Dell Precision 470 / 670 workstation - Snow Leopard/Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks/Yosemite

[Hervé]

Ho, ho, ho, things are getting interesting. ML running with Bronya's RC5 AMD kernel... I installed ML 10.8 with myHack v3.1.2 + 10.8.5 Combo update.

 

 

64bit mode naturally so no support for built-in LAN (old Tiger kext is 32bit only) and AC'97 audio atrociously buggy (getting really bad crunching sound bug with every audio playout) but everything else seems to be working Ok. Sleep/wake natively fully functional. Full QE/CI too.

 

WS670_ML_pack.zip Bronya_10.8_kernel_RC5.zip

[Hervé]

Went through Mavericks 10.9.1 installation with myHack v3.3.1 using Bronya's 10.9 RC7 AMD kernel. Apart from the known 64bit-related AC'97 audio bug, everything appears to work ok, including sleep, wake and full QE/CI but I've noticed some little graphics defects around the names of Desktop items. Again, I'm still using the NVenabler64 next (until I sort out the DSDT because there must be an issue there) so this could be the reason.
 

 

WS670_Mav_pack.zip Bronya_10.9_kernel_RC7.zip

[Hervé]

Sticking to mainstream Chameleon version (v2.2 r2377 at time of writing):

• add the following option to your Chameleon boot plist:   

<key>UseMemDetect</key>
<string>Yes</string>

• add the following option to your SMBIOS plist:

<key>SMoemcputype</key>
<string>1026</string>

CPU and RAM will then be reported properly:

[Hervé]

Mavericks 10.9.2/10.9.3 is work in progress at the moment.

 

Following release of the 10.9.2 source code by Apple, Bronya published an initial version of a 10.9.2 RC5 kernel which allows 10.9.2/10.9.3 to be installed in the Precision 670 using our traditional myHack method. However, some issues remain as far as I'm concerned, most notably an apparent problem to fully initialize nVidia graphics cards on switching to desktop: at present, all I get is the white/light gray screen + mouse pointer on the display. I can move the mouse but cannot get the OS X desktop on screen.

[Hervé]

Well it would seem that my GeForce 9800GT might not be fully supported in 10.9.2/10.9.3. The Precision 670 can sure run those Mavericks updates with Bronya's 10.9.2 RC5/RC6/RC6_fix/RC7 kernels.

 

I reverted to GeForcexxx + NVxxxx kexts from 10.9.1 and was able to boot to desktop with apparent QE/CI (I got translucent Finder's bar) but system turns out to lag extremely badly with all sorts of graphics corruption. In safe mode, all is Ok, so it's definitely graphics related.

 

I shall attempt brand new installation with my GeForce GT610 and an updated DSDT (no GeForce 9800GT injection) to see how it goes....

[Hervé]

Finally fixed the graphics injection in my DSDT patch which imposed to use the NVenabler64 kext: turned out I had 3 x typos !!!

"@0,device-type"   /* dash '-' */
"@1,device-type"   /* dash '-' */
"device-type"      /* dash '-' */

where it should have been:

"@0,device_type"   /* underscore '_' */
"@1,device_type"   /* underscore '_' */ 
"device_type"      /* underscore '_' */

Basically, I had copied/pasted a previous line and kept a "-" where a "_" was expected! Stupid! Now I no longer need the NVEnabler64 kext in Lion, ML or Mav. Post #6 updated accordingly. The tiny graphics defects I had on the desktop are gone too.

 

10.9.2/10.9.3 graphics issue still not resolved though...

[Hervé]

I'm able to boot to desktop in Mavericks 10.9.2/10.9.3 with MacBookPro5,1 or MacPro1,1 FakeSMC/SMBIOS settings, but everything is slow. None of the Core2Duo iMAc profiles I've tried worked either. Clearly not getting full QE/CI...

[Hervé]

Thanks to IM member axmanA, the white screen or QE/CI lagging issue is now effectively solved. I've even updated to 10.9.4, running Bronya's 10.9.2 RC7 kernels and everything appears to work well.
 
