D630 with 1440x900 display Problems

[PatArch]

Hi All

 

Posting this on my nice new stable 10.6.3 SL.

 

It took me a few days and (If I am honest) more than 50 re-installs but I got there in the end.

 

A rather strange method of installing and getting things going and nothing like any of the guides I have read but at least it's working.

 

The DSDT was the first stumbling block - Once I got that sorted out and a working org.chameleon.Boot.plist in place, things started to move much faster.

 

I'll happily post up the way that worked for me later this evening in the hope that it can help you guys above.

 

Regards,

 

Tim.

Congratulation to your success for installation and I am looking forward to know how you did it.

 

Also, have you tried to update to 10.6.8 (any success on that too ?)

[TimST185]

OK, so here, as promised is the way that worked for me........ The version of Snow Leopard I was installing was 10.6.3 RETAIL

(I cannot say for sure that this way will work with the 10.6.0 version so it's important to start with the right one)

 

Just to re-cap on my machine spec's:

 

. I have the 1440x900 LCD on my 630 with X3100 Graphics.

. I had already swapped out the Intel wifi for a Dell 'Broadcom' based one.

. I have 4GB of Ram (2 slots of 2GB each)

. My Bios is Version A17

. SATA operation in BIOS is set to AHCI (F2 at startup, expand Onboard Devices group, scroll to SATA Operation and set it to AHCI - Save changes and exit BIOS setup)

. My DVD Rom/Burner can RELIABLY read Dual Layer DVD's (most important as it takes ages if your optical drive is worn out and will lead to a failed install if it can't read the DVD)

. I have the optional Dell 360 Bluetooth module and it's enabled in BIOS

 

And the Requirements:

 

Access to a Windows Machine and CD/DVD burner (To burn the BOOTCD and download stuff for the post install)

An 8GB Memory Stick (The faster the better) - To make the Bootable USB Drive.

Any old other Memory Stick to transfer the other stuff to our Hackbook - 1GB is big enough.

A USB Keyboard and a USB Mouse to connect to our 630 for the initial stages.

 

OK, so here we go - In at the deep-end as they say....... Be prepared for a steep learning curve and it helps to have a BIG BOX of patience to tap into !!!

 

The first hurdle to cross is to make a bootable USB Drive (It will save HOURS of time re-installing, belive me) !

 

A... On your Windows machine, Download this BOOT CD that Simeonoff (A Member from this forum made) ...... CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

 

It has a working DSDT that is setup for the 1440x900 screens and will allow us to get a working Mac environment so that we can make our bootable USB Drive.

Use ANY burning software you have to burn the ISO to a CD. Imgburn is a good freeware that I use CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD Write 1440x900 BOOTCD on this disc so you don't mix it up.

 

B... While your on your windows machine, download myhack from HERE....

 

C... and download Chameleon installer from HERE....

 

D... and Download the "Bootpack" from HERE....

 

E... and Download Kext Wizard from HERE....

 

F... and download multifail from HERE....

 

G... Copy those 5 downloads over to your 1GB stick as we will need them soon (For now, don't worry about the format's of the files, un-zipping them, or the strange file-names etc)

 

 

Stage 1 - The Initial Install.

 

 

01 .. Connect the USB Mouse and the USB Keyboard to the rear USB ports on your D630.

 

02 .. Power your D630 on and press F12 so you get the "boot from..." menu up.

 

03 .. Insert the BOOTCD we burned in Part A above, cursor down and select boot from CD/DVD and hit Enter.

 

04 .. Wait for the BOOT CD menu to appear and then wait ANOTHER 60 Seconds.

 

05 .. Eject the BOOTCD and insert your 10.6.3 RETAIL Snow Leopard DVD.

 

06 .. WAIT FOR 60 SECONDS BEFORE you do anything else.

 

07 .. Press F5. (Now, on my system, the graphics become corrupted slightly and the DVD burner spin's up but nothing else)

 

08 .. Press F5 again (now you will see "Install MAC OSX" Icon" appear.

 

09 .. Press the Cursor Right Arrow on your keyboard so the "Install MAC OSX" Icon is highlighted and then press Enter.

