Dell Laptops Post-installer - XPS, Inspiron, Vostro, Lattitude

[TheGreatDeceiver]

Hi It's a Intel Core 2 Duo according to System profiler.

 

I don't think it is running ci/qe as that seems the common problem with pages as I have seen in many postings.

 

Maybe 64/32 bit is misnowmer? I dunno. It is running 32 bit according to uname -a.

 

When I first built the Snow Leopard machine I did not have i386 for the arch, and nothing much worked. Certainly the GMA drivers did not even load. So I added that and have been running GMA nicely until I noticed Pages not working.

 

Any idea why ci/qe not working as I used the GMA950 package in the i6400.zip supplied. I have not fiddled with any DSDT nor other settings.

 

Many thanks for your attention.

 

read my post carefully. it says "Note that he (Noob) uses an older IOGraphics kext and Frambuffer.kext to boot without gma950 problems. You will later need to remove these (they will be located on the EFI partition) and use the stock kexts to avoid artifacts and apply the above screen sleeper patch."

 

you need to run gma950 stock kexts and make sure you have the corresponding IOGraphics.kext, otherwise you won't get hardware acceleration. and the gma950 stock kexts will give you the black screen as described. you have to first install the screen sleeper solution listed in my post. make sure you have password on login enabled. you also need to load the gma950 EFI string in com.apple.boot.plist, otherwise it kps on you. Once you follow these steps you can install the stock gma950 kexts. my com.apple.boot.plist is attached in the above post. make sure you have this all in place before you boot, otherwise you will end up with a black screen or kp and fixing will be a pain.

looking for stock kexts from 10.6.4? download the 10.6.4 update and use pacifist to extract the gma950 kexts, the appleintelframebuffer.kext and possibly the IOGraphics.kext if you indeed use the one from Noob's package. Unfortunately, I deleted all my packages, including the graphics package.

[bartlettpsj]

The problem seems to be with the gma 950 drivers. Like many people I have re-installed 10.6.4 combo update so that the stock gma 950 drivers are re-installed. Now runs beautifully on single external screen. Can't yet figure how to get laptop lcd screen working. It shows in the list of monitors on the display preferences. Just doesn't display anything. I know there are various people who have fixed this and time to google. I have read you have to hack the DSDT and also stick string in com.apple.Boot.plist. I did try decompiling and recompiling the BIOS and just got errors without even changing the generated output! I modified the boot.plist and the display shows connected in the list, but no output. I guess the DST must be hacked?

 

confused....

"Dual Core 2 1.66" : are you sure it's a Dual Core and not a Core Mono or Core 2 Duo? Reason this is important is that on a C2D it will boot into 64bit by default and you would have to force it into 32bit.

 

the gma950 does not run in 64bit mode. you will get reduced resolution and no core image or quartz extreme if you indeed run in 64bit mode. You can only run PS or XCode in 64bit mode if your OS is running in 64bit. If you are running the OS in 64bit mode then you will indeed have problems because your graphics card is not recognized. Missing CI and QE will lead to problems with certain programs and your OS will run in reduced vga mode (1024x768)

 

see my posts above and add

<key>arch</key>

<string>i386</string>

to your com.apple.boot.plist. if you happen to have an EFI partition make sure that a com.apple.boot.plist on that hidden partition is also changed.

 

in summary, it seems that you either run in 64bit mode and lose qe and ci or you are running in 32bit mode and your graphic kexts are messed up.

are you getting native resolution?

 

make sure you know whether you are running 64 or 32 bit in OSX:

Open the Terminal and type the following command:

uname -a

it will spit out something like this:

Darwin iMac.local 10.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 10.0.0: Fri Jul 31 22:47:34 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1456.1.25~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

so in this case it's 64bit because x86_64

or check via this link

 

good luck

[TheGreatDeceiver]

The problem seems to be with the gma 950 drivers. Like many people I have re-installed 10.6.4 combo update so that the stock gma 950 drivers are re-installed. Now runs beautifully on single external screen. Can't yet figure how to get laptop lcd screen working. It shows in the list of monitors on the display preferences. Just doesn't display anything. I know there are various people who have fixed this and time to google. I have read you have to hack the DSDT and also stick string in com.apple.Boot.plist. I did try decompiling and recompiling the BIOS and just got errors without even changing the generated output! I modified the boot.plist and the display shows connected in the list, but no output. I guess the DST must be hacked?

