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

[DoiX]

I'll check the installer and report back in the mean time i PMed you with the DSDT. Possible errors you will encounter: reboot/shutdown bug, need to look into it, beside that it's pretty stable. If you have windows and know the avg battery life you have please compare with the one from this DSDT

[scrappy_coco]

Wow, about the ps2: it is indeed solved by putting my fingers on the trackpad just after one another instead of at the same time.

Then the 2 finger scrolling works.

interesting!!!

 

I started with IAtkos L1, so I'm interested if the apple ps2 kexts in L2 are different and work with fingers simultanious.

Can anyone post them?

 

@DoiX: I'm willing to test for you, I've got a 9 cells battery

 

PS People Installing by IAtkos L1 don't have the bootloader prefpane. The standard used smbios.plist is the one in the /Extra folder. If you use [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] it will change the one in /Extra.

I've got a hunch that DoiX package changes the one in the root folder. That would be the explanation why after installing his package with the 8,1 option it is not possible to boot directly but after using [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] it is. @DoiX can you have a look into this?

 

 

i have installed the PS/2 drivers of iAKTOS LION L2. the two finger scrolling is the same as yours, have to put fingers on the trackpad just after one another instead of at the same time.

 

but with this PS/2 the movement of the mouse is just perfect, like that of the windows, it does not have that lagging movement, like not moving smoothly

[AKennedy_4]

Thanks a TON guys! Never realized that it booted with the one using 3,1 instead of the one with which I was seeing which was in another folder. Never realized there were 2 of the smbios.plist files. Now I get it. Thanks a lot for helping me out. Will get my system fully running and let you know about the battery life test. My battery is as good as new as I dont charge/discharge it often. I only use AC power with charging disabled as I use it at home and hence it reduces the charge/discharge cycles giving my battery a greater life.

cheers and again thanks a ton

p.s AKennedy_4 please update your guide about the 2 smbios.plist files being created in the root and in the Extra folder and to delete the one with 3,1 and going to bootloader and changing it to the correct file.

 

EDIT: sound now works!! l502x one which wasnt working before! I think the problem was that it was loading the older smbios.plist file hence audio and battery didnt work, AKennedy_4 Please update your guide with this info thanks to DoiX and scrappy_coco for solving that problem

 

The guide uses DoiX's package installer to install the SmBios. It should copy and replace the default Mac 3,1 smbios. But I'll add that to the troubleshooting section soon

 

Tested out the DSDT to disable Nvidia card. first the intel graphics aren't picked up first off. Got a full HD screen. Smbios set to 8,2. But the graphics look like no DSDT is applied; The screen has a pink tink and cut half way in the middle. However, OSX picks up the USB 2.0 ports and the -v log says DSDT applied, so the DSDT is loaded during boot

 

Also, may be pure coincidence, but as soon as the bootloader loader the DSDT, the fan slowed down. Only thing I could notice without the screen working properly

Edited January 27, 2012 by AKennedy_4

[DoiX]

@AKenedy_4, yes, it doesn't inject duallink.. gave up on that and switched to efi string. Couple pages back i gave JKbuha a string that injects DualLink. Try the first one.

@birdibird, you too.

 

 

 

EFI One

8c0000000100000001000000800000000200000002010c00d041030a000000000101060000027fff0400240000004100410050004c00300030002c004400750061006c004c0069006e006b00000008000000010000001e0000004100410050004c002c006f0073002d0069006e0066006f0000001800000030490111111108000001f01f0100000010070000

 

EFI Two

8c0000000100000001000000800000000200000002010c00d041030a000000000101060000027fff0400240000004100410050004c00300030002c004400750061006c004c0069006e006b00000008000000010000001e0000004100410050004c002c006f0073002d0069006e0066006f0000001800000030490101010108000001f0ff0100000010070000

 

Please try these strings, one at a time.

Edited January 27, 2012 by DoiX

[birdibird]

@AKenedy_4, yes, it doesn't inject duallink.. gave up on that and switched to efi string. Couple pages back i gave JKbuha a string that injects DualLink. Try the first one.

@birdibird, you too.

Yep, that worked!