 

The Snow Leopard DVD will start it's process and you'll get to a menu from where you can select your language.

 

10a . Click on your desired language and press the arrow in the bottom right of the screen.

 

Now, were in a new menu "Install Mac OSX".

 

09b . We need to prepare our hard-drive, so with your USB mouse, click on "Utilities" at the top of the screen and select "Disk Utility".

 

A New window will open and we now have a chance to set-up our Hard-Drive.

 

10c . In the left hand pane, right at the top, you will see your Hard-Drive, Left Click it.

 

10d . Now, in the right pane, click on the "Partition" tab.

 

10e . Just below where it says "Volume Scheme" left click it and select "2 Partitions" - Left click the in top Box diagram that appeared and then left click in the name box, type "Snow Leopard" - Format should be "OSX Extended journaled" - Left Click options and select GUID Partition.

 

10f . Left click the bottom box diagram and then left click in the name box, type "Utilities" - format should be "OSX Extended Journaled" - Left click options and select GUID Partition.

 

10g . Left click the "Apply" button and then left click "Partition" confirmation button. Wait for the process to finish.

 

10h . Left Click the "Red Dot", Top left of the Disk Utility Screen to exit and a new screen will pop-up.

 

We are now at the main installation screen for OSX - Just a few clicks, a coffee and a quick bite out of the patience box will see us thru this

 

11 .. Left click the "Continue" Button, then Left Click the "Agree" button and we are on our way.

 

12 .. A Picture of two hard-Drives will show up..... Left click the one called "Snow Leopard" and a green arrow will appear on it.

 

13 .. Left click the button "Customise" on the bottom left of the screen......

 

14 .. A new window pops up and we need to left click on all the options to DE-SELECT them. (note - the top one "Printers" takes TWO left clicks to de-select it)

 

We Don't need all this stuff for the moment and De-Selecting them will speed-up our installation time.

 

15 .. A Window pop's up telling us that OSX is installing - Time for that coffee now ! - Sit back, relax and watch that progress bar go across the screen (that bar is going to be your new best friend for the next week or so - Better get used to it ! hehehe)

 

16 .. After about 20 mins your new install will be done and it will tell you it's going to restart. (If it doesn't restart properly Just hold the power button down for 5 seconds and power your 630 off)

 

17 .. Power it back on and press F12 to get to the boot menu again. Eject the Snow Leopard 10.6.3 CD and insert the BOOTCD you made in step A.

 

18 .. Cursor Down and select to boot from CD/DVD and hit enter

 

19 .. Wait for the BOOT CD menu to appear and this time you should see 2 options : Boot CD and Snow Leopard.

 

20 .. Press the Cursor Right Key to select Snow Leopard and hit Enter.

 

21 .. After about 30 seconds you should see that nice intro video

 

22 .. Use your USB Keyboard and mouse to answer the setup quaestions (It's pretty obvious what to type)

 

23 .. MAKE SURE TO PUT A PASSWORD IN - (I had software fail in my trial attempts because there was no password set - EDP's terminal I think it was)

 

24 .. Now then, DON'T BE TEMPTED TO MESS WITH STUFF ....... Let's get our 8 GB Bootable USB Stick prepared so that if we break the install, we can fix it easier and faster.

 

 

Stage 2 - Make the 8GB USB Stick Installation.

 

 

25 .. Double click the CD Icon on the desktop labeled "Boot CD", double click the folder "Extra", double click the icon "Preboot", DRAG the "Extra" folder to your desktop. Close all the open windows.

 

26 .. Insert your 1GB stick and open it up - DRAG the file "bootpack-D630-intel.zip" to your desktop. Double click it and it will unzip into a folder called Extra 2 as we already have an Extra folder !

 

27 .. Double click "Extra 2" and it will open a new window. Double click on the file called "org.Chameleon.Boot.plist" and it will open in a text editor.

 

28 .. The 4th line down in the indented section reads <string>1280x800x32</string> We need to change it so it reads <string>1440x900x32</string> so go ahead and edit it.

 

29 .. Close the window and it will ask us to save the file, so save it.

 

30 .. Drag the saved file from the "Extra 2" folder to the "Extra" folder. Open up your "Extra" folder and delete the com.apple.Boot.plist file that's there as we don't need it now.

