[GUIDE] E6420 - OS X Yosemite 10.10.0 Final/GM 3/PB 4

[npjohnson]

Hey All,
 
Its been a while since I've been here, but I got OS X Yosemite Final/GM 3/ PB 4 running on the E6420 via the following means.
 
Credits:
 
@Jake Lo - DSDT patches for HDMI audio, Most of the boot pack actually. XD
@Pokenguyen - teaching me clover, giving me a WIP guide that this guide is partially based on, A lot of help along the way, config.plist and many other things, the reason clover is working on the e6420 (:
@Stork - Starting the research thread and figuring out the original stuff back on Lion (:
@RehabMan @BpedMan @sontrg @Yeahoon and myself - Work on the VoodooPS2 Project for ALPS, its come a long way and is still in development here: https://osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/2545-new-touchpad-driver-for-e6520-alps/
@All - Debuging and helping out, without all of us, we wouldn’t be this far
Myself - Patching a new version of SNBGraphicsFB for VGA/HDMI using telnax's method, writing the guide, patching the new RTC, editing VoodooHDA.

 

None of the Wifi cards that shipped with our model are OS X compatible. Please order the one listed in my signature and replace using the guide created by Dell here. Other cards work, such as the one listed in Jake Lo's signature (He is all over the site, just look around).

 

To Make Bootable Media (Pulled from here and here)

1. Download Install OS X Yosemite.app (Any version will do, i.e. DP1, DP2, DP3, DP4, DP5, DP6, DP7​ (preferred), etc.)
2. Right click on the installer > show package contents
3. Navigate to Contents/Shared Support and double click on the InstallESD.dmg, the .dmg should now mount and appear on your desktop
5. In the terminal issue the following command: open "/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg"
6. Now, open disk utility and restore your usb drive, NOT the drive, but the volume contained on the drive with the mounted "BaseSystem" NOT the .dmg.
7. Rename your usb drive to Yosemite. (not the dmg) You can tell which drive is the USB from the size.
8. Issue the following commands in terminal:

cp "/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg" /Volumes/Yosemite/
cp -a "/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.chunklist" /Volumes/Yosemite/
rm /Volumes/Yosemite/System/Installation/Packages
cp -a /Volumes/OS\ X\ Install\ ESD/Packages /Volumes/Yosemite/System/Installation/Packages

9. The last command may take some time, go get some food
10. Now install Clover to your USB drive. (download it from here) Selecting the options shown in the linked image:

http://imgur.com/if2O3hQ

11. Unzip the flies provided in E6420Yosemite.zip
12. Move all the files in the unzipped /Clover folder to /EFI/EFI/Clover/, make sure to choose to MERGE these folders.

Installing

1. Shut Down
2. Enter BIOS via tapping F2 during boot
3. Change SATA Operation to AHCI (Leave the Booting mode on Legacy! UEFI is not support/does not work.)
4. Click Save and reboot
5. Hit F12 as computer boots, select USB Drive
6. Select boot "Mac OS X from Yosemite"
7. If given a keyboard error, spam the spacebar
8. Use disk utility in the "Utilities" drop down menu to format your HDD to "Mac OS Extended Journaled" and make sure to click options and select GUID partition table, proceed with formatting
9. Follow installers prompts to install

Post Install

 

If running anything other than Yosemite Final/GM 3/PB 4 (You can update via the Mac App Store or via the delta installers found here. After installing these click restart, you will most likely end up having to hard reset (hold power button), then boot from USB, but this time select "Boot OS X from "Your Drive Name". 

 

10.10.1 is SAFE to update. No changes at all for this release, just Mac App Store Update. 10.10.2 (14C68m) Beta is also safe, and graphical glitches actually went away for me after this update, wouldn't recommend the Beta to the Public of course though.

 

For UEFI Mode: Although it works, it is somewhat buggy, because Dell left UEFI on our model Half-working. I really don't recommend this though. If you really want to use it, go ahead and select UEFI checkbook in the Clover installer and add the boot entry to your UEFI BIOS Selection "/EFI/CLOVER/CLOVERX64.efi" and boot it.

 

For Legacy Mode:

 

1. Download and run the Clover installer once again from here, select the following things show in this image in the installer:

 

http://imgur.com/ipc5mTq

 

PLEASE also check the "Install Clover Preference Pane" checkbox

 

2. Download and install Clover Configurator from here

3. Open Clover Configurator (From now on referred to as "CC") and go to the EFI tab, click mount and enter your password.

4. Re-download the attached E6420Yosemite.zip and extract

5. Move the folder /Clover from the unzipped to your hard drives /EFI/EFI/Clover/ location, make sure to choose to MERGE these folders

6. Reboot

7. For Multitouch Gestures go to System Preferences ==> Keyboard ==> Shortcuts ==> Mission Control ==> Now chose the action you want (i.e. show dashboard) and click in the shortcut box, and do the gesture you want (it will show some weird keys, ignore it).

8. For Proper Keyboard, go to System Preferences ==> Keyboard ==> Modifier Keys ==> change Command Key to Option Key, and Option key to Command Key.

9. Run the script "Remove Problematic Extensions.sh" script (it will create a nice shortcut to /System/Library/Extensions/ called /s/l/e, it will also remove problematic kexts. To run this, extract the file, then right click the extracted file and choose "Open With" change from "Recommended Applications" to "All Applications" and select terminal, then enter your password.

10. Reboot

 

 

Working

Wifi (Athertos AR9281, recognized as native Airport Extreme oob, if you want one, the ebay auction is linked in my signature)

Keyboard
USB
Bluetooth
App Store and iMessage
Screen Brightness
Battery Percentage - Broken from DP5 onward.
Display and Screen Resolution
Audio buttons and audio control
HDMI + Audio (Auto Detection works!)
QE/CI
Network Switch
Docking Port
eSata
Free Fall Data

Smart Card Reader

Express Card Reader
Most Multitouch Gestures (3 and 4 fingers work)
Webcam
VGA output (No Auto-detection)
Find my Mac and iCloud

Edit 1: Sleep and Deep Sleep!!!

Edit 2: Use updated VoodooHDA for Volume Control!

Edit 3: Hibernate! Use new DSDT/SSDT, Just invoke it via one of the thousands of scripts out there that hibernate your mac.

Edit 4: UEFI Mode! Works via adding boot entry manually, and only works after most recent Clover Update.

 

Partially Working

SD Card - Voodoo SDHC is buggy, only works sometimes on our model and breaks sleep, still want it? Find it in the folder labeled VoodooSDHC and install via kext wizard, then reboot.

 

Battery Percentage - No known kext works. System still reports battery to the low battery (>10%) to the blinking yellow light on the laptop. We will have to wait for AppleSmartBatteryManager.kext to be updated. Just keep trying it at every new release. The DSDT is patched for it when the kext works with 10.10.

 

Not Working

Nothing!!!

E6420Yosemite.zip

[Hervé]

Thread cleaned up and locked. This guide is somehow deprecated as it mostly applied to pre-released Yosemite versions and more recent, more accurate guides were published since.

 

All support queries to be posted in the Help and Support->Dell systems-> Latitude E Series section of the forum.