Mountain Lion anyone?

[v3ct0r]

That's a normal thing (takes longer depending on how much RAM you have) In BIOS, try setting the Boot Time to Minimal.

 

I get the slow POST every time I button-mash F12, even with the Minimal boot on...

 

The trick for me is to wait until it says "press f12 to enter one time boot now..." in the top right and then I press it ONCE.

[tehsux88]

Hey folks!

 

I've been a lurker for a LONG time and finally decided to give this a go, here! This has been the best thread ever and after about 4 sleepless nights, I finally have a system that works great and runs well!

 

I have an E6400 with Intel 4500 graphics --- I decided to be stubborn and do this "the hard way" instead of finding a machine with nVidia graphics since I already own this laptop and was sick of Linux Mint and its graphics issues with the 4500 series and its issues with the WiFi, and was bored with Windows 7.

 

I did NOT use an EDP to install. I used the Bootpack from this site to create a bootable install using myHack, and then during the installation selected to use "my own Extras folder" and then selected the main "extras" folder at the root of my USB install. Maybe a redundant step, but I wanted to be safe. I followed the instructions from the original thread. Before I get into other things that I did along with Tweaks, here is brief list.

 

Things needing to be done I can try to do:

- Get Bluetooth working. Shouldn't be too hard, just haven't had the time, especially with trying to write this post to share what I've learned!

 

Things to be done I can't really figure out how to do without guidance and help, or someone working with me / iMessaging with me, etc:

- Try to make these into a working EDP for E6400 machines with 4500 graphics.

- Try to incorporate the Terminal tweaks for the Dock into the install / post install script to make sure that performance is there into the EDP

- Include QDB with the EDP, but of course add in the instructions to auto-enable the settings.

- IF ANYONE KNOWS HOW to make an automated action to automatically enable those settings at boot, that would be helpful as well!

- Edit the attached trackpad kexts to slow scroll speed.

- Edit the attached trackpad kexts to better recognize two-touch points (been reading around, it seems possible. For now, side of thumb scrolling in the middle works)

- Figure out how to get Sleep / Shutdown / Restart working right without using the -v flag, or waiting for the gray screen after clicking shut down and then hitting power. Not a big deal for now. However, in Verbose Mode, it seems to be something with two Mount Points (/Home and another) not wanting to unmount right -- what's this about?)

- Finish editing the kext for the Intel 4500 to allow full, rather than partial, QE/QGL support, or at least access SOME of the hardware features

 

Things that Work:

- WiFi / Battery / SpeedStep

- Sound (volume buttons show graphic, but need to use the Voodhoo HDA sound panel to really change the sound level -- seems to be just a slight sound change)

- Auto Brightness Controls

- Very basic Graphics Card Support with Software Quartz-Extreme and QCL for using all apps to turn this into a "daily driver" machine.

- Keyboard

- Trackpad (With Scrolling set for slow in trackpad settings and accessibility and pointer speed turned down as well)

- Notification Center with Twitter (Has some small red artifacting when opening/closing, but works fine)

- Mission Control (Desktop Preview with more than 10 apps open seems to look funny, but all the other icons, even up to 20 work well, show up well, and load quickly)

- Dashboard (Don't add a widget if you don't have the hardware - seems to make it slow everything down. Loads relatively smoothly)

- Launchpad (Not really smooth, maybe if it had only a few folders, it would be cool)

- All other features, programs, and everything you would want to throw at it!

- Watching movies in VLC (1080p movies have low frame rates --- 720 seems OK)

- Aero in Windows 7 under Parallels works in Coherence Mode without any real noticeable lag compared to a friends MacBook Pro 13" 9400m 2010.

 

Daily Use?

I would say yes, yes indeed it is if you aren't going to be watching high-def movies, don't mind having the dock look cool, don't mind clicking three buttons to enable Quartz whenever you restart, and don't mind having to remember to hit the power button when shutting down, or booting with the -v flag.

