Installation on a Dell Latitude XT Tablet

[maunakeaone]

Happy Thankgiving

 

I have a Dell Latitude XT as well and have a question as I am trying to install OSX (Kalyway version)....I have done an install successfully on an Acer Aspire One so I am not new as it relates to installing OSX on an Intel Platform. The question is, I am trying to install OSX on a Thumbdrive and the issue I seem to be having is not knowing what settings to create under the "Customize" section of the install (ie...what Graphic Driver, Wireless, Network, Chip, etc.....) Do you or anyone have what the appropriate settings are which worked when doing the install. Basically after I install to a Thumbdrive and then reboot from the drive I get the Apple Logo and then the graphic of the logo about 1 minuite in gets somewhat garbled....the screen goes dark but I can tell the install is attempting to happen but get no screen to view. I chose the ATI 1000 Series under customization and not the GMA950 video. I feel like I am close and if someone has installed on an external USB HD then they were able to get past this part and it would be great to know what the settings were that were chosen for the Dell install.

 

Any help would be much appreciated as this is my holiday project for myself ;-)

Thanks in advance

 

David

 

Thanksgiving evening update - I was able to finally get the Dell Latitude bootable consistently on a USB Thumbdrive, obviously it is not optimal and slow but still cool. I wish there was better calibration as everyone has mentioned with regard to the touchscreen.....it is awesome to page through the applications with a swipe of the finger, and I am not sure if others noticed but in System Preferences there is an Ink option but alas no calibration. For those attempting, I kept with the standard install for an Acer Aspire One except chose the Marvell chipset, I left the graphics card to be GMA950 and it all works thus far. Now if we could only find the ability to detect the hardrive.....

[pegasys]

@maunakeaone

Hope you can help figure this out!

 

@paulobrien

I hadn't bothered to look in the XT bios - however XD functionality was enabled - which is the factory default. Have you had any success yet with booting from external HD?

 

@all

I haven't tried every combination of kernel selection - but the following have worked for me:

 

iDeneb v1.3 - 9.2 sleep boots fine, default 10.5.5 vanilla does not

 

iatkos 10.5.4 - default kernel doesn't boot, TOH kernel boots OK.

 

Jas 10.5.4 Server Workstation - default selected kernel doesn't boot, Intel SSE2 SSE3 9.2.0 sleep boots OK, (haven't tried XNU yet)

 

(BTW, after booting for the first time, keyboard and trackpad/trackstick are not detected - common problem for laptops after a jas 10.5.4 install - but Dell XT users have an advantage over other notebook users as touch/pen work - complete account setup and go to> Jas10.5.4 DVD\Installation\Packages\Patches and run ApplePS2Controller.pkg - after next reboot everything functions OK.)

 

Leo4allv3 - boots OK with default 9.2.0, doesn't boot with 9.2.0vanilla

 

Kalyway 10.5.2 boots with default selected 9.2 sleep kernel

 

 

====================================================================

 

 

Some thoughts on getting the HD recognised:

 

Jas 10.5.4, iDeneb v1.3, Leo4allv3, etc include an option during install for various chipsets, including supposedly SB600. Copied the VIA-SB package from install partition (or DVD) to destop and opened with pacifist - contains 3 kexts: VIA ATA, AppleOnBoardPCATA, IOATAFamily. (IOATAFamily sometimes contains further *ATA kexts in it's pluggins folder, sometimes doesn't).

 

AppleOnBoardPCATA kext seems to get mentioned frequently in posts where people have managed to get the IDE contoller on SB600 either recognised for the first time or working faster, sometimes just by inserting the relevant hardware ID e.g.

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=103693

 

sometimes by rebuilding it from scratch as dcat did:

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=60298

 

Opening the Info.plist in appleonboardpcata (the one installed by jas/leo4all SB600 package), it seems to be divided into 8 sections:

 

AMD CS5535 ATA

AMD CS5535 PCI

ATI IXP ATA

ATI IXP PCI

nVIDIA nForce ATA

nVIDIA nForce PCI

ServerWorks ATA

ServerWorks PCI

 

 

Eureka has a more recent kext, AppleATIATA but it doesn't seem to work for the XT ??

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=130895

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...amp;mode=linear

 

Opening the info.plist, it seems to only have 3 sections, so is much simpler.

