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Dell XPS 410 Resource Extravaganza

slave-zeo

By slave-zeo,
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peart75
peart75
Posted
Posted

cmm3,

 

i'm going to repeat my initial suggestions:

 

1. turn off raid in the bios. i'm assuming the 9200 has it since the 410 does and everything i've seen so far indicates the hardware is the same between the two models.

 

if that doesn't help, try:

 

2. get the intel only iso.

 

also, vmware server is free off the vmware site, use this instead of vmware workstation. it's not a trial, it's the whole thing, free. however, i was unable to get it to load on vmware and it will prove to be more of a hassle than following the two suggestions above.

 

xplizid,

 

yea, my burner doesn't even seem to be recognized by the system, it doesn't show up in the profiler. at some point i'll try swapping the order of the drives, see if it shows up then. patchburn (thanks, btw) only works with devices the system sees, not helping in this scenario.

 

last night i ran across a profiler patcher. this fixes the "There was an error while gathering this information" message i saw on the Hardware section of the system profiler. if you get it, use 1.2, not 1.3. you can get it here:

 

http://kbhb.gottabrez.com/Site/System%20Pr...er%20Patch.html

 

-drew

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peart75
peart75
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xplizid, the dvd-r is the same as yours. actually a lot of my specs are similar to you. i'll work on a sig after this post, it's going to look like your though =]

 

so i swapped the drives, now it sees my dvd-r, but not the plain old dvd drive. so i think there is a limitation on how many SATA ports OS X sees on these boxes. i read about this on another thread that was refering to an intel board, so this doesn't really come as a surprise to me. i can try to find the thread if you like.

 

i will try to burn from within itunes, which is something i've never done before anyway, and report back what i find.

 

-drew

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peart75
peart75
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Ok, i found the thread i was thining about. it is actually for a Gugbyte board, but still based off the p964 nonetheless. first post in thread:

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=28439

 

"Then connect your Sata DVD (or IDE converted to SATA drive) to the ORANGE ports.* This is important, the OSX DVD will not be able to even find the disc if it’s on the purple ports."

 

So, i'm wondering if it's a similar situation, not being able to see either anything on those ports or optical drives on those ports. I'll switch ports around later tonight and see if i can get it to recognize.

 

sig updated.

 

-drew

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sdelic
sdelic
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Posted (edited)

Ok, thanks to everyone who's posted their results up so far.

 

I had success getting OS86 to boot on my XPS410 this weekend using the 10.4.8 Intel only CD.

 

I unchecked the USB patch but I still am not getting any response on my keyboard. I'm using the reseeded JaS DVD 10.4.8 Intel only. Do I need to patch this DVD in order for this to work? I'm also unclear how to patch the ISO images with the updates. Any help would be great!

 

Right now MacOSX boots up but no mouse or keyboard available.

 

Dell XPS410

 

Mac OS X x86 10.4.8 with mifki - Jas 10.4.8 SSE3 Intel Only Reseed

 

I checked the following JaS options:

 

- JaS.10.4.8.Combo.Update

- INTEL.SSE3.mifki

- INTEL.ICH8.SATA.Support

 

I left the USB patch UNCHECKED.

 

Still no Keyboard or Mouse

 

System Specs:

Intel P965 Chipset - Core 2 Duo 6300 1.8

1GB DDR-2 667MHz - Nvidia 7300 LE

Sata0 - 30GB Apple-HPFS

Edited by sdelic
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xplizid
xplizid
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Posted (edited)

very odd. you could try different usb ports. also unplugging and replugging upon reboot or at different stages of boot. did you ever select usb 2.0 and go back and select upgrade then deselect in which case a new install would need to be done (remember to erase all data when reinstalling).

 

btw there are no patches for this iso.

Edited by xplizid
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cmm3
cmm3
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cmm3, try going into the bios and changing the RAID from Always ON to Auto. More than likely this will get you past the waiting for root device error. And to me it's worth running out and getting a USB nic to play in OS X. Make sure whatever you pick up has drivers for OS X.

 

Also, what iso are you using? xplizid and i had great luck the the intel only iso, you just have to select the correct options when installing.

