Zeppo

WELL, I'LL BE DAMNED! IT WORKS! Oops! Sorry for my shouting. I am a bit excited. So, I am running OS X 6.6 from on my D430, which I booted form the HD! As far as I can see, all things are smooth: I have battery meter, sound, keyboard, trackpad... The whole enchilada! I think even the power management and sleep work: I had to make a break, when I came back power button was blinking but my machine was off. After hitting the power button, I've got the password screen and after password was entered - the machine came back! Well, who would know that the simple format of the HD could cause such trouble?! DAMN! Many thanks to all who chipped in helping me to solve this: Leon, Bronxteck, CRC, ps2pk, Thund3rbolt, jakke! Thanks guys! Especially for your patience. Well, I need to catch up with some real work. I'll post if everything still is smooth.

OK. Now Leon, last time I checked I was a "him" and not "her". But... whatever...

OK, it is safe to reboot and check with 10.6.0 but I should NOT reboot prior updating to 10.6.6?! Oh, well... this is clear. No, wait...!

THX! Do I need 10.6.6 for EDP 1.5 RC6 or can I check it with 10.6.0?

LOL! I really don't want to beat you in this particular sport. OK, I'll do it. BTW: do I need to run 10.6.6 in order to check if this would work? I mean, is it OK to install 10.6.0 from DVD, boot into OSX after the install, install Chameleon and EDP 1.5 rc6 on HD, configure everything and than reboot again? Is EDP 1.5 rc6 working with 10.6.0 with no issues? I don't want to go trough the whole hassle of downloading and installing of the 10.6.6 combo update if I can check this before this is necessary. Also: what is the safest configuration? ApplePS2 + Apple PM + no PCMCIA or should VoodooPS2 + PM package + no PCMCIA work better? Merci Buckets guys!!

Well, one of my external hard drives with vanilla OS X on it (I installed Chameleon for the first time there, just to be able to use it on D430) is formatted with "Extended/Journaled" only and it still didn't work out. However, I'll give it a shot. It'll be my 4th clean install. I hope this solves the issues.

Thanks for the pointer! Which fix are you aiming at? Additional kext or DSDT edit? Have you tried any of those two to fix your issues?

Well, I tested the drive with Disk Utilities and with OnyX (including the check of SMART attributes and drive integrity) and had no failures. But I'll give it a try with this tool.

I don't use a DVD. I have my 10.6.0 retail DVD image on stick, together with Chameleon. Well, if I go iomega clean install path, I'll need another Mac anyway. I can boot from my iomega clone. But Chameleon on USB stick doesn't see it, for what reason ever (I do not have "Hide Partition" in my com.apple.boot.plist"). I need to disconnect Chameleon stick in order to boot from iomega. The only way to see both in the same time is when I start the install from my DVD image on my Chameleon stick, than I can choose iomega partition for a fresh install. And that's trouble. Because, after fresh install of 10.6.0 I need to reboot into iomega OS X via Chameleon, in order to install CHameleon and EDP on it. But Chameleon stick doesn't see it! So, I need to do a clean install, disconnect iomega drive prior booting into new installation, mount it on my second machine running 10.6.6, install Chameleon and preboot.dmg into /Extra folder, reconnect it to D430 and than boot for the first time. If this works, than I can go and install EDP, run configuration, run fixes for hibernation, touch and such. Only after that I will download 10.6.6 and upgrade. BTW: usually people run 10.6.3, 10.6.5 or whatever prior going to 10.6.6. Could the cause of my issues lay in the fact that I go from 10.6.0 directly to 10.6.6? Did anyone else did so successfully?

