zachg Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 I'm currently working on getting Sierra installed on my m6700. Here's my specs: Precision M6700 CPU: i7-3740qm (ivy bridge) HD: SSD main drive Graphics: AMD Firepro m6000 (~7870m) and intel HD 4000 (seems to be disabled when m6000 present) Display: 1920x1080 Wifi: Atheros AR9820 wifi So far I've tried Clover as well as other installers, with as many boot flag combinations as I could come up with. I've tried using other's DSDT.aml and config files that have been successful for them. No luck yet. The farthest I've been able to get to is the initial boot seems to initialize the graphics and I get a black screen (black but not off). If I plug in hdmi out to an external monitor, I get a funky aqua green screen on the secondary monitor, but no cursors or anything. Here's some of the threads that give me hope I'm working toward something possible. https://osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/9680-need-help-with-a-precision-m6600-sierra-install/ https://osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/9136-m6600-setup/ https://osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/9487-need-help-with-sierra-on-m6700/ http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/286953-dell-precision-m6700-osx-installation/ In one of the threads I included above, an admin (Jake Lo) patches an m6700 DSDT file for a user. I did try using that file, but no luck. I'm thinking I should try patching my own DSDT and SSDT files, but I'm not sure which patches to use. I've extracted my ACPI files with CloverF4 and attached them below. In MaciASL, I have RehabMan's Laptop repo I'm sort of haphazardly selecting the patches and so far I haven't been able to compile without errors. Any suggestions would be welcome, whether it is regarding the DSDT patching or my approach in general. Thanks. DSDT and SSDT.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zachg Posted March 19, 2017 Author Share Posted March 19, 2017 Update: I've got a successful Sierra install and I can successfully boot to the installed disk Safe Mode. Still troubleshooting. So far I am using the files from this thread: https://osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/9487-need-help-with-sierra-on-m6700/ The only potential issue I see with using that DSDT is that I have an i7 vs the i5. We have the same graphics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Bronxteck Posted March 19, 2017 Administrators Share Posted March 19, 2017 Using the wrong SSDT for CPU power management would have much more of a negative effect. make sure to not use the one for the i5. the other thing to take into consideration is what bios version the DSDT was generated from since sometimes there are some ACPI changes in bios versions. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zachg Posted March 19, 2017 Author Share Posted March 19, 2017 Thanks Bronxteck. I got into the Sierra install and ran the shell script to generate an ssdt. I wasn't able to run the clover configurator due to only being able to boot in safe mode. I should mention also that even in Safe Mode I am only getting video with hdmi out to an external monitor. Nothing so far on the primary screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Bronxteck Posted March 19, 2017 Administrators Share Posted March 19, 2017 maybe this program can work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zachg Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 Okay, state of the union. I used ssdtPRGen.sh to generate an ssdt while in the m6700 via safe mode, and I was able to use Clover configurator in safe mode to create a config.plist. I also used MaciASL to add some patches to my CloverF4 DSDT.aml file. I mostly just added stuff that was relevant to HD 4000 graphics. Regarding the Clover configurator, it created a plist that seemed to have a lot of irrelevant and gibberish things. I tried booting with it, but it still went to black screen after boot, so I went back to a simpler plist. Now, when I boot with verbose, I'm seeing a much faster boot process with a lot less hangs, but it eventually appears to initialize graphics, then back to black screen. HDMI out also is a black screen, unless I'm in safe mode. Bronxteck, I did check out the Cloud Clover editor. It seems to be a plist editor where, if you know where you need to be, it could get you there, but there's not much automation or device detection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Bronxteck Posted March 20, 2017 Administrators Share Posted March 20, 2017 what do you have for a config attatch it here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zachg Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 Wahoo! I just successfully booted without safe mode using the files in my attached zip. Not saying they are all correct, but...baby steps. I made a number of tweaks so I'm not sure exactly which it was, but I think it may have been the verde.kext. I'll test it out more for isolation.My system report is correctly reading the AMD m6000 as a Radeon HD 7870m. QE/CI seems to be active as HD video and screen saver good to go. The final thing before I settle down to just tweaking drivers, etc...the display! Still nothing out from the primary laptop display. Only video out on HDMI external monitor. Is this an EDID thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zachg Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 Whoops, the attachment didn't attach. Here it is again. EFI.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Bronxteck Posted March 21, 2017 Administrators Share Posted March 21, 2017 you might have to use ioregistry app to see what video port is set as primary and switch it to your lcd by setting it in clover config under BootDisplay option. EDID might also be a factor. you can try playing with clover boot gui options and see if having clover inject edid helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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