[Guide] HP DV8, DV7, DV6, & DV5, 10.6.4 Easy, Comprehensive Installation

[Mammoth]

Mammoth,

 

be glad to test for you once you get 1.20 guides done. i'm just a sucker for new stuff when i was messing with linux anytime a new distro or certain update for a prog came out i had to install and test. i was gonna try that new dsdt patcher but it looks a little complicated for me. i have noticed that after some of the programs i've installed i have to run pfix & then repair disk permissions. i know when it needs done because when i reboot i have no audio or ethernet on reboot. it seems like it usually happens when i have to use my password to install something. will this get better with your updates?

 

Don't forget to run ChamExtUp, especially if you make any changes to files in /Cham/Extra/Extensions. I don't remember at the moment if you went through the v1.15 Update guide, but if not, everyone should do that. The next thing you could do, if not done already, is update to 10.6.5 and use Taptun's kernel (again, sorry if you have already done all this). Once all that is done and you haven't made any changes, you should not continually have those issues.

[Jason Adams]

Don't forget to run ChamExtUp, especially if you make any changes to files in /Cham/Extra/Extensions. I don't remember at the moment if you went through the v1.15 Update guide, but if not, everyone should do that. The next thing you could do, if not done already, is update to 10.6.5 and use Taptun's kernel (again, sorry if you have already done all this). Once all that is done and you haven't made any changes, you should not continually have those issues.

 

i thought i did all that the only thing it took me awhile to get was the new kernel cause i didn't know where it was exactly. i'd b happy to wipe & test once u get your new guides done but not until then i've got too much {censored} loaded on this thing & it'd b too much of a pain

 

can someone tell me if i need to add more ram?

 

[Mammoth]

i thought i did all that the only thing it took me awhile to get was the new kernel cause i didn't know where it was exactly. i'd b happy to wipe & test once u get your new guides done but not until then i've got too much {censored} loaded on this thing & it'd b too much of a pain

 

can someone tell me if i need to add more ram?

 

 

Great that you will be willing to test the new installation guide and CD when finished. I'm working on a lot of new things but mostly I want it to be very stable.Looks like you have just a little over 500 MB free, so you might benefit from more. Personally, I don't like NOT having 1 to 1 matched memory (2 GB + 2 GB, or 4 GB + 4 GB). You have 2 GB + 1 GB. So a cheap way to go is get rid of the 1 GB and get an exact match of the 2GB you already have.

[Mammoth]

Hey guys.

 

I just spent the last 5h on making a auto DSDT patcher for our DV6 (and possibly DV7 and DV8 aswell).

It's got i7 speed stepping integrated, so if you don't have i7, just take that part out.

 

First you need to download the DSDT Auto Patcher

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...howtopic=235523

 

Then unpack the DV6.zip folder to DSDT Auto Patcher/packs.

 

Please test if it works for you, I only tested on my DV6t, but it should work on all DV6.

 

Hey NIXin,

 

So I tried this out with your DV6 pack on my DV8 and I got these three errors:

 

 

[Line 10093 type Error message Name already exists in scope (EJET)]

[Line 12289 type Error message Name already exists in scope (TBOF)]

[Line 12290 type Error message Name already exists in scope (TSWH)]

 

Any thoughts on how I might still be able to get this to work on my machine?

 

I have already run and submitted the send_me.zip, so hopefully he will be able to create a pack specifically for my DV8, but would be cool if I could get yours to work until then.

 

Thanks!

 

UPDATE:

 

OK, so I just went through the patch file, found those sections for EJET and TBOF and removed them, then I was able to auto patch a dsdt.aml for my DV8. I couldn't find an entry for TSWH, but once I removed the other two it was fine. Testing on it now; so far so good. Sleep, lid close sleep, works, GeekBench exactly same as with previous DSDT... everything seems the same.

 

I'm going to open it up in DSDTSE and have a look at it.

 

If anyone else with at DV8 (or other) wants to try this DSDT and report back your findings, that would be great:

 

dsdtAutoPatchDV8.aml.zip

(I cleaned this one up as there were some warnings, and I also added the Brightness Slider (which doesn't work)).

 

I need to come up with a solid DSDT before progressing further on the new Installation Guide and CD.

 

 

One problem I think we still have with this DSDT is the fan running continuously. When in Windows 7, this is not the case. This is a big issue for me as it is really loud and annoying.

[Mammoth]

Hey all,

 

I just made a new, small discovery I want to share with you all. While we are still trying to figure out how to get the brightness slider to work, we DO have access to a working contrast slider!

