Getting Ableton To Work on a Lion Hackintosh

[Syncretia]

Please don't berate me with howls of disgust about this. If you don't like the idea of using a Hackintosh, please just ignore this thread.

So, I got a Hackintosh up and running. I have smoothed out nearly all the problems hardware-wise. Saffire USB 6 is working, internet is working, I have been able to get Maschine and other tools installed and working correctly. However, Ableton just crashes at startup.

Has anyone had experience with getting Ableton working on a Hackintosh Lion? I'm using 8.2.6

The error looks like:
"Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[__NSCFString bytes]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x403ea90'"

Here's the report that I get:

Process: Live [432]
Path: /Applications/Live 8.2.6/Live.app/Contents/MacOS/Live
Identifier: com.ableton.live
Version: 8.2.6 [2011-09-05_b6415c2f32] (8.2.6 [2011-09-05_b6415c2f32])
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [123]

Date/Time: 2011-10-15 14:35:47.449 +1100
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.7 (11A511)
Report Version: 9

Interval Since Last Report: 28407 sec
Crashes Since Last Report: 16
Per-App Interval Since Last Report: 3 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report: 15
Anonymous UUID: 8DCC9903-326D-4912-B96F-F4BA6A0D9E47

Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[__NSCFString bytes]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x403ea90'
*** Call stack at first throw:
(
0 CoreFoundation 0x96f09e77 __raiseError + 231
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x9b997149 objc_exception_throw + 155
2 CoreFoundation 0x96f0d480 -[NSObject doesNotRecognizeSelector:] + 256
3 CoreFoundation 0x96e5c8a9 ___forwarding___ + 457
4 CoreFoundation 0x96e5c672 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 50
5 CoreFoundation 0x96ddc1aa CFDataGetBytePtr + 106
6 Live 0x004bda1a Live + 4966938
7 Live 0x0047c558 Live + 4699480
8 Live 0x0164dfab _ZNSt12out_of_rangeD0Ev + 5008047
9 Live 0x014d0cb0 _ZNSt12out_of_rangeD0Ev + 3446708
10 Live 0x00003082 Live + 8322
11 Live 0x00002fa9 Live + 8105
12 ??? 0x00000002 0x0 + 2
)

objc[432]: garbage collection is OFF

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x96f09d67 ___TERMINATING_DUE_TO_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION___ + 7
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x9b997149 objc_exception_throw + 155
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x96f0d480 -[NSObject doesNotRecognizeSelector:] + 256
3 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x96e5c8a9 ___forwarding___ + 457
4 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x96e5c672 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 50
5 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x96ddc1aa CFDataGetBytePtr + 106
6 com.ableton.live 0x004bda1a 0x1000 + 4966938
7 com.ableton.live 0x0047c558 0x1000 + 4699480
8 com.ableton.live 0x0164dfab std::out_of_range::~out_of_range() + 5008047
9 com.ableton.live 0x014d0cb0 std::out_of_range::~out_of_range() + 3446708
10 com.ableton.live 0x00003082 0x1000 + 8322
11 com.ableton.live 0x00002fa9 0x1000 + 8105

Thread 1:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.libdispatch-manager
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x96a0790a kevent + 10
1 libdispatch.dylib 0x915d2ccc _dispatch_mgr_invoke + 969
2 libdispatch.dylib 0x915d171b _dispatch_mgr_thread + 53

Thread 2:
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x96a0702e __workq_kernreturn + 10
1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x944a4ccf _pthread_wqthread + 773
2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x944a66fe start_wqthread + 30

Thread 3:
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x96a0702e __workq_kernreturn + 10
1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x944a4ccf _pthread_wqthread + 773
2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x944a66fe start_wqthread + 30

Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0x00000001 ebx: 0x0403dd30 ecx: 0x00000001 edx: 0x00000000
edi: 0x04240cd0 esi: 0x9b9970bf ebp: 0xbffff0f8 esp: 0xbffff0f0
ss: 0x00000023 efl: 0x00000286 eip: 0x96f09d67 cs: 0x0000001b
ds: 0x00000023 es: 0x00000023 fs: 0x00000000 gs: 0x0000000f
cr2: 0x048f31fe
Logical CPU: 1

Binary Images:
0x1000 - 0x20a5ff8 +com.ableton.live (8.2.6 [2011-09-05_b6415c2f32] - 8.2.6 [2011-09-05_b6415c2f32]) <BE470F51-F484-5972-0105-0040AB25A57F> /Applications/Live 8.2.6/Live.app/Contents/MacOS/Live
0x29e2000 - 0x2a2effb com.apple.audio.midi.CoreMIDI (1.8 - 42) <CBD34EBC-0FFD-34B4-B55A-BE1F61EF4BD8> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreMIDI.framework/Versions/A/CoreMIDI
[Text Removed]

External Modification Summary:
Calls made by other processes targeting this process:
task_for_pid: 2
thread_create: 0
thread_set_state: 0
Calls made by this process:
task_for_pid: 0
thread_create: 0
thread_set_state: 0
Calls made by all processes on this machine:
task_for_pid: 1259
thread_create: 0
thread_set_state: 0

VM Region Summary:
ReadOnly portion of Libraries: Total=165.0M resident=83.9M(51%) swapped_out_or_unallocated=81.1M(49%)
Writable regions: Total=52.6M written=5884K(11%) resident=6456K(12%) swapped_out=0K(0%) unallocated=46.3M(88%)

REGION TYPE VIRTUAL
=========== =======
CG shared images 96K
CoreServices 788K
MALLOC 41.5M
MALLOC guard page 48K
Stack 65.5M
VM_ALLOCATE 52K
__CI_BITMAP 80K
__DATA 16.9M
__DATA/__OBJC 16K
__IMAGE 1256K
__IMPORT 56K
__LINKEDIT 41.8M
__OBJC 1476K
__OBJC/__DATA 8K
__PAGEZERO 4K
__TEXT 123.2M
__UNICODE 544K
mapped file 124.3M
shared memory 312K
shared pmap 9.9M
=========== =======
TOTAL 427.8M

Model: MacPro3,1, BootROM MultiBeast.tonymacx86.com, 4 processors, Intel Core i5, 3.29 GHz, 8 GB, SMC 1.30f3
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5000, ATI Radeon HD 5000, PCIe, 1024 MB
Memory Module: Bank0/1/A0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1333 MHz, Kingston, 9905471-006.A01LF
Memory Module: Bank4/5/A2, 4 GB, DDR3, 1333 MHz, Kingston, 9905471-006.A01LF
Bluetooth: Version 2.5.0f17, 2 service, 19 devices, 2 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet Adaptor (en0), Ethernet, en0
Serial ATA Device: WDC WD10EALX-199BA0, 1 TB
Serial ATA Device: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-212
USB Device: hub_device, 0x8087 (Intel Corporation), 0x0024, 0x1a100000 / 2
USB Device: hub_device, 0x0409 (NEC Corporation), 0x005a, 0x1a140000 / 3
USB Device: Iomega Select HDD, 0x059b (Iomega Corporation), 0x047a, 0x1a141000 / 7
USB Device: USB Receiver, 0x046d (Logitech Inc.), 0xc517, 0x1a142000 / 6
USB Device: hub_device, 0x8087 (Intel Corporation), 0x0024, 0x1d100000 / 2
USB Device: Saffire 6USB, 0x1235, 0x0010, 0x1d160000 / 4
USB Device: Bluetooth V2.0 Dongle, 0x0a12 (Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd.), 0x0001, 0x1d120000 / 3

[kent_sandvik]

Yes get a real Mac with a proper OS installation.

