Dell XPS 410 Resource Extravaganza

[browndogfred]

10.6.7 is safe with the newest FakeSMC

 

Did you KP without adding that? I updated without making any changes and didn't have any issues. No updated kexts or anything.

 

I kept the original PmVersion set to 21 as that didn't change.......this was a pretty basic update.

 

Later dude.

[Rob G]

No I didnt KP, I always keep it up to date so I thought I would put that it is working for with the newest, I dont know if it works with the older one or not.

[browndogfred]

No I didnt KP, I always keep it up to date so I thought I would put that it is working for with the newest, I dont know if it works with the older one or not.

 

 

I got ya. Cool.

 

 

I'm going to try and include all possible info that I have and can think of. Over the past year and a half or so, the journey of getting OSX to run smoothly on this low dollar XPS410 has been a trip. Sometimes hard, sometimes easy, but in the end a pretty solid learning experience. It'll be coming to an end here pretty soon when Lion comes out, as I'll use this machine to continue to the Hackintosh experiment.

 

For those of you who have played with all kinds of different methods of install, here is my take. Can't say its right or wrong as there are a handful of us that have very smooth running machines. Mr. RobG got me started on this gnarly fiasco quite a while back when I was simply trying to get Leopard 10.5.8 installed. That lasted about a week and I couldn't take it so I ventured on to Snow Leopard. Kernel panic after kernel panic after kernel panic.......I finally managed to get things right.

 

Cheers to everyone who has contributed. RobG, I'm sure we'll be doing this all over again soon when Lion comes out.

 

Here is what I've got, it might take a couple posts to get it all up.

 

STEPS:

 

1. See posts #1035, 1041, and 1042. [basic instructions on what ya need to do]

2. If you can't see your HD on the first boot after making the USB booter, use the -f boot flag, that should help.

3. I'm uploading the EFI Finisher and the kexts that I currently run on my XPS410.

4. For this method, DO NOT make any changes to the Snow Leopard file system, only use the /Vanilla folder for any changes.

5. See step 4 again.

6. I'm using an Nvidia 9400GT video card, so you'll have to use OSX86 Tools to get the string for your cards device properties which get added to the 'com.apple.Boot.plist'.

7. I'll add a copy of my 'com.apple.Boot.plist' just for reference. Over time I've set it a certain way and broke and fixed things here and there.

 

 

Thats it for now. Reply to this post if something is missing or if you have questions. Again, this is my method, there is no right or wrong, just preferences. I think its pretty dope that this thread has gone on for so long.......I've recently bit the bullet and dropped $$ on a 2011 Macbook Pro i7 but still feel obligated to keep my old XPS410 running solid.

 

Cheers.

 

/browndogfred

 

 

Current kexts as of 03-22-2011:

 

Intel82566MM.kext

SleepEnabler.kext [newest release]

VoodooHDA.kext

 

* The above 3 are placed in the SLEkext subdirectory within the /Vanilla directory

 

AppleAHCIPort.kext

AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext

Intel82566MM.kext

IOATAFamily.kext

fakesmc.kext

PlatformUUID.kext [kext is edited to include UUID of my hard drive, when bootup occurs, it knows to boot off this]

VoodooHDA.kext

SleepEnabler.kext

OpenHaltRestart.kext

 

* The above 9 kexts are in the EFIkext subdirectory within the /Vanilla directory. I put Intel82566MM.kext and VoodooHDA.kext in both subdirectories.

 

 

 

 

Attached is my dstl.aml file. I edited it to work solely for the XPS410, there are a few others uploaded throughout this thread but here is mine. Its location is the DSTL subdirectory within the /Vanilla directory.

 

Attached is my smbios.plist file. I've edited it once from the beginning with no additional changes since. Its located in the smbios subdirectory within the /Vanilla directory.

 

Attached is MY 'com.apple.Boot.plist'. Obviously these are customized to your specific liking but mine is pretty basic. It is located in the boot.plist subdirectory within the /Vanilla directory.

 

 

Update:

 

Alright I'm having issues uploading these files. The only quick solution I can think of is to put my stuff on Dropbox. Basically I uploaded all of my files to a folder called DELL_XPS_410. You can reply or message me with your email and I can give you access to it......unless anyone else has a better idea. I can't think of anything better at the moment in order to share this stuff.

 

Dropbox is free for Windows, Mac OSX, iPhone, etc......