 

Go into System Preferences, Universal Access (of all places!), and it's right there. I moved mine almost a 1/4 of the way from far left to right and my display looks WAY better! Try it out.

 

FOUND

 

I found a free app that lets us control the brightness, so until we can get it to work natively, we can use this:

 

http://www.splasm.com/products/productbrightness.html

[Sammity]

Hey Mammoth,

 

Awesome stuff on the contrast slider in Universal access, a slight slider movement has really improved the screen.

Two things:

1)I've been trying to enable deep sleep when the battery is low, but naturally without correct information being sent it's not working as required, however I've installed the autodeepsleep package from post 10 in this link Deepsleep and like my macbook pro it does boot from the image file. Not 100% due to the incorrect battery information being represented but getting there.

2) Not a big thing but I've added the following text:

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>1920x1080x32</string>

to my com.apple.boot.plist and I can read the errors a little better, only useful for newbies I'm sure.

 

I'm happy to be a tester for 1.20 Thanks

[NIXin]

OK, so I just went through the patch file, found those sections for EJET and TBOF and removed them, then I was able to auto patch a dsdt.aml for my DV8. I couldn't find an entry for TSWH, but once I removed the other two it was fine. Testing on it now; so far so good. Sleep, lid close sleep, works, GeekBench exactly same as with previous DSDT... everything seems the same.

Great to hear!

I guess we don't need the EJET and TBOF patches - I added them, because I found those parts in the DSDT posted by yehia Amer inside his pack. To find out all the changes made to DSDT I diffed my raw DSDT with the patched one. Then I made all the patches - including the EJET and TBOF -I thought they were some sort of patches, but apparently it looks like they only exist in DV8 and are not patches a all We can safely delete them then, DV6 doesn't need them, and DV8 already has them. I guess your edit is not for DV8 but should work for all DV6, DV7, DV8 well.

Great to hear everything is working - this is a huge step, cause now you we should be able to generate proper DSDT quickly for any amount of RAM, and for other, custom hardware!

I still need to figure out how to add these two patches for making the extracted DSDT compile automatically, without any need for manual edits.

 

PS

Mammoth, could you post your raw, untouched DV8 DSDT? Thanks.

 

Cheers

 

PS2

btw. Sammity, for DV6, the proper value in boot plist would be:

	<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1366x768x32</string>

[Sammity]

PS

Mammoth, could you post your raw, untouched DV8 DSDT? Thanks.

 

Cheers

 

PS2

btw. Sammity, for DV6, the proper value in boot plist would be:

	<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1366x768x32</string>

 

Hi NIXin,

 

Thanks for your super work so far, I'm also using a DV8 series laptop like Mammoth and is the reason I'd posted the graphics key with 1920x1080x32

 

A few pages back you should find my DV8 DSDT, the spec of my computer can be seen in my sig. That should be a fresh DSDT after a 10.6.5 update and taptun's 64bit kernel, if that is of any use to you.

 

Thanks!

[NIXin]

Hello all,

 

Great news! How would you like to be able to install any Wi-Fi card in the top (original slot) and use it? I have found a thread where they show just how to do this, and the links are below.

Actually, there's a thread on insanelymac telling exactly what to do in order to remove the whitelist from BIOS in our DV6/7/8.

I did it for my BIOS - it's fairly simple once you debug to the right place in BIOS, literally we just have to change one byte, but I don't have any other WiFi cards yet to test. I am going to purchase one soon though.

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...=0#entry1522755

 

Here's the post if you want to give it a go and test for yourself. Our HP's are fairly safe to flash, even if you break the BIOS file - we have a boot block and we can recover by flashing from a USB stick.

 

Sammity - yes, no problem and thanks for DSDT! I posted the value so that DV6 users will know what to put there

[oskr66]

Hi Mammoth ,

you said : I am not using JmicronATA.kext, do you need it, and if so, what for?

 

 

Thanks for your reply , I had the JMicronATA.kext because someone suggested to me that the reason i was loosing my DVD drive every time I put the computer to sleep was because I did not have the correct 64 bit JmIcronATA. kext

Now , I removed it , and i have not seen the problem again , My DVD works every time I wake the computer !

Thanks for the help ! I really appreciate it ! I think it was an easy fix !

Now , I cant wait for someone to work on the fix for the " whitelist " on the BIOS , to see if we could make our wireless card work . Thanks again.....