 

I would say it is a 90% ready as a daily machine machine. This is my FIRST Hackintosh. I've done Android rooting and stuff before, so viewed this as just a little bigger challenge, and have spent about 60 hours learning methods, making boot disks, and trying to make this happen so that I can benefit myself and others. I've been a member at these places before, and used to read about 10.4 and stuff, but hey, let's just jump into the fire here and see what happens.

 

I definitely give credit to those who have done all the work on this site, other sites, and those that are working hard to make drivers to make everything work. I'm definitely a n00b, but wanted to share what I've learned here with this process for other n00bs and veterans alike, and definitely hope that the veterans will help out with the few remaining bugs to actually make the Intel 4500 version of the E6400 a decent machine for those that have one and want to use it, without needing to buy new motherboards. I'm sure it would give these machines a new, awesome life!

 

Now, onto the stuff I did, or little things I changed here and there!

 

 

After installing, I made sure all those kexts were in an extras folder, and then went ahead and did the following:

 

I am using this Intel 4500 kext -- I installed both the 4500HD files into the Extras folder through Kext Wizard, then ran all the utilities it has to offer, and then ran an myFix (Full) through myHack.

 

I rebooted.

 

It currently only allows you to use the Quartz Debug Tool to enable Quartz Extreme and QuartzGL via software acceleration, but at this point it means the OS runs fluidly, and smoothly. I have hot corners enabled and mission control runs well, albeit with a small graphics glitch on the preview of the desktop but its FAST, its STABLE, and EVERYTHING works. iLife '11, Photoshop CS6, iWork '09, etc. (I attached a screenshot just for fun of what it shows for the graphics in System Info). However, I was getting a gray screen when it would try to launch the screensaver.

 

I then deleted the NVD kexts

 

I switched GraphicsEnabler=Yes to GraphicsEnabler=No in the Plist.

 

I added EnableCStates=Yes

 

I added Enable PStates=Yes

 

(Note: I did NOT change the identifier to MacBook 4,1 as mentioned in the OSx86 thread, and did NOT use the VoodooPowerMini.kext -- that seemed to make a MAX clock of 1.2GHz and didn't really do a lot of good -- sticking with MacBookPro5,5 is fine)

 

Did a Full myFix, rebooted. Success. Screensaver with no gray artifacting.

 

I have the Quartz Debug Tool set to launch at boot, but I still have to remember to Enable Quartz Extreme, Enable QuartzGL, and to Disable Beam Sync. I think that driver holds some promise, and I PMd the poster of it to see if he needed any support. I don't know how to raise funds to develop this driver further, but it holds potential. It still shows up as an x3100, but hell. Who cares!

 

- I found I couldn't scroll with the Trackpad, and I found that enabling Caps Lock resulted in the system freezing using the originally suggested kexts. The ones for the trackpad (instructions next step) work for the keyboard / trackpad quite well.

 

- For scrolling with the trackpad, I replaced the voodoo PS2 Kexts with some Alps kexts. Honestly... I can't remember where I got them from, but will upload them in a zip file here.

- I moved the VoodooPS2xxxxx kexts to a backup folder on my desktop (as I do with anything I remove).

- I then dragged these kexts into the Extras Folder, ran Kext Wizard (set it to make a backup of any kexts being replaced)

- Then a myFix (I'm overly cautious) and BAM. The Trackpad Preferences Panel loads, and gives the option for two-finger scrolling! However, I found for me its more "side of my thumb scrolling".

 

Be sure when you install these to then turn the scrolling speed all the way down to slow in the trackpad preferences, and then in Accessibility - Mouse and Trackpad - Trackpad options. Then it seems to scroll at a normal pace for me.