[Rob G]

So far all my kext from snow leopard work with Lion, Im using a modified Cham 2 RC 4 to boot it, it does not boot 10.6 anymore. If anybody wants the patch and can prove they have a Paid Apple Dev account (I do not condone piracy) Ill send it to you.

[browndogfred]

So far all my kext from snow leopard work with Lion, Im using a modified Cham 2 RC 4 to boot it, it does not boot 10.6 anymore. If anybody wants the patch and can prove they have a Paid Apple Dev account (I do not condone piracy) Ill send it to you.

 

 

So you're just running straight Lion huh? Any weird issues?

[Rob G]

No I have not had any wired issues besides the battery life is a little less on my macbook pro, But on my desktops it runs fine, Some times I have problems with Java but thats not very often. Everything else works just fine. Its pretty stable for a beta.

[uscgmatthew]

Hey everyone.. Is it possible to go from 10.6.0 to 10.6.7 right from the combo update? I used browns guide... with his help ofc. if so how? I attempted it, made sure i had the new sleep enabler.. but when i tried to boot it.. the furthest i got was a kernel panic after it got as far as loading my network kexts and journal replay.

 

i tried these combinations.. all with arch=i386:

-v -f pmVersion=0

-v pmVersion=21

-v pmVersion=0

-v -x pmVersion =0

etc etc..

another thing.. I read that after 10.6.2 you have to have raid set to ON.. but if i do, i get the boot0 error.. with no boot loader.

[Rob G]

Try putting the bootloader on a flashdrive, and try booting from that. Let me know what happens and the exact kernel panic message so we can get ya up and runnning.

[uscgmatthew]

Try putting the bootloader on a flashdrive, and try booting from that. Let me know what happens and the exact kernel panic message so we can get ya up and runnning.

 

 

Well, i can do that if you like.. i currently have 10.6.0 running smooth in auto detect in bios.. booting off my efi on the HD.. not the usb. im just not sure what i should update too i guess :/

 

as far as the error i got.. it was a video error..with dependencies.. but the dependencies looked like the kexts that attempted to load but didn't because of the modified ones that replaced them on the EFI. the main panic was a geforce or a video problem. i have a geforce 7800 GT .. and i loaded the string in with the boot.plist.. worked fine in 10.6.0

[browndogfred]

No I have not had any wired issues besides the battery life is a little less on my macbook pro, But on my desktops it runs fine, Some times I have problems with Java but thats not very often. Everything else works just fine. Its pretty stable for a beta.

 

I just installed it in VMWare and its pretty good. Nothing crazy, some cool new features I suppose. Its kind of one of those things where Snow Leopard was a decent jump from Leopard, Lion doesn't see "that" much different. Visually some changes and some added tools.

 

I say all of that but I'm sure the XPS will be running it soon enough. HAHA.

 

Cool man.

 

 

Well, i can do that if you like.. i currently have 10.6.0 running smooth in auto detect in bios.. booting off my efi on the HD.. not the usb. im just not sure what i should update too i guess :/

 

as far as the error i got.. it was a video error..with dependencies.. but the dependencies looked like the kexts that attempted to load but didn't because of the modified ones that replaced them on the EFI. the main panic was a geforce or a video problem. i have a geforce 7800 GT .. and i loaded the string in with the boot.plist.. worked fine in 10.6.0

 

 

Rob, didn't you used to have this card?

[Rob G]

Lion kicks ass if you have a macbook with a multi touch track pad, the gestures rock. I use the magic trackpad on my dell more than the mouse now.

 

 

Yeah I used to have that card,he needs to install each update separately so we can fnd out witch one is breaking the install.

[browndogfred]

Lion kicks ass if you have a macbook with a multi touch track pad, the gestures rock. I use the magic trackpad on my dell more than the mouse now.

 

 

Yeah I used to have that card,he needs to install each update separately so we can fnd out witch one is breaking the install.

 

 

Yeah I told him to do the updates individually too....we'll see what happens. His KP's aren't anything major.....just graphics based it seems.

 

I'll have to toy with Lion more I guess and see how good it is.

[uscgmatthew]

Yeah I told him to do the updates individually too....we'll see what happens. His KP's aren't anything major.....just graphics based it seems.

 

I'll have to toy with Lion more I guess and see how good it is.

 

 

Just downloaded all the updates seperately. . about to give it a go 1 by 1...

 

the one question i had that no one seemed to answer was.. in the bios.. i read that raid has to be set to ON after 10.6.2... is that true? if so, when i do set it to on.. i get the boot error with no bootloader lol.