 

-drew

 

Drew:

 

thanks for yr suggestions. to be clear, going into the BIOS and changing SATA Opration mode to "Autodetect" doesn't do anything for me. i suspect it only helps w\ the original JaS 1048 SSE3 only iso which i can no longer find anywhere -- all the trackers i've found seem to be offline.

 

if you could point me in the right direction where i might pick up the sse3 only iso i'd be super greatful it sounds like that is the key to getting osx working on the xps 410 / dimension 9200.

 

thanks again for yr help.

 

Costas.

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cmm3
cmm3
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Well ill rehost it up on demonoid again or and its also still available at oink. will do when i get off work.

 

xplizid:

 

i'd really aprecaite that. i was talking w\ JaS the other day and he helped me locate a "working" torrent tracker; but, its but running for over 36 hours already and still hasn't downloaded a single KB :o

 

(i think i need a new tracker)

 

the problem is, most trackers i find are off line -- i thought i was totally lucky that JaS helped me find a tracker for a torrent that was online -- but there are ZERO seeds :tomato:

 

anyway -- back to demonoid to look for changes.

 

thanks again for yr help!

 

CMM.

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  • 2 weeks later...
peart75
peart75
Posted
Posted

Has anyone gotten the NVidia 7300 to work w/ multiple monitors? I just got a second monitor for testing and it sees it, it spans the desktop, but it's upside down!

 

Can anyone confirm that it does work the way it's supposed to or know of the hack to get this going?

 

thanks,

Drew

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DivideOverflow
DivideOverflow
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Hey everyone, I'm so glad I found this thread! This is my very post on the forum...:) I am new to OSX86 (but not to OSX, I own a MacBook). I've got a Dell Dimension 9200, with a RAID stripe and I would really like to get OSX working on my machine. I have downloaded countless versions of OSX and always got the ¨waiting for root device¨ message. The only version that managed to reach the installer stage was CruOpium's repackaged version which I believe has in-built support for the ICH8 controller. Anyway, I have tried multiple variations JaS' additional kexts (thanks for the tip about unchecking USB 2.0 support, as I have always been ticking it; I will have to reinstall again and see if keyboard+mouse work). OSX would install fine but will not go past the boot screen. I have ATI X1300 Pro 256MB, which I have looked online and can't really find a solution (I tried tinkering with the ATIX1000.kext via MacDrive as I couldn't get to the terminal due to keyboard+mouse not working and then repairing permissions by booting from the installation DVD).

 

CMM3, I had the same problem you have with HD not appearing in disk utility. It is important that you open the computer up and make sure that the HD you want to install OSX on (in my case I ordered an extra HD for this purpose) is plugged in to the BLUE connectors above the RAM bays (there are also 4 SATA bays to the right of these connectors, where the DVD drives etc will be connected. I think the blue connectors are for RAID but I'm not sure, in any case for OSX installation the HD needs to be plugged into there (I think it may also need to stay connected to the blue connectors to boot, as I got the no access error logo when I tried plugging the HD in to the other connectors and booting OSX. In my case, I think I will plug the OSX and one of my Windows HDs (from the 2 in RAID currently) into the blue connectors and have an extra HD plugged in to the additional connectors. I think I will probably have to disable RAID. Does anyone have any ideas how to fix the graphics issue? OSX boots into the light-blue screen but the mouse cursor does not appear and the system just freezes (Again, unchecking the USB support may solve this, I will report back). I have a Dell FP19 screen, and when connected by DVI in OSX the screen would just go black; I then plugged in an analogue cable and the aforementioned light-blue screen showed up. I suspect once the graphics card situation is sorted out I can see if DVI will work or just analogue.