 

edit: great! The battery time shows now 6:52 iso 3:50 when unplugging the power (now while typing this post even 7:12!!)

timing how many hours it will do in reality

 

first little bug on restart: after logging out of osx laptop hangs on a black screen

[DoiX]

Yes, i'm aware of the shutdown/restart bugs. I'm working on the fix atm, i expect to be ready this hour.

 

I require a screenshot from one of you while using the normal/old DSDT file... Please go to System Information > PCI Cards. and screenshot that. Thank you!

Edited January 27, 2012 by DoiX

[adv392]

@DoiX I would be happy to test with nvidia card disabled. Have windows 7 will be updating my Ubuntu and getting the card to disable so that I can give you results on the battery life, I also have a display port to vga converter, if you need to test that.

6 cell battery, as good as new, not more than 10 charge and discharge cycles. Thank you

[DoiX]

@adv392, at the moment i need a ScreenShot of System Information > PCI Cards. After i get it, i will be able to finish the shutdown/reboot bug that my DSDT currently has, then i will send it to you.

[adv392]

@adv392, at the moment i need a ScreenShot of System Information > PCI Cards. After i get it, i will be able to finish the shutdown/reboot bug that my DSDT currently has, then i will send it to you.

Under PCI Cards I get "This computer doesn't contain any PCI cards. If you installed PCI cards, make sure they’re properly installed."

Screenshot attached,

screen shot of Graphics/Display also attached

Battery currently is around 55% and it shows 1:10 so guessing around 2 hours +- 20 minutes

Will test on windows and let you know

Thanks

[DoiX]

The restart/shutdown seems to be caused by the bootloader... i'll postpone the fix for later. Atm im focusing on fixing the god damn Nvidia GPU.. it's fully powered but won't get loaded properly. I suspect NVDAResman, and something about shared memory or framebuffer....

[Rockball73]

The restart/shutdown seems to be caused by the bootloader... i'll postpone the fix for later. Atm im focusing on fixing the god damn Nvidia GPU.. it's fully powered but won't get loaded properly. I suspect NVDAResman, and something about shared memory or framebuffer....

For me, shutdown is fully working. I only have problems with the restart option. And I updated to Chimera 1.7.0, always the same problem, with A06 bios. or A05...

[DoiX]

Didn't manage to fix the restart/shutdown issue... ACPI is really complicated... specifically the optimus {censored}, i didn't find any reff sheet on the internet for it so it's pretty much trial and error.

 

My latest edits however resulted in more heat reduction, this means the battery will last a bit longer since the fan will run less.

[Rockball73]

Oh great, how did you do that? Did you manage to stop powering some more useless parts of the XPS?

What concern my XPS (2430M + HD Screen 1366x768 + 4Go), my battery can last 4 hours when only browsing and listening to music with 90% brightness (tested this morning, at 8:12AM -> 4h08 and at 12h10 -> 12 minutes left).

Temperatures are always around 45-46°C, when I don't use it and nothing is running, it can decrease to 36°C and when I have iTunes, Safari, Mail and Micr. Word running, it's about 51°C... I find this results encouraging, compared to the temperatures in Win7 (around 55°C when not in use) and 3h15 n High Perf. mode...

[DoiX]

Yep, cleaned the DSDT a bit, i'll try to clean it even more.. but not now. I'm seriously late with some projects, my deadline is 1feb and i'm not even close to 50%.

[AKennedy_4]

Hey everyone, just got to testing the DSDT (Been very busy). First off, the first EFI string worked for me (Nvidia 525m with Full HD screen). Within the first couple seconds of boot, I noticed much better fan control, and less heat. Will try shutdown and restart functions and dive deeper into testing the battery. Thanks for the hard work

 

Indeed, the restart didn't work (Stuck at black screen), but the shutdown worked very quickly, almost too quickly lol

 

Now gonna try and test the battery life (9 cell):

Battery life seems close. However, I'm giving the edge to OS X here by about 30 minutes or so. A MAJOR improvement over the past DSDT, which burned the battery over twice as fast on windows

 

@Doix: I don't remember the L702x drivers making my speaker smell like it was burning. I've been using the 502x ones for a while now

 

Also I looked at my PCI cards using the normal DSDT, and can confirm what adv said, theres none there (Chimera 1.7 A07 BIOS)

Edited January 28, 2012 by AKennedy_4

[jnxjn]

Is it possible to install an Apple branded airport card in the extra pci-e slot? I have an Apple branded card and I want to use it on osx, but then on windows I would have 2 wifi cards. Is there a way to disable one card in windows?