 

 

edit/

 

ALSO, anyone know a way around using the 7800 GT for steam/ Counter strike: source on here O_o... i believe it isn't supported.

[uscgmatthew]

Okay... im on 10.6.6 right now. All is good except 1 thing.. I cannot turn on QE ... It gives me an error saying "The domain/default pair of (com.apple.windowserver, QuartzGLEnabled) does not exist" into type boolean. (-1700)"

[Rob G]

use Graphics Enabler=yes http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+Set+GraphicsEnabler%3DYes in boot.plist and use 64 bit NV enabler http://lmgtfy.com/?q=64+bit+NVenabler+snow+leopard

 

Yeah I told him to do the updates individually too....we'll see what happens. His KP's aren't anything major.....just graphics based it seems.

 

I'll have to toy with Lion more I guess and see how good it is.

Install Lion on your macbook pro, use boot camp to make a windows partiton the use disk utility to format the windows partiton as HFS+ and install from the lion.dmg you dont even need to burn it just mount the dmg clock install os x and select your lion partiton you can install it with having to boot from a DVD its nice

[uscgmatthew]

hey Rob.. i am going to do that now...

 

i am running i386 though given my wireless card only works in 32 bit.. (wg111v3) will it matter?

[uscgmatthew]

nvenabler went without a hitch.. installed it on my efi partition so not to jeopardize the "vanilla" install.. still getting the osx86tools error.. and unable to play cs:s on here. that is the biggest downside

[toner_]

Another forum member helped me get this setup with a retail DVD, he did it with a VMware install of SL to install to my separate HDD and whenever I updated through 10.6.4 (where I am currently) he would go in the VMware install and edit some files on the HDD of the now broken install of SL to get it working again and it's currently working but I need to update and I am not sure what to do exactly as there is a lot through this topic I have read but it's in another language to me right now.

 

Ok, so I want to figure out how to maintain this myself and what to do when there are available updates so when I do the update and restart, it actually loads. I have read through this topic for a couple hours taking notes and I am still confused on some things. I have the text from #1035, #1041 and #1042 posts as well. I am confused when it comes to kexts and editing them.

 

I was considering buying another XPS410 to have for a pro tools box only and throw in a Q6600 quad 2.4 like I did on this box but I need to be able to do this myself.

 

1) Also, I have currently changed my DVD drive as the old one went out and it does not show up in SL.

2) I want to upgrade past the 10.6.4 I am at now.

3) Sometimes I get kernel panics with online video, I think it has to do with my video card, Nvidia GeForce 8600GT 256mb, as in the system profile it says 0mb for the video card, even though the graphics look good.....

 

I honestly feel bad having to post this as I would think with 65 pages in this thread I could figure it out.

[Rob G]

uscgmatthew what error is it giving you? Is the game in universal binary? If not you need to install rosetta from the disk. I can post the Rosetta Pkg if you need it. What is the full name of the game I'll try to figure out a fix.

 

 

 

toner_ you are getting KPs and an correct video ram reading because you don't have the system configured correctly for your card. No offense to who ever set him up from a vmware image but that was a really bad thing to do. The best and only way to get your system running 100% up to date and running is to do a complete new vanilla install. Follow the guide the browndog and I have posted to setup an efi partition and have 100% un modified working install on your 410. That way you can just update like you would a real Mac. Don't worry it's not as hard as it sounds. Browndog Fred and I have posted all the next and info you will need, if you need more help just post in here and we will do our best to help you. Good luck

[toner_]

uscgmatthew what error is it giving you? Is the game in universal binary? If not you need to install rosetta from the disk. I can post the Rosetta Pkg if you need it. What is the full name of the game I'll try to figure out a fix.

 

 

 

toner_ you are getting KPs and an correct video ram reading because you don't have the system configured correctly for your card. No offense to who ever set him up from a vmware image but that was a really bad thing to do. The best and only way to get your system running 100% up to date and running is to do a complete new vanilla install. Follow the guide the browndog and I have posted to setup an efi partition and have 100% un modified working install on your 410. That way you can just update like you would a real Mac. Don't worry it's not as hard as it sounds. Browndog Fred and I have posted all the next and info you will need, if you need more help just post in here and we will do our best to help you. Good luck

 

The guy spent a good amount of time going through things to get it working and I do appreciate that, but I want to learn how to do it myself so I can build this other box for recording.

 

Thanks Rob G, I will work on getting it re-installed the correct way, following the guide, this coming weekend.

[Rob G]

Using the guides in this tread you will learn to it it your self.