Hope this helps you CMM3

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DivideOverflow
DivideOverflow
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slave-zeo, update us!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I reinstalled (reformatted the HD for the millionth time!) and just installed 10.4.8 combo update, the ICH8 kext and the ati X1000 PCI-Express kext and no joy - computer restarts after the Apple boot screen should disappear and the login window appear. I have USB support now when OSX boots but it doesn't seem to respond to my keystrokes; I'm unable to boot to firewire target mode or in verbose mode, which is rather frustrating! Looks like I might have to do the booting into Windows, using MacDrive, booting into OSX installation DVD to repair permissions method, which takes ages :tomato: Anyone got a better idea? I'm not even sure it is the graphics card that is the issue causing reboot as I cannot use verbose mode!! Does anyone know how I can 'force' OSX to use its default drivers for the most basic display (as it does work on the installation DVD)?

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peart75
peart75
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slave-zeo,

 

The suspense is killing me! I'm hoping you have some news about the onboard NIC.

 

D/O,

 

I haven't used that repackage, but I find it intriguing that you got it to see the HD w/ RAID enabled.

 

Can you go down the list of options that are available and note which ones you are and are not choosing during the install?

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DivideOverflow
DivideOverflow
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peart75, the HD that OSX sees is NOT on RAID, but rather connected to the blue connectors on the motherboard, which seem to me to be the bootable connectors, or at least specilly designed to accommodate bootable HDs (as when I plug the empty HD to install OSX on it to the other peripheral connectors I cannot see the HD). In order to see the empty HD I have to disconnect the Windows HDs (which are in RAID stripe) and instead just plug in the empty HD. For the installation, I have the options of (from memory, may miss a few): 10.4.8 Combo Update, Mifki, Semthex, USB 2.0 fix, 10.4.4 login window fix, ATI X1X00 AGP, ATI X1X00 PCI-E, and several others I have never installed (one to do with VIA SATA chipset, can't remember the others. Hope this helps! BTW still unable to use X1300 Pro, is someone gonna tell me how to fix this (with no access to the terminal, so would have to be via MacDrive then repair permissions via OSX installation disk) or am I gonna have to wait till Leopard or get a new graphics card?! I am new to this OSX86 business, and it's rather complicated - I don't know how to force OSX to use a certain kext for graphics driver, and I don't know how to add additional kexts (I've just copied them over in Windows, but I'd imagine I'd have to edit some files to let them know the file is there, or reset kext cache or something that I seem to remember briefly reading about). Any technical help would be much appreciated!

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peart75
peart75
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D/O

 

Try it NOT using these options:

Semthex

USB 2.0 Fix

10.4.4 Login

 

Semthex and Mifki are both Kernels, i don't think you can have both checked, someone else may be able to clarify. I don't think anyone on here has had any luck w/ the Semthex kernel, so try using Mifki only.

 

The USB 2.0 fix does NOT work, do not use it.

 

Not sure what the old login does, but i don't think it's something that is needed.

 

You may also want to take out the items for the VIA chipset, I don't think the 410 has any VIA components, it should be all intel.

 

I think I also checked the GMA950 and ICH8 support.

 

I don't know entirely too much about kexts either, i'm only about 3 weeks experience in OS X ahead of you =]

I think if you replace the kexts w/ ones you want, clear the cache, then it uses the new ones (prviding permissions are set properly on the kext dirs). I believe it matches device IDs with ones that in the files to see what it should use.

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DivideOverflow
DivideOverflow
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Posted

Thanks peart. I knew already about just installing Mifki, and also about USB 2.0 not working. Will try using Mifki, ICH8 and GMA950 ticked. Regarding kexts - I think there must be somewhere in boot.plist or something where you need to 'tell' OSX which kexts to use, otherwise you need to edit the kext that would be used (I assume it is the ATIX1X00.kext in my case) to recognise your hardware; I have tried editing the file in Windows (using MacDrive 7 but I need a serial!) but it didn't work...

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peart75
peart75
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Posted
i use semthex kernels, never tried mifki its older. i check ICh8 10.4.8 login and combo update all should be fine also the 10.4.9 update works well so far no kernel panics yet :censored2: .

 

xplizid,

Interesting, slave-zeo had problems w/ the semthex kernel as stated in his first post, and then I had issues when I tried it. Although, I must admit I had both semthex and mifki checked so that may have been the issue.

 

Which 10.4.9 update did you use? I see one from JaS just came out. But first I'm going to try and image my drive before I try any more updates. Does anyone here have a method they prefer?

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