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Dell Inspiron 17R Notebook (Inspiron 7720) - Can run Mac OS X

Coasterghost

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WaldMeister
WaldMeister
Posted
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This is really interesting. I can not download the A13 version anymore, the A14 is out.

Can i upgrade it from A10? (MB has been replaced recently)

 

Anyway, i do not feel like bricking my system again....

 

I'll think about it. Anyone else, who feels interested, but does not know what to do when an error occurs, read the above warnings, just don't do it.

 

Hey bro! Need some help here!

 

I converted my HDD to GPT and installed Windows 8 as EFI boot.

Now my Mac is not starting up, probably cuz it was installed as when the system was MBR.....

 

How should I proceed to get an EFI booting MAC+Windows 8 ????

 

Thank you for your efforts!! :)

 

Format a small partition to FAT in OSX, copy the EFI folder to it, add the boot option in the BIOS, and boot from it. If booting OS X is not possible, use an USB stick to boot OSX again. Perhaps pressing F12 and selecting the other HDD will work also.

Have been away for some time, don't know if the problem is still relevant.

 

 

Bios flashing!

 

 

Well, i have done it. I had the A10 bios, since my mainboard had been replaced recently. The TXT file said, A13 only, so i upgraded to the A14, only one available anymore.

A lot has changed from A10 to A13, from A13 to A14, just some maintenance.

 

Took the risk. Upgrading from Windows was a no go! Got an error on the PCI device. Tried it manually etc, the error kept comming up.

So, i created the bootable USB, (Tools are provided) and executed the flash.bat from dos. I have an unlocked A14 bios now, thank you ThibaultAnd.

 

A lot to go through, a lot to figure out, need to extract a new DSDT with the NVidia enabled and such, give me a few days.

 

I might have been lucky. Do not try the bios if you do not know what you are doing. This is not covered under the warranty of Dell!

THIS BIOS MOD IS FOR 7720SE LAPTOP WITH INTEL 3610QM ONLY. FLASHING WITH A 3630QM WILLBRICK YOUR 7720

...

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WaldMeister
WaldMeister
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....

 

Hi kvonline,

 

The problem is not enabling the Nvidia card. It is not possible for us to disable the integrated Intel graphics, which makes the 2 cards conflict if both are loaded, since OS X does not support this (correct me if i'm wrong).

If we could somehow disable the Intel graphics, in theory it should be possible to use the Nvidia card.

 

Disabling the Intel graphics by DSDT is not possible for as far as i know, and the option is not provided in the 7720 bios, so a bios modification like above could do the trick.

Until now, i have tried different settings, but the Intel is still enabled when i boot either OS X or Windows, and the Nvidia stays secondary -_- (or disabled by DSDT, depends on which OS i boot)

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kvonlinee
kvonlinee
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I see what you guy are facing the challenge, because I think it is easy like desktop, for my old Dell it took me a long time to figure it run 10.8.3 correctly, with a core2duo 1.86 ghz ram ddr2

 

so good luck to all your machine.

 

I have a new Dell laptop inspiron 17R5721 I have no dsdt, I put device property in org.chameleon.Boot.plits and HD4000 working, sleep sleep and wake working, restart and shutdown work, QE/QI work, audio working too with voodoo 2.8.2 usb3 reader the usb3 or usb2 device.

 

I used the number at begin this post to place in org.chameleon.Boot.plist. the laptop I have it have only HD4000.

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idpsystem2
idpsystem2
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Congratulations! So happy to see that so much tasks has been accomplished.

 

Lejenk, I've followed your guide but still has problem disabling the 650m. I think my 3D-variant of 7720 work differently when handling graphics. I've noted they are always active in my previous trials few month ago.

 

Can you disable the 650m with Clover tricks? Or should I seek for a mod-BIOS? Could you share your experience when disabling 650m in DSDT so that I can edit my own one too? Thank you very much!

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WaldMeister
WaldMeister
Posted
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Hi idpsystem2,

 

It is possible to disable the card by DSDT edits, have not found a way to do this by Clover config, and as i posted above, the modded bios did not resolve any issue for as far as i have noticed.

You could extract your own DSDT from Windows or Linux, and also the extra SSDT's, some of them contain the graphic card information.

All you have to to is find the right information, add it to the DSDT, and add a new method called PINI. This method will be called when loading the DSDT, and disable the nVidia card, if all goes well.

 

It's just my theory, i do not know if the 3D models work the same, but i think so.

 

Here is a topic i created when i could not figure it out: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/286354-disable-nvidia-gpu-dell-7720/

First post refers to the research topic at projectosx: http://www.projectosx.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2315

 

And here the problem is solved: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/286196-asus-a56cm-k56cm-tutorial-ml-1082/page__st__180#entry1890485

 

If you need help with this, you can always send me the files, or leave them attached here. :)

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WaldMeister
WaldMeister
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So i read that the waking up from sleep issue, the black screen, might be a Clover issue. Can anyone still running Chameleon confirm this?

