Dell Precision M6400 Tutorial (work in progress)

[Rhodizzle]

Hey all. If there are any other Precision M6400 owners out there I'd like some help getting a guide together to get it running as close to 100% as possible in OSX86. Here is where I'm at so far:

 

1. Get your partitioning straight. OSX86 needs to be on a primary partition of it's own. Use the GParted LiveCD and change the flags to make this partition the boot partition, that way you don't mess up any other boot sectors during the installation. Format the drive to FAT32 (GParted doesn't do HFS+) and label it something memorable (like OSX86).

 

2. Download the iPC 10.5.6 Final DVD and burn it to a DVD at 1x speed.

 

3. Boot from the DVD, my system was able to boot without any command line args.

 

4. Go to Utilities, Disk Utility.

 

5. Select your OSX86 drive from the menu on the left and erase it, making sure to reformat it as HFS+.

 

6. Customize the installation to include the following items:

 

Base Image

iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Intel AMD SSE2 SSE3 (header, don't check it)

-----Drivers

----------Chipset Drivers

---------------Intel ICHx SATA Drivers

----------Wireless Drivers

---------------Broadcom Driver

-----Fixes and Patches

----------PS/2 Support

---------------PS/2 Keyboard Fix

 

]Here is where I've gotten so far. Here is my hardware:

 

Nvidia FX 3700 (not QE/CL, not max resolution, artifacts when scrolling)

 

Attempted Fixes so far: NVKush Installer (caused black screen without cursor

 

Broadcom 57xx NIC (untested at this point)

 

Broadcom Wireless (working with built-in iPC kext)

 

 

Any pointers for getting this stuff working would be much appreciated!

[fegato]

Hey all. If there are any other Precision M6400 owners out there I'd like some help getting a guide together to get it running as close to 100% as possible in OSX86. Here is where I'm at so far:

 

I'll join you immediately (got a covet m6400)

 

I also started with iPC 10.5.6 final DVD but it didn't detected the raid array

or you do not use raid?

 

[great idea opening this thread]

[Rhodizzle]

I'll join you immediately (got a covet m6400)

 

I also started with iPC 10.5.6 final DVD but it didn't detected the raid array

or you do not use raid?

 

[great idea opening this thread]

 

I don't have the covet which I think is lacking some hardware options. Mine has the Intel ICH9 SATA2 controller, which iPC has a driver for.

[fegato]

same here ICH9 sata2.

 

but you have 2 hdd in RAID 0 configuration?

 

have you seen it's out iPC X-DL 10.5.6 ?

specs here: http://######.com/ipcosx86/?page_id=201

[Rhodizzle]

OK So trying to get my internal keyboard/touchpad working I added something that the system didn't like. Took me too long to get back to it and forgot what exactly I installed so I'll be starting over. Luckily I hadn't done much to it. Anyone got any good pointers for working on internal keyboard / touchpad?

[KraftDinner]

OK So trying to get my internal keyboard/touchpad working I added something that the system didn't like. Took me too long to get back to it and forgot what exactly I installed so I'll be starting over. Luckily I hadn't done much to it. Anyone got any good pointers for working on internal keyboard / touchpad?

Try these 10.5.5 drivers and preference pane instead:

Laptop ps2 drivers 10.5.5 (Extra folder).zip

Keyboard.prefPane 10.5.5.zip (to get the Trackpad Preference Panel).

 

Hope these work for you. They did the trick for me.

 

The only things I haven't managed to get fully working are:

- QE for the NVidia FX3700

- Bluetooth

- PCMCIA

- Shutdown doesn't completely turn the laptop off

 

Any hints on getting these to work?

[Rhodizzle]

Try these 10.5.5 drivers and preference pane instead:

Laptop ps2 drivers 10.5.5 (Extra folder).zip

Keyboard.prefPane 10.5.5.zip (to get the Trackpad Preference Panel).

 

Hope these work for you. They did the trick for me.

