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Dell XPS 410 Resource Extravaganza

slave-zeo

By slave-zeo,
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toner_
toner_
Posted
Posted

Selling my XPS410 Core 2 Quad now..... Just scored an XPS720 liquid cooled w/ 2GB ram, aegia physix pci card, ATI 512mb vid card, x2 WD raptor 10k 160gb drives and x2 DVD burners for CHEAP!!!!!

 

I'll start the SL quest on that machine now..... If anyone has any experience on those or tips, please shoot me a PM, thanks!!!

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Rob G
Rob G
Posted
Posted
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)"

 

Im still trying to figure your issue out, from what I am finding it seems to be related to the gpu drive for your vid card. Are you using a CUSTOM efi string generated with osx86tools?

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Rob G
Rob G
Posted
Posted
Selling my XPS410 Core 2 Quad now..... Just scored an XPS720 liquid cooled w/ 2GB ram, aegia physix pci card, ATI 512mb vid card, x2 WD raptor 10k 160gb drives and x2 DVD burners for CHEAP!!!!!

 

I'll start the SL quest on that machine now..... If anyone has any experience on those or tips, please shoot me a PM, thanks!!!

 

It shouldn't be too bad, Let me know If I can be of any help.

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Rob G
Rob G
Posted
Posted

I started an Apple product Themed New, Forum and Hacking site.

http://www.loveofapple.net/

Join up and learn about the greatest products in the world. When we hit 10,000 members and 50,000 forum post there will be a SWEET give away. The site is still a work in progress but it is functional.

 

im also looking for writers and MODs for the experienced people. If interested join and Post in the Mod/Writer section under news, Please post what position your looking for.

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browndogfred
browndogfred
Posted
Posted
I started an Apple product Themed New, Forum and Hacking site.

http://www.loveofapple.net/

Join up and learn about the greatest products in the world. When we hit 10,000 members and 50,000 forum post there will be a SWEET give away. The site is still a work in progress but it is functional.

 

im also looking for writers and MODs for the experienced people. If interested join and Post in the Mod/Writer section under news, Please post what position your looking for.

 

 

I'm in.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Mholtz2323
Mholtz2323
Posted
Posted

Hi everyone.

 

New to the forums.

 

I am trying to get Mac OS X running of my Dell XPS 410 running Windows 7. The drive is partitioned using Windows 7 and there is nothing on the blank partition. My hard drive is 250gb. (Specs below)

 

So I created and [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] disc and have Snow Leopard 10.6.0 on a bootable USB drive using transmac.

I have it boot from the dvd drive and then when i get to the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] screen, I see Mac OS X from the USB drive.

I choose it and I get to a white screen with the apple logo.

Then the installation wizard comes up and I pick a language.

Then, when the menu bar pops up, I go to the disk utility.

 

However, Disk Utility doesn't show any of my drives. I have a cd-rom, dvd-rw, hard drive and nothing shows up except the USB stick which has Mac OS X.

 

I tried with both RAID On and with ATA/Autodetect selected. Same thing occurs.

 

One individual stated I need to access the RAID Configuration Utility screen at post. This will allow me to turn RAID disk off which I guess enables AHCI.

 

But, I can't get to the screen because I only have one hard drive. (I guess if I add another hard drive, it would enable the option to press Control + I)

 

Also, I tried -f at the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] screen. Same thing occurs.

 

I am not sure why the drives aren't being seen.

Anyone run into this problem? Any ideas on what to do next? I don't want to get another hard drive to try (unless I can get one from a friend or free somewhere) because all I wanted to do is spend money on the retail disc and thats it. If I continue spending money on this thing, I might as well get a mac mini which would be faster.

 

Anyway, I hope you guys can help.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

 

 

Intel core 2 duo @ 6300 @ 1.86Ghz

Nvidia Geforce 7300LE

ACPI x86-based PC

 

Mainboard

Model--0WG855

Chipset Intel--P965/G965 Rev--C1

Southbridge 82801HH (ICH8DH) Rev--B0

 

BIOS

Dell Inc. 2.5.3

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  • 2 months later...
Apokolips
Apokolips
Posted
Posted
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......

