jruschme

I finally found a combination that works: 10.8.5 Installer + Precision M4300 bootpack (including DSDT) + replacement kexts from previous link saved to /E/E. The installation reports failure due to being unable to set the startup volume, but it still works fine on reboot. Next stop, EDP build for the M4300... Thanks all...

BTW, it appears that the Quadro FX 1600m video in the m6300 is based on the GeForce 8700M GT card.

Tried your advice with a clean 10.9.1 installer. npci=0x2000 or 0x3000 gets me further an nothing, but still hangs PciRoot=1 has no effect The DSDT edit seems to have little or no effect Swapping the kexts gets me further, but now it hangs at "DSMOS arrived" Since the last part points to the graphics drivers, I tried "GraphicsEnabler=no"... no effect I think the trick is in finding the right combo of replacement kexts since the first time I did that was the furthest I ever got.

GraphicsEnabler=No has no effect either alone or in conjunction with npci=0x2000 or npci=0x3000.

So much for "npci=0x2000" and "npci=0x3000", both hang during boot as before. Starting over with a 10.8 installer...

That was my next step... made no difference. There was a typo in my previous message. The second kext was supposed to be /S/L/E/IOPICFamily.kext. From what I can see, the problem is actually pretty common with a number of systems. I won't be able to try again until tomorrow. I've seen one post which suggests adding "npci=0x2000" to the bootflags (though I suspect that should be npci=0x3000). That will be the first thing I try.

Personally, I agree that it should be able to run a newer OS. I would have expected it to be about the same as a D830 install, given that the two are of similar vintage. Using a myHack Mavericks USB installer with generic Extra, boot hangs at or around configuration of the PCI buses. It stops in the same place if I include the DSDT of unknown origin. Going on a limb, I decided to follow what appears to be the canonical Lion install wisdom and replaced /S/L/E/AppleACPIPlatform.kext and /S/L/E/AppleACPIPlatform.kext on the installer with their 10.6.7 counterparts. This gets me an installer which appears to run, but the installation fails. Next idea... a clean myHack Mavericks installer, but with the M4300 bootpack (which includes a version of AppleACPIPlatform.kext) but minus the DSDT. Hangs at or soon after PCI bus configuration. Suggestions? JR

That's odd... I just plugged a Marvel based LAN Express card into my m4400 (running Maverics) and it is seen. Same with my m6300 running 10.6.8 after I loaded the drivers. I'd kind of think that Express cards would have to be supported as they were a feature of pre-unibody MBPs.

I was curious as to whether anyone else here is running OS X on a Precision M6300. If so, are you running a "recent" (ML or Mavericks) version of OS X? When I started trying in earnest on the M6300 in my signature, I did a lot of Googling and read a number of posts which claimed the system was a bit of a beast to Hackintosh and nothing later than some 10.7 installation info. My system is only running SL which seemed the easiest route based on the comments. FWIW, my install was a combination of a generic myHack install of 10.6.3, a generic EDP laptop config, a DSDT from somewhere on the 'Net and a bit of experimentation. I was able to upgrade to 10.6.8, though I did replace two kexts with their 10.6.7 counterparts per various posts. As for the system, pretty much everything works- sleep, emulated SpeedStep, audio (except possibly the microphone), wired and wireless networking, two-finger and edge scrolling and accelerated video. Bluetooth would probably also work, but my card seems to have gone bad. If anyone is interested, I'll post my Extra directory. JR

Actually, some SmartCard readers work out of the box with OS X. The OP's reader should show up as an O2 Micro CCID reader. The CCID part means it's an industry standard reader that needs no additional drivers. Well... almost no additional drivers. Military CAC users do need to install some middleware (e.g., CACkey) to deal with the certificates on the card. This is based on experience as I have connected to DoD sites using a D820 running Lion and only needed to install CACkey.

Ethernet on a D630/Intel was always somewhat hit or miss for me. When it worked, it worked great, but if I put the system to sleep, I was pretty much assured that it wouldn't work until I rebooted. For the OP, when it fails are there any messages in the console log?

Update... it's looking like the mouse thing was a red herring. My current line of inquiry centers on "lidwake". I currently turned lidwake off (pmset -a lidwake 0) and now only wake by pressing the power button. I want to see if that makes a difference. JR

The results seem to be the same with 'darkwake=10'. Interestingly (and this may be a testament to the randomness of the problem), if a USB mouse is plugged in, then waking seems to work as it should. Does this sound familiar to anyone? For now, I'm keeping the dongle for my Logitech wireless mouse plugged in all the time. Thanks... JR

New issue (or, rather, the return of an old one)... I seem to periodically having a problem where the computer will go to sleep (lid close), but not wake up fully (power light on, fan running, no video). No choice, at that point, but to hold the power button and power off. This was the problem which pushed me from the M4400 DSDT to the E6400 one. So far, I've tried the "darkwake=0" kernel parameter, but it doesn't seem to have helped. Advice? Thanks.... JR

Thanks... that point was a bit unclear in the postings I had seen.

