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

[Monkeys]

Wow, so I tried the new DSDT and boot.plist. Now battery life is reporting over 4 hours on a full charge! Wiooo =D

 

Amazing work DoiX!

 

One thing I did notice though was that after the first reboot with the new DSDT and boot.plist, is that I was getting graphics glitches again.. Lots of them, in the sound =, - notification square, and in disk utility. So I first tried switching back to the old DSDT to see if that would fix it. But no, still there. So then I switched back to the old boot.plist, and added the efi string from the new one, whilst keeping the new nvidia-off DSDT, and Voila, no more glitches!

 

Not exactly sure why this would be, but I did notice that the old boot.plist includes a few keys which are left out of the enw one, which may be the culprits. Namely:

 

Boot Graphics=Yes

Quiet Boot=No

 

I dont really know what these keys do, care to shed any light on why you think I might be getting more glitches with them left out?

 

Again, great work with everything you have done here. You are an asset to the community.

 

@darren cox - Would be interested to hear how you went with the 10.7.3 update. Does it break/fix anything? Are there any improvements worth upgrading for?

[AKennedy_4]

10.7.3 is out... Am guessing to get the combo update and install pack 6 before reboot... Wish me luck lol!

 

Using a09 bios from dells site, and the new Dsdt shows huge 1hr+ gain in reported battery life (6cell - extends like an inch from bottom of laptop) so shows 4.5hrs from full charge which is basically same as windows!

 

Thought I remember DoiX saying the beta of the release broke a lot of things, but hey, try it and report back. Your probably best installing it on another primary partition so you don't lose your current OSX system. Good luck

[Monkeys]

Hello again guys,

 

Still so impressed with the new DSDT! I just ran my laptop just playing music on standby with some intemittent browsing over wifi for over 5 hours (with the 6 cell batter) That's pretty much double what I could do with the old DSDT! I knew something was up with the battery usage before, but didn't expect that it would get this much better =D

 

I still have a couple of minor issues though. If anyone else is having the same and or has any ideas about how to resolve them.

 

Firstly, since the new DSDT I have noticed that I am now getting the following line in my kernel log:

 

ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin::registerLPCDriver - WARNING - LPC device initialization failed: C-state power management not initialized

 

I am not too worried about this, as battery life is now quite sufficient. However if it could be improved then I am all for it! Does anyone have any ideas why I am getting this error, and how I might go about fixing it?

 

Secondly, it seems now that the flag which allows native resolution for the apple boot logo in the boot.plist, "Graphics Mode=1920x1080x32" (or whichever your native resolution is) no longer seems to work? Would this be due to the changes in the DSDT, and adding the EFI string to the boot.plist, which would prevent the native resolution from functioning correctly until after the OS has loaded? Or is there something else I am missing?

 

Finally, I still get very occasional kernel panics upon booting Lion (maybe 1 in 7 times). This seems to happen more often after restarting from windows, than it does from Lion - Lion. I haven't taken a picture of one yet but I will next time and post it here to see if anyone has any idea about why it might occur.

 

Great work to everyone here once again. Especialy DoiX!

[DoiX]

@Kirky, the OEM BIos.

 

@adv, i've read them,even posted there a while back.

 

@darren_cox, please do report back !

 

@Monkeys, thats bios related. After A07 the resolution is forced to 1344x1008. About your error, i'm not getting it, don't know if its serious or not.

The After Windows Boot KP are bootloader related.

 

Boot Graphics=Yes - You have the GUI when booting, instead of black screen

Quiet Boot=No - You have the wait screen, instead of booting straight away.

[Kirky]

I tried to install the 10.7.3 combo update, followed by Doix's L502v6 package, with speedstep and Aicpupm10.7.2 kext, repaired permissions etc but would not boot. Even tried the boot flags -v -f GraphicsEnabler=No cpus=1 busratio=20. I just get:

 

rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen

etc,

then

"uuid" Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOproviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</String><key>IOResourceMAtch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</dict> SNB Framebuffer did not show up, unload

 

sorry if there's spelling errors, typing on my phone!