[kooperativ]

A well done hackintosh can be as stable as a real mac. You can even use the systems auto update function + you have the possibility to upgrade, repair and change stuff as much as you want.

Your graphics cards drivers aren't loading correctly - not sure that's causing the issue with ableton but anyhow!
Are you using the latest Chimera bootloader?
if not: get MultiBeast from http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewforum.php?f=125 and run the installation process, selecting Chimera and "GraphicsEnabler=YES" when you can.
On tonymacx86 you can probably also find a .dsl for your system.. good luck!

[Syncretia]

Yes. You were right about the graphics card problem. I have an ATI Radeon 5770. There must have been something wrong with my version of Multibeast because after installing the full version, it now works fine. The latest Multibeast has the 5000 series kext inbuilt. My setup works perfectly now.

[5meohd]

I'm thinking that I'm having a similar problem.

Though I found a kext fix on tonymac and couldn't get it to work.

Is it possible to use an older version of live to test and see where things went wrong?

my official hard copy of 8.0.1 works perfectly fine (except for its natural bugs).. but 8.3 and the newest beta alike will not even open

cheers.

[alexjholland]

A hackintosh seems a false economy to me. All that time messing around getting things working and repairing it when updates come out would surely be better spent doing whatever it takes to increase income? Be that harder work, more qualifications or whatever it takes.

[Opz]

Maybe the problem is the used OS itself. How did you obtain the installer? From a USB flash drive?

[Earwax69]

A hackintosh seems a false economy to me.

I guess he just want to mess around with hardware and OS X. If he want stability and ease of use he can stick to win7 or even get a real mac.

[5meohd]

yeah I would love to make more money.. I'd probably just buy more synths though.

we are a collective.. 4 of us.. 1 who is over 600 miles away..

between everyone we have 3 macbook pros, 2 current and 1 on its way out. plus I have this awesome pc I built around christmas for a home theater brain.. obviously when my projector burnt out I decided I'm done with that expensive time consuming hobby and I'm devoting the machine to our collective lab.

so do we really want to work separately on osx and then collectively on windows 7? maybe we do.... but flicking through the threads shows that our motu 828mk3 might not work as well..... so... hackintosh.


I didn't install multibeast or lion.. a good friend did, I'm pretty sure it was from a master DVD of his.



either way, another friend and I solved the 8.3 problem by trashing the innit multibeast kext for the installed ATI radeon card and downloading/installing some custom ones off of a random but intriguing youtube video/blog..

it worked! except....................... no HD graphics.. lame.

so in hopes of fixing that we tried again and now we are totally locked out.. as in.. the graphics aren't working and I don't know how to edit shit pre-boot, AND it will NOT boot into safe mode

is windows 7 the answer?? is a cross platform graphics card all I need?? are these few forum posts and couple hours spent mucking around with computers completely worthless and in fact less valuable than getting a four year education or waiting another three years for an adequate raise so that I can buy another computer which is in fact a macintosh desktop (or did a new pro thats actually competitive get released?)??????? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[H20nly]

http://www.apple.com/mac/

http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/thinkpad/

pick one and call it a day.

[5meohd]

fine... but that doesn't make you right.

[Opz]

yeah I would love to make more money.. I'd probably just buy more synths though.

we are a collective.. 4 of us.. 1 who is over 600 miles away..

between everyone we have 3 macbook pros, 2 current and 1 on its way out. plus I have this awesome pc I built around christmas for a home theater brain.. obviously when my projector burnt out I decided I'm done with that expensive time consuming hobby and I'm devoting the machine to our collective lab.

so do we really want to work separately on osx and then collectively on windows 7? maybe we do.... but flicking through the threads shows that our motu 828mk3 might not work as well..... so... hackintosh.


