[GUIDE] Thinkpad T420 with (Mountain) Lion

[tluck]

@honeywell - I agree with @stevenplanet... follow the recipe from manwe150 - thats how i got up and running on 10.7.x as well without major hassle.

you will need to put dsdt.aml (assembled machine language) version in /Extra to provide a number of definitions missing. the dsl is the source version for any mods you may wish to add. everything works except 2 ( as many point out) : SD card reader and native intel wifi.

 

these are the kexts installed/patched in S/L/E on my machine (many are the same for 10.7.x - except the IOAHCI delay was not needed then):

$ ls -1
AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext
AppleACPIPlatform.kext
AppleHDA.kext
AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext
AppleIntelE1000e.kext
AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext
ApplePS2Controller.kext
AppleRTC.kext
FakeSMC.kext
IOAHCIFamily.kext
ThinkpadUltraNav.kext
VoodooBattery.kext

 

i recall using NULLcpupm until i got the patched AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement kext in place.

 

I moved up to 10.8.x - it seems to be a tad less buggy as far as HD3000 buffer hangs. not perfect but it occurs way less often for my rig.

[honeywell]

Hhhaha, alright. The main thing that was preventing me from using tony's guide with 10.7 and Unib3@$t was that I don't have access to a Mac to format a USB as MBR. I'll try to find a Virtual (hint) way to do it, I guess. I'll get back to you guys with results soon. Hopefully it's as easy as you made it sound stevenplanet.

 

Edit: Actually, what the hell - I have a "working" OS X on the T420 right now, I'll just use that to format the necessary parts.

[tluck]

yeah a key thing is that the levovos seem to only really like to boot from MBR. I created a usb (mbr) to boot (and install) from. instead of going thru all the tricks to change the installer to support a target MBR drive, i used 2 disks. 1) installed to external EFI format disk. 2) then i copied it over to a 2nd (internal/main) drive that is MBR. then installed chimera to boot from the MBR (internal) disk. I also have an i-boot CD and SnowLeopard DVD that i used to get going what seems ages ago!

[honeywell]

Hi again! I finally have 10.7 up and running almost perfectly - resolution/screen is great, sound works along with headphones, battery indicator works, usb works, nub works, multitouch works, sleep works, wifi works! I followed the instructions in the original post, and used MultiB34st to install the kexts mentioned in the original post, along with the dsdt linked to in the original post.

 

However, I still have several problems, which I hope you guys can help me fix... I went through the thread, and most posts seem to regard 10.8 or 10.7.1+, so no luck there.

 

prtsc does not work as a "brightness up" key. A very minor glitch is that I get a kernel panic when I boot with my headphones plugged in. Possibly a non-issue, but still relevant, is the occasional graphics lag/hang, for example if I open spotlight, type in terminal, and press enter very quickly - it will freeze for about 10 seconds then launch terminal; also, the + (zoom) button will be pretty laggy in Safari and not Finder (this might be normal or unsolvable, so it's minor). Also, one time I started up and clicked on Safari and it just froze, so I had to hard reboot. This might just have been a one time thing though. I know the dsdt installed because pressing the ThinkVantage button will increase the fan from auto to high.

 

A couple last questions - 1) I can't boot without the USB - is that normal? 2) Will I be able to keep all these changes when I go to 10.8.2 (and how do I update to 10.8.2 in the first place)? Or will I have to install fresh?

 

Again, thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread and helped - you guys are a godsend.

[honeywell]

Time for an update.

 

Upgraded to 10.8.2, using tluck's pack. In order to boot, I had to patch his AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext using the new patch that works for 10.8.x that is also in the thread linked in the original post. Overall, everything works great, except two things - I still can't boot without the USB, and I get relatively frequent ring stalls. (sometimes I must hard reboot) I will examine tluck's dsdt to see how it is edited and if it follows the guide posted in the original post. Also, I tried Clover as suggested on page 8, but that didn't work, and I still needed the USB to boot. Any help would be appreciated.

[tluck]

honeywell,

 

glad your up and running.

 

interesting about patching appleintelcpupowermgmt. i thought it was patched for 10.8.2?! i am using version 196.0.0.

 

booting - i have seen issues with booting myself. i had to manually install boot1h with dd.

 

something like

cd /usr/standalone/i386

dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY (where X is probably 0 and Y is probably 1) (ie your disk and the osx partition)

 

as far as ring stalls. i get them them too when using the laptop without an external monitor. so i use quartz debug to turn off 3D acel - no ring stalls. its the only reliable workaround i have found.

[honeywell]

I just tried the two commands you just gave me (using sudo dd...) but I still can't boot. Not that big of a deal. Edit: Just tried them again (using the correct disk and partition), but I get the error dd: resource is busy. I tried again from the un1b34st installer's terminal after unmounting the hard drive, and it still doesn't boot. Not that big of a deal, though.