 

 

Couple of other things I've tried/am trying - created 20GB free space between partition1 and the extended partition on the XT and clonned over sector by sector a couple of HFS+ primary partitions from an external drive - I also have Macdrive on partition1- XP, so that I can read/write to the drives. They boot only so far (obviously) :

 

Extension "com.apple.driver.AppleOnboardPCATA" has no explicit kernel dependency; using version 6.0

IOPCCardBridge::start failed

<some other stuff on OHCI controller>

Firewire (OHCI) TI ID 803a PCI now active, GUID <etc etc>

Still waiting for root device

Still waiting for root device

Still waiting for root device

 

 

Tried installing NetBSD and FreeBSD on the XT, as supposedly these are the closest OS's to MacOS...

EDIT: not really sure how useful this would have been, but for what it's worth, all the current BSD (live and install) CDs saw the Dell XT's internal HD.

[Cruxado]

@ All

 

Just an Update

 

I managed to install Leopard Kalyway 10.5.2 into my Ext HDD using my Latitude XT. Sound wasn't working and the Ethernet is Not recognized; I still have Video Issue due to the ATI X1250 graphics card. But atleast I have wireless.

 

 

=== Re-Update===

Mmm... lol, I installed ATI x1300 kext into my Lat XT and well... it boots properly except that the screen goes black at the login screen. hehehe... Anyway I can bypass graphics on the BootLoader?

 

On a later note, I found this cool free app TabletMagic 2.0 Beta 15 which (once installed and viewed at Preferences Pane) it seems to recognize the Lat XT multi-touch pad. Apparently you can define the area in which the Stylus can work in... which might resolve the calibration issue.

 

I'd know for sure... if I didn't mess with the Graphics Kext. =)

 

==============

 

That's it for now. More as I mess around.

 

==============

 

Oh, here's the APP I was talking about. TabletMagic2b15.dmg.zip

[pegasys]

@Cruxado

 

Not sure about boot options, but you could try booting from install DVD and using terminal to delete or rename various ATI video kexts from the extension folder. I had a problem earlier in the year with a intel 950GMA laptop - the only way I could get to desktop was by deleting all the intelgma kexts and appleintelframebuffer kext in the extensions folder - otherwise the screen was just stripes. Or you could always reinstall...

 

Does TabletMagic work on the XT?? - I thought it only worked with digitisers that were on a serial port (Ntrig is on a USB port) - otherwise it would refuse to start - but I'll check it out later on, would be cool if it did work.

 

I'm guessing the calibration issue is due to the fact that the Ntrig digitiser is running at 1280x800 - the screen also should be running at the same resolution, but is in fact 1024x768 stretched to full screen. If you move your finger or pen up and down the screen vertically, calibration is less out (768 versus 800) than when you do the same horizontally (1280 versus 1024). I think if the screen was running at correct res, the touchscreen calibration would be pretty good. (I could be wrong).

 

Hope you can (help) fix the HD and screen res issues!

 

@maunakeaone

 

The only options I choose when installing were kernel and chipset - I didn't bother with anything else. I never use ethernet, don't have bluetooth (which usually works anyway), audio (sigmatel 9205) doesn't work without HDA patching - haven't actually tried this yet on a fresh install - but it was working nice and loud on a cloned install from an Inspiron 1720. I'll post back later on the audio.

[Cruxado]

@Cruxado

 

Not sure about boot options, but you could try booting from install DVD and using terminal to delete or rename various ATI video kexts from the extension folder. I had a problem earlier in the year with a intel 950GMA laptop - the only way I could get to desktop was by deleting all the intelgma kexts and appleintelframebuffer kext in the extensions folder - otherwise the screen was just stripes. Or you could always reinstall...

 

Does TabletMagic work on the XT?? - I thought it only worked with digitisers that were on a serial port (Ntrig is on a USB port) - otherwise it would refuse to start - but I'll check it out later on, would be cool if it did work.

 

I'm guessing the calibration issue is due to the fact that the Ntrig digitiser is running at 1280x800 - the screen also should be running at the same resolution, but is in fact 1046x768 stretched to full screen. If you move your finger or pen up and down the screen vertically, calibration is less out (768 versus 800) than when you do the same horizontally (1280 versus 1046). I think if the screen was running at correct res, the touchscreen calibration would be pretty good. (I could be wrong).

 

Hope you can (help) fix the HD and screen res issues!

 

 

Pegasys,

 

Yes Tablet Magic does recognizes the Digitizer!! I saw it with my own eyes! I guess since its internally connected directly to the board its able to detect it. Either way, I urge you to give it a try. It just may allows you to in a sense calibrate it. I am aware that the Offset is caused by the Screen Resolution, but of right now there are no ATI x1250 Kext out as you may be aware. Hopefully this fix will work.

