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Inspiron E1505 - SL 10.6.8 - GMA950 stuck at 1024x768


hacky

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I have an Inspiron E1505 running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 that was originally installed via iFail_S3_v2.

Most things seem to work fine (I haven't used it enough yet to be sure)... but I seem to be spinning my wheels trying to get the graphics to work.  Right now I'm stuck with a basic display at 1024x768.  I'd really like to get 1280x800 and I assume some kind of graphics acceleration needed for videos (VLC complains about GL support).

In order to get the display to work at all I had to move the kext's related to the GMA950 under /System/Library/Extensions, specifically:

  AppleIntelGMA950.kext
  AppleIntelGMA950GA.plugin
  AppleIntelGMA950GLDriver.bundle
  AppleIntelGMA950VADriver.bundle
  AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext    
  AppleIntelGMAX3100FB.kext  
  AppleIntelGMAX3100GA.plugin
  AppleIntelGMAX3100GLDriver.bundle   
  AppleIntelGMAX3100VADriver.bundle   
  AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext

If I don't move those, all I get is a black screen.

I've tried a few different kext's for the GMA950, but nothing seems to work.

According to lspci (using live linux distro) the display controller is:

  Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

I can provide more details about the entire system (complete lspci output, system profiler info, /Extra kexts installed, etc) if necessary.

 

Any help appreciated.

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Isn't the E1505 the same as the 9400? That is listed in our compatibility chart. I would recommend you to redo a Vanilla installation with myHack + EDP. The problem with distros is that they're generic so you don't really know and control what they may or may not install...

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Isn't the E1505 the same as the 9400?

No, the E1505 is the same as the 6400, not the 9400.

 

I would recommend you to redo a Vanilla installation with myHack + EDP

I haven't ruled out reinstalling, but was hoping to try fixing just the graphics before resorting to that.  Part of my goal with this project is to gain a better understanding of OS X internals... specifically as it relates to Hackintosh.  I have many years experience with a variety of unix systems and some more recent with os x, but very little in the world of hackintosh.

 

Can I pull the gma950 related kexts from one of the EDP bootpacks?   Or is it likely the fix would require more then just the specific gma950 kext(s)?   Based on other (old) posts I've found for users trying to install SL on the E1505 a gma950 specifc kext seems like it should work.  The main issue I've had is the links to the gma950 kext in the various posts are all dead.   In fact, there's a post in this forrum:

 

  https://osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/1392-how-to-mac-os-x-snow-leopard-on-dell-inspiron-e15056400/

 

This actually may have been the post I originally used when I setup my Inspiron.  If not this one, it was very similar.    It refers to updating the GMA950 driver, but the link no longer works.   I have found a couple other gma950 packs (on osx86), but none of those worked.

 

Here's more details about my specific Inspiron E1505:

 

Model: Dell Inspiron E1505 (same as 6400)

BIOS: Dell A17

CPU: Intel Core Duo Yonah, 1.6GHz (T2050)

Memory: 2GB, 533MHzm, DDR2 SDRAM

Graphics: Intel 945GM

Hard Drive: 80G SATA IDE - 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family)

Network: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX

Wireless: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN

CD/DVD: TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-L632D

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There's no set of GMA950 kexts in the bootpacks per se, it's natively properly supported by Mac OS X in Snow Leopard in 32bit kernel mode, which you run with a T2050 CPU. However, your problem could be due to the Framebuffer, so try the version that is available in our 6400 SL bootpack. There's a good chance it'll solve your resolution issue.

 

You would probably avoid problems with a legitimate vanilla installation using our recommended myHack+EDP method. After all, we've done the hard work for you. It's always a leap of faith with distros...

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You would probably avoid problems with a legitimate vanilla installation using our recommended myHack+EDP method. After all, we've done the hard work for you. It's always a leap of faith with distros...

 

So I finally had a chance to try a myHack+EDP installation.    No luck...  didn't help with the display and it's actually worse...

 

First.  I created a separate partition on my hard drive so I could keep my current (mostly working) copy and ran the myHack+EDP installation on this extra partition.