 

The main problem I have is still the graphics. I don't use an external monitor, only the laptop monitor. I misspoke in my last post about editing the dsdt - I meant to say

AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext. The guide I was speaking of is here:

http://www.insanelym...ridge-osx-lion/

 

I'm using your kext pack, but I don't have an external monitor. I'm curious about how you edited the .kext (if you did), as I have absolutely no idea where to start, even after reading that guide. I'm not very knowledgable about this kind of thing. Thanks for the help.

[tluck]

well sorry about no boot. is your disk MBR? is the OSX partition set to active? i recall using a dd I downloaded somewhere (attached). yes. doing it from the installer and unmounting your disk is the way to go.

 

As to the gfx thing, as far as i know there is no real fix for laptops. The thread mostly speaks to those on true desktops where one can remove the LCD buffer as there isnt one! the only thing that works for me consistently is Disable 2D Acceleration with Quartz Debug (or avoid certain items like mission control etc that seem to cause the hang).

dd.zip

[honeywell]

My disk isn't MBR, that's probably the problem. I tried formatting the disk as MBR in the installer, but then it wouldn't let me install OS X - only on GUID. Do I have to find a workaround and then install? I'll look for a guide.

 

As for the graphics, what exactly is causing the problem? I'm still not entirely sure I understand.

[tluck]

honeywell - yes your disk must be MBR to boot from it. if you have another disk or USB - copy your installation over to it using carbon copy cloner. reformat the disk as MBR and copy it back. then install chimera and you will be golden. gfx issue is a driver bug. real macs suffer too with HD 3000 - but not as often.

[ag6952563]

well sorry about no boot. is your disk MBR? is the OSX partition set to active? i recall using a dd I downloaded somewhere (attached). yes. doing it from the installer and unmounting your disk is the way to go.

 

As to the gfx thing, as far as i know there is no real fix for laptops. The thread mostly speaks to those on true desktops where one can remove the LCD buffer as there isnt one! the only thing that works for me consistently is turn off 3d accel (or avoid certain items like mission control etc that seem to cause the hang).

 

Hi tluck-

How do you turn off 3d accel? The hangs and artifacts are killing me...

 

Thanks,

AJ

[honeywell]

@tluck

 

I got boot working! Reinstalled ML after applying this patch to the USB: http://www.osx86.net/view/2815-osinstallmbr+osinstall.mpkg_10.8.x.html

 

@ag695

 

https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action

 

Download Graphics Tools (you must have Xcode first) then run Quartz Debug and check "Disable 2D acceleration"

[tluck]

@honeywell. Cool -- that's another way !

 

Quartz debug from Xcode is the easiest way that I know of to Disable 2D Acceleration - you can turn it on and off at will.

[honeywell]

I also found that sleeping then waking the computer whenever graphics glitches happen fixes them. (as opposed to just restarting)

[styrian]

The recipe for avoiding graphic glitches is, to reduce the outports of AppleintelSNBGraphicsFB.kext. This is not hard with a script. I personally have reduced from four to three ports, changed the pinout of HDMI port to get audio on it working and enabled the vga port of my EDGE E 320. At the first attempt to get the E320 up and running, I used chimera and had gfx glitches. After doing a new install with chameleon this horrible effects were gone. Editing the kext in this way, is not very hard. For the script and an edited kext look here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/271573-guide-dell-inspiron-n5110/page__st__1140#entry1871754

 

If you need less ports, you have just to reduce the ports in the first row. If you compare the table from an unedited kext with my edit, you should understand, what I have done and how this works.

 

Have fun.

[honeywell]

Very interesting styrian, thanks. I just patched mine, changing the number of outputs from 4 to 3 and it worked great. The bash scripts in that download are outstanding - they really simplify the whole process. It's too early to tell if changing the number of ports fixed the glitches though. I'll report back in about a day, and will be using this laptop regularly to see if there are noticeably less ring stalls or graphics glitches. So far so good. Thanks!

[tluck]

I agree with styrian on editing SNBGraphics to remove glitches (which to me are little spots, blotches, shimmering lines etc on the screen). however, none of the various recipes or fixes removed the ring stall/buffer hang problem for my laptop - which to me is a different thing entirely. Quartz Debug with Disable 2D Acceleration has been the only reliable fix for stalls when using LCD. Note: on my other HD3000 only mini-mac hackintosh, i removed the LCD buffer and i don't see stalls or glitches.

 

@honeywell - Please post your results - particulary if you dont get stalls!!! thanks.

[styrian]

I agree with styrian on editing SNBGraphics to remove glitches (which to me are little spots, blotches, shimmering lines etc on the screen). however, none of the various recipes or fixes removed the ring stall/buffer hang problem for my laptop - which to me is a different thing entirely. Quartz Debug with Disable 2D Acceleration has been the only reliable fix for stalls when using LCD. Note: on my other HD3000 only mini-mac hackintosh, i removed the LCD buffer and i don't see stalls or glitches.