 

The only things I haven't managed to get fully working are:

- QE for the NVidia FX3700

- Bluetooth

- PCMCIA

- Shutdown doesn't completely turn the laptop off

 

Any hints on getting these to work?

 

What did you do to get full resolution video?

 

I was about to look up the chun-nan PCMCIA kext and see if that worked, though PCMCIA is on the bottom of my list. Typically with nvidia once you get a kext to drive it, you can't shut down completely, you have to shut down, then hit the power button.

[KraftDinner]

What did you do to get full resolution video?

I used an EFI string loaded into com.apple.boot.plist using OSX86Tools. To get the EFI string I used NiBiTor in Windows to generate a backup ROM file, which I then converted using gfxutil with a modified in.plist. You should be able to find a guide on how to do this quite easily. Also, I used OSX86Tools to enable QuartzGL, although I understand that apps that use that can enable that on their own anyway.

 

I was about to look up the chun-nan PCMCIA kext and see if that worked, though PCMCIA is on the bottom of my list. Typically with nvidia once you get a kext to drive it, you can't shut down completely, you have to shut down, then hit the power button.

Yes, it seems that once you get the nVidia card to be recognized (even using EFI strings like I did instead of a kext) shutdown and restart don't work properly.

 

Please share any other hints or tweaks you might come across here.

[Rhodizzle]

I used an EFI string loaded into com.apple.boot.plist using OSX86Tools. To get the EFI string I used NiBiTor in Windows to generate a backup ROM file, which I then converted using gfxutil with a modified in.plist. You should be able to find a guide on how to do this quite easily. Also, I used OSX86Tools to enable QuartzGL, although I understand that apps that use that can enable that on their own anyway.

 

Yes, it seems that once you get the nVidia card to be recognized (even using EFI strings like I did instead of a kext) shutdown and restart don't work properly.

 

Please share any other hints or tweaks you might come across here.

 

NiBiTor doesn't work on Vista x64

[Alan L.]

Wondering if anyone has made progress on this. Thinking about getting the M6400 to run some special linux software but I need the option of OSX also. Thinking of just running OSX in VMware but as I understand there is still no sound support and bad graphics.

[Rhodizzle]

OK. I was able to add an EFI string to get full resolution on my display without artifacts, but still no QE/CI. This was done for my Quadro FX3700 GFX Card. I used OSX86 tools to build a custom EFI string using 1GB DVI/DVI and it worked!

 

Any ideas on how to move from that to adding QE/CI?

 

I used an EFI string loaded into com.apple.boot.plist using OSX86Tools. To get the EFI string I used NiBiTor in Windows to generate a backup ROM file, which I then converted using gfxutil with a modified in.plist. You should be able to find a guide on how to do this quite easily. Also, I used OSX86Tools to enable QuartzGL, although I understand that apps that use that can enable that on their own anyway.

 

Yes, it seems that once you get the nVidia card to be recognized (even using EFI strings like I did instead of a kext) shutdown and restart don't work properly.

 

Please share any other hints or tweaks you might come across here.

 

Any chance of posting this EFI string for comparison Kraft?

[KraftDinner]

Here's my EFI string:

 