 

I would like to have access gmusiakatgmail.com

 

Thanks

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  • 3 weeks later...
prominator
prominator
Posted
Posted

I have a Dell 410. I installed snowleopard on a external drive, I used EFI Finisher. it boots fast when I have RAID on. everything works fine except for Shutdown, and restart. the screen goes off but the pc is still on. also waking from sleeps makes the pc not respond as before going to sleep.

but what bothers me the most is every time I turn my computer on the bios settings are restore to default.

Please help. thanks.

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scififan68
scififan68
Posted
Posted
I have a Dell 410. I installed snowleopard on a external drive, I used EFI Finisher. it boots fast when I have RAID on. everything works fine except for Shutdown, and restart. the screen goes off but the pc is still on. also waking from sleeps makes the pc not respond as before going to sleep.

but what bothers me the most is every time I turn my computer on the bios settings are restore to default.

Please help. thanks.

I used this: http://osx86.co/f101/how-install-osx-lion-on-pc-t7279/ and raid allows it to boot, but I get this strange hang before the disk is detected, wait and it works just fine. I remember hearing that this was a bios bug, and was supposed to be integrated into chameleon, guess not. Also if look in the post you will find the kext fix for the bios reset.

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  • 4 weeks later...
dnoyeb
dnoyeb
Posted
Posted

can someone post up what kexts' they're using on Lion to get htis to work? every time I try with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url], or any of the other post installers, I cannot get it to boot properly... I'm actually running a different sata card that supports sata III, but doubt that's affecting it...

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sethius
sethius
Posted
Posted

Hey guys,

 

It's been a while since i've installed OSX on my XPS 410 (i'm currently still on 10.5.5..!!) but the time has come to reinstall and I now need 10.6.8 on it.

 

I'm a bit out of touch with the current methods of installation and was hoping for a little guidance.

 

I would like to know which bootloader, efi, etc to use.

Does it make a big difference if I have a 'vanilla' installation?

How do I update to 10.6.8 once i've installed snow leopard?

Does anyone have all of the necessary drivers/kexts for the 410?

Was the issue with the on board Ethernet ever resolved?

A step by step guide would be amazing..!! :-)

 

My spec is:

Standard XPS 410 motherborad

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

4GB Ram

nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS - works under 10.5.5

Generic PCI Ethernet card - works under 10.5.5 (Can't remember if kext needed or chipset)

Adaptec Firewire 400 card - works under 10.5.5 (Can't remember if kext needed. Agere Chipset)

 

Thanks in advance.

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  • 1 month later...
browndogfred
browndogfred
Posted
Posted

Ahhhh the XPS410 that never dies......

 

I went ahead and decided to update the reliable XPS410 I've had running SL 10.6.8 to Lion finally. This ended up being about 100% easier than originally hacking this thing to run Leopard & Snow Leopard.

 

Here is the link for the guide/tools/etc for a fast & easy install, took about 45 minutes total to complete, that including the actual upgrade to Lion and stuff.

 

Link: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversi.../t259068-0.html

 

 

Follow the steps and read the posts/answers and you'll have Lion running almost perfect outta the box. I tweaked the 'com.apple.Boot.plist' on mine a little but nothing as detailed as the requirements for SL, just little things like the boot theme/quiet boot/etc.

 

Unlike the "vanilla/EFI" method that I personally was so fond of, this install wouldn't be technically referred as that since you'll have to move some kexts over to /S/L/E but thats about it.

 

I kept copies of all of my stuff including the original Vanilla directory and its contents......basically it included the DSDT.aml file made for the XPS410, the com.apple.Boot.plist for reference on this install, and of course the kexts for this system. I believe the kext count is 8.....just look at previous notes a handful of pages back.

 

Basically all you need is an 8gb USB drive, a PURCHASED copy of Mac OSX Lion from the app store, the 'install' tool referenced in the guide above and the ability to follow directions. ;) You'll end up creating a bootable USB drive with a copy of LION on it, your needed kexts and a copy of chameleon to allow you to boot. It's obviously much easier to accomplish all of this with a working OS X install, be it Leopard or SL.

 

Anyhow, just wanted to keep this thread alive and let everyone know who hasn't updated that its way simple to update to Lion. Updates worked flawlessly and the system is blazing fast, not a single KP experienced and boot up time is about 25 seconds. Pretty cool.

 

Anyhow. Cheers.