 

31 .. Delete the "Extra 2" folder from the desktop and delete the bootpack.zip file as well.

 

32 .. Open up your 1GB memory stick contents again and this time drag the "MyHack" file to the desktop. Close the USB contents window and right click on your USB Drives Icon and select "Eject"

 

33 .. Double Click the myhack file you just copied and it will run and a new window will open.

 

25 .. Left Click on that big Axe and DRAG to your Application folder at the bottom of the screen (4th from the right with "A" on the folder)

 

26 .. Close the myhack window and open your applications folder and click on MyHack. It will open up and ask you for your password so just enter it in.

 

 

 

Guide Revision 1.0.0 - Uncomplete at moment, work in progress. I'll complete the rest later - I have run out of time for the moment !

[TimST185]

Update :

 

My original install works 100% perfect - Sleep, wake, USB etc all work 100% BUT....... I am trying to document it and it takes time to do all this using a spare Hard-Drive so I don't break my working version.

 

I did some more testing tonight and was hoping to include the extra folder WITHIN the USB install procedure by specifying to use a custom Extra folder added in at the end of the myhack procedure but for some reason, I can only get it to boot from USB Image by using the -V flag if I do.

 

I will edit, and change the guide again and go back to the original way I did it as that worked for sure.

 

(Trying to run before I can walk here) - Should have kept to the original plan but then if you don't try thing's, you never know if they work I suppose !

 

As you can see, it's VERY much a "Work in Progress" kind of guide so if anyone can help make it better, then please, let me know.

 

Hope it helps for now, and I am sure it will all change again if/when I try to do any combo updates

 

Hope to complete the guide over the weekend if I can find more time.

 

Regards & good luck for now,

 

Tim.

[ovi1]

the problem is the DSDT.aml you need the high res one. also make sure that in the boot plist it's set to your higher res.... if simons boot disc has com.apple.boot.plist then if your running chameleon 2svn then it needs to be renamed to org.chameleon.Boot.plist yes thats a capital B in boot.... take his Extra and use it as your own....

Cheers and welcome to osxlatitude.

i can't find simons anywhere.

do you by any chance refer to simeonoff's ?

[Bronxteck]

yes simeonoff....

[vivekmehta]

Hey Newbie!

 

D630 X3100 Mac Snow Leopard 10.6.3 Install 100% working?

[vivekmehta]

Dell Latitude D630, Core 2 Duo (T7500) Mac Install working?

[Syonagar]

Hi...

 

Yes it does.

 

Cheers!

[crc-error404]

Use this DSDT for 10.7.3 and 1440x900 display

[TimST185]

Hello again all

 

Just to say that I have moved around a little from the 630 I started with hehehe...........

 

It's still my day to day hackbook and still only running 10.6.3 and I DO INTEND to finish the guide but I bought a 1525 and converted that to a hackbook last week - Got it upgraded to 10.6.8 with no issues and it's currently out on loan !

 

Now, I also have a 620 with Nvidia graphics and I'm currently trying to get that to 10.6.8

 

I also bought an Apple magic mouse (What a truely awesome piece of kit) and that works with the 630 and 620 out of the box with the standard bluetooth.

 

One thing mind - You HAVE TO enable bluetooth in a windows enviroment with Dell's Quickset utility.... If Quickset has disabled bluetooth then OSX will see the bluetooth but it won't connect to anything.

 

..... Easy way to spot this is that if the "Blue" bluetooth light is not lit on your 630 and STAYS lit when you power it on then quickset has disabled it at some point in the past..... Boot into windows, enable Bluetooth via quickset and shut down - Your 630 will remember it's enabled and work fine for-ever after.

 

..... If you want to be able to turn off Bluetooth then you need to go into bios and set the wireless switch to control the Bluetooth ONLY....... You can turn off airport manually in OSX and use the wireless switch on the left side of the 630 to turn on and off the bluetooth only (To save power on battery) etc.

 

I have tested this ONLY in 10.6.3 mind and it works - If things change when I complete the guide AND do an update to 10.6.8 or to Lion then I will let you know.

 

Regards and I'll try and keep this updated sooner........

 

Tim.