how to update 10.6.3 to 10.6.8 on D630

[higee]

Hi,

 

First of all I am so glad to have found this community and would love to make a contribution soon. Thank you.

 

I just bought a refurb D630 for $280 with the purpose of building a hackintosh for developing IOS5 apps (xcode requires 10.6.5+).

 

I have a successful iFail installation of 10.6.3, but still need to update to 10.6.8. I have tried the DSDT-free multifail route without success. More research landed me here. From your "Supported Models" page, I have downloaded your extra bootpack for my D630+nvidia graphics.

 

I see some here have had success with 10.6.8 on my same hardware but i am a noob, and confused by the usb pen how-to saying "10.6.0 (not anything higher)". I did look around for instructions before asking directly (might have still missed it).

 

I have tried running apple's MACOSCupdCombo10.6.8.dmg and then an EDP 1.9.2 before rebooting. That failed and I restored 10.6.3 from superduper. Do I run the apple combo updater inside my 10.6.3 session, reboot and then install just the bootpack extras from a pen? Or am I supposed to put the 10.6.8 updater on a pen with the bootpack extra and install all from the pen? Or something else entirely?

 

thanks in advance.

[Andy]

I think EDP and iFail are not compatible. You can download the D4x0bootimage10.6 from the bottom of the page:

 

http://www.osxlatitude.com/creating-a-usb-pen-with-osx-installation/

 

then follow the instructions to make your USB pen drive. Use the bootpack for your Dell model to make your USB drive. Once 10.6 is installed, run EDP , then do the 10.6.8 combo update. Reboot, if needed, run EDP again.

[higee]

I think EDP and iFail are not compatible. You can download the D4x0bootimage10.6 from the bottom of the page:

 

http://www.osxlatitude.com/creating-a-usb-pen-with-osx-installation/

 

then follow the instructions to make your USB pen drive. Use the bootpack for your Dell model to make your USB drive. Once 10.6 is installed, run EDP , then do the 10.6.8 combo update. Reboot, if needed, run EDP again.

 

Hi Andy,

 

Many wasted days have gone by, but I am determined to remain calm. Creating the boot pen took some persistence to put it mildly, but on the eve of success, the fresh install fails. It can't recognize the keyboard. I followed your boot pen instructions. Bought a 8GB USB pen (sandisk) as directed, and wondered why transfer kept failing (after hours of waiting each time... tried from my working iFail install, then windows XP). It turns out the boot image is LARGER THAN 8GB key capacity, that would have been really good to know. So I splurged on a kingston 16GB key. It then took over 10.5 hours to copy at bs=1024 got 0.2MB/sec (kingston claims write-speed is 5MB/sec) on my iFail 10.6.3 (overnight). This morning I copied the entire unzipped bootloader Extra directory for my 630/nvidia onto it, rebooted, but installer failed to load. Then I removed the previous Extra directory that came with the boot image and copied the 630/nvidia Extra directory again. Install runs, but now keyboard is not recognized, so after 30 min, the install ends fatally, unable to "bless" the boot drive. So anticlimactic! I did manage to get the apple install welcome screen, then can't get past no-keyboard message. I can tell there is no keyboard on install, because I can't relabel the partition prior to install.

 

Please advise. Did I botch the bootloader somehow?

 

Happy New Year

[Andy]

Hi Andy,

 

Many wasted days have gone by, but I am determined to remain calm. Creating the boot pen took some persistence to put it mildly, but on the eve of success, the fresh install fails. It can't recognize the keyboard. I followed your boot pen instructions. Bought a 8GB USB pen (sandisk) as directed, and wondered why transfer kept failing (after hours of waiting each time... tried from my working iFail install, then windows XP). It turns out the boot image is LARGER THAN 8GB key capacity, that would have been really good to know. So I splurged on a kingston 16GB key. It then took over 10.5 hours to copy at bs=1024 got 0.2MB/sec (kingston claims write-speed is 5MB/sec) on my iFail 10.6.3 (overnight). This morning I copied the entire unzipped bootloader Extra directory for my 630/nvidia onto it, rebooted, but installer failed to load. Then I removed the previous Extra directory that came with the boot image and copied the 630/nvidia Extra directory again. Install runs, but now keyboard is not recognized, so after 30 min, the install ends fatally, unable to "bless" the boot drive. So anticlimactic! I did manage to get the apple install welcome screen, then can't get past no-keyboard message. I can tell there is no keyboard on install, because I can't relabel the partition prior to install.