 

Well... I'm going to reinstall later tonight, I have a BUNCH of LeoDVDs so I'll see if I can get one of the Latest DVDs to work. But by far Kalyway has the best support for this builds particular Hardware.

[paulobrien]

It's this damned problem with seeing the HDD which I am sure is holding up any sort of real progress atm. That said, the lack of OSX support for the X1250 is also gonna be quite a serious issue!

 

Shame, as this would be just an awesome machine if we can get it going!

 

P

[keatonreckard]

how about switchresX?

does this work on osx86?

 

 

just ordered my xt last night.

[Cruxado]

Is there any way we can get some opinions form Modders or Admins??

 

[REQUEST] HELP! LMAO

[Twisted Syntax]

Hi everyone, been a while since my last post but I have spent a lot of time trying out everything I can.

 

@pegasys; im not yet 100% sure if the XT can see the Express card as a boot volume but I have one on it's way in the mail so i'll let you know how it goes. Also, could you possibly give us a rundown on how you got the sound working using the HDA patcher?

 

@everyone

But to be honest, the screen resolution issue is more of a concern for me personally. I have (quite exhaustively) tried every kext and sliver of code possible with no (useful) results.

 

Tablet Magic does indeed "see" the digitizer, but only so much as OS X already "see's" it. It does not recognize the serial port and thus, doesn't work.

 

SwitchresX does not function in OSX86 either it seems.

 

I have tried all of these avenues with both Kalyway and iAtkos with no result. If anyone has had different results, please detail your experiences.

 

So, is anyone interested in pooling resources to perhaps pay someone who knows what they are doing to write a driver for the ATI X1250, or is creating a driver for this chip simply out of the question for some reason?

 

I find it hard to believe that it's due to the fact that it is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) as some people on this forum have implied, given that the new breed of Macbook features an IGP.

 

Does anyone know a modder/programmer capable of doing this? Are any modders watching this thread (Doesn't seem like it)

 

If we can get it happening, this will be a very cool machine for OSX.

 

Code geniuses!! Please help our cause!!

[pegasys]

@Twisted Syntax

Unfortunately, the only sound I have working is on a install that I cloned over from a Dell Inspiron 1720, which works very well. As for fresh installs that I've done using the XT, I've tried AppleHDA patcher and various linux audio codecs but have had no success, so far.

 

 

@Cruxado

Tablet Magic doesn't detect the ntrig digitiser as it's not on a (internal) serial port.

 

I think most modern external tablets connect via USB (as does Ntrig internally) - do any of these come with a calibrating app??

 

But I'd prefer to have native 1280x800 resolution and could live quite happily without QE/CI.

linux_codec_dumps_.zip

[Cruxado]

Just out of curiosity...

 

Is there any way that DELL could format the HDD's MBR to hide itself from being detected by an OSx86 Distros? Maybe, formating the whole drive with a GUID partiotion might help; or perhaps reformatting the whole drive's MBR. 0.o

[Cruxado]

Well... I re-installed Leopard utilizing XxX Leopard 10.5.5 OSx86 Install DVD. I used the following options.

• ToH Kernel 9.2 with Sleep
  
• ALL Sigmatel Kext (audio still not working... maybe cause I selected all of 'em)
  
• GenericLaptopVideo Kext
  
• Broadcom WiFi (WORKS)
  
• Yukon & Marvell Ethernet (cause I forgot which one the Tablet has... LOL)
  
• Chameleon Bootloader
  

Boots in about 30secs faster than my current MBP '07 model.

 

================

 

But as is the case... there is NO Hard Drive recognition :: NO sound :: NO proper Display Kext

 

... at the moment.

 

================

 

Is there ANY update on the SD Card reader possibility?

[Cruxado]

@Cruxado

Tablet Magic doesn't detect the ntrig digitiser as it's not on a (internal) serial port.

 

@Pegasys

 

What build did you install with? As I posted earlier I utilized XxX Leopard 10.5.5 installer... I installed Tablet Magic and it Does NOT recognize the Digitizer. Now mind you, I did see with my own eyes that Tablet Magic DID in fact recognize the Digitizer when I used Kalyway's Leopard 10.5.2 build.

 

Has anyone installed using Kaly? If so, can you try out the Tablet Magic. If not I suppose, I'll be doing a clean install in my Ext. HDD's 2nd partition. hehehe...