[Mammoth]

Hey Mammoth,

 

Awesome stuff on the contrast slider in Universal access, a slight slider movement has really improved the screen.

Two things:

1)I've been trying to enable deep sleep when the battery is low, but naturally without correct information being sent it's not working as required, however I've installed the autodeepsleep package from post 10 in this link Deepsleep and like my macbook pro it does boot from the image file. Not 100% due to the incorrect battery information being represented but getting there.

 

Have you tried this:

 

http://www.jinx.de/SmartSleep.html

 

And if you have or do, is it better?

 

Great to hear!

 

Mammoth, could you post your raw, untouched DV8 DSDT? Thanks.

 

Cheers

 

NIXin,

 

Thanks so much for finding the Auto-patcher and all your hard work with it! I'm with you, this is a big step for all of us. You are personally helping me out because I am working on DSDT issues now.

 

I believe this is my clean DSDT (let me know if it looks otherwise):

MammothCleanDV8DSDT.aml.zip

 

I was fortunate that Mald0n (creator of the Auto-patcher) created a DSDT for my machine, which is here:

MammothMald0nDV8DSDT.aml.zip

 

For the Mald0n DSDT, the nVidia GT 230M code does NOT have to be explicitly entered into the DSDT because the newer Chameleon Boot loader (2.0-RC5-r674) auto detects it correctly, which I'm hoping will help us to be able to use a unified DSDT and have it all work on more machines.

 

If you can, take a look at the Mald0n DSDT and let me know if you see some other patches it needs.

 

Thanks!

[NIXin]

Hey all,

 

I just made a new, small discovery I want to share with you all. While we are still trying to figure out how to get the brightness slider to work, we DO have access to a working contrast slider!

 

Go into System Preferences, Universal Access (of all places!), and it's right there. I moved mine almost a 1/4 of the way from far left to right and my display looks WAY better! Try it out.

 

FOUND

 

I found a free app that lets us control the brightness, so until we can get it to work natively, we can use this:

 

http://www.splasm.com/products/productbrightness.html

Hey Mammoth. This only changes the brightness of colors, not the energy fed into the backlight - there's no point in using this. If you want hackin', it's better to just change the EC register directly.

[Mammoth]

Hey Mammoth. This only changes the brightness of colors, not the energy fed into the backlight - there's no point in using this. If you want hackin', it's better to just change the EC register directly.

 

How do we change the EC register? Do you think we are close to being able to make the slider or keys work?

 

Thanks.

[NIXin]

NIXin,

 

Thanks so much for finding the Auto-patcher and all your hard work with it! I'm with you, this is a big step for all of us. You are personally helping me out because I am working on DSDT issues now.

 

I believe this is my clean DSDT (let me know if it looks otherwise):

MammothCleanDV8DSDT.aml.zip

 

I was fortunate that Mald0n (creator of the Auto-patcher) created a DSDT for my machine, which is here:

MammothMald0nDV8DSDT.aml.zip

 

For the Mald0n DSDT, the nVidia GT 230M code does NOT have to be explicitly entered into the DSDT because the newer Chameleon Boot loader (2.0-RC5-r674) auto detects it correctly, which I'm hoping will help us to be able to use a unified DSDT and have it all work on more machines.

 

If you can, take a look at the Mald0n DSDT and let me know if you see some other patches it needs.

 

Thanks!

Hey, Ladies and Gentleman (are there any ladies here? lol)!

 

I just finished a proper 0.9 version of the auto-patcher for DVx! Try it out!

Now you can use it on pure, raw DSDT that you extracted from the machine - no need to do ANY edits whatsoever.

I've added all known hacks and I even found some that we can use (added them), but weren't using before!

All the stuff that Mald0n edited I already found out the hard way, but thanks for helping out anyway!

There are some comments in the auto-patcher file if you want to have a look at it.

Now let's all figure out the back light, here's a good topic where they have made a lot of progress:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=236835

 

See the attachment.

 

Cheers!

 

PS

Don't use the patcher on already pre-edited DSDT files - it's gonna be a mess, it's not made for that yet.

DV6.rar

[Mammoth]

Hey, Ladies and Gentleman (are there any ladies here? lol)!

 

I just finished a proper 0.9 version of the auto-patcher for DVx! Try it out!

Now you can use it on pure, raw DSDT that you extracted from the machine - no need to do ANY edits whatsoever.

I've added all known hacks and I even found some that we can use (added them), but weren't using before!

All the stuff that Mald0n edited I already found out the hard way, but thanks for helping out anyway!