 

@honeywell - Please post your results - particulary if you dont get stalls!!! thanks.

 

The effects, you are speaking about in your post, are signs, that your dispay is not fully correct detected. I think, that it is not necessary to remove the LCD buffer. One should just edit an override for the display. Look at this: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/284997-enabling-qeci-on-sve1711x1eb/#entry1876349

 

Have fun.

[ag6952563]

@tluck

 

I got boot working! Reinstalled ML after applying this patch to the USB: http://www.osx86.net...pkg_10.8.x.html

 

@ag695

 

https://developer.ap...ds/index.action

 

Download Graphics Tools (you must have Xcode first) then run Quartz Debug and check "Disable 2D acceleration"

 

Thanks, I installed Xcode and Quartz Debug. This does the trick, it stops the lags and artifacts.

It kind of sucks though to disable the acceleration... so, still looking for a better solution.

 

Any feedback about the reduction of outputs?

 

Thanks.

[honeywell]

Yes! I think reducing the outputs from 4 to 3 has almost completely removed the ring stalls. In the past, I would get ring stalls possibly every hour or so, and in some extreme cases they would force me to hard reboot the computer because the computer would just freeze. I would have to do that at least 2-3 times a day. Since reducing the outputs, I haven't had to do that at all. The ring stalls only come occasionally (1/5 times) when I open Mission Control, and it still sometimes happens whenever I get a notification popup. Much, much more useable than before - I haven't had to restart at all due to the computer freezing.

 

As far as I know, there aren't any "negative" effects of reducing the outputs. (I personally don't use the VGA or other display ports, but I'm not even sure that reducing the outputs even effects those) I would like to see if other people are willing to try it, and if so, please report back with results. I just want to make sure this isn't the placebo effect or random chance or something. Also, if anybody tries to reduce from 4 to 3, I will reduce from 3 to 2 and see if it gets even better. Here is my edited table:

 

 

0000000: 0102 0300 1007 0000 1007 0000 ............

000000c: 0503 0000 0200 0000 3000 0000 ........0...

0000018: 0205 0000 0004 0000 0700 0000 ............

0000024: 0602 0000 1000 0000 0900 0000 ............

0000030: 0000 0000 1000 0000 0900 0000 ............

 

The fourth and fifth lines of my original table are different, I edited the fourth and fifth lines according to http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/259705-editing-custom-connector-info-for-intel-hd-3000-graphics-sandy-bridge-osx-lion/page__st__160#entry1822063

 

The first line I just reduced 0400 to 0300.

 

If anybody wants or needs clearer instructions than those provided in the file that styrian linked, I will be willing to provide them! Good luck and don't forget to report back results.

[styrian]

Yes! I think reducing the outputs from 4 to 3 has almost completely removed the ring stalls. In the past, I would get ring stalls possibly every hour or so, and in some extreme cases they would force me to hard reboot the computer because the computer would just freeze. I would have to do that at least 2-3 times a day. Since reducing the outputs, I haven't had to do that at all. The ring stalls only come occasionally (1/5 times) when I open Mission Control, and it still sometimes happens whenever I get a notification popup. Much, much more useable than before - I haven't had to restart at all due to the computer freezing.

 

As far as I know, there aren't any "negative" effects of reducing the outputs. (I personally don't use the VGA or other display ports, but I'm not even sure that reducing the outputs even effects those) I would like to see if other people are willing to try it, and if so, please report back with results. I just want to make sure this isn't the placebo effect or random chance or something. Also, if anybody tries to reduce from 4 to 3, I will reduce from 3 to 2 and see if it gets even better. Here is my edited table:

 

 

0000000: 0102 0300 1007 0000 1007 0000 ............

000000c: 0503 0000 0200 0000 3000 0000 ........0...

0000018: 0205 0000 0004 0000 0700 0000 ............

0000024: 0602 0000 1000 0000 0900 0000 ............

0000030: 0000 0000 1000 0000 0900 0000 ............

 

The fourth and fifth lines of my original table are different, I edited the fourth and fifth lines according to http://www.insanelym...60#entry1822063

 

The first line I just reduced 0400 to 0300.

 

If anybody wants or needs clearer instructions than those provided in the file that styrian linked, I will be willing to provide them! Good luck and don't forget to report back results.

You can reduce to two outputs without negative effects. Only one port, the first for LVDS (marked with zero in the table) might work too.

 

Which trunk of Chameleon are you using?

 

What size of ram do you have?

 

Do you get the MEI driver loaded on correct place in the device tree?