It is weird. And here another weird tidbit: since USB boot works fine and HD fails I took an iomega 1TB USB/eSATA drive and cloned my HD to it. Installed Chameleon 2 RC5 r665 and EDP 1.5RC6 to it. Overwrote all relevant /Extra files with those on stick booting fine (and identical to one on my internal HD with described issues). Took out my USB stick. Boot. Chameleon pops up offering internal and external HD to boot from. Choose iomega. Boots from it but wrong resolution, no sound, no keyboard, no trackpad. Like booting from internal HD. Run edptool from iomega HD to create new but same environment (voodooPS2, Apple PM, no PCMCIA), run edptool again and executed touch and tried fixing hibernation (no luck, same error). Reboot. No changes. Run edptool, reconfigured to ApplePS2, Apple PM, no PCMCIA. Run Fixes and rebooted. No changes. So,booting from USB - fine. Booting from HD (internal OR external via USB) - weird issues. Granted, iomega contains the real clone of my internal HD. So, if issue is with that installation (caused by the HD) I might have cloned those issues as well. The only thing I haven't tried yet is to use D430 to make a clean install on my iomega drive. Update to 10.6.6 and see what happens. If this would work fine, I would have an indicator that a) internal HD is not OK (although tested as OK) or my internal HD controller is toast (iomega is managed by USB controller). And I would pay gladly for the HD and your troubles. But would it work?

Sadly no. 3 times I downloaded anew. And I don't think it's the DVD image itself. So far I did several installs on different machines with that same image - no issues. Also, even if this would be the case - it simply does not compute. If I start from USB using identical /Extra folder like the one residing on my HD (I always run edptool on HD and just copy the results to my stick), I get the correct resolution, sound, keyboard and trackpad working. Starting from HD, using identical /Extra folder, I miss all those things. At least, since I installed CRC's BIOS_OSX I can boot from disk (although with issues). Before that, using the vanilla BIOS and D430 DSDT I had KP's in 100% starts from HD. And not one from USB! I repeated the configuration of /Extra folder for like 50 times now. Also, several times I renamed /Extra folder and wrote a new one on disk (vs. replacing) to ensure that it will be written on other blocks as the old one. Just for the case if the old one was written on bad blocks. And that's what drives me nuts, this weird behavior. I am hackintoshing a little for a while now and I never experienced anything like this before. If config was correct, the boot device was irrelevant. It boots fine. DVD, USB or HD. And if not - it didn't matter either: I had a nice KP or was missing some features. EDIT: I now feel like your animated avatar. I could just bang my head against my keyboard.

How can we find out if there really is a HW difference? Also, if I make a complete new installation (with 10.6.0 I still had my battery) and try to run it without going to 10.6.6 immediately (after the upgrade run my battery disappeared) can I use EDP 1.5 RC6 or do I need to have some other configuration? I would like to see if I am able to make changes for sleep (this hibernation issue I have) and even boot from HD. Somehow running 10.6.6 combo update eliminates my battery recognition and apparently screws ups all power management. If I am able to make those changes prior going to 10.6.6, they might be taken over. Well, I didn't come up with a better idea.

OK, here an update: - Replaced BIOS A09 with D430_OSX BIOS, no problem - In BIOS checked all config items needed (internal graphics, USB wake "off" and such) - boot from HD successful for the first time! (No KP - yes!!!) Issues so far: * internal keyboard and trackpad do not work (tried applePS2, voodooPS2 but no go) * graphic resolution 1024x768 whatever I do. I do have correct resolution 1280x800x32 in my com.apple.boot.plist (it appears correct when apple logo and the wheel (progress indicator) are on, but as soon as login appears resolution becomes 1024x768) * no sound * i still cannot change my hibernation setup for proper work of sleep both, terminal command and edptool, option 2 - Fixes, then option 2, are showing "Error 0xe00002bc writing customized power profiles to disk" I just took Leons D430 /Extra folder, removed DSDT and made an reboot. Apple logo (different than the one I usually see. (it's gray in 2D instead plastic 3D light gray look) stays on for ages and the wheel is moving slowly, but almost not moving at all. Booted verbose. It freezes at "WARNING - LPC device initialization failed: C-state power management not initialized". (I cannot attach screenshot. Apparently my account does not allow another upload). Well, that's the status. Booting with files configured on my own machine - Issues above Booting with Leon's D430 working config freezes. OK, apparently in all cases there are issues. Somehow it seams to me that power management or parts of it are involved. That still does not explain why I cannot boot from HD, if I am using vanilla BIOS. With CRC's modified BIOS I can boot from disk but have no sound, wrong graphics resolution and sleep issues. Any ideas? THX EDIT: I made an error. Prior booting with Leon's files, I forgot to rename /Extra.Leon into /Extra. So, boot was without /Extra folder. Hence, it freezes. Now I corrected this and Leon's /Extra gives me KP right on the start. CPU not recognized or such. I run edptool in Leons /Extra folder and will reboot again. New config, all fixes and permission rebuild.

