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

[Monkeys]

@pcwiz13 - Hmm, that really should have worked.. Have you checked that sleep works in Windows? Also check your bios settings that all power saving options are enabled? If you aren't sure which ones, try resetting to the factory defaults. That's should enable them.

 

Let us know how you go =)

[Rockball73]

Hello, I've the same problem than pcwiz13 since I got OS X working on my L502x.

 

My computer goes to sleep easily but when it wakes from it, I've got 2 situations :

• The computer wakes up and shows the OS X desktop, but touchpad, mouse and keyboard on responding : Solution is to use the kext from DoiX package (I suppose it's VoodooPS2controller. Only "problem" for me is that I find these touchpad kext non precise. It's a bit laggy ;
  
• The computer wakes up but shows a black screen with the multicoloured spinning wheel : I've got no solution for it
  

Hope it can help. See you all

[NotMeAgain]

Hello, I've the same problem than pcwiz13 since I got OS X working on my L502x.

 

My computer goes to sleep easily but when it wakes from it, I've got 2 situations :

• The computer wakes up and shows the OS X desktop, but touchpad, mouse and keyboard on responding : Solution is to use the kext from DoiX package (I suppose it's VoodooPS2controller. Only "problem" for me is that I find these touchpad kext non precise. It's a bit laggy ;
  
• The computer wakes up but shows a black screen with the multicoloured spinning wheel : I've got no solution for it
  

Hope it can help. See you all

 

 

If you guys are using the 3D Display, it will be using the Nvidia - which doesn't resume from sleep very well.

 

In response to the "Sleep display to make it brighter" - yes this definitely works, I was surprised I had not noticed this before!

I can try doing some tweaking, check the _WAK method to see what it does to the backlight setting (must learn some more about acpi though )

 

 

I have absolutely no idea what PS2 stuff i'm using, I installed [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url], restarted and mouse was crazy fast and unprecise, rebuilt kernelcache and rebooted and mouse is normal, 2 finger scrolling etc, I think it's just the default ApplePS2Controller kexts.

 

Make sure you use Doix's DSDT for your panel, sleep works just dandy for me with that, and make sure you use the patched CPU extensions n stuff in Doix's v6 pack.

[Kirky]

@Doix, or anyone else who can help

 

Just wondering how you've got your Bluetooth card setup in the second mini pci slot? I've got the 1510 card in the first slot and have attached the two antenna connectors to it, but that doesn't leave any cables free to attach to the Bluetooth card for frequency distance - any ideas?

[Rockball73]

I also got a question on the same topic :

Is it possible to connect a Broadcom Bluetooth chip BCM92045NMD to our beloved L502x? If possible, can someone tell me where is the connector of it?

The cable ref (for the cable to connect it to the MB) is : DD0ZD1TH001

Thanks a lot.

[DoiX]

@Kirky, i just plugged it in the slot, no wires attached to it. I can't tell the exact range of it because... well... iphones suck when it comes to bluetooth... but it works.

[Kirky]

@Kirky, i just plugged it in the slot, no wires attached to it. I can't tell the exact range of it because... well... iphones suck when it comes to bluetooth... but it works.

 

Hmm, thats what I did as well, range is about 2 inches! I need to look into this further. Thanks.

[amh10]

I have come back having given up on this.

 

I erased my partition.

Installed iAktos L1, with Voodoo PS/2 and Voodoo Audio

Upgraded to 10.7.3 via combo update

Installed patched file from here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=257950&view=findpost&p=1793263

 

And it works! I didn't install anything from the v6 kextpack. I simply changed the definition to Macbook Pro 8,2 15.4"

 

Audio/video res appears to be correct.

 

Can anyone explain this?

 

amh10

[DoiX]

@amh10 You had 2 smbios.plist files, one in root and another in extra. Error described couple posts back, caused by my v5 installer, the install path got trunked for some reason.

[sheyac]

Just to update, I changed my SSDT from the one in the v6 pack for an i5-2430m specific one and my geek bench score improved by 30% if anyone has i5-2430/2410 you can download the i5 SSDT from this post:http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=259&t=42503&sid=31df4c5d936c31f6de95a7a9effb3173 thread.

