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[Guide] Dell XPS 15 L502X (Early 2011) Snow Leopard Install (possibly L702x too)

wen1

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wen1
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Please check the more up to date tutorial by DoiX at Page 6. I have not had much time to spend on this. Thanks a lot DoiX for continuing this effort.

 

This a rough guide on how to install Snow Leopard on Dell XPS 15 L502x. Might also work for XPS 17 L702X

 

There are still a few things that do not work. But i am hoping that if i post these here some of you may team up and be able to figure out the things that do not work.

 

This is put together with input from a lof of great individuals on this forum.

 

What Works

 

1. Proper CPU detection

2. Wired Network

3. Intel HD Graphics

4. Native Video resolution through Intel HD 3000 (some artifacts exist with 4GB ram)

5. Webcam

6. Some power management.

7. Audio

 

What does not work

 

1. Wifi (get a Dell DW 1510 on ebay, works like a charm. Search for dw1510 or PW934)

2. Sleep

3. Nvidia Graphics

3. External display ports (miniDP, HDMI etc)

 

 

Things that you need

 

1. [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] Legacy Boot CD

2. Retail Mac OSX DVD 10.6.3 (Extracted to a DMG file)

3. 8GB or Larger USB drive

4. 10.6.8 combo update (10k524)

5. A working MAC system (even your own laptop running bare bones 10.6.0 will work). You can just wipe it and reinstall after you create your usb disk.

 

 

 

Your dell comes with MBR partitioned from the the factory. And we also found that the current version of Bios only allows booting from MBR drives (GPT partitioned drives do not boot)

 

Here are the steps. You will have to perform these steps on a currently functioning mac.

 

 

Creating your USB install disk

 

 

0. On your xps, boot into windows 7, shrink the partition or find a way to create a new partition with appropriate size for your OSX needs.

 

1. On a mac, Create 10.6.3 USB drive by using disk utility (Restore the Retail DMG file to USB drive)

 

2. Now modify two files on USB to enable MBR support. Download the files needed from here http://deviato.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/os...ned-hard-disks/ and copy them to appropriate location on the USB drive as shown on that site.

 

3. Add USB3 kext to our install USB drive. Download from http://www.kexts.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=612 and extract PXCHD.kext from it. Copy it to "/System/Library/Extensions" on the USB drive.

 

4. Now you have your 10.6.3 install image ready on a USB drive.

 

 

Installing on your laptop

 

 

5. Plug the USB drive into one of the blue USB ports (i used one on the left when looking at the laptop)

 

6. Use [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] Legacy to boot and choose the select USB drive to install with the following options "-v -f GraphicsEnabler=No cpus=1 busratio=20" .

My busratio is 20 for i7-2630qm. look on intels site to figure out what it is for your processor http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52219

 

7. It will boot to welcome screen, once you select the launguage and hit next go to disk utility and prep the osx partition you created by formatting it with MAC OS Journalled format.

 

8. Close Disk Utility and return back to the installation screen. Now select that partition and choose default install options and install.

 

9. Once install is complete it will restart and fail to boot.

 

10. Do not worry, put the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] legacy CD, boot and select the new OSX partition this time with options "-v GraphicsEnabler=No cpus=1 busratio=20" (notice -f is no longer needed)

Go throught the welcome video/setup process (Do not select the webcam to capture snapshot for your icon).

 

11. Now, remove ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext from IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext with following steps. In a terminal window type the following. You should not see any error messages after each command.

 

 

sudo -s
cd /System/Library/Extensions/IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins
rm -R ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext
touch /System/Library/Extensions

 

12. Restart the system by selecting restart from the menu. It will take some time to reboot, Wait for it to shutdown. Do not turn the power off by holding power button.

 

13. Boot with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] legacy cd again ("-v GraphicsEnabler=No cpus=1 busratio=20").