 

Please advise. Did I botch the bootloader somehow?

 

Happy New Year

I had seen this before where the keyboard is not recognized or not detected. I use a USB keyboard/ USB Mouse to go along with the rest of install. Once EDP is installed and laptop is rebooted, keyboard would normally be detected.

 

It is definitely a learning experience to be able to follow these instructions. But once you are successful installing it, then it gets easier. The USB pen is very useful when it comes to reinstalling the os , as is the case for most of us newbies. I took me 10 re-installs before I had the SL and win7 working together. Then a few more to get the Lion going.

 

 

Happy new year.

[Freedomrock]

I had to use external USB Mouse and Keyboard as well. Once you run EDP, repair permissions and re-boot your laptop keyboard and trackpad should work. You may want to move your mouse around every so often. My Dell went to sleep during the install.

 

 

I found the steps for creating the USB a little confusing as well. What worked for me.... Restore OS X 10.6.3 DVD (or image) to USB. Download and install Chameleon to the USB. Unzip the boot pack for your model and place Extra folder at root of USB. Copy EDP 1.9.2 to USB. Boot of USB, Install OSX, restart,Install EDP/Run EDP Command. Repair permissions. Reboot.

 

For me the upgrade to 10.6.8 went better after a few restarts running 10.6.3. So after a few boots with no KPs I updated to 10.6.8 just like you would any real Mac. After I upgraded and re-started I ran EDP Command again. It took a few tries. I now have a stable D630 that can boot Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Lion 10.7.2, or Windows 7. (Thanks Andy for your Windows install tips!)

 

 

Good luck,

 

Freedomrock

[higee]

I had to use external USB Mouse and Keyboard as well. Once you run EDP, repair permissions and re-boot your laptop keyboard and trackpad should work. You may want to move your mouse around every so often. My Dell went to sleep during the install.

 

 

I found the steps for creating the USB a little confusing as well. What worked for me.... Restore OS X 10.6.3 DVD (or image) to USB. Download and install Chameleon to the USB. Unzip the boot pack for your model and place Extra folder at root of USB. Copy EDP 1.9.2 to USB. Boot of USB, Install OSX, restart,Install EDP/Run EDP Command. Repair permissions. Reboot.

 

For me the upgrade to 10.6.8 went better after a few restarts running 10.6.3. So after a few boots with no KPs I updated to 10.6.8 just like you would any real Mac. After I upgraded and re-started I ran EDP Command again. It took a few tries. I now have a stable D630 that can boot Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Lion 10.7.2, or Windows 7. (Thanks Andy for your Windows install tips!)

 

 

Good luck,

 

Freedomrock

 

 

Greetings from my 10.6.8 installation! Happy New Year indeed!

 

Freedomrock, you certainly do! Thanks to all for responses, but the order of steps listed above was particularly helpful, and should be rolled into the USB pen instructions IMHO, especially with the 8GB key being too small to fit the apple install image (or am I wrong about this?).

 

You cleared up several misconceptions:

• That iFail 10.6.3 install (or any other flavor) could mix with EDP, better to wipe and start over with 10.6.0
  
• The USB keyboard is a must, I didn't think of that obvious workaround (or trust that it would be fixed by end of install)
  
• I wouldn't have thought it was ok to proceed with the 10.6.8 update when all was not functional in 10.6.0 base install (keyboard not recognized, wouldn't boot from hard drive boot loader, but would boot from usb stick boot loader).
  
• other noobs might have trouble with how and where to run edptool.command from terminal (won't run without ./ preceeding it since not in the path) after download and install of EDP, and that EDP also should be installed to the USB key for safety backup. I had to reinstall chameleon boot loader from EDP to get it booting from hard drive again. And I recommend installing iStat from EDP, it's veri nice.
  
