Jump to content

E6520 NVS 4200M: trouble installing Sierra


Ninemetal76

Recommended Posts

Ive been following this guide and working on trying to get Sierra up and running on my e6520.   For the most part all i believe that is different between the two is screen size and potentially the video card.  I have a working OS X Sierra to build the USB but I am running into the waiting on root device problems which i have researched and found out this is due to the USB ports.  Any help you guys could give would be appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try this guide.. it worked for me. https://osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/7914-dell-latitude-e6220-with-i5-2520m-hd3000-and-1366x768-lcd-mavericksyosemiteel-capitansierra/&do=findComment&comment=64438
 
Just make sure to omit the sdst.aml, unless you have the same processor as the person who made the guide. 
Also if you have the full HD screen, you will need to do the dual link dsdt patch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok so i have the usb key created, running into a problem with the NVS4200 I am sure and have tried to us nv_disable=1 but enoch still tires to load then the panic happens. not sure if this is any help or not.   I knew the Video card would be the big difference using this guide but not really sure what else might need to change.   Thanks for any help anyone could provide

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was not able to boot into the macOS Sierra installer while using NVS4200 (kept running into KPs).  Once I switched to Intel HD3000 graphics all went smoothly.  Make sure you place the SSDT that enables HD3000 graphics in CLOVER/ACPI/patched and enable "Optimus" in the BIOS.  I have not tried to switch back to Nvidia after the update.  But I don't see any reasons why it wouldn't work.

 

FYI: I documented the process I followed when directly updating from Yosemite to Sierra on my E6520.  I hope to publish it to the forum real soon for everyone else's benefit.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone had any success getting Nvidia graphics working in Sierra on their E6x20's?  I've tried a number of suggestions but to no avail.  KP as soon as graphics begin to initialize.

 

I don't mind using HD3000 permanently if I can solve two things:

 

1) Fix random screen artifacts.  Strange black squares or horizontal lines often appear and disappear.  Not a big deal but can get quite annoying.

2) Be able to use DVI, DP, or VGA on my port replicator (K07A002) for a second monitor.  I know it's doable as demonstrated by Hervé in this post.  All I ever get with Optimus (HD3000) is the built-in display.  HDMI port on laptop is also not working.

 

I'm using a MBP8,1 system definition.  I have not tried using AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB or a different FakeSMC kext.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrators

Afaik, VGA/DVI/DP outputs off the HD3000 iGPU require the patched SNB FB kext. The necessary details are provided in post #5 of my E6220 guide. The port numbers of each individual output may be different on your dual-GPU E6520 of course, so follow the port identification process.

 

Bear in mind that DP/HDMI outputs may only be available through the nVidia dGPU so disabling it through SSDT mod may be the root cause of your issue. You'd probably need to run only off the nVidia GPU to get all output ports working.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Hervé.  I decided to experiment a bit more with Nvidia before delving into SNB FB patching.  So I generated a fresh DSDT using Clover (with Optimus disabled) and I was able to successfully boot without KP.   :mrgreen:   However, built-in LCD display goes dark and I can only access the desktop remotely using screen share.

 

Interestingly, in that scenario, Sierra correctly identifies the card.  But resolution is maxed out @ 1280x1024 and I'm unable to access the Display preferences.  Also, sleep is non-functional.

 

Conversely, if I boot using nv_disable=1, the LCD is functional and resolution is correctly set @ 1920x1080.  However, Sierra identifies the card as generic Nvidia with 7MB of video memory and overall performance is slow ... not to mention screen redraw is a pain (with vertical lines going from bottom to top).  

 

I know I'm close.  I attached my vanilla DSDT for reference and screen shots showing both good and bad (nv_disable=1) from About this Mac.  If there are some basic edits to get the DSDT up to snuff I'd appreciate that very much.

 

Thanks!

 

post-7486-0-25605600-1483508125_thumb.png post-7486-0-39622900-1483508610_thumb.png

 

Vanilla DSDT from my E6520:

DSDT.aml.zip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...