 

I just found my Inspiron EFI partition. I extracted the DSDT.aml. maybe it works for you (remember that I made this on a E1505/6400 with a C2D 2GHz). It's possible I changed it for the gma950, I don't remember. we know the problem is because of the gma950 kexts. It's a rotten graphics card . the laptop screen will not work because it will boot asleep on its own. it seems you did not do this step:

"Because gma950 still has wake/sleep problem at login you need to use screen sleeper solution. Use an external monitor to apply sleep/wake display activate in expose and install this script, also disable autologin. "

 

it's important to disable autologin because the script will fail otherwise.

 

once that is in place and you boot without an external monitor attached you should see the desktop login.

 

good luck

DSDT.zip

[clemsyn]

well, it's a start:

 

Type of Submission: 10.6.1 links

Dell Laptop Model: E1505/6400

Fully working? - fully, cpus=2, thanks to voodooTSCSync by cosmo1t

x32 or x64 or both? - only x32 because there are no gma950 64bit kexts

Thanks to noob766 for his guide. Note that you only need to follow instructions for the hidden EFI partition. One requirement is that you have to have OSX (e.g. Leopard) already installed on another partition.

 

Because gma950 still has wake/sleep problem at login you need to use screen sleeper solution. Use an external monitor to apply sleep/wake display activate in expose and install this script, also disable autologin.

If you have a Core2Duo the system will boot into 64bit by default. You need to add

<key>arch</key>

<string>i386</string>

to your com.apple.boot.plist (preferably on the EFI partition) to force it to 32bit. Otherwise your gma950 kexts will not load and you only get default vga, no qe, ci and only 1024x768.

 

Extra kexts I am using:

-> voodoohda for sound. Works just like under leopard

-> voodoops2controller, need to load this in Extra of EFI partition to get mouse and keyboard working from the getgo.

-> voodoosdhc allows reading/writing of SDHC cards

-> voodoopower to get speedstep

-> voodooTSCSync enables both cores on C2D

thanks to the voodoo team!

 

with noob's guide I personally do not think a postinstaller is necessary, especially since there is no distro out there at all at the moment. Noob766 has an Inspiron E1505 himself.

Noob766 made a generic 132boot iso for the E1505/6400 already: Inspiron6400.iso.zip

Note that he uses an older IOGraphics kext and Frambuffer.kext to boot without gma950 problems. You will later need to remove these (they will be located on the EFI partition) and use the stock kexts to avoid artifacts and apply the above screen sleeper patch.

attached is my com.apple.boot.plist which loads gma950 EFI string. Note that without the EFI string the system will KP before login. (if you use it remove cpus=1 unless you need it, with voodooTSCSync not necessary). If you would like to have a look at contents of my EFI partition, it's located here. including a DSDT.aml for my particular hardware config.

 

good luck

edit: no problems whatsoever upgrading to 10.6.2

but rarely using it. almost 0. using Windows 7 64bit.

 

Thanks a lot! I got my e1505 working great with stock kexts of gma950. My only issue now is the sleep. It will sleep but when it wakes up, just black. I know it is not related to just the display coz when I press the button to increase the volume, there is no sound. BTW, this is hibernatemode 0. If I use hibernatemode 1, then I get the error "Not enough space to restore image". Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[TheGreatDeceiver]

Thanks a lot! I got my e1505 working great with stock kexts of gma950. My only issue now is the sleep. It will sleep but when it wakes up, just black. I know it is not related to just the display coz when I press the button to increase the volume, there is no sound. BTW, this is hibernatemode 0. If I use hibernatemode 1, then I get the error "Not enough space to restore image". Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

I take it that you are aware that only deep sleep works (hibernatemode 1) with the gma950. sleep mode only works with pcefi or chameleon. there is a command that allows you to clear the hibernate image. maybe that will clear your problem. I forgot the actual command. type ? at the pcefi or chameleon prompt and you should find it. in hibernatemode 1 all the contents of the ram are written to the hdd and the notebook is shutdown entirely. when you reboot it reads the contents from hdd back to memory and you are where you left. the only error I ever had was that it could not find the sleep image. maybe you do in fact have not enough room. also make sure that in system settings secure virtual memory is not turned on.