• I have now loaded my 16GB install key (so much headroom!) with all sorts of downloaded postinstall goodies, including the 10.6.8 update file which otherwise takes an hour or so to download, and don't forget superduper (spend $30 for smart update/incr backup).
  

 

I also want to share that most D630s come stock with a non-compatible OEM wifi card, but I was able to buy a broadcom card on ebay for $5. DELL provides detailed instructions on how to remove the keyboard and install. I had it installed, reassembled, identified and configured on next reboot all in under an hour.

 

Thanks again to all, you have put me in the giving spirit toward this worthy community.

[higee]

I had to use external USB Mouse and Keyboard as well. Once you run EDP, repair permissions and re-boot your laptop keyboard and trackpad should work. You may want to move your mouse around every so often. My Dell went to sleep during the install.

 

 

I found the steps for creating the USB a little confusing as well. What worked for me.... Restore OS X 10.6.3 DVD (or image) to USB. Download and install Chameleon to the USB. Unzip the boot pack for your model and place Extra folder at root of USB. Copy EDP 1.9.2 to USB. Boot of USB, Install OSX, restart,Install EDP/Run EDP Command. Repair permissions. Reboot.

 

For me the upgrade to 10.6.8 went better after a few restarts running 10.6.3. So after a few boots with no KPs I updated to 10.6.8 just like you would any real Mac. After I upgraded and re-started I ran EDP Command again. It took a few tries. I now have a stable D630 that can boot Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Lion 10.7.2, or Windows 7. (Thanks Andy for your Windows install tips!)

 

 

Good luck,

 

Freedomrock

[/quote

 

Freedomrock,

 

Do you recommend jumping up to 10.7.2 on a D630? I still can't seem to get past xcode 3.2.6 to the very latest 4* xcode platform without it, but I don't know if that is absolutely necessary yet. I have heard lion is resource hungry and will bog on a machine like mine, and definitely don't want to hose my hard won snow leopard installation.

[Freedomrock]

I can relate to not wanting to screw up your Snow Leopard install. I created a second partition for the Lion install. This allowed me to keep a stable build. I have Geekbenched Lion and Snow Leopard and the Snow Leopard score was less than 10% better. So Lion is slower but not much.

 

Your mileage may vary....I don't ask much of the D630. Primary use is Remote Desktop access of my Mac Mini Server/HTPC and internet use. It took a few builds but EDP 2.2 has everything working. I never got sleep to work right on Snow Leopard so the Lion partition now sees the most use. It sleeps and wakes up just like it is supposed to. It was also easy to create a third partition for Windows 7.

 

So I would use Disk Utility to create second partition and install OS X. Upgrade to Lion and see if it can handle everything. If it is a dog you still have your other partition. Having a second partition for testing/trouble shooting is a good thing!

 

Edit - If you don't want to do a USB install you can use something Like Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current install. Create a new partition and then create/restore the clone copy to the new partition. Hack away .....

 

 

 

Good luck,

 

Freedomrock

[higee]

Thanks,

 

I love the 2nd partition idea, as it always provides a live fallback as opposed to wiping the single partition and restoring from USB. I will get that going to sandbox every new update, combined with superduper (love their smart update) for cloning and restoring. The first one is security update 11-006, then on to Lion. Couldn't find anything in forums about the relative safety of this 11-006 security update, have you installed it?

 

BTW, on my D630/nvidea with 10.6.8, all sleep/shutdown/restart functions seems to finally be working, including a very efficient sleep (pulsing power led) and wake when shutting and opening the lid. Regular sleep wakes from short press to power button.

 

What is not working for you in SL?

[Freedomrock]

Everything works in SL but sleep is buggy. I figured out it doesn't like to wake up if Screen Sharing has active connection. I am not sure if that is the only problem. Originally it wouldn't wake up at all. A few builds later and sleep started working but sometimes locks up when waking.

 

My D630 Lion install is up to date and seems very stable. I quit messing with the SL partition for now.

 

I am glad I could help.

 

Good Luck,

 

Freedomrock