cd0300000100000001000000c10300001500000002010c00d041030a000000000101060
00010101060000007fff040014000000400032002c006e0061006d00650000001100000073656e73
f722d706172656e74220000005600520041004d002c0074006f00740061006c00730069007a00650
0000080000000000004036000000400032002c00680077006300740072006c002d00700061007200
1006d0073002d00760065007200730069006f006e00000008000000000000021c000000640065007
006900630065005f0074007900700065000000100000004e5644412c4765466f7263650e0000006e
061006d00650000000f0000004e5644412c506172656e7422000000400030002c006400650076006
00630065005f00740079007000650000000b000000646973706c6179100000006d006f0064006500
c0000001a0000006e56696469612051756164726f20465820333730304d22000000400031002c006
00650076006900630065005f00740079007000650000000b000000646973706c6179120000004000
2002c007200650067000000080000000000000222000000400032002c00640065007600690063006
005f0074007900700065000000120000004e5644412c6770752d64696f646520000000400032002c
063006f006d00700061007400690062006c0065000000160000004e5644412c73656e736f722d706
72656e7422000000400032002c002300730069007a0065002d00630065006c006c00730000000800
0000000000020000000400031002c0063006f006d00700061007400690062006c00650000000e000
004e5644412c4e564d616314000000400030002c006e0061006d0065000000120000004e5644412c
46973706c61792d413a000000400032002c0068007700730065006e0073006f0072002d007000610
720061006d0073002d00760065007200730069006f006e0000000800000000000002260000004000
2002c0023006100640072006500730073002d00630065006c006c007300000008000000000000011
000000400031002c006e0061006d0065000000120000004e5644412c446973706c61792d42200000
0400030002c0063006f006d00700061007400690062006c00650000000e0000004e5644412c4e564
61631e00000072006f006d002d007200650076006900730069006f006e0000000900000033313732
1100000004e00560043004100500000001800000004000000000031000e000000000000070000000
0e0000004e00560050004d0000002000000001000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000

[wuazo]

Great idea to make this tutorial, thanks to all..

 

Hi, I recently buy my M6400 whit the default conf. "quadrofx 2700m, 2gb ram, and 2.2ghz core 2 duo" and i wanna get the osx in my machine. Before i have the inspiron 1720 and work osx with no problem.

 

So i just finish download iPC_osx86 10.5.6 and burn in dvd to 1x. Can you put a screenshot of the main configuration before install to see wich items i have to select. Im still noob on this..

 

Thanks and sorry if my english is bad.. is not my native language

[Rhodizzle]

Great idea to make this tutorial, thanks to all..

 

Hi, I recently buy my M6400 whit the default conf. "quadrofx 2700m, 2gb ram, and 2.2ghz core 2 duo" and i wanna get the osx in my machine. Before i have the inspiron 1720 and work osx with no problem.

 

So i just finish download iPC_osx86 10.5.6 and burn in dvd to 1x. Can you put a screenshot of the main configuration before install to see wich items i have to select. Im still noob on this..

 

Thanks and sorry if my english is bad.. is not my native language

 

I included what kexts I knew needed to be loaded back in my first post.

[Rhodizzle]

Sorry folks, Ive been in and out of messing with my OSX86 installation.

 

I updated the description of what drivers to use off of the iPC disk to be a little more user friendly.

[syphon1c]

(sorry my formatting of text hasnt quite come out like I envisioned (: )

 

Hey guys,

 

I thought Id post a semi-more detailed post with regards to where I am with my installation on my Dell M6400

 

DELL M6400 Covet

Chipset Intel Q43 Express

2x 500gig SATA HDD

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300

NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M

16gig MEMORY/RAM

IDT 92HDxxx HD Audio

Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN

Broadcom 57xx NIC

Synaptic Jog Shuttle

Creative Labs Integrated Webcam

 

Dell Precision M6400

 

Step 1.

 

· Firstly sort out partitioning before running the OSX Install DVD. OSX86 needs to be on a primary partition of its own. Format the drive to FAT32.

 

· Download the iPC 10.5.6 Final DVD and burn it to a DVD at 1x speed.

 

· Boot from the DVD, one shouldn't need to boot with any command line arguments

 

 

 

Step 2.

 

· Once fully booted into the installation section of the DVD go to Utilities->Disk Utility

 

· Select the OSX86 drive from the menu that you previously formatted. Erase the disk with format MAC OSX Journaled (HFS+)

 

· Once done exit the Disk Utility program and proceed to install

 

 

 

Step 3.