As described here by axmanA , the problem was due to a combination of driver changes by Apple from 10.9.2 and nVidia some time before.
 
I found out I actually had to replace the IOPCIFamily kext directly in /S/L/E as OS X was ignoring the patched kext when placed in /E/E and installed with myFix (quick).
 
So great news: I can now boot all post-10.9.1 Mavericks version with that patched kext (Chameleon option msibase=0x90 necessary). I was able to retain MacPro3,1 settings (SMBios profile + FakeSMC keys & smc-compatible). I then reverted to IOPCIFamily + AppleACPIPlatform kexts from 10.9.1 and obtained same result (and no need to boot with msibase option):


 
So, I'm pleased to say that the graphics problems encountered since 10.9.2 are sorted and everything seems 100% Ok. I've noticed the odd picture corruption when doing screen dumps, but other AMD kernel users have reported the same, so it's not specific to this system.
 
10.9.1_IOPCIFamily.kext.zip 10.9.1_AppleACPIPlatform.kext.zip
 
mach_kernel_rc5.zip
mach_kernel_rc6.zip mach_kernel_rc6_fix.zip
mach_kernel_rc7.zip
 
Reverting to those 10.9.1 kexts also restores the ability to boot Mavericks on the Precision 670 off a USB external HDD, which was also lost from 10.9.2...
 
As a final note, I noticed small graphics artefacts with RC5 so dismissed that one. RC7 appeared the only version supporting proper wake from sleep (the other ones do not wake screen), so I'm sticking to that version at the moment.

[Hervé]

Updated to 10.9.5 but this requires additional kexts replacement:

• AppleAPCIPlatform + IOPCIFamily kexts from 10.9.1 as for 10.9.2/10.9.3/10.9.4 (for 9800GT graphics support purposes)
• IOHIDFamily kext from 10.9.4 (-> this will still generate a lot of kernel symbols errors/warnings at startup). An alternative to this is to rollback IOHIDFamily + Sandbox + System kexts from 10.9.1

I can use Bronya's 10.9.2 RC7 (old) or 10.9.4 RC1/RC2 kernels (latter giving me small graphics artefacts that 10.9.2 RC7 does not) as well as BSA 10.9.5 kernel (appears to work perfectly).

 

 

10.9.4_IOHIDFamily.kext.zip 10.9.1_rollback.zip

mach_kernel_10.9.4_rc1.zip mach_kernel_10.9.4_rc2.zip BSA_AMD_10.9.5.zip

 

NB: No change whatsoever to Chameleon (version, boot plist) or SMBIOS profile.

[Hervé]

Never really expected it but since Bronya published a new Yosemite AMD kernel...

 

 

Works quite well on the Precision 670! axmanA's contribution to IOPCIFamily kext was again necessary to fully support my GeForce 9800GT with MacPro3,1 SMBIOS profile. For the rest, it's just the same kext pack + DSDT.

 

Yosemite was installed the "usual" way now: manual creation of USB installer + Clover or Chameleon bootloader on USB installer. I used Chameleon r2401 with kexts copied to S/L/E, copied the extracted kernel file to /S/L/K and rebuilt the cache. Yosemite can then be safely booted (to avoid white/gray screen).

 

With Chameleon bootloader, use attached kernel (placed in /S/L/K or at partition's root as mach_kernel), attached /Extra and replace /S/L/E/IOPCIFamily by axmanA's modified kext. Then rebuild the cache with:

sudo chmod -R 755 /S/L/E

sudo chown -R 0:0 /S/L/E

sudo touch /S/L/E

sudo kextcache -Boot -U /

 

Bronya_10.10_kernel_RC2.1.zip axmanA_Yos_IOPCIFamily.kext.zip Precision670_Yos_Pack.zip

 

With Clover bootloader, same idea with kernel/kexts/DSDT (to be placed in all appropriate /EFI/CLOVER subfolders) and use the attached config.plist file:

config.plist.zip

 

Many defects remain, mostly graphics related. However, it's early days for Yosemite AMD kernels so things will improve in coming weeks and months. It's a start and a rather good one I think.