 

/browndogfred

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browndogfred
browndogfred
Posted
Posted
are you running your setup in a ahci? or normal. auto detect. also what is not working for you.

 

I'm not at home at the moment but I didn't mess with the BIOS I had setup for SL, but if I recall correctly its auto detect. Everything works perfect.

 

That guide didn't mention anything about moving the internet and sound kexts to /S/L/E but seeing that those 2 didn't work at first, I just moved em over and everything was fine.

 

I'll post full details when I get home but it was stupid easy with Lion compared to SL......

 

/browndogfred.

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browndogfred
browndogfred
Posted
Posted

Here are the details of my XPS410 with Lion installed. I'll put the terminal output to make it easier.

 

 

*The /Extra directory below is added when following the guide I posted about a couple posts back*

 

 

sh-3.2#cd /Volumes/Lion/Extra

sh-3.2# ls -lrt

total 64

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Oct 16 19:04 Themes

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 13122 Oct 16 19:05 dsdt.aml [my original dsdt.aml from the SL install]

-rw-r--r--@ 1 root wheel 6148 Oct 16 19:05 .DS_Store

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 574 Oct 16 19:05 smbios.plist

drwxr-xr-x@ 12 root wheel 408 Oct 16 19:05 Extensions

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 2105 Oct 16 22:08 org.chameleon.Boot.plist [edit the chameleon boot options]

sh-3.2#

 

 

Here is the output of my 'org.chameleon.Boot.plist' which is essentially like the 'com.apple.Boot.plist' for customizing boot options. I didn't bother messing with stuff like darkwake and GeneratePStates....it was already though. I did use kernel cache to use the /S/L/E options at boot, Lion doesn't use mkext and stuff anymore. Also added boot graphic options and my graphics card info. See below:

 

 

sh-3.2# cat org.chameleon.Boot.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">'>http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>darkwake=0 -v</string>

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>GeneratePStates</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>GenerateCStates</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>Boot Graphics=Yes</string>

<key>Quiet Boot</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Theme</key>

<string>Default</string>

<key>UseKernelCache</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Legacy Logo</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>device-properties</key>

<string>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</string>

</dict>

</plist>

sh-3.2#

 

 

 

Here is the contents of the /Extra/Extensions directory, basically all my original kexts for the SL install.

 

sh-3.2# cd Extensions/

sh-3.2# ls -lrt

total 24

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Oct 16 19:05 AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Oct 16 19:05 AppleAHCIPort.kext

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 6148 Oct 16 19:05 .DS_Store

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Oct 16 19:05 VoodooHDA.kext

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Oct 16 19:05 OpenHaltRestart.kext

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 82 Oct 16 19:05 KEXTupdate.log

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Oct 16 19:05 Intel82566MM.kext

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Oct 16 19:05 IOATAFamily.kext

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Oct 16 19:05 FakeSMC.kext

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Oct 16 19:05 Disabler.kext

sh-3.2#

 

 

**Note above, make sure permissions are set correctly throughout. If you need to set them for any reason, see below command:

 

chown root:wheel file_name [chown root:wheel Intell82566MM.kext]

 

 

Also, I found that internet and sound wouldn't work until I moved the kexts over to /System/Library/Extensions. See below:

 

directory: /Volumes/Lion/Extra/Extensions

 

command: cp -R Intell82566MM.kext VoodooHDA.kext /Volumes/Lion/System/Library/Extensions

command: touch /Volumes/Lion/System/Library/Extensions

 

I also edited the actual 'com.apple.Boot.plist' file located under /Volumes/Lion/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

 

Here is my file:

 

sh-3.2# cat com.apple.Boot.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string></string>

<key>Quiet Boot</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Boot Graphics</key>

<string>Yes</string>

</dict>

</plist>

sh-3.2#

 

 

 

 

So there is everything I did on my system. I didn't mess with the BIOS settings at all. I'm pretty sure its still set as auto detect.

 

I initially added a partition to my HDD giving me the SL partition and the Lion partition but since this went so smoothly, I had already backed up my SL files to an external drive, I just ran the installer on the USB again and partitioned the HDD for 1 partition for Lion, no more SL.