 

Edit:

Had the technician who came by today to replace my case, have a look at the bios. As he stated, the internal graphics, does not always refer to the Intel HD4000 device. He went through it, and did not manage to disable the device.

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  • 4 weeks later...
WaldMeister
WaldMeister
Posted
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Hi,

 

We can use the AAPL,kg-platform-id 01660003, which will make our Intel HD 4000 show up as 512mb cards again, without the need to use the rollback kexts. 

Run the following command in terminal: 

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x05\x03\x00\x00\x02\x00\x00\x00\x30\x00\x00\x00|\x05\x03\x00\x00\x02\x00\x00\x00\x30\x02\x00\x00|' /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

After that, change the id from 4 to 3 (Make sure you can revert if needed, so keep a backup dsdt which you can load, if anything goes wrong.)

 

Let me know if it works out for you. Also rebuild the DSDT again, will update the guide somewhere this week. The DTGP method is excluded now, so the system will boot faster. 

Also made changes to the AppleGraphicsPowerManagement, which has increased the benchmark score by over 3000, since the AGPM and the PlatformPlugin are now loaded.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/2061379

post-1090626-0-85920900-1371544075_thumb.png

patch.txt

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WaldMeister
WaldMeister
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Attached you will find the files that are responsible for my speed increase, i will go over them 1 by one. 

I have an unlocked bios, and i use Clover as a boot loader, if this can be tested on Chameleon with an unmodified bios, and confirmed on Clover with an unmodified bios, that would be great. 

 

1) As i had mentioned before, the DSDT has been rebuild. somehow i was not satisfied with the results the old 1 provided. During the process i found a new way of patching (Toleda HDMI patches taken as an example), as an example, the DTGP method has been left out, which increases boot time. Some extra PCI information from the SSDT files has been added, HPET patch has been left out, seems useless for our system.

In the DSDT, the AAPL,kg-platform-id has been set to id 3:

 
 
                        "AAPL,ig-platform-id", 
                        Buffer (0x04)
                        {
                             0x03, 0x00, 0x66, 0x01
                        }, 
If you only install the DSDT, you will end up having a black screen. So either change the 3 to a 4 in the DSDT, or continue to the next step.
 
2) In the zip, you will find a file called AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext. This kext is responsible for allocating the memory to the Intel HD graphics. 
The easiest way is to install the kext, using an utility like Kext Drop. 
On a side note, the kext is from 10.8.4, if you have not updated the system yet, you can patch the kext from terminal. Open up terminal, and enter the following command (can also be seen in the above post):

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x05\x03\x00\x00\x02\x00\x00\x00\x30\x00\x00\x00|\x05\x03\x00\x00\x02\x00\x00\x00\x30\x02\x00\x00|' /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri
What the patch does, is re-assing the LVDS device, from ID 01660004 to ID 01660003, and therefore increase the amount of VRAM allocated to the Intel HD 4000.
Also attached as shell script:




#!/bin/bash
#This script needs to run as root
ROOT_UID=0
if [[ $UID -ne $ROOT_UID ]]; then
echo "YOU MUST BE ROOT TO RUN THIS SCRIPT"
exit 1
fi
echo "Do you want to patch the AppleIntelFramebufferCapri to enable the AAPL,ig-platform-id 01660003? (y/n)?"
read answer
if [ "$answer" == "y" ]; then
mkdir -p Backup 
cp -R "/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext" "/Backup/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext"
sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x05\x03\x00\x00\x02\x00\x00\x00\x30\x00\x00\x00|\x05\x03\x00\x00\x02\x00\x00\x00\x30\x02\x00\x00|' "/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri"
echo "AppleIntelFramebufferCapri has been patched"
fi
echo "Remember to set your Mac Model to MacBookPro8,3 in the SMBios.plist or config.plist." 
exit

 
3) The AppleGraphicsPowerManagement has been modified also. This requires only an edit in the info.plist of the kext. I searched for MacBookPro with similar graphics to ours, the MacBookPro 9,1 was a match.
Opened the plist, and searched for: Mac-4B7AC7E43945597E
Copied the following part to paste it under a definition later:

<key>IGPU</key>
<dict>
<key>Heuristic</key>
<dict>
<key>EnableOverride</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>ID</key>
<integer>2</integer>
</dict>
<key>control-id</key>
<integer>16</integer>
<key>max-power-state</key>
<integer>10</integer>
<key>min-power-state</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
The GFX0 part is useless, since the 650GT M has been disabled. I searched for the MacBookPro9,1 in the plist, but it was not present, so under the MacBookPro8,1, i replaced the IGPU with the code i had copied before. 
Now the only thing that had to be done, was rename the <key>IGPU</key> to the following:  <key>Vendor8086Device0166</key> (Which is our HD4000)
 
I rebooted, but nothing had changed, this was because i had the wrong model set in the SMBIOS. You only need to adjust the model.
Clover:
Change
<key>ProductName</key>
<string>MacBookPro9,1</string>
to:

<key>ProductName</key>
<string>MacBookPro8,3</string>
With Chameleon edit the:
SMProductName
 
Now if all went well, the ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin is loaded, which will also load the AGPMController, thus increasing performance.
 