 

· Customise the install

 

 

 

My Customised install includes the following packages:

 

Kernel Driver – 9.4.0 StageXNU Universal Kernel

 

Video Drivers – Natit

 

Chipset – Intel ICH10 SATA Drivers

 

- Intel ICHx SATA Drivers

 

- LegacyAppleIntelPIIATA

 

- AppleNforceATA

 

- LegacyJMicronATA

 

- JmicronATA

 

I selected the above, wont hurt but I figured in the end I also needed AppleNforce driver or I got the "waiting for root device" error after install

 

Ethernet Drivers - AppleBCM5751Ethernet (Not Working)

 

Wireless Drivers – Broadcom Driver (Not Working, I have an Intel 5100 AGN, awaiting drivers)

 

Wireless Drivers – Zydas 1211/1215 (Using a USB wireless dongle that works for now)

 

USB Drivers – All of them

 

Power Management – Power Management Package

 

Fixes and Patches – IOUSBMassStorageFix

 

- Sata Drive Icon Fix (New)

 

- Sata Drive Icon Fix (Old)

 

- FireWire Mount Fix

 

- SeaBelt (Downloading DMG's kept freezing my machine until I loaded this patch )

 

- IOPCIFamily

 

- IOPCMCIAFamily

 

- Shutdown Restart Fix (after fixing the Graphics machine wont shutdown properly)

 

- USB Mount Fix

 

- PS/2 Device Support (both packages)

 

Applications – AppleHDAPatcher

 

- OSx86 Tools Utility (awesome tool, tip: need to move it to proper directory after install)

 

- EFI Studio

 

- Kext Helper b7

 

 

Once the install completes, the machine will reboot. Before booting into the newly installed OS, press "F8" on the boot option, and add the following arguments, "-v –f" (without quotes) -f will ensure all newly installed extensions are active/used

 

OSx86 should boot up now for the first time, proceed through the registration process (Surprised my intergrated webcam works off the fly).

 

The first thing I did was fix the graphics display for my nVidia FX3700M graphics card. Use OSX86 Tools for this (Make sure you copy the OSXTools binary to /Applications/OSXTools had issues with the default install location and EXE name).

 

Tip: You will create a custom GFX Geforce string for the nVidia FX3700M 1024mb

 

Use the following youtube tutorial to get this to work:

 

 

 

 

IDT Audio work around: (Havent tried yet)

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=132495&pid=939486&mode=threaded&start=

 

Ethernet Broadcom work around: (Havent tried yet)

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4987

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversi...php/t24479.html

 

 

Wireless Intel 5100 AGN work around:

 

 

Awaiting drivers to be made public following progress here:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=164237&pid=1176823&mode=threaded&start=#entry1176823

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways....thats where I am anyone kind enough to add/share?

 

 

./SyPhOn

[Rhodizzle]

Nice work dude. You can have this thread as I've moved on to another laptop for work and won't have my M6400 much longer. Just got a Dell Precision M4400 with the Quaddro 770m graphics, it runs OSX much better thusfar. Fewer bugs to work out and the ones that exist are much smaller.

 

Thanks for all of your help folks and happy hackintoshing!

 

(sorry my formatting of text hasnt quite come out like I envisioned (: )

 

Hey guys,

 

I thought Id post a semi-more detailed post with regards to where I am with my installation on my Dell M6400

 

DELL M6400 Covet

Chipset Intel Q43 Express

2x 500gig SATA HDD

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300

NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M

16gig MEMORY/RAM

IDT 92HDxxx HD Audio

Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN

Broadcom 57xx NIC

Synaptic Jog Shuttle

Creative Labs Integrated Webcam

 

Dell Precision M6400

 

Step 1.

 

· Firstly sort out partitioning before running the OSX Install DVD. OSX86 needs to be on a primary partition of its own. Format the drive to FAT32.

 

· Download the iPC 10.5.6 Final DVD and burn it to a DVD at 1x speed.

 

· Boot from the DVD, one shouldn't need to boot with any command line arguments

 

 

 

Step 2.

 

· Once fully booted into the installation section of the DVD go to Utilities->Disk Utility

 

· Select the OSX86 drive from the menu that you previously formatted. Erase the disk with format MAC OSX Journaled (HFS+)

 

· Once done exit the Disk Utility program and proceed to install

 

 

 

Step 3.