[DoiX]

" SNB Framebuffer did not show up," It's a graphic problem.. did you have Screen Sharing activated on it before the update? You can try to log in via another computer using VNC for example. Check System Information > Displays... is your card properly detected?

 

Nvidia update: ALMOST THERE! I think...

 

I modified the IOPCIFamily.kext to hide the IGPU from being loaded by the system, essentially in the same way the unlocked bios OR 3D displays would do, unless i'm missing something and the process is more complex.

 

Even with this, drivers are not loading, it may be my fault... i modified them too much and forgot to revert them. I do know for sure that NVDAResman is being a douche and doesn't start, initially i thought it may the intel gpu's fault... now i don't know.

 

Would someone be kind enough to provide me with the following kexts from their 10.7.2 installation?

GeForce.kext
GeForceGA.bundle
GeForceGLDriver.bundle
GeForceVADriver.bundle
NVDAGF100HAL.kext
NVDAResman.kext
IONDRVSupport.kext
AppleACPIPlatform.kext
IOACPIFamily.kext

 

About 10.7.3: Several people reported problems with Intel HD Graphics... don't bother updating until it gets debugged.

Edited February 2, 2012 by DoiX

[Rockball73]

@ DoiX :

 

Hey dear, here are the files! I think these are the one installed with iAtkos L1 and not some modified ones : https://rapidshare.com/files/1617755860/Kexts_for_DoiX.7z

Pleased to help you,

 

And, congrats for the great advances

[adv392]

@DoiX Here are the files you asked for [http://www.box.com/s/9gjafin2h3t3j3a84khx]

updated the DSDT now for the battery test

1st restart, unticked "reopen windows after reboot" and hung on black screen (known issue) but the fan speed went up and slowed down.

Congrats on the Nvidia card success. I can smell the card powering our hackint0sh very soon all hail DoiX

[Kirky]

" SNB Framebuffer did not show up," It's a graphic problem.. did you have Screen Sharing activated on it before the update? You can try to log in via another computer using VNC for example. Check System Information > Displays... is your card properly detected?

 

About 10.7.3: Several people reported problems with Intel HD Graphics... don't bother updating until it gets debugged.

 

I restored it back to 10.7.2 for the moment. Never used VNC, but I do have Remote Desktop installed, but not sure how I would check the computer from another Mac system if I can't even boot the laptop?

 

Good luck with the Nvidia card. You've done an impressive job on it so far!

[DoiX]

Thanks for the files guys, unfortunately it wasn't the kext files.

 

@Kirky, a black screen with white text doesn't mean the system isn't booted, it just means that the display isn't active (like when you don't use MBP8,1+ system definition) SNB is the kext that handles the graphic output, usually when it gives that specific error is related to the compatibility of the IGPU resulting in a failure to output the desktop on your internal display.

 

More about the damn nvidia: i'm rather positive that if i can get my hands on a full windows/linux SSDT dump from someone that has the GT5xxM working on osx using a modded bios or a 3D display i can get the card working. Where to find such people?

[iMac2009]

Great job!

 

Updated to A09 BIOS, new DSDT and Kextpack v6.

Any Chances getting reboot and bootlogos's correct aspectratio @ 1920x1080 working again?

both worked fine @ BIOS A07.

 

I tried a few variations on the Graphics Mode string, resulting in different resolutions that are displayed incorectly.

 

EDIT: Wake isn't working for me

[DoiX]

@iMac2009, no.. like i said a couple of times, Boot res is forced by the bios, i can do nothing about that, restart bug by the DSDT is probably related to the same bug that keeps your PC from waking (which got broken after A06 bios). My top priority now is getting nvidia to work. Then i can "die" in peace.

[owen77]

Wow! Is the Nvidea graphiccard finally working???