 

Known Issues:

 

I have to still boot up using -v otherwise when I go to shut down, then Terminal launches with a Login command, I have to quit Terminal, it goes to a gray or blue screen, I wait, then hit the power button, and then it shuts off. Not sure what is up with that. There is a line about being unable to load the com.apple.IOxxx kext because one with a different UUID something has already been loaded. (Thinking the one from here) Could that be it? It flies by too quickly for me to get a look!! Not sure if I have a redundant kext somewhere, but I'm too nervous at this point to remove it until I take the time to clone this and start dinking around

 

I'm still having problems getting Bluetooth to be recognized. Not sure what it is. When I boot, it says it loads... gives that little thing where it loads, then jumps to the next line, etc, but doesn't actually do anything with Bluetooth! Ugh. I will read more in this thread about that. Would be nice to have Bluetooth to be able to use a Magic Trackpad with this!

 

To Optimize Performance (Especially when using Software QE/QGL)

 

decided to do the following (there are probably guides out there somewhere, but I will put it here as well, just in case a n00b like me wants to find these. I used some of these "back in the day" on Leopard on PPC and had some from magazines)

 

- No magnification on the dock.

- Disabled transparency on the dock (the system isn't working as hard to render your darned reflections) by entering this into the Terminal:

 

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean yes; killall Dock

 

Launchpad works, but isn't super fluid, and I just KNOW it would be eating up battery life to run it. So, I decided to not use it, but find a workaround I opened EVERY app I could EVER want to use, and arranged it in the order I would want them to be on the dock that made sense to me. I then closed them, and they waited in the dock. I then ran the following command to show ONLY open programs in the dock (from watching the QDB monitor, even scrolling over the icons results in a spike of activity as the name preview shows up):

 

defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool TRUE; killall Dock

 

Then, I proceeded to make a folder in Documents called "Stacks Aliases". In there, I made a folder for my commonly used apps and labelled the folders whatever (Organization, Internet Apps, Productivity, etc). I had a Finder window sitting next to it, and dragged the apps from the Applications folder over, and it automatically made an alias. Once these folders were complete, I dragged them into the stacks area! (Note: If you do this step before running the above command, the stacks will vanish. Wait until you organize your dock and then run the hide command).

 

I noticed Grid view took up too much graphics resources, so I used List view, which I thought was ugly. I then used this command to make the list view much nicer!

 

defaults write com.apple.dock use-new-list-stack -bool YES; killall Dock

 

Looks nicer, but isn't as much graphics activity while using it.

 

Basically: what are you are doing here is creating your own "mini-launchpad" -- it would be nice if Apple actually had this as an update to Mountain Lion, so that those who wanted to have a Stack for apps could have it "look like" the Launchpad/iOS Folders and arrange the icons how they want. Even if I had a full-graphics machine, I think I would do it!

 

Dashboard works, but adding new widgets seems to be ishy. I don't have a webcam, so adding the iSnap widget wasn't so good of an idea. Especially since it is the wrong one. If you search the AppStore for iSnap you will find a free program similar to Windows Aero Snap where you drag the windows to the side of the screen and they "snap" for easy side-by-side window viewing!

 

If you feel like disabling Dashboard for whatever reason (saves some resources or something) here is the command for that:

 

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean yes; killall Dock

 

Lastly, I left automatic updates enabled in System Preferences, but disabled the options to auto-download and install security patches. I don't want one little update to break everything I worked hard for. I don't understand ALL the stuff here, but I am TRYING to learn at least!!

 

I also installed the Flash Block plug-in for Chrome -- that speeds up browsing immensely. I set Safari to open new tabs to a blank page. I use Camino a lot as well, just because it "feels" faster at browsing Reddit!

 

I use a 5400RPM hard drive, but I know if you have a 7200RPM drive, a Hybrid Drive, or an SSD that you will have MUCH better performance than I can dream of. However, this works WAY better than Mint for now, is more fun to set up, and is less annoying than Windows 7. And Heck, I can play CounterStrike Source on this now... Civ5 seems to only like to work at about 15FPS though

 

THANK YOU FOLKS FOR BEING AWESOME!