I think you're right about the IDA, but I have no option in my BIOS to disable it. As for native SpeedStep, I think I figured out the problem. When I did the original M4400 EDP build, it installed a set of SSDT files. I now suspect that, like the DSDT file, they are not really compatible with my hardware. Based on a bit of research, I deleted them and then changed the Chameleon config to enable DropSSDT, EnablePStates and EnableCStates. With the smcbios set to MacBookPro5,1 I now seem to have full SpeedStep with multiple steps. Thanks again... JR

Turning our attention to SpeedStep, a couple of issues: 1) I have a 2.53ghz QE9300 CPU. It is being detected, however, as a 2.29 ghz CPU. This is probably due to the fact that the bus is being picked up as 967 mhz rather than 1033. Anybody seen this before? Any suggestions? 2) Speed vs. heat has been a real pain. With the default config of MacBookPro3,1 and native AppleIntelCUPowerManagement, it appears that I only get the lowest speed (reported as 1.44 ghz) no matter the load; same with changing to MacBookPro4,1. (This is with the latest FakeSMC kext.) With SMCBios set to MacBookPro5,1 or later, I get speeds switching between lowest and highest speed, but no intermediate steps. Eventually, however, the system will overheat and thermally shutdown under heavy load. Best compromise has been to run with the MacBookPro3,1 setting and also install VoodooPStates.kext and the PStates monitor program. This gets me switching between 8 possible speeds with no overheating so far. Two questions: 1) Does this sound familiar to anyone? 2) If I'm running with VoodooPstates.kext, then do I also need to use NullCPUPowerManagment and SleepEnabler instead of native power management? (I've seen conflicting posts regarding this one.) Thanks again... JR

Thank you for your service. I have sent you the files for a Dell Precision M6300 CPU: Core2 Duo T9500 Video: Nvidia Quadro FX 1600M, 256MB Bios A14

Update... I recently had reason to reinstall the Lion on my D820. When I ran EDP, I chose VoodooHDA 2.8.4 (latest) which seems to handle the volume and volume controls correctly. Thanks again...

A couple of more minor updates... Although sound worked with VoodooHDA 2.8.4, I could not control the volume or mute with the keyboard buttons. A post led me to edit the Info.plist for the extension to enable the VolumeKey and Mute fixes. Now that all works as expected. Keyboard... I seem to have a couple of options. If I take the EDP default keyboard kext, the left Control key is dead (keypresses not detected). If I take one of the alternatives, I have mapping issues particularly with the `/~ key; this requires a custom layout with Ukelele. I have taken the latter route. the last major piece which is still not working is the SD reader. There are at least three versions of VoodooSDHC (and VoodooSDHCI) floating around. Results seem to vary from no detection of the reader to hangs when a card is inserted. Still looking... Thanks to all for the help so far... JR

It sounds like whatever initially screwed up myHack (original bluetooth problem) is still an issue, hence the extensions which can't be used.

DW 1397 is a no-go for Mavericks. You need to replace it. For sound, you may need to try the latest version (2.8.4?) of VoodooHDA. This is selectable from EDP.

Update on Bluetooth.... Found a post here (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/136515-dell-wireless-365370410-bluetooth/) which includes a kext that correctly initializes the TrueMobile 370 in HCI mode. That and an edit to one of Apple's kexts and I have working Bluetooth.

Unfortunately, this M4400 had been running Windows also it does work correctly if I boot a Linux LiveCD. One hint I've seen is a reference on a Linux page to an 'hid2hci' command which is part of the Bluez software. That and Google led me to this post (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/136515-dell-wireless-365370410-bluetooth/) and a port of that command to a kext. (Apparently, the problem extends to the TrueMobile 365, 370 and 410 modules.) This got the card recognized and a couple of edits later, working bluetooth.

I've installed Mavericks on a Dell Precision M4400 with a Dell Truemobile 370 Bluetooth card. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get BT working. Based on what I see under Linux, I should be seeing a BCM2046B1 device which appears as a USB hub. Under it should be the actual HCI device and two composite devices for Bluietooth Proxy mode. Under Mavericks, though, all I see are the hub and the two Composite devices, no HCI device. I assume that this is a firmware or initialization error with the device, but am not sure where to proceed to fix it. Thanks... JR