD image on so I'm going to follow the instructions from the link provided and do it on a second partition of my Leopard drive.  I will then try the migration assistant and, if all works properly, I will then delete the Leopard install to reclaim my HD space.  I'll let you know how it goes.

[thunderclap82]

So I went through the process of install SL on a second partition on my drive.  I got the system up and running, but within about 30-seconds I get a kernel panic:

panic(cpu 6 caller 0x2a6ac2): Kernel trap at 0x0027a435, type 14=page fault, registers: (here enters a slew of numbers) error code: 0x00000003

This has happened on several boots and the numbers do change.  This is also booting into SL with "-v -x32".

Not exactly sure where the problem is yet.  I can't find anyone who has posted a successful install of SL on the GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard.  Maybe in a few more weeks there will be an instruction guide.

[jflnyc]

So I went through the process of install SL on a second partition on my drive.  I got the system up and running, but within about 30-seconds I get a kernel panic:

panic(cpu 6 caller 0x2a6ac2): Kernel trap at 0x0027a435, type 14=page fault, registers: (here enters a slew of numbers) error code: 0x00000003

This has happened on several boots and the numbers do change.  This is also booting into SL with "-v -x32".

Not exactly sure where the problem is yet.  I can't find anyone who has posted a successful install of SL on the GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard.  Maybe in a few more weeks there will be an instruction guide.

I've got SL installed on an EX58-UD3R, if that helps.  A couple of things on your KP's:  First, did you follow Step 10 in the Guide Bladerunner linked?  It's important to add all your drives to the Privacy section of Spotlight immediately after your first boot to avert a KP caused by Spotlight's indexing service, mdworker.  Once you've run kextutility after and rebooted, you can restore Spotlight's privacy settings as you please without KP's.  Aso, after many hours of trial and error, I found that if I rebuilt my SL mkext file (using MKextTool) from within Leo before booting into SL, it solved my KP problems.  If necessary, you can also try deleting the Caches folders from your SL /L and S/L folders.  And, back to Spotlight, you can also add your drives to Spotlight's privacy section in Leo before you boot into SL and the setting will hold for SL, thereby avoiding the mdworker KP's.  But, in any event, always run kextutility in SL once you get there and reboot.

A couple of bonus tips:  The LegacyHDA.kext in the SL Pack (which you can download from the referenced guide) works for the EX58-UD3R, so it might for your board, too.  Just put it in your E/E folder, run kextutility and reboot.  Ethernet has been more troublesome.  A patched (and revised) DSDT file doesn't seem to do the trick.  Only by installing the RealtekR1000.kext into S/L/E did I get ethernet -- and then only in 32-bit mode.  Don't know anyone yet who has got 64-bit ethernet on the Gigabyte EX58 boards.  If you find out anything, I'd appreciate your posting it.

Good luck!

[AppleIIGuy]

Why not do a retail install of SL on a separate drive and migrate over?