 

I'm not sure the of the effect of having the Nvidia_off from the v6 plus this SSDT together (and EFI injection for display 1080p) but it seems to work ok.

 

Only have problems with keyboard/touch pad in the control log but they work anyway - and some errors about AppleHDA but again audio works ok. Thanks for everything DoiX and everyone else on here.

[DoiX]

You don't need the SSDT.. just use GeneratePStates=Yes and GenerateCStates=Yes, it will generate the same results for i5/i3. The SSDT is sometimes needed for i7 processors because for some reason not all pstates are used. Atm i'm not using any SSDT, only bootloader flags, geekbench score is around 9400+ same as with the file.

 

The function used to deactivate the NVidia is not affected by cpu related stuff like SSDTs.

 

I'll have to put a picture with BOLD RED text at the beginning of the installer to let people know it's only for i7's cpus.

 

But for now: PEOPLE WITH i3/i5 CPUS, DO NOT USE THE SSDT FROM MY INSTALLER, IT'S ONLY FOR i7 models. JUST USE GenerateCStates=Yes and GeneratePStates=Yes

[Monkeys]

@sheyac - Could you please post the SSDT that you used here?

 

Also, how is your battery life with that SSDT? I am going to try it out tonight, but don't want to sacrifice much battery life for extra performance.

 

Thank you for this information though, the more knowledge we get, the closer we get to a perfect hackbook pro!

 

 

Edit - Just saw Doix's post after mine. Will try without the SSDT instead..

 

[darren cox]

Sorry DoiX, however I just tried the SSDT for the i5 linked above (have the 2410).

 

With no SSDt and C/P states set to yes (your installers boot.plist) got a 64bit geek bench at around 4200, installed the SSDt linked into /Extra and rebooted with DropSSDT set to Yes and Geekbench is now 5815...

 

I make no claim to know what I'm doing, however the benchmark result does seem to show a difference...

 

EDIT

 

Just reran with AC adapter in (oops) and got 6082

[Monkeys]

Interesting, I will attempt to confirm this tonight when I have access to my laptop. In the meantime Darren cox, have you checked your turbo states with msrdumper.kext both with and without the SSDT? It may give some indication for the reason for the difference. I have noticed that with my setup using the SSDT supplied with v6, the highest multiplier (29) is not usually reached, even when stress testing, it only gets to 27 most of the time..

 

 

[Monkeys]

Edit - @ Darren cox - So did you re-run with the AC adapter in with or without the SSDT? And I didn't think that it should make a difference to scores to have the adapter in?? Have you tried to replicate this? Occasionally Geekbench won't test correctly and will score lower than expected, but then after rerun it will be back to normal (higher)

 

@ DoiX - I just came across a piece of information which might help you with getting the Nvidia GPU working. I read somewhere that with Mac Book Pro's using Optimus (or equivalent) the Nvidia GPU can only be active when the AC adapter is plugged in, and that with Hackbooks such as ours, using voodoobattery, instead of vanilla battery management, that the OS doesn't correctly register that the AC adapter is plugged in, thus the Nvidia card is not activated.

 

I have read previously that there is a way to activate vanilla battery management via the dsdt. This was for snow leopard so not sure if it would still work with Lion. But if it does it might correct the way the OS detects the AC adapter.

 

Most likely completely wrong, but just a thought. Brain storming with these things is always helpful I think =)

[pcwiz13]

Well I ended up putting the nullcpumanagement kext (I think that was the name) back in place. While it did allow my computer to go to sleep (just not wake) I was starting to get lots of video artifacts and random freezes. All is back to normal now.

 

Right now it's running great, very quick and no artifacts so I really can't complain. Just a few things to keep working on in the future, I'm just hesitant to mess with it too much as to not crash it Now that I've got my applications setup! Lol

 

Things left to fix:

Sleep/restart

USB 3.0 ports not functional

525m (hopefully DoiX makes a breakthrough)

 

Thanks again for all the help in this thread. I ran geekbench (32 bit) and score right at 7000. Seems a little low, I don't think I have things quite right yet, but non the less I'm impressed so far.