 

there is another sleep mode which isn't really sleep that puts the lcd to sleep. with a script you can make the lcd come back from sleep. I forgot where that is since I got rid of my e1505 for a while. the problem with that is that the notebook isn't really asleep and you may damage your lcd on the long run with heating from the CPU when you close it.

 

sleep mode

[sonotone]

I take it that you are aware that only deep sleep works (hibernatemode 1) with the gma950. sleep mode only works with pcefi or chameleon. there is a command that allows you to clear the hibernate image. maybe that will clear your problem. I forgot the actual command. type ? at the pcefi or chameleon prompt and you should find it. in hibernatemode 1 all the contents of the ram are written to the hdd and the notebook is shutdown entirely. when you reboot it reads the contents from hdd back to memory and you are where you left. the only error I ever had was that it could not find the sleep image. maybe you do in fact have not enough room. also make sure that in system settings secure virtual memory is not turned on.

 

there is another sleep mode which isn't really sleep that puts the lcd to sleep. with a script you can make the lcd come back from sleep. I forgot where that is since I got rid of my e1505 for a while. the problem with that is that the notebook isn't really asleep and you may damage your lcd on the long run with heating from the CPU when you close it.

 

sleep mode

 

hi TheGreatDeceiver, it's been a while . My 9400 own one of my friend now, and i'm happy to see it's still running SL like a charm

 

the boot command is:

Wake=no

it tells to the bootloader to skip the sleepimage. Then, you have to remove it manually. open your Terminal then type:

sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage

[TheGreatDeceiver]

hi TheGreatDeceiver, it's been a while . My 9400 own one of my friend now, and i'm happy to see it's still running SL like a charm

 

the boot command is:

Wake=no

it tells to the bootloader to skip the sleepimage. Then, you have to remove it manually. open your Terminal then type:

sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage

 

Hi sonotone, good to hear from you. I am rarely using OSX these days. sometimes on my Lenovo X200, but with no real graphic driver for the x4500 it's no fun.

thank you for the sleep image commands.

 

take care.

tgd

[popimp315]

hey sonotone...sorry to be late and newbish....but what exactly does you iso disc do...i just burned it and i have iatkos v7 and iatkos s3_v2....i take it your disc works better with the v7 since it is leopard instead of snow leopard. But im kind of confused on what it does exactly and how to get around the blank screen thing. Deciever has been great help and pointed me to the extra monitor way but i dont have one around and i dont think i want to make a 20 minute drive to attach it at some library randomly lol

[TheGreatDeceiver]

hey sonotone...sorry to be late and newbish....but what exactly does you iso disc do...i just burned it and i have iatkos v7 and iatkos s3_v2....i take it your disc works better with the v7 since it is leopard instead of snow leopard. But im kind of confused on what it does exactly and how to get around the blank screen thing. Deciever has been great help and pointed me to the extra monitor way but i dont have one around and i dont think i want to make a 20 minute drive to attach it at some library randomly lol

 

you do not need sonotone's iso for either of these releases. The iso is meant to help install a retail disk of OSX. The black screen problem with the gma950 is the same and can be fixed with the screen sleeper script I mentioned in the other thread. I advised you to come over here to read the different posts about this problem and how it can be solved. Sonotone is busy with the voodoo project and left this thread for somebody else to carry on. Sonotone's post-installer is helpful to install kexts and system files for a Leopard (not Snow Leopard) installation on a Dell laptop. E.g. if you don't have sound his post-installer lets you install the correct kexts to give you sound.

[popimp315]

but i do have 2 retail discs....ones snow leopard 10.6.3 and the other is 10.5. something

[TheGreatDeceiver]

but i do have 2 retail discs....ones snow leopard 10.6.3 and the other is 10.5. something

it will work with your Leopard retail disk

[incontestably degenerate]

For the record, and for anyone else with a Vostro 13 running Leopard 5.5, after a few hours of messing around with ApplePS2Controller.kext and different parts within it, I finally got the touchpad to work complete with 2 finger scrolling and tapping, and I did it not by doing anything clever, but by using the VoodooPS2Controller-0.98-installer.pkg, which did everything for me with a couple of clicks.

 

Repeat, working two finger scrolling by using that package. I read somewhere else you're not supposed to link over there, but if you need to find it Google that phrase, it's on the chameleon site. I even donated to them, for saving me hours more of wrestling around with it, and you should consider it too if it saves you the same amount of time. All you have to do is run the installer package, and it worked for me.