Basically I'll have 2 cards. The stock wifi is for windows and the apple card for osx

[DoiX]

The fn + f2 key combo only disables what is present on the first slot of the laptop, you can keep the orignal card in the second slot and the apple one in the first

 

Other news: the low temps i showed in my previous post seem to have just been a simple anomaly.. my avg today is 50ª and it isn't any hotter/colder than yesterday.

 

Battery life: I've noticed we have 14 P-States compared to a MBP8 that has 24 (i7). By modding the pstates to have the same amount as the mbp we can have an even better battery life. Better just deactivate speedstep from the bios if you want the extra battery for portability.

[Rockball73]

The fn + f2 key combo only disables what is present on the first slot of the laptop, you can keep the orignal card in the second slot and the apple one in the first Other news: the low temps i showed in my previous post seem to have just been a simple anomaly.. my avg today is 50ª and it isn't any hotter/colder than yesterday. Battery life: I've noticed we have 14 P-States compared to a MBP8 that has 24 (i7). By modding the pstates to have the same amount as the mbp we can have an even better battery life. Better just deactivate speedstep from the bios if you want the extra battery for portability.

For the battery temperature, is it possible that it's lower on mine due to my i5-2430M? Your i7 is maybe more energy consumer than my i5...

 

If you want some more test on your DSDT, there's no problem for me, I can test it when I come back from work.

 

And, how do you disable speedstep in BIOS?

 

Thanks a lot, and good luck for your work and the L502x You make real good work!

[DoiX]

Yes, lower/less powerfull processors will requires less power hence will have less heat as for the bios speedstep just go to the second tab inside it and disable Intel Speed Step (or Turbo, can't remember exactly)

 

So far the DSDT is complete as in i've modded all i could.. i need to fix the damn restart bug and i will release it with a new pack.

[Rockball73]

Oh really great news!! It's very nice you are progressing so far with it. And if somebody (you, btw) could make the 540GT functional, this XPS would be very great "copy" of the MacBook Pro

 

Thanks for the information, I didn't know we could disable Intel Turboboost by changing an option in the bios... So I suppose it will disable TurboBoost for Win and OS X, as it's a bios option.

 

And, be sure that if you want somebody to test your new progress, about video card or something else you improved, I'll be your man!

Just PM me! I'm not sure I could answer you between 8am & 8pm (GMT+1) because I'll be at work, but after that, be sure I'd like to "help" you testing it.

[DoiX]

Will do. I'm rather annoyed by the fact that none bothers to reply to my topics on the forums where devs are still active.. ProjectOSX or Tony...

[one9092002]

@ doix is the nvidia card working for the l502x 15?

[Rockball73]

Will do. I'm rather annoyed by the fact that none bothers to reply to my topics on the forums where devs are still active.. ProjectOSX or Tony...

Oh, that's a problem indeed... Are there other forums with still active dev's?

[DoiX]

@ one9092002, optimus is not working yet and will not work as it does on windows... at best we can manage to activate the card and use it as primary but thats it. Nvidia GPU's are fully supported by OS X if you got a modded bios OR 3D displays..

 

@Rockball73, none that i know off the forums are flooded with people asking for other people to solve their problems, it's understandable why devs quit/retired..

[jkbuha]

 

Set the 0200 value on the 000000c line to 0300 try with 3000 or 0000 too, if i got the OS X drivers right... setting the value to an error would emulate the same kickstart you get from rotating

 

Hello mate, sorry for the delay. We've been quite busy on the BIOS mod front, and have made some good progress in the last 24 hours.

 

I've tried your suggestion, but it still produces the same issues on standard rotation. Anything else (90/180/270) works fine, which is weird. Why would you think it's a BIOS bug, because if so there would be a good way to try it out by modding the HD3000 BIOS with that of the XPS 15.

 

How's the DSDT coming along?

 

Cheers

jkbuha