[Monkeys]

@pcwiz13 - So you have sleep working with nullcpupm? It shouldn't work with it added as I understand. Have you been repairing permissions and rebuilding kext caches with kext wizard each time you change a kext? If not I would try removing nullcpupm again, repair permissions and caches, reboot, then try sleep and Geekbench again.

 

Also, download msrdumper kext, just google it and look at the first result for how to use it, then check your console to make sure you are getting turbo states, you will know if you see more than two numbers, up to 29 as the highest multiplier.

[pcwiz13]

@monkeys - no I don't have sleep working with null CPU in place, when I had it removed I was getting artifacts and random lock ups so I put it back in place. I will give removing it another try for sleep.

 

I have been repairing permissions and rebuilding caches as well as rebooting anytime I change a kext.

 

On another note does it make a difference which definition I use 8,1 or 8,2 in the v_6 installer? I currently have 8,1 in place.

 

I will give that kext a try when i get back to my laptop and see if speed stepping is working.

[Monkeys]

@pcwiz13 - Ok, I see now from re-reading your previous post that you made that quite clear, I didn't read it very thoroughly =P Give it another try because it really should work. And if speed stepping is working, then so too should sleep be working..

 

@ Darren cox & DoiX & Everyone else - I tried using the SSDT from http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=259&t=42503&sid=31df4c5d936c31f6de95a7a9effb3173 using the flags EnablePStates=No, EnableCStates=No, and DropSSDT=Yes. I can confirm that Geekbench scores went from around 4500 with EnableP&CStates=Yes, and No SSDT. To a whopping 6500+ with the SSDT and those flags! (i5 2410m CPU, geekbench 64bit)

 

Battery life seems better too, it is now reporting just over 5 hours idling with a full charge (6 cell battery), where it was reporting around 4.5 before. If i let the display sleep for a few minutes it goes to over 6 hours!

 

I have noticed that upon watching console during geekbench tests, that without the SSDT the multiplier seemed to jump around between 18-25 during tests, so not at its maximum. Whereas with the SSDT it stayed solidly at 27 for the majority of the test. Strangely it didn't go above 27, to its maximum of 29 for this cpu during geekbench tests.

 

Only when doing things like sleeping/waking the display or starting the screensaver did it go above 27, to 28 or 29. Not sure why this would be, perhaps geekbench's tasks aren't demanding enough to push the cpu up to its maximum in this case. It can probably be altered within the SSDT, but I dont know how, and dont really care, its plenty fast for me =)

 

I have attached the SSDT's for i5 2410m and 2430m as well as my boot.plist with the flags in the link below for anyone who wants to give them a try. And DoiX I suggest adding them to your installer when you have the time, if you care to make it more complete of course =)

 

BTW the boot.plist has the Graphics Mode=1920x1080x32 flag added, so if you don't have the full HD screen you will want to change this to suit your screen size.

 

Oh, and darren cox, I tied both with and without the AC adapter plugged in and got 6500+ both times, so I think this might have been an anomaly in your case. Have you tried to replicate it?

 

Anyway here's the files in a zip.

 

https://rapidshare.com/files/4028992519/i5SSDT.zip

 

EDIT - @pcwiz13 - And I dont think the definition makes a difference, but I am using the 8,1 definition because I have the i5 CPU, apparently the 8,3 might be better for the i7 as that is what is in that version of a real MBP, but I still dont think it makes any difference..

[DoiX]

@pcwiz, system deff affect graphics, processor power states and so on. I recommend 8,1 because it works perfectly with our system i3/i5/i7.

 

@monkeys, 18-25 < this means the power states are working how they should, staying on a fix number (if the dumper isn't fake reporting) should mean more power usage. Btw DropSSDT=Yes means to ignore dsdt.. at least thats what i found on the voodooforums. Geekbench doesn't push the processor to it's max, to reach 29 you need to multi task like hell.

 

Anyway i checked the SSDT file, it should give you 11 power states (msrdumper - notice it has a bug of skipping numbers, like 15 and 17 but it depends on the system, anyway count the missing one too)

 

Our nvidia card isn't affected by the AC since it's not being loaded by the system, it should be when it's working because of the GPU Power States.

 

 

P.S: I'm trying to get the fix the PS2Keyboard, as in implement missing keys.