Software QE : QI Lots of Apps.tiff

Stacks Example.tiff

ALPS Kexts.zip

[CypressPearl]

My WIFI is not working in Mountain Lion, though it is working in Lion.

I have a WIFI BCM4315 (Dell 1397).

Is there a way to get the kexts from Lion and install them into Mountain Lion.

 

I found the file IO80211Family.kext in S/L/E in my Lion install, used Kext Wizard to install in ML in S/L/E, ran myFix (Full) and nothing happened.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

CP

[Darvinko]

My WIFI is not working in Mountain Lion, though it is working in Lion.

I have a WIFI BCM4315 (Dell 1397).

Is there a way to get the kexts from Lion and install them into Mountain Lion.

 

I found the file IO80211Family.kext in S/L/E in my Lion install, used Kext Wizard to install in ML in S/L/E, ran myFix (Full) and nothing happened.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

CP

Try this: http://www.mediafire.com/?8zvpa722gqjdzdx

[CypressPearl]

Try this: http://www.mediafire.com/?8zvpa722gqjdzdx

 

Thank you Darvinko; that fixed it for me.

Hope you have a great weekend.

CP

[Darvinko]

Thank you Darvinko; that fixed it for me.

Hope you have a great weekend.

CP

A quick note to anyone who may decide to do a dual boot with Windows. Update your windows partition to a point after the Service Pack(s) is/are installed prior to re-installing Chameleon bootloader on your OSx partition. The reason is that Windows Service Pack requires access to the bootloader, which it can't access if it is not an active partition, and the installation will fail. This will save you the time of having to make the Windows partition active again, going through the Download and Installation of the Service Pack again and re-installing Chameleon on your OSx partition again. All other updates will install without Windows needing to be active.

[CypressPearl]

 

- For scrolling with the trackpad, I replaced the voodoo PS2 Kexts with some Alps kexts. Honestly... I can't remember where I got them from, but will upload them in a zip file here.

- I moved the VoodooPS2xxxxx kexts to a backup folder on my desktop (as I do with anything I remove).

- I then dragged these kexts into the Extras Folder, ran Kext Wizard (set it to make a backup of any kexts being replaced)

- Then a myFix (I'm overly cautious) and BAM. The Trackpad Preferences Panel loads, and gives the option for two-finger scrolling! However, I found for me its more "side of my thumb scrolling".

 

Be sure when you install these to then turn the scrolling speed all the way down to slow in the trackpad preferences, and then in Accessibility - Mouse and Trackpad - Trackpad options. Then it seems to scroll at a normal pace for me.

 

 

tehsux88,

Thanks for your write up.

I tried your method with the trackpad and now have it working.

 

 

Thanks!

CP

Edited August 21, 2012 by CypressPearl

[CypressPearl]

I would just like to say a big THANK YOU to this community and to all that have create this thread.

Because of your help, I have a Mountain Lion install that is working well with Sleep, two finger scrolling and zoom on the trackpad, and the rest (WIFI, bluetooth, video, audio, card reader, etc...).

 

Today, I ordered a backlit keyboard from ebay for $14!

 

This computer is not quite the MacBook Air that I wanted but I am happy to be using it for now.

 

Thanks again!

CP

[Darvinko]

I would just like to say a big THANK YOU to this community and to all that have create this thread.

Because of your help, I have a Mountain Lion install that is working well with Sleep, two finger scrolling and zoom on the trackpad, and the rest (WIFI, bluetooth, video, audio, card reader, etc...).

 

Today, I ordered a backlit keyboard from ebay for $14!

 

This computer is not quite the MacBook Air that I wanted but I am happy to be using it for now.

 

Thanks again!

CP

[Darvinko]

It may be heavier than the MacBook Air, but performs nearly (or equally) as well, at about 20% - 25% of the cost, and there is the satisfaction of knowing you did it, and learned enough to do it again!