OS X 10.6.8 update for Hackintosh

It's been hell updating my Hackintosh (Gigabyte EX58-DS4) to OS 10.6.8 from 10.6.7. The main problem has been with getting three monitors to work. Apple seems to have changed something in the ATI support drivers that has made it much more difficult.

The update also breaks the AppStore connection for some reason, making it more difficult to update some software. I tried several fixes found online, varying from using LittleSnitch to block certain AppStore connections to rebuilding the Ethernet configuration, but nothing worked.

But because I needed 10.6.8 to use the new versions of Mainstage (2.2) and FInalCut Pro X (10.0.2), I decided to give it another try. Here's what I did:


1. Using Carbon Copy Cloner, clone my working 10.6.7 drive to a newly formatted HD.

2. Install 10.6.8 using the Apple Combo Updater (not via Software Update.) DO NOT RESTART.

3. Use MultiBeast to repair permissions and rebuild the kext cache. Also set the UserDSDT flag, AppleHDA rollback. Might be a good idea to install Chameleon (aka Chimera) on the new drive too.

4. Restart into 10.6.8. It should boot OK with 2 of the 3 monitors working.

5. Install the OLD video drivers (version 26 from 10.6.6 I think) using this utility found on TonyMac's blog - ATIDriverPatch10.6.8.pkg

6. Restart and cross fingers!

This fixed my three monitor setup (Sapphire Radeon 5770 with Eyefinity). Seems to work perfectly, DVD Player, Quicktime 7, Quicktime 10, etc all working as expected.

The AppStore is still a problem though. It claims to not recognize my computer. Apparently it's something to do with the ethernet/network registration. Some people online have claimed to fix it by blocking network access with LittleSnitch, but that hasn't worked for me. In the meantime, I'll just update my AppStore software on my MacBookPro and manually copy it over the Hackintosh.