[maxey]

you can install lion over windows. Dual boot works. your realize what to do after you install. its easy

 

Hi,

 

was searching this thread for dual boot win 7 and lion.

Right now i am having a win7 version running and set...can i Install Lion now (i made about 140 GB of unallocated space ready as non primary partition) without having to reinstall win 7?

Is there a high chance that my data on my win 7 partition gets lost?

But hesitating as a i need a working windows the next days :wink2:

 

Cheers and thanks for the help.

[Monkeys]

@Doix - With the SSDT's for the i5 CPU's that I have posted, MSRdumper still reports that speedstepping is working correctly, as in it still changes between 8-29 under various tasks. But during geekbench it goes to 27 and pretty much stays there throughout the test, as I understand it should, as it is a fairly demanding task, thus the better performance, and better scores. Whereas without it, it would jump around from 20-25, and not really reach 27 at all, thus it was never really performing close it it's maximum, so scores were much lower.

 

I guess that battery life might be reduced somewhat if performing many demanding tasks, as it tends to run at a higher multiplier more often. But at idle, and under light usage, it seems to be at least slightly better, perhaps 30-45mins extra for a full charge. Idle temps also seem slightly reduced too, from around 53-55 at idle, to 50-52, although that could just be a difference in the outside temperature =P Overall I do think it is better than without the SSDT, and performance certainly is

 

To my understanding, DropSSDT=Yes, means to ignore the SSDT tables from the bios. Chimera still loads the selected DSDT. I have confirmed this by selecting the old 'Nvidia On' DSDT, and observing the battery life being reduced significantly, and vice-versa. So it is still being loaded, and everything else seem to work correctly, ie. Sleep, restart also works after sleep (at least for me)

 

Well it was still a decent thought, you never know what piece of information will be the key to cracking the myster of the Nvidia GPU =)

 

On that note though, is there any reason in particular that you need the Nvidia GPU? Or is it more of a goal that you wish to conquer? Because personally I find the HD3000 to be quite adequate for most tasks, even semi-intensive ones such as PhotoShop image processing. And if using the Nvidia GPU meant a signifiacnt loss in battery life, which I imagine it would, then given the choice I think I would choose not to use it. Even if Optimus would work I might still choose not to use it, as from what I have read optimus doesn't function very well under lion anyway, and that it often consumes more power than it needs to, as the nvidia GPU can get 'stuck on'. Still though, I would like to see you get it working, just my $0.02

 

And finally, YES YES YES, please do edit the voodoops2 keyboard kext to add the missing hot keys, in particular the special 'media' keys or whatever you call them above the keyboard, the cogs, W, and Tripod thingy, so they can be used as hot keys for other things. The 'cogs' one already works, which I have assigned to sleep my display, makes fixing the brightness after restarting very quick and easy =)

 

I actually looked into this briefly myself but couldn't be bothered figuring out how to do it. I'm sure you already understand it much better than I did. But if you need the debug voodookeyboard kext then I have a copy somewhere that I can upload for you to grab the raw key outputs if you like =)

 

Once again thank you DoiX for all of your work and wisdom with this project! And that goes for everyone else here as well

 

@ maxey - Yes, as AKennedy says. It is easy. Just follow the instructions to install Lion from page 6 here, then you will be able to boot windows from Chimera.

 

Also jsut as a hint, I used 'Macdrive' for windows to copy some necessary files from windows to the OSX partition after installing (Ie the Extra folder and SLE kexts), rather than trying to get into lion directly then adding them from there.

 

Just download the trial version, you get 15 days to use it in full for free!

[Rockball73]

Hi,

 

was searching this thread for dual boot win 7 and lion.

Right now i am having a win7 version running and set...can i Install Lion now (i made about 140 GB of unallocated space ready as non primary partition) without having to reinstall win 7?

Is there a high chance that my data on my win 7 partition gets lost?

But hesitating as a i need a working windows the next days :wink2:

 

Cheers and thanks for the help.