 

My original table has looked like yours. I wanted to get the vga port (it is not directly supported on MBP) working, therefore I had to edit the fourth line like manwe and you have done it too. The third line is the digital port, wich supports dp and also hdmi. The port was working for gfx output. To get audio over hdmi working (dsdt edit necessary too) I have edited it like in my linked post.

 

At my first attempt to get the E320 up, I have used Chimera as bootloader with causing the gfx glitches, as I have noticed later on . After I had switched at a second try of install to the Chameleon trunk (also with native support of HD3000, GE= no) , the gfx glitches have been gone without editing the table.

The cause of my editng the table has been, that I had speedstep not working on my i5, because of ufsing smbios of MBP 8,2 to get gfx output on the laptop LCD. At first I had reduced the outputs to two and everthing was fine with my 8 gig of ram and the HD3000 with 512 mb. Then I have been able to use smbios of MBP 8,1 and got ACPM and speedstep working. Afterwards I have expanded to three ports with vga added without any issues.

[honeywell]

I have 8gb ram, and am using a system definition of MBP 6,1. My bootloader is Chimera v1.11.1 r1394. I have an i5 and the HD3000 512mb, no discrete.

 

I'm not sure how to check if the MEI driver is loaded correctly, sorry. Could you explain how? Thanks.

[styrian]

I have 8gb ram, and am using a system definition of MBP 6,1. My bootloader is Chimera v1.11.1 r1394. I have an i5 and the HD3000 512mb, no discrete.

 

I'm not sure how to check if the MEI driver is loaded correctly, sorry. Could you explain how? Thanks.

Have a look in ioregistry explorer. You should try to switch to smbios of MBP 8,1. It is suiting best to your system. Processor, chipset and gfx are the same. Might a litte bit mater too. If you use DSDT fixes for sandybridge laptops you get a mix of two chipsets and kext versions in your install.

[tluck]

@styrian - great to see another voice on this thread. you are correct about output buffers and the effects.

 

yup - been down the road reducing output buffers from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1. (i posted some finding a while back on bcc9 thread on HD3000 )

http://www.insanelym...n/page__st__160 post #170

 

all of the various approaches had shown me too that it will reduce the ring stall/buffer hangs ... but on my 420 never seems to go away entirely - meaning i will occasionally will see the hangs when using LCD. these often recover/self correct. but sometimes not.

 

one nice side effect was i did like the monitor gamma curve though that the new monitor definition provided by copying the one use from the MBP monitor! -- see post #312 for updated monitor definitions (for 1600x900)

 

output buffers - for reference - this is what i use:

0503 - LVDS - required for Laptop LCD

0205 - DisplayPort/HDMI built-in on laptop

0304 - DVI/Hdmi - on a external docking station

0602 - VGA built-in on laptop

 

the last 2 (or 3) certainly are optional depending on your display usages.

 

Update: gone back to using MBP8,1 smbios.plist definition for sake of consistency. but i found MBP 6,1 will work just as well - no difference in the kexts loaded and HD3000 is working on the T420. but yes 8,1 is perhaps a closer HW match given the HD3000 /sandy-bridge aspect.

[styrian]

@styrian - great to see another voice on this thread. you are correct about output buffers and the effects.

 

yup - been down the road reducing output buffers from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1. (i posted some finding a while back on bcc9 thread on HD3000 )

http://www.insanelym...n/page__st__160 post #170

 

also i forgot that i had created a new Lenovo LCD monitor definition ( put /System/Library/Display/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-6af/DisplayProductID-213e - to try the OverrideEDID thing). I forget which one i copied it from. but anyway i attached it for reference...

 

all of the various approaches had shown me too that it will reduce the ring stall/buffer hangs ... but on my 420 never seems to go away entirely - meaning i will occasionally will see the hangs when using LCD. these often recover/self correct. but sometimes not. one nice side effect was i did like the monitor gamma curve though that the new monitor definition provided by copying the one use from the MBP monitor!

 

output buffers - for reference

0503 - LVDS - required for Laptop LCD

0205 - DisplayPort/HDMI built-in on laptop

0304 - DVI/Hdmi - on a external docking station

0602 - VGS built-in on laptop

 

the last 2 (or 3) certainly are optional depending on your display usages.

 

Note: I used to use MBP 8,1 --- but i found MBP 6,1 will work just as well. both are core I5 or i7 with HD3000 models. i switched over to MBP 6,1 as is seems to match my real MBP very closely and i can compare IOReg and kexts.

Chamelon Wizard shows the smbios for MBP 6,1 up with core i5, i7 - 5xxm and 7xxm. It is a 1. Gen Core i5 and has only hd grafics but no HD3000 gfx. If you are using this smbios kext´s are loaded for it´s chipset exept you inject with your DSDT ID´s from sandybridge chipset. (par example: HD3000, LPC and Usb patches.) As I have written it before, you get a mix of two chipsets.

If it is working for you without any issues it is ok.

 

Have fun.