 

14. Once back in Snow leopard, Copy 10.6.8 combo update (use your wired network connection, it should work) to desktop. Install 10.6.8 Combo update (Do not reboot)

 

15. Run [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] (3.7.0) with following options (Do not Reboot after completion)

 

System Utilities

FakeSMC

NullCPUPowermanagement

USB3 Reneseas Kext

Chimera v1.4.1

MacBook Pro8,1

Kext Helper

realtek gigabit kext

 

 

16. Now extract dsdt from the attached zip and rename it to DSDT.aml and copy it to the root of your snow leopard drive. Make sure it is named exactly "DSDT.aml" (case-sensitive). (Note: The attached DSDT only works for L502X. I am still looking for a L702x non-3d DSDT and L702x w/3D DSDT. Please share is you have a working DSDT)

 

17. Edit com.apple.Boot.plist in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist to include the following

 

<key>device-properties</key>
<string>600000000100000001000000540000000100000002010c00d041030a000000000101060000027fff04001e00
00004100410050004c002c006f0073002d0069006e0066006f0000001800000030490111111108000001f01f01000000
10070000</string>
<key>DSDT</key>
<string>DSDT.aml</string>

 

18. Install all the 5 kexts from the attached l502x zip file with Kext Helper.

 

19. Now Restart by selecting restart from the menu.

 

20. Now the laptop should boot with no boot options required, Native Resolution and Audio should work smoothly.

 

 

Update 5/28/2011: Native video resolution now works.

 

Thanks to Kyle_C and Lenovo3000 from this thread: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...50332&st=60

 

 

Research Stuff:

 

Nvidia:

 

Can possibly be enabled as a second graphics card. It appears that optimus is purely a driver implementation where they switch between the two available cards based on the need (At least on the windows side).

 

miniDP is connected to Intel HD

HDMI is connected to nVidia on L502x

 

Here is the messages i see when i boot with GraphicsEnabler = Yes

 

nVidia Unknown 0MB NVc1 [10de:0df5] :: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)

ERROR: dcbtable_version is 0x10

ERROR: nVidia ROM Patching Failed!

Intel VGA Controller [8086:0116] :: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0) (currently NOT SUPPORTED)

dsdt.wen1.zip

l502x_v2.zip

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Krooklyn
Krooklyn
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Awesome Wen1, I'm going to try this stuff on my m14x, will report back.

 

Hopefully this will work on my laptop too (the graphics situation). Btw, now that you have the intel hd3000 working, were you abLE to get your gt540m working?

 

Also I have some sort of bug that doesn't allow snow leopard to recognize my USB2.0 and when I use the NEC3.0 drivers for my 3.0s, the system hangs when I plug something into it....working on finding a fix.

 

What audio does the L502X have? The m14x has ALC665, so I have been fooling around with a few different options for that, still not fully working yet.

 

Anyhow, thanks for the info. Post back soon.

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wen1
wen1
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Please make sure to follow the latest guide. I have made quite a few changes.

 

L502x also has a ALC665 and it does not work at the moment. I think that will require custom DSDT. I reached out to maldOn to see if he can help with it.

 

My USB3 ports are the only ones that work too. the black usb2 ports do not work. have not spent much time with it.

 

Awesome Wen1, I'm going to try this stuff on my m14x, will report back.

 

Hopefully this will work on my laptop too (the graphics situation). Btw, now that you have the intel hd3000 working, were you abLE to get your gt540m working?

 

Also I have some sort of bug that doesn't allow snow leopard to recognize my USB2.0 and when I use the NEC3.0 drivers for my 3.0s, the system hangs when I plug something into it....working on finding a fix.

 

What audio does the L502X have? The m14x has ALC665, so I have been fooling around with a few different options for that, still not fully working yet.

 

Anyhow, thanks for the info. Post back soon.

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Krooklyn
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Update: Intel HD3000 is working flawlessly now (GraphicsEnabler=No)! Recognized perfectly fine in System Profiler, but my PCIe (GT555m) not recognized. I'm wondering if it's a modifier like the device Id we had to input in boot, I'm going to try a few things.

 

Were you able to get the gt450m recognized?

 

Yeah, my USBs don't even work with the NEC3.0 kext from [url=&quot;http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/&quot;]#####[/url] 3.7.0. After installed, system Profiler recognizes them, but when I plug something into it, it Hangs the whole system until I reboot. Even if I unplug the device from the USB, it still hangs the system.

