Can't dump bios (Inspiron 5548)

[themightyquinn]

Just got my new to me 5548 today, and I'm trying to Hackintosh it. Followed Clover guide and got my USB stick made this weekend, and loaded the generic EFI, bootpack, and updates, but it's kernel panicking on install with the DVMT error.  

 

I tried to follow the DVMT guide, downloaded the Universal Bios Toolkit, but when I run it (in admin) it tells me "can not identify Bios".  I see success stories, so I know this is doable, has anyone run into this problem?  Is there another tool I can use?  I thought maybe I could extract the bios from an update .exe, but Dell won't show me any downloads, says I'm already completely up to date on everything.  OS is Win 8.1 (or .2) if that makes a difference?  

 

Thanks for any tips!

 

 

[Jake Lo]

Shows latest version is A06, is that what you have?

[themightyquinn]

I went back in a few hours later, and all the drivers and downloads were showing up for me.  I was on A04, I downloaded A03 to see if maybe an older BIOS would work, and still no luck after downgrading BIOS,  I then tried A06 and later tried to extract the BIOS from the updater .exe.  Again, no luck using the tool, or extracting the BIOS from the command line (Inspiron_5548_A06.exe /writeromfile).  It works on other firmwares I tried downloaded, but not on the Inspiron ones I got from Dell.  
 
What I ended up doing is shortcutting the whole process, and just pointing PhoenixTools at the bios .exe which ended up dumping my UEFI file directly (a good shortcut that could probably be written in the guide).  
 
Of course with that roadblock temporarily solved, I'm now stuck at booting the EFI-shell,  my laptop simply won't do it.  I've formatted the USB every way I can think of (currently using Rufus) and if I try and USB boot in legacy mode I get the "No boot devices...press any key...", if I try and boot in UEFI it takes me to Grub which doesn't seem to be able to access/set the variable.  
 
The comments mentioned that you can use a hex editor in Linux to change the DVMT, so I used an old linux rescue ISO I had kicking around to boot, but that's not showing me /sys/firmware/efi/efivars,  could be it doesn't have the efivarsfs included in the distro, so I'm downloading the latest ubuntu live distro and see if that gets things sorted.  
 
Frustrating to be stuck on something that feels like it should be fairly simple.

[themightyquinn]

Figured it out,  the file was bootx64.efi,  I needed to change the capitalization on the file to BOOTX64.EFI.  I then sprinkled in liberally in every path I could think of (root, /EFI/BOOT, /BOOT) and got into the special Grub shell.  Changed the variable and rebooted.  No issues booting into Windows, but Clover is panicking with just the progress bar (whereas before the DVMT bios change I was getting at least an 1/8th or maybe 1/4).  Although the panic seems unrelated to the change: 

 

 

Here's what I've done in case there are any mistakes. Followed the guide to make OSX install media (El Capitan). 

 

Installed Clover r3625

Downloaded the EFI files from the guide

Downloaded the Inspiron_5548 bootpack from the guide

copied the folders and files from the bootpack to the CLOVER directory of the generic EFI folder

added the AppleHDA kext from the update post to the kext folder of CLOVER directory

replaced BOOT & CLOVER directories via overwrite with those from Generic EFI folder that I added 5548 files to. 

Set DVMT in BIOS to 0x3

 

 

Thanks for any insights!

[themightyquinn]

OK, so I deleted my origin and patch folder contents, and pressed F4 to dump the stock DSDT to the flash drive then booted with Clover and I've made it as far as the  installer.  Where do I go from here as far as getting things working properly?  I'd thought the DSDT, etc were pre-patched with the bootpack, but I guess not? Or are they, but just not for install and I just load those back in once I've got a finshed installation? 

 

Thanks for any help!  Fun puzzling it out, but a lot of the guides just mention stuff to do without going in to much detail about where and how to actually patch/do them. 

[themightyquinn]

10.11.4 is installed and I moved the kexts and EFI folder as directed.  Ran the various terminal commands for permission and relinked, etc. 

 

Just like on the installer USB though I can only boot if I delete all the patched files in ACPI and only leave the origin files intact. Same kernel panic as before.  

 

I'm going to keep playing with stuff, but unsure as to how to proceed from here.

[Jake Lo]

Remove all files in Origin and Patched folder. Reboot to Clover GUI, hit F4. Then boot to OS X, compress and upload Origin folder here. I'll patch them for you. Issue with my files could be due to different BIOS version.
If you want to figure out how to patch them yourself, see here for some basic help.

[themightyquinn]

Thanks, that's very kind and I'd really appreciate it. I'm sending the the entire CLOVER folder just in case I put something in the wrong place or something along those lines. I'm not sure if this helps you but right now what I know to be working: ethernet, QE/CI, sleep, keyboard, touchscreen, touchpad, USB.  Brightness keys, sound, wifi (expected), and battery are for sure not working.

Inspiron_5548_EFI.zip

[Jake Lo]

Here, try this. In config file, under SSDT, enable DropOEM.

I believe your keyboard has similar layout as my E7450. Follow the post install to change the Fn for audio and brightness control

themightyquinn.zip

[themightyquinn]

I added the DSDT and SSDT files and ended up not being able to boot on them,  enabling dropOEM gives me a kernel panic really early on with CPU issues. I thought maybe it was a bios problem so I backdated the bios to all the ones available at Dell, with no luck on the files you made, or the ones that came in the bootpack. I think something must be unique about my system that it doesn't play nicely with the standard 5548 stuff.  

 

Using trial and error, I narrowed down the problem to the DSDT (all the other files you've made/sent have worked), so thanks to your links I'm working on patching one thing at a time until I find what patch causes problems. 

 

The 5548 battery fix seems to be working well, and I have battery status

I got sound by running rename _DSM patch followed by the Audio Layout 3 patch.  Headphones and speakers seem to be working well, but using combo headphone/microphones does not pick up the mic.  

 

I've installed Kaleidoscope and applied your config, along with applying the Fix Brightness patch (to SSDT) and selecting AddPNLF in config.plist, but still not having any luck with brightness control (IntelBacklight.kext is in /Clover/kexts/Other).  

 

I just tested HDMI and HDMI video out works, but the TV isn't showing up as an audio output (minor, but nice to have)

 

I'm attaching current ACPI files and config.plist,  if you'd have the time to look over it again I'd really appreciate having an expert set of eyes to see if there's something simple I'm missing, or if you could point me to an appropriate patch I'd really appreciate it. 

 

 

 

 

Inspiron_5548_Clover.zip