[uscgmatthew]

The game is called counter strike:source.

[Rob G]

install lion in A VMWare Machine

 

 

If you want to run Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview but you don’t want to bother setting up another partition or upgrading your existing Mac OS X 10.6 installation, you can go with a third option: running Lion in a virtual machine with VMWare.

 

This is really only recommended for more technically inclined Mac OS X users. If you’re serious about Lion development, remember that virtual machines have their limitations, and you should probably just setup a dedicated partition to run the developer preview directly. Having a dedicated partition will ultimately perform better and the installation process is a lot easier than setting this up to run in VMware. Anyway, if you want to try out Lion in a VM, here’s what you’ll need:

 

Requirements to Install & Run Mac OS X 10.7 Lion in VMWare:

 

Mac OS X 10.7 Developer Preview – developers can download this from Apple

VMware Fusion for Mac OS X – here’s the free 30 day trial version

Patience – there’s some setup required here, so if you’re lazy this isn’t for you

Optional/Recommended: plenty of RAM

Regarding the RAM requirement, VMware and virtual machines in general perform best with a lot of RAM, if you plan on using them often on your Mac it’s highly recommended to upgrade to 8GB. With how cheap RAM is these days, I consider it an essential upgrade for power users. If you’re curious, you can read my review of 8GB RAM upgrade for a MacBook Pro where I detail the advantages of having a bunch of memory.

 

The Walkthrough:

 

Update: ObviousLogic.com seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth, here’s the walkthrough repeated below via Google Cache:

 

Everything ready? Then check out the great walkthrough from ObviousLogic: Installing Lion in VMware, it’s broken down into 12 steps that are easy to follow.

 

Installing Mac OS X Lion in VMware

 

Shhh! Don’t tell anyone.

 

Overview

 

Yay! The developer version of OS X Lion is out in the wild!!! Not going to say where I got it from, but I have it and I want to play with it!

 

But… Being ill-gotten and a pre-beta release, I really don’t want to install it on a hard drive and boot my iMac off of it. Who knows what crazy things could happen? Would suck if something was wrong with the file system (or a virus installed) and it wiped all attached drives!!! So, since I already use VMware Fusion for my OpenBSD web server, why not run Lion in a virtual machine!?

 

Issue 1. Only server versions of Mac OS X can be run in a virtual machine. Well there’s an easy way around that. Seems the system only checks for the existence of a single file, which can be created to appease the VM Gods.

 

Issue 2. Lion’s installation and boot process is a lot different and the VM doesn’t know what to make of it – booting from a disk image makes the VM cower into a corner and cry for help. Or just get outright hostile and tell you, “Not here, Jack!” But, as it turns out, there’s a way around that as well. Not as easy as the first obstacle, but possible nonetheless.

 

Step 1: Create a blank disk image.

 

Using Disk Utility, create and mount a new image with the following settings,

 

Name: MyInstaller

Size: 5 GB

Format: Mac OS X Extended

Encryption: none

Partitions: Single partition – Apple Partition Map

Image Format: DVD/CD master

You can name it whatever you want, but be sure to modify the steps below accordingly.

 

Step 2: Mount the Lion installer image.

 

The image I obtained mounts as ‘Mac OS X Install ESD’. If yours mounts as something different, then you will need to make any necessary changes to reflect that in the following steps.

 

Step 3: Mount the Base System image.

 

The Lion installer image contains a bunch of hidden files, to get to them you’ll need to run the Terminal application. One of these hidden files is BaseSystem.dmg which is used to boot the system.

 

$ cd “/Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD”

$ open BaseSystem.dmg

 

The volume will mount as ‘Mac OS X Base System’

 

Step 4: Copy the base system.

 

The entire contents of the base system needs to be copied to your installer image. The ‘Restore’ feature in Disk Utility works great for this. Once that is finished, you can eject the BaseSystem image, it is no longer needed.

 

Please note, if you chose to “Erase destination”, your installer image will now have the same name as the source, ‘Mac OS X Base System’. I rename mine back to ‘MyInstaller’.

 

Step 5: Setup the ‘kernelcache’ file.

 

First the file needs to be copied from the Lion installer image to your installer image, then the boot configuration file updated to specify the location of the file.

 

$ cp “/Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD/kernelcache” /Volumes/MyInstaller/kernelcache

 

$ cd /Volumes/MyInstaller/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

$ sudo vi com.apple.Boot.plist

 

Make sure the boot file contains at least the following key/value to specify the location of the kernelcache file,

 

Kernel Cache

\kernelcache

 

Step 6: Copy the installation Packages.