 

· Customise the install

 

 

 

My Customised install includes the following packages:

 

Kernel Driver – 9.4.0 StageXNU Universal Kernel

 

Video Drivers – Natit

 

Chipset – Intel ICH10 SATA Drivers

 

- Intel ICHx SATA Drivers

 

- LegacyAppleIntelPIIATA

 

- AppleNforceATA

 

- LegacyJMicronATA

 

- JmicronATA

 

I selected the above, wont hurt but I figured in the end I also needed AppleNforce driver or I got the "waiting for root device" error after install

 

Ethernet Drivers - AppleBCM5751Ethernet (Not Working)

 

Wireless Drivers – Broadcom Driver (Not Working, I have an Intel 5100 AGN, awaiting drivers)

 

Wireless Drivers – Zydas 1211/1215 (Using a USB wireless dongle that works for now)

 

USB Drivers – All of them

 

Power Management – Power Management Package

 

Fixes and Patches – IOUSBMassStorageFix

 

- Sata Drive Icon Fix (New)

 

- Sata Drive Icon Fix (Old)

 

- FireWire Mount Fix

 

- SeaBelt (Downloading DMG's kept freezing my machine until I loaded this patch )

 

- IOPCIFamily

 

- IOPCMCIAFamily

 

- Shutdown Restart Fix (after fixing the Graphics machine wont shutdown properly)

 

- USB Mount Fix

 

- PS/2 Device Support (both packages)

 

Applications – AppleHDAPatcher

 

- OSx86 Tools Utility (awesome tool, tip: need to move it to proper directory after install)

 

- EFI Studio

 

- Kext Helper b7

 

 

Once the install completes, the machine will reboot. Before booting into the newly installed OS, press "F8" on the boot option, and add the following arguments, "-v –f" (without quotes) -f will ensure all newly installed extensions are active/used

 

OSx86 should boot up now for the first time, proceed through the registration process (Surprised my intergrated webcam works off the fly).

 

The first thing I did was fix the graphics display for my nVidia FX3700M graphics card. Use OSX86 Tools for this (Make sure you copy the OSXTools binary to /Applications/OSXTools had issues with the default install location and EXE name).

 

Tip: You will create a custom GFX Geforce string for the nVidia FX3700M 1024mb

 

Use the following youtube tutorial to get this to work:

 

 

 

 

IDT Audio work around: (Havent tried yet)

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=132495&pid=939486&mode=threaded&start=

 

Ethernet Broadcom work around: (Havent tried yet)

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4987

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversi...php/t24479.html

Wireless Intel 5100 AGN work around:

Awaiting drivers to be made public following progress here:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=164237&pid=1176823&mode=threaded&start=#entry1176823

 

Anyways....thats where I am anyone kind enough to add/share?

./SyPhOn

[ujen]

SOME GREAT NEWS FOR M6400 USERS, I HAVE FINALY GOTTEN THE BROADCOM NIC WORKING.

 

1. make sure your dev id is 14e4 1680.

 

2. install attached kext with osx86 tools or whatever way you like and reboot.

 

3. you should now have the ethernet recognized but no internet and a MAC address of all 00's.

 

4. in windows look up your MAC address and copy it somewhere.

 

5. in leopard open a terminal and type: sudo ifconfig en0 (it maybe en1 or en2 or en etc.) ether 00:21:70:8A:70:E2 but replace 00:21:70:8A:70:E2 with your MAC address

 

6. your internet should now connect and be fully working.

 

you will need to do the command at every startup so just make a script and add it to startup items

 

I'm currently working on getting it to work in snow leopard and want to know if anyone has the sources for either bcm57xx kexts, that would be most helpful.