 

So anyhow, not sure if anyone still toys with their XPS410 but I still have this bad boy and figured I'd move on to Lion and its proven to be much smoother in terms of installing and overall the system is much faster and responsive. I don't game or anything so I can't say anything in terms of graphics but everything looks great. I will also note that after the install, updating to 10.7.2 went without a hitch. I like to repair permissions after the initial install but beyond that, no issues with KP's of any kind, I never had 1 KP during the install and none since.

 

Good luck.

 

Later.

 

/browndogfred

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  • 3 weeks later...
smi2710
smi2710
Posted
Posted

first off hello and i am about to convert my 410 to OSX. I started wading through the 64 pages but was hoping you could give me the easiest way to get this done.

 

I have a copy of snow leopard i am going to use for this build.

 

the machine is a 410 xps with 8 gb of ram a 500 Hd and I have a brand new 1tb that i just installed. If you need more specs let me know

 

I am also going to use a upgraded sound card since it is not supported by vista this is what is prompting me buid the machine this way plus i am tired of running windows and want to give this a shot

 

thanks

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  • 4 weeks later...
BigYin
BigYin
Posted
Posted

How I made a working Lion installation with iATKOS L2

 

My Dimension 9200/XPS410 is an old friend and I’ve been trying to make a working Snow Leopard or Lion environment for a while. I’ve tried a number of installs using information from posts in this thread by browndogfred, Rob G and several others. For this noob it’s been close but no cigar.

 

In the past few days I’ve been playing with iATKOS L2 and have finally made it all work.

 

Let me re-emphasize that I’m a noob and if you follow this without success, I probably can’t help a lot. Please share your experience because we will all benefit and you may well find someone else who’ll contribute the key insight that gets your install working.

 

Specs are:

BIOS 2.5.3 (11/22/07), C2D E6600 2.4GHz processor, 2GB RAM, a WD Raptor 74GB HD, onboard sound and an Asus GT520 Silent.

 

Files and their sources:

 

* XPS410 Extravaganza, Post #1012 (Nov 22 2009, 11:46 PM) by Rob G

Snow Leopard files from

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=47FX5UWG

 

* ATY_Init.kext.zip from

http://rghost.net/10381881

This works for my Nvidia GT520 but you may need a different version for your card

 

* If you use a PC keyboard get IntelliType Pro 8.2 for Mac (dmg):

http://download.micr...esktop_d305.dmg

 

* Chameleon-2.1svn-r1650.pkg from kexts.com at:

http://www.osx86.net..._2.1_r1650.html

 

This is the same version as the iATKOS install.

 

Make sure your BIOS is set to “RAID Autodetect/ATA” not “RAID On”. The HD should be on SATA-0. I set the Boot Sequence to 1. CD Drive, 2. Onboard Sata HD.

 

The installation sequence is at:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vHBJZbKYqI

 

Boot the iATKOS L2 DVD and on the Install screen go to Utilities, run Disk Utility and erase the target drive. (In the partitioning options I selected GPT.) Exit Disk Utility.

After the agreement, choose your install disk, then Customize.

The only customizations I chose were in Drivers:

Main Hardware

SATA/IDE

+ Non-AHCI SATA

VGA

nVidia

+ GF100

 

Network

Wired

+ Intel Gigabit

 

For me, the Time Remaining estimate was wildly optimistic. After the restart at the iATKOS screen I pressed F8 and chose the Lion partition to boot from. At this stage there is no sound and your graphics will probably default to 1024x768. Complete the setup and close the iCloud window because it won’t work yet.

 

Now fix your Sound and Graphics.

For Sound, open Rob G’s Snow Leopard zip and find VoodooHDA.kext in Extra/Extensions.

Drag it onto the Kext Utility found in Applications/Utilities/Tools and wait while it is processed. For Graphics, drag the ATY_Init.kext onto the Kext Utility. Reboot.

 

System Backup.

 

I tried cloning to a new HD with Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper. The clone would only boot by starting with the iATKOS install DVD and pressing F8 to choose the hard drive. I finally realized that Chameleon needed to be reinstalled.

 

Unresolved Problems:

 

* Sleep does not work, so make sure your Computer Energy Saver setting under System Preferences is “Never”, and disable power button sleep.

* I’d like to make the “RAID On” BIOS setting work but haven’t succeeded yet.

* iCloud/App Store access doesn’t work. I don’t yet understand how to fix this.

 

I welcome any suggestions for fixes or improvements.

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