 

Before the packages can be copied from the Lion installer image, there’s a file on your installer image that needs to be deleted.

 

$ sudo rm /Volumes/MyInstaller/System/Installation/Packages

 

$ sudo cp -R “/Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD/Packages” /Volumes/MyInstaller/System/Installation/Packages

 

The copy (cp) command will take a few minutes; it’s copying a few gigabytes of data, so be patient.

 

Step 7: Flag the system as a server installation.

 

Again, in order to boot an OS X volume in VMware, it needs to be a server. The system checks for the existence of a file in a specific location; you can imitate a server installation simply by creating that file.

 

$ cd /Volumes/MyInstaller/System/Library/CoreServices

$ sudo touch ServerVersion.plist

 

That’s it for the installation disk. Both installer images can be ejected.

 

Step 8: Create a virtual machine.

 

This shouldn’t be anything new to you, but I’ll go through each step anyway.

 

Open VMware Fusion and select “New…” from the File menu.

Click the “Continue without disc” button.

Select “Create a custom virtual machine” and then Continue.

Select ‘Operating System: Apple Mac OS X’ and ‘Version: Mac OS X Server 10.6 64-bit’, then click Continue.

Click the “Customize Settings” button, then name and save the new virtual machine.

Choose “CDs & DVDs” from Settings, then click “Use disc image” and select your installer image.

Choose “Hard disks” from Settings, deselect “Split into 2 GB files” for the pre-created hard drive and click “Apply”. *

Feel free to make any other changes to the settings with one caveat, you must use a SCSI hard disk; IDE drives are not recognized by the installer after it boots. Also, if the hard disk is going to be used as a boot disk, it cannot be split into separate 2 GB files, so make sure to deselect that option when the HD is created.

 

Step 9: Replace the VMs NVRAM.

 

The default NVRAM will boot up previous OS X systems, but it will not boot up a Lion volume. I have a VM that I initially used as a Snow Leopard system. Booting into that system seems to have set the NVRAM so that it will know how to boot a Lion volume. Here is the NVRAM file from that VM. You can download it and use it in your VM.

 

nvram.zip

 

Download and uncompress the nvram file.

Locate your VM within the Finder, right click and select “Show Package Contents”.

Delete the current nvram file if one exists.

Copy the downloaded nvram file into the folder and rename it to match the name of your VM; mine is named, “Mac OS X 10.7″, so the nvram file would be renamed to “Mac OS X 10.7.nvram”

Now you should be able to run the VM and it will boot up to being the installation process.

 

Step 10: Installing Lion.

 

After the installation disk boots up, the first thing you should do is run Disk Utility and format the hard drive. All the norms apply; GUID partition map, Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) format, etc. When done, Quit to return to the installer.

 

Continue with the installation.

 

When the installation is complete, it will attempt to reboot the VM using the freshly installed OS on the hard disk. It won’t boot, because it’s not a server installation.

 

Step 11: Forcing the VM to boot from the CD.

 

VMware will not let you change the startup disk in the VMs settings, so you’ll have to force a change while the VM is running.

 

Start the VM. As soon as you see the vmware splash screen, hit the escape key. This will bring you to a boot menu, select “Boot Manager”

 

This will then bring you to another menu where you choose which device to boot from. With “Mac OS X” selected, you can look at the ‘Device Path’ info on the right side of the screen to see the path to the default OS X boot device (this should be the hard disk). You can then move through the list to determine which device would be the CD to boot from. (The Pci or Scsi numbers will be different.) If you choose the wrong device the first time, you can just restart the VM and choose another until you get it right.

 

Step 12: Flag the new system as a server installation.

 

After the VM boots from the install disk again, run the Terminal from the Utilities menu.

 

I labeled my HD, “OS X Lion HD” when I initialized it, so I would enter the following to ‘touch’ the system,

 

# touch “/Volumes/OS X Lion HD/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist”

 

Now you can quit the Terminal, choose Startup Disk from the Utilities menu and restart from the hard disk.

[Rob G]

The game is called counter strike:source.

What error is it giving you? Is the game cracked or legit? No saying anything about piracy but if makes A difference if it will run or not.

 

 

 

Holy {censored} I just realized this thread is 5 years old!!!!!!

[uscgmatthew]

The game is legit. It uses the steam client made for mac... the error is:"The domain/default pair of (com.apple.windowserver, QuartzGLEnabled) does not exist" into type boolean. (-1700)"