Yup, I did. No changes whatsoever. Whatever I tried, all boot attempts from HD fail, but the same configuration from stick boots fine. So many people use the EDP and Chameleon with their D430 and only mine causes a headache. It's really bizarre. Yeah, I thought so myself. However, Leon was posting in this other thread explaining how DTDT-less BIOS works great and then posted his /Extra folder with DSDT in there. That kinda confused me a bit. I am bound to try CRC's BIOS as a next step in my search for a solution. It's still frustrating not having found out why my D430 acts so weird. I did 3 complete new installations following the tutorial, just to be sure I didn't miss something. Always the same result: boot from HD ends up in a KP. Also, after 10.6.6 combo update my battery disappears. I presume that my power management (and probably sleep as well) issues are connected to that fact. Something in my D430 is apparently different compared to all others, which work fine.

Yeah, thought so. I was just curious. I am still looking for a reason why I cannot boot from HD. I thought that, since my D430 runs 32bit environment only, some of the kexts might be 64bit and are causing trouble. Well, though luck. Another potential explanation stroked out.

OK, thanks! 32bit or 64bit OS X?

You mean in BIOS? It's off. I didn't found any other switch in Power Settings pref pane. BTW: are you still running your D430 without DSDT and the with /Extra folder like you posted (plists, kext and such)? I don't know if I somehow misunderstood this. According to your post in D430 BIOS thread you don't use the DSDT but in the /Extra folder there was one. BTW2: are you running your OSX in 32bit or 64bit mode? THX!

I would gladly recognize this as "sleep", if the machine would be sleeping for at least a second. But it writes down the RAM image, turns down all devices, screen goes black and - not even a second later - bang, I have my password screen, drive run at high speed and all devices are on again. Helluva short sleep.

Status as of today, 1pm: - Overwrote A09 BIOS with an A09 freshly downloaded from DELL support page - Booting from HD ends up in an KP - Booting into 10.6.6 from stick with no issues (both times using the same /Extra folder with identical configuration) - When running 10.6.6 I still do not have access to my battery status, simply not recognized (original part which came with the laptop) - sleep still doesn't work (both, out of the menue or closing the lid initiates but it ends up on my system password screen) - if I try to setup sleep like defined here, I get this error ("Error 0xe00002bc writing customized power profiles to disk") - I tried both methods to change hibernation setup, manually running terminal and running the edptool (Fixes, option 2) That's what I have. Now, the only option I see is to go with CRC's modified D430 BIOS. However, before I do that, does anyone have any other idea or sees what I have missed to do? Anyone using CRC's modified BIOS: any issues I should be avare of? Hints, tips, tricks? Thanks!

I had the same idea and I tried this using my Paralles Win7 VM. "invalid archive file" is all I've got. Apparently this really is an app with BIOS embedded. I was also looking in BIOS and haven't found a way to update BIOS from within BIOS. Also, CRC (in this thread) was talking about "flashing BIOS from DOS". So, that's the path, I suppose. Or from Windows live CD or stick.

Well, my working USB configuration includes Apple's power management. If I go and run this terminal command or edptool option2/option 2, here is what I get in both cases: "Error 0xe00002bc writing customized power profiles to disk" Now, if I choose power pack (option 1 within power management section in edptool, kext configuration) I end up with a KP from HD and from stick. KP is defined as mismatch between CPU und PM (I presume PM means power management). Same stage KPU in both cases. Tried as far as I could. As written above: I cannot disable or change the hibernation settings. OK, I did. I run my known working config from USB stick. It works fine but my battery is still not recognized. If I run my USB config unchanged from disk, it ends up in KP. I run a complete new config using edptool. VoodooPS2, Apple PM and no PCMCIA - fine with USB, KP from HD. If I choose VodooPS2, PowerPack and no PCMCIA - KP from both devices. It seams to me that there is an issue with power management. But how to solve it? PS I couldn't replace my BIOS A09 against a new version. Dell let's me download a file D430_A09.EXE, which is apparently a Dell's Windows flash tool, which updates the BIOS. However, since I don't run Windows anymore - though luck.