I didn't install multibeast or lion.. a good friend did, I'm pretty sure it was from a master DVD of his.



either way, another friend and I solved the 8.3 problem by trashing the innit multibeast kext for the installed ATI radeon card and downloading/installing some custom ones off of a random but intriguing youtube video/blog..

it worked! except....................... no HD graphics.. lame.

so in hopes of fixing that we tried again and now we are totally locked out.. as in.. the graphics aren't working and I don't know how to edit shit pre-boot, AND it will NOT boot into safe mode

is windows 7 the answer?? is a cross platform graphics card all I need?? are these few forum posts and couple hours spent mucking around with computers completely worthless and in fact less valuable than getting a four year education or waiting another three years for an adequate raise so that I can buy another computer which is in fact a macintosh desktop (or did a new pro thats actually competitive get released?)??????? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

In the past one couldn't build a Hackintosh from a dvd/cdrom that came with a powerbook/G5/macbook(pro)/macpro etc. Those were tailored to the machine with which they came. In order to build a Hackintosh one needed a full installer as one could buy in a store. But with Lion there's no possibility to buy one except for a usb flash drive. These also need hacking to get them off there and running on a non-mac. There is no master dvd for Lion.

Why wouldn't the audio interface work just as well or about the same with a Windows setup? You're not making any music now with the Hackintosh. So, bullocks if you ask me. All this time wasted building a Hackintosh (which will give you troubles in the future anyway) while you could have just made music with a Windows system. A mac mini (you already have a display) isn't that expensive or you could get a mac second hand if you really wanted one. All I see posted are lame excuses to defend that your not willing to save money to get a decent machine (even though you built some 'awesome' pc for home theater stuff) and if you did make more money you would probably buy more synths...

[friend_kami]

Yes. You were right about the graphics card problem. I have an ATI Radeon 5770. There must have been something wrong with my version of Multibeast because after installing the full version, it now works fine. The latest Multibeast has the 5000 series kext inbuilt. My setup works perfectly now.

the ATI cards always have troubles with hackintoshing. afaik, GraphicsEnabler = Yes doesn't really work good either.
glad you solved it heh.

[5meohd]

I'm not trying to beat a dead horse.. but my $900 "home theater" build out specs the most expensive $1500 dollar mac mini by quite a bit, so I don't see how its lame to be optimistic about having a hackintosh for that much money. $600 dollars could buy a minibrute, or minitaur, or a dual prismatic oscillator, or half of a used octatrack.

And as mentioned.. we have multiple machines, if we weren't making music it is because we just moved house and have to set everything up. (why we choose this past week to beta the idea).

You are wrong. Do not dis-encourage others to attempt a hackintosh build. I know very little about kext, code, and computer hardware and I came very very close to having a working machine.

To any further searches on the subject, have faith! and if you have another computer to keep working on, don't give up! tonymacx86 is a great resource, and I recommend picking parts from the start that are recommended over there (something I didn't do, as I built the machine long before the idea popped up).

On the other hand, my 828mk3 is working fine so far.. although the machine is supposed to support three people playing live synths and maschine and we've yet to set up shop (will update).

In fact.. I'll gladly do some simple benchmarking to compare this $900 dollar windows 7 build to which ever mbp is newest/highest spec.

thanks for all the help

[Opz]

People never realise it isn't just about 'specs', it's how the OS that's tailored to it handles the hardware and everything in between. People make great music using Atari ST's and 486 machines. Specs don't say shite..

Can't even imagine why you shouldn't leave it a Win7 machine. Audio can be exchanged, machines can be synced, macs can access it simply by ethernet/wifi and there's amazing software for Windows that isn't available for OSX. Nothing wrong with Lion (I use it on my old mbp and I'm preparing a live performance with it), but Snow Leopard is still preferred by many. And why use an illegal OS when you can have the legal thing just by leaving it the way it was? Or did you obtain Windows illegally also?

You post your benchmarks and in the meantime I'll be using that wasted time to do something productive.
Have fun with your Hackintosh and I hope for you that it won't give you any troubles in the future but instead gets you to make actual music on it.