There are some comments in the auto-patcher file if you want to have a look at it.

Now let's all figure out the back light, here's a good topic where they have made a lot of progress:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=236835

 

See the attachment.

 

Cheers!

 

PS

Don't use the patcher on already pre-edited DSDT files - it's gonna be a mess, it's not made for that yet.

 

 

Hi NIXin,

 

Just tried the new one and got 1 error, so it won't compile:

 

 

[Line 12300 type Error message syntax error, unexpected PARSEOP_IF ]

 

 

Let me know if you think you can fix this and I'll try it again.

[NIXin]

Hi NIXin,

 

Just tried the new one and got 1 error, so it won't compile:

 

 

[Line 12300 type Error message syntax error, unexpected PARSEOP_IF ]

 

 

Let me know if you think you can fix this and I'll try it again.

You're right.

It's because the nasty hack I had to apply (fix 1), there are a couple more methods in DV8.

Here's a working solution.

 

The only change is the first patch. Unfortunately there's no better way - this should be universal but there's no feature in the Patcher app to remove an "If" statement, hence why the hack is "nasty".

HP.rar

[NIXin]

I got backlight control! Details soon.

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...p;#entry1604406

[macq]

@NIXin

 

 

 

 

Great work .hav a dv6t- 2300,would be tryin your patcher and other patches,will report how it goes.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Mammoth for this wonderful thread.

[macq]

Hey, Ladies and Gentleman (are there any ladies here? lol)!

 

I just finished a proper 0.9 version of the auto-patcher for DVx! Try it out!

Now you can use it on pure, raw DSDT that you extracted from the machine - no need to do ANY edits whatsoever.

I've added all known hacks and I even found some that we can use (added them), but weren't using before!

All the stuff that Mald0n edited I already found out the hard way, but thanks for helping out anyway!

There are some comments in the auto-patcher file if you want to have a look at it.

Now let's all figure out the back light, here's a good topic where they have made a lot of progress:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=236835

 

See the attachment.

 

Cheers!

 

PS

Don't use the patcher on already pre-edited DSDT files - it's gonna be a mess, it's not made for that yet.

 

Where can we find the Auto Patcher 0.9 for the DVx as you say.I believe the attachment you have provided is just the patch.

 

Also please tell how to use the Auto patcher by Mald0n with this patch of yours, as there is no folder structure for putting this patch.Auto patcher seems to be an independent application with fixed patches for setups inbuilt.how do I use it to apply your patch?I am not very well versed with dsdt patching, hav extracted my dsdt.dsl though.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

My system specs - in my signature.

[spawnedc]

Hello again guys,

 

You are making a real progress I see Keep up the great work!

 

I'm planning to replace my current Wi-Fi card (Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 a/g/n, 8086:4239) with an Atheros AR9285 which is mentioned HERE. I'm planning to bu THIS ONE.

 

I'm just wondering if this card is in my DV8 1110ea's whitelist or not. Because I want to keep modifications at minimum. Also I wonder if there is a better card which is in DV8's whitelist and works out of the box with 10.6.5.

 

Those cards cost around 5-10 pounds which is quite affordable for anyone. So this seems the best solution so far.

 

Maybe we should wait for someone who could write a driver for our Wi-Fi card, what do you think

[Leopard1993]

Hello mammoth i have a dv6-1215sl but i haven't a nvidia graphic card only an ati mobility 4650 there's a solution for this?? Thank you for your answer

[Mammoth]

Hello mammoth i have a dv6-1215sl but i haven't a nvidia graphic card only an ati mobility 4650 there's a solution for this?? Thank you for your answer

 

Hello Leopard1993,

 

Having an ATI card is a problem, but a much larger problem for you is that your machine has and AMD CPU instead of Intel. If this is a newly purchased machine and you can return, exchange it, you should do that and get one with an nvidia graphics chip and Intel CPU. Most osX86 machines are Intel.

 

What we have here isn't going to work for you.

 

Hello again guys,

 

You are making a real progress I see Keep up the great work!

 

I'm planning to replace my current Wi-Fi card (Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 a/g/n, 8086:4239) with an Atheros AR9285 which is mentioned HERE. I'm planning to bu THIS ONE.

 

I'm just wondering if this card is in my DV8 1110ea's whitelist or not. Because I want to keep modifications at minimum. Also I wonder if there is a better card which is in DV8's whitelist and works out of the box with 10.6.5.

 

Those cards cost around 5-10 pounds which is quite affordable for anyone. So this seems the best solution so far.