When testing the new DSDT, before replacing the old 1, rename the new 1 to DSDT_new.aml. Copy it to the boot loaders ACPI folder, and on boot give in the following: 
Chameleon:

dsdt=DSDT_new.aml

 

Clover, got to options > fix dsdt mask, press enter, and rename DSDT.aml to DSDT_new.aml.

 

Also boot with -v. If anything goes wrong, just reboot, and the old DSDT will load again, so the system should boot up normal.

 

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

 

aifc.sh.zip

post-1090626-0-00342800-1371569424_thumb.png

testpack 2.zip

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WaldMeister
WaldMeister
Posted
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Hmm, it should show up as 512MB after the patch. 

Did you install the files provided, run the patch, or both? 

 

And are you injecting the AAPL,kg-platform-id through org.chameleon.boot.plist? 

 

Thanks for testing the files. 

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kstephens98
kstephens98
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Hmm, it should show up as 512MB after the patch. 

Did you install the files provided, run the patch, or both? 

 

And are you injecting the AAPL,kg-platform-id through org.chameleon.boot.plist? 

 

Thanks for testing the files. 

I installed the files provided.  I did not run the patch.  How do I inject AAPl,kg-platform-id through org.chameleon.boot.plist?  I am definitely not doing that.

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kstephens98
kstephens98
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Hehe, ok.

 

I attached another kext to this post, think i might have dropped the wrong version in the package above, the attached file comes from my Extensions folder. 

Also boot with -f, perhaps it resolves the issue. 

 

Hehe, ok.

 

I attached another kext to this post, think i might have dropped the wrong version in the package above, the attached file comes from my Extensions folder. 

Also boot with -f, perhaps it resolves the issue. 

That did the trick!!  Thank you!!!!  :thumbsup_anim: :thumbsup_anim: :thumbsup_anim:

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  • 1 month later...
john.katzenbach
john.katzenbach
Posted
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Hallo,

my system: 10.8.2 OSX ML used iAktos ML2 installed all kext. After copying the DSDT.aml to my extra folder the

graphics Card is shown correct HD4000 but only 384 MB i have read the full Thread but the last fixes are only

for 10.8.3 or 10.8.4!!

What works:

Bluetooth inkl. Network with Tethering!

Realtek NIC works good too

WebCam is fine

Keyboard incl. lighting via F Keys

 

Trackpad

USB Logitec Touch Mouse

Display brightness Control via System Settings not via F Keys

 

My Boot Loader is Chameleon not Clover! Clover injecting doesn't help me!

 

What makes trouble:

Flash Videos screen is black :-( newest Flash Player is installed

all Videos on Websites are flickering :-(

Java is installed too

no Sound :-((

Battery Symbol only working when booting with the -f flag but then the trackpad doesn't work!

Seem the wrong battery kext is loaded, how can i fix this.

Sleep doesn't work too :-(

Kext Manager inside OSX is running so far

Kext Wizard doesn't work isn't showing my OSX Partition :-(

Help would be great :-))

Looked out for an unlocked Bios A15 because my system shows the nvidia as unknown too kexte are not loaded i removed all

i have an 3630 System so unlocked Bios ends in a brick i have read :-(

Is it possible that the smbios deliver wrong informations for OSX?

Videos doesn't run tried vlc result in an error quartz graphic accelleration not working

Any idea for the sound and video problem?

It would be great get the last things working

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john.katzenbach
john.katzenbach
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after some tests i decided to reinstall my osx :-) and now all important components are running fine so far.

some tipps after that.

i used iAktos ML2 because i have no pure osx ml image.

first installed iAktos on an USB stick after that the installation aborts with the known error no root device,

a fix for that is really easy remove the usb kext from the folder s/l/e on the USB Stick and copy the USB 2.0

kext to that location. you don't need a mac for that i have a netbook with snow leo but i used Transmac under win 8

for that works perfect. The change from the USB kexts are necessary because under the setup in iAktos the 3.0 USB

get lost. Now iAktos is running without errors :-) then i used disk management to create an hfs partition before that

it is the best to use easeus partition manager to create a linux partition which the osx disk management can reformat

for hfs journaled.

important is the next step under customize!! dont choose sound or nic or any graphic card only under the nvidia

section is part that removes the nvidia kext to a temp folder that should be choosen to avoid boot problems.

if you do like i describe you avoid trouble with double wrong kext for nic sound and graphics.

don't choose battery or monitoring kext!! that creates boot problems.

only choose ps2 for trackpad

the necessary kexts are installed after the setup.

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  • 2 weeks later...
john.katzenbach
john.katzenbach
Posted
Posted

This week i received my Edimax Wifi USB nano Dongle EW-7811Un but i tried orig. driver from edimax and

the chipset driver from realtek both doesn't work :-( think i should switch back to USB 2.0 i have

read the hole thread but didn't find the right kext for USB 2.0 devices. Only Super Speed 3.0 

is working :-(

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