 

if you'd like to help out in the snow leo effort just let me know

AppleBCM5751Ethernet.kext.zip

[ravez]

that's some great news, but i wonder if any progress have been made by anyone on getting the full QE/CI support at full resolution, without that it's pretty useless to have hackintosh on a precision m6400. I have the 512mb quadro and can get full resolution but still no QE/CI. Anybody?

 

SOME GREAT NEWS FOR M6400 USERS, I HAVE FINALY GOTTEN THE BROADCOM NIC WORKING.

 

1. make sure your dev id is 14e4 1680.

 

2. install attached kext with osx86 tools or whatever way you like and reboot.

 

3. you should now have the ethernet recognized but no internet and a MAC address of all 00's.

 

4. in windows look up your MAC address and copy it somewhere.

 

5. in leopard open a terminal and type: sudo ifconfig en0 (it maybe en1 or en2 or en etc.) ether 00:21:70:8A:70:E2 but replace 00:21:70:8A:70:E2 with your MAC address

 

6. your internet should now connect and be fully working.

 

you will need to do the command at every startup so just make a script and add it to startup items

 

I'm currently working on getting it to work in snow leopard and want to know if anyone has the sources for either bcm57xx kexts, that would be most helpful.

 

if you'd like to help out in the snow leo effort just let me know

[ujen]

ravez, i got the quadro fx 3700m and i have full res with qe/ci, i used nvkush at first but now switched to cham rc2 with the graphics enabler option in it.

[ravez]

ravez, i got the quadro fx 3700m and i have full res with qe/ci, i used nvkush at first but now switched to cham rc2 with the graphics enabler option in it.

 

wow, really? can you tell me which distribution you used and what drivers you selected? also how do you enable graphics with chameleon 2? i have the fx2700, would it work anyway? i have tried ideneb 10.5.7 with nvkush and chameleon 2 but it hangs at startup and don't understand where the problem is. thanks

[ujen]

wow, really? can you tell me which distribution you used and what drivers you selected? also how do you enable graphics with chameleon 2? i have the fx2700, would it work anyway? i have tried ideneb 10.5.7 with nvkush and chameleon 2 but it hangs at startup and don't understand where the problem is. thanks

 

 

i used iatkos v7 and just selected voodoohda, nvkush, chameleon 2, ichx driver, dsdt, disabler, apple ps2, make sure your sata is in AHCI in the bios. if it hangs take a pic and ill take a look. if it loads first thing you should do is after setting up your account install chameleon v2 rc2 during install click customize and chek the GraphicsEnabler option, befor restarting remove nvkush.

 

let me know.

[ravez]

i used iatkos v7 and just selected voodoohda, nvkush, chameleon 2, ichx driver, dsdt, disabler, apple ps2, make sure your sata is in AHCI in the bios. if it hangs take a pic and ill take a look. if it loads first thing you should do is after setting up your account install chameleon v2 rc2 during install click customize and chek the GraphicsEnabler option, befor restarting remove nvkush.

 

let me know.

 

you guys are great! i have finally my osx working on my m6400, with full QE/CI and resolution, audio is working, lan is working thanks to ujen instructions. for the graphics i simply chose nvkush during installation and it's working. now i'd like to have wifi, but can live with lan only for a while. also it would be nice to have a full support for the touchpad, like dragging on the right side to scroll pages as i do in windows. anyway thank you all guys

[rick01]

you guys are great! i have finally my osx working on my m6400, with full QE/CI and resolution, audio is working, lan is working thanks to ujen instructions. for the graphics i simply chose nvkush during installation and it's working. now i'd like to have wifi, but can live with lan only for a while. also it would be nice to have a full support for the touchpad, like dragging on the right side to scroll pages as i do in windows. anyway thank you all guys

 

ravez,

 

Hi. How did you get the wired ethernet (14e4 1680) to work? I can't seem to get the correct kext to recognize the nic.

 

Thanks!

[ujen]

ravez,

 

Hi. How did you get the wired ethernet (14e4 1680) to work? I can't seem to get the correct kext to recognize the nic.

 

Thanks!

 

 

check my post here