 

I had previously had touchpad working on Snow Leopard 6.2 with another VoodooPS2Controller.kext, but that controller didn't work on the 5.5, but the installer package did.

[mactrick]

I am using stock gma950 kexts. not sure if that's what you really need. they are here. in addition my entire extension folder is here as well. If you need gma950 kexts that let you boot into SL on first boot without using external monitor you can use the ones provided by noob766. link to his files is in my sig. More on this here.

 

Hi TheGreatDeceiver,

 

first of thank you guy's for al the great threats and work here

 

i have almost the same spec's as your

(sold) Dell Inspiron E1505(6400) / C2D 2GHz / 4Gb PC5300

200Gb 7.2k WD / Intel GMA950 / Dell 1390 Wireless / OSX 10.6.3

 

I only have a Centrino duo and 2GB PC5300

with a 300Gb 7.2k WD / Intel GMA950 / Dell 1390 Wireless / OSX 10.6.2 leohazard

 

after i install Leohazard i have a screen res of 1024x768 QE/CI

 

i think i have stock kext not sure when i add these i get screen res 1280x800 with QE/CI

when i update to 10.6.3 downloaden from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1018?viewlocale=nl_NL

 

QE/CI is gone what am i doing wrong

if i load the what i think are stock kext with kext helper after this update

i have res back to 1280x800 but stil no QE/CI

i have efi string for gma950

and boot with cpus=1 arch=i386

 

I also have Latitude D620 Core Duo T7300 1,66

200Gb 7.2k WD / Intel GMA950 / Dell 1390 Wireless

with the same issue (loss of QE/CI) after update

only difference is de screen res is at a full 1440 X 900

 

 

i had every thing working perfect with 10.5.8

 

thanks

[TheGreatDeceiver]

Hi TheGreatDeceiver,

 

first of thank you guy's for al the great threats and work here

 

i have almost the same spec's as your

(sold) Dell Inspiron E1505(6400) / C2D 2GHz / 4Gb PC5300

200Gb 7.2k WD / Intel GMA950 / Dell 1390 Wireless / OSX 10.6.3

 

I only have a Centrino duo and 2GB PC5300

with a 300Gb 7.2k WD / Intel GMA950 / Dell 1390 Wireless / OSX 10.6.2 leohazard

 

after i install Leohazard i have a screen res of 1024x768 QE/CI

 

i think i have stock kext not sure when i add these i get screen res 1280x800 with QE/CI

when i update to 10.6.3 downloaden from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1018?viewlocale=nl_NL

 

QE/CI is gone what am i doing wrong

if i load the what i think are stock kext with kext helper after this update

i have res back to 1280x800 but stil no QE/CI

i have efi string for gma950

and boot with cpus=1 arch=i386

 

I also have Latitude D620 Core Duo T7300 1,66

200Gb 7.2k WD / Intel GMA950 / Dell 1390 Wireless

with the same issue (loss of QE/CI) after update

only difference is de screen res is at a full 1440 X 900

 

 

i had every thing working perfect with 10.5.8

 

thanks

 

hey, just came back from a week trip. will comment in the next two days.

tgd

[TheGreatDeceiver]

hey, just came back from a week trip. will comment in the next two days.

tgd

 

 

alright. I am a little confused. clarify this for me. You are saying that you had everything working with 10.6.2. q/ci and correct resolution.

you upgraded to 10.6.3 and you lost everything - q/ci and resolution. you were able to get resolution back by injecting stock gma950 kexts back.

 

what I don't understand is that you should have had stock with the upgrade already. It seems to me that there is something messed up with either the com.apple.boot.plist file (efi string missing or another com.apple.boot.plist file in another folder is loaded on boot. when you change the gma950 kexts you also have to change the apple.intel.integratedframebuffer.kext file.

 

if it doesn't work I'd go back to 10.6.2. worked with .3 here though and so should yours.

[timbojill]

Can someone here post a guide for Dell XPS M1730 Laptops ? Including what workers and what doesn't ?

[timbojill]

Can someone here please e-mail me at timbojill@gmail.com with a solution to this problem. The second my Dell Latitude D630 laptop or Dell Latitude D620 laptop boots the screen turn off. Is this a Graphics issue or sleeper kext issue. Once I plug in an external monitor it works fine.