 

Maybe we should wait for someone who could write a driver for our Wi-Fi card, what do you think

 

I think this is the best solution for all of us:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...=0#entry1522755

 

I don't know which cards are in the white list other than those supplied by HP.

 

You're right.

It's because the nasty hack I had to apply (fix 1), there are a couple more methods in DV8.

Here's a working solution.

 

The only change is the first patch. Unfortunately there's no better way - this should be universal but there's no feature in the Patcher app to remove an "If" statement, hence why the hack is "nasty".

 

Ok, getting closer! It was able to compile, and seemed to be working, but lid sleep isn't working properly. When I close the lid, it gets into a loop where after a period there is disk activity via the LED, then a speaker pop, then repeats the cycle. Upon lifting the lid, screen comes back, but there is the continuous "oops" tone, like a key is stuck or something. Pressing a key cancels the tone, then back to normal.

 

I just tried closing the lid a 2nd time, nearly the same except no continuous tone.

 

Sooooo close.

 

[NIXin]

Ok, getting closer! It was able to compile, and seemed to be working, but lid sleep isn't working properly. When I close the lid, it gets into a loop where after a period there is disk activity via the LED, then a speaker pop, then repeats the cycle. Upon lifting the lid, screen comes back, but there is the continuous "oops" tone, like a key is stuck or something. Pressing a key cancels the tone, then back to normal.

 

I just tried closing the lid a 2nd time, nearly the same except no continuous tone.

 

Sooooo close.

 

Don't have time to check now, but try it, I made some modifications. This sleep issue maybe happening because I added some more fixes to activate power-saving states for some devices, like firewire. Or the LPC injection that I also added (this should help a lot with getting temperatures low). If that's the issue, you can try removing those fixes and reapplying the patch. Some of the changes are inside the injections themselves, so if the sleep issue persists, tell me, and I'll remove all off the power-state fixes.

This new patcher that I did also enables backlight control. Not natively yet (external app), but I'm working on it.

After you've installed the new DSDT:

 

1. Download this kext, but don't install it: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1604584

2. Fix the permissions for the kext by typing in terminal:

sudo -s

chmod -R 755 GenericBrightness.kext/

chown -R root:wheel GenericBrightness.kext/

3. Every reboot, you have to manually load the kext by typing in terminal: sudo kextload GenericBrightness.kext

 

For some reason, the kext will kernel panic if we load it from /E/E, haven't tried /S/L/E though, but some other guy in that topic has the same problem.

 

Here's two little apps that enable us to control the backlight (don't use the kext form this package, but from the one above, this one is an older version):

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...st&id=81022

One of them is a terminal app, and the other is very nice GUI backlight changer.

 

Let me know of any bugs/ideas you might notice, either in the DSDT-Patch or backlight.

 

Cheers,

NIXin

 

PS

Credits for getting backlight goes to ivik form this topic: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=236835

 

 

EDIT:

Okay, I've checked. The sleep is still broken in the latest auto-patch, just like Mammoth described, except I don't get any sound poping problems, it just won't sleep, keeps turning the hard disk off and on. It's sleeping for a moment and then waking up.

HP_0.8.rar

[spawnedc]

I think this is the best solution for all of us:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...=0#entry1522755

 

I don't know which cards are in the white list other than those supplied by HP.

 

Thank you for your quick answer Mammoth.

 

I was looking at your antenna modification guid. I removed the HDD cover to see if there is an empty mini-PCI-E slot and saw that there is one but NOT full-sized (I guess, it looked too small to me ). That slot is, somehow, between 2 harddisks instead of under the primary HDD. It's available but there is no antenna cable near it. While reading your guide, I realized that I don't want to go that far to remove the case completely. Well, not for now, maybe when my dv8's warranty is over

 

Now I'm searching for a USB solution. I found Airlink 101 AWLL5088 which is small and compatible with both Mac & Win. I just wonder if it's going to work with my system without problems or not.

 

The other thing that made me to use a USB solution was the touch panel controls. My wireless connection drops time to time, and I see that the wireless indicator went red. This happens for both MAC and Win. So I thought that it would be a real problem even if I connect an internal wireless card. I did some search and saw that a lot of people complaining about this problem. BUT there is no solid solution. So I decided to use a USB adapter.

 

Please let me know your (not only Mammoth, everyone) thoughts about this.

[kellis]

got the brightness to work with the slider and hot key.

see my sig for my system.

am i the first one?