 

I'm just glad I got another step further with the graphics, this is huge. I will keep posting more stuff after testings.

 

Thanks again Wen.

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wen1
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Awesome. That is great news.

 

No, i do not have the nvidia card working yet. I have not spent much time on it yet.

 

It might need modification of the info.plist with the right IDs in the two kexts (GeForce.kext and NVDA100Hal.kext). I read that article somewhere.

 

I got the audio working partially. It is still distorted.

 

Custom DSDT from wald0n, AppleHDADisabler.kext, VoodooHDA 0.2.1

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SteveRings
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Awesome. That is great news.

 

No, i do not have the nvidia card working yet. I have not spent much time on it yet.

 

It might need modification of the info.plist with the right IDs in the two kexts (GeForce.kext and NVDA100Hal.kext). I read that article somewhere.

 

I got the audio working partially. It is still distorted.

 

Custom DSDT from wald0n, AppleHDADisabler.kext, VoodooHDA 0.2.1

 

 

My L702x (no HD graphics so that issue is moot) now has ALC665 audio working, USB2.0 ports work (after boot - I haven't tried to boot from them yet), Bluetooth (via the Centrino 1030N) and the FERMI freezes seem to have stopped although I can take no credit for that.

 

My DSDTs are attached the so you can extract the differences and attempt to fill in some of your gaps. I use an app called p4merge which will mark the differences between DSDTs and make cutting and pasting much easier.

 

Audio was pulled from the L701x topic version 3 zip file. I used an new app from EvOS86 team called DSDTFixer to do initial mods.

 

I will eventually write this up but I am trying to finish video first; I've got 1920x1080 but no QE/CL.

 

You should ignore the included ioreg listing ...

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wen1
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Steve,

 

Thanks for your post. I got the audio working very well now. I will be attaching the appropriate kexts to the original post.

 

 

 

Is yours a 3D display? If so, isn't the optimus disabled? I would have expected it to be easier to install with Nvidia graphics only.

 

Also, does sleep work for you?

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Krooklyn
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Wen1, how did you get the audio working properly? through DSDT?

 

I'm at complete loss when it comes to DSDT. I don't know/understand how to extract mine nor how to read/edit it.

 

Any help?

 

Only ask about Audio because i installed the kexts and im not getting it to work.

 

You install all of them in System/Library/Extensions/ or Extra/Extensions/

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wen1
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Yes it is a combination of those three kexts and DSDT

 

Reach out to mald0n at this thread http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=235523

 

Very helpful guy. He created the DSDT for me.

 

Here is the tool you run on your laptop, it creates a zip file on your desktop and upload it to his thread.

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...st&id=81816

 

 

 

Wen1, how did you get the audio working properly? through DSDT?

 

I'm at complete loss when it comes to DSDT. I don't know/understand how to extract mine nor how to read/edit it.

 

Any help?

 

Only ask about Audio because i installed the kexts and im not getting it to work.

 

You install all of them in System/Library/Extensions/ or Extra/Extensions/

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Krooklyn
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Krooklyn,

 

Looks like mald0n already replied to your request. See if that DSDT works.

 

That guy is awesome. I wonder if he ever sleeps?

 

He is a great asset to the forum.

 

 

 

nvidia driver thread for GT420m. We might be able to use something similar.

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2388190

 

Yeah, I know! He is amazing. Yeah, I now have everything fully working except my USB3.0 Ports (They are recognized in System Profiler, but when I plug something into them my system freezes and I have to reboot). Atleast my one 2.0 port works now. Just need to figure out this GFX situation. I have been trying multiple things, but nothing yet.

 

The link above is broken.

 

Also I have one other issue, in System Profiler under Diagnostics it tells me Power on Self-Test: Failed due to memory in banks 0 and 2 but in my Memory section on SP it reads my Mem fine. Not sure why I'm getting this error. hmmmm

 

I think that Dell's optimus implementation is simply two graphics cards. The drivers seem to control on what gets used for what on the windows side.