 

================

 

On another note, I noticed that JaS TIGER 10.4.8 distro has ATI 1x00 kexts... think they'll work for the tablet? I have the Disk so I'll see if I can extract the Kext and install it on the Leo Build using KextHelper.

 

All of this... after my test on Monday.

[Karl Taylor]

Well... I re-installed Leopard utilizing XxX Leopard 10.5.5 OSx86 Install DVD. I used the following options.

• ToH Kernel 9.2 with Sleep
  
• ALL Sigmatel Kext (audio still not working... maybe cause I selected all of 'em)
  
• GenericLaptopVideo Kext
  
• Broadcom WiFi (WORKS)
  
• Yukon & Marvell Ethernet (cause I forgot which one the Tablet has... LOL)
  
• Chameleon Bootloader
  

Boots in about 30secs faster than my current MBP '07 model.

 

================

 

But as is the case... there is NO Hard Drive recognition :: NO sound :: NO proper Display Kext

 

... at the moment.

 

================

 

Is there ANY update on the SD Card reader possibility?

 

I got my sound "semi-working" with the Dell Laptop Post Installer. (if I can find it I'll post it again, but it's on the forum.) Headphones/Microphone ports don't work but speaker is alright.

[Syph]

Just thought I'd share some conclusions I've drawn in the last few days testing Mac OS X on my Latitude XT via a External 3.5'' HD.

 

I played around with iPortable, it's a installation of Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard, that you can install on a 8Gb USB pen drive. This would be somewhat of a solution to taking Mac OS X with the Latitude XT away from the external HD. I know that USB pen drives are usually slower than 2.5 inch USB drives, which are slower than 3.5inch USB drives. Now I only own a 3.5'' USB drive, so I can't tell you how fast it is on the pen drive, but I can tell you that on the 3.5'', it was two to three times faster than running it in VMware. iPortable is relatively hassel free to install. Simply Carbon Clone the image onto the drive you wish to use. It boots right away and you have Wireless Internet (at least if you have the Broadcom Wifi-N card)

 

I have been trying around different setups with VMware, and it seems that when you run Mac OS X on an external HD in VMware, you get better performance overal than if you run it on your native Latitude XT hard drive. However, this is only true when running programms on the host and guest machine at the same time. I found the performance was similiar if I did not open any other programs than VMware in Vista, while running Mac OS X on the native HD. However, running Mac OS X natively from the external HD was considerably faster than running it in VMware. A important thing to note is that you have to turn on Processor Virtualization in the BIOS, if not, it will be sluggish.

 

I also installed iDeneb v1.3 Mac OS X 10.5.5 with 9.2.0 speedstep ToH kernel and VIA chipset. It worked fine, with Wifi out of the box. But when I reinstalled with x1300 video drivers, I got a black screen. There was no sound with the Sigmatel Drivers included in iDeneb.

 

A think i discoverd is that since there is no way so far to install Video drivers, you can't use Quartz 3D extreme. This means that programs like iWeb(and some other ones) in the iLife suite, Toast, iWork will crash upon startup. For some reason, iPhoto works.

 

Another worthy note: when you are running mac os x natively, you can fress Fn+F7 to disable the screen strech feature. This enables you to use the touchscreen with 1:1 pixel mapping. It also looks better. However, everything is smaller. You can also press Fn-F8 to see Mac OS X on an external screen, hopefully one that does not have a 16:10 ratio.

 

The only way I found to increase the resolution of Mac OS X was in VMware.You can edit the boot.plist file or simply write "Graphics Mode":"1680x1050x32" or whatever resolution you want. I am using it on my external 20 inch screen with no problem. Also, of course, there is no Video acceleration, so you can't use the programs stated above. However, Things or Omnifocus or Mail.app all benefit from the increased resolution.

 

Sounds is not a dealbreaker for me, so I haven't spent so much time fiddeling with it, since I will use Mac OS X in VMware most of the time, to sync with my iPod touch using Things. I can of course play sound or music in Windows while using Mac in VMware.

 

Hope these remarks were usefull.

[Cruxado]

@All

 

As Karl Taylor suggest I downloaded and installed Dell Post Installer v. 1.3.1 ( http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=97966 ). It installs directly from Leopard.