 

After building the myHack USB and booting from it, I get a blank/black screen.   I tried booting with both ""PciRoot=1" and "GraphicsEnabler=No", but neither made any difference.   The only way I was able to see the initial OS X install screen (language selection) was to remove the GMA and Framebuffer kexts (/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntel[GI]*) from the installation USB.   After doing that, I can go through the normal OS X installation.

 

Unfortunately, after initial boot from the hard drive, I run into the same problem... blank/black screen shortly after booting.   Again, the only way I found to continue was to boot via my other partitionl and remove the AppleIntel[GI]* kexts from the newly installed filesystem.     Then I was able to boot and run through the OS X initial user setup.

 

After getting to the desktop, I downloaded InstallEDP, ran the Config section and selected Dell Inspiron 6400.    Everything appeared to be ok, so I rebooted.   I get a kernel panic on first boot.   Appears to be related to fakesmc:

...

ACPI: System State [s0 S3 S4 S5] (S3)

RTC: Only single RAM bank (128 bytes)

OSMetaClass: Kext org.netkas.fakesmc class FakeSMC is a duplicate; kext org.netkas.FakeSMC already has a class by that name.

Kext org.netkas.fakesmc start failed (result 0xdc00400a)

Kext org.netkas.fakesmc failed to load (0xdc008017).

Failed to load kext org.netkas.fakesmc (error 0xdc008117).

panic(cpu 0 caller 0x2a8ac2): Kernel trap at 0x2e7d41e2, type 14=page fault, registers:

...

 

So that's where I'm at now.

 

I notice the bootpack for the Inspiron 6400 is listed as questionable for every component, which suggests it hasn't been tested (at all?  much?).   Is there any way to tell exactly what hardware profile was used as the basis for the current Inspiron 6400 bootpack?   Perhaps it's different from mine.

 

Is there any way to build a custom bootpack based on MY hardware profile?

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So I finally had a chance to try a myHack+EDP installation.    No luck...  didn't help with the display and it's actually worse...

 

First.  I created a separate partition on my hard drive so I could keep my current (mostly working) copy and ran the myHack+EDP installation on this extra partition.

 

After building the myHack USB and booting from it, I get a blank/black screen.   I tried booting with both ""PciRoot=1" and "GraphicsEnabler=No", but neither made any difference.   The only way I was able to see the initial OS X install screen (language selection) was to remove the GMA and Framebuffer kexts (/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntel[GI]*) from the installation USB.   After doing that, I can go through the normal OS X installation.

 

Unfortunately, after initial boot from the hard drive, I run into the same problem... blank/black screen shortly after booting.   Again, the only way I found to continue was to boot via my other partitionl and remove the AppleIntel[GI]* kexts from the newly installed filesystem.     Then I was able to boot and run through the OS X initial user setup.

 

After getting to the desktop, I downloaded InstallEDP, ran the Config section and selected Dell Inspiron 6400.    Everything appeared to be ok, so I rebooted.   I get a kernel panic on first boot.   Appears to be related to fakesmc:

 

So that's where I'm at now.

 

I notice the bootpack for the Inspiron 6400 is listed as questionable for every component, which suggests it hasn't been tested (at all?  much?).   Is there any way to tell exactly what hardware profile was used as the basis for the current Inspiron 6400 bootpack?   Perhaps it's different from mine.

 

Is there any way to build a custom bootpack based on MY hardware profile?

I had successfully installed OS X Snow Leopard on my Inspiron 6400 and then also managed to get Lion as well working up to version 10.7.3, had some boot issues with versions 10.7.4 and 10.7.5. Finally managed to get that too sorted out.

Now I have a perfectly working Inspiron 6400 with OS X Lion 10.7.5.

Herve here helped me in building the EDP package.

I assure you everything in the bootpack works as I am the one who uploaded the working kexts and it was improved by the guys here in the community.

My configuration is a little different from yours.

 

CPU: core 2 duo T7200 ( I upgraded it from Core Duo T2400)

display: WXGA+ 1600 x 1080 (fully working)

RAM: 4GB (2GB x2)

wifi: changed to broadcom BCM4432 mini wifi card which works OOB.

ASMedia USB 3.0 express card fully working

 

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.7.5/Portables#Inspiron_6400.2FE1505

 

Regards

kannan

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