Hi Maxey,

 

When I wished to install OS X two month ago, I had already Win7 installed on my computer. I didn't want to erase my Win7 partition while installing OS X so I did it this way :

1. I made a rescue image (Acronis True Image, or something else) of my C: disk (where Win7 is installed) in case it doesn't work at first time and the install of OS X accidentaly erases my Win7 partition ;
   
2. I created a E: partition just after my C: of 100Go ;
   
3. I launched the OS X install via an Usb key, formatted my E: in HFs+ journalised ;
   
4. I started the install of OS X, restarted, installed all the kext, chimera, DoiX pack ;
   
5. When OS X system was ready to be used, I restarted and booted (via chimera) on Win7. For me, it didn't boot, saying the was no operating system, so I did it :
   
   1. 
      
   2. Insert your Win7 install dvd and restart ;
      
   3. Boot from dvd ;
      
   4. Launch the command line via the repair menu from the dvd ;
      
   5. And then you need to type "diskpart" (without quotes) then type "list disk" and type "select disk 0" (if it's the one where your Win7 is installed) ;
      
   6. When selected, type "list partition" and then "select partition 0" (if it's the partition containing your Win7) ;
      
   7. When partition selected type : "active" (always without quotes) ;
      
   8. Then reboot, and it should work properly : (You'll get Bios screen, then Chimera bootloader, select Win7 in place of OS X and you'll get your Win7 desktop in a few seconds).
      

I don't know if it will work for you, but it did the job for me...

Edited February 9, 2012 by Rockball73

[DoiX]

@Monkeys, misunderstood your previous post. Yeah it's behaving as expected. I'll insert the i5 SSDT in the next version of the package.

 

There is no VoodooPS2Kext, it's just the standard ApplePS2Keyboard with fragments from the old voodoo that doesn't work properly . It's a bit hard because i can't understand the second mapping, it's not in hex not in unicode/ascii.

 

As for the nvidia GPU, i'm using my laptop as a desktop, i'd like it to be full throtle, if the nvidia works, our systems will be faster due to CUDA (the gpu helps the CPU). The Intel HD one isn't really better than my old 8600GT... photoshop uses the CPU more than the IGPU (depends on the task tho) but rendering videos/3d stuff, the GPU really makes a diff. But mostly because i payed hard earned money for something and i want it to be fully working.

[maxey]

Hi Maxey,

 

When I wished to install OS X two month ago, I had already Win7 installed on my computer. I didn't want to erase my Win7 partition while installing OS X so I did it this way :

1. I made a rescue image of my C: disk (where Win7 is installed) in case it didn't work at first time and erase my Win7 partition ;
   
2. I created a E: partition just after my C: of 100Go ;
   
3. I launched the OS X install via an Usb key, formatted my E: in HFs+ journalised ;
   
4. I started the install of OS X, restarted, installed all the kext, chimera, DoiX pack ;
   
5. When OS X system was ready to be used, I restarted and booted (via chimera) on Win7. For me, it didn't boot, saying the was no operating system, so I did it :
   
   1. 
      
   2. Insert your Win7 install dvd and restart ;
      
   3. Boot from dvd ;
      
   4. Launch the command line via the repair menu from the dvd ;
      
   5. And then you need to type "diskpart" (without quotes) then type "list disk" and type "select disk 0" (if it's the one where your Win7 is installed) ;
      
   6. When selected, type "list partition" and then "select partition 0" (if it's the partition containing your Win7) ;
      
   7. When partition selected type : "active" (always without quotes) ;
      
   8. Then reboot, and it should work properly : (You'll get Bios screen, then Chimera bootloader, select Win7 in place of OS X and you'll get your Win7 desktop in a few seconds).
      

I don't know if it will work for you, but it did the job for me...

 

 

Thanks a lot. I think i will try your way!

 

However 2 small questions

 

You write

 

I made a rescue image of my C: disk (where Win7 is installed) in case it didn't work at first time and erase my Win7 partition ;

1 .--> Do you mean in case it would not work the first time and you win 7 partition got erased, or do you mean you DID in fact erase you win 7 partition (Which well.... would confuse me when i look at your second sentence "

I created a E: partition just after my C: of 100Go ;" which sounds like you still have the C partition )

 

2. Rescue Image.... well i would pretty much simply copy the whole partition on an external hdd ... should work too i guess? I know the software will not work etc but the data should be safe. how did you make the rescue image? acronis or something?

 

thanks a lot again!