 

I installed the following options:

1. Audio - Sigmatel 9205
   
2. TrackPad - Inspiron and Latitude (I think Inspiron is the working one)
   
3. PowerManagement - All Options
   
4. Other - Safe Update && Media Keys
   

== Here are some observations regarding installed Kexts ==

 

Audio Support for Ext Speaker && InLine Jack for headphones. (Atleast in my installed System which used XxX Leopard 10.5.5)

 

Media Keys - I think they enabled volume up, down, mute... didn't really check this feature before.... since I had no Audio

 

TrackPad supports 2-finger scrolling. The option in the Preference for 2-finger scrolling must be UNchecked for it to work 98% properly. Weird I know.

 

=======================

 

I suggest you guys get this installed ASAP! Great find Taylor

[keatonreckard]

Has anyone tried the vga paperclip hack? Does this help the graphics at all?

[paulobrien]

Any improvement with 10.5.6?

 

P

[Karl Taylor]

Any improvement with 10.5.6?

 

P

 

I got to 10.5.6 once, but have reinstalled and am still sitting on 10.5.2.

 

Actually, I suppose this merits some comment.

Updating to 10.5.3 was easy enough with the 10.5.3 Kalyway Combo Updater. I didn't bother changing kernels, (though I think I've previously gotten both the 9.3 vanilla and modbin to work....)

 

10.5.4 is simple. just the delta upgrade should take care of you.

 

10.5.5 was alright using netkas method. Here I needed to reinstall sound/wireless kexts. (I should also note that Wireless did partially work, I just didn't have access to my WPA2 network.)

 

10.5.6 broke things. Didn't have keyboard/trackpad support (common complaint.)

kernel panic upon loading DMG (another common complaint--also I was missing pacifist so I couldn't reinstall seatbelt...)

no sound/wifi

left work while chasing a solution for my keyboard and needed the box for later, so reformatted and reinstalled.

 

 

 

So I can't actually get it going on an external USB disk (installs OK but reboots as soon as you try and boot the OS for the first time), so instead I used the kalyway kext injector script to try the ATA kext posted earlier in this topic.

 

No dice, at least the installer still couldn't see the internal HDD.

 

Would love to get it working, but obviously seeing the HDD is an important first step!

 

P

 

don't know where you are with this.

 

if you hadn't gotten it working, (and I apologize for the stupid question) are you trying to boot with the disc drive attached? mine won't boot after an install if it's in.

 

@Pegasys

 

What build did you install with? As I posted earlier I utilized XxX Leopard 10.5.5 installer... I installed Tablet Magic and it Does NOT recognize the Digitizer. Now mind you, I did see with my own eyes that Tablet Magic DID in fact recognize the Digitizer when I used Kalyway's Leopard 10.5.2 build.

 

Has anyone installed using Kaly? If so, can you try out the Tablet Magic. If not I suppose, I'll be doing a clean install in my Ext. HDD's 2nd partition. hehehe...

 

================

 

On another note, I noticed that JaS TIGER 10.4.8 distro has ATI 1x00 kexts... think they'll work for the tablet? I have the Disk so I'll see if I can extract the Kext and install it on the Leo Build using KextHelper.

 

All of this... after my test on Monday.

 

At the moment I'm using Kaly 10.5.2 (on 10.5.2) and don't see it recognized.

[Opal]

Has anyone got any further with getting the HD recognised?

[dbffreq]

Hi,

 

Any chance that the new Latitude XT 2 will solve any of these issues?

 

http://www.dell.com/content/products/produ...;l=en&s=bsd

 

 

Thanks.

 

Brad

[Karl Taylor]

Hi,

 

Any chance that the new Latitude XT 2 will solve any of these issues?

 

http://www.dell.com/content/products/produ...;l=en&s=bsd

 

 

Thanks.

 

Brad

 

Brad,

 

From what I've seen of the XT2's chipset, I doubt it'll solve much. From where I sit, we'll need to wait for the community to have a solution for Integrated Graphics chipsets (and this isn't a likely thing in the short run.) I think even the digitizer's different on the XT2.

[maati]

Update on the ExpressCard SSD possibility: I've got a 32GB OCZ ExpressCard SSD and it works flawlessly.

 

The SSD is recognized as a USB device and bootable.

 

I'm now trying iPC OSX86 with the 10.5.5 Voodoo Kernel...

[Island133]

@ maati

 

Do you think one of those ssd is faster than a 16gb turbo sd card ? that's what i was going to attempt, but either way we should install and test to see if you can boot.

 

@ Anyone else

 

Has anyone tried to pull the HDD out and install on it directly ? like with an ipod HDD connector or one from newegg ?

[Karl Taylor]

you wont get the grafics working sorry

 

Isn't this chip based on the x700? The card has 128 mb of dedicated memory if I remember correctly.