Install OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 onto Precision M6800

[cc333]

Yes, I know, it's outdated, but I have a specific need for it, as I want to run some older software (Pro Tools 10) and hardware (Digidesign MBox 2 Pro) that Sierra no longer supports.

 

So far, I've got power management more or less working, and sound works. I cannot get graphics (NVIDIA Quadro K3100M) to work, however. Nor am I able to get Wifi/Bluetooth working (Dell Wireless 1550, I believe), though I haven't really tried.

 

If I can't get it, that's fine (I have a nice Sierra install on it already, and I can do 98% of what I want). I just wanted to try to see if it's possible.

 

Thanks,

 

c

[Jake Lo]

I had Yosemite on it once, but had never tried Mavericks.

 

[Hervé]

DW1550 is based on Broadcom BCM4352; that'll work with DSDT patch or AirportBrcm4360 patch of installation of Rehabman's FakePCIID + FakePCIID_Broadcom_Wifi kexts or Clover id faking. You can look that up in our Wireless forum section.

 

nVidia K3100M should work OOB as far as I know. 

[cc333]

Hi,

 

I have the same DW1550 (BCM4352) on another machine, also running Mavericks, and the card works perfectly with ToledaARPT.kext.

 

As for early reboots, I've noticed that it will lock up if I let it initialize the Nvidia drivers like normal. If I set -nv-disable, it will boot, but obviously with no acceleration (oddly, the card seems to be otherwise recognized properly, with the proper amount of VRAM (4096 MB)). Removing the stock drivers completely allows me to boot without a bunch of rigamarole, but of course no accelerated graphics.

 

The K3100M gave me no trouble at all on Sierra, and Mavericks was current when the M6800 was current, so logically it should work (provided I'm running a 100% up to date install of Mavericks). Yet it doesn't. Is it possible there's some weirdness with regard to power management? I'm using a patched kernel so PM works, but maybe the stock Nvidia drivers are incompatible with that kernel somehow?

 

I tried the web drivers, but the latest version available for Mavericks doesn't seem to support the K3100M. Even though it's not supported, would a newer set of web drivers (which includes the proper support) work properly? Worst case is they'd crash the system and I'd have to remove them, so I guess I'd have nothing to lose, since the stock drivers do the same thing.

 

It's late now in my small corner of the world, but I'll try it out tomorrow.

 

c

[Hervé]

OS X/macOS kernels, patched for Haswell PM, will in no way be incompatible with any graphics drivers or otherwise.

 

You can always look for older Mavericks-time Web drivers. Failing that, why not consider disabling the nVidia dGPU and operate solely on the HD4600 iGPU?

 

Anyway, if you want more support, please post the usual stuff:

• Clover EFI folder or Chameleon Extra folder
• Clover or Chameleon version
• Version of Mavericks you run
• Copy of IOReg extraction
• indication of what you may have done with add-on kexts (eg: injection from Clover or installation to /L/E, etc.)

[cc333]

OK, I'll try to post some/all of that info tomorrow.

 

One thing though: I'm using the Clover EFI folder that I configured for Sierra (works fine there). It seems to work just fine for booting Mavericks aside from a couple modifications (I'm too tired to remember what they are now). Sound etc seem to work using the same kexts as Sierra.

 

c

[cc333]

OK, as promised, here's some info:

• Clover version is v2.4k r4428
• Mavericks is 10.9.5
• Clover EFI folder: CLOVER.zip
• IOReg extraction: Dell Precision M6800 IOReg Dump.zip EDIT: The dump posted previously is faulty! Use this one instead: Dell Precision M6800 IOReg Dump.zip
• I added several kexts, primarily to get things like wifi working, but most were as found in this pack:This is the same setup I use for Sierra (which runs 98% perfectly), pretty much. That might have something to do with my problem, but I don't know what.

c

[Hervé]

Ouh, there's quite a lot in there that's not applicable to Mavericks!

 

In your Clover config, you can remove:

• the USB controller renaming
• the AICPUPM patch
• the faking of desktop HD4600 (at least if you want to use nVidia GPU)
• the Azul layout-id injection
• most of the on-the fly patches (you can keep the Azul FB + Apple patches; maybe the Brcm4360 too)
• then, why do you drop all those SSDT tables? One usually only drops SSDTs CpuPm+ Cpu0Ist
• In the list of "sortedOrder" SSDTs, you have SSDT + SSDT-8 + SSDT-PNLF, yet your ACPI/patched folder has no SSDT.aml file, only the other too. You want to correct this, either by generating your own CPU-specific SSDT or by removing the entry from the Clover list

 

Your IOReg does show the nVidia GPU but I noticed the _DSM method in SSDT-8 has no NVDA,Parent statement. you may want to add that just in case. Not thought of giving myHack a try instead of Clover? How did you make the Mavericks USB installer?

[cc333]

OK, I'll try to do as you suggest re getting rid of the extra patches and stuff, though I'm kinda new at this, so I'm learning as I go a bit.

 

I cloned a Mavericks install from a real Mac (probably not optimal, but it was easy ), and then just installed Clover to it. Once I got the patched kernel in place, it booted.

 

I've seen MyHack. What is it, exactly? Is it Chameleon based?

 

c

 

 

[Hervé]

http://myhack.sojugarden.com/

Conti stopped development at Mavericks but it's a complete tool that offers:

1. USB installer creation
2. managed installation of OS X, from SL to Mavericks

 

All you need is the M6800 bootpack. You can search the forum on myHack, years ago, I wrote some general summary of what it does and how.