 

Greets,

Owen

[NotMeAgain]

@iMac2009, no.. like i said a couple of times, Boot res is forced by the bios, i can do nothing about that, restart bug by the DSDT is probably related to the same bug that keeps your PC from waking (which got broken after A06 bios). My top priority now is getting nvidia to work. Then i can "die" in peace.

 

DoiX, I have to thank you so much.

 

I got this laptop instead of a MBP

 

And with your assistance I now have fully working lion 10.7.2 (minus the nvidia).

 

All i can say is thank you for your efforts, if there is any way I can help let me know!

[Kirky]

Just a reminder people while Doix is making some amazing progress with the Nvidia card. If any of you are still having various graphics glitches, check to see if you've got memory in slots 1 and 2, if so, remove one memory module and see if it fixes the problem!

[NotMeAgain]

I had the "fading white screen of death" until I manually edited smbios.plist and specifed macbook8,2.

 

I think I have an after market panel in this laptop (Bought from refurb outlet) as there is no EDID info in windows.

[darren cox]

Never got to try 10.7.3, as realised my sound has screwed up again and struggling to fix it today

 

Weird was the A09 Bios that had messed up the sound!?! Flashed back to A06 and working again...after a hairy few tries of restoring older Audio Kexts etc Thank god for time machine lol

[DoiX]

The only things the bios updates mess with my laptop are sleep/wake and boot resolution. Sound never got broken and i've flashed/reflashed the a09 bios several times...

 

Anyway, don't try 10.7.3 yet

[darren cox]

I know its really weird. Pretty sure I had to use the 702x kexts for audio as none of the others ever worked. With the A09 bios sound is detected, mic works but not the speakers. Haven't tried headphones but it is weird!

 

EDIT

 

On old DSDT and A06 and 702x audio kexts all is good.

 

Upgraded to v6 pack DSDT no next changes, got KP on boot.

 

Upgraded back to A09 biosbooted and sound worked. Shutdown and restarted and no sound again. Found that by selecting every output in turn in sys prefs then back to internal speakers started it working again. Weird and a bit annoying but the extra battery life is nice

 

Would be amazing if the Nvidia card could be activated though would save me ever having to boot windows if skyrim mac port ran on the 540m

[fernandoalrs]

I got my XPS running 10.7.3 perfectly with SpeedStep.

 

The only thing I need to do was patch the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext with this patch (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=258611&st=280&p=1776257entry1776257) before reboot, after install 10.7.3 combo update.

 

Here's a screenshot of my Geekbench score running 10.7.3 with SpeedStep.

 

[jaundice]

I also have 10.7.3 running with speedstep by patching AICPUPM with the same binary as @fernandoalrs. I am using the DSDT/SSDT (9TS) and kexts from the v6 pack.

Idles at around 50-53C.

Restart is temperamental but does work sometimes. Shutdown is fine. Currently using bios v6 having reverted back from v9.

Many thanks for all the hard work that goes into this, especially DoiX.

[darren cox]

I also have 10.7.3 running with speedstep by patching AICPUPM with the same binary as @fernandoalrs. I am using the DSDT/SSDT (9TS) and kexts from the v6 pack.

Idles at around 50-53C.

Restart is temperamental but does work sometimes. Shutdown is fine. Currently using bios v6 having reverted back from v9.

Many thanks for all the hard work that goes into this, especially DoiX.

 

I can't seem to get the new DSDT working with the v6 bios, get an instant KP at boot? change the boot flag DSDT back to the old one and it's fine - Any ideas?

[jaundice]

I can't seem to get the new DSDT working with the v6 bios, get an instant KP at boot? change the boot flag DSDT back to the old one and it's fine - Any ideas?

 

10.7.2 or 10.7.3? what KP message do you get?

[fernandoalrs]

I'm using the A09 BIOS and the only problem is the restart/sleep.

[jaundice]

I'm using the A09 BIOS and the only problem is the restart/sleep.

That is what I experienced with v9 too, but I decided to go with sleep