 

I wonder if we can leverage the two graphics card approach below

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=183349

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=208408

 

Yeah, I was leaning towards this way in the beginning because I have done this method for my GTX 260s that I had in my old desktop hack, which absolutely works...when you are able to remove one card at a time from a PCI slot to read the correct location of each card for each slot. Where as in our laptops, even if the Intel HD 3000 and the nVidia card are separate, we wouldnt be able to get the correct outputs for each chip/card. Hence why I asked Lenovo3000 how he ended up with the EFI String to input for the HD 3000 that we are using right now. Because in theory, if we knew that, we would be one step closer I believe. IDK, this is all a hunch.

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wen1
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I was looking at the IORegDumps to figure that out.

 

Apparently you can figure that out with both of them in there. But you seems to have more experience with it.

 

I am still trying to myself familiarized with all this.

 

 

 

@HOTcakes, Do you see horizontal lines here and there on the desktop? Or is it just me? What kind of CPU do you have? I have a 2630qm.

 

Actually the web cam works without any custom kexts after the DSDT update. Forgot to update the OP.

 

Does sleep work?

 

I think the webcam works with anyisightcamera.kext, at least it works for me, and u guys probably already no this but i only get artifacts after the display goes to sleep and comes back. But other than that my l502x is a beautiful macbook
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HOTcakes
HOTcakes
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yeah i see horizontal line and they dance around a bit. I have the 2620m with an nvidia 540 video card. this display likes sick with the intel at native res btw.

And sleep isn't working for me, when i try to put it to sleep the screen turns off and the computer remains on and it wont return from sleep. is there any type of sleep fix?

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wen1
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Yes this is the best 1080p display i have seen on a laptop ever. 90% color gamut definitely helps.

 

That was my main reason going with this laptop.

 

So it looks the sleep and display behavior is the same on my side. But we will slowly get there. The sleep is supposed to work with the patched DSDT.

 

 

 

On the nvidia front, i dont really need both cards work. However, i was thinking that it is easier to get the HDMI working with that card than display port on the intel.

 

I believe Nvidia->HDMI and Intel->miniDP is how they are connected.

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HOTcakes
HOTcakes
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yeah Im good with the intel card but i still wouldn't mind the nvidia working as well.

 

Randomly when i turned it on after doing nothing different mac detected the built in bluetooth. Is bluetooth working for u and is it built into the wireless card cause i just ordered a dell mini card.

 

and about sleep, im about to try sleepenabler.kext

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wen1
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Yes bluetooth is built in to the wifi card and you will loose it when you replace wifi card. I do not use bluetooth much on this laptop.

 

 

 

Let me know if sleepenabler works for you. I have not tried it.

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HOTcakes
HOTcakes
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probably a coincidence but upon trying to restart after installing the kext I got a kernel error and then it would not boot. I didn't get a kernel error it just crashed after deleting the kext i got the same result. Reinstalling and trying again.

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rawbkk
rawbkk
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hi guys,followinf this id like to say thanks for your efforts.i have snow leopard installed on mine but some things doenst work,so i will follow this guide today and will report later.

what i want to say is,i ordered today a broadcom wlan/bluetooth combo card: BCM943225HMB

this one should work out of the box at least wlan,since its the same chipset apple is using.ordered fom china over ebay,guess it will take 10 days to arrive and i will let you know if this is maybe the solution for people who need the bluetooth too like me since im using motorola bluetooth headphones.

i will update you on this.

greets kai

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SteveRings
SteveRings
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hi guys,followinf this id like to say thanks for your efforts.i have snow leopard installed on mine but some things doenst work,so i will follow this guide today and will report later.

what i want to say is,i ordered today a broadcom wlan/bluetooth combo card: BCM943225HMB

this one should work out of the box at least wlan,since its the same chipset apple is using.ordered fom china over ebay,guess it will take 10 days to arrive and i will let you know if this is maybe the solution for people who need the bluetooth too like me since im using motorola bluetooth headphones.

i will update you on this.

greets kai

 

Another option would be to move the 1030N over to the WIFI slot and connect those antennas (black/white) to keep the bluetooth and then use the Dell 1510 for Wireless.

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