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OS X 10.6 & 10.7 - Dell Vostro 1500 & Similar Dells


acdxz

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Here's a guide on getting a Dell Vostro 1500 and similar Dells up and running with OS X 10.6 and 10.7.

I will go into more detail later on. Right now, I am writing this from (poor) memory. If you have a different graphics card or network card- you can consider those steps a moot point. Take a look at my hardware and compare it to yours.

 

Hardware:

Dell Vostro 1500, Bios Rev A.06

Audio: ALC8xx

WLAN: DW 1397 (Broadcom 4312)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT

 

What you will need:

-Retail OS X 10.6 or 10.7 install disc

-Access to a running mac os x computer

-myHack

-USB HDD or Flash Drive with (recommended) at least 8gb free.

 

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/29693720/AppleACPIPlatform.kext.zip

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/29693721/AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext.zip

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/29693722/ApplePS2Controller.kext.zip

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/29696752/IO80211Family_10.6.8.zip

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/29693724/IOPCIFamily.kext.zip

 

 

Pre-requisite:

0a) Set your computer to AHCI mode in BIOS.

0b) Make sure your computer is set to allow booting from USB devices

 

Steps:

 

 

1) Follow Conti's myHack guide (http://myhack.sojugarden.com/guide/) steps 1 and 2.

 

2) Once you have your USB installer ready, you need to both add and delete some kexts. Access an already running mac computer and perform the following steps. First, back up your /Extra/Extensions as well as your /System/Library/Extensions/ from your usb installer.

 

3) If you try to boot off of that installer as it is, you will get a kernel panic caused by ElliotForceLegacyRTC. This is normal on *most* dells. Remove ElliotForceLegacyRTC from /Extra/Extensions/.

 

4) You will also notice that the installer hangs randomly during boot. This is because of the OS X Lion's IOPCIFamily.kext and AppleACPIPlatform.kext. Those must be replaced with the kexts from 10.6. I have attached these files for you.

 

5) The next thing you will need to do is replace the stock PS2 kexts. If you do not do this, the installer will boot but neither your trackpad nor your keyboard will work. The only other work around for this situation (that I know of) is to plug in an external usb mouse and usb keyboard. I have attached these files for you.

 

6) You should now be done with kext mods. You just need to boot from your USB installer with bootflags

-v -f PCIRootUID=1

without the quotes of course. You should get a perfect install and a perfect boot.

 

7) Audio, video, and network should not work right now. For audio, use voodooHDA from http://code.google.com/p/voodoohda/. Run their installer and you should have sound.

 

8) For video, use GraphicsEnabler=Yes for a boot flag. This can be made permanent by editing

/Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist
. While we are at it, we can add some extra goodies to the Boot.plist.

- In terminal:

sudo -s
pico /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist

- add this under and before . Don't be stupid, it should look just like the other entries in there.

 

GenerateCStates

Yes

GeneratePStates

Yes

GraphicsEnabler

Yes

 

When you're done, save and exit.

You should now have working video after a reboot. NVidia has released a driver for the 8600M Graphics card. Go download it from their site, install it, and reboot. then you will notice a large improvement in graphics quality and no more choppiness. I downloaded and installed the CUDA 4.0.19 driver for MAC from http://www.nvidia.com/object/mac-driver-archive.html.

 

9) The intel 3945ABN is what came with my laptop. As far as I know, the only way to get this working is through iwidarwin drivers- BUT it requires no wireless security- which isnt an option for many people. The only way I know to get the wireless working is to buy a supported WLAN PCMCIA Card. I am using the Dell Wireless 1397 chip (Broadcom 4312 chipset). To get these drivers working, I simply added my device ID to AppleAirPortBrcm4311.kext and made sure AppleAirPortBrcm4311.kext was inside of /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns. I have attached the IO80211Family kext which is from 10.6.8. All you would need to do is extract the zip -> put the kext in /S/L/E/ (replace the old one) -> add your device ID to AppleAirPortBrcm4311.kext (its inside of IO80211Family.kext) -> run myFix -> reboot.

 

10) Get the VoodooBattery kext. This will allow you to see your battery stats.

 

After these steps, I had a fully working OS X Lion Retail Install. This works for the Dell E6400 as well as many other Dell's. Let me know how this works out for you. Chances are I forgot some details or just left them out. Post if you need help or go to the IRC channel.

 

BUGS (I'll update if I see any bugs):

 

1) Video is choppy when watching youtube videos full screen. This was fixed by removing /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUpstream*.kext.

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Hey there.

I've used this tutorial for my Laptop - Dell Vostro 1320.

Everything is ok... I was able to run Snow Leopard before, as well.

 

The only problem is that it takes 70s to boot, while before it was just 15.

Any ideas?

 

Thanks

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Hey there.

I've used this tutorial for my Laptop - Dell Vostro 1320.

Everything is ok... I was able to run Snow Leopard before, as well.

 

The only problem is that it takes 70s to boot, while before it was just 15.

Any ideas?

 

Thanks

 

 

Are you booting -v ? 70 Seconds sounds like a long boot time. Mine is around 45 seconds- which is, in my opinion, decent. Try running myFix to fix any kernelcache problems. Booting WITHOUT -v will make you boot faster I think the important thing here to know is that boot time is mostly hardware specific. I hope you are not using some sort of distro or anything. Stick to retail installs. If all else fails- just be happy it boots.

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Are you booting -v ? 70 Seconds sounds like a long boot time. Mine is around 45 seconds- which is, in my opinion, decent. Try running myFix to fix any kernelcache problems. Booting WITHOUT -v will make you boot faster I think the important thing here to know is that boot time is mostly hardware specific. I hope you are not using some sort of distro or anything. Stick to retail installs. If all else fails- just be happy it boots.

 

Nope, no -v while booting.

And I've used the same retail installs I've used with my desktop, which boots like a charm (15s).

Can't understand why.. I'll try with myFix.

Thank you

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I wish I could help more- but when I asked in the channel about speeding up boot times I was told not to ask about it or talk about it. If myFix does not work to fix any kernelcache issues, I would suggest reading around for a DSDT solution. This is something I will be looking into more when I get some extra time. I will update the guide when the time comes.

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I wish I could help more- but when I asked in the channel about speeding up boot times I was told not to ask about it or talk about it. If myFix does not work to fix any kernelcache issues, I would suggest reading around for a DSDT solution. This is something I will be looking into more when I get some extra time. I will update the guide when the time comes.

 

 

Hey dude.. I was finally able to speed up the boot time.

I've discovered that Boot was hanging on [PCI Configuration Begin] message.

 

Here the url http://netkas.org/?p=849 to solve the problem. It also simplify your tutotial: there is no more need of IOPCIFamily.kext and AppleACPIPlatform.kext from 10.6.7 system.

 

Hope this help.

(Anyway I'm using this guide on Dell Vostro 1320, and it works like a charm... of course with the right kext of Wireless and Audio)

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Hi good work :lol:

 

For now i get dell vostro 1015 workful with 10.7 + myHack v2.0 RC4 + switch* iopcifamily & acpiplatform both backward from 10.6.7

 

-----

Remark: Before i do * i had set first this : -v npci=0x2000 (kernel boot flag) but it looks nothing done ! still KP!

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