Busy days. I didn't have time to tinker around. And I am leaving for a short weekend trip with my family in a few hours. However, with all I experienced so far, I'll go with new A09 as a next step. But I am somewhat skeptical. Whatever I tried, the problems remain. Also, I randomly lose my sound, although I didn't make any changes on my stick. Sleep doesn't work properly, whenever I put the machine into sleep mode, it follows, goes down and restart immediately with master password screen. As I said, I didn't find anything which would explain this weird behavior. I feel I'll end up trying CRC BIOS for my machine. Thanks for asking. Zep

One of the things I did after I installed OS X and had KP booting from the HD. I was running Win7 before and didn't really remember if I was messing around with BIOS settings.

In EDP install script I never choose PCMCIA support to be added. I don't have any devices for it. And I do have power management issues (my battery is not recognized and I cannot turn on the battery meter). Interestingly if I boot with Leon's /Extra folder (and his D430 works like a charm) I run into KP's from both, HD and the USB stick. And if I recall correctly, it KP's on identical spot. Well, it might be my BIOS. Although I have the official A09 version, it might be that there were some silent updates I didn't get. Or some BIOS setting are configured differently than on Leon's and many other machines. Leon wanted to compare my BIOS settings with his, to see if that's the case. Well, something IS causing this mess. But I don't know what. It's bizarre. I can fetch BIOS A09 and install it again. And , if that does not change the situation, try CRC's moded BIOS and no DSDT. There must be something...

IMHO, a corrupt boot sector would have one of Chameleons boot0, boot1h files or even both damaged. So, the boot process would be halted even before DSDT is read. Since the machine starts to boot and just KP's on the processor definition picked up within the DSDT, I seriously doubt it's a boot sector. Look at the shot of my KP. "No HPETs available. CPU is configured incorrectly". But the same CPU und HPETs are fine if I boot from stick. Bad disk sectors where the DSDT resides? Or RAM issues? Hmmm... will check both. HD Check: SMART attributes say HD is A OK. However, I just run Disk Utilities volume check and it reports damaged volume: "Incorrect File counter (887686 instead of 887690)" and "Incorrect Folder counter (197422 instead of 197418)" "Disk needs to be repaired". Booted from OS X's DVD on USB and repaired the HD via Dik Utility. Run HD check again, volume reported OK. Volume permissions repaired as well. Prior trying another boot from HD I will restart from USB, check the volume again, reinstall Chameleon and /Extra folder, rerun edptool and check volume again. Also, I want to run RAM test using boot CD and Memtest-86 v3.5a. just to be sure that my 2GB RAM are working properly. Booting from stick OK Disk Utility checking Volume, OK Chameleon 2 RC5 r665 installed, no errors renamed /Extra folder to /ExtraOld (to force writing of new /Extra folder and DSDT somewhere else on HD, avoiding possible bad sectors) Copied EDP 1.5 RC6 folder as /Extra in HD's root run edptool.comand and configured DSDT and .mkext for D430, no errors reported Disk Utility reports volume still OK, run permission rebuild Double checking with Onyx: SMART OK, volume OK, permission rebuild OK HD appears to be OK CD Boot, Memtest.86 run, the whole addressable range is tested with several different routines (like memory mapping and remapping, moving inversions 32 bit pattern, random number sequence and such). After all tests were finished no ECC or other errors were reported. RAM appears to be OK Unplugged power cord, removed battery forcing a complete reinitialization of the all HW components on the next boot. Waiting 10 minutes. Battery and power cord back in. Rebooting from HD with new configured /Extra folder - KP Rebooting from USB stick - no issues Replacing HD /Extra files com.apple.boot.plist, dsdt.aml,Extensions.mkext and smbios.plist with those on stick (since I know they work fine). Replacing HD boot file from root folder with the one from USB (known working). Rebooting from HD - KP, but the stage of KP is different as before (see attached screenshot) Sorry for the lengthy post but I wanted to do this step by step. I think I effectively ruled out HD and RAM hardware issues. But it still KP's if I boot from HD and works fine from USB stick. I am out of my depth now. I did everything I was able to think of but the issue remains. Any input would be highly appreciated. THX